Workday unveiled autopilot agents that run hiring, payroll and accounting work in the background, along with a headless platform for governing its own and third-party agents. A beta tool breaks roles into tasks to plan staffing; in a demo, a plan to hire 50 people shrank to 42. Analyst Josh Bersin says governing and orchestrating agents are the biggest hurdle for HR tech vendors and expects agent management to emerge as an HR job.

Job seekers could soon send an AI twin to a first-round screen, Eightfold AI CEO Ashutosh Garg says. His new TwinCafe platform builds the twin from a resume, LinkedIn profile and work samples and creates a shareable link. Recruiters could question the twin in advance and save live interviews for judgment-based questions. Garg envisions recruiter agents eventually screening far more candidates this way.

The ACLU asked California’s Civil Rights Department to investigate Criteria Corp.’s Emotify hiring assessment, alleging it closely mirrors clinical autism diagnostics and could unlawfully screen out applicants who have autism. The complaint says that amounts to a prohibited pre-offer medical or psychological exam and that candidates aren’t given enough information to seek accommodations. Criteria didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Employers should audit every step an AI recruiting agent takes, not just the final candidate slate, writes Tammy Perkins, a chief people officer. A balanced shortlist can hide who was never found, whose experience was misread and what evidence was dropped. A review of 40 AI recruiting systems found none that tested utility, fairness, privacy and security together. Perkins says vendor audits aren’t enough, and she urges employers to trace recommendations to source evidence, give recruiters real authority to override and let candidates contest decisions.

Mondelez is integrating IT, HR and facilities into a unified "office experience" function to enhance employee engagement and productivity as AI takes over routine tasks. The company has rebranded its tech function to "Workplace Digital Experience" and plans to merge operations by 2030 under a chief experience officer. "To ensure employees enjoy life is the mission and vision as it means they'll be more productive," says Geoff Wright, principal AI adoption and head of generative AI enablement.

About 85% of HR leaders say they’re very or extremely confident that performance management advances company priorities, but only 44% can supply business metrics to back it up, according to a Betterworks survey of 934 HR and business leaders. Fewer than 1 in 4 could point to engagement data. Betterworks advises tying performance management to three to five measurable outcomes in 2027 and reporting on goal progress rather than review completion.

L&D teams can help leaders roll out AI by first clarifying the business need, then briefing and training managers before their teams so they can test tools and field questions, Brittany Hart, founder of Communiscape, writes. She advises overcommunicating, repeating the purpose and framing AI as removing tasks rather than jobs, and building in open feedback so employees feel heard.

Zapier plans a three- to six-month pilot paying select marketers based on the qualified sales pipeline they generate with AI. The company says employees have asked for a share of the value they create, such as an employer who automated work that would have required two hires, saving the company that cost. Analyst Manish Jain advises rewarding the value and reusable workflows employees produce rather than AI use itself, so firms don’t end up paying someone to stay because only they understand a solution.

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