Big Tech just flipped on its own AI jobs story
Microsoft and Xbox name AI displacement directly, the Fed hands its jobs task force to a CEO who just cut thousands, and Volkswagen weighs 100,000 cuts. This week's signals for HR and EB leaders.
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The Botsitting Economy: AI’s Hidden Labour Problem
AI was meant to lighten work. Instead, many workers are feeding, fixing, checking, and explaining the machines. This week: botsitting, graduate career bottlenecks, regulated trust, the selective white-collar slowdown, and another Cut List shaped by AI spending.
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The On-Ramp Cracked: Proof Culture Meets a Tougher Job Market
Graduates are struggling to break in, “hybrid” is becoming a career filter, and AI work is drifting into a blame-and-proof culture. This week: the broken on-ramp, the rise of metrics theatre, surveillance creeping into WFH, and The Cut List.
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Efficiency Got Expensive: The AI Bill Comes Due
AI was sold as leverage. This week, it looks more like a bill. Cuts are being justified as “agentic”, monitoring is creeping into the workflow, and entry-level work is quietly evaporating. We break down what’s changing, what it’s doing to trust, and what to do next.
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The Memo That Changed the Mood
A single internal memo reset the week’s mood. As Big Tech reshuffles for AI, pay debates get louder, monitoring gets normalised, and confidence drops. This edition covers the new bargain at work, what it’s doing to retention, and why trust is now the scarce resource.
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Layoffs, Logs, Lowballs: Work’s New Math
Low unemployment can still hide a labour crisis. This week: underemployment in plain sight, AI reshaping work without shrinking headcount (until it does), surveillance and “proof-of-work” culture, and the slow slide from careers to gigs. Plus The Cut List.
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Perks, Proof, Pressure: The New Workplace Bargain
The employee deal is tightening while the measurement layer grows. This week: culture as an operating system, leaders reframing hiring and layoffs through AI, burnout boundaries snapping back, and the quiet risks nobody budgets for, from shadow IT to discoverable workplace texts.
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Perks Down, Tracking Up: The New Deal at Work
Benefits are being trimmed, AI adoption is being measured, and HR is stuck managing the fallout. This week: the perks rollback, the rise of AI scorecards and surveillance, a widening career divide for graduates, and why HR governance is suddenly the main brand risk.
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The Rework Tax: why workplace AI is losing trust
AI was meant to save time. Many employees say it is creating more work through errors, rework, and unclear expectations. This week covers the trust gap, AI moving into pay and performance, early-career squeeze signals, and why remote work fights keep returning.
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