HiBob: Businesses Race to Make AI a Requirement

AI is moving fast from a specialist skill to a workplace expectation.

New research from HiBob – the people platform helping organisations adapt and thrive in the age of AI – finds that 77% of UK organisations expect AI proficiency to become a baseline requirement across most non-technical roles within the next two years.

While employers are responding to that shift, the study suggests few have settled on a consistent way to build the workforce it demands.

More than four in five organisations (82%) are already investing in AI upskilling or reskilling, and 80% say they have a defined strategy for sourcing AI-skilled candidates.

Yet no single hiring approach is used by more than 35% of employers: a third build talent communities and nurture sequences featuring AI content, 31% use applicant tracking system tagging and 29% rely on referral campaigns.

People Leaders Take Centre Stage at the CXO Summit

When AI hits a workforce, everyone in the building turns to you, the chief people officer, for the plan. You, more often than not, have no one to turn to yourself.

That is the quiet problem we built the CXO Summit to fix. The skills gap keeps widening, Gartner ranks leader development the top CHRO priority for the second year running and this autumn a few hundred people chiefs will spend two days in London doing the one thing the job rarely allows, comparing notes with the only people who truly get it, each other.

Inside the summit, we've carved out a track that is all yours, the CHRO Summit and a panel on The Future of People & Skills.

More information on the CXO Summit panels can be found here.

NFP: 72% of Employees Are Unprepared for Retirement

NFP, an Aon company, has released its 2026 US Retirement Trend report. 

The research, based on a survey of 1,000 US working adults, finds that 69% of US workers are unsure that they can retire comfortably – despite 89% trusting employer-provided financial advisors. 

According to the company, these findings suggest that, while employees value financial guidance, many are not taking action – with rising financial pressures making retirement planning more challenging. 

“Employer-provided financial advisors play a central role in how American workers approach retirement planning,” says Jessica Espinoza, National Practice Leader, Retirement Advisory, NFP. “One-on-one guidance is especially effective in helping employees navigate complex decisions, build confidence and turn intention into action, but too many employees aren't taking the necessary first step.”

Cognizant on Track to Hire 1,500 US Graduates in 2026

Cognizant is increasing its investment in graduate hiring. 

The company is on track to hire 1,500 college graduates in the US by the end of 2026, as part of efforts to deepen its commitment to building AI talent and strengthening the American technology workforce. 

These hires sit across the company’s core technology services businesses, its Belcan engineering subsidiary and a new Frontier Engineers talent programme, which has been designed to attract top technical graduates.

“America's next generation of technologists will define how AI gets built, deployed and governed,” says Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant. “Hiring 1,500 college graduates in the United States this year is both a workforce investment and a statement of confidence in American talent and a recognition that the AI-builder ramp-up begins on campus. 

“We are equipping these graduates with the skills, mentorship and real-world experience to become the backbone of the AI economy.”

Why Walmart Isn't Buying the AI Jobs Panic

Walmart employs 2.1 million people, the largest private workforce in America. Its position on whether AI erases jobs is not theoretical, because it would be among the first to feel it.

The company's answer, set out in its first-ever Jobs Spotlight Report, is that the technology is being oversold as a threat.

"While AI is being framed by many as a job eliminator, it seems too early to make predictions on the impact," says Donna Morris, Walmart's Chief People Officer. Her bet is on the pairing, not the swap.

"It will be the combination of our associates and technology that will power our ability to best serve our customers and members."