HR Automation Explorer

This tool maps out HR tasks and functions, scores them for automation risk and then recommendations actions for humans currently doing them. It’s pretty, and cool.

The History of HRTech

Only someone like John Sumser could write something like this - a concise and convincing history of HR Tech which goes from punch card technology in the 1900’s to GenAI in the 2020’s. The main point is HR is downstream of technology, and as tech changes, so will the human structures which evolved around their capability. Must read folks. John needs to give a talk on this, don’t you think?

The Reality of Modern Job Descriptions

It’s 2026 and we’re not short of LinkedIn articles criticising job descriptions, but this one is unusual because it argues for another document - the professional profile - ahead of the collection of requirements we’re more often used to. Main idea: skills adjacency is what is missing in tradition JD’s. Have a read.

The Startup Founder’s Guide to People Ops: What to Put in Place at Each Stage of Growth

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslaw briefly became bête noir a month ago when he talked about firing HR and having all the problems go away, but the full clip revealed that what he actually did was replace HR with ‘People Ops’. So what is People Ops and is the difference semantic or substantive? Talking about this in Brainfood Live in couple weeks, so sign up here. In the meantime, here’s another startup founders take on it - straight talking stuff which I think will resonate with anyone whose worked from 0-100 hiring scenario.

From Talent Acquisition to Talent…

Talent Acquisition peaked in May 2021. For a very brief moment, it became the fastest growing profession in white collar work, as indicated by job posting velocity on LinkedIn. 2026 and the world looks very different. It is heartening to see that the message is landing for the majority of TA leaders - we’re going to have to radically expand scope. Thanks to brainfooder Jamie Leonard for the public share of the latest RL100 survey data.

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow On Why He Eliminated HR

If you had an opinion on the Ryan Breslow on why he fired his entire HR department, then you owe it to yourself to watch the full interview here. It’s only 17 minutes long and provides the required context for the viral clip. The point that ends up being revealed is worth exploring - what exactly is the difference between HR vs People Ops? Is this difference just semantic, or substantive? We’re doing a Brainfood Live on this, later this month, so sign up here.

How PepsiCo Rebuilt Talent Acquisition for the AI Era

Brainfooder Johnny Campbell is too busy running a real company but if he ever put his full attention on it, he’d be the best podcast interviewer in our game. Brilliant conversation here with Blair Bennett, SVP of Global Talent Acquisition on how Pepsico refactored their TA function for the AI era. Great case study.

OpenAI’s New $4B Consulting Venture Lands Squarely in HR Territory

The news that both OpenAI and Anthropic are launching AI deployment businesses tells me that the gap between rhetoric vs reality of AI at enterprise scale much wider than we might have initially thought. Individual AI-enablement creates systems challenges as surges in output cannot be absorbed by pre-AI processes. HR Executive makes the important point for us: these new mega companies are going to do the work that internal HR should’ve been doing. The destination for all this AI-enablement is not just great output but also greater organisational intelligence. Joris Luijke with an intriguing addendum to the conversation.

Track OpenAI Spend: Explain Where Your OpenAI Budget Goes

When Uber CTO announced that his team had blew past their annual token budget in just over a quarter, it was first seen as a positive outcome of advanced AI usage, but the story started to darken when Anthropic, Google and Open AI started to limit token usage and raise prices on what you were able to use. It’s all very well re-wiring your workflows to be AI-native / AI-only, but what if that means your putting your business at risk of unplanned increases of token spend? CloudZero with a decent post on how employers can calculate token budget. Doing this show with George Larocque, Chris Havrilla and others on Brainfood Live because we in TA / HR need to get into this conversation - What if AI Costs More than Humans?

Bolt’s CEO Fired HR: HR Problems Went Away

So firstly, huge credit due Bolt CEO Ryan Breslaw for triggering the controversy of the week by revealing he had fired his entire HR department for “creating problems that didn’t exist” and suddenly had those problems disappear as a result 🤣. The extended quote which completed his thinking would’ve moderated the scandal somewhat (replaced HR with People Ops) but the incident raises a number of interesting angles for debate - the lack of security we feel in our function, the perception by C-suite that HR acts as a brake not an accelerator, perhaps the inevitable role that HR plays as agent-of-government within organisations, and finally, what exactly, is the difference between HR and People Ops? A topic for Brainfood Live - so sign up.

Airbnb’s AI for HR Playbook

Is this AI in HR post we have all been waiting for? Mary Kate Stimmler attends a talk from Airbnb’s Iain Roberts and summarised the main points, which are: a) trade PDF’s for .md files, b) convert the company’s best presentations into a “skill”, c) use meeting records to measure distance between rhetoric-to-reality d) leaders must not delegate but build (in order to learn) and e) hire and train ‘embedded organisation architects’. Love to see this presentation, but whilst I scout around for it, this summary from Mary Kate, as well as the comments, are gold.

Rethinking Work In The Age Of AI

Brainfooder Matt Alder with one of his best conversations of the year so far, with Stacy Harris, Chief Research Officer at Sapient Insights. 40 minutes which will help you follow the narrative of technology transformations and why AI is the same, but also significantly different from what went before. Have a listen.

The HR One-Stop Shop Is Finally Within Reach

This essay from Volker Jacobs describes the ‘information routing’ problem that human bureaucracy evolved to solve, agreeing in large part with Jack Dorsey vision that AI is going to be basically replace the function because it is obviously better at transporting information. Volker is less extreme in what this means though, and pays much greater attention to where to deploy the time saved. Some good ideas here for TA / HR on what the future AI-enabled Talent Operations function looks like. H/T to brainfooder Ivan Harrison for the share.

Amazon Just Stepped Into the Hiring Space

Brainfooder Glen Cathey will some succinct thoughts on Amazon Connect Talent which kicked off a great conversation thread which is as valuable as the original post. Something to read after No2 in this newsletter, as the entrant of one of the big tech beasts into the talent space asks some big questions of rectech sector, and supports the LaRocquian view that the next big disruptor to come to WorkTech won’t be a seed funded startup but a big beast in another category making a sideways move. PS: anyone have an early view of Amazon Connect Talent, let me know, love to get your view of it…

Workday’s Last Workday?

The ‘other’ story about AI + Capital was this rather bluntly titled essay on the future of Workday, and by extension, all legacy players in the HCM / RecTech space. It’s a brilliant essay that provoked the great and good of the industry analyst space to weigh in with support and rebuttals alike. For people who didn’t keep up with the narrative (me included) Brainfooder George LaRocque does us a solid by summarising and linking back to the arguments, before adding his own hugely valuable take. This is kind of what blogging should be isn’t it?

The 2026–2030 Role Diagnostic: Are you an Operator or an Architect?

I’m glad this post is going to be series because it left me wanting more. I generally dislike ‘call to action’ type pieces (because who needs more admonishment these days?) but making an exception in this case because it gets more things right than wrong, especially on the need to aggressively delegate tasks which AI can already do better than humans today. I disagree on task based futures, skills based organisations and above all, documenting things, because the difference between a consultancy vs compliance is that the former is none of those things. Anyways, got me thinking as well as partly agreeing, with this post so have a read and think along with me. H/T to brainfooder Stefan Welack for the share in the online community

Atlassian’s CPO Takes on AI Enablement Officer Role

Welcome story of the journey I hope many more in the talent function will take - becoming the function of facilitating and driving AI-enablement, whilst playing the essential role of ensuring that individual productivity translates into organisational productivity. Any more from our community adding AI-enablement into their remit? Let me know if you are because we need to hear more stories like this! H/T to brainfooder Craig Watson for the share in the online community

The New DNA of Organisation Design

One of those research papers that you wish was a lot longer! Some interesting findings from our friends Visier, who sampled companies which grew and cut headcount, and asked the question whether they did it by increase the size or number of teams. The growers keep teams small.

A Manager’s Guide to Reducing AI Costs Without Reducing Headcount

As we all become AI-enabled, we’re all going to end up using way more tokens than projected, mainly because of the compounding effect of that usage. This is a fascinating post on the rule-of-thumb calculations on token cost managers should be using when figuring out budget. I wonder whether any TA / HR leaders have hit this kind of wall yet - have you set up an AI native process and unexpectedly escalated token cost? Let me know in comments below, might be worth another Brainfood Live.

The Death of the Three-Legged Stool: Rebuilding HR Architecture for the Age of Agentic AI

We’re not short of articles describing the future of TA or HR. This one is pretty good as it traces the incumbent model back to David Ulrich’s Three-Legged Stool of Centers of Expertise (CoEs), HR Business Partners (HRBPs), and Shared Services. Service centre evolution into Employee Relations offers most promise, but the underlying reality remains unstated - the HR function is set for dramatic reduction in size based on this projection. Maybe that’s no bad thing, but maybe no good thing either. Lots to think about.

Mercer Global Talent Trends 2026

Interesting report in that it directly samples two different populations (CEO’s + CHRO’s) asking them the same questions and then comparing where we’re at. It’s uncomfortable to learn that C-level and HR are not only in dissonance on priorities, but also that only 8% of the former perceive the function as being strategically significant. The days of ‘asking for a seat at the table’ are over imo - that battle has been lost, and what is required today is no less than a total reinvention of identity and purpose. Going to start a Brainfood Live series on this, watch this space.

Productive Individuals Don’t Make Productive Firms

One of the ‘paradoxes of productivity’ is that AI seems to make individuals hyper productive, but institutions far less so. I explored this in Open Kitchen in my essay, Reaping the AI Dividend: Why Individuals Can, but Institutions Can’t!, and only now come across the post which I would have clearly attributed as having inspired it had I read it earlier. It’s much better than mine, so I highly recommend you read it instead.

The Global TA Benchmark 2026

Where is TA in 2026? If you’ve asked this question recently, then this study is something that you should not only download (no reg wall) but also participate in yourself in order to map your function against the bench. Substantial piece of work from brainfooder Tony de Graaf of Recruiting Excellence Foundation on TA maturity. Download for free here and participate no obligations audit here.

Four Power Moves for the CHRO

I’ll save you the time: 1) Deliver business value through HR, mainly though employee lifetime value calculations 2) Lead the digital and AI transformation - become the company exemplar for AI transformation, in order to lead/guide other departments in doing the same 3) Build workforce and leadership capabilities - and presumably cultivate human judgement (?) and 4) Anchor the change - be the change management function for org transformation. It’s a pretty good summary of what we’ve all got to do, got to be honest. My favourite part was the appendix though, full of cool charts like the one above, which shows Paraguay at least are keeping it real 👊

AI Transformation Blueprint for HR & TA

I’m not sure I contributed much to the theme of this webinar, but I thought it was important throw in the idea that human executive authority must be maintained, even if the price is bad decisions - and bad outcomes. Have a watch / listen, and skip to the second half if you want practical stuff rather than my polemicism!

Recruitment Rewired: an Update on the ICO’s Work on the Fair and Responsible Use of Automation in Recruitment

UK recruiters probably need to learn a new phrase - ADM - “Automated Decision Making”. Whilst outside of the EU, the UK is following GDPR provisions fairly closely, especially when it considers recruitment to be an AI use case requiring special attention. My reading of this update from the Information Commissioner’s Office is that its all about fair use + consent + right to dispute + evidence of testing for bias. Do-able stuff for operators, basically. Follow brainfooder Martyn Redstone if you want more nuanced commentary on this. H/T to brainfooder Zichuan Lim for the share

From Hierarchy to Intelligence

We underestimate the impact AI will have on jobs because we focus overly much on calculating the capacity it might displace individual workers, and not nearly enough on the coordination between workers it will may make redundant. Jack Dorsey might be one of the first CEO’s to explicitly explain the purpose of ‘bullshit jobs’ is to route information across a complex organisation, which requires a hierarchy, which then requires more hierarchy to support it. Not so if Block manage to diffuse intelligence across the business, create a ‘world model’ and replace hierarchy altogether. Fascinating essay, fascinating experiment, one to keep an eye on. PS: kind of related to this screed Collaboration is Bullshit, a sentiment familiar to anyone whose has too many meeting and wonders why…

A Few Weeks Ago I Posted an Unusual Job Description.

AI is transforming the very shape of organisations, and there’s a role for person who can help make this happen. Super interesting job, along with a super interesting job advert. Anyone want to give this a shot? H/T to brainfooder Chris Brown for the share

How Well Does My AI Agent Know Me?

It seems inevitable that soon one day all of us will have persistent AI Agents supporting (or supplanting..) our work. Before we offload our entire lives to them though, it probably makes sense to understand just how well they may know us. Interesting research experiment here, which attempts to do just that. I wonder whether this measurement might one day be significant in how we assess candidates, if we do end up adding their AI Agent as part of the hiring decision. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share in the online community

The AI Talent Cheat Sheet: Practical Moves for HR Leaders in 2026

One thing AI can really help us with is record, analyse and transform information that is shared in in-person meetings and events. I’m terrible at this, but brainfooder Anna Ott isn’t and we end up with Cheat Sheets like this which are super useful for anyone here to browse through. Great to see Anna last week btw, totally for Berlin in a couple months, see you all there and then 😉

Talent Acquisition Automation Audit

Great piece of experimentation by brainfooder Lars Schmidt, who wanted to know where to start on his automation journey, so why not build a tool which could help answer the question? Asking AI how to be better at AI is quite funny but seriously best practice. Read Lar’s post on his thinking here and have a play on this audit tool here

Anna Ott Essay Mini Series

Brainfooder Anna Ott is one of my ‘top voices on LinkedIn’ - people who I not only follow but also click the notification bell on, as I want to see all her updates. Her mini series this week on the impact of AI on the Talent Ops function is excellent - each essay giving an interesting and uncommon take which gets you thinking. Take your pick, or better yet, read them all - Job Architecture in the AI Era, The AI‑enabled Chief of Staff and the “Super‑IC”, Employability in a Noisy Market, HR leaders: Rewrite Competency, Levelling, and Performance Frameworks and AI transformation in practice: an eight‑step organisational blueprint applied to AI

Your First People Ops Toolkit

Sometimes you just need a decent list of People Ops tools. Credit to brainfooder Alina Hapkina for putting this together, particularly like the recommendations based on org size / pricing.

From “Head of TA” to “Head of TALENT”: Why the ‘Strategic Hiring Partner’ is No Longer Enough.

Is it time to drop the ‘Acquisition’ part of the TA? Brainfooder Soeren Winter thinks so, in another outstanding post which describes the stark choices in front of us: the business does not want talent for talent’s sake, they want capacity to achieve outcomes. That capacity might be new human workers on the payroll, but increasingly, may not. If we want to hang around, we need to be able to stay in the room when the answer is the latter. More from Soeren in Brainfood Live this Friday, as we go through the 6 x AI Frameworks that big corps like Microsoft, Amazon et al use to understand AI + Human relationships - how this translate to us.

The Agentic Organization: Contours of the Next Paradigm for the AI Era

I’ve come full circle on McKinsey; I’m now a full on McKinsey Stan, because this is how you actually do Thought Leadership - produce a high enough volume of high enough quality content that gives enough tooling for the willing masses to pick up and have a go. What does the Agentic Organisation look like? Seems to be there some work here for TA / HR pro’s, if we get ahead of the inevitable McKinsey curve