HR Brew // Morning Brew // Update

April 30, 2026

Hey there, HR pros. Tired: throwing money at top talent.

Wired: throwing money at AI agents.

At least that’s the situation at companies like Nvidia, whose VP of applied deep learning recently revealed that the firm’s spending on AI “compute” now exceeds its spending on employees.

As far as we know, AI agents can’t ask for raises yet. But when that request comes in, call us. We’d love to hear how it goes.

In today’s edition:

Office AI-commodations

Breaking joints

Reminder: people matter

—Kristen Parisi, Courtney Vinopal, Demi Lawrence

HR STRATEGY

Learn together

Illustration: Francis Scialabba, Photos: Gensler, Morning Brew

If AI isn’t coming for your job, it’s certainly coming for your office space. Diane Hoskins, global co-chair at Gensler, and John Santora, CEO of WeWork, explained during this year’s panel at Semafor World Economy how offices are changing, and what employees want from them.

US workplaces are still feeling the ripple effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Hoskins. While many workers were happy with remote arrangements in 2020, others were dissatisfied. The sweet spot, she said Gensler found from many employers in the US, was three days a week in the office.

“The come back to the workplace was not necessarily a come back to utopia,” she said. “There’s been a real, honest dialog about what it takes to do great work and what are the environments that are needed.”

Employees needed more space for collaboration, as well as quiet spaces to focus. Essentially, workspaces need to be individualized. “It is incumbent upon us as leaders…to make it worthwhile for the people that come to work,” Santora added.

Keep reading for more on how office spaces are adapting and evolving.—KP

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COMPLIANCE

Legislative lowdown

Francis Scialabba

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued a proposed rule that seeks to establish a blanket standard for determining when multiple businesses are considered a “joint employer” of a group of workers.

The proposed joint employer standard, which would apply to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, seeks “to address the dearth of departmental regulatory guidance,” on this matter, per a DOL press release published on April 22.

HR compliance teams have been operating without a federal joint employer standard since 2021, when the Biden administration rescinded a DOL rule issued during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Business groups have applauded the proposed rule, as it’s expected to make it harder for companies to qualify as a joint employer, thus making multiple parties liable for labor violations that affect workers in their purview.

So what does this mean for HR? Keep reading here.—CV

M&A

Mergers, acquisitions, and human beings

Pm Images/Getty Images

Hold on to your wallets: A recent report raised concerns that the human aspect of mergers and acquisitions is being left by the wayside.

M&A offers opportunities to rapidly grow revenue, but in a March research report, professional services firm RGP found what it called “The Human Value Gap in M&A.”

The report was based on a survey of 120 CFOs across technology, consumer products and retail, financial services, private equity, and healthcare, most at companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue. The research also included in-depth interviews with 15 CHROs from global enterprises.

A key finding: Intangible assets like culture, talent, and knowledge were noted as critical to a deal’s success by a large majority—81%—of the CFO respondents, but only 18% said they felt their organization protected these things effectively.

The value of human capital has long been a topic of discussion among CFOs, but with the rise of AI and other rapidly advancing technologies in the last several years, firms like RGP are raising similar warnings for M&A deals: that people are just as vital to a deal as the highly quantifiable assets on a balance sheet.

For more on HR’s role as a “strategic enabler,” read the full story on CFO Brew.—DL

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WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 18% of employers say most of their staff has participated in an AI upskilling or reskilling program over the past year. (Aon)

Quote: “As a job seeker, you’re having to work a lot harder to land that same job now because the competition has just really stiffened in the last couple years.”—Cory Stahle, an Indeed economist, on the challenging labor market recent graduates are facing (the New York Times)

Read: Corporate leaders’ decision to shed workers in favor of AI investments may be shortsighted. (the Wall Street Journal)

Think like a founder: Decisions, trade-offs, hard lessons—Founder Brew covers it all. Launching May 5 for founders, investors, and startup obsessives. Subscribe early.

JOBS

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Written by Kristen Parisi, Courtney Vinopal, and Demi Lawrence

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