HR Brew // Morning Brew // Update

June 10, 2026

Greetings, HR pros! President Trump got a brief chance at a 360 review this week when he attended game three of the NBA finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden. The crowds offered some honest feedback—in the form of loud boos—when the president’s face appeared on the Jumbotron during the national anthem. Rough feedback during 360 reviews can encourage leaders to rethink strategy and communication, or address problems with culture. Bing Bong.

In today’s edition:

AI assistants

What not to say

The “F” words

—Courtney Vinopal, Mikaela Cohen, Tricia Crimmins

HR STRATEGY

Follow the leader

Photo collage showing two images side by side. On the left, a top-down view of a messy desk, with a calendar, post-it notes, paperwork, calculator, and cup of coffee. On the right, a top-down view of a clean desk with just two robot hands type on a computer keyboard.

Shannon May, Photos: Unsplash, Adobe Stock

It’s fair to say HR professionals have been slower to fully embrace agentic AI than their peers in other functions.

The human resources function is still largely centered around humans, after all. It’s no surprise, then, that a majority of HR departments (82%) weren’t using AI agents last year, according to a Nov. 2025 McKinsey survey.

But some chief people officers are all-in on agentic AI, particularly if their organizations are serious about deploying the technology throughout their workforce. This shift is as much cultural as it is technological, HR leaders told us, as agentic AI requires less human intervention than chatbots.

For some HR executives, AI agents are now akin to coworkers, assisting them with everything from preparing for board meetings to prioritizing items in a daily agenda. In modeling this adoption, the HR execs we spoke to said they hope the rank-and-file will come along for the ride.

For more on how HR leaders are embracing agentic AI, keep reading here.—CV

Sponsored By Paradox, a Workday Company

Wired to hire

What causes candidate drop-off? Clunky hiring experiences that include (but are not limited to): having to create new accounts and logins; manual, lengthy application forms; AI that’s tacked on and unhelpful…the list goes on.

On the flip side, here’s a success story. Advantage Solutions implemented Paradox’s conversational ATS, utilizing an AI assistant named Alix who guides candidates through the application process in minutes via simple chat or text messages, completely eliminating the need for logins or forms.

Alix engages with candidates around the clock, contacting between 32% and 34% of candidates outside of normal business hours. Candidates can move seamlessly from offer acceptance to HRIS integration in just three days.

The implementation of Paradox successfully decreased Advantage Solutions’ time-to-hire by two days.

Learn more about making these tools work for your team.

HR STRATEGY

It’s not you, it’s me

Business leader communicating with uncertainty

Illustration: Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: Adobe Stock

Another day, another layoff announcement.

Website-building software company Wix is reducing its 5,300-person workforce by 20%, a move that will impact more than 1,000 roles, Business Insider reported. The company cited AI and a need for a flatter corporate structure as reasons for the reduction in force.

“This is a very hard decision because I will be saying goodbye to many people who have worked with me for years, many whom I call friends, people I trust and respect, friends who poured their energy and talent into Wix,” CEO Avishai Abrahami said in the memo to employees, which was posted in full by Business Insider. “Team members I know personally, and team members I never had the chance to meet, but whose commitment and contribution I have witnessed.”

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to layoff communications, the main focus should be the impact on employees, not leadership, Deborah Grayson Riegel, executive and communication coach and co-author of Aim High and Bounce Back, told HR Brew.

For more on what not to say when announcing a layoff, keep reading here.—MC

TECH

From full-time to fractional

A robot Customer Service AI Assistant typing on laptop

Illustration: Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photo: Top Stock/Adobe Stock

What if your next hire isn’t a full-time employee, but part human and part AI agent?

The question isn’t meant to conjure images of cyborgs and humanoid robots—at an event during New York Tech Week, two founders actually presented it as a viable option. The human worker would be fractional—a part-time, temporary high-level employee who pitches in at a startup for a specific phase of its development. The AI agent side of the equation would work in the same domain as their human counterpart, doing whatever the company deems automatable.

At “Your Next Exec Won’t Be Fully Human,” hosts Michael Meo and Christopher Bunker made the case for employing fractional and agent workers, respectively, in a friendly debate. Founders in the room told Morning Brew that some combination of fractional and agentic employees would help them scale their businesses, even if they have some reservations about autonomous AI.

For more on the case for fractional and AI employees, keep reading here.—TC

Sponsored By WebMD Health Services

Summer wellness, already planned. WebMD Health Services’ summer wellness calendar hands HR and benefits leaders seasonal awareness dates and workplace activities that are actually easy to use. Download it before employee well-being gets buried under PTO requests, Slack pings, and one suspiciously urgent picnic committee.

WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: The information sector, which includes tech, IT, and media pros, has lost nearly 11% of its workforce since a 2022 post-pandemic high. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “We will be rolling out Instacore across the world and collecting what we think will be the largest and most diverse commercial data set for robotics.”—Aaron Bromberg, Instawork’s head of robotics, on efforts to hire gig workers to perform activities wearing monitors and cameras to train the next generation of AI—the kind with arms and legs —to do everything from chop vegetables to stock shelves (Business Insider)

Read: Meta is launching a workforce academy to train workers to build the data centers needed to support the global uptick in AI use. Completing the five-week training program will guarantee alum work at the tech behemoth as it builds out its AI infrastructure. (the Wall Street Journal)

Help ~~wanted~~ granted: Advantage Solutions implemented Paradox’s conversational ATS, using an AI assistant named Alix to guide candidates through the application process in minutes. The implementation of Paradox successfully decreased Advantage Solutions’ time-to-hire by two days. Learn more.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

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Written by Courtney Vinopal, Mikaela Cohen, Tricia Crimmins, and Adam DeRose

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