July 16, 2026

Presented By

Greetings, friends! We’re happy to report no upcoming Coldplay concerts this summer as we mark the one-year anniversary of HR’s biggest pop-culture moment of 2025.

In today’s edition:

🚨 Proceed with caution

⚖️ Legislative lowdown

💬 What do you think?

—Tricia Crimmins, Courtney Vinopal, Mikaela Cohen

TECH

Expert advice

Business people brainstorming in a meeting, one has an AI icon for a head

Morning Brew, Inc, Photo: Adobe Stock

At some companies, workers might be split between those who go into the office and those who work remotely. But at Asymbl, a workforce orchestration company based in Texas, there are two camps: humans and AI agent employees—or, as the company calls the latter, “digital workers.” In fact, “digital workers” make up a majority of the company’s employees.

One of those AI agents, Polly People Ops, can answer questions and help employees make changes to their benefits, retirement plans, and PTO. The agent, accessible via Slack, was trained on Asymbl’s company policies and takes approximately 10 hours of work per week off the (human) HR team’s plate.

Polly is just one example of how agents are being incorporated into employee-facing roles. More than a third of companies are using AI in the realm of employee experience; a subset is using agents to help employees customize benefits and another for learning and development, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). But adoption only goes so far: Although developers are rolling out agents for training and coaching employees, experts told Morning Brew they’re hesitant to allow AI into those types of endeavors.

For more on why experts advise against using AI in these scenarios, keep reading here.—TC

Sponsored By Indeed

A new era of hiring

Indeed is defining a new era of hiring—and yes, HR can join from anywhere, even the sacred “camera off” zone.

As AI sweeps through recruiting, the smartest teams understand the key is knowing when technology should move fast and when human judgment should grab the wheel.

Indeed FutureWorks brings global hiring leaders together Sept. 2 and 3 to unpack that balance. Speakers include Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun (who is steering an iconic brand into its next chapter), AI expert Ethan Mollick, and trust authority Rachel Botsman.

The virtual experience is free, which means the only thing standing between HR teams and actionable hiring insights is registration.

Explore the speaker lineup, hear what’s next, and learn how leading organizations are navigating the evolving world of hiring.

COMPLIANCE

Legislative lowdown

Francis Scialabba

The Trump administration recently extended work permits for thousands of immigrants set to lose their visas as a result of a Supreme Court decision issued on June 25.

That decision paved the way for the Department of Homeland Security to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for foreign nationals from Haiti and Syria. While lower courts had ruled in favor of immigrants who sued DHS over its decision to end TPS, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration.

The June 25 decision is expected to have a wide-ranging impact not only on Haitian and Syrian nationals who’d been living and working legally in the US under TPS, but also immigrants from other TPS countries the Trump administration targeted, HR Brew previously reported.

While the DHS initially set a July 1 expiration date for Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) that had allowed TPS holders from affected countries to work, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has now extended those deadlines twice.

For more on what HR needs to know about the extension, keep reading here.—CV

Sponsored By Radancy

Make hiring AI useful. AI promised faster hiring. Many teams got extra tools, handoffs, and visibility that vanished like PTO in December. HR teams can join senior HR and TA leaders to learn how to connect engagement, screening, scheduling, and workflows. Join Radancy live on 7/30 to learn how.

TECH

Pro-AI at work

Collage showing a robot hand reaching out to a human hand like Michaelangelo's The Creation of Adam, with glitchy digital binary code in glowing yellow passing between them.

Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Adobe Stock

What does the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) think about AI in the workplace?

Well, its president and CEO, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., wants HR pros to embrace the evolving technology.

“If you want to do the job that you’ve done for the last 10, 20, hell five years, then you’re in trouble…Embrace AI and use it to do the strategic value-added stuff that makes HR really valuable,” Taylor told HR Brew, later adding: “If you stand still and say, ‘I’m not going to embrace it, and this is bad for mankind,’ you will be left behind.”

HR Brew spoke with several SHRM executives at the organization’s annual conference in Orlando last month to get their thoughts on how HR should approach the technology.

For more on what SHRM executives told us about their views on AI, keep reading here.—MC

work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: JPMorgan cut jobs by 30% to 40% in certain areas of its business due to AI, though CEO Jamie Dimon said most workers were hired into other roles. (CNBC)

Quote: “If you look at what robots did in the manufacturing sector, if AI does something equivalent in a more compressed time period, that would be really disruptive, really costly for people’s livelihoods.”—Daron Acemoglu, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, on the potential disruptions AI poses to the workforce (the New York Times)

Read: Workers are getting hired into roles by using AI to game their interviews. Once they actually start the job though, they fail to meet basic expectations. (Bloomberg)

The future of hiring: Indeed FutureWorks shows hiring leaders how to balance AI and human judgment, with free virtual talks from experts. Register now to hear how organizations are navigating the future of hiring.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Jobs

More focus, less fluff. CollabWORK filters out the noise and delivers jobs that actually match what HR Brew readers are looking for. Click here to see the full board of curated roles.

Share the Brew

Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag.

Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win.

Your referral count: 0

Click to Share

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
hr-brew.com/r/?kid=9196cb13

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

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Get smarter in just 5 minutes

Business News: Morning Brew
Tech & AI News: Tech Brew
Markets News: Brew Markets
Real Estate News: The Playbook
Money & Career: Bossy

Take The Brew to work

Interested in podcasts?

Check out People Person on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

ADVERTISE//CAREERS//SHOP//FAQ

Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here.
View our privacy policy here.

Copyright © 2026 Morning Brew Inc. All rights reserved.
22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011

☕️ Interpersonal issues