Workplace automation stories

Misaligned expectations over workplace AI risk costing UK employers up to GBP £60 billion a year in lost productivity and savings.

Proofpoint snaps up AI security specialist Acuvity to police ‘agentic workspaces’ as enterprises rush to deploy copilots and agents.

Agentic AI is shifting automation from rigid rules to adaptive partners, as humans and AI learn to share data, decisions and the same sandbox.

New Zealand AI startup Contented raises AUD $4.1m seed round to speed UK and US expansion and triple headcount in coming months.

Malaysia banks on AI, chips and data centres to sustain 4-5% growth in 2026, as SME adoption and workforce skills emerge as key tests.

Adactin has been added to Australia’s national AI Directory, linking its cloud and AI services with organisations seeking local expertise.

Industry voices are divided on whether AI will diminish consulting roles or augment them by shifting the nature of the work.

Salesforce denies axing 4,000 jobs for AI as critics question Agentforce reliability and the need for hard-coded fallbacks in workflows.

PayFit extends its contextual HR AI copilot to 220,000 staff, promising personalised, confidential answers on pay, leave and contracts.

Tech leaders tell Sadiq Khan to stop warning of AI ‘mass unemployment’, saying firms use it to boost productivity, not scrap jobs.

Ben Goertzel and Jaron Lanier clash over whether increasingly autonomous AI deserves moral standing or must always remain under human control.

Shadow AI and shaky data foundations are undermining UK corporate AI rollouts, with leaders warning of weak controls and executive blind spots.

Salesforce debuts a revamped AI Slackbot as a personal work agent, tying Slack into its Agentforce 360 automation and data platform.

SmartRecruiters crowns “The Orchestrator” Job Title of the Year as employers prioritise coordination roles in AI-driven, fragmented workplaces.

Gartner warns CHROs must confront nine AI-driven work trends by 2026, from layoffs and culture clashes to digital twins and ‘workslop’.

Four in ten data professionals rely on unapproved AI tools at work, prompting fresh fears over data security, privacy and skills gaps.

UK learning platform HowNow backs domain-specific AI agents to join teams as ‘colleagues’ by 2026, reshaping workflows and competition.

Perforce CTO Rod Cope predicts context and agentic AI will transform coding, jobs and security as ambient systems quietly permeate daily life.

A new TalentLMS report warns staff are ready to quit as AI reshapes roles, workloads soar and training time vanishes from the job.

Non-technical teams can learn to embrace AI by champion-led experiments, simple tools and clear leadership to boost productivity safely.