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AI's expanding role in hiring is drawing fresh scrutiny on multiple fronts, as a lawsuit tests employer liability when applicants are screened out by algorithmic software, Connecticut joins a growing roster of states enacting workplace AI laws, and a new tool emerges to give employers visibility and input into what ChatGPT tells job seekers about them. Product launches from Culture Amp, candidate.fyi, and Leapsome, alongside Chime's expanded Workday partnership for financial wellness benefits, reflect continued platform investment even as Microsoft's offer of buyouts to 25% of its workforce and a proposed USCIS rollback of the 60-day grace period for certain nonimmigrant workers signal significant workforce disruption ahead. Rounding out the day, analyst Teri Zipper shares lessons from 2026 and predictions for 2027, while pension reform proposals and Enmovil's plans to scale its enterprise AI hiring team underscore the breadth of structural change reshaping the employment landscape.
Portuguese startup Granter has raised €1.6 million, led by 3XP Global through its Impact Innovation Fund, bringing its total funding to €2 million. Its AI-powered platform helps startups and SMEs find, apply for and manage public funding. Deel, the US HR technology company, is among the additional investors. Granter plans to double its workforce and expand into Spain, Germany, Italy and eventually the US.
Also covered by Tech.eu
Read the full storyRecruiting platform Joveo has launched a Generative Engine Optimization tool, according to HR Tech Feed. The tool targets a gap employers face as job seekers increasingly use AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude to research companies, open roles and pay. Employers currently have little visibility into what these assistants say about their workplace culture, roles or compensation.
candidate.fyi has launched its full agentic hiring platform, which the company calls its largest release to date. The platform offers a set of AI agents that coordinate interviews, answer candidate questions around the clock, and turn each interview into usable data. According to the item, all agents share one knowledge layer, so what one agent learns is available to the others.
Chime (NASDAQ: CHYM) has expanded its partnership with Workday, letting employees of Workday customers choose Chime for direct deposit inside Workday's Enhanced Direct Deposit experience without manually entering account details. The companies say the integration connects paychecks to Chime's savings and credit-building tools. For HR and payroll teams, it is a payroll-linked benefits integration that touches the Workday direct deposit flow.
Read the full storyWildcat Defense, part of Wildcat Equity Partners, has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Taqtile to deploy its Manifest platform across shipyards and other businesses in Wildcat's developing defense industrial portfolio. The companies say the platform helps workers perform complex tasks, preserve critical expertise and improve work quality and consistency. For HR and workforce leaders, this is a vendor-led deal focused on industrial skills and task guidance rather than core HR software.
A podcast conversation recorded at HR Technology in Las Vegas looks back at 2026 and forecasts 2027 for HR technology and AI. The guest, Teri Zipper, says nearly every organization now uses AI, but many have not yet seen bottom-line returns. The episode also touches on rising AI adoption costs, though the excerpt cuts off before details.
Plaintiffs in Mobley v. Workday, a California class action, say Workday's AI screening tools disproportionately rejected Black applicants, women, people aged 40 and over, and people with disabilities. They have asked the court to certify four proposed classes, and a 7 October order allowed Workday to question 15 of 38 supporting applicants. Workday denies wrongdoing, and the certification motion is still pending.
PCRecruiter, the recruiting software vendor (PCRM), has relaunched its website at pcrecruiter.com. The new site publishes PCRM pricing, a comparison against nine other systems, switching steps, support information and data terms. The company says the rebuild answers questions recruiting firms raise before they buy.
Indian agentic AI startup Enmovil plans to grow its forward-deployed engineer (FDE) team from about 30 to 100–120 within a year as it scales enterprise AI deployments and expands into the US and Southeast Asia. The company, which builds supply chain and logistics orchestration software, has 175 employees and has raised about $8 million, including a $6 million Series A roughly a year ago. It reports customers such as Maruti, Mahindra, Volvo and Nestlé, and says its platform links planning, inventory, procurement and logistics execution through an agentic AI layer.
Connecticut's SB 5 took effect Oct. 1, 2026, barring employers from blaming AI tools for discrimination in hiring, promotion, discipline or termination, and letting the state's human rights commission or a court weigh bias-testing evidence. Layoff notices filed under federal WARN with the state labor department must now say whether AI or other technology is a factor. A second phase begins Oct. 1, 2027, requiring interaction notices, pre-decision notices, and vendor information for employers.
Jia, an AI hiring platform from Pasig-based White Cloak Technologies, won the AI in Workforce & Future Skills Award at the ASOCIO Digital & AI Awards 2026, presented in Jakarta on Oct. 6. The product covers AI CV screening, asynchronous conversational AI interviews, applicant tracking and multi-board job posting. The company says more than 15 recruitment agencies among its 25-plus Philippine clients have cut daily candidate admin from hours to minutes, and it plans to expand to Singapore and neighboring markets in 2027.
Business Insider reports that Microsoft offered buyouts to around 60,000 employees. Employment law attorney Craig Levey outlines three steps workers should take if they receive a buyout offer. The piece is practical guidance for employees weighing voluntary exit terms during a large-employer workforce reduction.
Microsoft is offering voluntary buyout packages to roughly 60,000 employees, about 27% of its workforce, in the U.S., Canada, India and the UK, as it spends $175 billion on AI capacity. Almost all staff outside the C-suite are eligible across Copilot, finance, HR and Xbox, while marketing, commercial business and security are excluded. Employees must decide in December and those accepting leave on Dec. 31. Chief people officer Amy Coleman said the company will learn from the new Voluntary Exit Offer.
USCIS published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Sept. 11 that would eliminate the 60-day grace period for nonimmigrant workers in H-1B, H-1B1, E-1, E-2, E-3, L-1, O-1 or TN status who lose their jobs. USCIS says the change would align rules with statutes tying work authorization to active employment and cut administrative costs. The agency also acknowledges more removal proceedings would follow. Comments are due Nov. 10.
The UK government has announced plans for default pensions that would give around 17 million private sector workers who save into a pension the option of a retirement income, narrowing the gap with public sector schemes. The source text is a short excerpt, so timing, scheme design and implementation details are not confirmed here. The move is a pension-policy change that employers and their payroll and benefits systems may need to accommodate.
The UK Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice has approved Raj Jethwa's reappointment to the Prison Service Pay Review Body for a second term, running from 13 June 2027 to 12 June 2032. The PSPRB advises the government on pay for operational prison staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Jethwa is currently Chief Executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, and previously led policy at the British Medical Association.
Larridin, a San Francisco company, has raised a $30 million Series A led by Pelion Ventures, bringing its total funding to $47 million. Existing backers Andreessen Horowitz and Gradient Ventures joined, along with new investors including GFT, W23, Thayer, DG Daiwa Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Cougar Capital. The platform measures the cost, productivity and impact of AI across human and AI agent workforces, and the company plans to use the funds to speed up product development and grow its teams.
Read the full storyTrashLab, a San Francisco company, has raised $12 million in Series A growth capital led by Ventana, with Bienville Capital, Harlem Capital and CreativeCo also investing. The founders say the AI-native operating system for waste haulers combines CRM, dispatch, routing, billing and reporting, and the funds will go toward its product roadmap, agentic workflows and go-to-market and engineering hiring. The platform includes an AI agent, Haul-E, that automates customer requests and order-taking.
Read the full storySAP Community's HCM blog published a step-by-step guide for resetting expired service account credentials in SAP Automation Pilot used with SAP SPM (Incentive Management). The guide says expired credentials cause scheduled automation pilot commands to fail and disrupt day-to-day SPM work. It also covers updating inputs and setting up reminders to prevent future downtime.
The UK government has awarded funding to four Barnsley training projects, backed by more than £800,000 from the AI Upskilling Challenge Fund. The projects target frontline care staff, construction and manufacturing workers, women returning to work, and small businesses. Barnsley College will run mobile AI training units for hospital and social care staff, while Atheni plans to help 140 workers at six local firms use AI on quotes, tenders and safety paperwork. The pilots are part of the Barnsley Tech Town initiative, which the government says could inform a national approach.
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