Oracle’s layoff package puts severance benchmarking under the microscope

Thousands of Oracle employees were let go recently in a workforce reduction that analysts have estimated could affect up to 30,000 workers. Reporting has linked the cuts to funding the company’s AI data-center expansion. The scale alone makes it a significant workforce event. But it’s the terms Oracle offered, and how it chose to deliver the news, that are drawing the sharpest scrutiny from HR leaders.

Affected employees received an email signed by “Oracle Leadership” and were immediately locked out of internal systems when the notices went out at 6 a.m. ET, according to HR Executive reporting. The message cited “Oracle’s current business needs” and “broader organizational change” without elaboration. READ MORE

Is AI really killing entry-level jobs?

A prevailing narrative at the moment is that AI is reshaping entry-level roles so rapidly that it is significantly altering annual hiring numbers for early-career talent. In short: the end of entry-level roles is nigh.

There’s no denying that AI is automating routine, repeatable tasks that have historically formed foundational skills for many early career roles (e.g., junior analysts, paralegals, basic coding roles, customer service representatives, etc.). But is the perception of radically reduced opportunity for early career talent, in fact, reality? READ MORE

Coca-Cola and Walmart’s outgoing CEOs have a warning for the C-suite

AI transformation is an ongoing, multi-year journey facing C-suites. And for some at the top, it may make more sense to jump ship before diving fully in, which could continue to fuel already-high CEO churn.

In separate interviews with CNBC about their departures, outgoing Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey and former Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon both acknowledged that AI was a contributing factor in their decision to step down. READ MORE

Here’s where HR and finance aren’t in lockstep

Each year, Deloitte publishes a guide to technology trends for CFOs and a separate report on human capital trends for HR leaders. Both tackle the same AI-driven disruption reshaping work in 2026. Both are written for senior leaders under real pressure. And yet the two functions are, in places, solving for different problems while using different languages to describe what is essentially the same moment.

For HR leaders, understanding where these perspectives align, where they partially overlap and where they diverge is a map of where influence battles will be fought. READ MORE

How Top Executives Structure Their 401(k) to Pay Zero Taxes in Retirement

A C-suite executive retiring at 62 with $1.8 million in a traditional 401(k), $400,000 in RSUs, a nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan still paying out, and a brokerage account full of appreciated stock does not have a retirement income problem. The problem is that every one of those assets carries a different tax treatment, and without a model showing all of them in a single view, they will collide in ways that make a zero-tax year structurally impossible. READ MORE

AI as a performance requirement? Employees, managers are divided

As AI use in the workplace explodes, companies like Google, Meta and Amazon are baking AI utilization into performance management. But a recent survey found that managers and employees are far apart in their understanding of how AI utilization factors into positive performance evaluations.

Background screening company Checkr surveyed 3,000 workers—split evenly between managers and non-managers—to understand how AI is reshaping the workplace. Fifty-eight percent of managers said AI use is becoming an “unspoken performance requirement” at work—yet only 29% of employees agree, and 37% say they genuinely aren’t sure. READ MORE

GOAT or Scapegoat: AI May (or May Not) Be Reason for Layoffs

According to recent news reportsOpen in a new tab, artificial intelligence (AI) was the stated reason for more than 50,000 layoffs in 2025, but some experts suggest that organizations are disingenuously blaming AI for layoffs, or “AI washing.”

But according to John Bremen, the managing director and chief innovation and acceleration officer at consulting firm WTW, only a small percentage of early AI implementationsOpen in a new tab are showing meaningful return on investment (ROI). READ MORE

Iran war unlikely to trigger global supply chain crisis, Goldman Sachs says

The war in Iran is pushing oil and gas prices higher, and while the world economy faces a shock from energy prices, an analysis by Goldman Sachs finds that the conflict is unlikely to lead to a broader supply chain crisis like what occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economists at Goldman Sachs found that the Iran war is expected to lead to higher oil prices that will reduce global economic growth by 0.3% of GDP while increasing headline inflation by about 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points over the next year, with a smaller 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point boost to core inflation. READ MORE

US recession by end of 2026?

This market will resolve to “Yes” if either of the following conditions is met: 1. The seasonally adjusted annualized percent change in quarterly U.S. real GDP from the previous quarter is less than 0.0 for two consecutive quarters between Q2 2025 and Q4 2026 (inclusive), as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). 2. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) publicly announces that a recession has occurred in the United States, at any point during 2025 or 2026, with the announcement made by the time the BEA releases the advance estimate for Q4 2026. Otherwise, this market will resolve to "No". READ MORE

How Employers Can Manage Risk When Using AI for Employee Performance Management

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used by employers to support employee performance management. While AI has the potential to improve talent matching and expand opportunities for growth, it raises significant legal and compliance considerations that employers must take into account before deploying. This Insight will provide an overview of the ways in which you can use AI for performance management, summarize the inherent risks, and provide a list of steps you can take to address that risk. READ MORE

Amazon data centers damaged by drone strikes in the Middle East

Drone strikes damaged Amazon Web Services data centers in the Middle East, disrupting cloud operations and prompting the company to urge customers to move critical workloads out of the region.

AWS confirmed that two of its data center facilities in the United Arab Emirates were directly struck, while a separate strike near a site in Bahrain also caused infrastructure damage. The attacks disrupted power systems and caused structural damage, impairing two of the three data center sites that make up AWS’s UAE cloud region. READ MORE

JPMorgan CEO: AI has ‘displaced people … and we offer them other jobs’

At JPMorgan Chase’s February investor meeting, CEO Jamie Dimon said something that most corporate leaders have carefully avoided: His company has already displaced workers because of AI.

“We already have huge redeployment plans for our own people; in fact, we spoke about it today, and we have to up that a little bit,” Dimon said during his Q&A session with analysts. “We can take people who are displaced—and we have displaced people from AI—and we offer them other jobs. They’re usually well-trained and highly talented, and very good at things.” READ MORE