AK Webinar Recap | 2026 Summer Roundtable 2

In July, Adams Keegan experts Charles Rodriguez, Brandon Roland, Justin Brown, Amanda McCollum, Brian Evans, and Angie Carrier came together for the second of our two summer roundtables. The session moved from the latest compliance developments to a shifting labor market and, most of all, to a candid look at where AI is genuinely helping HR and where it quietly creates risk.

Didn't catch the webinar? You can find the full recording here.

July compliance updates worth tracking

The EEOC has published a proposed rule to eliminate EEO-1 reporting going forward. For now, this year's reporting is delayed with no confirmed date, and the public comment period closes in late August. Even if the federal requirement fades, state obligations remain unchanged. California and Illinois, for example, still require pay-band and pay-equity data, and history suggests other states may step in to fill any federal gap. The EEOC also voted to rescind its longstanding affirmative action guidelines, part of a broader shift toward treating all employees as equally protected under Title VII.

On the wage-and-hour side, the Department of Labor issued several opinion letters. One of the most useful confirms that an exempt employee can also perform non-exempt work for additional pay without losing exempt status – provided the role is evaluated as a single job based on all duties combined. The team also flagged a wave of smaller state laws along with the ongoing need to reverify expired EADs following the Supreme Court's June decision allowing TPS terminations to proceed for Haiti and Syria.

A labor market that's harder to read

The numbers are, as Charles put it, "conclusively inconclusive." Recent data showed roughly 57,000 jobs added against 62,000 cuts, with unemployment holding at 4.2% and jobless claims at record lows. Beneath the surface is significant restructuring, much of it tied to AI. The team pointed to reports that 38% of managers who cut roles in anticipation of AI efficiencies have since had to rehire, a reminder that the human element is harder to automate than expected.

Retention is under pressure, sitting at a 12-month low. Pay is always a factor, but AI-driven uncertainty is emerging as a powerful catalyst – with more than a quarter of employees at AI-adopting organizations describing the changes as highly disruptive. The team's advice is to invest in the full employee experience, career development, upskilling, and clear paths forward, because clarity and stability are what keep good people in place. They also cautioned against "ghost jobs," noting new transparency laws in states like New York and pending legislation elsewhere that penalize postings for roles employers aren't actively filling.

AI in HR: A capable tool, not a substitute

Amanda shared her experience with asking common HR questions to a range of AI tools, and the results were revealing. Ask "what policies do I need?" and AI returns a tidy list, but it can't account for the details that actually govern the answer: your state, city, industry, remote employees, company culture, or the difference between what's legally required and what's simply best practice. The same gap showed up around benefits and terminations, where AI offered generic guidance but skipped the risk analysis any HR professional or attorney would insist on. In one case, it helped a small employer draft a generous paid leave policy that the business couldn't realistically sustain operationally.

The takeaway is that AI is only as good as the prompts and sources behind it, and it consistently misses three things HR depends on: nuance, judgment, and empathy. Where a good advisor answers a question with more questions, AI tends to simply agree and press forward.

When employees and managers lean on AI

Perhaps the most striking trend was how employees are using AI to navigate workplace disputes. Team members are seeing polished, escalated demand letters from employees who never raised a verbal concern first, sometimes citing laws that don't even apply to their employer's size. Because AI tends to affirm the user and coach them deeper into a grievance, situations that a manager or HR lead could have resolved quickly are landing as formal complaints, with each requiring a full, good-faith response. Managers face the mirror image of this: a newly promoted frontline leader who turns to a chatbot for an answer can just as easily be led astray.

Two practical cautions closed out the discussion. First, anything typed into an AI tool is a written record and potentially discoverable in litigation, so sensitive workplace questions deserve real care. Second, how AI is rolled out matters enormously. When tools are simply pushed onto employees, satisfaction hovers around 14 to 18%; when AI is introduced to help people do their existing work better, satisfaction climbs closer to 60%. Technology is a genuine asset, but as the team noted, it's great until you have a problem, and solving real HR problems still takes human expertise.

View the webinar recording here and plan for about 45 minutes to fully engage with the discussion.