AI skills are in demand, and HR will need to fork over higher salaries to recruit this talent.

Adding AI skills to job descriptions could cost employers 28% more in annual compensation, a recent report from research firm Lightcast found. AI-related skills can include expertise with large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT and Microsoft CoPilot, as well as prompt engineering, text summarization, and more.

A Lightcast analysis of over 1.3 billion job postings in 2024 found roles advertising at least one AI or generative AI skill offered $18,000 more in annual compensation on average than those that did not. Some 51% of these AI roles were not in tech-related industries, up from 44% in 2022.

No longer are AI skills only associated with tech or IT roles, Cole Napper, VP of research at Lightcast, told HR Brew. And the roles that are seeing the biggest rise in AI skill demand are recruiting and HR. Companies that don’t keep up with this trend, he said, could miss out on talent.

For more on the value of AI skills, keep reading here.—MC

For HR pros inspired to author a book for fellow practitioners, Joey Price has some advice not too far off from Nora Ephron’s belief that everything is copy.

“Journal your wins and journal your losses, because they will help shape your story,” said Price, whose book, The Power of HR: How to Make an Organizational Impact as a People Professional, was published in March 2025. “The way that you write your book, and the stories that you tell in your book, should be based on experience and not just theory. That’s what’s going to help your book stand out from others.”

Price is president and CEO of Jumpstart HR, an HR outsourcing and consulting firm focused on supporting small businesses and startups. He founded Jumpstart HR at age 24 when he decided that he wanted to pursue outsourcing and have a “multiplier effect” working with multiple companies, versus pursuing HR leadership at one company internally. Today, the firm has grown to 15 employees (soon to be 16), after acquiring research firm Aspect43 in January.

His book focuses on demonstrating the importance of HR pros showing up as strategic partners to peers in other parts of the business. According to Price, the book has three audiences.

For more on Price’s book and advice for aspiring authors, keep reading here.—PM

AI agents may be making more headway in tech headlines than in actual offices.

That’s according to the latest adoption report from accounting firm and consultancy EY. It found that while 34% of the 500 senior business leaders they surveyed in April said they’d begun to try out agentic AI, only 14% had fully implemented generative AI systems that can act beyond the realm of a chatbot.

The biggest barriers holding back adoption were trust and safety. When it comes to handing over the reins of back-office functions to autonomous systems, respondents said they were worried about the cybersecurity implications (35%), data privacy headaches (30%), insufficient regulation (21%), and lack of company policies (21%). Nearly two-thirds (64%) said they think fears of AI replacing humans will prove an obstacle, though only 24% reported employee resistance as a barrier.

For more on business leaders’ concerns with AI agents, keep reading on Tech Brew.—PK

Founded in 2011, Zoom made virtual meetings personal and simple. Its use exploded during the pandemic, transforming remote work globally. Zoom also brought authenticity by showing real-life moments on calls. As hybrid work evolves, HR leaders shape guidelines for when to meet virtually, by email, or in person, balancing connection and productivity.