The friday 5: AI tokens, ghost jobs, Xbox reset

Happy Friday, HR friends! 🙌

Imagine explaining to a new hire that their benefits package includes health insurance, a 401(k), and... a token allowance.

That's not a joke, no. IBM's CHRO floated the idea this week that AI tokens might become the next employee perk, as companies wake up to just how expensive everyone's new AI habit has become. Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget by April. Welcome to the era where your employees' productivity gains come with a monthly bill.

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IN TODAY’S EDITION

• 🤖 IBM's CHRO drops a reality check: AI is not free, and your employees' token usage is running up the tab

• 👻 New York moves to outlaw ghost jobs, with fines that are very much real

• 💸 The $100,000 H-1B visa fee? A federal judge just threw it out

• 🎮 Xbox is laying off employees next month as new CEO calls for a full "reset"

• 🛒 Walmart held an entire summit to tell its workers AI won't take their jobs, but workers aren't convinced

THE FRIDAY 5

🤑 The year companies discovered AI has a receipt

🤖 IBM's CHRO just made "tokenmaxxing" a boardroom problem” turns out giving everyone an AI tool is a lot like giving everyone a company card with no spending limit.

IBM CHRO Nickle LaMoreaux warned at New York Tech Week that AI costs are becoming unsustainable, and companies will soon have to make real trade-offs about where the spend is actually worth it. Amazon and Meta have already stopped tracking internal AI usage after employees started competing to max out their usage, running up enormous bills. Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget by April. LaMoreaux floated tokens as a potential employee benefit, essentially rationing AI access the way you'd ration PTO.

🔗 Read more: HR Brew

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👻 New York may have just ended the ghost job economy, and the fine for ignoring the law doubles every 30 days until you actually take the post down.

New York state lawmakers passed S8877, requiring employers with 100 or more employees to state in bold, capital letters whether a job posting is for a real, current vacancy and when they actually plan to fill it. Employers who maintain ghost listings face fines starting at $2,500 per post. Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. job listings currently never result in a hire, wasting applicants' time and distorting labor market data that policymakers rely on.

🔗 Read more: HR Dive

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💸 A federal judge just handed back employers' $100,000 H-1B filing fee, ruling it was never a fee at all; it was always a tax, and the president doesn't get to set those.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin vacated the $100,000 H-1B visa fee in a Massachusetts ruling, finding it violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The fee was raised dramatically from the standard $2,000–$5,000 range to discourage employers from hiring foreign workers and push them toward domestic talent.

🔗 Read more — The HR Digest

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🎮 Xbox to its employees next month: we need a full reset. And new CEO Asha Sharma is not softening the message.

Sharma, who stepped into the role in February after Phil Spencer's 38-year tenure ended, sent a company-wide memo calling for an overhaul of Xbox's "overly complex" systems and announcing layoffs after June 30, the end of Microsoft's fiscal year. The scale of the cuts has not been disclosed, but significant reductions to marketing and other budgets are expected.

🔗 Read more: Human Resources Director

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🛒 Walmart held an entire conference to tell its workers AI won't take their jobs, which might be more reassuring if they hadn't quietly cut or reallocated around 1,000 roles in tech and product design earlier this year.

At its annual Associates Week summit in Bentonville, Walmart's CPO Donna Morris and new CEO John Furner delivered an AI pep talk: "Technology will power our future. But our associates will lead it." Labor advocacy group United for Respect wasn't buying it, raising concerns that AI-driven scheduling has worsened understaffing and that new hires no longer receive hands-on training. On the upside, Walmart confirmed all US-based workers can now earn certification in OpenAI tooling.

🔗 Read more: HR Grapevine

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That’s it for today!

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