Business used to be so easy; so easy, in fact, Southpark’s Eric Cartman once boiled the business basics down to three steps. Step one: collect gnome underpants; step two: ?; then, finally, step three: profit.

HR Brew does not endorse Cartman’s business plan, but as AI emerges as the go-to workplace enabler of the future (well…we’ll see), it’s introducing a new paradigm when it comes to how businesses function.

The emerging picture as companies adopt more and more AI tools is an equation that balances the work that needs to be done, the workforce capable of doing that work, and the technology that enables the work to happen.

Draup co-founder and CCO Vamsee Tirukkala and his colleagues at the data intelligence platform are betting on the hypothesis that CIOs and IT pros will deliver on the technology, and HR’s role managing the workforce won’t disappear anytime soon. But who oversees the “work”?

For more on how AI is changing the equation for the future of enterprise, keep reading here.—AD

If the return-to-office movement was a game, employers would be winning.

This year, in-office attendance reached its highest level since 2020, with 72% of US companies reaching their RTO goals, up from 61% in 2024, data from real estate group CBRE found. (At the same time, the rate of companies tracking in-office attendance hit 69%, up from 45% the year prior.) And some employers, most recently Microsoft and NBCUniversal, have also upped their RTO requirements, the Washington Post reported.

Paul Morgan, the global chief operating officer of work dynamics at real estate firm JLL, told HR Brew that he expects employers’ attendance mandates to continue to evolve. “Organizations are finding the right balance. At first, they want people back in to build the culture, and the collaboration, and learning, and the innovation, and then I suspect we’ll probably see some tweaking of those policies downstream,” he said.

Employers still trying to reach their RTO goals might consider what employees want.

For more on what employees want from their work life, keep reading here.—MC

The US Chamber of Commerce recently sued President Donald Trump’s administration over its decision to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions.

In a complaint filed on Oct. 16, the Chamber of Commerce alleged the president exceeded his lawful authority when he issued a Sept. 19 proclamation announcing the fee.

Congress established the H-1B visa program through the Immigration Act of 1990; the proclamation “blatantly contravenes the fees Congress has set for the H-1B program and countermands Congress’s judgment that the program should provide a pathway for up to 85,000 people annually” to work in the US, the Chamber wrote.

An official with the Chamber argued that the fee, which will expire in Sept. 2026 unless extended, will hinder smaller employers’ ability to recruit talent from outside the US. Up until this proclamation, most H-1B petitions cost less than $3,600, the Chamber estimated.

For more on how HR teams are handling H-1B strategy, keep reading here.—CV

More focus, less fluff. CollabWORK filters out the noise and delivers jobs that actually match what HR Brew readers are looking for. Click here to see the full board of curated roles.

• Senior Director of Human Resources, Manufacturing Operations at Post Holdings Inc. (in person)
• District HR Manager at Home Depot (in person)
• Human Resources Manager at Post Holdings, Inc. (in person)
• Human Resources Manager at Arvato Bertelsmann (in person)
• Human Resources Director at Tutor Perini (in person)