Human Times

European Edition

20th May 2026

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THE HOT STORY

HSBC CEO says staff need to embrace AI-driven change

HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery has told an investor day event that the bank's employees need to embrace AI-driven change. "We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs," Elhedery said. "But my initial mission is I need 200,000 colleagues with us on this journey. However many will be ⁠left at the end of the journey isn't the problem. The problem is how can we make sure that those 200,000 colleagues have been given all the capabilities, the training, the tools to make themselves future ready, be more productive versions of themselves." He said the company's staff needed to ensure they were "not fighting us, not disenfranchised, not anxious, overwhelmed, and resisting the change."

Reuters

TECH & TOOLS

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HEALTH & WELLBEING

The women ‘cycle syncing’ their workflow

The FT reports on the growing number of advocates for cycle syncing, a productivity trend that eschews the 9-5 and aligns work routines to the phases of a menstrual cycle.

Financial Times

STRATEGY

Meta lays out details of this week's restructuring

Facebook owner Meta has detailed its layoff plans for this week in a memo shared with staff. The company said workforce reductions globally would be accompanied by ‌a fresh round of organisational changes aimed at improving its AI workflows. Meta Chief People Officer Janelle Gale said in the memo that the company plans to move 7,000 employees to new initiatives related to AI workflows and to eliminate managerial roles. "Many leaders will announce org changes," she said. "As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles ⁠into their new org structures. We're now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership." New initiatives where Gale said staff were being transferred include those aimed at developing AI agents that can autonomously carry out tasks currently performed by ⁠humans.

NBC News

Reuters

More job cuts needed at German auto supplier

German auto supplier ZF has said it will keep production of electric motors in-house rather than purchase these key components externally, but hundreds ‌more job cuts will be required to secure competitiveness amid a slower-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles. A ZF spokesperson said ⁠hundreds of jobs would be cut at the company's sites in Schweinfurt and ⁠Auerbach in southern Germany, where over 1,000 people are employed.

Reuters

WORKFORCE

UK unemployment rises as job market weakens

The UK unemployment rate increased to 5% for the first quarter, from 4.9% in the three months to February, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Vacancies fell to a five-year low. Payrolled employees decreased by 20,000, with an estimated drop of 100,000 expected in the following quarter, while youth unemployment reached 16.2%, the highest level since January 2015. Bosses blamed Labour's decisions to put up the minimum wage and National Insurance contributions for forcing them to turn away from hiring young people. Despite wage growth exceeding expectations at 4.1%, concerns about inflation and joblessness persist, with forecasts predicting a peak unemployment rate of around 5.3%. "The latest figures point to a labour market feeling the strain," observed Jack Kennedy, senior economist at jobs platform Indeed. "A volatile domestic political backdrop adds uncertainty that businesses could do without," he said.

CORPORATE

Uber leaves door open to Delivery Hero takeover by increasing stake

Uber has increased its stake in Delivery Hero to 19.5%, alongside options representing a further 5.6%, making it the German food delivery group’s largest shareholder and fuelling speculation over further consolidation in the global food delivery market. While Uber stated it has “no current plans” to seek control of Delivery Hero and does not intend to cross the 30% threshold that would trigger a mandatory takeover offer, the enlarged holding gives it a blocking minority position, allowing influence over major corporate decisions including acquisitions, capital raises and constitutional changes. The move follows a wave of consolidation across the sector, including DoorDash’s £2.9bn acquisition of Deliveroo and Prosus’s €4.1bn takeover of Just Eat Takeaway.

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

TECHNOLOGY

KPMG partners with Anthropic to integrate Claude AI into tax and advisory services

KPMG has announced a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic to integrate Claude AI tools into its global tax and consulting platforms, in a bid to speed workflows and improve efficiency across much of its nonaudit business. The deal marks the first time Anthropic’s Claude technology will be embedded into a Big Four tax platform. KPMG said employees and clients will use Claude to create materials, summarise documents, build AI agents, and support advisory work through a centralised platform built on Microsoft Azure infrastructure. KPMG plans to transition some advisory operations onto the Claude-based platform by the end of September, with broader adoption expected over time across its tax, legal, and consulting businesses. Audit functions will not have Claude directly integrated into core client delivery systems, though auditors will still receive general access to the AI tools.

Wall Street Journal

CYBERSECURITY

Banks urged to quickly prepare for AI-assisted cyberattacks

European Central Bank (ECB) board member ‌Frank Elderson has urged euro area banks to quickly prepare for potential cyberattacks launched with the help of Anthropic's Mythos AI model or similar tools. Elderson, who is vice chair of the ECB's bank supervision arm, said in an interview in Supervision Newsletter, an ECB publication, that lenders' lack of access to ⁠Mythos added to the severity of the issue. "We need to be able to deal with ever more capable future models that could be released in relatively quick succession," he added.

Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

Chinese court rules AI can't justify layoffs

A Chinese court has ruled that companies cannot dismiss employees or reduce their salaries solely because artificial intelligence (AI) can perform their tasks. The case involved a quality control manager who was demoted and had his salary cut after AI was implemented. The Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court said that AI deployment does not constitute a valid reason for termination under Chinese labour law, and employers must explore reskilling and alternative roles instead of using AI as an excuse for layoffs. Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies China’s technology and industrial policy, said there were indications of a shift in Beijing’s approach to job losses caused by AI. “Previously, Chinese policymakers seemed to downplay these risks. Official messaging on AI focused on the new jobs that AI was creating . . . Now we see more language from Beijing about addressing unemployment related to AI.”

Bangkok Post

The Guardian

Union calls strike at Samsung

The labour union at Samsung Electronics has announced a planned strike starting Thursday after bonus negotiations failed. Approximately 50,500 workers will walk off production lines for 18 days, following the breakdown in talks. The union is calling for the removal of a 50% bonus cap and a 15% allocation of annual operating profit for bonuses. Samsung's management says that meeting these demands would undermine the company's principles. If the strike goes ahead, "the economic damage we would face would be unimaginable," Prime Minister Kim Min-seok warned on Sunday. AFP notes that Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul once vowed never to allow unions "until I have dirt over my eyes." He died in 1987. The company's first union was formed in the late 2010s.

France 24

Silicosis crisis hits US countertop workers

NPR reports on how officials in California have been grappling with an epidemic of silicosis, an irreversible lung disease, among US countertop workers. Some countertops are made out of "quartz," a composite that mixes quartz mined from quarries with binders and pigments. Compared to granite or marble, manufactured quartz contains far more of the mineral silica. Silica dust can cause lung damage if it is breathed in. Officials have tracked over 550 sickened workers, almost all Hispanic men; most of the cases have emerged over the last few years. More than 30 workers have died, and over 50 have had lung transplants. On May 21, a workplace safety board in California will vote on whether the state should ban the cutting of high-silica quartz countertop material.

NPR / National Public Radio

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