May 29, 2026
Your Employee Experience Roundup: Workday’s AI Companionship Warning, the Starbucks vs. Amazon AI Divide, and BP’s Leadership Crisis
Workers are turning to AI for companionship rather than colleagues, with less patience for small talk. Amazon has stepped back from AI incentivisation in the same week Starbucks has introduced it. And progress on support for women’s health at work is stalling.
Meanwhile, UKEXA 26 has confirmed its finals will take place live and in person for the first time since the pandemic. Entries close 11 June.
Prefer to watch? We’ve pulled out the week’s key highlights below.
Turning to AI for Companionship; Less Patience for Small Talk
Arguably, the most concerning research finding to emerge this week. More than a third of employees now use AI for companionship at work, according to Workday’s Human Connection Workplace Index. Many cite the technology’s ‘always-available’, ‘judgement-free’ nature as the reason they choose it over a colleague. 16% of respondents also say they now have less patience for small talk.
These findings point to what Workday calls a growing ‘connection deficit’ fuelled by AI adoption – one affecting Gen Z disproportionately.
Read CXM’s full analysis on AI for Companionship at Work
Starbucks vs. Amazon: Two Very Different Bets on AI
Two interconnected stories this week. Starbucks is linking most of its tech workers’ bonuses to AI usage, according to an internal document viewed by Bloomberg News. In an effort to boost efficiency, 25% of bonuses will be linked to department-wide objectives that include AI adoption. To meet these adoption targets, software developers at the coffee chain must use an AI assistant multiple times a week.
In the same week, Amazon has retired its internal AI leaderboard to stop workers using it unnecessarily, according to the Financial Times. “Please don’t use AI just for the sake of using AI,” Dave Treadwell, an Amazon senior vice-president, told staff.
This followed rising costs caused by Amazon workers reportedly gaming the system – dubbed ‘tokenmaxxing’ – to meet performance targets. So just as Amazon is walking back on a mechanism that its employees gamed, Starbuck is introducing it. Let’s see how that plays out for the coffee chain.
This story is part of an emerging AI backlash trend among employees inside organisations aggressively ramping up AI integration.
BP’s Leadership Crisis – and What It Means for 93,000 People
BP’s leadership crisis has dominated headlines this week. The oil company removed its chair Albert Manifold after eight months in post, over conduct deemed ‘unacceptable’. This will trigger BP’s third chair search in just two years, and is another chapter in the FTSE 100’s leadership turmoil, which has also seen five CEO changes since 2020.
Amid this instability, leadership transformation consultant Deborah Hartung explored what BP’s leadership turbulence is really doing to its 93,000+ employees for CXM. When turmoil hits at the top and goes unaddressed, she argues, it launches a cascade of crisis on employee engagement: a collapse in clarity, capacity overload, tighter control, and lost connection.
UKEXA 26: The UK Employee Experience Awards Finals Go Live
This year, for the first time in several years, the UK Employee Experience Awards finals will take place live and in person.
On 9 July, finalists will present their case studies directly to expert judging panels at Park Plaza Riverbank, London – bringing their work to life in a way no written submission can fully capture.
That afternoon, the same teams return for the UKEXA 26 awards ceremony and evening celebrations at the same venue. One day. The full experience. And there’s still time to be part of it.
Entries close on 11 June. Find out more.
Women’s Health at Work: Progress Confirmed, Gaps Remain
New analysis from global consultancy Kearney finds that 65% of organisations are actively addressing women’s health issues in the workplace – but that progress is “uneven” and “fragmented.” Where organisations consistently fall short is in communication, education, and employee voice.
Only 54% consistently track and monitor gender-specific employee data to inform wellbeing strategies and shape policies. Without that data infrastructure, organisations are making decisions and designing support for a workforce they cannot fully see
Question of the Week: How Do You Protect EX During AI Adoption?
Five senior EX leaders share their perspectives on what organisations need to do now to ensure AI adoption strengthens rather than undermines the employee experience. A timely read alongside this week’s Starbucks and Amazon stories.
Read: How Should Organisations Protect Employee Experience During AI Adoption?
Seven Platforms, One Broken Day: The Frontline Communication Problem
Research worth noting. A global survey of 2,000 IT decision-makers and frontline employees finds that over 50% of workers waste time moving between communication tools, with the average employee navigating seven different platforms to complete routine tasks.
For frontline workers specifically: 46% say it affects service quality, and 35% flag safety risks for customers, patients, or staff.
Read: Most Employees Say Their Workplace Communication Tools Simply Do Not Work
Tech Moves: Perceptyx’s Real-Time Learning Signal and Workday’s AI Push
Perceptyx has launched Develop, an AI-powered learning system that measures comprehension in real time as employees work through development content. Rather than relying on post-module assessments, Develop embeds comprehension signals throughout the learning journey — a meaningful shift in how organisations can understand whether learning is actually landing, not just being clicked through.
For EX leaders focused on the quality of development rather than completion rates, this is worth noting.
Workday has had a busy week on two fronts. First, the company has deepened its integration with Google Cloud, advancing AI capabilities across HR workflows. The partnership brings Workday’s HR data and Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure closer together, enabling more intelligent, real-time decision support for people teams.
Second, Workday has introduced Adaptive Decision Intelligence — a new capability that brings planning questions, scenario modelling, and decisions into a single AI experience. The aim is to reduce the friction between asking a question and acting on the answer, with planning and decision-making consolidated rather than spread across separate tools.
Get in touch
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back next Friday, and if you have employee experience stories to share, connect with me on LinkedIn or drop me a line at [email protected]
Becky Norman is the Employee Experience Editor for CXM. With 14 years in digital publishing, she champions the organisations and practitioners creating exceptional experiences for their people — and driving measurable impact on customer success as a result. Prior to this role, Becky spent eight years as editor of B2B publications HRZone and TrainingZone, covering the most pressing issues facing HR, people, and learning leaders. In 2020, she co-created Culture Pioneers – a global campaign recognising the organisations shaping workplace culture to drive both business performance and employee experience.
