A Big Clarity Deal and More AI Chaos

Hosts Stacey Harris, Sapient’s chief research officer and managing partner, and Cliff Stevenson director of research and principal analyst, break down the week's biggest HR Tech news. 

In this episode: 

• A preview of Sapient Insights Group's research heading into HR Tech 2026 (Oct 19–24), plus a security scare from this week's research roundtables. 

• Deel pushes past $1.5B in annual recurring revenue and acquires identity-verification company Clarity. 

• Oracle taps Google's Gemini model for its agent studio and the hosts discuss what matters most to those using AI models. 

• Darwinbox launches Cortex, an AI-native HCM platform designed to operate within a full work context.  

• The Guardian, isolved’s new AI agent powered by Claude, and its "glass box" approach to resolving payroll issues. 

• Cornerstone appoints Vincent Belliveau as chief commercial officer and Anna Goldberg as VP of AI product management; founded in 1999, HR.com goes up for sale after Debbie McGrath announces retirement. 

• New research on AI's uneven impact across age groups, why only one in 20 HR jobs requires AI skills, and TalentNeuron compares its data with that generated by LLMs. 

• The hosts discuss Jess Von Bank’s post on why people need to read past headlines claiming AI changes the way people work. 

• Performance ratings and AI bias, the emergence of the "forward-deployed recruiter,” and, according to the National Women’s Law Center, women accounted for 100% of the labor force decline in July.   

• Anthropic announced invisible watermarks will be added to Claude-generated text to comply with the EU’s new AI transparency rules — and the backlash appeared within days. 

• Pete Tiliakos on earned wage access and treating pay as integral to many life moments, not a periodic back-office process. 

Catch Stacey and Cliff this fall at NAPEO, O.C. Tanner's Influence Greatness, Cornerstone Connect, Workday Rising, HR Tech 2026, Oracle AI World, and Dayforce Discover. 

Follow Sapient Insights Group on LinkedIn and Instagram for updates, and subscribe for weekly HR Tech news and insights. Produced by Kelly Koon, Linda Galloway, Summer Orellano, Kohle Harris, and Kaitlin Diamond.