A slew of recent studies indicate that AI isn’t dramatically displacing workers. At the same time, there were no indicators that the fast-moving technology is creating a lot of jobs, even as AI skills remain in high demand.

Stanford University researchers in an August study found that any AI-related job declines were concentrated among young workers aged 22–25. But for older and more experienced workers that wasn’t the case.

“Claims of economy-wide AI-driven job losses are not visible in payroll data through June 2026,” the researchers said, citing ADP payroll information. Stanford partnered with ADP to conduct the research.

The decline for young workers is more often related to the automation of some work tasks by AI, as opposed to its use to complement work. In contrast, AI is more often used by experienced workers to augment what they do. 

According to the Stanford report, workers between 22 and 25 and employed in jobs highly exposed to disruption by AI are falling behind their older counterparts. Their employment levels in June were about 19% below the same age group in less-exposed occupations. That’s compared to where they would be if both groups had kept pace with each other.

“Experienced workers show no comparable gap,” the researchers said, adding that “this is consistent with recent reports of a worsening job market for entry-level workers.”

Employment of younger workers in AI-exposed jobs fell about 11% from late 2022, while the same age group in less-exposed jobs actually grew about 10%. “For older age groups, we find much less marked differences in employment growth across AI exposure quintiles,” the researchers said.

Stanford, which created a lab last year to study AI’s impact amid heightened fears of the technology’s economic effects, said its numbers were based on available indicators.

AI’s adverse impact on young workers has been well documented, with many of them laid off in the initial wave of AI automation. AI has also suppressed wages for entry-level workers.

AI was cited for 116,175 job cuts in 2026, but that number is declining. The technology  was blamed for 3,462 cuts in August, according to data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

It’s the “lowest monthly total since December 2025 when 142 cuts were attributed to AI,” the company wrote in a blog entry. The research firm also noted aggressive hiring plans for companies in 2027.

AI is adding value to companies in different ways, and humans are an important part of that process, said Michael Chui, a senior fellow at QuantumBlack, AI at McKinsey. “The night shift is real now,” he said. “People are sending off their agents to write code and checking in the morning.”

MIT late last year established an AI labor index to determine how agents are affecting the workforce. The school’s Project Iceberg looks at how the coordination and interaction with agentic AI changes how work is done.

Despite the disruptions, demand for AI-related talent continues to rise, tech industry consortium CompTIA said last week. About 320,000 job listings in August required AI-related capabilities, a 4.5% increase from July.

AI-related hiring is outperforming the broader tech market, with demand for AI skills up 96% year-over-year, said Kye Mitchell, head of Experis North America, which is part of ManpowerGroup.

“We’re seeing real growth…in marketing management and project management roles, suggesting employers are looking beyond the people building AI to the people applying it,” Mitchell said.

More broadly, the US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, according to US Department of Labor figures released last week. CompTIA noted that tech employment across all sectors rose by 86,000 workers in August.

But within the tech sector, 14,700 positions were cut, CompTIA said.

Swiss authorities have launched a pilot project to determine whether it is possible to replace Microsoft 365 with similar open-source services, RTS reports. This follows a proof-of-concept project in which 172 civil servants tested the German open-source platform openDesk.

According to Matthias Stürmer, a professor at the University of Bern, there are three main reasons for the switch: to reduce dependence on US services, to improve operational reliability, and to reduce costs.

In the first phase, the migration involves 3,000 computers, which corresponds to 7% of Switzerland’s federal workforce. The government has more than 54,000 workstations in operation. The pilot will prioritize employees who have access to highly sensitive data, according to RTS.

A move by the Swiss Armed Forces from Microsoft 365 to openDesk is already underway, with that migration expected to be completed in October, It’s FOSS reports.

Switzerland’s move is part of a larger ‘digital sovereignty’ effort in the European Union that aims to retain local control over data, applications, and infrastructure. In January, lawmakers directed the European Commission to map critical technology dependencies and then develop policies to reduce reliance on foreign providers.

This article originally appeared on Computer Sweden.

More on the EU’s digital sovereignty push:

• European tech leaders advise caution on tech sovereignty drive
• EuroStack: Europe’s path to digital independence?
• US orders diplomats to push back on data sovereignty

Back in April 2025, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) proudly proclaimed that it had prevailed in a landmark antitrust case against Google’s ad business. Yeah. Right.

You see, just last week, US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema rejected the DoJ’s effort to force Google to sell its AdX ad exchange. What began as a major anti-monopoly victory has become a mouse-sized settlement. 

[ Google US antitrust trials: A timeline ]

Does any of this this sound familiar? It should. We’ve seen this show before. Last year, Google had also been convicted of abusing its search business. At first, all the talk was about how Google might be forced to divest itself of the Chrome browser and/or the Android operating system. 

Instead, Google was allowed to keep making search deals and only had to share some search data with its rivals. 

I say rivals, but in fact Google still dominates the search market. Indeed, its control has actually expanded a bit. By StatCounter’s numbers, in August 2025, Google search owned 89.89% of the market. By last month, almost a year after the company had been slapped on the wrist, its share had grown to 91.1%. 

Boy, wasn’t that a win?

The remedies phase of the government’s ad-tech antitrust case order is a similar Google win. No, it doesn’t overturn the April 2025 finding that Google unlawfully maintained monopolies in the publisher ad-server and ad-exchange markets, or that it illegally tied its ad server and exchange together. Instead, it determines how the company must change its conduct.

The DoJ wanted Google to divest itself of AdX, the company’s ad exchange for matching publisher inventory with advertiser demand. It also sought to require Google to open-source the final-auction logic in its DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad server and, if necessary, divest its DFP business. 

Brinkema rejected all three requests. Instead, her short order accepts “most” of the parties’ proposed behavioral remedies, subject to modifications described in a memorandum opinion that remains sealed while the parties identify confidential information for redaction.

Specifically, the court directed Google and the plaintiffs to meet and submit a joint proposed final judgment within 30 days. If they cannot agree on the details, each side must submit its own proposed version.

Google — as it should — sees this as a win. As Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said in a statement, “We’re very pleased the Court rejected the DOJ’s proposal to break apart tools that help small businesses reach new customers and grow.”

Far less convincing is the DOJ’s characterizing the decision as a win. “The Antitrust Division is pleased that the court ordered substantial relief in the Google ad-tech case. We are one step closer to restoring competition and bringing relief for the American people in online advertising markets.” 

Oh please! It does nothing of the sort.

To quote Laurel Kilgour, research manager at the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly, nonprofit group: “Judges keep finding Google guilty, but Google keeps walking away with both its ill-gotten gains and its empire intact. Without actual structural remedies, antitrust rulings are just inconvenient speed bumps that allow Google to lock down search and ad tech markets today while using that same unchecked power to monopolize tomorrow’s AI frontier.”

Exactly so. 

The specific obligations Google will face are not yet public, because Brinkema’s explanatory opinion remains under seal. Earlier, Google had proposed making real-time bidding responses from AdX available to rival ad servers, removing Unified Pricing Rules, and accepting a monitoring trustee for a three-year supervision period. None of that will even dent Google’s ad business.  

When all’s said and done, Google is still in charge of both its exchange and publisher ad-server operations. I expect the minor changes required won’t amount to a hill of beans. Restoring competition in markets where the company was found to have used its vertically integrated position unlawfully? Give me a break. 

Public Knowledge, a free speech and internet advocacy group, described the decision as one that leaves Google’s monopoly power substantially intact. 

As Public Knowledge Legal Director John Bergmayer said, “The court found that Google illegally acquired and maintained monopolies in publisher ad servers and ad exchanges, and used its control of DFP and AdX to shut out rivals.” He concluded, “Telling a monopolist to do better is not the same as restoring competition.… A finding of liability means little if the remedy leaves the market fundamentally unchanged.”

Ya think? 

In Google’s last reported quarter, the company reported $81.6 billion in advertising revenue. Next year, when Google is being “punished,” I expect its revenue will be even higher. 

The destiny of Spirit Airline’s data is still undecided, months after the company sought bankruptcy protection.

AI data company Micro1 has now offered $12.5 million to acquire a trove of the company’s emails, Teams chats, operations and employee productivity data, according to a report by aviation website Simply Flying,

It said the data includes about 600 million email and chat records generated by 17,000 employees, as well as 17 million OneDrive files, 20.5 million SharePoint items, and more than 30 million recorded customer service calls. Such a large repository of information is a gold mine to any company looking to train AI models more effectively. The report says that this data includes sensitive, decades-old employee and workplace records.

But Micro1’s offer comes weeks after Google acquired the data at auction, with its $10 million bid beating the $7.5 million offered by another AI training company, Mercor.

The airline’s former employees objected to the sale, and last week their unions took legal action to block the it.

Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which continues to represent more than 5,500 of Spirit’s flight attendants, told Forbes that former flight attendants were unhappy about Spirit attempting to cash in on sensitive data when they still have not been paid their accrued vacation time, sick leave, and outstanding compensation.

However, this type of personal data is extremely valuable to the likes of Google. It means that AI models can be trained in more realistic scenarios. One option that is being explored is whether the data can be anonymized, which may offer a way forward to keep both sides happy.

This article first appeared on CSO.