When companies cut parental leave or reduce retirement contributions to free up budget for artificial intelligence, they're making a statement about what they value, says Kate Connor, Chief Operating Officer at Moxie Communications Group. With Deloitte announcing in April 2026 that it would halve parental leave and eliminate a $50,000 adoption benefit, and Zoom reducing paid leave for parents, the tension between AI investment and employee benefits is hitting HR budgets directly.
Connor oversees HR, finance, and AI transformation at the New York-based PR agency, putting her at the center of decisions about where AI money comes from. "When you're making those decisions, you're saying we're valuing this technology more than we're valuing you, because benefits are compensation. Make no mistake about that," she said.
Find the money somewhere else
Connor argues the savings can come from other parts of the operating budget. Moxie closed its offices and shifted to a fully remote workforce last year, redirecting the rent savings into compensation, benefits, and learning programs. "There's always places in your budget where you can free up some additional cash," she said.
AI itself can offset costs by letting companies shed legacy software they no longer need. Connor suggests assessing whether standalone CRM or learning management platforms can be replaced with AI-built tools. Token-based billing is another lever many organizations overlook. Without per-team budgets and backend controls, consumption-based charges can spiral quickly, especially when the spending wasn't planned for the current fiscal year. "A lot of companies, because this maybe wasn't on their radar last year, didn't budget for 2026. Hence why they're potentially scrambling and pulling from other places. It should not be coming from people's compensation. That is sending totally the wrong message," she said.
Getting AI adoption right
Moxie spent a year rolling out AI tools with a deliberate process. The team wrote a comprehensive AI policy and security checklist, consulting CTOs and external advisors, before selecting any platform. No tool goes live without a data security and privacy audit. Research shows that up to a third of employees use AI tools without IT oversight, so the upfront rigor is meant to avoid shadow IT and compliance risks.
Training sessions are hands-on. Employees arrive with laptops open and build workflows together in real time, rather than watching slides. That approach, combined with a cross-functional committee that included staff in platform selection, helped sidestep the resistance many organizations encounter. For HR leaders guiding similar transitions, structured programs in AI for Human Resources can support teams in moving from policy to practice without losing engagement.
"We've been very transparent about our intentions with AI. At Moxie, AI is meant to augment our team and our workflows. It is not replacing our team and our workflows," Connor said. That clarity matters: a Pew Research Center survey found more than half of U.S. workers worry about AI's impact on their jobs. By involving employees early and explaining the "why" behind decisions, Connor says companies create evangelists within each department who can calm fears as new tools roll out.
Why this matters for Human Resources
Connor's approach links benefits decisions and AI strategy through a single principle: transparency. When HR leaders treat benefits cuts as a funding source for AI, they risk eroding the trust needed to make technology adoption work. The alternative is to look at real estate, software consolidation, and token budgets first. Moxie's retention numbers-27% of employees have seven or more years of tenure, rare in PR-suggest that including teams in decision-making pays off over time.
Her advice to HR executives is to build the AI policy before evaluating tools, pull the team into the process early, and communicate relentlessly. Senior HR leaders setting AI direction may benefit from an AI Learning Path for CHROs to develop the strategic lens needed for budgeting, governance, and workforce planning. As Connor put it, "If we don't have trust, then what are we doing?"
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