— While the vast majority of companies surveyed for a recent ManpowerGroup report are using AI for talent acquisition, the technology is having a smaller impact than expected and leading to new problems.
The Milwaukee-based global employment agency’s Talent Solutions division yesterday released “The New Talent Equation: Building Better Talent Decisions,” which was commissioned from the research firm Everest Group.
It found more than 90% of surveyed businesses are using AI for acquiring talent, but fewer than 5% report “transformational” outcomes from the technology.
Report authors argue AI is being “over-leveraged” for time-intensive work such as screening and reaching out to candidates, while more valuable business functions like long-term planning and decisionmaking are still heavily dependent on human judgment.
“Operations expect AI to improve efficiency, decision quality, workforce agility, and strategic capacity,” they wrote. “In practice, most deployments deliver operational efficiency gains, while improvements in decision quality and strategic outcomes remain limited.”
The report found most companies are layering AI onto existing hiring systems rather than totally redesigning their hiring approach around it. Authors say that is leading to fragmented adoption and limiting broader impact.
“Most organizations changed the tools without changing the hiring model,” they wrote. “This leads to inconsistent usage, limited trust, and under-realization of value despite the presence of AI capabilities.”
Meanwhile, more than half of those surveyed said “AI-assisted” applications from job candidates are making it harder to accurately assess their skills. As this trend inevitably continues, employers face a “growing challenge” with determining applicants’ true ability, according to the report.
Caroline Pfeiffer Marinho, global senior vice president for Talent Solutions, says translating AI into meaningful outcomes is “far less consistent” than the widespread adoption seen across various industries.
“What the research makes clear is that the constraint is no longer access to AI tools,” she said in a statement. “It is how talent operations are designed around them.”
The survey tapped 80 respondents in the United States and United Kingdom, including C-suite executives, human resource officers and senior directors involved with talent acquisition. Represented industries included healthcare, life sciences and medical devices, manufacturing, and technology and IT.
— Microsoft has finished building its first data center in Mount Pleasant, which includes “the world’s most powerful supercomputer.”
That’s according to Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, who said the Fairwater data center campus will support the next wave of AI innovation around the world while boosting the local economy. It currently employs about 550 full-time workers, and the buildout phase involved about 10,000 construction workers.
The company says it expects to spend $4.7 billion from 2024-2028 on hyperscale data center construction in the state, having purchased components and materials from 29 businesses across 11 counties in the state for its projects.
Its second facility in Mount Pleasant is still under construction and is expected to come online in 2028. After that point, Microsoft says it expects to employ about 800 full-time workers in the village.
Village President David DeGroot is touting the “historic milestone” for both Mount Pleasant and Racine County.
“As this campus continues to grow, it will create lasting opportunities for residents, strengthen our regional economy and help position Wisconsin for long-term success,” he said in a statement.
Several other massive data center projects are underway in Wisconsin, including the $15 billion Lighthouse project in Port Washington from developer Vantage, and Meta’s $1 billion data center campus in Beaver Dam.
— Oracle is suing the Public Service Commission in a bid to roll back credit rating requirements imposed by regulators on data center customers.
Commissioners in an April decision voted to require very large customers of We Energies to either post collateral for new power plants built to serve their energy needs or meet stringent credit rating, liquidity and tangible asset requirements.
In a petition filed Friday in Ozaukee County Circuit Court, the tech giant is asking for the commissioners’ decision to be reversed and the credit rating requirement lowered to the standard initially proposed by We Energies’ parent company, WEC Energy Group.
Port Washington, in Ozaukee County, is the site of a data center campus being built to serve Oracle and others.
The ask includes restoring a provision that would allow WEC Energy Group to exempt Oracle from the liquidity and asset tests, which the tech company has said it would be unable to meet.
Oracle argues commissioners’ decision to raise the standard to qualify for the exemption from a BBB to an A- credit rating was made based on non-record evidence, exceeded regulators’ jurisdiction and failed to consider the “significant, adverse impacts” its changes would have on Oracle and other large customers.
Oracle has said it would incur over $100 million in bank fees annually in order to financially guarantee it can pay the whole value of the new generation built to serve its data center power use – which it places at around $7 billion.
Oracle’s petition essentially repeats an earlier request made by the tech company, WEC Energy Group and the developers of the Port Washington data center – where Oracle is the primary tenant – for a rehearing in the PSC’s case.
In that request, Oracle offered to put up 10% of the collateral it would currently be required to post, or $700 million.
The tech company said in its legal filing that it will stay its request for judicial review if the PSC elects to rehear the case.
Consumer advocates and environmental groups that intervened in the PSC’s case have argued against lowering the financial security standards.
In a statement released Monday, before Oracle’s lawsuit was first reported, Clean Wisconsin attorney Brett Korte argued the stringent financial security standards placed on data centers protected We Energies’ other customers.
“We Energies, (data center developer) Vantage and Oracle want to lower the collateral required because Oracle may have trouble meeting those requirements,” Korte said. “This shows the high risks that providing utility service to Oracle entails, and it’s exactly why the protections adopted by the Commission are necessary.”
— Xcel Energy has filed an application with the PSC to set the terms by which it would bill prospective data center customers.
In yesterday’s filing, the investor-owned utility says it has some 2.9 gigawatts of pending power demand from prospective large-load customers in its territory in northern and western Wisconsin.
Xcel’s proposal emulates some of the terms approved by regulators in April under We Energies’ “Very Large Customer” tariff.
Like that proposal, Xcel proposes a threshold of 100 megawatts of power demand for large users, and would bind those customers to a 15-year initial contract.
Both proposals also set minimum billing rates based on customers’ contracted or actual demand, though under different terms, and include financial penalties for falling short of their forecasted power demand.
Unlike the We Energies tariff, Xcel’s proposal does not specifically mandate that data center customers pay the full cost of new “bespoke” generation built to serve those large customers’ needs.
Instead, the data center would be served by Xcel’s existing generation resources and pay a higher marginal cost for any new generation built.
Xcel’s tariff also sets lower collateral requirements. “Qualified” customers with a credit rating of BBB- and a net worth of at least $500 million would be exempted from posting collateral, while lower-rated “unqualified” customers would be required to post collateral equal to three years of their minimum bill.
In the We Energies tariff case, commissioners required data center customers to maintain a credit rating of at least A- to be exempted from posting collateral for new “bespoke” power generation, as well as meeting strict tangible asset and liquidity requirements.
Those financial security requirements have been challenged by We Energies parent WEC Energy Group and data center tenant Oracle, which has sued to block those requirements.
Xcel Energy President Karl Hoesly said in a statement that the proposed terms “establish firm and transparent eligibility rules and long‑term commitments that allow any necessary infrastructure to be planned and built responsibly.”
Citizens Utility Board Executive Director Tom Content said the consumer advocacy group would be reviewing Xcel’s proposal to ensure it had adequate consumer protections in place.
But he credited the utility with seeking CUB’s input before applying for the large-load tariff and for filing a proposal before negotiating with prospective large customers.
“They’re trying to have a firm plan in place to help them negotiate, so they can then use this framework that we hope is protective of other customers,” Content said.
— Scientists at UW-Madison have created a new method for developing more accurate models of the blood-brain barrier, which has implications for drug development and disease research.
WARF calls the new method a top licensing prospect within its healthcare portfolio.
It involves transforming human pluripotent stem cells into endothelial cells, which make up the inner lining of blood vessels and the lymphatic system.
The researchers use those cells for a model of the blood-brain barrier, boasting “improved fidelity” to both function and gene expression for this critical system. The blood-brain barrier lines the blood vessels in the brain and protects it from pathogens and other harmful substances.
Scientific understanding of elements of this system’s function thus far has largely come from mouse models, according to the patent application for the method.
While human stem cells offer a way to examine the development of the barrier within the body, the researchers note “existing protocols do not fully mimic the developmental trajectory” or other characteristics of these endothelial cells.
“As a result, existing BBB models do not accurately model BBB gene expression and function,” they wrote.
Because no existing human endothelial cell model has displayed these characteristics so accurately, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation notes, the new modeling method could offer a better way to test blood-brain barrier permeability for various drugs and therapies. It also provides a new avenue for researching the development — and dysfunction — of this barrier to better understand related diseases, according to WARF’s overview.
“Eventually, this innovation could be used for patient-specific and disease-specific modeling of human neurological diseases at the BBB, enabling personalized treatment strategies,” authors wrote.
It was created by Profs. Eric Shusta and Sean Palecek, both associated with the university’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.
— Wisconsin Conservation Voters is launching a new digital ad campaign directed at We Energies asking the utility company to invest in clean energy, limit data center development and corporate lobbying.
The $80,000 ad campaign will be launched on digital platforms over the course of three weeks across We Energies’ service area.
We Energies is seeking to hike residential electricity rates by 14% by 2028, under a proposal submitted to state regulators in April.
The campaign consists of three static ads running across Facebook and Instagram, charging the utility with “making us pay” for higher profits and executive pay, “dirty and expensive” natural gas plants and bringing data centers to Wisconsin.
“WE Energies is raking in record profits while paying ZERO federal taxes and handing out million-dollar executive raises while demanding families pay more and more. And, they’re investing in dirty fossil fuels that cost more and harm our health rather than focusing on cheaper, cleaner forms of electricity like wind and solar,” Wisconsin Conservation Voters Deputy Director Seth Hoffmeister said in a news release.
TOP STORIES
Microsoft launches ‘world’s most powerful supercomputer’ in Mount Pleasant
Superior mayor makes case for takeover of Wisconsin’s only private water utility
Milwaukee Bucks ticket sales, sponsorships face challenges post-Giannis, experts say
TOPICS
AGRIBUSINESS
– USDA reports strong crop conditions across Wisconsin farms
– Why frost damaged apples need different nutrient strategies
CONSTRUCTION
– Microsoft finishes construction of Mount Pleasant data center, plans for more
– New downtown high-rise plan has a twist. It’s not apartments.
ECONOMY
– Are Wisconsin residents paying higher prices for beef? See a cost comparison
ENVIRONMENT
– Wisconsin residents want $10M PFAS settlement spent on safe water, health study
HEALTH CARE
– New researchers, advanced technology: How MCW plans to use record $27 million gift
MANAGEMENT
– A.O. Smith executive chairman to retire
NONPROFIT
– Milwaukee Domes Alliance raises millions ahead of planned 2027 groundbreaking
REAL ESTATE
– Madison advances buying east side lots for potential housing, park
– 326-unit apartment community proposed in Bristol
RETAIL
– Jackson’s secures new partnership with CVS, distributing to locations nationwide
SPORTS
– Giannis Antetokounmpo’s symmetry with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all too familiar
– Downtown bar and restaurant owners remain confident despite Giannis Antetokounmpo trade
TOURISM
– Wisconsin’s Blue Ox music festival is a ‘family reunion’ for Upper Midwest bluegrass
COLUMNS
– Opinion: Public interest must override corporation on Enbridge reroute
PRESS RELEASES
See these and other press releases
QComp Technologies: Expands leadership team with addition of automation veteran Pete Rogers
Diamond Assets: John Starcke named President of Diamond Assets
