Global – October 17, 2026 -- Only 17% of organizations have reached the top phase of Brandon Hall Group's Learning and Development Progression Model, where AI adoption spreads widely across L&D, while 39% still lack the foundational enablement infrastructure for it.

Chicago – October 17, 2026 -- Early-tenure attrition at key Advocate Health sites fell from more than 70% to as low as 16% after the system added coaching for new hires. The result is one of several outcomes in a Brandon Hall Group review of 27 HCM Excellence Awards Excellence in Practice blueprints from 11 patient-care organizations. The firm presented the review at the WMHH Summit in Chicago.

WASHINGTON – October 15, 2026 -- U.S. seafood consumers now treat sustainability as a default expectation rather than a niche preference, according to 10 years of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) research covering 15,000 respondents since 2016.

The report, "A Decade of Change: Sustainability Now a Mainstream Concern of U.S. Seafood Consumers," was conducted for the MSC by the independent insights firm GlobeScan. It finds that U.S. consumer support for sustainability has climbed to match levels traditionally seen only among European consumers.

Global – October 15, 2026 -- Only 19% of insurance executives believe their operating model is agile enough to support digital transformation, even though 71% say digitalization is already affecting it, according to CGI's 2026 Voice of Our Clients research.

San Francisco – October 15, 2026 -- Forty percent of U.S. hiring managers have interviewed a candidate later found to be using a fake identity, up from 31% in 2025, according to a new survey from verification platform Checkr.

The report, The Hiring Hoax 2026: Fraud Doesn't End at the Offer, is based on responses from 3,000 U.S. managers involved in hiring within the previous 12 months. The online survey ran Sept. 11-16, 2026, through a third-party platform.

Downers Grove, Ill. – October 15, 2026 -- Some 98% of companies surveyed by CompTIA say risk management is important within organizational AI policies, as the focus of enterprise AI shifts from adoption to execution risk, according to the trade group's new research brief "Practical Implications of AI Safety."

Hamburg – October 15, 2026 -- Some 29% of European bank customers would rather discuss sensitive financial matters with AI than with a human employee, according to the EOS Banking AI Barometer published by EOS Group. Among 18-34-year-olds, the share rises to 38%.

46% of consumers report better bank communication through AI

Only 11% of respondents perceive a decline in service quality. Some 54% value AI for helping them find information, and 51% praise faster communication and round-the-clock availability.

Ann Arbor – October 14, 2026 -- Internet-facing AI infrastructure grew 63% in nine months to nearly 268,000 systems, according to the fifth annual State of the Internet Report from Censys. The report also counts roughly 134,000 Internet-exposed hosts running industrial control systems (ICS). About 70% of those sit on consumer and mobile networks, which complicates efforts to identify their owners and close the exposure.

Boston – October 14, 2026 -- Nearly 90% of CEOs believe their employees trust their leadership, but only 46% of employees agree, according to the second edition of Boston Consulting Group's CEO Insomnia Index.

The gap is widest around AI transformation. Four in ten employees say their CEO has not been transparent enough about how AI will affect their roles and career opportunities. Only 15% of CEOs worry that their AI approach could erode employee trust.

Kirkland, Wash. – October 14, 2026 -- Seventy-seven percent of security leaders expect an attacker to exploit a software vulnerability at their organization within 12 months, while 54% admit their companies knowingly leave high or critical vulnerabilities unpatched at least sometimes, according to a Chainguard report surveying 1,300 security leaders.