• Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft have collaborated to allow drivers in the new CLA model to record themselves with its in-car camera during Teams meetings. A video stream of the meeting visible to the driver on the car’s central display turns off once they’re in motion, though they can still contribute to the meeting through other new features like “an expanded chat function for reading and writing messages, and the integration of voice control for text input,” a spokesperson told Fortune.

Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft have teamed up to bring you more meetings. Now, with
“in-car productivity” you can join a Teams meeting while you drive to and from work.

The German automaker said its 2026 luxury sedan CLA model includes an in-car camera that allows Microsoft Teams meeting participants to see drivers that are streaming while on the road. The feature marks the latest attempt from Mercedes-Benz to offer “an even more efficient way to work within the vehicle,” according to the carmaker’s announcement. The $60 billion carmaker aims to revolutionize its in-house developed multimedia operating system that powers the central display screen in the new model.

A Mercedes-Benz spokesperson declined to comment on the price range of the new CLA model and said the company will officially announce pricing closer to launch. MotorTrend estimates these cars to be priced between $44,000 and $78,000. Kelly Blue Book expects the 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA to start at around $50,000.

The CLA is the first model of a completely new family of vehicles to utilize the technology, a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson told Fortune. The Meetings app for Teams was already available in previous car models—but the in-car camera used to display drivers in meetings is the first of its kind. The camera is built into the screen, above the central display. However, when the car is in motion, drivers can’t see the meeting but colleagues and bosses can see the driver. After pressing the gas, the driver sees a speaker’s contact icon, as if they were just in a hands-free phone call. The feature differs from Tesla’s in-car Zoom meeting feature, which requires the car to be in park for the video feature to display the driver.

The automaker will start the process of integrating the update of the Meetings app this summer for cars with the fourth-generation Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) initially in Europe and later this year in the U.S., according to the spokesperson. Vehicles with the third-generation MBUX will also receive these features soon.

To be sure, the video stream projected on the central display turns off automatically, as soon as the vehicle is in motion, to “minimize distraction and maximize safety,” the spokesperson said. This prevents drivers from viewing slides, shared screens or other participants of the meeting. 

Yet, the safety feature doesn’t stop them from being able to listen and contribute to a meeting, like any other hands-free phone call. 

The updated Meetings app comes with features including quick access to favorite contacts, the ability to jump directly from the calendar into a Teams meeting, an expanded chat function for reading and writing messages, and the integration of voice control for text input, the Mercedes-Benz spokesperson said. 

The National Transportation Safety Board says crash data and research indicate personal electronic devices, such as cell phones and tablets, are one of the greatest contributors to driver distraction, and calls distracted driving a “public health problem.”

“Hands-free is not risk free,” the NTSB said, adding that hands-free use of devices do not reduce driver distraction, but rather contribute to “cognitive distraction.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recognizes three categories of distracted driving: visual, manual, and cognitive distraction. Cell phones and navigation devices are “often the culprit when it comes to distracted driving,” according to the NHTSA. In 2023, 3,275 people were killed in distraction-affected crashes, according to the federal agency.

The built-in camera is used for other functions including tracking the driver’s eye movement, “to prevent the driver from distraction when the co-driver is watching video streaming content or gaming while on the move,” the spokesperson said.

No state has implemented the NTSB’s recommendation for a ban on the use of all personal electronic devices while driving except in case of emergency.

“Given the Mercedes-Benz’s commitment on safety, the use of the camera abides by the laws of each country and has been approved for use on the move,” the spokesperson said.

July 30, 2026: A Mercedes-Benz spokesperson told Fortune the pricing has not yet been announced yet for the all-new CLA and declined to provide a price range.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Mercedes Benz

You’ve read about it all over, including in Fortune Intelligence. Maybe you or friends have been impacted: artificial intelligence is already transforming work, not least hiring and firing. Nowhere is the impact more visible than in the labor market.

The technology industry, the original epicenter of AI adoption, is now seeing many of its own workers displaced by the very innovations they helped create. Employers, racing to integrate AI into everything from cloud infrastructure to customer support, are trimming human headcount in software engineering, IT support, and administrative functions. The rise of AI-powered automation is accelerating layoffs in the tech sector, with impacted employees as high as 80,000 in one count. Microsoft alone is trimming 15,000 jobs while committing $80 billion to new AI investments.

But labor market intelligence firm Lightcast is offering a ray of hope going forward. Job postings for non-tech roles that require AI skills are soaring in value. Lightcast’s new “Beyond the Buzz” report, based on analysis of over 1.3 billion job postings, shows that these postings offer 28% higher salaries—an average of nearly $18,000 more per year. The Lightcast research underscores the split in tech and non-tech hiring: job postings for AI skills in tech roles remain robust, but the proportion of AI jobs within IT and computer science has fallen, dropping from 61% in 2019 to just 49% in 2024. This signals an ongoing contraction of traditional tech roles as AI claims an ever-larger share of the work.

AI demand explodes beyond tech

Rather than stifling workforce prospects, Lightcast’s research suggests that AI is dispersing opportunity across the broader economy. More than half of all jobs requesting AI skills in 2024 appeared outside the tech sector—a radical reversal from previous years, when AI was confined to Silicon Valley and computer science labs. Fields like marketing, HR, finance, education, manufacturing, and customer service are rapidly integrating AI tools, from generative AI platforms that craft marketing content to predictive analytics engines that optimize supply chains and recruitment.

In fact, job postings mentioning generative AI skills outside IT and computer science have surged an astonishing 800% since 2022, catalyzed by the proliferation of tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and DALL-E. Marketing, design, education, and HR are some of the fastest growers in AI adoption—each adapting to new toolkits, workflows, and ways of creating value.

Cole Napper, VP of research, innovation, and talent insights at Lightcast, told Fortune in an interview that he was struck by the lack of a discernible pattern for which industries were most affected by the explosion of AI skills present in job postings, noting that the arts come top of the list.

AI skills are in demand

For the workforce at large, AI proficiency is emerging as one of today’s most lucrative skill investments. Possessing two or more AI skills sends paychecks even higher, with a 43% premium on advertised salaries.

In 2024, more than 66,000 job postings specifically mentioned generative AI as a skill, a nearly fourfold increase from the prior year, according to the Lightcast’s 2025 Artificial Intelligence Index Report. Large language modeling was the second most common AI skill, which showed up in 19,500 open job posts. Postings listing ChatGPT and prompt engineering as skills ranked third and fourth in frequency, respectively.

Sectors such as customer/client support, sales, and manufacturing reported the largest pay bumps for AI-skilled workers, as companies race to automate routine functions and leverage AI for competitive advantage.

Christina Inge, founder of Thoughtlight, an AI marketing service, told Fortune in a message AI isn’t just automating busywork, it’s also becoming a tool AI-fluent workers can leverage to increase their own value to a company—and to outperform their peers. Take, for example, someone in sales using AI to create more targeted conversations to close deals faster, Inge wrote. The same can be said for customer service workers.

“[Customer service workers fluent in AI] know how to interpret AI outputs, write clear prompts, and troubleshoot when things go off script,” Inge said. “That combination of human judgment and AI fluency is hard to find and well worth the extra pay.”

In fields like marketing and science, even single AI skills can yield large returns, while more technical positions gravitate to specialists with advanced machine learning or generative AI expertise.

Crucially, the most valued AI-enabled roles demand more than just technical wizardry. Employers prize a hybrid skillset: communication, leadership, problem-solving, research, and customer service are among the 10 most-requested skills in AI-focused postings, alongside technical foundations like machine learning and artificial intelligence.

“While generative AI excels at tasks like writing and coding, uniquely human abilities—such as communication, management, innovation, and complex problem-solving—are becoming even more valuable in the AI era,” the study says.

Winners and losers

The emerging repercussions are striking. Tech workers whose roles are readily automated face rising displacement—unless they can pivot quickly into emerging areas that meld business, technical, and people skills. Meanwhile, millions of workers outside of tech are poised to translate even basic AI literacy into new roles or wage gains. The competitive edge now lies with organizations and professionals agile enough to combine AI capabilities with human judgement, creativity, and business acumen.

For companies, the risk is clear: treating AI as an isolated technical specialty is now a liability. Winning firms are investing to embed AI fluency enterprise-wide, upskilling their marketing teams, HR departments, and finance analysts to build a future-ready workforce.

AI may be the source of turmoil in Silicon Valley boardrooms, but its economic dividends are flowing rapidly to workers—and companies—in every corner of the economy. For those able to adapt, AI skills are not a harbinger of job loss, but a passport to higher salaries and new career possibilities. Still, the research doesn’t indicate exactly where in the income levels the higher postings are coming, so Napper said it’s possible that we are seeing some compression, with higher-paid tech jobs being phased out and lower-paying positions being slightly better-paying.

Napper said the trend of AI skills cropping up in job postings has exploded over the past few years, and he doesn’t expect a slowdown anytime soon. Napper said there’s a “cost to complacency”—one that includes a significant salary cut. He added that the 28% premium, Lightcast plans to release follow-up research on what level of the income latter the trend is hitting the most.

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Citigroup is the latest investment bank to crack down on talent poaching, taking a similar approach to Goldman Sachs by requiring junior bankers to disclose any future-dated offers they have taken. The disclosures aim to dissuade analysts from taking buy-side offers. But experts tell Fortune these employment disclosures are ethically dubious and have potential for legislative pushback.

Citigroup is hopping on the loyalty oath trend, asking its newest class of junior investment bankers to disclose whether they have accepted future job offers from another firm.

First-year Citigroup analysts will be required to complete an “attestation,” aimed to “foster a fair and transparent environment,” according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg this week. The attestation is expected to be a one-time form, but may become an annual recurrence for these analysts, Bloomberg reported. Experts tell Fortune employment disclosures for future-dated offers are ethically dubious and have potential for legislative pushback. 

Citi’s effort reflects an industrywide crackdown on talent poaching by private-equity firms that participate in “on-cycle recruiting,” Fortune reported earlier this month.

The recruiting frenzy has junior analysts penning future-dated buy-side job offers before they complete their investment-banking training, or even before they set foot on their job sites. The practice has frustrated banks unable to retain talented workers after their initial contracts end.

Last month, JPMorgan Chase told incoming graduates they would be fired if they accepted future jobs elsewhere before completing their first 18 months. Goldman Sachs followed, introducing quarterly loyalty oaths, where junior bankers have to disclose if they have taken future-dated private-equity jobs. Now, it’s Citigroup’s turn.

But job disclosure initiatives to dissuade junior bankers from taking PE offers come with their own risks, experts tell Fortune.

“I would call [employment disclosures] draconian, unethical … soul-and-motivation-killing,” Joshua Bienstock, a labor and employment attorney and associate professor of business law at the New York Institute of Technology, told Fortune.

Bienstock said he doesn’t “see anything positive about” the employment disclosure trend in investment banking—rather, he sees the loyalty oaths as a wedge to drive top talent away from the large firms as young employees have new priorities. 

A 2024 SHRM study found Gen Z prioritizes flexible work schedules over competitive work salaries. Bienstock said employment disclosures represent an “oppressive” employer that young workers are willing to leave now more than ever.

“The brightest of the best are going to look at these large, behemoth companies and say, ‘Why do I need you, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs?’” Bienstock said. “I could go to other places where maybe I’m not going to make exactly the same amount of money, but I’m not going to be in this kind of onerous situation.”

Paul Webster, managing partner at Page Executive North America, a search and recruitment firm, told Fortune previously that investment banking loyalty oaths meant to retain top talent may have the opposite effect: diminishing company loyalty and increasing a worker’s willingness to jump ship.

“It’s going to really kill employee morale,” Bienstock said.

Possible legislative pushback 

New York State attempted to pass a law in 2023 to ban noncompete agreements for all employees regardless of wage or income level before ultimately being vetoed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Bienstock warns employment disclosures could face similar legislative scrutiny in a state that harbors a deep “disdain” for noncompetes and other restrictive covenants.

In February, New York State Sen. Sean Ryan introduced a new bill that would ban noncompete agreements except for highly compensated workers, a main sticking point for Hochul in the previous bill.

“I see the same thing happening here—that there’s going to be a really, really quick reaction, particularly [by] New York City and New York State, to creating prohibitions or limitations” on the employment disclosures, Bienstock said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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