Super Bowl commercials are a cultural barometer for the United States. At $8 million for a 30-second spot, they double as a proxy for what corporate America thinks will capture the country’s imagination.

Historically, the ad slate leaned hard on cars and beer, from Chrysler’s iconic “Imported from Detroit” to Budweiser’s Clydesdales. This year it was all about AI. Roughly a quarter of all the ads during the broadcast were promoting artificial intelligence products.

We haven’t seen a wave of tech ads like this at the Super Bowl since the dot-com boom of 2000.

Two undercurrents ran through the AI spots.

Some leaned into the fantasy of effortless productivity. Ads from companies like Ramp and Genspark leaned into the idea that AI is a force multiplier, the always-on assistant that clears the clutter while you kick back. It’s the story the industry wants us to believe: AI as your tireless co-pilot and your shortcut to brilliance.

Left unsaid in those ads: if AI is doing all the work , why does the company need you any more?

That discomfort was the focus of the second group of ads. These spots played directly to the unease many workers feel about what AI means for their jobs and their data. Anthropic, for example, ran spots that mocked the sunnily obsequious way that ChatGPT answers questions and the idea of ads creeping into AI assistants, and positioned Claude as “ad-free” in contrast.

The weirdest take was Amazon’s Alexa spot, where Chris Hemsworth imagines all the ways Alexa could try to kill him. It was funny, but it is a strange kind of funny when so many people are already anxious about AI’s role in their lives.

There we have it - The promise and threat of AI, all wrapped up in 30 second advertisements.

What was your favorite ad this year?

— David

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Featured Story

When the Recruiter Stops Believing the Culture (and Candidates Can Tell)

Culture drift is an issue that I don’t often hear discussed, but it comes up a lot in private conversations with TA professionals. It’s the subtle gap between what a company says it values and what it actually rewards day to day. When that drift shows up, recruiters are often the first to feel it, and they can start sounding like disclaimers instead of trusted guides. Cassie Roe writes that the fix isn’t coaching people to sound more enthusiastic, but rebuilding integrity with real, current “culture receipts,” clearer internal alignment, and enough capacity to have honest human conversations — because candidates can spot the difference between a lived culture and a performed one. (ERE)

More Recruiting Insights

The US economy added a stronger-than-expected 130,000 jobs last month. Not long ago 130,000 jobs would have seemed anemic job growth, but after revised job growth for 2025 came in at just 181,000 for the entire year, this looks like good news. Everything is relative. (CNN)

Frequent Use of AI in the Workplace Continued to Rise in Q4. Warden’s new guide, written by Martin Redstone, explains how California’s new Automated Decision-Making Technology rules, which went into effect in January 2026, will impact staffing firms. It lays out practical considerations for staffing leaders who need to scope ADMT use, prepare evidence, and operate in a way that is defensible to clients, candidates, and regulators. (Warden)

OpenAI Is Making the Mistakes Facebook Made. I Quit. This piece, by a former researcher at OpenAI. lays out how the incentives at OpenAI are going to inevitably threaten user trust, even if the company promises clear labels and separation from answers. As I mentioned earlier in the Super Bowl ad roundup, Anthropic is using the moment to position Claude as ad-free and less conflicted. (NYT)

UPS, Amazon boost US planned layoffs in January, Challenger survey shows. Planned U.S. layoffs jumped to 108,435 in January, up 205% from December and the highest January total since 2009, driven largely by cuts at UPS (up to 30,000 jobs) and reductions (16,000) at Amazon. (Reuters)

Phenom Acquires Be Applied to Power Skills‑First Hiring at Enterprise Scale. This move adds adaptive cognitive assessments to the Phenom platform so enterprises can validate skills at scale. The deal follows Phenom’s January purchase of Included and embeds evidence-based skills scores directly into hiring workflows for high-volume and specialized roles. (Phenom)

Conferences

ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit

Atlanta, GA
May 5-6, 2025

The ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit is a practitioner-led event built for talent acquisition leaders who want real answers, not hype. Join us for practical sessions, meaningful peer connection, and live “Ask Me Anything” office hours with our speakers.

If you care about where recruiting is headed and want ideas you can put to work immediately, you belong in this room.

(ERE Recruiting Innovation Summit)

Webinars

Tech Demo Tuesday: Discover the Hottest Tools in Recruiting

February 24, 2026 | 2:00 PM EST | 1 Hour

In this installation of Tech Demo Tuesday, we will get hands-on demonstration of how CoderPad’s job-relevant evaluations that reflect how engineers actually work today — including the use of AI. We’ll also dig in to how the iCIMS Talent Acquisition Suit helps organizations attract, engage, hire, and advance top talent. (ERE)