Survey Report

Louisville, Colo. – October 08, 2026 -- Ninety-two percent of organizations reported at least one AI-related incident or exposure in the past 12 months, according to a new JumpCloud study of 250 IT leaders in the U.S. and U.K. titled "Enterprise AI Access Is Outpacing Control." More than half of organizations now deploy AI agents capable of changing systems, permissions, or files, yet 59% of those using such agents do not apply the same governance rules used for human employees.

Identity integration lags as AI agents gain system access

Only 41% of organizations using AI agents have fully folded those agents into the identity and access management (IAM) policies governing human users, the study found. The remaining 59% operate without full integration, leaving a structural gap between how human and machine identities are controlled.

Washington, D.C. – October 08, 2026 -- Baby Boomers' likelihood of staying with their employers fell 6.3 points to 90.5 in the third quarter, while Gen Z's retention outlook rose to 112.8, producing a record 22.3-point generational gap, according to the Eagle Hill Consulting Employee Retention Index.

Culture scores erase a year of gains across the workforce

The Culture Indicator dropped 3.1 points to 100.9, the steepest decline among the Index's four components and nearly wiping out 12 months of improvement. Gen X employees reported a 7-point culture decline, Baby Boomers 5.5 points and Gen Z 3.1 points; Millennials were the only cohort to improve, gaining 1 point. Women's culture sentiment fell 3.6 points versus 1.6 points for men.

Lehi, Utah – October 07, 2026 -- Maintenance teams across U.S. manufacturing, facilities and infrastructure sectors complete just 54% of their scheduled preventive maintenance work, according to a survey of 686 maintenance and operations professionals released by Limble at the 2026 Maintenance Heroes Summit.

Unplanned downtime costs exceed $100,000 annually for 40% of organizations

Nearly half of leaders (47%) report more than 10 hours of unplanned downtime in a typical month, and 40% put annual downtime costs at $100,000 or higher. Reactive maintenance also carries safety consequences: 65% of respondents say it puts technicians in higher-risk situations at least once a month.

San Diego – – October 02, 2026 -- A national survey of 5,000 U.S. adults has found that Americans rate a family birthday party as a more awkward setting for discussing inheritance than a funeral, upending assumptions about when families confront estate planning. Trust & Will's 2026 Death & Inheritance Report found 63% of respondents call a birthday the most awkward occasion for the conversation, compared with 41% for a funeral or wake and just 32% for an ordinary phone call.

Christmas ranks as both the top trigger and the top occasion families avoid

Christmas is the most common holiday prompt for inheritance discussions, cited by 16% of respondents, yet it is simultaneously the occasion Americans most actively avoid for the same topic, at 37% -- more than double any other occasion and the top avoidance answer in all 50 states.

Rochester, N.Y. – October 02, 2026 -- Multifocal contact lenses ranked as the fourth most selected anti-aging product category among U.S. consumers aged 38 and older, tying with fitness memberships and aesthetic dental care and outranking cosmetic procedures, according to new CooperVision research.

Survey of 752 U.S. adults exposes a wide awareness gap in presbyopia care

The report, "Unmet Opportunities: Multifocal Contact Lenses and the Anti-Aging Movement (U.S.)," surveyed 752 American adults aged 38 and up, combining the findings with market data on healthy-aging attitudes. Despite ranking high among 10 anti-aging categories once consumers were introduced to the product, more than half of respondents reported little to no familiarity with multifocal contact lenses or did not recognize the term.

Menlo Park, Calif. – October 01, 2026 -- More than half of U.S. employers, 57%, are offering higher-than-planned salaries to secure new hires, with specialized skills cited as the top driver, according to Robert Half's 2027 Salary Guide released this week.

AI expertise now outpaces other technical skills in pay premiums

Seventy-two percent of managers report increasing pay specifically for AI-related skills, and 42% say AI expertise commands higher compensation than other technical competencies. The findings indicate that within identical job titles, a candidate's AI fluency can materially shift the final offer.

New York – October 01, 2026 -- Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) found that 98% of organizations that delayed technology modernization experienced negative business impacts, according to the company's first global Modernization Report released today. The study, based on responses from 2,000 business and technology leaders across five continents and 12 industries, shows nearly half of organizations are behind schedule on modernization goals even as AI adoption becomes the dominant investment driver.

Frisco, Texas – September 30, 2026 -- Thirty-one percent of healthcare organizations experienced unauthorized identities accessing sensitive data in the past year, compared with 24% across other industries, according to new healthcare findings from Netwrix's 2026 Data and Identity Security Report. Among healthcare organizations that suffered an incident, 33% reported costs exceeding $250,000, versus 21% in other sectors.

Healthcare ranks last among 16 industries on Active Directory confidence

Only 14% of healthcare organizations said they are fully confident their Active Directory environments are free of privilege escalation risks, compared with 26% across all industries surveyed. Eighty-six percent lack full confidence in their AD security, the lowest ranking among the 16 industries with sufficient survey representation for comparison.

Campbell, Calif. – September 29, 2026 -- Vivalink, a digital healthcare solutions provider, published survey data showing 79% of more than 150 U.S. adults with cardiac conditions would participate in a home-based cardiac rehabilitation program if recommended by a provider.

Patients favor hybrid or home-based rehab over clinic visits

When given a choice, 68% of respondents said they would prefer a primarily home-based or hybrid rehabilitation approach over traditional in-clinic programs.

Insurance coverage ranks as the top barrier to participation

Fifty-eight percent of respondents ranked insurance coverage as their top consideration for participating in home-based care. Sixty percent said they would not pay out of pocket for such a program, while 87% said confirmed insurance coverage would increase their likelihood of participating.

Denver – – September 29, 2026 -- Executives targeting AI-driven headcount reduction are nearly half as likely to fund the upskilling needed to realize AI efficiency gains, according to new research from Businessolver released as part of its 11th annual State of Workplace Empathy study.

Cost-cutting executives skip the training investment that enables AI payoff

Among the 27% of C-suite leaders who name cost savings through headcount reduction as a top AI investment goal, just 18% also prioritize AI upskilling, compared with 35% of CXOs who do not pursue headcount reduction. The gap widens on predictive analytics investment, where only 21% of cost-cutting leaders prioritize it versus 44% of their peers.