What's up: Use AI or you're fired; tech titans want genetically engineered babies; DeepSeek has a warning.

Good morning. Artificial intelligence adoption has taken on a whole-of-enterprise approach, with everyone, from the chief executive on down, working to determine which jobs and processes benefit from AI.

Because AI touches upon the creative and reasoning skills that define so much of human work, integration carries implications for the enterprise that go beyond a typical tech refresh.

In light of this, the individuals responsible for making the tech happen, namely chief information officers, increasingly are working with peers across the C-suite.

A story today from WSJ Leadership Institute’s Belle Lin looks at how CIOs are joining forces with HR leaders to teach employees how to use the technology—and not to fear it—a high bar, given indications that AI is already disrupting the white-collar workforce. They also need HR to help manage the rise of so-called “digital co-workers,” or AI agents.

Networking-equipment maker Cisco is bringing together its IT and HR departments to figure out what its workforce will look like with a “virtual staff of AI entities” working alongside roughly 86,200 employees, according to CIO Fletcher Previn.

Job-search company Indeed has a “transformation office,” led by Vice President of AI Hannah Calhoon, which works with HR but sits under the technology team. Once Calhoon’s team has identified specific ways in which AI can help Indeed’s over 10,000 employees, they reach out to their HR counterparts, who have “expertise around learning and development, and scaling up solutions,” she said.

While the degree to which AI efforts are scaling across enterprises varies, overall use is increasing when factoring in consumers. Within many companies there’s now a growing urgency to get employees up to speed. Some firms are even cutting workers who can’t keep pace (More on that below).

The IT / HR partnership has its work cut out, notes Belle.

At cloud-security company Netskope, Chief Digital and Information Officer Mike Anderson is in regular discussions with Patsy Gilmore, its chief people officer, on ways to change employees’ perception of AI from a threat to a help.

“What we’re trying to help people understand is that [an AI agent] is a co-worker that’s going to help you be more productive, not someone who’s going to replace you,” Anderson said.

Many workers fear being replaced by AI. At the same time, some bosses are telling employees to get up to speed on AI ... or get out, WSJ reports. 

At enterprise-software company IgniteTech, leaders last year required staff last year to devote 20% of their workweek to experimenting with AI. The company used ChatGPT on employee self-assessments of their AI usage to rank the results. After a human review, IgniteTech cut the lowest-scoring performers.

More employers expect staff to not only be familiar with AI, but incorporate more in their work. At McKinsey, consultants will be evaluated on how they make decisions with AI. People in KPMG’s human-resources division are assessed on how well they collaborate with AI in their wider evaluations and PwC is requiring AI training for its newest hires.

Many employees say AI is just not ready for work. A recent Gallup survey found that more than 40% of U.S. workers who don’t use AI say the main reason is they don’t believe it can help their work. 

Startups funded by Silicon Valley billionaires are pushing the boundaries of reproductive genetics, looking to apply gene editing technology to sperm, eggs or embryos to produce children with preferred traits, WSJ reports.

Preventive, a San Francisco startup with big-name backing, has been quietly preparing what would amount to a biological first: Creating a child born from an embryo edited to prevent a hereditary disease.

Editing genes in embryos with the intention of creating babies from them is banned in the U.S. and many countries.

Some in the scientific community are skeptical of the company’s plans and goals. “These people are not working on genetic diseases,” said Fyodor Urnov, a director at the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. “They are either lying, delusional, or both. These people armed with very poorly deployed sacks of cash are working on ‘baby improvement.’”

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s sales slowed to the softest pace in over one and a half years for October. The world’s largest chip contract maker is seen as a bellwether of industry trends. Analysts say it would be premature to take that as a sign that demand for AI is starting to ebb, WSJ reports. 

DeepSeek, in its first public appearance since it debuted its breakthrough AI model in January, said AI could help humans in the short term, but longer term, the technology could pose problems as it takes on more human work, Reuters reports. "I'm extremely positive about the technology but I view the impact it could have on society negatively." researcher Chen Deli said at an internet event in China on Friday. 

AI is fueling interest in new subsea cable projects. Investment is expected to hit around $13 billion between 2025 and 2027, almost twice what was invested in the 2022 to 2024 period, CNBC reports, citing data from TeleGeography.

Rare earths slightly less rare. The Chinese government said it is removing export controls on the sales of five minerals necessary for certain types of semiconductors and other devices, New York Times reports. The move follows the Oct. 30 meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping.

It turns out that you can be too thin. Apple is facing challenges selling its new iPhone Air even as its uniqueness attracts buzz, WSJ reports. Early users say the sacrifices made to accommodate its design impact its ability to play music and take photos.

The Senate late Sunday cleared a critical procedural hurdle in its drive to end the record-long government shutdown, after Democrats provided enough votes to advance a measure designed to end the more than monthlong impasse. (WSJ)

A possible end to the record-long shutdown spurred a broad-based market rally. Treasury yields jumped early Monday, and other assets, including gold futures, rallied. Futures pointed to gains for the three main indexes, with technology stocks leading the way after last week's slide. (WSJ)

A federal appeals court late Sunday denied the Trump administration’s bid to avoid fully funding federal food-assistance benefits for November, a ruling that means the government will have to make the payments within 48 hours unless the Supreme Court intervenes. (WSJ)

Italy’s biggest pasta exporters say import and antidumping duties totaling 107% on their pasta brands will make doing business in America too costly and are preparing to pull out of U.S. stores as soon as January. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.