Morning Consult names Matthew Hammon Chief Growth Officer to scale ai-native future. Jun 1, 2026 10:36:02 AM NEW YORK - June 1, 2026 - Morning Consult, a global leader in decision intelligence, has appointed Matthew Hammon as Chief Growth Officer. In this role, he will lead the development of an AI-native marketing, communications, and growth function, helping scale the company's global platform, AI-powered capabilities, and go-to-market strategy. An AI-native growth leader, Hammon brings more than 15 years of experience scaling marketing and go-to-market organizations at leading technology companies. Prior to joining Morning Consult, he led marketing for Yelp's AI and API products and was a Global Growth Lead for B2B Marketing at Google. "Matthew's AI-native experience and perspective will be an invaluable addition to our leadership team," said Michael Ramlet, CEO of Morning Consult. "As we continue advancing our AI-native vision, his leadership will help us build the marketing, communications, and growth capabilities needed to scale our capabilities, strengthen customer engagement, and drive global growth." Morning Consult is the AI-native leader in the market research industry, delivering decision intelligence to global business, financial, and government leaders. Powered by an always-on consumer signal built from more than 100 million interviews and 30,000 new surveys conducted daily across 45 global markets, the company continues to expand its suite of AI-Deep Research Agents and MCP connectors on Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini to improve real-time decisions. Click here to learn more. +++ About Morning Consult Morning Consult is the global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. With its proprietary technology, high-frequency global survey research, and AI-native products, Morning Consult delivers decision-ready insights to executives, marketers, investors, and policymakers across 45 global markets. Contact: Anna Rose Pardue, [email protected]

Ellyn Briggs joins Front Office Sports as culture and lifestyle reporter. Briggs, a longtime freelance contributor, joins the staff full-time. NEW YORK - Front Office Sports, the leading multiplatform media and news organization covering the business of sports, today announced the hiring of Ellyn Briggs as the outlet's first culture and lifestyle reporter. In this role, Briggs will help expand coverage of the intersection of sports, culture, and entertainment. Briggs joins Front Office Sports after nearly four years at Morning Consult, most recently as a senior brand analyst. While at Morning Consult, Briggs covered consumption and public opinion and authored two of the firm's email newsletters, reaching an audience of more than 11,000 professionals on a weekly basis. Her work was regularly featured in dozens of prominent outlets and programs, including NBC News, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNBC, Business Insider, Rolling Stone, and NPR. Since 2023, Briggs has bylined more than 30 original stories for print and digital outlets, including Front Office Sports and Awful Announcing. Her previous contributions to FOS have generated substantial conversation online, including her reporting on athletes moonlighting as photographers, college athletic departments becoming media companies, and women's sports bars. "Sports continues to drive mainstream culture, extending into entertainment, social media, and tech, and Ellyn consistently has her finger on the pulse of that," said Dan Roberts, editor-in-chief of Front Office Sports. "Her stories have fascinated our readers, and we are all excited to have her join us full-time." Briggs, who first contributed to FOS in March 2025, has also been a frequent guest on broadcast television and radio to discuss her reporting. She is a graduate of American University and began her career in corporate strategy. "Entertainment and culture keep converging with sports at rapid speed," said Briggs. "I've been immensely grateful for the opportunity to contribute on these topics to FOS, and look forward to expanding this coverage as a member of staff." She is based in Columbus, Ohio, and will begin her position on June 1. About Front Office Sports Front Office Sports is the leading multiplatform media and news organization covering the business of sports, boasting an audience that every month delivers more than 200 million social impressions, 35 million newsletter opens, 50 million video views, and 2.5 million page views. In addition, with more than 15 distribution partners, FOS content appears on screens in more than 50,000 buildings and venues across North America. Front Office Sports was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in 2021, AdWeek's Hottest in Sports in 2022 and 2024, and listed on Inc. 5000 in 2023 and 2025, recognizing the fastest-growing private companies in America.

Entry-level productivity expectations have increased due to AI, report says. Posted by News Room 15 May 2026 Dive brief: * Nearly half of U.S.-based HR leaders surveyed said that artificial intelligence is increasing the productivity expectations for entry-level roles even as staffing levels do not change, according to research published May 12 from learning platform D2L in partnership with Morning Consult. * According to the report, 30% of HR professionals said their company's talent acquisition strategy now favors hiring fewer junior staffers and more mid-level workers, noting that AI was being used to complete tasks previously assigned to lower-level employees. * Only 12% of companies planned to reduce the number of entry-level employees hired over the next 24 months, per the report. However, of those companies, 56% said it was due to AI-driven task automation, while 32% pointed to smaller budgets and 28% cited internal restructuring. Dive insight: The research was intended to examine how HR leaders felt about how generative AI was influencing entry-level work, hiring strategies and long-term talent development, underscoring potential growing skills gaps for junior professionals. "The risk isn't simply that AI changes aspects of entry-level hiring," Sandy Rezendes, head of corporate learning and development at D2L, said in a statement. "It's that it may reduce some of the foundational on-the-job learning that comes with the cognitive struggle and tasks inherent in entry-level work that people need to grow into experienced subject matter experts and future leaders." More than half of HR leaders (56%) said they saw fewer basic tasks being given to junior team members as a result of generative AI. In addition, 58% said they were concerned that the AI-induced reduction in entry-level roles might lead to a shortage of qualified senior leaders within five years. Meanwhile 74% said they didn't have any employee development programs in place that could replace the kind of on-the-job training that's being lost to AI automation. Respondents said that they were already seeing declines in problem solving (75%), as well as reductions in interpersonal (76%) and communication skills (78%) among recent entry-level hires compared to their cohorts from 3 to 5 years ago. "Organizations may gain efficiency in the short term, but if they don't also invest in intentional learning, upskilling, and development, they may risk creating a talent gap down the road as they're not growing their own experienced workforce," Rezendes said. "This is a moment for employers to treat learning as a strategic investment in the future of their workforce." The report suggested that employers invest in structured learning and development programs, and consider implementing AI-enabled training simulations and hiring practices that emphasize critical thinking, communication and AI literacy. "Organizations are at an inflection point," Michael Rochelle, chief strategy officer at Brandon Hall Group, said in a statement responding to the D2L report. "AI is accelerating productivity, but it's also disrupting the developmental pathways that have historically built expertise. Without intentional investment in learning, companies risk creating a long-term leadership gap." A recent report from Robert Half found that while soft skills are still a focus for employers when hiring early-career workers, a solid grasp of AI tools is also increasingly required. Nonetheless, only 22% of leaders in the U.S. said entry-level workers were either very or completely prepared to do their jobs, with most leaders specifically citing a lack of soft skills, according to a September survey from General Assembly.