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The end of June and most of July brought a run of moves aimed at the infrastructure behind benefits and retirement.
Korn Ferry’s $1.1 billion purchase of AMS set the tone before the month even started, and Empower, Principal, and Alight all followed with their own moves to widen what employers can offer through a single partner.
Workflow-specific AI launches defined the rest of July, covering everything from leave management automation to carrier data integration, alongside a run of smaller acquisitions that show the same consolidation logic playing out at a regional scale.
Korn Ferry to Acquire AMS for $1.1B, Creating Global Talent Consulting Leader
On June 29, 2026, Korn Ferry entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AMS, a UK-headquartered provider of recruitment process outsourcing and talent solutions, from OMERS Private Equity.
The deal is valued at approximately $1.1 billion, creating a global leader in talent and organizational consulting.
AMS operates in more than 120 countries, employs approximately 8,000 people, and generates around $650 million in annual fee revenue. Following the closure, the combined firm will employ more than 16,000 people and, according to Korn Ferry, will place a professional into a new role every 90 seconds.
“By bringing AMS into the Korn Ferry family, we are expanding our ability to help clients solve their most critical organizational challenges,” said Gary Burnison, President and CEO of Korn Ferry.
The transaction is expected to close in Korn Ferry’s second fiscal quarter of 2027, pending regulatory approval.
Read the full press release: Korn Ferry Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire AMS
Empower Expands Workplace Benefits Portfolio with $340 Million Milliman Retirement Acquisition
A day after the Korn Ferry announcement, Empower entered a definitive agreement to acquire Milliman’s retirement plan and benefits administration business for $340 million.
The acquisition adds roughly $130 billion in client assets and 1.5 million plan participants to Empower at closing.
Milliman will retain its actuarial consulting, data analytics, and AI businesses, and the two firms expect to enter a strategic relationship for actuarial services and defined benefit plan administration once the transaction closes.
"Retirement security today requires more than savings alone. It depends on wealth accumulation, healthcare preparedness, and reliable income throughout retirement," said Edmund F. Murphy III, CEO of Empower.
"This acquisition represents another important step in Empower's vision of delivering integrated workplace solutions that help people build wealth, protect it, and ultimately retire with confidence."
Milliman President and CEO Dermot Corry said the sale lets his company “sharpen our focus on our consulting, data analytics and AI businesses,” while giving Milliman’s retirement administration clients continuity through a larger platform built specifically for that market.
The transaction, expected to close in the second half of 2026, extends Empower’s decade of growth through acquisitions, including Personal Capital, MassMutual’s retirement business, and Prudential’s full-service retirement business.
Read the full press release: Empower to Acquire Milliman’s Retirement Administration Business
Principal to Acquire Employee Benefits Company Beam Benefits
Retirement and benefits administration continued to draw attention in the second week of July.
On July 7, Principal Financial Group announced an agreement to acquire Beam Benefits.
Beam is a digitally native employee benefits company serving more than 25,000 small businesses across 46 states. It offers dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental health coverage through a cloud-native platform with AI built into its core.
"Beam Benefits' focus on serving the small business market aligns directly with our commitment to helping small and midsized businesses protect their businesses and their employees," said Amy Friedrich, president of Benefits and Protection at Principal. "This acquisition strengthens our momentum and delivery of above-market growth in that segment."
The deal is expected to close in the latter half of 2026.
Read the full press release: Principal to Acquire Employee Benefits Company Beam Benefits
Alight and BNY Partner to Simplify Retirement Plan Administration
One day later, on July 8, Alight and BNY launched a collaborative retirement solution.
The plan combines Alight’s recordkeeping capabilities with BNY’s expertise in custody, payments, bundled investment options, and investment management.
Plan sponsors and participants gain access to BNY’s suite of retirement-focused investment products, including stable value, target date, active, and index funds, through a brokerage window built on custody infrastructure and integrated with Alight’s existing Worklife platform.
The arrangement includes a dual-oversight model intended to provide sponsors with proper fiduciary oversight alongside Alight’s compliance processes. It pairs AI-driven insights with personalized guidance for participants, all delivered through Alight as a single point of contact.
"Our collaboration with BNY offers a streamlined experience that helps participants to take charge of their financial futures," said Dinesh Tulsiani, President of Employer Solutions at Alight.
Read the full press release: Alight and BNY Launch Integrated Retirement Plan Solution
Paylocity Acquires Aidora, Adding AI-Powered Leave Management Automation
On the HR tech side, Paylocity announced the acquisition of Aidora. It’s an AI-native leave management compliance company built on a natural language interaction model.
Leave rules compound across federal, state, local, and company policies, and most HR teams still track them through manual processes and disconnected systems. Aidora changes this by merging eligibility, compliance, documentation, and payroll into one system for HR teams. Employees can ask questions and get guided through their own leave by voice or text, without waiting on a caseworker.
"Leave management is one of the most complex and time-consuming processes HR teams deal with today," said Toby Williams, President and CEO of Paylocity.
"Aidora helps take that work off their plate by automating what has traditionally been manual, and giving HR teams more confidence in how they manage leave, while also providing a better employee experience."
Read the full press release: Paylocity Acquires AI-Native Aidora to Simplify Leave Management
UnitedHealthcare Launches New Spending Account Benefit
On July 9, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) introduced a Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA), an employer-sponsored, post-tax benefit integrated with UHC Store.
The LSA covers health, wellness, and lifestyle products that typically don’t qualify under an FSA or HSA, from fitness and corporate nutrition to family planning and musculoskeletal support, and it settles at the point of purchase rather than through reimbursement.
The new account is already available to more than 15 million commercial members.
For self-insured employers, UHC positions the LSA as a way to consolidate vendor relationships and reduce administrative burden while still letting individual employees choose the offerings most relevant to them.
Read the full press release: UnitedHealthcare Launches New Spending Account Benefit, Putting More Choice in the Hands of Consumers
Energage and Engagedly Announce Merger
In other industry news, Energage has merged with Engagedly, combining 20 years of workplace culture research with an advanced AI-powered talent management platform.
The merger will create a unified experience connecting employee engagement, talent management, and employer brand.
Energage brings insights from more than 30 million employee surveys across 80,000 organizations. Engagedly contributes AI-enabled capabilities for performance management, employee development, learning, rewards and recognition, and frontline worker support.
The combined organization delivers a modern blueprint helping employers measure, shape, and showcase the workplace experience.
"This merger accelerates our vision of turning those insights into action, bringing workplace experience and talent management together in one intelligent platform so leaders can build stronger cultures," said Eric Rubino, CEO of Energage.
Rippling Launches Direct Carrier Integrations with Guardian, MetLife, and Unum
We close this month’s big industry updates with Rippling, which announced direct integrations with three major benefits carriers, Guardian, MetLife, and Unum, under a new Preferred Carrier Program.
Unlike a typical vendor-built integration, each connection under the program is co-developed with the carrier, with shared service standards for resolving data discrepancies as they arise.
The goal is to automate the exchange of eligibility, enrollment, and coverage data, replacing the manual data transfer processes that companies say are a common source of errors in benefits administration.
New customers implementing any of the three carriers gain immediate access. Meanwhile, existing customers will migrate over the next 12 months.
"Small and mid-sized businesses need benefits that work in the real world," said Bradd Chignoli, Head of Regional Business at MetLife, noting that partnerships like this one "help reduce friction and create more connected experiences for employees."
Smaller Moves, Same Two Trends
Beyond this month’s biggest moves, the same two trends, AI going deeper into everyday workflows and consolidation continuing at a smaller scale, kept playing out across the rest of July.
PageUp launched Paige, a conversational agentic assistant built into its recruiting platform. It lets recruiters ask plain-language questions about candidates and pipelines. In early pilots, PageUp said the tool cut time-to-shortlist by up to 75%.
Eightfold AI introduced Candidate Agent, extending its Talent Agents suite to the candidate side of hiring with an always-on, multilingual assistant that guides applicants through discovery, screening, and scheduling in a single continuous conversation.
Netchex launched Mesh, a team of six AI “teammates” purpose-built for deskless industries, where a single HR admin is often running payroll, scheduling, and onboarding with little support.
On the consolidation side, NFP, an Aon company, acquired Total Benefits Advisors, a Cleveland-based advisory firm, growing its presence in Northeast Ohio.
Retirement & Wealth at Alliant acquired Retirement Solution Group, adding fiduciary support and third-party administration capabilities to its retirement practice. And Shore Capital Partners acquired ThrivePass, a Denver benefits technology platform used by employers and brokers to manage lifestyle spending accounts and pre-tax benefits.
For brokers, consultants, and employers watching the HR tech, wellness, and benefits space, the practical takeaway is that fewer, larger relationships are becoming the norm on the infrastructure side, while the tools built on that infrastructure are becoming sharper and more specialized.
Written by tamara jovanovska
Content Writer at Shortlister
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