It’s clear: artificial intelligence resonated with our readers—but the year wasn’t just about robots and rumours of AGI.

This year’s top 10 stories on People Matters are a curious mix of the insightful, delightful and frightful.

In fact, our #1 story remains a cautionary tale for HR and talent leaders. And it’s sure to turn into a classic in the years to come.

The pains of modern work

Questions about management best practices are a staple in our coverage. Our piece on making workplace collaboration more effective presents hard data along with the why’s and how’s of good team communication.

A similar story that strikes a chord with our readers is about loneliness—the irony of feeling disconnected in a hyperconnected world. Our writer Gabriela Paz delves into the hidden cost of isolation for employees and employers. In fact, team members who are disengaged and withdrawn from work purportedly cost businesses US$154 billion annually. But by extending the right support to their team members, employers can reverse the tide.

Offering actionable insights, our top stories uncover the pains of modern work, especially for women. In Southeast Asia, working mothers face the pressure of having to juggle their careers and the demands of motherhood. Others, meanwhile, have had to fight for their place in the C-Suite. We capture these experiences in two of our most popular stories by Charu Sood and Alyssa Navarro.

News of job cuts once again rocked the world of HR in 2024. However, our biggest layoff story to emerge from Southeast Asia is about the plight of retrenched Dyson workers in Singapore. Our assistant editor Jagriti Kumar reports on how affected employees—still reeling from the shock—were forced to turn to LinkedIn to seek support after retrenchment.

The perks and perils of AI

With more people adopting AI at work, the perks and perils of AI usage are also becoming more apparent.

Compiling a list of AI initiatives, our editor Samriddhi Srivastava presents the “pioneers of innovation”—companies, from Meta to Deloitte, which are working to empower employees with AI tools.

There’s also more to AI usage than just a productivity boost. In our special feature, we report how workers who are highly proficient in AI tools stand to benefit from higher pay and better work opportunities overall.

But while confidence in AI is increasing, so too is the anxiety around AI displacing human workers. Our senior editor Mastufa Ahmed cites data from BCG regarding job security.

Meanwhile, the rise of AI-generated content has also unleashed another potent threat: deepfakes. Alyssa Navarro breaks down the concept of deepfakes and how they are being weaponised by nefarious individuals to manipulate others.

Our most popular story of 2024 …

At People Matters, we don’t just report on the news. We aim for our readers to take away as much insight from our content. This is true for any article we publish, but more so for our most popular story of 2024. It’s a shocking tale of how government employees allegedly remained on the payroll years after they had left their job.

Here now is the countdown of our top 10 stories of 2024. Until next year!

#10: Can we make workplace collaboration more effective?

#9: The dangers of deepfake AI

#8: Progress for women in Singapore? Boardrooms up, CEO seats down

#7: How AI enhances careers and salaries in APAC

#6: Dyson layoffs in Singapore: Affected employees take to LinkedIn to seek support

#5: Southeast Asian women struggle to balance work and motherhood

#4: GenAI saves time, but will it save jobs?

#3: Lonely and disconnected: the hidden cost of isolation in the workplace

#2: Meta to Deloitte: Companies that rolled out internal AI tools for employees

#1: Ghost employees and how to deal with them