IANAL, but I believe a business can decide not to promote an employee for any reason with the exception of protected characteristics (Gender, race, etc.)

That being said, this is unreasonably shitty, and you should look for a job with more normal management practices. If they’re pulling this, there’s likely a lot more you’re not seeing.

new innovation team that will infuse its printers and conference room kit with AI

We all know that nobody asked for this, the only saving grace here is that both HP and Humane are incompetent

This is such a stupid idea, it could have only come from Larry Ellison. I guess you would need everything tied together so that you can watch every person all the time in every place.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/16/oracle_ai_mass_surveillance_cloud/

Larry Ellison read 1984 and said “This government isn’t surveilling people enough”

They actually changed the settings to minimize seeding