What's on Your Mind?

AI coding agents have become one of the fastest-growing categories in enterprise software. In the span of just a few years, these development tools have evolved from simple autocomplete assistants into autonomous systems capable of taking over the complete software development cycle, all via natural language prompts. As vibe-coding takes off, tools from startups like Cursor and Anthropic’s Claude Code have quickly reached multibillion‑dollar revenue run rates. Cursor reportedly crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2025 and has since approached $2 billion in Q1 of 2026. Anthropic’s Claude Code has scaled even faster, reaching an estimated $2.5 billi…

Canva’s new AI tool, launching today, is going to save time, money, and headaches for so many people. Called Magic Layers, it turns any flat bitmap image into a fully editable Canva project, extracting text, objects, and components into individual layers. This tool marks a fundamental shift in how we handle digital assets. Until now, a rendered image was basically a locked vault of pixels. If you wanted to change a typo or swap a background, you had four options: 1) Hunt down the original project file, 2) painstakingly change it in Photoshop, 3) accept a generative AI patch job, or 4) close the laptop and escape to live a real life somewhere by a nice beach. Magic Layers…

Each year, some of America’s greatest artists, thinkers, and business leaders have a chance to come together at SXSW in the spirit of creativity, innovation, and future-building. And with everything currently happening in technology and the workforce, this year’s gathering feels particularly timely. Of course, questions around AI will take center stage and remain our primary cultural fixation: How long until the next incredible breakthrough? Should Americans be fearful about an impending AI apocalypse or hopeful about the prospect of unlimited productivity gains? These topics are all valid, urgent, and deeply worthwhile to explore, but I also believe the most impo…

Fast Company will be back in Austin, Texas this March 13–16 for its 13th annual Fast Company Grill at South by Southwest. Hosted at Cedar Door Patio Bar & Grill in downtown Austin, attendees can expect four days packed with engaging programming, networking opportunities, activations and raffles, delicious food and drinks, live musical performances, and exclusive parties. We have a compelling lineup of speakers joining us, including: Ben Cohen, Cofounder, Ben & Jerry’s John Stamos, Actor, Producer, Author, and Chief Innovation Officer, Zeam RJ Scaringe, Founder and CEO, Rivian Lana Condor, Actor, “Pretty Lethal” Maddie Ziegler, Actor…

There’s a tremendous, ageless opportunity hiding in plain sight, but marketers need to look through a different lens to see it. Right now, there are some 35 million U.S. empty nester women, as I calculate it, and a growing percentage of them are single. They aren’t retreating into rest and relaxation; they are stepping out to exult in activities they finally have the time, money, and motivation to pursue. Historically, marketers have largely overlooked this demographic. Or, if they address this market, it’s only for margin and share growth. That’s the wrong framework. The real opportunity isn’t just about capturing their spending power, it’s about recognizing a profo…

Two decades after the original film, Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep are returning to the world of The Devil Wears Prada for its long-awaited sequel. The Devil Wears Prada 2, which also sees the return of stars Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt, follows Hathaway as journalist Andy Sachs and Streep as Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of fictional fashion magazine Runway, crossing paths again 20 years after the events of the first movie. When Streep and Hathaway starred in the original Devil Wears Prada, it was an untested franchise that fashion houses hesitated to lend their clothes and brand names to. But the sequel is an entirely different story, with the fashion…

The AI behemoth Anthropic released a report this week about the widening “AI skills gap.” In it, the research suggests that a widening gap may be emerging between those who use AI frequently for work and those who don’t. The report data shows that those with at least six months of experience with the company’s chatbot, Claude, have a higher success rate when collaborating with the system than those without. This can lead to an advantage in an ever-changing labor market landscape as AI becomes an integral part of the job market. In an interview with TechCrunch, Anthropic’s head of economics, Peter McCrory, spoke about how the report does not yet prove a broader sh…

For many job seekers, it might seem like there’s never been a harder time to find a job. Hiring for white-collar jobs has been especially weak, part of what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” job market in which businesses are largely holding onto their workers while hiring remains sluggish, making it difficult for younger workers to land permanent work. Technology is also shaking up the hiring process. Automated systems enable job seekers to easily apply to more jobs, but those same systems also makes it even tougher to get noticed. According to data from hiring platform Greenhouse, the average recruiter has 3.5 times more job applications to sift through tha…

Be careful what you like on social media – you never know when a billionaire’s lawyers might be going over your likes with a fine-toothed comb. Elon Musk’s lawyers requested that a judge with a history of presiding over his legal battles step aside this week. The reason? A post she liked on LinkedIn. In a motion for recusal, Musk’s legal team requested that Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick remove herself from a pair of Tesla lawsuits to “avoid an appearance of bias.” The post in question celebrated a verdict in a San Francisco federal court that found Musk defrauded Twitter investors in the chaotic days before he bought the social network. In…

Many people enjoy sleeping with their pets. Who wouldn’t? After a hard day of work, cuddling up with a cute animal that shows you unconditional love is just the thing many people need. But sadly, after digging into a newly released study, they may start to think twice before letting their furry friends into bed at night. The Conversation recently published an article highlighting the major findings of a study by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine that examined the pros and cons of having pets sleep in bed with them—something that 46% of respondents do. Though the research suggests that sleeping with your pet in bed may have psychological benefits, it may actually …

Meta laid off hundreds of employees this week, just months after notable cuts to its virtual reality and metaverse division. These job losses amount to less than one percent of the company’s overall workforce, reportedly impacting about 700 employees across a number of departments. But recent headlines indicate there’s likely more to come: Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Meta was planning large-scale cuts to its workforce that could slash 20% of jobs—or more—to help offset the company’s investments in artificial intelligence. (At the time, Meta dismissed those claims as “speculative reporting about theoretical approaches.”) Layoffs are not exactly unexpected…

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, yours is the world, and everything that’s in it.” —Rudyard Kipling Right now, CEOs are confronting a grim reality. The global trade system that has underpinned business planning is unravelling. Ships pile up in harbor, supply chains that have taken years to build are being undermined, and the diplomatic relations that hold world trade together are fraying. The most destabilizing feature of our current situation is the uncertainty it breeds about the future. If leaders could reliably predict the next catastrophe, at least they could plan and prepare for it. But right now, th…

The answer to America’s submarine bottleneck, the U.S. Navy has decided, lies as much in software as it does in steel. A new multibillion-dollar facility in Cherokee, Alabama, aims to harness AI and robotics to build submarine components faster and more reliably. The automated “factory of the future” will produce parts for the Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarines and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, both central to the U.S. fleet. It will cost $2.4 billion to develop. “This factory is the first of three facilities designed to address the most critical bottlenecks in the maritime industrial base,” said John C. Phelan, secretary of the Navy, in a stat…

In a greenfield industrial park in rural Aiken County, South Carolina, Meta is building a new $800 million data center that’s much like any of the other hyperscale data centers giant tech companies are scrambling to construct. Set on 300 acres with two massive data halls making up most of its 715,000 square feet of buildings, it’s the kind of gargantuan facility that has become the de facto built form of the race to harness the lucrative power of artificial intelligence. But past the sprawling data hall buildings, a comparably modest administration building has a unique design feature. Instead of the concrete and steel used in the data halls and countless other data …

Visual truth is going down in flames, thanks to new generative AI models that produce synthetic media that looks indistinguishable from reality. But a team of university researchers has figured out a hardware fix that just might save us. Engineers at ETH Zurich have designed a working prototype of a camera that physically stamps a cryptographic seal of authenticity onto every photo or video right at the image sensor (electronic chip) that captures each photon from the actual world. “Trust in digital content is eroding. We wanted to create a technology that gives people a way to verify whether something is genuine,” co-developer Felix Franke explained in a press releas…

In 2012, Google conducted research to identify the factors that determine effective teams. This research, now famously known as Project Aristotle, analyzed hundreds of teams and individual members to crack the code on what enables some to operate at high levels while others flounder. What their study revealed is something Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson had discovered almost two decades prior: the most important factor for high performing teams is psychological safety. That is to say, teams perform better when their members feel safe taking risks and being vulnerable with each other, without fear of punishment. Google’s watershed study brought light to Edm…

As businesses race to become AI-ready, job seekers are racing just as quickly to keep up. New data shows that candidates are getting the message: AI skills are showing up more often on resumes. But this change is exposing a deeper disconnect: the labor market increasingly rewards AI fluency, while the education system often discourages it. According to a new report from Monster.com, the number of resumes that mention AI skills has surged in just two years, going from 3.7% in 2023 to 12.8% last year. Per the report, the most notable increase was from 2024 to 2025 when the number of mentions ticked up by 7.6 points. The previous year, it only accelerated by 1.5 poin…

Artificial intelligence is moving into everything. It’s in the phone in your pocket, the watch on your wrist, the TV on your wall, and the appliances in your kitchen. As companies race to build AI wearables and ambient assistants, there’s a risk we skip a crucial step: grounding this future in the devices people already trust and use constantly. For most of us, that foundation is the smartphone. Smartphones sit at the center of daily life, helping with communication, payments, creativity, navigation, entertainment, and more. About 91% of Americans own one, according to Pew Research. They are personal, always with us, and deeply embedded in our routines. If AI is t…