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“Let’s circle back when we have the bandwidth to touch base on whether we need to hop on a call to tackle the low-hanging fruit.” (If this corporate buzzword bingo sent a shiver down your spine—apologies.) In the world of professional communication, business jargon is often a necessary evil. Email clichés: love ‘em or hate ‘em, we all use ‘em. Many of us are trapped in a terminal cycle of “reaching out” and “circling back” to make sure “we’re aligned.” Recent analysis from email verification company ZeroBounce looked at more than one million real work emails to find out which overused email phrases are the most common offenders. To no one’s surprise, “…

Every year, Audience Audit publishes a study on what agency clients really want—and the 2025 edition revealed a stat that should stop any agency leader in their tracks: 77% of clients say they’re more likely to hire an agency that’s a recognized AI expert (not just self-proclaimed). But only 32% believe their current agency fits that description. Here’s what’s more telling: When asked what they expect from their agency when it comes to AI, clients didn’t say “efficiency” or “cheaper deliverables.” They want new ideas, sharper analysis, and real guidance on how to use AI themselves. In other words, they’re not just looking for agencies that use AI. They want partners w…

What if, instead of working toward an exit strategy, we built companies for longevity? That’s the question at the heart of employee ownership. It’s not just a perk to lure talent. It’s a fundamentally different way of building a business, and one that might just be the key to long-term resilience. I’ve spent nearly my entire career inside a 100% employee-owned architecture, engineering, planning, and interiors design firm. Today as CEO, I lead its 1,800 employee-owners. I’ve seen firsthand how this model changes everything, from how team members treat clients to how the organization is able to weather change. But this isn’t a story about just one company. It’s abo…

In business, there’s one skill no leader would dare neglect: the financials. Financial literacy, like understanding a balance sheet, cash flow, or P&L, is one of the foundations for decision making. As climate change rewrites supply chains, consumer demand, and regulation, another fluency is becoming just as essential. Climate literacy will protect business growth and resilience, while leaders who ignore it are being left behind. But mastering it means more than knowing that emissions are a problem. It’s about being able to read, question, and apply environmental data the way a CFO interprets financials. Leaders must be able to ask, and know the answer to, questio…

As OpenAI rolls out its new social media app Sora—which allows users to prompt the company’s Sora 2 model to produce fantastical videos of almost anything—there are obvious concerns that the platform could be used to generate deepfakes and otherwise misleading content. To combat this problem, the company says it adjusted its systems to prevent users from manipulating images of other people, including political leaders like Donald The President, Kamala Harris, or Emmanuel Macron. If you try to generate an image of a public figure, the Sora app—which is still invitation-only—will generally tell you your prompt violates the platform’s guidelines. But OpenAI is also…

On Thursday October 16, New Yorkers and people across the country who have been watching the city’s mayoral race will tune in as Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa face off in the first of two mayoral debates, ahead of New York City’s upcoming election on November 4. The debate is set to take place in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center starting at 7:00 p.m. ET this evening. NBC 4 New York/WNBC, Telemundo 47/WNJU, and POLITICO New York are partnering to host the debate. The hotly contested three-way race is between Mamdani, a state assemblyman; Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losin…

As we scroll through our feeds, it’s not unusual to stumble upon AI-generated slop—the kind of empty, nonsensical content that’s unmistakably artificial. You click on one, and before you know it, your feed’s flooded with more of the same. It’s left users craving the authenticity they once savored—a pervasive frustration spreading across social media Pinterest has not been immune to the phenomenon. Described by Futurism as “strangled by AI slop,” the platform has been “engulfed in a torrent of uncanny AI-generated content, drowning out the human-made inspiration that once thrived there.” Amid a surge of complaints, the platform has rolled out new generative AI cont…

One of the most vital drugs with a high price tag will get dramatically more affordable next year – if you live in California. California will start selling insulin next year after striking out on its own in a bold deal to lower the cost of prescription drugs, making it the first state in the nation to do so. The state will offer low-cost insulin through CalRx, a state program designed to provide affordable life-saving drugs in California. “California didn’t wait for the pharmaceutical industry to do the right thing — we took matters into our own hands,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press release. “… No Californian should ever have to ration insulin…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking Tuesday at the National Association for Business Economics meeting in Philadelphia, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell offered his clearest reflection yet on the Fed’s pandemic-era mortgage bond buying. He acknowledged that the central bank may have kept purchasing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for too long—but he also suggested that those purchases may have had a smaller effect on the housing market’s trajectory than some assume. “Regarding the composition of our purchases, some have questioned the inclusion of agency MBS purchases …

Uber’s U.S. drivers and couriers have a new way to earn extra money. The ride-hail app announced on Thursday a new pilot program that will offer gig workers the opportunity to train artificial intelligence (AI) through so-called “digital tasks.” They include simple, quick tasks for workers such as uploading photos, recording themselves speaking in their native language, and submitting documents written in different languages—which are then fed into AI models. Uber already offers this for gig workers in India. “A lot of these tasks are digital, meaning you can do them from your phone . . . from anywhere, and at the same time create earnings opportunities,” Sac…

After months of uncertainty, some federal student loan borrowers will soon have their debt canceled. But there’s a hook: You must be enrolled in a very specific program and have made sufficient payments to qualify. Some borrowers have been receiving notices in recent weeks that read: “You are now eligible to have some or all of your federal student loan(s) discharged because you have reached the necessary number of payments under your Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan.” The IBR plan, first introduced in 2007, offers debt cancellation after 20 or 25 years of repayment, depending on the age of the loans. Nearly 2 million borrowers were enrolled in this program as o…

Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have sharply increased their use of artificial intelligence to deceive people online and mount cyberattacks against the United States, according to new research from Microsoft. This July, the company identified more than 200 instances of foreign adversaries using AI to create fake content online, more than double the number from July 2024 and more than ten times the number seen in 2023. The findings, published Thursday in Microsoft’s annual digital threats report, show how foreign adversaries are adopting new and innovative tactics in their efforts to weaponize the internet as a tool for espionage and deception. AI’s potent…

U.S. stock indexes are ticking higher on Thursday following an encouraging signal for the artificial-intelligence boom. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, though trading has been erratic this week, and stocks have repeatedly swung between gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 85 points, or 0.2%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher. Technology stocks helped lead the way after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a bigger jump in profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang also said TSMC expects “continued strong demand for our leading-edge process technologies” g…

It’s been two years since Howard Schultz retired from the board of directors of Starbucks, a company he founded and led for decades, but he still enjoys chatting with customers—as he did on Tuesday before sitting down for a wide-ranging interview with Dan Roth, editor-in-chief of LinkedIn. Schultz was curious to know what a customer thought of the coffee chain’s protein lattes that debuted last month and he says there’s no better place to source this information than one of the 40,000-plus Starbucks locations around the world. A sense of curiosity is important for a business leader, as well as a willingness to “be in the mud” and learn directly from customers, Schultz…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on the role of NSFW material on AI platforms, which could be complicated when AI platforms turn into social platforms. I also look at a powerful new Anthropic model for free Claude chatbot users. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @thesullivan. Sam Al…

When the lights finally dimmed at the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show last night, the first thing guests saw was a gold light emanating from backstage. Model Jasmine Tookes, nine months pregnant, opened the show in a gold macramé dress with drop pearls and a pearl and crystal wing in the shape of a clamshell. Art buffs might notice that the shell is a callback to Sandro Boticelli’s renaissance painting “Birth of Venus,” symbolizing sensuality, divine beauty, rebirth, and new beginnings. The cultural reference is a more elevated and considered nod to womanhood than the show’s previous themes, which have included “Santa’s Helpers” or “delicious sweets.” The loo…

When my teenage son developed mysterious symptoms, I followed the same path anyone else would: I put his health in the hands of a team of medical professionals. Multiple myeloma is a rare blood cancer. It is so uncommon in 17-year-olds that it doesn’t appear on diagnostic checklists. Despite having no clear starting point to work from, my son’s doctors worked their way to an accurate diagnosis through a process of trial and error, bouncing ideas off each other and testing and discarding hypotheses until they could tell us what was wrong. The process felt inefficient and uncertain at a time when I wanted fast answers and cast-iron guarantees. But this messy and distinctive…

During a recent New York Fashion Week, a wood-paneled boutique popped up in SoHo next to Louis Vuitton and Bottega Veneta. On the racks were tailored, wide-leg jeans and simple black Henley dresses that signaled understated elegance. But unlike those of neighboring boutiques, the clothes weren’t from a storied European maison de couture. They were some of the newest collections from Scoop and Free Assembly, two brands led by Brandon Maxwell, creative director at the House of Walmart. The pop-up—which featured items priced between $8 and $75—was part of the Bentonville, Arkansas–based retailer’s strategy to get its products in front of urban shoppers who might not be f…

For a generation of young Americans, choosing where to go to college — or whether to go at all — has become a complex calculation of costs and benefits that often revolves around a single question: Is the degree worth its price? Public confidence in higher education has plummeted in recent years amid high tuition prices, skyrocketing student loans and a dismal job market — plus ideological concerns from conservatives. Now, colleges are scrambling to prove their value to students. Borrowed from the business world, the term “return on investment” has been plastered on college advertisements across the U.S. A battery of new rankings grade campuses on the financial benefits…

Taiwan’s leading computer chip maker, TSMC, said Thursday that its net profit surged nearly 40% in the last quarter, boosted by the surge in use of artificial intelligence. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. is the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer. It reported a net profit of a record 452.3 billion new Taiwan dollars ($15 billion) in the July-September quarter, higher than analysts’ forecasts. The company earlier said its revenue jumped 30% year-on-year in the last quarter. TSMC has been building chip fabrication plants in the United States and Japan to help hedge against risks from China-U.S. trade tensions. The chipmaker is a major supplier to compani…

Back in 1987, President Ronald Reagan made a televised speech defending the principles of free trade, and slamming tariffs as a misguided policy that drives up prices and ultimately hurt American businesses, workers, and consumers. Now a Canadian ad campaign aimed at Americans is using that speech to remind Republican voters that Reagan’s views are still relevant. “High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said. “Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.” The ad began airing this week on Newsmax …

The The President administration is looking to provide an additional $20 billion in financing for Argentina through a mix of financing from sovereign funds and the private sector. That would come on top of the $20 billion credit swap line that the U.S. Treasury pledged to Argentine President Javier Milei and his government this month to bolster the South American nation’s collapsing currency. “We are working on a $20 billion facility that would complement our swap line, with private banks and sovereign funds that, I believe, would be more focused on the debt market,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters Wednesday. He called it “a private-sector solution” and …

Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet are the five largest corporations by market cap, with the value of their combined shares totaling more than $16 trillion. These firms each pull in multiple billions of dollars in profit annually, and so pay tens of billions of dollars in annual taxes, too. But like other corporate giants in the S&P 500, the companies are also spending massive amounts on shareholder payouts, funneling trillions of dollars to wealthy shareholders through stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. Over the past five years, those five largest companies spent more than $1 trillion on stock buybacks and dividends, according to a new ana…

If you have a stressful job, meditation can help—but it’s not easy to meditate at work. A new workplace pod is designed to help by giving you a private place to take a break, run through a guided meditation or breath work, and begin to experience benefits like improved focus and reduced burnout. OpenSeed, the startup behind the Iris Pod, launched in 2018 after founder Jonathan Marcoschamer attended a 10-day silent meditation course. He wanted to keep meditating during the day, but was working in an open plan office. “I couldn’t find anywhere to meditate,” he says. He also wanted to help make meditation more accessible for other people. So he started work on a prototyp…

People remember many things about Windows 95, which turned 30 a couple of months ago. There were its signature new features, such as the Start Button, taskbar, and long file names. The launch event—hosted by Jay Leno—at Microsoft’s campus. The TV commercials with the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.” The crowds of PC users so eager to get their hands on the upgrade that they descended on computer stores at midnight. Here’s a fact about Windows 95 that isn’t exactly iconic: It was the first voice-enabled version of Microsoft’s operating system. A collection of technologies known as the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) provided support for speech recognition and synthesis, lett…