What's on Your Mind?

Some common business models can be described as B2C and B2B, which are “business-to-consumer,” and “business-to-business,” respectively. But now, get ready for “B2AI,” or “business-to-AI.” That’s one of the potential disruptions on the horizon, identified in a new report from Visa and the Institute for the Future. The report digs into the numerous ways that AI will transform commerce, and to some degree personal finance, including how consumers will likely lasso AI for their own means—and how businesses will, in turn, develop AI agents to communicate and correspond with consumers’ AIs. While many people likely haven’t adopted “personal” AI tools yet, they’re on th…

Two California Democrats have introduced a bill that would allow rideshare drivers to bargain with gig companies, including Uber and Lyft, for better pay and certain benefits. The measure, Assembly Bill 1340, is likely to face steep opposition from the gig companies that rely on thousands of independent workers to keep their services operating at an accessible price point. “The bill would empower rideshare drivers with the right to organize for better working conditions and establish a process for gig drivers to choose their union,” California’s Service Employees International Union, which is supporting the bill, said in a press release. “It would protect workers …

You’ve probably heard of Charles and Ray Eames, the designers behind the iconic Eames chair and ottoman, and Georgia O’Keefe, the trailblazing artist. But you might not know about how these artists were connected during their careers—or the art that came from their camaraderie. Herman Miller, in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is bringing that history to light with a new limited-run furniture line. The New Mexico Collection, set to be released on May 20, celebrates the Eameses, O’Keeffe, and designer Alexander Girard, the founding director of Herman Miller’s textile division. Included in the launch are 300 special Eames Wire Chairs, retailing for $1,9…

Launched in September, Overdrive, has taken an unconventional approach to harm reduction. Founded by Brian Bordainick, who also started emergency contraception company Julie and acne patch company Starface, the company has used its playbook of taking a fun, edgier branding approach to drugstore products—in this case testing kits for fentanyl and for seeing if a drink has been spiked— to appeal to a newer generation of consumers. Unlike sterile, medical-looking drug testing kits, Overdrive’s are designed to stand out with industrial-themed packaging that resembles a cigarette carton. It’s all in the service of turning lifesaving testing into less of a buzzkill on a nig…

Humans, for all our intellectual sophistication, are still tribal creatures at heart. We tend to gravitate toward people who are like us—individuals who look like us, think like us, share our values, and even mirror our quirks and tastes. On the surface, this makes intuitive sense. It explains the evolutionary origins of empathy: we feel the joys, sorrows, and struggles of others more deeply when we perceive them as part of our own “in-group.” But here’s the catch: What feels good for individuals can be disastrous for diversity. If left unchecked, our biological instinct to seek sameness undermines one of the core ingredients of high-performing organizations—diver…

As the Class of 2025 graduates into an uncertain and fast-changing working world, they face a crucial question: What does it mean to be successful? Is it better to take a job that pays more, or one that’s more prestigious? Should you prioritize advancement, relationship building, community impact or even the opportunity to live somewhere new? Sorting through these questions can feel overwhelming. I am a business school professor who spends a lot of time mentoring students and alumni in Generation Z — those born between 1997 and 2012. As part of this effort, I’ve surveyed about 300 former undergraduate students and spoken at length with about 50 of them. Throug…

Spain has ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 holiday listings on its platform for having violated rules, the Consumer Rights Ministry said Monday. The ministry said that many of the 65,935 Airbnb listings it had ordered to be withdrawn did not include their license number or specify whether the owner was an individual or a company. Others listed numbers that didn’t match what authorities had, it said. Spain is grappling with a housing affordability crisis that has spurred government action against short-term rental companies. In recent months, tens of thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets protesting rising housing and rental costs, which many …

Destination weddings are out, and virtual weddings are in. Rather than traveling to the Amalfi Coast or Provence, Wired recently interviewed a couple who chose to host their nuptials in the place they first met and fell in love: Minecraft. Sarah Nguyen, 24, from Portland, Oregon, and Jamie Patel, 25, from Leicester, England, met at 13 years old on a Minecraft role-play server. “It’s the closest thing we have to a shared home,” Nguyen told Wired. Most of their relationship was long-distance, lived out in the virtual world (the couple now resides together in Portland). Even Patel’s proposal took place atop a scenic mountain in Minecraft, delivered via in-game di…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. In 2005, the median U.S. homeowner lived and owned their primary home for 6.5 years. In 2024, the median U.S. homeowner lived and owned their primary home for 11.8 years. That’s according to Redfin’s latest analysis. That means the typical U.S. home today has been owned by the same person for nearly twice as long as in 2005—resulting in less turnover in the housing market. That affects the entire ecosystem. For some millennials and Gen Xers, it could mean staying longer in their starter homes as they struggle to find a move-up property in their desir…

Across the United States, there is a long history of communities of color being underserved—if not outright oppressed—by the dominant modes of urban planning and development. But for the past 10 years, a collective of architects, designers, artists, and urban planners called BlackSpace has been rethinking how communities of color get designed and built. Now, the group is trying to build up the ranks of practitioners working alongside communities of color in the built environment to make sure their needs are no longer overlooked or ignored. To spread this work through young and emerging firms, BlackSpace has launched Studio KIN (Kinfolx Imagining Neighborhoods), a busi…

There is a nationwide talent war for frontline, skilled workers, and unfortunately, too many companies are losing. Turnover among deskless workers, who account for about 80% of the workforce globally, is high, and they are notoriously difficult to train through traditional training programs. Corporate training solutions that work for someone sitting behind a desk rarely work for someone on a job site or factory floor. HR professionals cited employee engagement, retention, and recruitment as the top management challenges within the deskless workforce, according to a Society for Human Resource Management study. Unlike office workers with predictable schedules and easy …

The first Mission: Impossible film came out in 1996 when star Tom Cruise was 34 years old. Fast-forward to Memorial Day weekend 2025: Cruise is 62 and there’s speculation that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning could be the last movie in the franchise. Is this just a marketing ploy to get fans in theaters to kick off the summer blockbuster season? Who knows. Let’s take a look at the history of these films, their box-office earning power, and what Cruise himself has said about the movies over the years. A brief history of the Mission: Impossible franchise The Mission: Impossible films are based on the 1966 TV series of the same name, which was created by…

The streaming service branding game of musical chairs continued this week when Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced the streaming platform Max would once again be called HBO Max, starting this summer. It’s a complete brand reversal from a switch the company made back in 2023, when it ditched the “HBO” in its name for a head scratching “Max.” It immediately brought to mind this joke from 2024: “It’s on Tubu. It’s literally on Heebee. It’s on Poodee with ads. It’s literally on Dippy. You can probably find it on Weeno. Dude it’s on Gumpy. It’s a Pheebo original. It’s on Poob. You can watch it on Poob. You can go to Poob and watch it. Log onto Poob right now.” https…

Ever wonder why the sound of rain makes you instantly drowsy, but a ticking clock drives you up the wall? That’s because not all noise soothes the brain in the same way. Sleep sounds might seem like just background buzz, but they’re carefully engineered to allow your brain to let go. Behind every babbling brook or rainforest storm track is an intricate design meant to quiet the mind, block out distractions, and nudge you toward sleep. As more people rely on sleep sounds to wind down, the industry behind them has surged, which is evidence of just how common this nightly ritual has become. Mediation and mindfulness app Headspace, says 51% of listeners use its sleep con…

Those who work a 9-to-5 know nabbing one of the few available weekend slots with your hairdresser or nail technician requires a huge amount of forethought. Or how time-consuming it can be to get your oil changed, buy your groceries, or wait in line at the post office. The two-day weekend is simply too short to squeeze in all the errands and life admin that builds up throughout the week. So rather than wasting precious leisure time—or worse, PTO—some workers are going ahead and scheduling their appointments on company time. “A little reminder to everyone who works in corporate that no one at work actually needs to know what your appointments are for,” one viral T…

Students are still setting fire to their Chromebooks for TikTok—and now they’re facing the consequences. Fast Company first reported on the #ChromebookChallenge trend last week, following a series of school evacuations caused by students igniting laptop fires. The fires are started by inserting items such as pencils, paper clips, and pushpins into the charging ports of school-issued Chromebooks. This can cause the battery to overheat, potentially sparking a fire or explosion that releases toxic fumes. The #ChromebookChallenge reportedly began in Connecticut and has since spread rapidly. Newington High School was the first to evacuate students on May 1 after a …

The AI boom is driving an explosive surge in computational demands and reshaping the landscape of technology, infrastructure, and innovation. One of the biggest barriers to widespread AI deployment today is access to power. Some estimates suggest AI-driven data centers now consume more electricity than entire nations. The World Economic Forum projects a doubling of energy use by data centers from 2024 to 2027, driven by the energy-intensive nature of AI workloads. This surge in electricity demand is transforming the utilities industry and redefining how and where data centers are built—power is no longer a given. In the U.S, electricity usage is growing for the first …

Apple is considering reworking its Safari web browser across its devices to place a greater emphasis on AI-powered search engines, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The disclosure came from Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, during his testimony Wednesday in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Alphabet. Cue was speaking about the two companies’ $20 billion-a-year deal that makes Google the default search engine on Apple’s browsers. The Apple executive said he expects AI search providers—like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity—to eventually replace standard sources like Google. Apple has already seen a decline in Safari searches for the first t…

What happens when someone comes close to death and then returns to everyday life, including work? For some, the experience can be transformative. Near-death experiences (NDEs) are deeply personal experiences that some people report after a close brush with death. These experiences can include sensations such as floating above one’s body, reviewing moments from one’s life, encountering spiritual beings and feeling a profound sense of unity and love. Although NDEs have been studied since the 1970s, we know relatively little about how they affect people after the event. Research suggests people who have near-death experiences may feel increased empathy, spiritual gro…

The Walt Disney Company’s stock price soared on Wednesday, up by 10% at the time of publishing, as the company surpassed earnings expectations and unveiled its first new theme park development in 15 years. Following Disney’s second quarter earnings report, the entertainment giant announced an agreement to build a new resort and theme park in Yas Island, United Arab Emirates. “As our seventh theme park destination, it will rise from this land in spectacular fashion, blending contemporary architecture with cutting edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. While…