What's on Your Mind?

This past June, Meta set off a bomb in the marketing world when it announced that it would fully automate the advertising on its platforms by 2026. People in advertising wondered: Is this the end of ad agencies as we know it? Has the AI “slopification” of social media finally been fully realized? The hyperbolic reaction is understandable—maybe even justified. With 3.43 billion unique active users across its platforms around the world, and an advertising machine that brought in $47.5 billion in Q2 sales alone (up 22% over last year), Meta is an accurate bellwether for where the ad business is heading. Meta has been working for years to build a machine that is al…

Megan Rapinoe, Caitlin Clark, Serena Williams, Mia Hamm, Lindsey Vonn—the list of high-profile, recognizable women athletes is growing. And track and field athletes may be the next to become household names. That’s the bet that Alexis Ohanian is making with Athlos, an all-women’s track and field league, which is hosting its second event in New York this week. Ohanian is perhaps best known as the cofounder of Reddit, but he’s also an investor who’s made no secret of his interest in investing in sports. During a press event in New York City this week, he said the idea for Athlos came to him while watching the Olympics, during which millions of people tune in to wa…

Greetings, salutations, and my thanks—as always—for reading Fast Company’s Plugged In. Me: “Are you here just to monitor for safety?” Guy sitting in the driver’s seat of the Tesla Model Y I’m riding in: “I can’t specify.” That was the extent of the conversation during a recent trip I took using Tesla’s Robotaxi service. I was curious why the car that picked me up had a human in it: After all, Tesla bills its service as “the future of autonomy,” and the car did, in fact, drive itself for the entirety of my 4.5-mile journey. But I didn’t get any answers from this guy—or Tesla the corporate entity, which prides itself on ignoring the media and didn’t reply to my …

With year-to-date hiring plans sinking to a 16-year low according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, many people are beginning to feel the impacts—and it’s reasonable enough to believe that artificial intelligence (AI) might have something to do with the slump. Zip, a company that creates procurement software, recently released a study that shows how AI might be factoring into hiring decisions even more than previously believed. The report surveyed 1,030 “experienced leaders” who are also responsible for some degree of spending and supply management within their companies. Seven in 10 of the leaders—which amounts to 67%—reported that they’re alre…

European shares were mixed in early trading while Asian shares mostly fell on Friday after a respite from Wall Street’s recent feverish rally. The price of gold also pulled back from record highs following recent torrid runs. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were both up less than 0.1%. Oil prices slipped. In early European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.2% to 24,652.73, while France’s CAC 40 added 0.4% to 8,076.96. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% to 9,498.95, weighed down by losses for mining and energy stocks. Most Asian indexes fell. But South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.7% to 3,610.60 as trading reopened after a holiday. India’s BSE …

Oil prices declined on Friday, after settling around 1.6% lower in the previous session, as the market’s risk premium faded after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a plan to end the war in Gaza. Brent crude futures were down 66 cents, or 1%, at $64.56 a barrel at 1016 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 61 cents, or 1%, to $60.90. “Finally having some kind of peace process in the Middle East is lowering the shoulders a little bit,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB. This could ease fears about crude carriers passing through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, he said. BOTH BENCHMARKS ON TRACK FOR WEEKLY GAINS Isra…

America’s defense technology sector is rapidly expanding. Top talent, ambitious founders, and serious capital are flooding into a mission that matters, delivering products and solutions that will send us to the moon, deploy unimaginably capable unmanned aerial devices, and redefine what’s possible in modern warfare. It’s an exciting moment—one full of possibility and potential. But here’s the problem: while everyone is focused on the moonshots, we’re overlooking the foundation. The unsexy stuff. The quiet, mission-critical gaps that don’t make headlines but could leave us dangerously vulnerable. We’re building skyscrapers without checking if the ground beneath us is s…

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.” The former opposition presidential candidate is a “key, unifying figure” in the once deeply divided opposition to President Nicolás Maduro’s government, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee. “In the past year, Ms. Machado has been forced to live in hiding,” Watne Frydnes said. “Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired m…

With Halloween on the horizon, Chicago Costume is stuffed. Packaged costumes, including superheros and Japanese animation characters in both kid and adult sizes, dangle near colorful wigs and bottles of fake blood. Downstairs, vintage clothes from the 1970s beg for one more boogie night. The frightening possibilities mask the work that’s gone on behind the scenes to stock the family-owned shop and its sister store for the spooky season. Owner Courtland Hickey said he ordered 40% fewer costumes this year because of President Donald The President’s tariffs on products from China. To fill the gap, Hickey and his mother, Chicago Costume founder Mary Hickey Panayotou, looked…

Yet another food retailer has joined the growing list of companies that have recalled pasta-related products over the last few weeks. Sprouts Farmers Market, a supermarket chain headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with stores across more than two dozen states, has voluntarily recalled select lots of Sprouts Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad due to a risk of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. On October 9, a recall notice was published to the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To date, no illnesses have been reported in connection with this recalled product. According to the notice, the recall is in response to Sprouts being alerted by…

Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad said Friday it is launching flights to Kabul, making it the latest airline to offer direct routes to the Afghan capital. Etihad, which announced a record $476 million profit in 2024, said the new service responded to “growing demand” for travel between the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan and that the three weekly flights starting in December would support “trade, travel, and community ties.” “The UAE hosts one of the largest Afghan communities in the Gulf, with around 300,000 Afghans living and working in the country, according to the Afghan Business Council,” the airline said in a statement. “The new flights will further strengthen these e…

Pope Leo XIV encouraged international news agencies on Thursday to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation, as he strongly backed a free, independent and objective press. History’s first American pope called for imprisoned journalists to be released and said the work of journalists must never be considered a crime. Rather, journalism is a right and a pillar upholding “the edifice of our societies” that must be protected and defended, he said. “If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them,” Leo said of journalists. “These extraordinary eyewitness accounts are the …

The other day, a friend confessed her new nightly routine: hiding in the bathroom for ten minutes after putting her kids to bed. The reason wasn’t to scroll TikTok, but to breathe. “It’s either that or cry into the mac and cheese,” she laughed. It struck me: parenting in 2025 often looks like quietly triaging our own stress while juggling work deadlines, permission slips, Slack pings, and dinner prep. Headlines scream about the youth mental health crisis, but what rarely makes the front page is the state of the people raising those kids. Working parents are running on fumes. And here’s the part we can’t gloss over: our kids’ emotional health is directly tied to ours. …

A potentially worrisome trend is emerging among young adults. Instead of landing a job and moving to the big city after graduation, many are moving back into their childhood homes instead. About 1.5 million more adults under 35 live with their parents today than a decade ago. That’s a 6.3% jump, more than double the rate of growth for the young adult population overall. The issue is affordability. Over the past decade, urban rents have climbed about 4% per year, while wages for full-time workers have increased by only 0.6% annually. That means it’s harder than ever to live in a big city on the typical salary—especially if you’re a new graduate without much work experi…

The teaching profession requires a certain degree of patience. Particularly when students discover a new trend to latch onto and repeat at every given opportunity. The latest so-called “brain rot” phrase to flood the classroom: “6-7.” If you don’t have any Gen Alphas in your life and have no idea what I’m talking about, count yourself lucky. Some teachers have taken to social media to share their exasperation with the trend that has recently overrun classrooms, with schools outright banning it in some instances. “Say 6-7 one more time,” one teacher posted on TikTok, pretending to address a student in her class. “We’re gonna call your mom in about 6-7 minutes, let …

To survive in today’s market, enterprises must deliver experiences that feel instant and intelligent. Customers expect brands to anticipate their needs and guide them through interactions that are seamless and personal. It’s the promise of having the right conversation at exactly the right moment. But here’s the reality check: While “real time” dominates boardroom conversations, most data ecosystems are anything but. MOVING BEYOND “NEXT BEST ACTION” For years, the “next best action” model has been the playbook for customer engagement. It takes available data, analyzes it, and delivers a single, data-driven response, like recommending a product or sending an off…

When we first started Little Spoon, our mission was clear: Make fresh, healthy food accessible at every age and stage of early childhood. But we quickly realized checking the proverbial boxes alone (nutritious: check, convenient: check) wasn’t enough. After all, parents are inundated with options—the decision fatigue surrounding parenting choices is overwhelming. What makes a brand stand apart isn’t utility; it’s the ability to understand and affirm who your customer is (and hopes to be). Parents want to feel emotionally supported, seen, and confident in their decisions, particularly within the vast excess of parenting advice in 2025: chock full of dated narrative…

Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad, whose notoriously brutal rule over the country earned him the nickname “The Butcher,” was deposed in 2024 after years of bloody civil war. Now, in a surreal cyberpunk twist, according to a report in German newsweekly Die Zeit, the former dictator is largely holed up in a luxury high rise in Moscow, where he routinely spends hours playing online video games. Assad, who practiced as a physician and was reportedly thought of as “geeky” during his medical training, also appears to enjoy stunning views of Moscow landmarks from his apartment, and has access to a villa outside the city. He also reportedly makes occasional visi…

Michelle, a 42-year-old marketing executive, was scrolling through her grocery app when she saw the total: $87. A year ago, her weekly cart never dipped below $200. Chips, late-night snacks, and bottles of wine had given way to produce, yogurt, and lean proteins. But that same morning, a $900 charge for her GLP-1 prescription landed on her credit card. Whatever she was saving at the supermarket felt dwarfed by the cost of her medication. Drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound are being hailed as medical breakthroughs. They’re not just changing waistlines—they’re changing household budgets. And as these shifts ripple through everyday spending, the finan…

Customer experience is entering the sci-fi age: knowing and understanding customers on an individual level, providing personalized service, and dedicated moments. All of this is becoming possible thanks to technological innovation. And as it shifts, we’re moving beyond the age of reactive service, where customer satisfaction was measured by stale, bi-annual surveys. We’re entering an era of proactive, predictive customer care. Companies’ missions today should be to transform every interaction into a moment of loyalty and growth, a goal we are working to achieve through our latest in-house innovation: the Customer Experience Index, or CXI. While many companies talk abo…

The cracks in postmodern economic theories are visible. They’ve spilled into politics, with governments slashing budgets worldwide. The spark came from Richard Thaler (Nudge) and Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow), but the roots run deeper. In 1978, Herbert Simon won the first Nobel Prize for behavioral economics. Thaler later brought the field into public view with his “anomalies” articles in the Journal of Economic Perspectives between 1987 and 1990. The message was clear: People act based on their environments. Psychology had already demonstrated this in clinical practice; economics eventually followed. With that, homo economicus—the hyperrational ac…

On October 10, shares of U.S. rare earth stocks rose after President Donald The President accused China of strict export controls and threatened a “massive increase of tariffs on Chinese products” once again. However, the comments ended up triggering a market sell-off. At issue, per CNBC: China imposed stricter export controls on critical rare earth minerals that the U.S. technology industry depends on for electronics, robotics, and electric vehicles; the minerals are also critical for the U.S. defense industry. The news network reported that China will now require foreign entities to obtain a license to export products that contain rare earth elements worth 0.1% or m…

Nearly every company I work with is focused on using AI to drive productivity and efficiency. They are starting to see real gains, and that’s leading to excitement about AI’s future potential. However, AI used to drive efficiency is only the starting line, and there’s real risk if we stop there. In my work with Fortune 500 leaders across the C-suite, from chief HR officers (CHROs) to CTOs and CMOs, I’ve seen that the very best organizations recognize a bigger opportunity: using AI to help managers build connection and trust with their teams. The companies that are able to leverage AI both to drive efficiency gains and to build highly motivated teams will be the ones that …

SpaceX’s Starlink orbital internet satellites are falling out of low earth orbit at an increasingly alarming rate, with one to two satellites now reentering Earth’s atmosphere every single day. According to Harvard-Smithsonian Center astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, that number will only go up as more satellites end their useful lifetime and the low earth orbit (LEO) constellation numbers skyrocket. This is as much a design problem as anything. While the numbers vary, right now there are around 10,200 active satellites in low earth orbit. Of those, about 8,475 are Starlinks. In other words, about 80% of all those satellites belong to Elon Musk’s company. By 2030,…

It’s hard to believe, but we’re only a few weeks away from Halloween, and after that comes November—and the unofficial start of the holiday season. If you travel during this time, you’ll know that finding cheap flights can be difficult. To get the best prices, people traditionally turn to comparison sites like Kayak and SkyScanner. However, as artificial intelligence seems to be taking over everything, and the tech industry won’t stop shouting about its benefits, I decided to try three conversational AI tools to see if they could help me find the cheapest flight deal for the Thanksgiving period. Here’s how that went. Flights listed on ChatGPT The first tool I …