What's on Your Mind?

We know that having friends at work is good for your performance and happiness. But could ChatGPT replace your happy hour bestie? According to a new study from KPMG that surveyed more than 1,000 professionals, almost all (99%) would be open to the idea of an AI chatbot assuming the role of close friend or trusted companion at work. That same study teases out a separate, also compelling thread: 45% of workers reported feelings of loneliness at work. That’s a huge jump, up nearly double from last year. On top of that, the survey found that friendship seems to be a big priority for most workers—even over money. More than half (57%) of those surveyed said they wo…

In 2008, the American dream of homeownership morphed into a nightmare that tanked the global economy. The culprit? A toxic mix of bad mortgages and casino mentality. Today, another financial time bomb is ticking—and this one is fueled by rising seas, wildfires, and a lethal dose of denial. Climate change is quietly corroding the foundations of the U.S. housing market. From Florida’s hurricane-battered coasts to California’s fire-razed suburbs, a crisis is brewing that could make the subprime mortgage collapse look like a warm-up act. The crisis will be triggered by home insurance. To get a mortgage, you need homeowner’s insurance. But in climate-vulnerab…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. Will native-AI operating systems run our computers in the near future? Samantha, the AI that Theodore falls in love with in the 2013 movie Her is actually an OS. That’s how he meets her: He buys a new OS called OS1 (“it’s not just an operating system, it’s a consciousness”) and “she” is its persona. Samantha becomes his intuitive and personalized companion to all his digital stuff, from email to video games. ChatGPT set off the generative AI boom in part because consumers (not just aca…

Catherine Bashiama runs her fingers along the branches of the coffee tree she’s raised from a seedling, searching anxiously for its first fruit buds since she planted it three years ago. When she grasps the small cherries, Bashiama beams. The farmer had never grown coffee in her village in western South Sudan, but now hopes a rare, climate-resistant species will help pull her family from poverty. “I want to send my children to school so they can be the future generation,” said Bashiama, a mother of 12. Discovered more than a century ago in South Sudan, excelsa coffee is exciting cash-strapped locals and drawing interest from the international community amid a global cof…

In the Marshall Islands, where the land averages only 7 feet (2 meters) above sea level, people are acutely aware of climate change. Their ancestors have lived on this string of Pacific islands for thousands of years. But as sea level rises, storms more easily flood communities and farmland with saltwater. Warming ocean water has triggered mass coral-bleaching events, harming habitats that are important for both tourism and fish that the islands’ economy relies on. If the world fails to rein in the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, studies suggest low-lying islands like these could be uninhabitable within decades. Marshall Islands Preside…

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…

Below, Ranjay Gulati shares five key insights from his new book, How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage. Gulati is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. He is a leading expert on purpose-driven leadership and helps organizations unlock growth and meaning. What’s the big idea? Courage is essential in the uncertain world we live in. It allows us to expand our horizons, grow in unexpected ways, and reach our fullest potential by taking bold action. How to Be Bold provides a road map for understanding what courage really is, explains why it’s important in our personal and professional lives, and offers a set of pract…

Personalized vaccines that steer the immune system to fight unique cancer cells show promise, but another powerful way to treat cancer might be hiding in plain sight. People being treated for advanced skin and lung cancer lived longer if they had received a Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Both vaccines work using mRNA, which prompts cells to make a virus-like protein that triggers a useful immune response and teaches the body how to protect itself. When a team working to develop personalized mRNA cancer vaccines found that those vaccines were mostly effective due to the broad immune response they prom…

As the dust settles on a botched logo redesign that turned it into a political and cultural flashpoint this summer, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is no doubt looking to put 2025 behind it. In the meantime, the restaurant company has also trimmed its physical footprint as it looks to 2026. Reporting its fourth-quarter financial results earlier this month, Cracker Barrel revealed the planned closure of 14 Maple Street Biscuit Company locations. That amounts to roughly 21% of its company-owned stores for the fast-casual brand, which Cracker Barrel acquired in 2019 for $36 million. The company is projecting revenue for fiscal 2026 of $3.35 billion to $3.45 bi…

Cracker Barrel posted lower-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter and trimmed its revenue forecast for the year as it continued to feel the fallout from a botched plan to revamp its logo and restaurants. The Lebanon, Tennessee-based restaurant chain said Tuesday its revenue fell 5.7% to $797.2 million in the three months ending Oct. 31. That was lower than the $800 million Wall Street anticipated, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Cracker Barrel said its same-store restaurant sales dropped 4.7% while sales in its retail shops dropped 8.5%. Those declines were also slightly higher than analysts forecast. Cracker Barrel said it now expects total revenue …

Decades after selling Americans on the idea of jumping through transactions with online strangers, Craig Newmark is trying to get them to hold off on clicking through. Last September, the Craiglist founder-turned-philanthropist and tech-policy activist launched Take9, a program pushing a nontechnical response to the complex problems of online scams and frauds. Traditionally, security advice has focused on tools: Install security updates promptly, use a password manager, enable multifactor authentication, and upgrade to passkey logins if you can. But phishing scams, misinformation campaigns, and other digital attempts to part people from their money, or their a…

Ask yourself one question: Is your incentive plan changing employee behavior in a way that drives better business outcomes? If the answer is no, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Profit sharing, stock options, and employee ownership are popular tools, and in many cases they’re useful. Employees generally appreciate them. But here’s the catch: Appreciation doesn’t equal action. And more importantly, satisfaction isn’t engagement. Too often, these programs fail to move the needle where it matters most: day-to-day performance. If your performance compensation doesn’t change performance, it’s not performance compensation. Over the past three decades, working with hu…

From the outside looking in, the life of a content creator is enviable. Shopping, jet-setting, star-studded events, all documented for their audience of thousands. But new research tells a different story. A study by Creators 4 Mental Health, conducted in partnership with Lupiani Insights & Strategies and sponsored by Opus, BeReal, Social Currant, Statusphere, and the nonprofit AAKOMA Project, spoke to more than 500 full- and part-time creators across North America about their work, mental health, and well-being. One in ten creators reported having suicidal thoughts tied to their work. That rate is nearly double the national average of 5.5%, according to the…

Brendan Vaughn, editor-in-chief of ‘Fast Company,’ interviews Credo AI’s CEO on AI governance trends at the World Economic Forum 2025. View the full article

There are plenty of questionable examples of companies shoehorning useless artificial intelligence features into their products (Meta’s AI-powered profiles say hello!), but finally, Crocs has found one that actually makes sense. The casual footwear brand has partnered with ABLO, an AI fashion design platform, to let people use AI to design their own Jibbitz charms. Crocs are already all about customization, a strategy that’s helped the brand grow its revenue 4% over last year. Jibbitz charms, which can be plugged into the holes on the shoes’ upper and heel strap, add an extra layer of personalization, and AI takes that to the next level. “We have Jibbitz for ever…

Crocs have taken a lot of forms over the years. From collaborating with Balenciaga to send 10 inch platform clogs down the runway to collaborating with Taco Bell to make a sold-out Mellow Slide together, Crocs is no stranger to whimsy. Now, Cros is partnering with the happy-go-lucky Finnish design house Marimekko to produce a line of shoes that feature the brand’s signature prints. “Marimekko and Crocs both have a very similar brand philosophy to bring joy, positive energy and playfulness to the world,” says Rebekka Bay, Marimekko’s Creative Director. “Our lifelong mission at Marimekko is to bring joy and color to people’s everyday lives, and collaborations with glob…

Why do so many global projects falter? Often, it isn’t because executives misread market data or underestimate competitors; it’s because they misread each other. Cross‑cultural communication is less about translation and more about decoding invisible frameworks—values, norms, and assumptions—that shape how people work. Ignoring those frameworks turns diversity into a liability. Leaders who master cultural intelligence transform it into a strategic advantage. The hidden costs of miscommunication Consider a seemingly routine performance review. Erin Meyer recounts how a French manager, working for an American boss in London, left her evaluation buoyed by the comment,…

CrowdStrike reiterated its fiscal 2026 first quarter and annual forecasts on Wednesday and announced a plan to cut about 500 roles, roughly 5% of its workforce, to streamline operations and reduce costs. The cybersecurity company will incur about $36 million to $53 million in charges related to the layoffs, of which about $7 million will be recognized in the first quarter ended April 30, it said in a regulatory filing. Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike said the rest of the charges will be seen in the second quarter. The charges primarily consist of future cash expenditure related to severance payments, employee benefits, and related costs. The company’s shares w…

Stocks rose in morning trading on Wall Street Monday to kick off the first full week of the new year, led by energy and technology companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 639 points, or 1.3%, as of 10:55 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%. Markets in Asia and Europe were mostly higher. Energy companies and the oil market were a key focus after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a weekend raid. The price of U.S. crude jumped 1.4% to $58.13 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.2% to $61.50 per barrel. President Donald The President has floated a plan fo…

Say what you will about Crumbl Cookies. It’s always sure to get a reaction. Earlier this month, when a sudden swirl of social media rumors began to suggest that the polarizing bakery chain was closing down, some of the online reactions were downright gleeful. “Too sweet and too expensive!” went one typical comment. The chatter was so loud that Crumbl cofounder Sawyer Hemsley took to TikTok to dispel the rumor, explaining that the fast-growing chain is just moving offices as it prepares for its next wave of expansion. But while reports of Crumbl’s demise may be premature, the chain has in fact closed a number of locations over the last few years following a pe…