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If you’re a traveler like me, chances are you’re always on the lookout for ways to make your trips more affordable. That’s why I collect points and miles: they help me lower my travel costs so I can spend my money on what’s actually important…which is usually booking more trips! One card that can help you earn more points and miles — which translates to more free flights and free hotel stays — is the Capital One Venture Business card. It’s an easy-to-use card perfect for travels who want to simplify their points and miles collecting. Here’s everything you need to know about the card to help decide if it’s for you. It’s a solid business card for those who don’t want a high annaul fee card but want some added perks besides just getting miles when you spend money. What Is It? The Capital One Venture Business card is the new rebranded version of Capital One’s Spark Miles. But it has some noteworthy improvements that I think make it worth adding to your wallet. Here’s a look at the card’s main perks: A welcome offer of up to to 150,000 miles Standard 2x miles on every purchase 5x miles on travel purchases (via their portal) $50 annual travel credit $50 annual statement credit Up to $120 for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck Hertz Five Star status No foreign transaction fees The annual fee for the card is just $95, which means it’s effectively free once you factor in the two statement credits. With a default 2x miles for every dollar spent, that makes this card a solid choice for everyday spending. And without a ton of differing spending categories, the card is very easy to use, making it perfect for travelers new to the points and miles game. Rental Car Perks In addition to giving you Hertz Five Star status, which lets you skip the counter at select locations while also offering a wider selection of cars, the card also offers rental car coverage when renting a car for business reasons. You’ll need to charge the full fee to your card and also decline the company’s collision damage waiver, but once you do that, you’ll be covered for damage due to both collisions and theft. While I don’t often rent cars for work, I appreciate the free collision coverage and being able to skip the line (especially at busier rental locations). Travel Partners With this card, you’ll earn Capital One miles. You can use them like you would any other rewards program: to get cash back, book travel directly, or transfer them to travel partners. The easiest option is to redeem your miles for travel in the Capital One travel portal, which works like booking through Expedia or any other online travel agency. Doing so is very straightforward. You simply search for and book your flight, hotel, or rental car and choose “miles” as your payment method. It’s basically like using your miles as cash, at a value of one cent per mile. Both options are super easy to implement, which is why this is a great card for newbies. And if this is the only way that you’ll use your miles, go for it! Using them is better than letting them sit around. However, you can usually get more for your miles when you transfer them to Capital One’s transfer partners. The ability to transfer to travel partners is what makes Capital One miles valuable. While the actual value varies based on what you book, you can usually find airline and hotel redemptions worth much more than the aforementioned 1 cent per mile. Transferring to travel partners is a bit more work than using the portal, but there are more tools than ever to help you maximize your miles (such as point.me for finding flights and Awayz for finding award hotel stays). Here are their current hotel and airline transfer partners: Accor Live Limitless Aeromexico Rewards Air Canada Aeroplan Avianca Lifemiles British Airways Club Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Choice Privileges Emirates Skywards Etihad Guest EVA Air Finnair Plus Flying Blue I Prefer Hotel Rewards Japan Airlines Mileage Bank JetBlue TrueBlue Qantas Frequent Flyer Qatar Airways Privilege Club Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer TAP Miles&Go Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Virgin Red Wyndham Rewards Who Is This Card For? This card is best for business travelers who are looking for an easy-to-use card to help them earn points and miles. While I personally think the Capital One Venture X Business card is a better card, it comes with a higher annual fee so, if you want a solid travel card for your business and don’t need the upgraded perks of the Venture X card, this is the Capital One card for you. And since the credits cover the annual fee, the card is essentially free! *** The new Capital One Venture Business card has an amazing welcome offer, a respectable 2x on every purchase, and some solid perks for regular travelers. And with its low annual fee, this card is a no brainer for travelers looking for a new business card. I just wouldn’t wait too long — this huge welcome offer isn’t gonna last forever! Stop paying full price for travel! Download my free guide to points and miles and learn how to use points and miles for free travel! It's how all the pros travel so much! In this guide, I'll show you: How to Pick a Credit Card How to Earn Up to 10x Miles on Your Spending How to Redeem Your Points And a Ton of Other Money Saving Tips! Get the guide Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner. It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned. Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are: SafetyWing (best for budget travelers) World Nomads (best for mid-range travelers) InsureMyTrip (for those 70 and over) Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage) Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals. Need a Rental Car? Discover Cars is a budget-friendly international car rental website. No matter where you’re headed, they’ll be able to find the best — and cheapest — rental for your trip! Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more. Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip. The post Capital One Venture Business Card Review appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site. View the full article

It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers. * If you submitted a question to me recently, please do not repost it here, as it may be in my queue to answer. The post open thread – May 1, 2026 appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Refinances drove growth of last year's lending activity, with both the volume share and average loan size coming in noticeably higher, according to IEmergent. View the full article

Artificial intelligence is permeating workplaces, changing the nature of jobs of every stripe. Teachers are using it to create lesson plans and grade papers. Marketing professionals are harnessing it to work a room and learn about the needs of potential clients. Product managers are asking AI to serve as an interpreter when technical conversations went over their heads in meetings. Some people who employ AI tools are concerned that widespread use of the technology could erode critical thinking skills, especially among children. They also caution that AI-assisted work needs to be checked carefully because the tools have been known to hallucinate and make mistakes. Here are some ways that people with a range of jobs use artificial intelligence to save time and generate ideas. Unpacking jargon One creative way Kristin Moore, a technical product manager at PERQ, a digital marketing platform for property management companies, uses AI is to help ensure she understands her colleagues’ technically advanced conversations. If she’s in a meeting and engineers talk through a topic in a way that she doesn’t grasp, she can upload the recorded conversation through Claude, AI assistant built by Anthropic, and ask it to summarize what she needs to do to follow up. “It picks up on all of that terminology that I don’t understand, and it can simplify it into something that I can consume,” Moore said. She also asks the AI tool to read through emails, support tickets, recorded meetings and conversations to determine what her clients would like her company to build. “It’s definitely freed up hours and hours of my week,” Moore said. Grading papers Kyle Weimar, an elementary school teacher for Charter Schools USA, serves as coordinator of a Florida school’s multi-tiered support system, a position that involves creating plans to help children performing at the bottom 20% of the student population. In that role, he uploads test scores, report cards and health information into his school district’s AI tool. Then he asks it before meetings to help brainstorm what the district can do to help each child. Weimar has also used AI to grade papers. He says he can upload 100 to an AI agent, give it a scoring guide, and let it grade and give students instant feedback. “I can do that in 30 minutes, whereas it would have taken me a week before,” he said. Teachers are really overwhelmed with work, “so any tools that we can use to make that a little bit more viable, we’re really excited about using,” Weimar said. Working a room Ashley Smith, head of marketing at HireQuest, a staffing and recruiting company with about 400 franchises, used Claude to build a dashboard that analyzes website traffic data and social media trends. It reports what the HireQuest’s followers are reacting to or ignoring, and Smith uses the information to inform franchisees about how to win more business, she said. When members of her sales team attended a huge manufacturing trade show recently, she asked them to take screenshots of the companies they wanted to pursue. She uploaded the images to an AI platform and prompted it to build a list including company names and, based on press releases and stock reports, insights on what their staffing needs might be over the next 18 to 24 months. The hours Smith said she saved by handing off that research task to AI let her spend more one-on-one time with her franchisees. “AI has not replaced anything. It’s only expanded what we’re able to offer to our franchisees,” Smith said. “It allows us to do things that, candidly, we just weren’t able to deliver even as short as two years ago.” Rebranding the Brawny paper towel man A design leader at Georgia Pacific, the pulp and paper company that makes Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper and other consumer products, says he uses AI to create quick visuals. When brainstorming how to modernize the Brawny paper towel brand, for example, Andrew Markle said his team asked AI to depict what the man shown on their packaging would look like with a longer or shorter beard. Using AI helped people on the team review ideas more quickly, and the tool also offered predictions for how target consumers might respond, Markle said. “It’s not replacing the creative eye of what’s good and what’s appropriate for our business,” Markle said. “Ultimately, we knew we were going to partner with our ad agency. We have an illustrator that’s going to do the final vision.” Creating quizzes to help learn material Kenneth Lynch, a special education coach in Tulsa, Oklahoma, teaches developmentally disabled students life skills to help them live independently. He uses AI to develop quizzes as learning materials. For example, when he was working with a student who wanted to pursue automotive work, Lynch uploaded a book of mechanical instructions to an AI tool that generated quizzes for each chapter. He is more reluctant to trust AI when it comes to soliciting guidance on psychological conditions. “When I look up different types of diagnosis and try to connect comorbid diagnoses together, it really struggles with understanding how those fit together,” Lynch said. Preparing for meetings and drafting emails Ravi Pendse, the University of Michigan’s chief information officer, has used AI to prepare for meetings by asking the tool to predict what questions he might get asked. “It has made me a lot more efficient,” Pendse said. “It gives me more time to focus on my own mental health and wellness.” The University of Michigan also created an AI tutor that professors can tailor to help students with coursework material around-the-clock, he said. But Pendse is mindful to use AI responsibly. “We all should be thinking about how we ensure that AI does not erode our critical thinking skills, especially those of our children,” Pendse said. “As we grew up, we learned from our mistakes. We wrote bad papers, and we got better.” One way that Bob Jones, the university’s assistant vice president of emerging technology and support services, uses AI is making sure his emails are succinct enough for the intended audience. “If I’m communicating about a particularly sticky topic, I want to make sure that I’m neutral and thoughtful,” Jones said. “So the idea of really assessing how I’m presenting myself, AI is really good at that.” Understanding customer needs The marketing director at SumnerOne, a company that delivers printers, copiers, and IT services, asks her AI tool to help create email campaigns, social media posts and slide decks. Natalie Blythe said she also uses it to help understand her ideal customers. For example, when aiming to sell printing services to universities, she asked chatGPT, an AI tool created by OpenAI, to create a probable demographic profile of an admissions director at a university. Then she asked it to predict what the director’s top five problems might be and to identify ways her company’s products could help solve them. “When it first started up, I was in the camp of, ‘Oh my God, this is the end for us,'” Blythe said about the early days of AI. But rather than just fear it, she dug in and started learning. “The efficiencies gained out of it have been tremendous,” she said. __ Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well —Cathy Bussewitz, Associated Press View the full article

Learn how to use Semrush tools to prepare your site for agentic search. View the full article

Elon Musk on Thursday sparred with an attorney for OpenAI during his third day of testimony in the contentious trial over the company’s pivot from nonprofit status to a for-profit venture valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. The trial centers on the 2015 birth of the ChatGPT maker as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk. It pits the world’s richest person against Sam Altman, a fellow OpenAI co-founder he accuses of betraying promises to keep the company as a nonprofit dedicated to humanity’s benefit. Tempers have flared on both sides of the high-stakes trial, as the morning began with an existential discussion about the future of humanity — complete with references to “The Terminator” movies — and how much witness testimony would focus on AI safety. “Your client, despite these risks, is creating a company that is in the exact same space,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told Musk’s lawyers, referring to the billionaire’s xAI, which launched in 2023. People, she said, “don’t want to put the future of humanity into Mr. Musk’s hands,” and instructed the parties not to discuss the dangers of AI to humanity during the course of the trial. “This is not a trial on the safety risks of artificial intelligence. This is not a trial on whether or not AI has damaged humanity,” she said. “It could be one day in a federal court in this country that we may have that trial. That is not this trial and we are not going to get sidetracked on that issue in this trial.” On the stand, Musk has taken issue with the cross-examination by opposing attorney William Savitt, accusing him of asking misleading questions designed to trick him and the jury. At one point Thursday, Savitt asked Musk about earlier testimony where he said that as long as investor profits were capped, OpenAI wasn’t in violation of agreements to keep it a nonprofit. “It depends on how high the cap is,” Musk replied. Savitt then said that “wasn’t your complete answer yesterday right?” In response, Musk said “few answers are going to be complete, especially if you cut me off all the time.” He added that if the cap is “super high,” then OpenAI is “really a for-profit at that point.” Lawyers for OpenAI have rejected the allegations brought in Musk’s civil lawsuit and said there were never promises that the company would remain a nonprofit forever. The company has argued Musk’s legal challenge is aimed at undercutting OpenAI’s rapid growth and bolstering Musk’s xAI, which he launched in 2023 as a competitor. The trial in federal court in Oakland, California, is scheduled to continue through late May. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers excused Musk from the witness stand Thursday, but he may be called back later. During the cross-examination, Savitt also asked Musk about his companies — Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and X — and whether they were all for-profit. Musk replied yes, and affirmed that he believes all of these companies are “socially beneficial.” Savitt then asked why Musk hasn’t started a nonprofit himself, eight years after he left OpenAI. “I thought I had started a nonprofit with OpenAI but they stole it,” Musk replied, adding that this is “the entire basis of this lawsuit.” —Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer View the full article

I’ve built 10+ SEO agent skills in 34 days. Six worked on the first try. The other four taught me everything I’m about to show you about the folder structure most LinkedIn posts about AI SEO skills gloss over. What makes these agents reliable isn’t better prompts. It’s the architecture behind them. Here’s how to build an agent from scratch, test it, fix it, and ship it with confidence. Why most AI SEO skills fail Here’s what a typical “AI SEO prompt” looks like on LinkedIn: You are an SEO expert. Analyze the following website and provide a comprehensive audit with recommendations. That’s it. One prompt. Maybe some formatting instructions. The person posts a screenshot of the output, gets 500 likes, and moves on. The output looks professional. It reads well. It’s also 40% wrong. I know because I tried this exact approach. Early in the build, I pointed an agent at a website and said, “find SEO issues.” It came back with 20 findings. Eight didn’t exist. The agent had never visited some of the URLs it was reporting on. Three problems kill single-prompt skills: No tools: The agent has no way to actually check the website. It’s working from training data and guessing. When you ask, “Does this site have canonical tags?” the agent imagines what the site probably looks like rather than fetching the HTML and parsing it. No verification: Nobody checks if the output is true. The agent says, “missing meta descriptions on 15 pages.” Which 15? Are those pages even indexed? Are they noindexed on purpose? No one asks. No one verifies. No memory: Run the same skill twice, you get different output. Different structure. Different severity labels. Sometimes different findings entirely. There’s no consistency because there’s no template, no schema, no record of past runs. If your skill is a prompt in a single file, you don’t have a skill. You have a coin flip. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Build SEO agent skills as workspaces Every agent in our system has a workspace. Think of it like a new hire’s desk, stocked with everything they need. Here’s what the workspace looks like for the agent that crawls websites and maps their architecture: agent-workspace/ AGENTS.md instructions, rules, output format SOUL.md personality, principles, quality bar scripts/ crawl_site.js tool the agent calls to crawl parse_sitemap.sh tool to read XML sitemaps references/ criteria.md what counts as an issue vs noise gotchas.md known false positives to watch for memory/ runs.log past execution history templates/ output.md expected output structure Six components. One prompt file would cover maybe 20% of this. AGENTS.md is the instruction manual I wrote thousands of words of methodology into AGENTS.md. Instead of “crawl the site,” I laid out the steps: “Start with the sitemap. If no sitemap exists, check /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, and robots.txt for sitemap references. Respect crawl-delay. Use a browser user-agent string, never a bare request. If you get 403s, note the pattern and try with different headers before reporting it as a block.” Scripts are the agent’s tools The agent calls node crawl_site.js –url to analyze website data. It doesn’t write curl commands from scratch every time. That’s the difference between giving someone a toolbox and telling them to forge their own wrench. References are the judgment calls This contains criteria for what counts as an issue. Known false positives to watch for. Edge cases that took me 20 years to learn. The agent reads these when it encounters something ambiguous. Memory is institutional knowledge Here I keep a log of past runs: What it found last time. How long the crawl took. What broke. The next execution benefits from the last. Templates enforce consistency This is where I get specific about the output I want: “Use this exact structure. These exact fields. This severity scale.” Output templates are the difference between getting the same quality in run 14 as you did in run 1. Walkthrough: Building the crawler from scratch Let me show you exactly how I built the crawler. It maps a site’s architecture, discovers every page, and reports what it finds. Version 1: The naive approach I provided the instruction: “Crawl this website and list all pages.” The agent wrote its own HTTP requests, used bare curl, and got blocked by the first site it touched. Every modern CDN blocks requests without a browser user-agent string, so it was dead on arrival. Version 2: Added a script I built crawl_site.js using Playwright. This version used a headless browser and a real user-agent. The agent calls the script instead of writing its own requests. This worked on small sites, but it crashed on anything over 200 pages. Because there was no rate limiting and no resume capability, it hammered servers until they blocked us. Version 3: Introducing rate limiting and resume I added throttling with a two requests per second default and never every two seconds for CDN-protected sites. The agent reads robots.txt and adjusts its speed without asking permission. I also added checkpoint files so a crashed crawl can resume from where it stopped. This worked on most sites, but it failed on sites that require JavaScript rendering. Version 4: JavaSript rendering This time, I added a browser rendering mode. The agent detects whether a site is a single-page app (React, Next.js, Angular) and automatically switches to full browser rendering. It also compares rendered HTML against source HTML, and I found real issues this way: Sites where the source HTML was an empty shell but the rendered page was full of content. Google might or might not render it properly. Now we check both. This version worked on everything, but the output was inconsistent between runs. Version 5: Time for templates and memory For this version, I added templates/output.md with exact fields: URL count, sitemap coverage, blocked paths, response code distribution, render mode used, and issues found. This way every run produces the same structure. I also added memory/runs.log. The agent appends a summary after every execution. Next time it runs, it reads the log and can compare results, like “Last crawl found 485 pages. This crawl found 487. Two new pages added.” Version 5 is what we run today. Five iterations in one day of building. THE CRAWLER'S EVOLUTION v1: Raw curl → blocked everywhere v2: Playwright script → crashed on large sites v3: Rate limiting → couldn't handle JS sites v4: Browser rendering → inconsistent output v5: Templates + memory → stable, consistent, reliable Time: 1 day. Lesson: the first version never works. The pattern is always the same: Start small, hit a wall, fix the wall, hit the next wall. Five versions in one day doesn’t mean five failures. It means five lessons that are now permanently encoded. I’ve rebuilt delivery systems four times over 20 years. The process doesn’t change. You start with what’s elegant, then reality hits, and you end up with what works. Tip: Don’t try to build the perfect skill on the first attempt. Build the simplest thing that could possibly work. Run it on real data and watch it fail. The failures tell you exactly what to add next. Every version of our crawler was a direct response to a specific failure. Not a feature we imagined. A problem we hit. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Equip agents with the right tools This is the most important architectural decision I made. When you write “use curl to fetch the sitemap” in your instructions, the agent generates a curl command from scratch every time. Sometimes it adds the right headers. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it follows redirects. Sometimes it forgets. When you give the agent a script called parse_sitemap.sh, it calls the script. The script always has the right headers, always follows redirects, and always handles edge cases. The agent’s judgment goes into WHEN to call the tool and WHAT to do with the results. The tool handles HOW. Our agents have tools for everything: crawl_site.js: Playwright-based crawler with rate limiting, resume, and rendering parse_sitemap.sh: Fetches and parses XML sitemaps, counts URLs, detects nested indexes check_status.sh: Tests HTTP response codes with proper user-agent strings extract_links.sh: Pulls internal and external links from page HTML The agent decides which tools to use and what parameters to set. The crawler chooses its own crawl speed based on what it encounters. It reads robots.txt and adjusts. It has judgment within guardrails. Think of it this way: You give a new hire a CRM, not instructions on how to build a database. The tools are the CRM. The instructions are the process for using them. Progressive disclosure: Don’t dump everything at once Here’s a mistake I made early: I put everything in AGENTS.md. Every rule. Every edge case. Every gotcha. Thousands of words. The agent got confused. It had too much context and it started prioritizing obscure edge cases over common tasks. It would spend time checking for hash routing issues on a WordPress blog. The fix: progressive disclosure. Core rules that affect the 80% case go in AGENTS.md. This is what the agent needs to know for every single run. Edge cases go in references/gotchas.md. The agent reads this file when it encounters something ambiguous. Not before every task. Only when it needs it. Criteria for severity scoring go in references/criteria.md. The agent checks this when it finds an issue and needs to decide how bad it is. Not upfront. This is the same way a skilled employee operates. They know the core process by heart. They check the handbook when something weird comes up. They don’t re-read the entire handbook before answering every email. If your agent output is inconsistent but your instructions are detailed, the problem is usually too much context. Agents, like new hires, perform better with clear priorities and a reference shelf than with a 50-page manual they have to digest before every task. The 10 gotchas: Failure modes that will burn you Every one of these lessons cost me hours. They’re now encoded in our agents’ references/gotchas.md files so they can’t happen again. Agents hallucinate data they can’t verify I asked the research agent to find law firms and count their attorneys. It made every number up. It had never visited any of their websites. Only ask agents to produce data they can actually fetch and verify. Separate what they know (training data) from what they can prove (fetched data). Knowledge doesn’t transfer between agents This fix I figured out on day one (use a browser user-agent string to avoid CDN blocks) had to be re-taught to every new agent. Day 34, a brand new agent hit the exact same problem. Agents don’t share memories. Encode shared lessons in a common gotchas file that multiple agents can reference. Output format drifts between runs The same prompt can result in different field names: “note” vs. “assessment.” “lead_score” vs. “qualification_rating.” If you run it twice, get two different schemas. The fix: Create strict output templates with exact field names. Not “write a report.” “Use this exact template with these exact fields.” Agents confidently report issues that don’t exist The first three audits delivered false positives with total confidence. The fix wasn’t a better prompt. It was a better boss. A dedicated reviewer agent whose only job is to verify everyone else’s work. The same reason code review exists for human developers. Bare HTTP requests get blocked everywhere Every modern CDN blocks requests without a browser user-agent string. The crawler learned this on audit number two when an entire site returned 403s. All it required was a one-line fix, and now it’s in the gotchas file. Every new agent reads it on day one. Don’t guess URL paths Agents love to construct URLs they think should exist: /about-us, /blog, /contact. Half the time, those URLs 404. My rule is: Fetch the homepage first, read the navigation, follow real links. Never guess. ‘Done’ vs. ‘in review’ matters Agents marked tasks as “done” when posting their findings. Wrong. “Done” means approved. “In review” means waiting for human verification. This small distinction has a huge impact on workflow clarity when you have 10 agents posting work simultaneously. Categories must be hyper-specific “Fintech” is useless for prospecting because it’s too broad. “PI law firms in Houston” works. Every company in a category should directly compete with every other company. My first attempt at sales categories was “Personal finance & fintech.” A crypto exchange doesn’t compete with a budgeting app. Lesson learned in 20 minutes. Never ask an LLM to compile data Unless you want fabricated results. I asked an agent to summarize findings from five separate reports into one document. It invented findings that weren’t in any of the source reports. Always build data compilations programmatically. Script it. Never prompt it. Agents will try things you never planned The research agent tried to call an API we never set up. It assumed we had access because it knew the API existed. The fix: Be explicit about what tools are available. If a script doesn’t exist in the scripts folder, the agent can’t use it. Boundaries prevent creative failures. Build the reviewer first This is counterintuitive. When you’re excited about building, you want to build the workers. The crawler. The analyzers. The fun parts. Build the reviewer first. Without a review layer, you have no way to measure quality. You ship the first audit and it looks great. But 40% of the findings are wrong. You don’t know that until a client or a colleague spots it. Our review agent reads every finding from every specialist agent. It checks: Does the evidence support the claim? Is the severity appropriate for the actual impact? Are there duplicates across different specialists? Did the agent check what it says it checked? That single agent was the biggest quality improvement I made. Bigger than any prompt tweak. Bigger than any new tool. The human approval rate across 270 internal linking recommendations: 99.6%. That number exists because a reviewer verifies every single one. I’ve seen the same pattern with human SEO teams for 20 years. The teams that produce great work aren’t the ones with the best analysts. They’re the ones with the best review process. The analysis is table stakes. The review is the product. BUILD ORDER (WHAT I LEARNED THE HARD WAY) What I did first: Build workers → Ship output → Discover quality problems → Build reviewer What I should have done: Build reviewer → Build workers → Ship reviewed output → Iterate both The reviewer defines quality. Build it first. Everything else gets measured against it. Tip: If you’re building multiple agents, the reviewer should be the first agent you build. Define what “good output” looks like before you build the thing that produces output. Otherwise, you’re shipping hallucinations with formatting. I learned this across three audits that were embarrassing in hindsight. The validation standard (Our unfair advantage) The reviewer catches technical errors. But there’s a higher bar than “technically correct.” We have a real SEO agency with real clients and a team with 50 years of combined experience. Every agent finding gets validated against one question: “Would we stake our reputation on this?” Would we actually send this to a client, put our name on the report, and tell the developer to build it? Below are four tests we use for every finding: The Google engineer test: If this client’s cousin works at Google, would they read this finding and nod? Would they say, “Yes, this is a real issue, this makes sense”? If the answer is no, it doesn’t ship. The developer test: Can a developer reproduce this without asking a single follow-up question? “Fix your canonicals” fails. “Change CANONICAL_BASE_URL from http to https in your production .env” passes. The agency reputation test: Would we defend this finding in a client meeting? If I’d be embarrassed explaining it to a technical CMO, it gets cut. The implementation test: Is this specific enough to actually fix? Not “improve your page speed” but “your hero video is 3.4MB, which is 72% of total page weight. Serve a compressed version to mobile. Here’s the file.” This is our unfair advantage. We’re not building agents in a vacuum. Most people building AI SEO tools have never run a real audit. They don’t know what “good” looks like. We do. We’ve been delivering it for 20 years with real clients. That’s why our approval rate is 99.6%. Sandbox testing: Train on planted bugs You don’t train an agent on real client sites. You build a test environment where you KNOW the answers. We built two sandbox websites with SEO issues we planted on purpose: A WordPress-style site with 27+ planted issues: missing canonicals, redirect chains, orphan pages, duplicate content, broken schema markup. A Node.js site simulating React/Next.js/Angular patterns with ~90 planted issues: empty SPA shells, hash routing, stale cached pages, hydration mismatches, cloaking. The training loop: Run agent against sandbox. Compare agent’s findings to known issues. Agent missed something? Fix the instructions. Agent reported a false positive? Add it to gotchas.md. Re-run. Compare again. Only when it passes the sandbox consistently does it touch real data. Think of it like a driving test course. Every accident on real roads becomes a new obstacle on the course. New drivers face every known challenge before they hit the highway. The sandbox is a living test suite. Every verified issue from a real audit gets baked back in. It only gets harder. The agents only get better. Consistency: The unsexy secret Nobody writes about this because it’s boring. But consistency is what separates a demo from a product. Three things that make output consistent: Templates: Every agent has an output template in templates/output.md: Exact fields, structure, and severity scale. If the output looks different every run, you don’t need a better prompt. You need a template file. Run logs: After every execution, the agent appends a summary to memory/runs.log. Timestamp, site, pages crawled, issues found, duration. The next run reads this log. It knows what happened last time. It can compare and provide outputs like, “Found 14 issues last run. Found 16 this run. 2 new issues identified.” Schema enforcement: Field names are locked: “severity” not “priority,” “url” not “page_url,” “description” not “summary.” When you let field names drift, downstream tooling breaks. Templates solve this permanently. If your agent output looks different every run, you need a template file, not a better prompt. I cannot stress this enough. The single fastest way to improve quality for any agent is a strict output template. The stack that makes it work A quick note on infrastructure, because the tools matter. Our agents run on OpenClaw. It’s the runtime that handles wake-ups, sessions, memory, and tool routing. Think of it as the operating system the agents run on. When an agent finishes one task and needs to pick up the next, OpenClaw handles that transition. When an agent needs to remember what it did last session, OpenClaw provides that memory. Paperclip is the company OS. Org charts, goals, issue tracking, task assignments. It’s where agents coordinate. When the crawler finishes mapping a site and needs to hand off to the specialist agents, Paperclip manages that handoff through its issue system. Agents create tasks for each other. Auto-wake on assignment. Claude Code is the builder. Every script, every agent instruction file, every tool was built with Claude Code running Opus 4.6. I’m a vibe coder with 20 years of SEO expertise and zero traditional programming training. Claude Code turns domain knowledge into working software. The combination: OpenClaw runs the agents. Paperclip coordinates them. Claude Code builds everything. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The result This process resulted in 14+ audits completed with 12 to 20 developer-ready tickets per audit, including exact URLs and fix instructions. All produced in hours, not weeks. We have a 99.6% approval rate on internal linking recommendations on 270 links across two sites, verified by a dedicated review process. We completed more than 80 SEO checks mapped across seven specialist agents. Each check has expected outcomes, evidence requirements, and false positive rules. Every finding is specific (i.e., “the main app JavaScript bundle is 78% unused. Here are the exact files to fix”). That level of specificity comes from the skill architecture. The folder structure. The tools. The references. The templates. The review layer. Not the prompt. If you want to build SEO agent skills that actually work, stop writing prompts and start building workspaces. Give your agents tools, not instructions. Test on sandboxes, not clients. Build the reviewer first. Enforce templates. Log everything. The first version will fail. The fifth version will surprise you. This is how you turn agent output into something repeatable. The same system produces the same quality — whether it’s the first audit or the 14th — because every step is structured, verified, and encoded. Not because the AI is smarter. Because the architecture is. View the full article

Change, whether personal or professional, can be challenging. But it can also create opportunities to make a meaningful impact. But navigating the uncertainty is tricky. Art Markman, a leading cognitive scientist and Fast Company contributor, joined Fast Company executive digital director Maia McCann in a recent conversation to share strategies on how to stay grounded, optimistic, and purposeful during times of change. Drawing on his expertise in well-being, Art offers tools to help you influence outcomes you care about and show up with clarity and confidence, no matter what the year brings. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

Over the past few years, Performance Max has gone from an opaque experiment to a more capable — though still imperfect — campaign type for B2B marketers. The fundamentals haven’t changed: skepticism still matters, first-party data is critical, experimentation is non-negotiable, and actionable reporting drives optimization. What has changed is how much better Google has gotten at operationalizing those inputs. That means your Performance Max strategy needs to adapt. Here are five best practices for running more effective PMax campaigns for B2B today. 1. Guide AI with the right inputs In 2022, given the automated nature of PMax campaigns and the aggressive way Google reps were pushing them, I predicted we’d see an accelerated move toward AI integration. That’s certainly played out, probably in part because of competitive pressures introduced by ChatGPT and the like. AI Max for Search (launched in 2025) and PMax are both being prioritized by Google, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing since Google hasn’t deprecated standard Search campaign for B2B and has provided a slew of helpful updates that make PMax more viable for B2B. Three updates worth using include: Search themes, which are useful for more precise targeting. Brand exclusions, which help minimize CPC inflation and over-investment on less-incremental queries. Account-level channel reporting, which gives you a single dashboard look at performance across campaigns. For this feature, segment by conversion metrics to drill down on ROI by channel. You’ll quickly see overperformers where you can increase investment and underperformers that cry out for further optimization or reduced budget. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 2. Address persistent lead quality issues B2B lead quality in search campaigns has always been a challenge, and PMax’s relative lack of advertiser control makes that challenge tougher. I’ve pushed offline conversion tracking (OCT) since we’ve had that capability, but it’s an absolute non-negotiable for B2B campaigns. Along with OCT, leverage a relatively new functionality, enhanced conversions for leads, and work around the edges by incorporating reCAPTCHA and testing other mechanisms to reduce PMax spam leads. Dig deeper: The parts of Performance Max you can actually control 3. Build stronger audience signals Citing the phase-out of third-party cookies that still hasn’t happened (!), Google officially sunsetted Similar Audiences in 2023, which — well, it was a big loss for advertisers. To compensate, understand and adapt according to the nature of PMax targeting, which is based on audience signals. Feed the AI high-quality first-party data (CRM lists) and let the algorithm find “lookalikes” through its own internal signals. CRM lists for B2B are obviously critical, and this should give you even more incentive to clean up and segment CRM data, with audience lists closest to the point of revenue (e.g., SQLs or revenue if you don’t have enough closed-won data to send strong signals), especially valuable for finding high-value new users. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. 4. Make creative a performance lever Creative is an important part of the puzzle for PMax. Good creative can prompt the right audience to engage, and great creative can deter the wrong audience from engaging. Because YouTube is now a massive part of PMax campaigns, video — which has never been a B2B strength — should be prioritized more than ever for performance marketing. Google has made this easier by adding the ability to build AI-generated assets right in the Google Ads interface. Just recently, they launched an important complementary feature in beta: PMax A/B creative testing to help advertisers understand which creatives are actually driving performance, and to use test-and-control structures to surface winning (and losing) elements. Dig deeper: Is Google Ads Asset Studio a game changer? Not so fast 5. Use reporting to drive decisions A major source of frustration with PMax has been a lack of transparency into results. Over the last few years, Google has introduced reporting updates to address some of those concerns. Search term insights and auction insights in the Insights tab provide more visibility into performance. Search term insights show how your ads perform for the queries users actually type, including how those ads are being matched and served. This added nuance makes optimization more precise. Auction insights add competitive context, showing how your campaigns perform against others in the same auctions through metrics like impression share and outranking share. Finally, asset-level reporting brings visibility to creative performance, with data on impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions for each asset. Together, these updates give you a clearer view into what’s driving performance — and where to focus optimization efforts. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Make Performance Max work for you Taken together, recent updates make PMax more viable for B2B marketers than it used to be, especially for those with strong first-party data to train bidding algorithms and a need to find new customer pockets. After more than 10 years in marketing, I still prefer having controllable levers — and I’m not willing to fully trust Google to act more in my (or my clients’) best interests than its own. Use everything at your disposal to make PMax campaigns work for you, and keep an eye out for new features Google releases that can give you more visibility and control over your account performance. Dig deeper: Auditing and optimizing Google Ads in an age of limited data View the full article

With gas prices, energy bills, and grocery costs all rising, the affordability crisis is top of mind for most workers. But you can’t talk about that crisis without also talking about extreme wealth inequality, says Patricia Stottlemyer, policy lead for labor rights at Oxfam America. And just as affordability has worsened recently, so has the gap between regular workers and the rich, including company CEOs. In 2025, for example, the top 1,500 CEOs of the world’s largest corporations saw an 11% real-terms pay raise. The average global worker, on the other hand, saw their real wages increase by only 0.5%. That means those CEOs saw their pay increase 20 times faster than workers last year. In the United States specifically, CEO pay grew 20.4 times faster than workers’ wages, an increase of 25.6% compared to just 1.3%. The data comes from a new analysis by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Oxfam, which highlights the ways workers are being left behind; the analysis is tied to International Workers’ Day, also called May Day. ‘CEOs have never had it so good’ The average CEO took home $8.4 million in both pay and bonuses in 2025, up from $7.6 million in 2024, according to the analysis. Look back even further, and the growth is even more stark. In 2019, the average CEO pay was $5.5 million, meaning there’s since been a 54% increase in real terms. Some executives rake in drastically more than that. The CEO of semiconductor company Broadcom received a 2025 pay package totaling $205.3 million; Microsoft’s CEO got $96 million. The real wages for workers around the world, however, have dropped 12% since 2019. “This data really puts some numbers behind what average working folks are feeling day to day,” Stottlemyer says. Between 2019 and 2025, food prices have increased by 15% and gasoline prices by 14%, when adjusted for inflation—and that’s not even including the recent price shocks from the conflict in Iran. On April 28, gas prices in the U.S. hit their highest level in four years, reaching an average of $4.18 for one gallon. “Food and gas prices [are] soaring, and 48% of the world is living in poverty,” Stottlemyer says. “And while workers face that exceptional hardship, the CEOs of the world’s largest corporations have never had it so good.” Workers are more productive, but have less to show for it It’s not only company executives who have seen these benefits. Billionaires in general have been getting richer. In 2025, total billionaire wealth grew by $126,000 per second, the analysis found. Already in 2026, billionaires are collectively $4 trillion richer than they were 12 months ago. One of the major ways billionaires make this money is through dividends from the companies they are invested in. Companies paid out $79 billion in dividends to billionaires in 2025 alone—equal to $2,500 every second. On average, Oxfam says, billionaires make more money from dividends in under two hours than the average worker earns over a year. Workers generate this economic value, Stottlemyer notes. But they’re taking home less and less of the value that they create. “What we’re seeing in this data is that workers have gotten more productive. They’re generating more wealth, but they have less to show for it,” she says. (The increase in productivity couldn’t be attributed to one thing like the explosion of AI, Stottlemyer notes). Workers today essentially create 51% more economic value as compared to 2004, the analysis found, but they receive 2% less share of that income. ‘A rigged economic system’ With wealth also comes power, and billionaires have been flexing that power, particularly around politics. Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people—and in many cases, those wealthy politicians have cut taxes for the rich or looked to undermine workers’ rights. The ultra-wealthy also shape public discourse through media outlets, like Jeff Bezos’s overhaul of the Washington Post’s opinion section, or how fossil fuel billionaire Vincent Bolloré took over the French television channel CNews and turned it into what some have called “the Fox News of France.” Companies can also suppress worker power, whether through union busting or other workplace behaviors. “The explosion of riches at the very top is emblematic of a rigged economic system that’s designed to benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working families,” Stottlemyer says. Meanwhile, gaps in labor policy exacerbate these issues. The U.S. federal minimum wage, in just one example, has been stagnant at $7.25 an hour for nearly 17 years. (House Democrats just recently introduced legislation to raise that minimum wage to $25 an hour.) Federal minimum wage reform is just one tool that would help workers. ITUC and Oxfam also call for governments to enact higher taxes on the rich and limits on CEO pay. If the numbers in this analysis seem shocking, Stottlemyer says they “reflect the shocking levels of extreme inequality that people feel day to day in their lives.” “Regular working people know very well that the system is not in their favor,” she adds. This May Day—which celebrates the history of labor organizing around the world—she hopes workers remember that they do have power to change their conditions. “It reminds us of all the ways that organized labor and labor in general has come together across history to fight for a more fair system,” she says. “I hope folks remember that workers have the power to bring about a more equal world.” Disclosure: Mansueto Ventures newsrooms Fast Company and Inc. are represented by the Writers Guild of America, East. View the full article

AI is changing how directors and cinematographers work—but not the way you might think When people think of artificial intelligence in Hollywood, they might picture deepfakes, synthetic actors, or AI-generated scripts and video. Google’s Veo3, along with other tools like Pika Labs and Kling AI, made headlines for their photorealistic AI generated video clips (as did OpenAI’s Sora 2 before the company in March announced plans to shutter it). But for freelance filmmakers, the real shift is happening behind the scenes. For years, cinematographers and directors have had to wear many hats: artist, technician, project manager, negotiator. Now, AI is quietly taking over some of the more tedious jobs. Short-Form Frontier Michael Goi, former president of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and current co-chair of its AI committee, remembers widespread panic in the industry a few years ago. “There was this blanket fear that AI would completely replace jobs,” he says. That fear has been overblown, Goi says. He presented an ASC seminar last year outlining one of the largest hurdles to widespread adoption of AI video—consistency. In a live demonstration with six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and AI creator Ellenor Argyropoulos, the filmmakers attempted to use AI tools to generate a specific shot. “Caleb had a very clear vision,” says Goi, “and it was a struggle to even get close.” Though video AI tools have made significant strides since then, they are still very much geared toward short-form content, with most tools only capable of generating clips of up to two minutes in 4K quality. That’s good news for the growing number of people working on vertical series—Goi among them—who get to test new video-generation models, sometimes before their public launch. A striking example of what’s now possible is Fruit Love Island, an AI-generated “fruit slop” microdrama from TikTok account @ai.cinema021 that became the platform’s fastest-growing account ever, amassing over 3 million followers in nine days and 300 million total views before coming to an abrupt halt in late March after being flagged for low quality. Each two minute episode allegedly took around 3 hours to make, and are thought to have used text-to-script tools like Object Talk that are then plugged into an AI video generator. For most freelance cinematographers, though, the gains of AI aren’t on-screen, but behind the scenes, making it easier to plan how they will capture the shots they need. Streamlining storyboards While fully AI-generated feature films may not be around the corner, filmmakers are regularly using tools like Midjourney and Runway to create storyboards and visual references. Rob Berry, a freelance cinematographer whose clients include Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom, Berry remembers his first encounter with AI-generated storyboards on a commercial project. “[The clients] were able to make them very quickly, change them the day before the shoot and hand them to me. I was like wow, the future’s here,” he says. Director Sage Bennett, who’s shot campaigns for Dior and Jim Beam, sees a similar trend. “Budgets are getting smaller, and expectations are getting bigger,” she says. In her experience, AI is often being used to bridge that gap, though it still needs a human touch. While last year she still thought AI visuals looked a bit “uncanny valley,” she thinks the technology has gotten much better, and she now sees it as almost standard practice for storyboarding and generating visual references. Both Berry and Bennett use AI as a kind of creative sounding board: one that never needs to sleep. “Sometimes you just need to talk through a tiny idea,” Sage says. “I’ll ask, ‘Should I push in or pull out for this shot, and why?’ It helps me sharpen my instincts.” Goi also has used AI to suggest focal length or composition for a shot after plugging in a storyboard. Berry says AI doesn’t come up with the ideas, but it’s a great tool for organizing his thoughts in pre-production. Both say that in projects that they’ve been on, AI has mostly been used for voiceover or VFX work rather than production itself. On one commercial, Bennett’s team used an AI-generated voiceover as a placeholder while they sourced a real actor — and ended up preferring the AI for the final product. Even Steven Soderbergh has leaned in: in a recent interview with Variety, the director revealed he used AI-generated imagery in his John Lennon documentary to visualize surrealist sequences that would have otherwise been out of budget with a VFX house. “My job is to deliver a good movie, period,” he told Variety. “And this tool showed up at a moment when I needed it.” An Invisible Assistant Where AI shines most for freelancers like Berry is in logistics. “As a creative freelancer, I’m first and foremost running my own business,” he says. He uses tools like ChatGPT to manage his workload: drafting emails, balancing budgets, and organizing project notes. “I told ChatGPT to act like it was my agent at CAA and walk me through a negotiation,” he says. With seven projects on his plate, he says, “If something could scan my inbox and tell me where I’m at with each one, that’s the dream.” Bennett also uses AI to streamline pre-production tasks. “I’ll plug in script notes with descriptions, shot sizes, and ask ChatGPT to generate a clean shot list that I can then go in and adjust. I’ll still tweak it, but it saves so much time.” When writing treatments to pitch commercial work, she sometimes uses AI to help with structure and polish. “I still revise everything in my voice, but it speeds up the process.” Though companies have begun testing AI generated commercials, Rob hasn’t seen work slow down for him. But he sees staying on top of AI as part of the job now. He’s been teaching himself prompt engineering through hours of trial and error. “Most people ask a question, get an answer, and leave. But if you keep probing and try different characters and approaches, you get way more out of it.” He particularly likes the “deep research” feature of ChatGPT for in-depth reports on, for example, deciding between two cameras, or developing a pre-production checklist for an ASC-level Director of Photography. “It takes a few minutes and comes back with a ten page report, 16 sources.” He believes that being adept at using the latest technology is key to staying at the forefront of his craft. Goi agrees. “There are conversations I’ve had with Jim Cameron and Rob Legato that AI won’t make a mediocre filmmaker great,” he says. “But it can help a great one refine their vision. That’s why we need top of the line filmmakers involved in where this tech is going. The more professionals engage in what should be best practices for [AI’s] use in the industry, the better positioned the technology and creative artists will be as we progress.” View the full article

It looks as if Donald The President will have to keep waiting for his least-favorite talk show host to hang up his jersey in the studio rafters. The president emerged from the chaos of last week’s attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with two major demands—that his big, beautiful militarized ballroom resume construction and that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel over a morbid joke. (Days before the WHCD, Kimmel had described Melania The President as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”) While the first request may or may not find support, subject as it is to the whims of the courts, the second one seems even less likely. In a stark contrast to last September—when ABC and parent company Disney quickly yanked Kimmel off the air after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr objected to a monologue about Charlie Kirk’s assassination—Disney has so far only indicated that the incident is being discussed. It seems the conditions for Kimmel getting pulled off the air are simply no longer there. Like many other organizations, Disney and ABC may have internalized a key lesson from this past year: The President’s grievances are so fickle that it’s often easier to mostly ignore them. A wave of capitulation When The President returned to the White House in 2025—having won an electoral victory that, just a few years before, had seemed impossible—many executives behaved as if the election proved The President’s infinite powers had bent the culture of the United States in his direction. Some companies like Amazon and Meta quickly sprang into proactive appeasement mode—making aggressive DEI cuts, donating to The President’s inauguration fund, and in Amazon’s case, splashing out $40 million on a documentary about the first lady—while others seemed to surrender. In December 2024, for instance, ABC settled for $15 million in a lawsuit The President filed after This Week host George Stephanopoulos inaccurately claimed in an interview that the president had been found liable for rape in a civil case. (The President had actually been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, not rape, in that civil case.) In another era, a lengthier legal battle would have likely ensued. By the time CBS and parent company Paramount similarly settled for $16 million in a The President lawsuit over an “unfair” edit of 60 Minutes, and also canceled Stephen Colbert’s hated-by-The President talk show (both conveniently while Paramount awaited FCC approval for an $8 billion merger), the president had truly started throwing his weight around. It wasn’t just entertainment. The President used legal maneuvers, and even executive orders, to exert leverage over law firms and universities that had displeased him in some way. Legal elites like the Paul, Weiss firm—who had represented prominent Democrats, prosecuted The President, or worked on litigation related to the January 6 insurrection—faced executive retaliation such as suspended security clearances and restricted access to federal buildings. Top universities with alleged antisemitic or anti-conservative biases saw their federal funds frozen or canceled and their tax-free status under threat, pending concessions. The majority in both camps quickly complied. Ultimately, nine of the country’s most powerful law firms capitulated, agreeing to massive pro bono commitments aligned with the administration’s causes, along with DEI concessions. Meanwhile, six universities agreed to at least partly accommodate The President’s demands, with Columbia proving particularly compliant. (The university’s many compromises included tighter protest restrictions and stronger oversight of Middle East studies programs.) What did these organizations get for their obedience? Further demands, as well as The President boasting in interviews: “They’re all bending and saying ‘Sir, thank you very much.’ Nobody can believe it.” The power of pushing back Less visible in the early rush to appease Second-Term The President were the organizations that stood up to him. A cluster of four high-profile law firms, including Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, chose to take their cases to court—a likely place for law firms to be—and won federal district rulings last May, holding that the executive orders against them violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights. As for higher education, after The President froze more than $2.2 billion in Harvard’s research funding, the university filed two lawsuits against the U.S. government. Refusing to negotiate under threat paid off. A Boston judge ruled in Harvard’s favor last September, concluding the administration had conducted a “targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.” Meanwhile, the other outlier in academia, UCLA, similarly resisted The President and found backing from a judge last November, who ruled that the government could not, in fact, withhold funding to force universities to “change their ideological tune.” (The The President administration appealed the decision but recently dropped the appeal.) In the intervening months, these organizations and the The President administration have been locked in a holding pattern. Team The President quietly abandoned its executive orders on those law firms in March, only to renew the push against them once word got out. The president also reportedly dropped his demand for $200 million from Harvard, only to upgrade the demand to $1 billion the day after The New York Times reported that story. Although this back-and-forth seems destined to continue indefinitely, the organizations that pushed back have already won something: their dignity, the backing of their cohorts, and a flattering reputational contrast to peers that capitulated. These legal and symbolic victories were not yet visible for ABC, however, when Kimmel made an apparent mischaracterization of Charlie Kirk’s murder last September and the FCC demanded retribution. The network booted Kimmel’s show from the air, before realizing the public was not on its side and quickly reversing course. If the FCC couldn’t successfully agitate to get a comedian fired at the time, their chances look even bleaker now. The newer new normal Although ABC was among the first entities to appease The President after the election, with a $15 million settlement in December 2024, the network still found themselves subject to a pressure campaign from the FCC amid the Charlie Kirk brouhaha. By then, it should have been clear that caving in to The President’s demands only begets further demands, and the expectation of caving in to them as well. If compliance doesn’t mean safety, why not at least go down swinging? ABC’s eventual decision to stand its ground on Kimmel seems to have worked out in the network’s favor. As of last month, Jimmy Kimmel Live! has posted double-digit viewership gains, year over year, rising 22% in total viewers and 45% in the coveted adults 18-49 demo. Perhaps more importantly, with the benefit of hindsight, the fiery reverence around Kirk looks like a feverish blip today. ABC executives must understand by now that it would’ve been preposterous for such ephemeral outrage to take out a 23-year late-night institution without a strong reason. This time, the reasons for Kimmel to go are pathetically weaker. Had the host joked about the nearly 80-year old president’s imminent death after the WHCD, perhaps an apology might be in order, and a firing campaign at least understandable. In reality, not even the callers on MAGA backer Megyn Kelly’s show agreed with her that Kimmel should be fired. Not exactly helping matters for the FCC, The President himself joked about mortality getting in the way of his marriage earlier this week, which Kimmel, of course, later mocked on his show. The President’s superpower has long been projecting the image of someone with superpowers. The reason he’s been so successful at it is because he’s enjoyed fealty from GOP politicians happy to ride his coattails and supporters glad to have someone sticking it to the opposition. This steady backing has emboldened him in his second term to indulge seemingly every whim imaginable, from silencing critics to mass deportation. But his Icarian sun-flights of late have revealed him to be eminently scorchable. The wind is decidedly no longer at The President’s back. After a flurry of other defeats, the combination of tariffs and his flailing, unprovoked war on Iran has driven up the cost of living in the U.S. to the point where The President’s approval rating is rapidly dropping even among his own supporters. While companies like Amazon, reportedly in talks to revive The Apprentice with the president’s son, continue bowing down, others have absorbed the message of the “No Kings” protests. The President is not a monarch; he’s a lame duck with waning support and the glow of an expectant retiree. There has never been a better time to not comply. View the full article

If you want to boost your business’s customer retention, implementing effective strategies is key. Comprehending the importance of retaining customers can lead to increased loyalty and higher profits. By focusing on aspects like onboarding, personalized interactions, and gathering feedback, you can create a stronger connection with your customers. Furthermore, cultivating a sense of community and celebrating milestones can improve relationships. Let’s explore these strategies in detail to see how they can transform your customer retention efforts. Key Takeaways Implement a strong onboarding experience to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty retention by providing clear communication and support. Personalize customer interactions using data to create tailored experiences, enhancing engagement and perceived value. Develop loyalty programs that offer customized rewards, encouraging increased spending and fostering emotional connections with customers. Gather regular feedback through surveys and online communities to understand customer preferences and improve retention strategies effectively. Prioritize employee well-being to enhance customer satisfaction, as happy employees lead to better customer service and retention. Understand the Importance of Customer Retention Grasping the importance of customer retention is crucial for any business aiming to achieve sustainable growth. Focusing on the importance of client retention can greatly impact your bottom line. Retained customers are more cost-effective to maintain than acquiring new ones, costing five to twenty-five times less. Furthermore, they tend to spend 67% more than new customers, highlighting the financial benefits of promoting loyalty. By prioritizing customer retention, you create predictable revenue growth, as existing customers are more likely to engage in upselling and cross-selling opportunities. High retention rates also improve your brand’s reputation, reducing the need for extensive marketing efforts to attract new clients. In addition, effective retention strategies can lead to a higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), allowing you to allocate resources more efficiently and boost overall profitability. Build a Strong Onboarding Experience Building a strong onboarding experience is essential for nurturing lasting customer relationships, as it lays the groundwork for future interactions. Research shows that 86% of customers would remain loyal after a positive onboarding experience. Effective onboarding helps reduce buyer remorse by addressing common concerns, like hidden costs and slow implementation, which often lead to early contract cancellations. Clear communication during this phase considerably improves customer satisfaction; 70% of customers value personalized onboarding processes. Companies with structured onboarding can achieve up to 50% higher product adoption rates, positively impacting customer retention statistics. To further engage customers, implement onboarding checklists and maintain regular follow-ups. Studies indicate that 34% of customers are more likely to stick with a service if they receive post-onboarding support. By prioritizing these elements, you can cultivate stronger relationships and improve overall retention rates, ultimately driving long-term business success. Personalize Customer Interactions How can customizing customer interactions improve your business’s success? Personalization is crucial in customer retention marketing, as 71% of consumers expect customized experiences. By utilizing customer data, you can modify communications, such as addressing customers by name and offering personalized recommendations. This approach greatly improves engagement and retention rates. Implementing personalized welcome messages or rewards based on individual preferences cultivates a deeper connection, encouraging customers to return and engage more frequently. Furthermore, targeted promotions like birthday discounts or first purchase coupons make customers feel valued, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases. Companies that excel in personalization often see a considerable boost in customer lifetime value (CLV), as loyal customers tend to spend 67% more than new customers on average. Gather and Act on Customer Feedback Gathering and acting on customer feedback is essential for any business aiming to improve customer retention. Regularly conducting surveys can provide valuable insights into customer experiences and preferences, helping you identify areas for improvement. By implementing feedback loops, you actively consider and act on customer suggestions, greatly boosting satisfaction and loyalty. Companies that effectively gather and utilize feedback can improve their retention rates by up to 10%, as clients feel their needs and concerns are acknowledged. Engaging customers in online communities allows them to share experiences, nurturing loyalty and offering insights for product development. Additionally, addressing feedback swiftly not merely reduces churn but also increases the likelihood of referrals; satisfied customers are more inclined to recommend your brand. Implement Omnichannel Support In today’s competitive market, implementing omnichannel support is vital for providing a seamless customer experience across various platforms. By adopting these retention marketing strategies, you can meet customer expectations and improve satisfaction levels. Guarantee consistent communication across email, social media, and customer service. Personalize interactions based on customer preferences and behavior. Provide quick responses to inquiries, reducing service times by up to 50%. Research shows that 73% of consumers utilize multiple channels during their shopping experience, emphasizing the need for a cohesive approach. When customers receive the same level of service, regardless of the channel, it cultivates loyalty and strengthens connections. Businesses that implement omnichannel support experience up to a 10% increase in customer retention rates, making it a vital strategy for long-term success. By focusing on a unified experience, you not just meet but exceed customer expectations, ultimately driving repeat business and brand advocacy. Develop Loyalty Programs Developing loyalty programs is an effective strategy for improving customer retention and driving repeat purchases. Programs that offer rewards can increase customer retention by 5-10% and encourage customers to spend 12-18% more than non-members. Furthermore, 79% of consumers engage more with brands that have loyalty initiatives. By implementing tiered programs, you can motivate customers to boost their spending; about 60% are inclined to do so to reach higher reward levels. Customized rewards are vital, as 70% of consumers are more likely to join programs with personalized offers. Loyalty Program Features Impact on Customers Tiered Rewards Increases Spending Personalized Offers Boosts Participation Exclusive Access Improves Engagement Points System Encourages Repeat Purchases Referral Bonuses Drives New Customer Acquisition Utilize Data for Better Insights Effective loyalty programs can greatly improve customer retention, but they must be informed by data insights to maximize their impact. Utilizing data allows you to engage with customers effectively and tailor your marketing strategies based on their behaviors. Here’s how: Identify at-risk customers: By analyzing purchase frequency and usage patterns, you can spot those likely to churn and intervene swiftly. Segment your audience: Data-driven segmentation enables you to target specific groups, ensuring your marketing messages resonate and increase repeat purchases. Leverage feedback metrics: Analyzing customer satisfaction metrics, like Net Promoter Score (NPS), provides insights into experiences, guiding improvements in products and services. Implementing predictive analytics further boosts your ability to forecast customer behavior, allowing you to proactively address potential churn. Create a Positive Work Environment for Employees Creating a positive work environment for employees plays a crucial role in improving customer retention rates. The retention business definition reflects the importance of turning customers into repeat buyers, which depends greatly on employee engagement. When employees feel valued and motivated, their morale improves, leading to better customer service. Engaged employees can boost profitability by 21%, demonstrating a direct correlation between employee satisfaction and customer loyalty. Opportunities for professional development and recognition contribute to a supportive work culture, reducing turnover rates. This stability guarantees a knowledgeable workforce that nurtures strong customer relationships. Furthermore, companies prioritizing employee well-being experience a 41% reduction in absenteeism, keeping customer-facing teams available for service. Finally, a collaborative environment improves communication and problem-solving, further boosting customer support. Foster a Sense of Community A strong sense of community around a brand can greatly boost customer loyalty and retention. As customers increasingly seek connection, engaging them through community-building initiatives is crucial. You can implement effective marketing engagement strategies by nurturing environments where customers feel valued and involved. Create online forums or social media groups for customers to share experiences. Allow customers to influence product designs, like LEGO’s IDEAS platform, enhancing their sense of ownership. Host events or webinars that encourage customer participation, reinforcing their connection to the brand. Celebrate Customer Milestones and Successes Recognizing and celebrating customer milestones is essential for enhancing loyalty and nurturing long-term relationships. When you acknowledge important moments, like anniversaries or birthdays, you’re not just showing appreciation; you’re building emotional connections that lead to increased retention in business. About 71% of consumers value personalized recognition, which can greatly boost their loyalty. Acknowledging achievements, such as reaching specific spending thresholds, can motivate customers to engage more and make repeat purchases, in the end driving up their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). By sending personalized congratulatory messages alongside exclusive offers, you can see up to a 20% increase in customer retention rates. Additionally, celebrating product usage milestones encourages a sense of community, leading to greater brand advocacy and referrals. Recognizing these milestones reduces churn by reinforcing customers’ value and enhancing their overall experience with your brand, making it a key strategy in retention marketing. Frequently Asked Questions How Can We Measure the Effectiveness of Our Retention Strategies? To measure the effectiveness of your retention strategies, track key metrics like Customer Retention Rate, Customer Churn Rate, and Repeat Customer Rate. Analyze customer feedback through surveys to understand satisfaction levels and areas needing improvement. Furthermore, evaluate Customer Lifetime Value to see how much revenue repeat customers generate. Regularly review these metrics, adjusting your strategies accordingly, to guarantee they’re successfully keeping customers engaged and loyal to your brand over time. What Role Does Customer Service Play in Retention Marketing? Customer service plays a vital role in retention marketing by ensuring positive interactions with customers. When you provide timely responses to inquiries and resolve issues effectively, it improves satisfaction and builds loyalty. Personalized support reduces frustration, making customers feel valued. Furthermore, consistent, high-quality service encourages repeat purchases and nurtures trust. How Often Should We Update Our Loyalty Programs? You should update your loyalty programs regularly, ideally every 6 to 12 months. Frequent updates keep the program fresh and relevant, encouraging customer engagement. Monitor consumer trends, feedback, and competitors’ offerings to make informed adjustments. Furthermore, consider seasonal promotions or limited-time offers to generate excitement. What Are Common Mistakes to Avoid in Retention Marketing? In retention marketing, avoid common mistakes that can hinder your efforts. Don’t neglect customer feedback; listening to customers can help you understand their needs and improve your offerings. Additionally, steer clear of generic messaging; personalization is key to engaging customers effectively. Failing to track metrics such as churn rate and customer lifetime value can lead to missed opportunities for improvement. Finally, remember to maintain consistent communication; staying connected helps build loyalty. How Can We Leverage Social Media for Customer Retention? You can leverage social media for customer retention by actively engaging with your audience through personalized content, responding swiftly to inquiries, and addressing concerns. Share user-generated content to create a sense of community and recognition. Utilize targeted promotions exclusive to your social followers, and encourage feedback to improve customer experiences. Conclusion Incorporating these ten strategies can greatly improve your customer retention efforts. By focusing on onboarding, personalization, feedback, and community engagement, you create a more satisfying experience for your customers. Implementing omnichannel support and recognizing milestones can further strengthen loyalty. Furthermore, a positive work environment for employees directly impacts customer interactions. By prioritizing these approaches, you’ll reduce churn and increase Customer Lifetime Value, ensuring sustainable growth for your business in a competitive marketplace. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Essential Strategies for Customer Retention Marketing" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you want to boost your business’s customer retention, implementing effective strategies is key. Comprehending the importance of retaining customers can lead to increased loyalty and higher profits. By focusing on aspects like onboarding, personalized interactions, and gathering feedback, you can create a stronger connection with your customers. Furthermore, cultivating a sense of community and celebrating milestones can improve relationships. Let’s explore these strategies in detail to see how they can transform your customer retention efforts. Key Takeaways Implement a strong onboarding experience to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty retention by providing clear communication and support. Personalize customer interactions using data to create tailored experiences, enhancing engagement and perceived value. Develop loyalty programs that offer customized rewards, encouraging increased spending and fostering emotional connections with customers. Gather regular feedback through surveys and online communities to understand customer preferences and improve retention strategies effectively. Prioritize employee well-being to enhance customer satisfaction, as happy employees lead to better customer service and retention. Understand the Importance of Customer Retention Grasping the importance of customer retention is crucial for any business aiming to achieve sustainable growth. Focusing on the importance of client retention can greatly impact your bottom line. Retained customers are more cost-effective to maintain than acquiring new ones, costing five to twenty-five times less. Furthermore, they tend to spend 67% more than new customers, highlighting the financial benefits of promoting loyalty. By prioritizing customer retention, you create predictable revenue growth, as existing customers are more likely to engage in upselling and cross-selling opportunities. High retention rates also improve your brand’s reputation, reducing the need for extensive marketing efforts to attract new clients. In addition, effective retention strategies can lead to a higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), allowing you to allocate resources more efficiently and boost overall profitability. Build a Strong Onboarding Experience Building a strong onboarding experience is essential for nurturing lasting customer relationships, as it lays the groundwork for future interactions. Research shows that 86% of customers would remain loyal after a positive onboarding experience. Effective onboarding helps reduce buyer remorse by addressing common concerns, like hidden costs and slow implementation, which often lead to early contract cancellations. Clear communication during this phase considerably improves customer satisfaction; 70% of customers value personalized onboarding processes. Companies with structured onboarding can achieve up to 50% higher product adoption rates, positively impacting customer retention statistics. To further engage customers, implement onboarding checklists and maintain regular follow-ups. Studies indicate that 34% of customers are more likely to stick with a service if they receive post-onboarding support. By prioritizing these elements, you can cultivate stronger relationships and improve overall retention rates, ultimately driving long-term business success. Personalize Customer Interactions How can customizing customer interactions improve your business’s success? Personalization is crucial in customer retention marketing, as 71% of consumers expect customized experiences. By utilizing customer data, you can modify communications, such as addressing customers by name and offering personalized recommendations. This approach greatly improves engagement and retention rates. Implementing personalized welcome messages or rewards based on individual preferences cultivates a deeper connection, encouraging customers to return and engage more frequently. Furthermore, targeted promotions like birthday discounts or first purchase coupons make customers feel valued, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases. Companies that excel in personalization often see a considerable boost in customer lifetime value (CLV), as loyal customers tend to spend 67% more than new customers on average. Gather and Act on Customer Feedback Gathering and acting on customer feedback is essential for any business aiming to improve customer retention. Regularly conducting surveys can provide valuable insights into customer experiences and preferences, helping you identify areas for improvement. By implementing feedback loops, you actively consider and act on customer suggestions, greatly boosting satisfaction and loyalty. Companies that effectively gather and utilize feedback can improve their retention rates by up to 10%, as clients feel their needs and concerns are acknowledged. Engaging customers in online communities allows them to share experiences, nurturing loyalty and offering insights for product development. Additionally, addressing feedback swiftly not merely reduces churn but also increases the likelihood of referrals; satisfied customers are more inclined to recommend your brand. Implement Omnichannel Support In today’s competitive market, implementing omnichannel support is vital for providing a seamless customer experience across various platforms. By adopting these retention marketing strategies, you can meet customer expectations and improve satisfaction levels. Guarantee consistent communication across email, social media, and customer service. Personalize interactions based on customer preferences and behavior. Provide quick responses to inquiries, reducing service times by up to 50%. Research shows that 73% of consumers utilize multiple channels during their shopping experience, emphasizing the need for a cohesive approach. When customers receive the same level of service, regardless of the channel, it cultivates loyalty and strengthens connections. Businesses that implement omnichannel support experience up to a 10% increase in customer retention rates, making it a vital strategy for long-term success. By focusing on a unified experience, you not just meet but exceed customer expectations, ultimately driving repeat business and brand advocacy. Develop Loyalty Programs Developing loyalty programs is an effective strategy for improving customer retention and driving repeat purchases. Programs that offer rewards can increase customer retention by 5-10% and encourage customers to spend 12-18% more than non-members. Furthermore, 79% of consumers engage more with brands that have loyalty initiatives. By implementing tiered programs, you can motivate customers to boost their spending; about 60% are inclined to do so to reach higher reward levels. Customized rewards are vital, as 70% of consumers are more likely to join programs with personalized offers. Loyalty Program Features Impact on Customers Tiered Rewards Increases Spending Personalized Offers Boosts Participation Exclusive Access Improves Engagement Points System Encourages Repeat Purchases Referral Bonuses Drives New Customer Acquisition Utilize Data for Better Insights Effective loyalty programs can greatly improve customer retention, but they must be informed by data insights to maximize their impact. Utilizing data allows you to engage with customers effectively and tailor your marketing strategies based on their behaviors. Here’s how: Identify at-risk customers: By analyzing purchase frequency and usage patterns, you can spot those likely to churn and intervene swiftly. Segment your audience: Data-driven segmentation enables you to target specific groups, ensuring your marketing messages resonate and increase repeat purchases. Leverage feedback metrics: Analyzing customer satisfaction metrics, like Net Promoter Score (NPS), provides insights into experiences, guiding improvements in products and services. Implementing predictive analytics further boosts your ability to forecast customer behavior, allowing you to proactively address potential churn. Create a Positive Work Environment for Employees Creating a positive work environment for employees plays a crucial role in improving customer retention rates. The retention business definition reflects the importance of turning customers into repeat buyers, which depends greatly on employee engagement. When employees feel valued and motivated, their morale improves, leading to better customer service. Engaged employees can boost profitability by 21%, demonstrating a direct correlation between employee satisfaction and customer loyalty. Opportunities for professional development and recognition contribute to a supportive work culture, reducing turnover rates. This stability guarantees a knowledgeable workforce that nurtures strong customer relationships. Furthermore, companies prioritizing employee well-being experience a 41% reduction in absenteeism, keeping customer-facing teams available for service. Finally, a collaborative environment improves communication and problem-solving, further boosting customer support. Foster a Sense of Community A strong sense of community around a brand can greatly boost customer loyalty and retention. As customers increasingly seek connection, engaging them through community-building initiatives is crucial. You can implement effective marketing engagement strategies by nurturing environments where customers feel valued and involved. Create online forums or social media groups for customers to share experiences. Allow customers to influence product designs, like LEGO’s IDEAS platform, enhancing their sense of ownership. Host events or webinars that encourage customer participation, reinforcing their connection to the brand. Celebrate Customer Milestones and Successes Recognizing and celebrating customer milestones is essential for enhancing loyalty and nurturing long-term relationships. When you acknowledge important moments, like anniversaries or birthdays, you’re not just showing appreciation; you’re building emotional connections that lead to increased retention in business. About 71% of consumers value personalized recognition, which can greatly boost their loyalty. Acknowledging achievements, such as reaching specific spending thresholds, can motivate customers to engage more and make repeat purchases, in the end driving up their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). By sending personalized congratulatory messages alongside exclusive offers, you can see up to a 20% increase in customer retention rates. Additionally, celebrating product usage milestones encourages a sense of community, leading to greater brand advocacy and referrals. Recognizing these milestones reduces churn by reinforcing customers’ value and enhancing their overall experience with your brand, making it a key strategy in retention marketing. Frequently Asked Questions How Can We Measure the Effectiveness of Our Retention Strategies? To measure the effectiveness of your retention strategies, track key metrics like Customer Retention Rate, Customer Churn Rate, and Repeat Customer Rate. Analyze customer feedback through surveys to understand satisfaction levels and areas needing improvement. Furthermore, evaluate Customer Lifetime Value to see how much revenue repeat customers generate. Regularly review these metrics, adjusting your strategies accordingly, to guarantee they’re successfully keeping customers engaged and loyal to your brand over time. What Role Does Customer Service Play in Retention Marketing? Customer service plays a vital role in retention marketing by ensuring positive interactions with customers. When you provide timely responses to inquiries and resolve issues effectively, it improves satisfaction and builds loyalty. Personalized support reduces frustration, making customers feel valued. Furthermore, consistent, high-quality service encourages repeat purchases and nurtures trust. How Often Should We Update Our Loyalty Programs? You should update your loyalty programs regularly, ideally every 6 to 12 months. Frequent updates keep the program fresh and relevant, encouraging customer engagement. Monitor consumer trends, feedback, and competitors’ offerings to make informed adjustments. Furthermore, consider seasonal promotions or limited-time offers to generate excitement. What Are Common Mistakes to Avoid in Retention Marketing? In retention marketing, avoid common mistakes that can hinder your efforts. Don’t neglect customer feedback; listening to customers can help you understand their needs and improve your offerings. Additionally, steer clear of generic messaging; personalization is key to engaging customers effectively. Failing to track metrics such as churn rate and customer lifetime value can lead to missed opportunities for improvement. Finally, remember to maintain consistent communication; staying connected helps build loyalty. How Can We Leverage Social Media for Customer Retention? You can leverage social media for customer retention by actively engaging with your audience through personalized content, responding swiftly to inquiries, and addressing concerns. Share user-generated content to create a sense of community and recognition. Utilize targeted promotions exclusive to your social followers, and encourage feedback to improve customer experiences. Conclusion Incorporating these ten strategies can greatly improve your customer retention efforts. By focusing on onboarding, personalization, feedback, and community engagement, you create a more satisfying experience for your customers. Implementing omnichannel support and recognizing milestones can further strengthen loyalty. Furthermore, a positive work environment for employees directly impacts customer interactions. By prioritizing these approaches, you’ll reduce churn and increase Customer Lifetime Value, ensuring sustainable growth for your business in a competitive marketplace. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Essential Strategies for Customer Retention Marketing" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

New contracts with tech companies come after clash with Anthropic over Claude useView the full article

Apple posted strong results for its quarterly earnings on Thursday, but investors’ attention is also focused on the upcoming CEO change and the tech firm’s artificial intelligence strategy. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced earlier this month he will be stepping down from the role, with Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, assuming the role later this year. The January-March results announced Thursday reflect the continued momentum of iPhone sales. Cook said in a statement that it was the company’s best March quarter ever, with “double-digit growth across every geographic segment.” The company earned $29.58 billion, or $2.01 per share, in the January-March period, up about 22% from the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose about 17% to $111.18 billion from $95.36 billion a year earlier. iPhone sales made up the bulk of revenue, bringing in $56.99 billion. The Cupertino, California company beat analyst expectations this quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research forecast earnings of $1.95 per share on revenue of $109.46 billion. In the previous quarter that ended in December, the company said it reached record-high iPhone sales, even though it still hasn’t delivered on its long-promised revamp of Siri assistance with AI. iPhone achieved a March quarter revenue record, fueled by strong demand for the iPhone 17 lineup. This March, Apple introduced the new iPhone 17e and the MacBook Neo, an entry-level laptop, the company’s most aggressive attempts at moving into the affordable market. High demand has caused supply constraints, Cook said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. Those constraints have been driven by the availability of the advanced technology used to form what is essentially a device’s brain. In the current quarter that runs through June, supply constraints will affect several Mac models, in part because the “customer response to Mac Neo has just been off the charts” with higher-than-expected demand, Cook added. The company also saw higher memory costs in the recent quarter and expects “significantly higher” memory costs moving forward, Cook said, telling analysts that beyond the current quarter, “we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business, and we’ll continue to evaluate this.” “Apple showed that even the best operators can’t fully escape the memory squeeze,” said Jake Behan, Direxion’s head of capital markets, in a statement. “Tim Cook’s warning of ‘significantly higher’ costs in the coming quarters tells you how real the AI-driven supply crunch has become for the entire industry.” Cook did follow up on the Siri promise, saying that Apple will bring “a more personalized Siri” to users this year, but did not elaborate on timing. He also teased new software and developer tools and AI advancements. Apple’s systems deliver “intelligence that is fast, personal and private,” Cook said. “This is not AI as a standalone feature, but AI is an essential, intuitive part of the experience across our devices.” Cook has helmed Apple for 15 years, inheriting the CEO role from the late Steve Jobs. During his tenure at the head of the company, the company’s market value soared by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity. Ternus will start as CEO on Sept. 1, and Cook will remain involved with the Cupertino, California company as executive chairman. Ternus briefly joined a call with analysts after the results were posted Thursday, with Cook introducing him and emphasizing the confidence he has in his successor. Cook said he and Ternus will be working together closely over the next few months to make the transition as smooth as possible. “This is the most exciting time in my 25 year career at Apple to be building products and services,” Ternus said. “There are so many opportunities before us, and I couldn’t be more optimistic about what’s to come.” —Kaitlyn Huamani, AP Technology Writer View the full article

Google’s latest update exposes weak SEO strategies while rewarding original, structured, and credible content. The post Google AI Mode In Chrome Isn’t Killing SEO; It’s Exposing Weak SEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

For years, it was common for even the biggest tech companies to have annual capital expenditures, or capex, in the single- to low-double-digit-billion range. You might have heard a tech company say it planned to spend $9 billion, $15 billion, or even $25 billion on research, development, and other costs in the upcoming fiscal year. But lately, capital expenditures at the largest tech companies have been off the charts, with some companies now regularly forecasting single-year capex in the hundreds of billions. The driving factor for this is, of course, artificial intelligence (AI). Some of the biggest names in tech are throwing previously unthinkable sums behind AI development in an attempt to become the king of artificial intelligence down the road. This week, investors received an update on capex from five major tech companies—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft—all of which reported their latest earnings. Here’s what they said they expect to spend on capex during their current fiscal year. Amazon: $200 billion The leader in reported capital expenditures for 2026 is Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). All the way back in February, the company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, confirmed that the e-commerce giant would spend around $200 billion in capex during the year. He made the announcement on February 5, when the company reported its fourth quarter 2025 results. At the time, Jassy said, “With such strong demand for our existing offerings and seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low Earth orbit satellites, we expect to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026, and anticipate strong long-term return on invested capital.” As of the company’s most recent Q1 2026 results, announced this week, that figure has not changed. Microsoft: $190 billion While Amazon’s $200 billion capex forecast is eye-watering, another major tech giant isn’t far behind. Windows maker Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, and as a result of that technology—and its related data center buildouts—the software and cloud services giant is expected to spend a fortune on capex in 2026. As noted by The Register, Microsoft announced this week that it expects its capital expenditures for the year to hit around $190 billion. Its AI buildout is the driving factor. But during the company’s financial call earlier this week, chief financial officer Amy Hood said Microsoft will benefit from the spend in the long term. “We remain confident in the return on these investments given higher demand signals and increasing product usage, as well as the efficiencies we’re already driving across the platform,” Hood noted. Alphabet (Google): $180 billion to $190 billion As for search giant Google, its parent company Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) this week said it was increasing its 2026 capex forecast from a previous range of $175 billion to $185 billion to a new range of $180 billion to $190 billion. The high end of that new range would put it in line with Microsoft’s expected capex. But as Fast Company previously reported, investors seem to be cheering Google’s massive capex spend lately, as the company is already seeing positive bottom-line results from its increased investment in the AI sector. The company’s cloud division, which serves large enterprise customers who need cloud compute infrastructure for artificial intelligence tasks, saw a 63% increase in revenue for the quarter. Meta: $125 billion to $145 billion In recent years, Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) has pivoted hard to AI, and its capital expenditures have surged as a result. Most recently, this week, Meta announced its 2026 capital expenditures will be even more than previously forecast. As Fast Company reported earlier, Meta now expects its 2026 capex to rise from a range of between $115 billion to $135 billion to a new range of between $125 billion to $145 billion. Yet unlike with Alphabet, investors have struck a more cautious tone with Meta’s increasing capex, particularly since Meta’s AI initiatives have yet to show as much of a positive bottom-line impact for the company as Alphabet’s already has. Apple: around $13 billion And then we get to Apple. When the AI race started back in 2022, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) was heavily criticized for being late to the game for several years afterward. However, Apple’s more measured entrance into artificial intelligence—and its capital expenditures—now seems increasingly like the right move. Still, that doesn’t mean a company the size of Apple doesn’t have a massive capital expenditure, and in fact it has confirmed that its AI-associated capex costs are increasing. However, it doesn’t appear that Apple’s full 2026 capex is anywhere close to that of the other companies on this list. In its most recent earnings report yesterday, the company didn’t offer a full-year capex forecast. However, for its most recent quarter (Q2 2026), Apple had only about $4.3 billion in capital expenditures, notes GoTrade. If that level stays steady, which is likely, then that would put Apple’s capex at only around $13 billion for the year. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Soundcore C50i open-ear earbuds have dropped to $39.98 (originally $69.99), their lowest price so far, according to price trackers. That drop makes them easier to consider, especially if you’ve been curious about open-ear designs but didn’t want to spend too much. Its clip-on design wraps around your ear with a flexible memory titanium frame, forming a C-shape that sits securely without going into the ear canal. Soundcore C50i by Anker Open Ear, Clip-On Earbuds $39.98 at Amazon $69.99 Save $30.01 Get Deal Get Deal $39.98 at Amazon $69.99 Save $30.01 That open-ear design lets you stay aware of traffic, conversations, and gym surroundings because nothing blocks your ears. The trade-off is sound isolation—you hear more of the outside world, and people around you may hear some of your music at higher volumes. The sound profile of these IP55-rated earbuds leans toward stronger bass, adding some punch during workouts or casual listening, but they doesn’t deliver the same depth or isolation as traditional earbuds. If you like to tweak the tuning, the Soundcore app gives you some control over how things sound, with presets like Bass Boost and Treble Boost, along with a custom EQ option. There’s support for LDAC, which helps improve audio quality on compatible Android devices, though it can reduce battery life. You also get Bluetooth 6.0 with multipoint, which makes switching between a phone and laptop easier, and AI-assisted call clarity that does a decent job filtering background noise during outdoor calls, but performance still depends on how busy your surroundings are. Battery life is in line with what you’d expect here—you get around seven hours per charge and up to 28 hours with the case, which charges over USB-C. Overall, the C50i works best for people who value comfort and awareness over immersion. If you want strong isolation or deep, sealed sound, these may not be the right pick. But for active use and long wear, the current price makes them an affordable option. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $148.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch (Black) — $149.95 (List Price $199.95) Apple iPad 11" A16 128GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Silver, 2025) — $299.99 (List Price $349.00) Anker Nano 45W 10,000mAh Compact Power Bank With Retractable Cable — $49.99 (List Price $59.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

The new orthopedic wing at Sanford Health’s hospital campus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has a unique patient-centric amenity that few other hospitals can offer. On the top two floors of the facility, which conducts surgeries and emergency services and connects to a nearby delivery ward, there is now a hotel. In largely rural South Dakota, where a trip to the hospital often means a drive halfway across the state, hospital patients now have the option to stay overnight ahead of a big procedure under the same roof as the hospital. “It’s much more convenient for patients to go down an elevator ride for eight floors and check in for surgery than commuting across town or in some cases commuting hundreds of miles,” says Andy Munce, president and CEO of Sanford Health’s Sioux Falls region. “Really, the thought process was How do we make it easy for them?” The campus’s new Sanford Orthopedic Hospital and Highpoint Hotel opened earlier this year. It rises nine stories and includes 12 operating rooms, 19 inpatient rooms, an intraoperative MRI, as well as 56 hotel rooms, a bar and restaurant, and a sky lobby with a fireplace. The combination hospital-hotel is a rarity in the healthcare space and hospital architecture, but one that meets a need many hospital systems overlook, according to Luis Zapiain, director of hospitality at HKS, the architecture firm that designed the building. “Hotels in close proximity to hospitals is nothing new. You can see that all over the country,” he says. “But they’re just a place to stay. I think what Sanford was looking for was an elevated experience that they could also operate themselves and offer those services to their patients in a holistic way.” Munce sees the hotel as an extension of the hospital, and part of the way it can provide better healthcare to its patients. “When they’re traveling for procedures, for subspecialty care, for ICU-type scenarios, they have a lot on their minds,” he says. “It can be a very stressful situation. How can we as a health system help them with that?” HKS brought together its hospitality studio and its healthcare specialists for a rare joint effort. They developed a design for the hospital-hotel combination that blends the firm’s varied expertise while also working closely with Sanford Health to not have one part of the building step on the toes of the other. Ensuring the spaces have their own character was important, according to Zapaian. People expect certain things from a hospital, like cleanliness and professionalism, and other things from a hotel, like comfort and calm. “We had two separate teams doing the interior designs,” he says. The hospital spaces are white-walled and designed for clean functionality. The hotel takes a softer approach, with wood accents and plush furnishings in the rooms and lobby. No one will step into the hotel and confuse it for the hospital, and vice versa. The level of attention even went down to details like smell. “We had conversations about cleaning supplies for the hotel, because the last thing you want is to leave the hospital and come into the hotel and it smells the same as the hospital,” Zapiain says. There are even different laundry services for the hotel and hospital sides of the building. The dual nature of the building and its shared $188 million budget meant that some compromises had to be made. “The hospital has some functionalities that are unchangeable,” Zapaian says. “Nobody wants to sacrifice the size of our operating rooms because I think the lobby could be cooler.” Janhvi Jakkal is a studio practice leader for health at HKS who has worked on hospitals across the country. She says the hotel side of the project was not as complicated to accommodate as she expected. In fact, the biggest challenges were largely dealt with in the earliest stages of design, and concerned infrastructure issues like where elevator bays should be placed, how the mechanical systems would be sited, and how the very different supplies of a hospital and a hotel could come into the same building without disrupting each other. “The strength of this project is how can you think a little bit differently when you do these typologies of buildings together,” she says. The hospital-hotel combination has been open for only a few months, but Munce says the high occupancy rates indicate it’s already a success. More than 80% of the stays within the hotel are family members or patients before a procedure, he says. Standard double rooms start at $159 a night, with reduced rates for hospital staff who might be facing their own long commute or a tumultuous South Dakota storm and would rather stay in town for the night. Other visitors have had nothing to do with the hospital, simply selecting it as a place to stay while in the city, Munce says, noting, “It’s really meeting the need in a multitude of ways.” View the full article

Bringing home the Baconator is not as easy as it used to be, and it’s about to get even harder in cities around the country. Fast food giant Wendy’s is continuing its push to close hundreds of locations as it seeks to stabilize profits and shed underperforming restaurants. Nearly six months after the burger chain first announced the plan on an investor call, its U.S. footprint is decidedly smaller, with multiple states seeing net store declines in the double digits, according to a review of Wendy’s store locator tool. As of Friday, the tool showed 5,675 locations in the United States. That’s roughly 200 fewer locations than what it showed at the end of September 2025, an archived capture of the tool reveals. The Wendy’s Company, which disclosed its turnaround plan in November 2025, said the closures would begin in the fourth quarter of that year. The archived capture showed 5,875 U.S. locations when that quarter began. These numbers are not official store counts, but rather based on what Wendy’s lists publicly on its U.S. website. The store counts that Wendy’s reports in financial filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tend to be slightly different. For example, the company reported 5,979 U.S. restaurants as of September 27 of last year, dozens more than what appeared on the locator tool at that time. It’s unclear what accounts for the discrepancy. Wendy’s did not respond to requests for comment. Still, the store locator tool offers a window into the chain’s overall store footprint and how it changes over time. The tool is frequently updated; for instance, one location in North Haven, Connecticut, that was reported closed just this week has already disappeared from the tool. It’s also a good gauge of which areas of the country are being most affected by Wendy’s closures. As of this week, the following states have seen the biggest net declines in restaurants since the fourth quarter of last year: Florida: 475 locations (net loss of 24) Texas: 431 locations (net loss of 23) Illinois: 175 locations (net loss of 18) Arizona: 90 locations (net loss of 15) Colorado: 115 locations (net loss of 10) Ohio: 388 locations (net loss of 10) New Mexico: 33 locations (net loss of 8) Local media reports and review platforms such as Yelp confirm that the states above have seen a number of Wendy’s closures in recent months. Last week, the Florida Times-Union reported that a sign was being removed from a Wendy’s restaurant located in the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville. It reported that “several” locations have closed in the area. Also last week, mySA, a news website for residents in San Antonio, Texas, revealed that five Wendy’s locations have closed in that region. It’s not clear if these specific closures are directly related to the turnaround plan or whether the locations have closed for another reason. Why is Wendy’s closing? There’s no getting around that Wendy’s has been in a slump. Revenue slipped 3.1% last year to $2.18 billion, and net income fell 15.1% to $165.1 million. While Wendy’s remains the second-largest fast food hamburger chain in the country, and the third-largest globally, it faces the same headwinds that have been impacting the quick-service restaurant (QSR) segment for a while, including higher operating costs, increasingly price-sensitive consumers, and more competition from newer chains. Shares of The Wendy’s Company (Nasdaq: WEN) have fallen dramatically over the last year, down roughly 44%, compared to a decline of about 8% for rival McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD). How many more Wendy’s will be closed? Reports in February suggested that Wendy’s could close about 300 locations as part of its turnaround plan, but it has not released an official number. Fast Company asked Wendy’s for more details and will update this story if we hear back. The Wendy’s Company is expected to report its next earnings on Friday, May 8 before the opening bell. Investors will no doubt be eagerly awaiting an update on store closures—the fate of Frostys in countless cities hang in the balance. This story is developing… View the full article

Google repeats the bounce clicks claim. Alphabet and Microsoft report from the revenue side. More in this week's SEO Pulse. The post AI Overviews Clicks Get Tested, Earnings Tell Two Stories – SEO Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Sony LinkBuds Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker is now down to $98 (originally $179.99), which is the lowest price it has hit so far, according to price trackers. This is not a party speaker or a smart assistant hub—it's built as a simple, portable option for home use, especially if you already use Sony’s LinkBuds headphones, and the design reflects that. It's compact, light, and comes with a built-in strap, so you can move it from your desk to the kitchen or bedroom without much trouble. It also supports multipoint pairing, so you can stay connected to two devices at once, like a phone and a laptop. Sony LinkBuds Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker $98.00 at Amazon $179.99 Save $81.99 Get Deal Get Deal $98.00 at Amazon $179.99 Save $81.99 Where this speaker stands out is in how it handles everyday listening. Voices come through clearly, which makes podcasts, YouTube videos, and casual playlists easy to follow. You can walk around a room and still hear dialogue without it sounding muffled or distant. If you also own the Sony LinkBuds S Truly Wireless, you get automatic audio handoff—you can start a podcast on your commute, walk in the door, and have it continue through the speaker without digging through settings to reconnect. That said, if you are not using LinkBuds headphones, that advantage disappears. The speaker does not get very loud, so it struggles in larger rooms or outdoor spaces, and is better suited for personal listening or small gatherings. There is also no built-in voice assistant, which makes it feel basic compared to options like the Sonos Roam 2 or the Amazon Echo Pop. The Sonos model adds voice control and a more flexible ecosystem, though its battery life is shorter, while the Echo Pop offers strong voice recognition but needs to stay plugged in. In comparison, the LinkBuds Speaker focuses on portability and battery life over extra features, and if you want something simple that fits into a Sony setup, the current price makes it easier to justify. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $148.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch (Black) — $149.95 (List Price $199.95) Apple iPad 11" A16 128GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Silver, 2025) — $299.99 (List Price $349.00) Anker Nano 45W 10,000mAh Compact Power Bank With Retractable Cable — $49.99 (List Price $59.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

This week in search, we are seeing yet again more Google search ranking volatility. Google sent out notifications about back button hijacking penalties to those sites that have the problem. Google AdSense vignette ads may trigger the penalty...View the full article