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Ten years ago, the New York City Council passed the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, guaranteeing freelancers the right to a contract, full payment in 30 days, and protection against retaliation. Since then, the law has been passed in the cities of Los Angeles, Columbus, Minneapolis, Seattle, and statewide in New York, California, and Illinois. Yet there are still scores of freelancers who aren’t paid on time, threatening their livelihoods and making independent work too precarious for many to enter into. 75% of freelancers, roughly 150,000 people each year, experience late pay in New York City alone. That’s why New York City Council Member Chi Ossé recently introduced a bill to create the City-Run Freelancers Payment Fund. Freelancers could choose to opt into the fund by paying a small fee. Freelancers would then get paid via the fund, instead of waiting on payment from their client. The city would be responsible for being reimbursed by the hiring party, engaging them for the payment instead of the freelancer. This relieves the freelancer of having to wait on payment that might never come, or risk fraying relationships by chasing it. If the bill passes, the program would be administered by the Department of Small Business Services, and the fund’s operations handled by the Economic Development Corporation. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would also play a role in implementation and enforcement. For those of you in New York City, contact your local city council member and let them know that you want them to sign onto Council Member Ossé’s bill. The Freelance Isn't Free Act passed in New York City and then was quickly adopted elsewhere. A decade later, it's time to set another precedent. View the full article

Ten years ago, the New York City Council passed the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, guaranteeing freelancers the right to a contract, full payment in 30 days, and protection against retaliation. Since then, the law has been passed in the cities of Los Angeles, Columbus, Minneapolis, Seattle, and statewide in New York, California, and Illinois. Yet there are still scores of freelancers who aren’t paid on time, threatening their livelihoods and making independent work too precarious for many to enter into. 75% of freelancers, roughly 150,000 people each year, experience late pay in New York City alone. That’s why New York City Council Member Chi Ossé recently introduced a bill to create the City-Run Freelancers Payment Fund. Freelancers could choose to opt into the fund by paying a small fee. Freelancers would then get paid via the fund, instead of waiting on payment from their client. The city would be responsible for being reimbursed by the hiring party, engaging them for the payment instead of the freelancer. This relieves the freelancer of having to wait on payment that might never come, or risk fraying relationships by chasing it. If the bill passes, the program would be administered by the Department of Small Business Services, and the fund’s operations handled by the Economic Development Corporation. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would also play a role in implementation and enforcement. For those of you in New York City, contact your local city council member and let them know that you want them to sign onto Council Member Ossé’s bill. The Freelance Isn't Free Act passed in New York City and then was quickly adopted elsewhere. A decade later, it's time to set another precedent. View the full article

Google is set to automatically link Google Ads accounts with associated YouTube channels — according to communications sent to multiple advertisers — tightening the connection between video engagement and ad performance. What’s happening. Advertisers have received notices that, from June 10, 2026, Google Ads accounts that aren’t already linked to a YouTube channel will be automatically connected. The update removes the need for manual linking and ensures advertisers can access video engagement data and targeting features by default. Why we care. Linking a YouTube channel unlocks deeper insights and more advanced targeting options — something many advertisers either overlook or delay setting up. By automating the process, Google is effectively making video data a standard part of campaign optimisation. Zoom in. Once linked, advertisers can access organic video metrics, including view counts, directly within Google Ads. They can also build audience segments based on how users interact with their YouTube content — from video views to channel engagement. What else. The integration allows advertisers to track “earned actions,” such as subscriptions or additional views driven by ads, and use those engagements as conversion signals. That creates a clearer picture of how video campaigns influence user behaviour beyond just clicks. What to watch. How advertisers adapt their measurement strategies once organic and paid video data are combined, and whether this leads to broader use of engagement-based conversion tracking in campaigns. Bottom line. Google is making YouTube data harder to ignore — turning automatic linking into a default step for better targeting, measurement and performance. First spotted. Several advertiser reported getting the comms from Google, including Founder of JXT Group, Menachem Ani, founder of PPC News Feed Hana Kobzová, and PPC Specialist Arpan Banerjee. View the full article

MOST leaders reach a point where they can see exactly where their company needs to go. The vision is clear — more sophisticated, more scalable, more aligned with the leader they’ve become. They didn’t get to this point by accident. The clarity they have now is the product of a commitment to transformation expressed through years of building, learning, and evolving. But the company is still organized around an earlier version of their leadership. The revenue is real. The clients are happy. On paper, it works. But the routines, the roles, the decision-making patterns were designed for a different stage. Maybe a different strategy entirely. As the founder, every day pulls you back into the same patterns: the firefighting, the decisions only you can make, the sense that if you stop moving, everything stops. This is the tension between where you’re going and what got you here, and it’s one of the most common inflection points in a founder’s journey. At this stage, part of your responsibility as a leader is to transform the company along with you. New Goals Demand New Thinking A founder I worked with ran a specialized professional services firm. Over a few years, he had made an important leap from transactional operator to strategic advisor. He built a new framework, renamed his practice, and reimagined his value proposition to create a market segment he could own — higher-trust, higher-fee, more durable client relationships. He knew where he was going. But the company was still organized around what had gotten him here. The team’s routines were built for the old model: high volume, fast turnaround, lots of reactive work. The systems rewarded output, not depth. His top producer embodied the old approach perfectly, earning seven figures doing it the traditional way. There was no reason for that person to change. Because they were successful, challenging the model felt like challenging results. The founder said it plainly: I can see it. My challenge has been to get there. He wasn’t confused about the destination. He was caught in the tension between the leader he had become and the organization that was still designed to produce something else. This is the principle most founders eventually collide with: personal transformation enables organizational transformation, but it doesn’t happen automatically. You have to redesign the organization to match the leader you’re becoming. Creating that alignment is the hardest part of leadership. But there is a way through it, and it starts with seeing clearly. Stepping Back to Move Ahead Rose, a co-founder I worked with, ran a predictive-maintenance startup. In a single hour-long meeting about one of her strategic priorities, she got interrupted eight times; every decision, every customer question, every call was routed through her. She was the bottleneck and she knew it. The conventional answer would have been to delegate more. However, delegation wasn't the issue. As we worked together, Rose started to recognize that she was actively choosing urgency. Once she could see what urgency gave her (a feeling of being essential and in control) and what made strategic focus so easy to avoid (it felt boring and lacked immediate payoffs), she recognized that her own choices were keeping her stuck as the bottleneck. Her dedication to urgency had built a system where her team had no way to make decisions without her, not because they lacked capability, but because she had never designed the conditions for them to use it. As she changed her relationship to urgency, her team’s relationship to it started to shift as well. Instead of answering questions, she started designing what her team needed to move ahead on their own: clear context, clear constraints, clear freedoms. The company didn't change because she hired new people. It changed because she became a different kind of leader — a designer instead of a doer. And once she made that shift, she could actually spend her time on strategy instead of being drowned in the urgent. That shift didn't just free up her calendar, it changed what the company was capable of without her in the room. This kind of transformation starts with three moves: See the tensions you’ve been avoiding: Where loyalty to what built this company conflicts with what the company needs next. Where your habits serve comfort instead of progress. Where good enough has become the ceiling. These aren’t problems to solve. They’re tensions to navigate. Own your contribution to the pattern: Acknowledge that you designed this system and it’s doing exactly what it was built to do. The meeting cadence, the decision flow, the hiring bar, the standards you enforce and the ones you work around are living expressions of your leadership. The company is a mirror. Shift from doer to designer: Stop solving problems and start redesigning the processes, roles, and culture of accountability that align better with the future you've envisioned, not the past you’re coming from. Finally, curtail your instinct to intervene so your team learns to trust themselves and stops gravitating toward old habits. The next phase of growth is a different kind of growth. Not more effort, not better systems, not another hire who’ll finally take things off your plate. It’s the work of closing the gap between where you’re going and what got you here so that growth stops being a grind and starts feeling like momentum. * * * Chris Clearfield is a leadership strategist and author of The High-Altitude Entrepreneur: A Framework for Scaling Smarter, Leading Better, and Living Freer. Learn more at highaltitudebook.com * * * Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas. * * * View the full article

Naomi Osaka once believed that winning meant saying yes to everything. Over the years of her successful tennis career, though, the four-time Grand Slam champion says that doesn’t ring true anymore. As the new ambassador for vitamin and supplement company Olly’s Mental Health Awareness Month campaign, Osaka got candid about setting boundaries, pushing through fatigue and the success myth she used to believe. “I used to think success meant saying yes to everything that came with it,” Osaka wrote in a personal essay for Fortune. “Now I see it differently. I’ve been able to achieve what I have by holding boundaries.” In the piece, Osaka reflected on her decision to withdraw from the French Open in 2021 to focus on her mental well-being. “That moment stands out for me because it opened my eyes to something I hadn’t fully let myself see: you don’t always have to do things that people expect from you,” Osaka said. The tennis star has been vocal about mental health in the past. After her high-profile withdrawal from the French Open, Osaka wrote a piece for Time about the backlash she faced for her decision. She wrote about how scrutiny from the press and the tournament pressured her to disclose her personal medical history. “In any other line of work, you would be forgiven for taking a personal day here and there, so long as it’s not habitual,” Osaka wrote in the Time essay. “You wouldn’t have to divulge your most personal symptoms to your employer; there would likely be HR measures protecting at least some level of privacy.” Since having her daughter in 2023, Osaka said that creating boundaries throughout her motherhood journey has gotten easier, because not only does she have to protect herself, but she also has to protect her daughter, she explained. “There’s this idea that ‘doing it all’ is something women should aspire to, and I don’t think that should be glorified,” Osaka said. “You can’t be everything to everyone without losing something of yourself. Sometimes it’s actually kinder to say no.” In 2019, after she won the Australian Open at the age of 21, Osaka told Fast Company that the stakes started to feel higher. “If I lost a match, it became news everywhere, and I would pay more attention to my losses,” she said. “They were harder to get over. Sometimes, I got depressed during practices and [felt] like there were a lot of expectations on me. I started to question my ability, which I had never really done before. I have a tendency to shut down in those moments. It’s hard to keep having fun playing tennis.” Since then, Osaka has learned how to listen to her mind and body. As she explains in her essay for Fortune, she doesn’t push herself to extremes when she feels overwhelmed or fatigued. “As a professional athlete, I’m very in tune with my body. I’ve learned the difference between a good kind of tired and a deeper fatigue that means something is off,” she said. “When I feel that fatigue, I don’t push through it anymore. I respect it.” View the full article

Climate change is making your allergies worse, in part by creating longer and more intense pollen seasons, according to a growing body of research from a number of scientists and physicians. “We know that climate change is leading to greater amounts of pollen in the atmosphere,” says Paul Beggs, an environmental health scientist and professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who published a 2024 paper on the link between climate change and asthma. “It’s changing the seasonality of the pollen. It’s changing the types of pollen that we’re exposed to.” With pollen season already underway in many parts of the U.S., the AccuWeather 2026 US Allergy Forecast is predicting more high-pollen days this year, driven by variables like storms and temperature swings. “The data is clear, and millions of seasonal allergy sufferers have noticed the changes,” AccuWeather climate expert and senior meteorologist Brett Anderson says. “The seasonal allergy season in America is expanding at both ends.” Dr. Rebecca Saff, an allergist and immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, agrees that long gone are the days when allergies were restricted to merely spring or fall. As global warming creates shorter, milder winters and warmer springs, those allergy seasons start earlier and continue later. And a 2022 study in the journal Nature predicts pollen season will start 40 days earlier and end 15 days later by the end of the century. “Later frost dates mean the allergy season is ending later in many places,” says Anderson. “When warmth and moisture align, trees, grass and weeds can produce more pollen more often.” According to Saff, those warmer temps are contributing to some plants migrating north, like ragweed—giving way to new allergens that weren’t previously seen in some parts of the country, like the Northeast. At the same time, rising temperatures—the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the past 11 years have been the 11 warmest on record—are triggering what experts call alarming extreme allergy events, the BBC reported. Today, 30% of Americans over the age of 18 have seasonal allergies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Now, thanks to climate change, they could be seeing symptoms like watery eyes, sneezing, and coughing last longer. View the full article

“I’m fine”—a vast majority of women utter those two words reflexively in various scenarios, when they’re not, in fact, fine. Now, Megababe is tackling this so-called ‘comfort tax’ with an ad campaign designed to encourage women to better advocate for themselves. On Monday, the personal care brand unveiled a series of bright orange-and-white ads across New York City that underscore how women have normalized discomfort. The campaign marks Megababe’s first foray into social-first messaging. It comes alongside the results of a March survey it conducted, which found that 85% of women would rather be uncomfortable than inconvenience someone else. Women claiming to be fine is so pervasive that 96% of the 500 respondents reported doing so at least weekly, even when they’re not fine. These types of “shockingly high” statistics, while sad, weren’t altogether surprising, which is why Megababe decided to highlight the bigger implications of that small behavior that’s so ingrained among women, says founder Katie Sturino. “We wanted to talk about how some of this ‘I’m fine’ business affects actual physical health, meaning, we don’t want to complain and seem high maintenance to the point where we don’t go to the doctor,” Sturino tells Fast Company in an exclusive interview. “We just suffer through things.” In fact, the survey found that 65% of women have never told their doctor about a recurring body discomfort, because they felt it was too embarrassing or “not serious enough” to mention. While medical gaslighting is also a serious issue many women will encounter, recognizing the learned behavior of dismissing discomfort is an important first step, Sturino says. ‘I just want women to go off’ The ad campaign includes a phone number that people can call or text to complain about whatever might be irking them at the moment, be it a body issue or someone else. That’s something Sturino says she proudly encourages her 800,000-plus followers on social media to do regularly. “I just want women to go off,” Sturino says. “I want to catch you in your moment of feeling frustrated and give you an opportunity to vent where it’s not going to really impact your day-to-day life.” Much like the topic of the ‘pink tax‘ became a talking point about a decade ago, Megababe hopes that the idea of a comfort tax will similarly become something that’s re-evaluated. And Sturino says it’s especially important right now to give women the opportunity to vent without judgment. “Women are tired; I think that women are carrying the mental load at home,” she says. “Certainly they’re not getting support from our government or current administration in any way, shape, or form, so it feels as though things just keep getting pushed onto women.” Putting a stop to it Megababe’s ad campaign intentionally doesn’t include any mention of its growing array of personal care products, which now includes a new chafe gel and a blister stick for feet. Next month, it will also debut an anti-fungal product, and this summer it will move into a new category focused on overheating, according to Sturino. The company first burst onto the market in 2017 with an anti-chafe stick for the thighs. And according to Sturino, the company’s nearly decade-long legacy makes it the “perfect” fit for creating a cultural discussion around encouraging women to stop the “I’m fine” reflexive behavior. “We are the brand that destigmatized thigh chafe and boob sweat and we take on issues that women have traditionally been told to just deal with or say, ‘I’m fine,’ and move on,” she says. “Now we want to help you in a different way.” Only about 9% of women in Megababe’s survey say they prioritize their comfort over anyone else. Sturino hopes this campaign will encourage other women to say what they need to actually be fine and comfortable. “Let’s stop this behavior that we’ve all agreed to do for no reason,” she says. View the full article

Two other nonbank mortgage firms also recently got in position to raise capital while NVR, a builder and lender, added new authorization for share repurchases. View the full article

First you choose a partner, then you choose a genome? For this episode of FC Explains, Fast Company Senior Writer Ainsley Harris digs into the rapidly growing world of embryo genetic screening, including IVF startups like Orchid and Nucleus that offer parents the ability to select embryos based on genome sequencing. Proponents say this kind of genetic testing helps optimize health outcomes and prevent hereditary disease. Parents say it’s giving their kids the best shot at life. On this episode of FC Explains we dig into why some scientists have called polygenic embryo screening “modern snake oil,” and why others are calling for an urgent, society-wide conversation about so-called “designer babies.” . View the full article

A reader writes: I make a technically reasonable but low salary at my entry-level job, and while I’m not slacking, I’m also definitely not pushing as hard as I could. I do above my quota easily as it is, and I’m confident I could do more — even the work of two people — without overburdening myself. I like the work and I’m extremely good at it, but I’ve been feeling pressured to look for a new job because that salary just isn’t sustainable. Our team is short-staffed at the moment, like everyone else, and it takes some time for a new employee to get up to speed. If I could make, let’s say, half of another person’s salary on top of my current pay, I’d be making the amount of money I want and I feel (though I could be wrong here) that’d they be getting a bargain. Let’s say I make $35,000 a year, and so hiring a new person would be another $35,000 plus their hypothetical benefits. If they gave me half that plus my current salary, I could do the work of two people for $52,500, and this would meet my needs. It’s the sort of thing that feels like it could be mutually advantageous except for social conventions and the defined salary range. Is there any way to propose this gracefully, or should I well and truly let go of the idea? Also, I totally understand if there are questions regarding the wisdom of taking on such a workload. I know the job and my skill level, but I’d do some more specific assessment before reaching out about anything, if it would indeed be acceptable to do so. What you want to propose sounds extremely logical, and yet companies will almost never do it. Some of that is skepticism that you’d really be taking on the work of a whole other person’s job. Sometimes that skepticism is warranted, because in practice it can end up meaning that you do the basics the other person would do but none of the extras and they miss out on the advantages of having two brains looking at problems (and coming up with ideas, taking initiative, etc.) rather than one. You might think that’s a reasonable trade-off to make if it saves them from having to hire an entire other person, but there are legitimate reasons for managers to be uneasy about that. Sometimes, too, they can have worries about coverage: right now if you’re out, there are X other people who can do the work, but under what you’re proposing it would be X-1. They also might worry about your capacity. Maybe you’re right that you could easily field both jobs now, but they don’t know if it will be sustainable long-term — if, for example, the workload of either position changes, or if something changes on your end (like a new commitment that takes a lot of your energy outside of work and leaves you less bandwidth). And, crucially, a manager might figure that what you’re proposing would work fine as long as you’re still employed there, but if you leave, they’d need to hire two people to replace you and it would be a battle for them to get that headcount back if they give it up now. Other times, none of those concerns are in play and they just object to the idea of structuring pay the way you describe, figuring that they’re paying for your time and if you can do X job and Y job in 40 hours, that’s what your existing salary covers. In that case, they’re more likely to be open to a raise, but not one that’s structured as half the salary of another position. Ultimately, that’s likely the most effective way to propose it: to say that you think you could take on much of the work of the other role, saving them from having to hire another person and, if you did, would they consider increasing your salary to reflect that? You might propose a one-month experiment so both sides can see if it works. The risk in doing that, of course, is that they could decide to add most/all of that position’s work to your role without a sufficient pay increase. But if you’d otherwise be planning to leave over pay at some point regardless, that might be a risk you’re willing to take on. The post can I ask for half an extra salary if I take on someone else’s job plus mine? appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Current liquidation and prior restructuring procedure have cost more than $110mn combinedView the full article

In the United States, we recognize a separation between church and state, but does that delineation apply to work, too? That’s an earnest question from a self-identifying choirboy—literally, I grew up in church and I direct the choir—who has been asked throughout my career to leave religion out of my work. Do we need the Jesus reference in the deck? Do I have to use Bible scripture in that essay? Is the religious example in the class lecture necessary? It’s almost always polite but definitely unambiguous: ease up on the religious stuff because it likely doesn’t have a place here because the workplace is neutral. But is that really so? The entire global workweek structure stems from Judeo-Christian theology. Saturdays and Sundays are considered “days of rest,” so many institutions suspend organized work to observe the Sabbath. The country shuts down for Christmas. We hand out candy in October because of All Hallows’ Eve, a pagan tradition with a Christian association. And once we’re in the office, we use words like evangelist, convert, mission, believers, devotion—religious vocabulary is so embedded in the discourse of marketing and management that we’ve stopped hearing it as religious at all. In fact, the source material for much of social living is founded on religious imaginations that have been secularized, even in the workplace; we have just agreed to pretend otherwise. That’s why we invited Julie Wenah onto the latest episode of the FROM THE CULTURE podcast to sit with this contradiction. Wenah is the chairwoman of the Digital Civil Rights Coalition and a global product leader who’s done AI equity work at Meta and Airbnb, shaped policy in the Obama White House, and trained as a civil rights attorney along the way at Georgetown Law. She’s also a filmmaker, an Alvin Ailey-trained dancer, and a woman who will, without flinching, tell you what God said to her last Thursday. Wenah is what the no-Jesus-at-work crowd insists is impossible: a senior operator at the leading edge of technology and policy whose faith isn’t the side dish to her career but the main ingredient. There’s so much talk in management and organizations discourse about bringing your “whole self” to work, so why is it assumed that we’d leave our faith at the door? The default frame says bringing your faith to work is a risk to your professionalism, but that violates all the lauded benefits that are said to come from being our authentic selves in the workplace. In our conversation, Wenah offers a powerful reframe that addresses this contradiction: The album and the mixtape. Your album, Wenah posits, is the contractual work—what you owe the label, the deliverable on the job description, the thing that pays. Your mixtape, on the other hand, is everything else you make: the side project, the dance class, the documentary you create, the choir you direct, the faith you carry. The album is what the company hired you to do. The mixtape is what makes you, you. And the artists who endure are the ones whose body of work includes both. You don’t know Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Big Sean, The Weeknd, or Drake alone because of their studio albums; the mixtape is a part of their body of work. Even Jay-Z’s “S.Carter” mixtape is considered canon. That’s because to know an artist by their album only is to know only half of them. The same is true of the people you employ. Wenah traces her framework back to a single moment in her Washington, D.C. apartment in 2016. Chance the Rapper’s Blessings came on, and she heard the line, “I speak to God in public.” She’d spent her career being told her two halves were incongruous—the lawyer and the believer, the technologist and the church girl, the album and the mixtape. Chance gave her permission, in three words, to stop separating them. I had my own version of this feeling stuck writing my best-selling debut book For The Culture. I had nothing for months until I remembered that the early sociologists—Durkheim, Weber, Marx—all observed religion to understand culture, and here I was a choirboy writing a book about culture. The angle was an unlock that sitting in the part of myself I’d been told to leave outside the office. I’m not saying that we ought to run Bible study out of the conference room or hold prayer with your direct reports. I’m not asking the workplace to become religious. The workplace already is religious; my argument is that we should stop pretending otherwise so that we might benefit from the promise of our full selves—the album and the mixtape. Not because it’s nice, but because it’s where the depth lives. The leader who can say here’s what I believe and here’s why I serve—without proselytizing, without flattening the source, and while tolerating other points of view—is the leader who can ask the people in their building to do the same. And the company that gets the album and the mixtape from each of its employees gets their full body of work, their full potential. Who wouldn’t want that? Check out our full conversation with Julie Wenah on the latest episode of FROM THE CULTURE here. View the full article

Critics of AI caution that as a relatively new technology, its long-term effects on the human brain are still unknown. But a new study shows that AI could be just as dangerous in the short-term, with sessions of AI use only 10 minutes long leading to impaired brain performance. The study, conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, Oxford, MIT, and UCLA, challenged participants to complete a set of fraction-based math problems. Half the group was tasked to solve the problems on their own, while the other half was given access to an AI assistant powered by OpenAI’s GPT-5 model—only to have that AI helper removed without warning for the test’s final three problems. Though the AI-assisted test takers had a higher solve rate than the control group for most of the experiment, once the AI was removed, that number plummeted. Once both groups were operating independently, the AI-assisted group had a solve rate approximately 20% lower than the control group. Additionally, the AI-assisted group had a much higher rate of simply skipping questions once their access to AI was removed, opting to abandon problems twice as often as the control group. The participants only had access to their AI assistants for around 10 minutes, suggesting that building reliance on AI even for such a short time stunted people’s ability to fall back on their own problem-solving skills. The researchers also conducted a follow-up experiment with the same format to test reading comprehension instead of math skills. The results were largely the same, except that access to AI didn’t give the assisted group an edge in the first portion of the exam. The way you use AI matters Though depending on (and then losing access to) AI assistance led to lower problem-solving rates overall, there was diversity within the study’s experimental groups depending on how they utilized their AI assistants. Those who asked the AI for direct solutions saw the largest decline in solve rate and the largest increase in skip rate. The majority of the study’s participants fell into this group, with 61% self-reporting that they asked the AI for direct answers to the test’s questions. But those who only asked the AI for hints or clarifications didn’t experience the same drop-off in solve rate, instead staying on par with the control group. This suggests that not all forms of AI usage are harmful to cognition. Rather, it’s a total reliance on AI assistance that impairs humans’ ability to problem-solve. Building on other research The study’s results are consistent with previous research that has linked AI usage with cognitive decline. A study from MIT measured brain activity during essay writing, finding that writers working independently had significantly higher brain connectivity than writers using LLMs, who underperformed neurally, linguistically, and behaviorally across the four-month experiment. Other studies of workers in fields including knowledge work and medicine saw that those who relied on AI to complete tasks were rendered less capable of completing those same tasks themselves without AI assistance. In their conclusion, the study’s authors wrote that their results “raise urgent questions about the cumulative effects of daily AI use on human persistence and reasoning.” “We caution that if such effects accumulate with sustained AI use, current AI systems—optimized only for short-term helpfulness—risk eroding the very human capabilities they are meant to support,” they wrote. View the full article

Basic accounting for small businesses is vital for managing finances effectively. It involves tracking financial transactions and preparing key financial statements like income statements and balance sheets. By comprehending your financial position, you can make informed decisions and guarantee compliance with regulations. Choosing between cash and accrual accounting methods is likewise important. To set up your accounting system, it’s important to reflect on common tasks and their frequency, which directly impacts your business’s financial health. What comes next in this process might surprise you. Key Takeaways Basic accounting is essential for tracking financial transactions and managing the finances of small businesses effectively. Key financial statements include the income statement, balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and cash flow statement for informed decision-making. Small businesses can choose between cash-basis and accrual accounting methods based on their specific financial tracking needs. Establishing a bookkeeping system and chart of accounts is crucial for organizing financial data and maintaining clarity. Regular accounting tasks should be scheduled daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually to ensure accurate financial management. Understanding the Importance of Basic Accounting Basic accounting serves as the backbone of financial management for small businesses, offering a structured approach to tracking every financial transaction. Comprehending the importance of accounting is imperative for your business’s growth and stability. With small businesses representing 99.9% of all U.S. businesses, effective accounting systems are fundamental for their financial health. Nearly half of all U.S. employees work for small businesses, making your financial practices critical for the overall economy. Utilizing basic accounting for small businesses helps you maintain accurate financial reporting and meet tax obligations. Regularly reviewing financial statements, like income statements and balance sheets, allows you to identify trends and make informed decisions. Key Financial Statements Every Small Business Needs During the operation of a small business, grasping key financial statements is vital for effective management and decision-making. The income statement outlines your profitability by detailing earnings and losses over a specific period, helping you evaluate your business’s performance. Next, the balance sheet provides a snapshot of your financial position at a certain moment, listing your assets, liabilities, and equity. Additionally, the profit and loss (P&L) statement summarizes revenues and expenses, indicating your net profit or loss over time. Finally, the cash flow statement tracks cash inflow and outflow, showing how well your business generates cash to meet its obligations. Regularly reviewing these financial statements is important for identifying trends, making informed decisions, and ensuring compliance with tax regulations. Accounting Methods: Cash vs. Accrual Choosing the right accounting method is crucial for effectively managing your small business’s finances, as it can markedly influence your financial reporting and tax obligations. You typically have two options: cash basis and accrual basis accounting. Feature Cash Basis Accounting Accrual Basis Accounting Revenue Recognition When cash is received When earned at the point of sale Expense Recognition When cash is paid When incurred Tax Reporting Income reported when received Income reported when earned Cash basis accounting is often simpler but may not accurately reflect your financial health. Conversely, accrual accounting gives a clearer picture over time, which is why it’s preferred by most businesses. Keep in mind that the IRS usually requires larger businesses, with sales over $5 million, to use accrual accounting for compliance and better financial tracking. Setting Up Your Small Business Accounting System Setting up an effective accounting system for your small business is a key step in managing your finances and ensuring compliance with tax regulations. Start by determining your business’s legal structure, like a sole proprietorship or LLC, as this influences your accounting practices. Next, open a separate business bank account to maintain a clear distinction between personal and business finances, which simplifies tax preparation. Then, choose between cash-basis and accrual accounting methods based on your business needs; cash accounting suits simpler operations, whereas accrual offers a more accurate financial picture. Establish a bookkeeping system, using accounting software or spreadsheets, to efficiently track expenses, revenues, and transactions. Finally, create a chart of accounts organized by categories such as assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses, which will facilitate easier tracking and reporting of your business finances. Common Accounting Tasks and Their Frequency Regularly managing accounting tasks is essential for the smooth operation of your small business. Daily, you should check your cash position and record transactions to guarantee accurate financial tracking. Weekly, document receipts, review unpaid bills, pay vendors, and prepare invoices to keep operations flowing smoothly. Monthly, balance your checkbook, analyze inventory, process payroll, and review profit and loss statements to gauge your financial health. On a quarterly basis, prepare revised profit and loss estimates, review payroll reports, make sales tax payments, and compute estimated income tax for compliance purposes. Finally, annually, review past-due receivables, assess inventory value, and guarantee accurate financial reporting for tax preparation and strategic planning. Keeping up with these tasks not only helps you maintain a clear financial picture but additionally supports compliance and informed decision-making, ultimately contributing to the growth and stability of your business. Frequently Asked Questions What Accounting Is Needed for a Small Business? For a small business, you need a reliable accounting system to track all financial transactions. This includes sales, expenses, assets, and liabilities. You can choose between cash basis and accrual accounting methods. Crucial financial statements like the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement help you assess profitability and financial health. Regularly reconciling bank statements guarantees your records match your actual bank balances, maintaining accuracy in your financial reporting. What Are the 5 Basic Accounting Accounts? The five basic accounting accounts are assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Assets include resources like cash and inventory, essential for business operations. Liabilities represent obligations to pay, such as loans. Equity reflects the owner’s stake after subtracting liabilities from assets. Revenue accounts track income from sales, whereas expense accounts monitor operational costs. Together, these accounts form an extensive view of your business’s financial health and performance, guiding your decision-making process effectively. What Are the 5 Basic Accounting Principles? The five basic accounting principles are crucial for accurate financial reporting. First, the Revenue Recognition Principle states you should recognize revenue when earned, not when cash is received. Second, the Matching Principle requires you to align expenses with the related revenues in the same period. Next, the Cost Principle mandates recording assets at their original purchase price. The Full Disclosure Principle demands transparency in financial statements, whereas the Objectivity Principle emphasizes unbiased, verifiable information. How to Do Simple Bookkeeping for a Small Business? To do simple bookkeeping for your small business, start by setting up a system to organize receipts and financial records. Choose between cash or accrual accounting methods. Use accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero to automate entries and track transactions efficiently. Record all sales and expenses consistently, categorize them properly, and reconcile bank statements regularly to identify discrepancies. Establish a routine for weekly and monthly bookkeeping tasks to maintain accurate financial health. Conclusion In conclusion, basic accounting is vital for small businesses to monitor financial health and make informed decisions. By comprehending key financial statements and choosing the right accounting method, you can effectively manage your finances. Setting up a robust accounting system and regularly completing common accounting tasks will help guarantee compliance and support your business’s growth. Prioritizing these practices will not just improve your financial awareness but additionally position your business for long-term success in a competitive environment. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is Basic Accounting for Small Businesses?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Basic accounting for small businesses is vital for managing finances effectively. It involves tracking financial transactions and preparing key financial statements like income statements and balance sheets. By comprehending your financial position, you can make informed decisions and guarantee compliance with regulations. Choosing between cash and accrual accounting methods is likewise important. To set up your accounting system, it’s important to reflect on common tasks and their frequency, which directly impacts your business’s financial health. What comes next in this process might surprise you. Key Takeaways Basic accounting is essential for tracking financial transactions and managing the finances of small businesses effectively. Key financial statements include the income statement, balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and cash flow statement for informed decision-making. Small businesses can choose between cash-basis and accrual accounting methods based on their specific financial tracking needs. Establishing a bookkeeping system and chart of accounts is crucial for organizing financial data and maintaining clarity. Regular accounting tasks should be scheduled daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually to ensure accurate financial management. Understanding the Importance of Basic Accounting Basic accounting serves as the backbone of financial management for small businesses, offering a structured approach to tracking every financial transaction. Comprehending the importance of accounting is imperative for your business’s growth and stability. With small businesses representing 99.9% of all U.S. businesses, effective accounting systems are fundamental for their financial health. Nearly half of all U.S. employees work for small businesses, making your financial practices critical for the overall economy. Utilizing basic accounting for small businesses helps you maintain accurate financial reporting and meet tax obligations. Regularly reviewing financial statements, like income statements and balance sheets, allows you to identify trends and make informed decisions. Key Financial Statements Every Small Business Needs During the operation of a small business, grasping key financial statements is vital for effective management and decision-making. The income statement outlines your profitability by detailing earnings and losses over a specific period, helping you evaluate your business’s performance. Next, the balance sheet provides a snapshot of your financial position at a certain moment, listing your assets, liabilities, and equity. Additionally, the profit and loss (P&L) statement summarizes revenues and expenses, indicating your net profit or loss over time. Finally, the cash flow statement tracks cash inflow and outflow, showing how well your business generates cash to meet its obligations. Regularly reviewing these financial statements is important for identifying trends, making informed decisions, and ensuring compliance with tax regulations. Accounting Methods: Cash vs. Accrual Choosing the right accounting method is crucial for effectively managing your small business’s finances, as it can markedly influence your financial reporting and tax obligations. You typically have two options: cash basis and accrual basis accounting. Feature Cash Basis Accounting Accrual Basis Accounting Revenue Recognition When cash is received When earned at the point of sale Expense Recognition When cash is paid When incurred Tax Reporting Income reported when received Income reported when earned Cash basis accounting is often simpler but may not accurately reflect your financial health. Conversely, accrual accounting gives a clearer picture over time, which is why it’s preferred by most businesses. Keep in mind that the IRS usually requires larger businesses, with sales over $5 million, to use accrual accounting for compliance and better financial tracking. Setting Up Your Small Business Accounting System Setting up an effective accounting system for your small business is a key step in managing your finances and ensuring compliance with tax regulations. Start by determining your business’s legal structure, like a sole proprietorship or LLC, as this influences your accounting practices. Next, open a separate business bank account to maintain a clear distinction between personal and business finances, which simplifies tax preparation. Then, choose between cash-basis and accrual accounting methods based on your business needs; cash accounting suits simpler operations, whereas accrual offers a more accurate financial picture. Establish a bookkeeping system, using accounting software or spreadsheets, to efficiently track expenses, revenues, and transactions. Finally, create a chart of accounts organized by categories such as assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses, which will facilitate easier tracking and reporting of your business finances. Common Accounting Tasks and Their Frequency Regularly managing accounting tasks is essential for the smooth operation of your small business. Daily, you should check your cash position and record transactions to guarantee accurate financial tracking. Weekly, document receipts, review unpaid bills, pay vendors, and prepare invoices to keep operations flowing smoothly. Monthly, balance your checkbook, analyze inventory, process payroll, and review profit and loss statements to gauge your financial health. On a quarterly basis, prepare revised profit and loss estimates, review payroll reports, make sales tax payments, and compute estimated income tax for compliance purposes. Finally, annually, review past-due receivables, assess inventory value, and guarantee accurate financial reporting for tax preparation and strategic planning. Keeping up with these tasks not only helps you maintain a clear financial picture but additionally supports compliance and informed decision-making, ultimately contributing to the growth and stability of your business. Frequently Asked Questions What Accounting Is Needed for a Small Business? For a small business, you need a reliable accounting system to track all financial transactions. This includes sales, expenses, assets, and liabilities. You can choose between cash basis and accrual accounting methods. Crucial financial statements like the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement help you assess profitability and financial health. Regularly reconciling bank statements guarantees your records match your actual bank balances, maintaining accuracy in your financial reporting. What Are the 5 Basic Accounting Accounts? The five basic accounting accounts are assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Assets include resources like cash and inventory, essential for business operations. Liabilities represent obligations to pay, such as loans. Equity reflects the owner’s stake after subtracting liabilities from assets. Revenue accounts track income from sales, whereas expense accounts monitor operational costs. Together, these accounts form an extensive view of your business’s financial health and performance, guiding your decision-making process effectively. What Are the 5 Basic Accounting Principles? The five basic accounting principles are crucial for accurate financial reporting. First, the Revenue Recognition Principle states you should recognize revenue when earned, not when cash is received. Second, the Matching Principle requires you to align expenses with the related revenues in the same period. Next, the Cost Principle mandates recording assets at their original purchase price. The Full Disclosure Principle demands transparency in financial statements, whereas the Objectivity Principle emphasizes unbiased, verifiable information. How to Do Simple Bookkeeping for a Small Business? To do simple bookkeeping for your small business, start by setting up a system to organize receipts and financial records. Choose between cash or accrual accounting methods. Use accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero to automate entries and track transactions efficiently. Record all sales and expenses consistently, categorize them properly, and reconcile bank statements regularly to identify discrepancies. Establish a routine for weekly and monthly bookkeeping tasks to maintain accurate financial health. Conclusion In conclusion, basic accounting is vital for small businesses to monitor financial health and make informed decisions. By comprehending key financial statements and choosing the right accounting method, you can effectively manage your finances. Setting up a robust accounting system and regularly completing common accounting tasks will help guarantee compliance and support your business’s growth. Prioritizing these practices will not just improve your financial awareness but additionally position your business for long-term success in a competitive environment. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is Basic Accounting for Small Businesses?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

After weeks of extreme drought across Florida, a wildfire has broken out in the Everglades, burning more than 5,000 acres. The fire, called the Max Road Miramar Fire, is located outside of Miami, and was first reported on Sunday. By Monday around 11 a.m., it had burned at least 5,600 acres, according to the Florida Forest Service, and was only 30% contained. In images and videos of the Max Road Miramar Fire, massive plumes of black smoke fill the sky; the smoke has caused low visibility on major roadways. Interactive wildfire maps provided by Watch Duty and Esri’s Wildfire Aware are tracking the fire’s spread in real time. Many may think of the Everglades as a swamp, and may wonder how such an environment can burn. Though Everglades National Park is a 1.5-million-acre wetlands preserve, it does experience a dry season from December to around mid-May. This year has been exceptionally dry. Florida is experiencing its worst drought in about 15 years. Most of the state is experiencing “extreme” drought, while counties in the Panhandle are in an “exceptional” drought, according to the National Weather Service. These dry conditions have already fueled multiple wildfires this year. Since January 1, there have been nearly 2,000 wildfires across the state, burning more than 86,000 acres. Typically, Florida sees some 2,400 fires in a whole year. Wildfires have also been burning through Georgia, which is experiencing similar record drought; when adding in that state, fires have burned more than 120,000 acres this year—an area, Politico noted, that is four times larger than Disney World. “Not natural” This is not the first time the Everglades specifically have burned. Some regular burns are essential, experts have noted, helping to clear grass and fertilize the ground. But climate change, and the hotter, drier environment it creates, has also been a factor. “It’s natural for the Everglades to dry down, but not dry out,” Steve Davis, the Everglades Foundation’s chief science officer, said in August 2025 when a wildfire burned 1,800 acres of the park. “It’s not natural for them to burn large areas.” Because of the state’s extreme drought, the current fires could be even more detrimental to wildlife, who are already stressed from a lack of freshwater. The rising temperatures driven by human-caused climate change are ramping up wildfire activity, in terms of both their frequency and severity. Already across the country the wildfire season this year is “well above average,” and scientists expect it to worsen. It’s not just the hot, dry conditions that could create a wildfire crisis. In April, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it would be closing three-quarters of its research facilities. That reorganization has experts worried about both the number of scientists leaving the agency and the collection of crucial wildfire and climate change data, including information that helps states battle fires. “There are a lot of tools and data that underlie what firefighters are using when they battle wildfires,” Julian Reyes, chief of staff at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Fast Company at the time. “The dismantling of that [research and development] part of the Forest Service will affect firefighting capabilities.” View the full article

Golf fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2026 PGA Championship, which kicks off this week. From May 14 to the 17th, the biggest 156 names in golf will compete to earn the coveted Wanamaker trophy. Last year’s winner Scottie Scheffler, 29, who took home the trophy for the first time, will return as the defending champion. Other big names will include Rory McIlroy, who is coming off of two consecutive Masters titles and is trying for his third PGA win and seventh major title. Other star players to watch are Cameron Young, Jon Rahm, and Bryson DeChambeau. This year, the tournament will take place at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania, a location that hasn’t hosted the event since the 1960s. According to the PGA website, tickets to the event have sold out for all four days. However, verified resale tickets are now available through SeatGeek. For the near five million viewers who are expected to tune in from their living rooms, there are a few ways to watch. The first round begins Thursday and coverage will begin at 7 a.m. EST on ESPN+, a subscription service that comes in two tiers. ESPN+ (also known as ESPN Select) costs $13 monthly or $130 a year. Meanwhile ESPN Unlimited, known as the “all-in-one” hub, is $29.99/monthly or $299.99 per year. The main broadcast will move to ESPN at noon. At 7 p.m., the main broadcast will move to ESPN2. Streaming coverage will be on SiriusXM from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. On Friday, main coverage will be featured on ESPN+ from 7 a.m. until noon before moving to ESPN from noon until 8 p.m. Weekend coverage will follow a slightly different schedule. The main broadcast will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday on ESPN+, then move to ESPN from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. After that, CBS will cover the event until 7 p.m. Sunday’s final round will follow the same schedule. Streaming coverage on both Saturday and Sunday will be on SiriusXM radio, a subscription service that costs $25.99 per month for its all-access package that includes sports, from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. Paramount+ will also stream the CBS afternoon coverage on Saturday and Sunday. If the main competition itself doesn’t scratch your itch, you can tune in early to catch the pre-championship conferences, which begin on Monday, May 11. Find the full schedule on the PGA Championship’s site. View the full article

Creating high-quality presentations can be a time-consuming chore, particularly for small business owners and office workers. A GfK study revealed that professionals dedicate about 20 hours monthly to crafting presentations, with a significant portion of that time spent on slide formatting. However, a new partnership between ChatPPT and Intel offers a solution that could transform how small businesses tackle this everyday task. AI-Powered Presentation Solutions ChatPPT has developed a smart application that generates presentation slides within seconds. Users simply input various resources like files, speeches, images, or web links, and the AI takes care of the rest. This technology could save small business owners countless hours and streamline the presentation creation process, speeding up preparation for crucial meetings or pitches. Until recently, ChatPPT operated entirely through cloud computing. While this setup allowed for powerful AI capabilities, it raised concerns regarding costs, data privacy, and security. Intel recognized these challenges and stepped in with its AI Super Builder V2.8 technology, which offers a hybrid AI functionality. Key Benefits of Hybrid AI Technology Intel’s technology combines the benefits of both cloud and local computing, allowing ChatPPT to execute complex tasks—like generating extensive slide decks—while managing simpler tasks directly on the user’s PC. This local processing means that sensitive data remains secure, alleviating worries that proprietary business information could be accidentally shared with cloud services. Jack Zhou, CEO of ChatPPT, emphasizes the significance of this collaboration, stating, “Intel’s AI Super Builder provided a complete on-device inference framework, allowing us to quickly deploy both the Logiliner traceability model and our document generation agent locally.” This approach helps businesses protect their sensitive data while still utilizing advanced AI functionalities. Cost and Efficiency Improvements The introduction of the Intel AI PC Edition has reportedly reduced cloud computing token costs by over 50% while enhancing the usability of the tool by more than 32% in comparison to the standard cloud version. This cost-effectiveness could significantly impact small businesses, especially those operating on tighter budgets. Todd Lewellen, Intel’s Vice President, said, “By jointly building a hybrid cloud-client ChatPPT solution, we are showing the power of using AI PCs to reduce cloud costs and deliver a more secure user experience.” This focus on both affordability and security is particularly important for small businesses that rely heavily on efficient, reliable technology. Future Directions and Considerations Looking ahead, ChatPPT aims to upgrade its offerings by enabling the entire document creation workflow to run on users’ local PCs. This transition marks another step toward eliminating reliance on cloud services, which aligns with ongoing consumer demands for greater data privacy. Moreover, ChatPPT plans to enhance its capabilities by integrating multimodal support to address a broader range of content creation needs, including intelligent chart generation and image-text composition. These advancements could prove useful for a variety of sectors, including education, finance, and business analysis, allowing small businesses to generate more specialized content tailored to their unique needs. However, while the promise of such technology is appealing, small business owners should also consider potential challenges. Implementing advanced AI solutions may require initial investments in hardware or subscriptions and might involve a learning curve as staff adapt to new systems. Furthermore, ongoing maintenance and updates will be necessary to keep operations smooth. As Jack Zhou puts it, “Intel is not just a technology partner, but a key enabler in our journey to deliver secure, efficient, and cost-effective on-device intelligent creation.” This highlights the importance of choosing the right partners to leverage technological advancements, ensuring that small businesses stay competitive in an increasingly digital landscape. For more information about this partnership and its implications for businesses, you can read the full press release on Intel’s website here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Intel Powers ChatPPT’s AI Tool to Slash Presentation Creation Time and Costs" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Creating high-quality presentations can be a time-consuming chore, particularly for small business owners and office workers. A GfK study revealed that professionals dedicate about 20 hours monthly to crafting presentations, with a significant portion of that time spent on slide formatting. However, a new partnership between ChatPPT and Intel offers a solution that could transform how small businesses tackle this everyday task. AI-Powered Presentation Solutions ChatPPT has developed a smart application that generates presentation slides within seconds. Users simply input various resources like files, speeches, images, or web links, and the AI takes care of the rest. This technology could save small business owners countless hours and streamline the presentation creation process, speeding up preparation for crucial meetings or pitches. Until recently, ChatPPT operated entirely through cloud computing. While this setup allowed for powerful AI capabilities, it raised concerns regarding costs, data privacy, and security. Intel recognized these challenges and stepped in with its AI Super Builder V2.8 technology, which offers a hybrid AI functionality. Key Benefits of Hybrid AI Technology Intel’s technology combines the benefits of both cloud and local computing, allowing ChatPPT to execute complex tasks—like generating extensive slide decks—while managing simpler tasks directly on the user’s PC. This local processing means that sensitive data remains secure, alleviating worries that proprietary business information could be accidentally shared with cloud services. Jack Zhou, CEO of ChatPPT, emphasizes the significance of this collaboration, stating, “Intel’s AI Super Builder provided a complete on-device inference framework, allowing us to quickly deploy both the Logiliner traceability model and our document generation agent locally.” This approach helps businesses protect their sensitive data while still utilizing advanced AI functionalities. Cost and Efficiency Improvements The introduction of the Intel AI PC Edition has reportedly reduced cloud computing token costs by over 50% while enhancing the usability of the tool by more than 32% in comparison to the standard cloud version. This cost-effectiveness could significantly impact small businesses, especially those operating on tighter budgets. Todd Lewellen, Intel’s Vice President, said, “By jointly building a hybrid cloud-client ChatPPT solution, we are showing the power of using AI PCs to reduce cloud costs and deliver a more secure user experience.” This focus on both affordability and security is particularly important for small businesses that rely heavily on efficient, reliable technology. Future Directions and Considerations Looking ahead, ChatPPT aims to upgrade its offerings by enabling the entire document creation workflow to run on users’ local PCs. This transition marks another step toward eliminating reliance on cloud services, which aligns with ongoing consumer demands for greater data privacy. Moreover, ChatPPT plans to enhance its capabilities by integrating multimodal support to address a broader range of content creation needs, including intelligent chart generation and image-text composition. These advancements could prove useful for a variety of sectors, including education, finance, and business analysis, allowing small businesses to generate more specialized content tailored to their unique needs. However, while the promise of such technology is appealing, small business owners should also consider potential challenges. Implementing advanced AI solutions may require initial investments in hardware or subscriptions and might involve a learning curve as staff adapt to new systems. Furthermore, ongoing maintenance and updates will be necessary to keep operations smooth. As Jack Zhou puts it, “Intel is not just a technology partner, but a key enabler in our journey to deliver secure, efficient, and cost-effective on-device intelligent creation.” This highlights the importance of choosing the right partners to leverage technological advancements, ensuring that small businesses stay competitive in an increasingly digital landscape. For more information about this partnership and its implications for businesses, you can read the full press release on Intel’s website here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Intel Powers ChatPPT’s AI Tool to Slash Presentation Creation Time and Costs" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Adthena is bringing competitive visibility to ChatGPT ads — launching a new platform designed to track how brands show up across prompts, placements and competitors. What’s happening. Adthena has unveiled its ChatGPT Intelligence Platform, positioning it as the first tool to offer whole-market visibility into ChatGPT Ads — similar to what it already provides for Google Ads. The platform monitors more than 300,000 daily prompts, tracking which brands are advertising, where ads appear, and what messaging they use. Why we care. ChatGPT’s native ads tools currently show advertisers a limited, self-focused view of performance. Adthena is stepping in to fill that gap — giving advertisers insight into competitors, share of voice and prompt-level activity in a channel that’s still largely opaque. Zoom in. The platform offers a full view of how ads appear across ChatGPT conversations, alongside competitive intelligence on who is bidding, where and with what creative. It also includes real-time recommendations to optimise campaigns, helping advertisers act on insights rather than just observe them. What else. Advertisers can analyse ad copy performance, monitor brand presence and track share of voice — all within a single dashboard that combines ChatGPT and Google Ads data. That cross-channel view is designed to help teams make smarter budget decisions as search behaviour shifts. Context. The launch follows Adthena’s earlier AdBridge tool, which helps advertisers migrate Google Ads campaigns into ChatGPT’s Ads Manager. Together, the tools signal a growing ecosystem forming around AI-driven search advertising. What they’re saying. CMO Ashley Fletcher said early adopters will shape the competitive landscape — and that the new platform “tells you exactly what to do about it.” What to watch. Expect to see more third-party tools emerge as advertisers demand better visibility into AI-driven ad environments. Adoption will likely depend on how quickly brands start treating ChatGPT Ads as a core performance channel, while pressure may build on platforms like ChatGPT to improve their own native reporting capabilities. Bottom line. Adthena is positioning itself as the visibility layer for ChatGPT Ads — giving advertisers a clearer view of a fast-growing but still opaque channel. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When it comes to DIY projects, my enthusiasm and willingness to dive in have always compensated for a certain lack of what some would call “skill”—I’m a guy who has to cut twice no matter how many times I measure. Finding studs in the wall is a perfect example: This should be the easiest part of any project, but fancy digital stud finders have always let me down—in fact, the fancier they are, the less useful I find them to be. That’s why the StudPop is so great. It’s an incredibly simple stud finder—and incredibly cheap. It’s made locating the studs in my walls such a breeze that I’ve tossed those digital stud finders into the trash. Studpop Magnetic Stud Finder $11.95 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $11.95 at Amazon StudPop uses powerful magnets to locate studsUsing expensive, fancy stud finders was always a confusing experience—they always seemed to light up right after I’d swept past a screw, or mysteriously indicated there were no studs in my house at all. The StudPop ditches all the fancy stuff and uses a simple system: A powerful magnet attached to a plastic indicator. I’ve had magnetic stud finders before, but their magnets were usually pretty weak, and they were as frustrating as the fancy electronic finders because they would give a lot of false positives. In contrast, the StudPop is so powerful, it will stick to the wall when it hits some metal. This makes it easy to identify the studs. You move the StudPop along the wall in a lazy S-shaped pattern until the indicator pops up (you’ll feel it when it hits something—the magnet is pretty strong). Once you have one mark, you move the StudPop down vertically in the same S-shaped motion until you hit a second spot. This is how you know you’ve got a stud instead of a safety plate or a wire—three hits along the same vertical means you’ve got your stud. Marking off a stud on the wall Credit: Jeff Somers The whole process takes about a minute, with (in my experience) zero false positives. The fact that it sticks in place when it hits a nail or screw is awesome, leaving your hands free, and the simple plastic indicator is easy to interpret—it’s either standing up or it’s not. Tools just don’t get any easier than this, and there are no batteries to replace or charge up, no user manual to read, and it’s tiny, so it doesn’t take up precious storage space. I haven’t drilled into an empty space since picking this up. View the full article

I break down how to run subcontractor projects from kickoff to closeout, with practical steps to manage scope, crews, costs, and risk without losing margin. The post Subcontractor Project Management: The Complete Guide for 2026 appeared first on The Digital Project Manager. View the full article

Sales of previously owned US homes barely rose in April from a nine-month low, underscoring a sluggish housing market at the start of the spring-selling season. View the full article

Google is expanding Merchant Center for Agencies worldwide, giving agencies a centralized way to manage product data, diagnose issues and spot growth opportunities across multiple clients. What’s happening. After launching in the U.S. and Canada, Merchant Center for Agencies is now rolling out globally to all agency users. The tool is designed to help agencies manage merchant accounts at scale as product data becomes more critical to performance across shopping and discovery experiences. Why we care. Managing product feeds across multiple clients has long been fragmented and time-consuming. This update brings those workflows into one place — helping agencies monitor account health, fix issues faster and optimize product data more efficiently. Zoom in. The platform introduces a unified dashboard that gives agencies a bird’s-eye view of all client accounts, including onboarding status and critical alerts. Portfolio-wide diagnostics allow teams to quickly identify issues across accounts, filter by market or campaign type, and prioritise fixes based on potential impact. What else. Agencies can also monitor store quality metrics and inventory health, including out-of-stock products, while managing promotions directly within the platform. On the performance side, new insights help identify high-potential products with low visibility — which can then be tagged and prioritised in ad campaigns. What to watch: How agencies integrate this into existing workflows Whether this reduces reliance on third-party feed management tools If more advanced optimisation features follow Bottom line. Google is giving agencies a more scalable way to manage product data — turning Merchant Center into a more strategic performance tool, not just a feed repository. View the full article

AI cited pages were almost three times more likely to have JSON-LD than non-cited pages. That’s a big gap, and the kind of stat that gets shared in LinkedIn carousels and conference slides as proof that schema is an AI…Read more ›View the full article