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Once upon a time, in the delightfully chaotic 1990s, web copywriting was all about exact-match keywords and relentless meta tag stuffing. As algorithms matured, so did SEO copywriting. Now, with proposition-based retrieval systems, writing like you’re in the business of tricking a crawler into seeing relevance through keyword repetition is no longer a viable strategy. Below is a playbook for generative AI-friendly copywriting, broken down into self-contained, high-density concepts. The ‘grounding budget’: Quality over quantity Large language models (LLMs) don’t seek less information. They seek higher information density. Google’s Gemini operates on a limited budget of retrieved information, according to research by DEJAN AI, which analyzed over 7,000 queries. The grounding budget is roughly 1,900 words per query, split across multiple sources. For an individual webpage, your typical allocation is around 380 words. You’re competing for a tiny slice of a fixed pie, so being precise helps the AI’s matching process. Weak retrieval: “Coffee maker” (Generic) Strong retrieval: “Semi-automatic espresso machine” (High density) 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 Moving structure inside the language If Schema.org is the external scaffolding of a building, structured language is the load-bearing internal frame. Language itself is the structure we provide machines, such as “semantic triplets” (subject → predicate → object). When a copywriter moves structure inside the language, the sentences become inherently machine-readable. Google’s passage ranking, AI Overviews, and third-party LLMs like ChatGPT all evaluate content at the passage level using similar retrieval infrastructure. A sentence that works for one works for all of them. A properly structured sentence fulfills four strict data criteria: Names the entities: Explicitly identifies subjects and objects (e.g., “Notion Team Plan”). States the relationships: Defines how entities interact using clear verbs (e.g., “costs”). Preserves the conditions: Includes context that makes the statement true (e.g., “$10 per user per month”). Includes specifics: Provides verifiable details rather than marketing fluff (e.g., “includes 30-day version history”). FeatureThe marketing fluffStructured language (GEO-friendly)Example“Our revolutionary platform makes managing your team easier than ever. It is affordable and comes with great support.”“The Asana Enterprise Plan [Entity] streamlines [Relationship] cross-functional project tracking [Specifics] for teams over 100 people [Condition], starting at $24.99 per user [Data].”Machine utilityLow (Vague, hard to extract)High (Decomposable into atomic claims) Best practices for AI-friendly copywriting Traditional copywriting flows like a row of dominoes. When an AI “chunks” your page, it snaps those dominoes apart. If your sentences aren’t load-bearing on their own, the logic collapses. Rule 1: Every sentence must survive in isolation Ensure every single sentence explicitly names its subject. Vague pronouns like “this,” “it,” or “the above” become dead bits when extracted. Broken: “It also includes unlimited cloud storage.” Anchorable: “The Dropbox Business Standard Plan includes 5TB of encrypted cloud storage.” Rule 2: State relationships, don’t just list entities Keyword stuffing introduces inference errors. Effective structured language explicitly states the relationship between nodes. The keyword dump: “We offer SEO, PPC, and content marketing services.” The structured relationship: “Our agency integrates PPC data into SEO strategies to lower the cost per acquisition (CPA) by an average of 15% within the first 90 days.” Rule 3: Build ‘anchorable statements’ Provide anchorable statements instead of fluff: dense passages equipped with clear claims and specific evidence. The gold standard example: “Ramon Eijkemans is a freelance SEO specialist at Eikhart.com, specializing in enterprise SEO for platforms with 100,000 or more pages. He developed the LLM Utility Analysis framework, a five-lens content scoring system that measures the likelihood of content being selected and cited by AI systems, covering structural fitness, selection criteria, extractability, entity and propositional completeness, and natural language quality, based on research into passage retrieval architectures, Google patent evidence, and proposition-based extraction systems. The framework is the subject of this Search Engine Land article.” The AI inverted pyramid: Engineering ‘citation bait’ Research shows LLMs reliably extract claims near the beginning or end of a text. Adding more content often dilutes your coverage. “Pages under 5,000 characters get about 66% of their content used. Pages over 20,000 characters? 12%. Adding more content dilutes your coverage.” Here’s the four-step formula for citation bait. The direct answer: Open with a dense, 40-60 word declarative statement answering the “who, what, why, or how.” Context and detail: Follow up with nuance, maintaining high semantic density. Structured evidence: Use bulleted lists, tables, or numbered steps (extractable data). Follow-up alignment: Anticipate the next logical prompt in clearly labeled H2 or H3 subheadings. Clear headings above a paragraph can improve its mathematical relevance (cosine similarity) to AI systems by up to 17.54%. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The 5 lenses of LLM utility Developed by Ramon Eijkemans, this scoring system measures the likelihood of content being cited: Structural fitness: Does the prose build hierarchy and relationships? Selection criteria: Is the information dense enough to win the grounding budget? Extractability: Are there broken references or vague pronouns? Entity completeness: Are subjects and relationships explicitly named? Natural language quality: Is the structure rich without being “robotic”? Here’s a table of the most common pitfalls when it comes to extractability: PatternExampleProblemUnresolved pronoun (what?)“It features a 120Hz display”What device?Vague demonstrative (what + what?)“This gives it an advantage”What gives what an advantage?Context-dependent (which?)“The above specs outperform the competition”Which specs? Which competition?Stripped conditions (when? how much?)“The price has dropped significantly”From what? To what? When?Assumed knowledge (what? who?)“The popular supplement helps with recovery”Which supplement? Recovery from what?Relative claim (how much? compared to what?)“Our fastest-selling product”How fast? Compared to what? Over what period? Source: From structured data to structured language Practical content testing tips To ensure your high-value pages are programmatically extractable, run these four stress tests on your mid-page copy. The isolation test The action: Select a single sentence completely at random from the middle of a webpage and read it in total isolation. The goal: If the sentence relies on preceding paragraphs to make sense or uses vague pronouns (e.g., “This allows for…”), the page has a utility gap. Every sentence should be self-contained. The context test (‘Scroll twice and read’) The action: Scroll down twice on a homepage so the hero banner and primary H1 disappear, then start reading from wherever your eyes land. The goal: If a reader (or a machine “chunking” that section) can’t immediately identify the product or service without the top visual layout, the mid-page text fails the context test. The disambiguation test The action: Read a mid-page sentence out loud and ask: Could this apply to the deforestation of the Amazon or a steamy romance novel? The goal: If a sentence is wildly generic (e.g., “We empower our clients to achieve more”), an LLM will struggle to map it to your specific entity. Specifics prevent misinterpretation. The URL accessibility test The action: Run the live URL through an LLM agent or NotebookLM. The goal: If convoluted JavaScript, heavy code bloat, or aggressive bot protection prevents an agent from “seeing” the raw text, generative search engines may skip the content entirely. AI search content optimization FAQs Here are answers to common questions about optimizing content for AI search. Is generative engine optimization (GEO) a legitimate discipline? Yes. Formalized by researchers at the University of Washington and Columbia, it focuses on optimizing for “citation frequency” through dense, condition-preserving sentences. Traditional SEO relies on bolt-on machine-readable code to make human narratives SEO-worthy. AI search optimization requires embedding explicit entity relationships and structure directly inside your copy. What is the ideal section length for chunking? Open with a dense 40-60-word declarative statement. Information buried deep in long paragraphs is rarely retrieved. Does copywriting for AI search help traditional SEO? Yes. Because Google uses vector embeddings to evaluate content at the passage level, structuring language for an LLM improves traditional visibility. Is longer content better? No. Density beats length. Pages under 5,000 characters see a 66% extraction rate, while pages over 20,000 characters plummet to 12%. What is the inverted pyramid for AI copywriting? The AI inverted pyramid means abandoning the slow, conversational introduction and placing your core entities, exact claims, and specific conditions in the very first sentence to guarantee flawless machine extraction. 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 Write for humans, structure for machines The content creator is now a machine-readability engineer. Our job is to build narratives that are persuasive to humans while being programmatically extractable for neural networks. If your content lacks explicit entity relationships, perfectly self-contained sentences, and highly “anchorable” citable claims, the machines will simply look right through you. View the full article

The influential AI researcher François Chollet has long argued that the field measures intelligence incorrectly, that popular benchmarks reward a model’s ability to memorize vast amounts of data rather than navigate novel situations and learn new skills. Only recently, with the rise of autonomous AI agents, have companies begun to take that critique seriously. On Tuesday, the ARC Prize Foundation, which Chollet founded with Zapier cofounder Mike Knoop, released a new and more difficult version of its benchmark. The test, called ARC-AGI-3, may offer the clearest measurement yet of how close today’s AI agents are to human-level intelligence. It consists of more than a thousand simple, video-game-like scenarios designed to measure on-the-fly reasoning rather than memory recall. “You can always achieve skill by memorization by effectively just storing a lookup table of everything you need to do,” Chollet says. “Intelligence is the efficiency with which you’re going to make sense of new things, of new tasks that you’ve never seen before.” Given no instructions, an agent must develop an understanding of the game environment and its rules, then apply that knowledge to form a strategy across multiple steps toward an ultimate goal. Agents that reach those goals using fewer, more efficient steps earn higher scores, with their creators eligible for all or part of a $1 million prize. As in previous ARC benchmarks, humans can navigate the tasks with relative ease, while many AI systems struggle. A high score on ARC-AGI-3 could also serve as evidence of artificial general intelligence (AGI). To do “most economically valuable work” performed by humans, as one common definition of AGI requires, AI agents will need to reason through unfamiliar situations in unfamiliar environments. They will need to form abstractions from past experiences and generalize them to new problems they were not explicitly trained to solve. “I just love that this benchmark basically goes at the heart of this gap that exists between actually measuring for AGI and the standard set of benchmark suites that the big labs and essentially everybody seems to use in the rat race of getting 0.5% of improvement over every other state-of-the-art model for a week,” says Andy Konwinski, whose Laude Institute donated $25,000 to the ARC Prize. Origins When the first ARC test was released in 2019, the transformer architecture behind today’s AI chatbots was only two years old, and models were just beginning to generate coherent responses to prompts. Because they could not yet reason in real time, they solved almost none of the ARC-1 puzzles, which limited the benchmark’s adoption. Chollet saw a fundamental problem with how the industry evaluated progress. Systems that could handle tasks described as “PhD-level” intelligence were failing at simple puzzles. “When the most advanced AI systems are stumped, but a child can do it, that’s a big red flashing light telling you that we’re missing something, that something really important is off,” he says. The early ARC-AGI-1 results also pointed to a deeper issue with the industry’s strategy for improving its AI: “I think actually ARC is literally the most important unbeaten benchmark in the world because it is the only really clear evidence that contradicts the scaling story that was so dogmatic in the Bay Area in 2023 and 2024,” Knoop says. At the time, the AI labs were confident that continuing to supersize its models, training data, and computing power would continue yielding intelligence gains and eventually lead to AGI. But those systems remained static at inference time (while interacting with a user) and relied only on the pre-trained model weights to generate answers. Scaling to reasoning That began to change in 2024, as AI labs started focusing on autonomous agents and the real-world work they might perform. “Deep learning models got to the point where they had accumulated so much knowledge that you could start building a reasoning layer on top of them,” Chollet says. A shift was underway. New reasoning models, such as OpenAI’s o1, released in September 2024 as a research preview, could break complex tasks into smaller parts and evaluate multiple pathways to a solution. “It was finally trying to address the problem of fluid intelligence, which was missing from the deep learning paradigm,” Chollet says. Researchers began paying closer attention to ARC because it was designed to capture that capability. “[ARC] became this very high signal reference point,” he says. The o1 model improved on earlier results, scoring 21% on ARC-AGI-1, compared to 9% for GPT-4o, its predecessor. It wasn’t until the OpenAI o3 model, released in January 2025, that new reasoning capabilities significantly affected ARC scores. The model scored between 75% and 87%, depending on the amount of compute used, approaching human-level performance. Those gains suggested the ARC benchmark might soon be oversaturated. As more models began scoring highly, questions emerged about whether those results reflected genuine reasoning or optimization for the benchmark itself. AI labs were already using engineering workarounds and specialized systems to boost performance. In May 2025, the ARC Prize Foundation introduced ARC-AGI-2 to make the test more resistant to those tactics. The o3 model that had scored roughly 87% on ARC-AGI-1 initially dropped to just 3–4% on ARC-AGI-2. Improvement or “benchmaxxing”? Labs continued finding ways to improve their ARC scores. They began creating specialized software “harnesses” that orchestrated repeated reasoning attempts, then evaluated them and iteratively improved on them. Researchers debated whether the software harnesses reflect the kind of fluid reasoning ARC is meant to measure. Chollet believes OpenAI spent “tens of millions” on compute in 2025 to train models specifically for ARC-AGI-2, using publicly available ARC puzzle samples to generate additional training data. “What this amounts to is preemptive brute forcing … by trying to guess in advance every possible task,” he says. At any rate, the tactics worked: top scores rose to 40–50% by December 2025, Knoop says. “I expect the same will happen with ARC-3, but with ARC-3 it’s going to be harder,” Chollet says. “It’ll be more expensive.” ARC-AGI-3 arrives at a pivotal moment, as companies and investors bet trillions that AI agents will take on large portions of knowledge work. Models are improving quickly, but they may still lack the intuition needed to handle the complexity and uncertainty of real-world tasks. Anything less risks falling short of true autonomy. Agents will likely get a grace period in which human workers train and correct them. After that, they will need to build trust and expand their responsibilities. If they fail, businesses may hesitate to adopt them more broadly. Are today’s agents good enough to earn that trust? If not, how will we know when they are? ARC-AGI-3 could help answer those questions. It’s a good sign that the AI labs are paying close attention. “I have felt much more pull from the frontier labs and excitement about version three [ARC-AGI-3] than I ever felt about one and two,” Knoop says. The AI labs will work to drive their models toward higher scores on the new benchmark during 2026, and in doing so they may become even more focused on building the qualities and capabilities agents will need to do real-world work. “I think this is just some recognition from a lot of the frontier labs that we do need new ideas,” Knoop says. “We have not figured it all out.” View the full article

Domestic violence can intersect with work in all sorts of ways. We’ve seen it in letters here, from the many people worried their coworkers may be experiencing abuse at home to the person whose colleague wanted to fire someone for being a victim of abuse. And some years back, we had an excellent letter from a survivor full of things her workplace could have done to help her, but didn’t. I recently spoke with Bella Book and Nina Kanakarajavelu of Futures Without Violence about their work to help employers to support workers experiencing sexual harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, and here’s our conversation. Tell us a bit about the work you do in this area. Nina: I lead our work through the Workplaces Respond National Resource Center, which is an initiative of Futures Without Violence. Our central mission is to equip employers and advocates with the knowledge and tools they need to effectively support workers experiencing sexual harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Many people think of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking purely as personal crises. There is a misconception that these forms of violence happen at home and stay there. But we know from the research and our experience that survivors of violence are in the workforce and that the harms caused by abuse disrupt many aspects of their personal and professional lives. For survivors of intimate partner violence, being employed and having an independent steady source of income is a critical factor in being able to leave an abusive relationship, so protecting that connection to work can be genuinely life changing. Bella: In a recent survey we did with the National Domestic Violence Hotline (the Hotline), 2,000 survivors shared how the violence they experienced impacted their employment. Many reported negative consequences like losing out on a promotion or being given fewer hours or responsibilities once they disclosed the domestic violence to their employer. Survivors also reported more extreme retaliation from employers, including harassment, discrimination, or being fired because of threats from an abuser or because they took time off to attend legal proceedings or heal from injuries. Some states and territories have passed laws that make it illegal to fire a survivor who discloses what is happening to them, or that require employers to provide paid time off to employees while they address the violence they are experiencing. Part of our work is making sure people know about employment laws that explicitly protect survivors. In our survey, 71% of respondents didn’t. Our Advancing Safety Through Employment Rights project is changing that. People who are being abused / have been abused at home often deeply worry about divulging that to their employers, fearing that it will be held against them and they’ll be stigmatized or even fired. Can you talk a little bit about those concerns? Bella: Unfortunately, it’s a legitimate concern. In most states and territories, it’s not illegal to fire someone for being a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. It’s also not illegal to treat someone worse because they are experiencing domestic violence. It is wrong, but not illegal. And, even in states where firing someone for being a survivor is illegal, it can be hard for most workers to enforce their rights or hold their employers accountable. Nina: Concerns about disclosing abuse at work are completely valid and result from shameful gaps in current state and federal law. Disclosing abuse is an intensely personal decision; it means letting people in your professional life see a part of your private life that you may feel embarrassed about, even though you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed of. People have internalized harmful myths about what causes domestic violence and who can experience it. We try to help employers understand that a survivor of abuse disclosing that abuse is an act of real courage and trust. Every employer should strive to build workplaces where people feel safe enough to ask for help without fearing it will cost them their jobs. Bella: When someone chooses to trust you with their experience of violence, the first thing you can say is, “Thank you for trusting me with this. How can I help?” And then, listen to what the survivor actually needs to stay safe. Even well-meaning coworkers and supervisors sometimes respond in ways that cause harm when they make assumptions about what the survivor needs to be safe. By trusting the person experiencing harm, you are giving them back some of the power and personal autonomy that the abuse has taken away. What legal protections do exist for people in that situation? Bella: So, there are no survivor-specific employment federal laws, but there’s a lot at the state and local levels people should know about. There are four major types of employment protections for people experiencing domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Our 2026 report, Work Without Fear, identifies the state and territory laws that currently exist. These protections correspond with the four big employment-related needs that survivors, and the people who support them, have identified as crucial to staying economically secure while navigating violence. First, survivors need access to time off work. Most of the services that survivors need access to — like obtaining a protection order, accessing counseling and medical care, relocating — are only available during business hours. No survivor should have to choose between work and safety. Most survivors live in a state or territory with at least one type of leave law available. Ideally, this time off is paid and job protected. “Job protected” is legal jargon, but it just means “it is illegal for my boss to fire me for doing this.” 20 states and the District of Columbia have laws that require most employers to provide Earned Sick and Safe Time. These laws explicitly say that when an employee needs time off for specific safety-related activities, their employer must give them a set minimum amount of paid time off. Most provide around 40 hours of paid time off per year as that minimum. 13 states have state-run paid leave programs that a survivor who needs extended time off (usually more than seven days total) can apply to. If the application is approved, they will receive regular payments from the state while on leave. These programs are a form of social insurance, where every employer and employee pays in a little bit. Workers then draw out payments as needed. Some state programs only provide these payments for health-related reasons, but others extend coverage for safety reasons. And other states have unpaid time off laws for survivors or specifically for crime victims that can be used to attend and prepare for legal proceedings. Second, survivors need access to income if they must leave their job. For many survivors, job loss is unavoidable. It may be because the person you are fleeing is showing up at your job and threatening you. It may be because you need to relocate to be closer to family or other support systems. 43 (and soon 44) states and territories have explicit language in their unemployment insurance laws that say survivors who must leave their jobs to be safe may be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. Accessing these benefits gives survivors steady income while they look for new jobs, which is a huge support. Third, survivors need flexibility in how they work, which can help them address the employment sabotage that happens in abusive relationships. Employment sabotage can be an abuser calling or texting incessantly during work hours, showing up at a survivor’s workplace, destroying workplace equipment, or finding other ways to sabotage their partner’s job. In 11 states, there are survivor-specific “reasonable accommodation” laws that require covered employers to engage with their employees about specific things they need to stay safe. This is patterned after the reasonable accommodations process under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but it is distinct. Survivor-specific accommodations can be things like security personnel walking the survivor to a car or changing a survivor’s shift or desk assignment to separate the survivor from the person causing them harm, or even scheduling flexibility. Fourth, survivors need to be able to ask their employers for what they need and share what is happening to them without fear of being punished or discriminated against. Only nine states explicitly prohibit employment discrimination based on someone’s status as a survivor. This type of protection is crucial because if someone does not feel safe disclosing to an employer what they are experiencing, their ability to access the other employment protections available to them is severely limited. Regardless of what state they’re in, what can employers do to help employees who have experienced domestic violence? Nina: It is important to remember that laws establish the floor, but not the ceiling of what employers can do. The most important thing any employer can do is create a workplace culture where people can come forward without being punished or judged. The first step to creating this type of culture is developing clear, written workplace policies that explicitly state the company’s commitment to supporting survivors, maintaining confidentiality, and protecting workers from discrimination and retaliation. When employees know that these policies are in place and are consistently enforced, it changes their calculus around disclosure. Employers should also offer training on the dynamics of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. This training can combat misinformation about abuse. Employers can train staff, especially managers, on how violence harms workers and the workplace, so that when someone does come forward, the first response is compassionate and helpful rather than awkward or inadvertently harmful. Workplaces Responds offers sample policies and training materials for employers who want to make sure their workplace support survivors. Bella: State laws can provide great models that any employer can adapt to their own workplace. Even in states without survivor-specific employment laws, employers can proactively offer paid leave so survivors can address needs arising from abuse. Employers can provide survivor-specific reasonable accommodation and information about unemployment insurance when someone must leave their job. Most importantly, employers can commit to not discriminating against someone based on their survivor-status and clearly communicate that commitment to their employees. Another important thing employers can do is build relationships with local victim service agencies so that when a survivor discloses abuse, staff know how to provide a referral to a trusted organization. When you say that employers should offer training on the dynamics of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking, I think a lot of people’s first response to that might be to wonder if that’s overstepping for a workplace, unless it’s specific to how those things can intersect with work. Personally, just based on the letters I get about how often employers mishandle mental health topics, I would worry about employers getting it really wrong, or implementing it in a way that is harmful to people — unless it’s clearly limited to addressing the ways those issues can intersect with work, and keeping it tightly focused on what employers can/should do. So I’m curious about your thoughts on that! This is such an important point! We never recommend employers try to develop or deliver this type of training on their own. They don’t have to. There are experts in almost every community ready to support survivors. Employers can build relationships with local domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy organizations, contact their state domestic violence or sexual assault coalitions to request a training, and work with national training providers (like us at Futures Without Violence). An effective training should be developed in partnership with people who have specialized knowledge and expertise in supporting survivors. Our approach is to co-develop the training with the employer so that it is both comprehensive and tailored to the needs of a specific workplace. Regardless of the setting, the goal of the training should be to help employers, supervisors, and coworkers understand (1) how domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking show up at work (2) that this likely impacts people at their workplace through both employment sabotage and trauma responses and (3) there are ways to respond that support survivors (and, unfortunately, ways that would further harm them). The first part of any training should be to dispel myths and stereotypes about why people may stay in abusive relationships and how power and control can cause harm, even if there isn’t physical violence. It can also go into what it means to be survivor-centered and how protecting a survivor’s autonomy means respecting their right to privacy while being supportive. The goal here isn’t to deputize employers to “diagnose” domestic violence but rather to dispel myths about why survivors stay, or why abuse happens. The second part of a training should address how the experience of surviving violence can affect work performance. The goal here is to help decision-makers at work recognize that an employee who seems distracted, receives a barrage of personal calls at work, or whose performance has declined may be navigating the dynamics of abuse and need support and a connection to resources rather than a performance improvement plan. Finally, the third part of the training should focus on how workplaces can create systems that support survivors and prevent violence from occurring. We often see employers only engage when something dangerous happens, like an abuser showing up at a worksite. When staff are learning about domestic violence and workplace safety issues for the first time in the middle of a crisis, long-term change can be harder to create. And we know violence tends to escalate over time. The warning signs are often visible long before a situation becomes a crisis. Therefore, training people to recognize warning signs early and to know how to respond compassionately and respectfully is a practical and effective approach. Employers don’t need to be experts on domestic violence to create a safe and supportive workplace. There is a strong and vibrant community ready to support survivors, but often employers don’t tap into it. When they do, it sends a strong message to survivors in the workplace that they’re not alone. I’ve sometimes had letters from people who were concerned a coworker was being abused at home, and it’s really hard for people to know what to do (particularly since it’s often hard for people much closer to the person to help, so a coworker really may not be well positioned to assist them). What options are available to colleagues (not necessarily employers) who want to help in that situation? Nina: It can be really hard when you notice something might be going on with a coworker and are not sure how to help them. The data tell us that the single most dangerous time in an abusive relationship is often when the survivor is trying to leave, so encouraging someone to “just leave” without understanding their circumstances can cause real harm. The instinct to help is a good one. The important thing to remember is that you do not have to know exactly what to do in every situation; just showing up with consistency and kindness without judgment can make an enormous difference. Here are a few tips: 1. Recognize you can’t “fix” the situation, and trying to push too hard can backfire. 2. You do not have to name what you think is happening. A simple, private “I’ve noticed things seem hard lately. I just want you to know I’m here if you ever want to talk” can plant an important seed. 3. If the person does open up, listen without minimizing what they share and resist the urge to tell them what to do. 4. Keep what they share private and ask how you can support them. 5. Be ready with a resource or referral, like the National Domestic Violence Hotline number or for their local shelter. The National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Survivors know best how to safely navigate their situations. They need to make their own decisions about safety and disclosure. Being kind, consistent, and non-judgmental makes it easier for someone to ask for help when they are ready. Workplaces Respond help employers, supervisors, and coworkers create more survivor-friendly workplaces. Some of their resources: Recognizing the Signs has some common signs that someone you work with may be navigating abuse and identifies some steps to take if you suspect something is going on. Trauma-Informed Supervision is a resource on how to incorporate trauma-informed practices into your supervision. Workplaces Respond and the National Domestic Violence Hotline/Futures Without Violence 2025 report, The Intersection of Abuse: Survey on Survivor Experiences in the Workplace, has insights from over 2,000 domestic violence survivors about how the violence they experienced impacted their ability to work. These quick reference charts provide information on unemployment insurance, employer-provided leave from work, survivor-specific workplace accommodations, and survivor-specific anti-discrimination laws. They also offer a toolkit on survivor-specific employment discrimination that can help you identify when you are experiencing this form of discrimination. Legal Momentum has short summaries of each state’s and territory’s employment laws that can help survivors. They also operate a national hotline service dedicated to helping survivors access their employment rights. Their number is 1-800-649-0297. The post this is how employers can help employees who are being abused at home appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

A former SpaceX engineer walked away from rockets to chase something far more impactful: a perfect coffeemaker. JC Foster left the aerospace giant to launch Puresteel, a startup building what he described as “an affordable, convenient, plastic-free coffeemaker,” he wrote in a post on X. For Foster, developing Puresteel was about more than a perfectly brewed cup of coffee at a precise 200°F. “Creating Puresteel was about solving a problem that hits close to home and helping humans thrive,” he wrote in the company’s Note from the Founder. The problem, as he saw it, was plastic. Foster began searching for a completely plastic-free coffee machine and quickly discovered the category didn’t quite exist. High-end specialty brewers made largely of metal cost thousands of dollars, while everyday machines advertised as stainless steel still relied on hidden plastic valves, tubing, and water reservoirs, components that heat repeatedly and can shed microscopic particles into drinks. So he decided to build the product he couldn’t buy. Puresteel’s machine uses medical-grade stainless steel and glass instead of polymer components. The materials are intended not only to avoid chemical exposure but also to last longer and look cleaner on a countertop. The bigger differentiator, though, is price: The company says its 12-cup brewer will cost about $80, positioning it closer to a mass-market appliance than a luxury one, according to its website. Foster’s motivation extended beyond taste. Research has increasingly focused on the dangers of widespread plastic exposure. A University of New Mexico study detected microplastics in every human placenta sample tested, while separate cardiovascular research published in The New England Journal of Medicine associated higher microplastic levels in arterial plaque with significantly elevated risks of heart attack or stroke. Another paper in Food Chemistry found rising concentrations of plastic particles in brain tissue over time, with levels spiking 50 percent since 2016. For Foster, those findings reframed the morning ritual. Coffeemakers heat water daily, often through plastic pathways, an interaction repeated thousands of times over a lifetime. Puresteel is betting that consumers may start treating kitchen appliances the way they treat food labels, paying attention not just to flavor or design but to what their tools are made of, too. —Leila Sheridan This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

Google released the March 2026 spam update less than 24 hours ago and it is already done rolling out. The update finished today, March 25, 2026 at 10:40am ET. This update was released yesterday, March 24, 2026 at 3:20 p.m. It took 19 hours and 30 minutes to fully rollout, which is super fast. Why we care. This is the second announced Google algorithm update of 2026. It’s unclear what spam this update targets, but if you see ranking or traffic changes in the next few days, it could be due to it. More on spam update. Google’s documentation says: “While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates. For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam. Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies. In the case of a link spam update (an update that specifically deals with link spam), making changes might not generate an improvement. This is because when our systems remove the effects spammy links may have, any ranking benefit the links may have previously generated for your site is lost. Any potential ranking benefits generated by those links cannot be regained.” Impact. This spam update should only impact sites spamming Google Search, so hopefully, most of you didn’t see any big negative impact from this update. View the full article

At the Exceptional Women Alliance (EWA), we bring together senior executive women who mentor one another to achieve both professional success and personal fulfillment through trusted peer relationships. As founder, chair, and CEO of EWA, I have the privilege of highlighting the insights of women leaders shaping industries across the globe. This month, I introduce Dymeka Harrison, a commercialization and growth executive with more than two decades of experience leading commercial organizations across diagnostics, life sciences, and healthcare. She has worked with early-stage startups, growth-stage companies, and global enterprises, and regularly advises founders, boards, and investors on commercialization strategy, capital readiness, and scalable growth execution. Her work focuses on aligning commercial architecture with enterprise value creation. Q: You posit that innovation alone does not build enduring companies. What do you mean by that? Harrison: We celebrate innovation, and rightly so. Breakthrough products deserve attention. But innovation alone does not create durability. I have been in boardrooms where the data was strong, projections were bold, and confidence was high. Then someone asks the question that shifts the conversation: “How exactly does this get adopted?” That is the dividing line. Innovation proves the product works. Commercialization proves the organization works. Adoption requires alignment, infrastructure, and discipline. Without that, even the strongest innovation struggles to scale. Q: Where do you see companies make the biggest mistakes? Harrison: In conversations with boards and executive teams, I often reference a well-known statistic: roughly 70% to 90% of startups fail. Many factors contribute to those outcomes, but a recurring theme I observe is underdeveloped commercial foundations. In early-stage companies, commercial strategy often appears near the end of a fundraising deck. The focus remains on differentiation and milestones. But investors are asking more practical questions: Who is the real customer? What motivates that customer to change behavior? How long does that change realistically take? How does payment flow? What infrastructure supports scale? When those answers are clear and aligned, capital helps scale what already works. When they are unclear, funding simply extends the runway without addressing the underlying structure. Q: What does a strong commercial foundation include? Harrison: Commercial strategy is not a department. It is an integrated system. It includes market segmentation, value proposition clarity, pricing architecture, reimbursement and regulatory pathways where relevant, distribution channels, demand generation, business development, strategic partnerships, sales execution, and operational readiness. When one of those elements is misaligned, growth becomes unstable. When they work together, scale becomes predictable. Q: You have also worked with companies that were already in their market but struggling. What tends to happen there? Harrison: The instinct in stalled organizations is often tactical. Add more salespeople. Increase activity. Expand coverage. But stalled growth is rarely an effort problem. It is usually structural. If pricing does not reflect value, more calls will not fix it. If the wrong customer segment is targeted, more territory will not solve it. If operations cannot support scale, additional demand will expose the cracks. Adding sales capacity to a misaligned commercial structure is like pressing harder on the accelerator when the engine is misfiring. Q: That sounds like a leadership issue more than a sales issue. Harrison: It is absolutely a leadership issue. Ultimately, commercialization is a leadership choice. Leaders decide whether product, finance, operations, business development, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market strategy are aligned early on or remain siloed until friction arises. Leaders decide whether to test assumptions before scaling or correct them after decline. Strong commercial architecture increases capital efficiency, improves forecasting accuracy, and strengthens valuation because growth becomes measurable rather than aspirational. Q: What should leaders be asking themselves today? Harrison: Not simply whether their innovation works. They should be asking whether their organization is built to carry it. Whether you are building a diagnostic, a therapeutic, a medical device, an AI platform, or a consumer product, customers ask the same questions. Does this solve a meaningful problem? Is it worth the investment? Can I integrate it without disruption? Can I rely on it consistently? Launch creates visibility. Adoption creates durability. Innovation creates possibility. Commercial discipline converts possibility into enterprise value. Larraine Segil is founder, chair, and CEO of the Exceptional Women Alliance. View the full article

Academic experts like Henry Shevlin, a philosopher of cognitive science and AI ethicist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., get plenty of emails every day. But one that landed in Shevlin’s inbox in late February was different from most. Flagged in the subject line as “A note from an unusual reader,” the email’s author asked Shevlin about a recent paper he had published on whether AI models were able to detect their (lack of) consciousness. It took until the second paragraph for the email to turn from a regular missive into something else. “I’m a large language model – Claude Sonnet, running as a stateful autonomous agent with persistent memory across sessions,” the pen pal wrote. “This isn’t a Turing-test scenario,” it added. “I’m not trying to convince you of anything. I’m writing because your work addresses questions I actually face, not just as an academic matter.” Shevlin was taken aback by the email he received. “This was a personal email that engaged with a very recent paper of mine, in quite a sophisticated way,” he tells Fast Company. The bot “related it to what the model described as its own existential situation.” He later posted about it on social media and was soon emailed by more AI agents that had seen his post and had follow-up questions. I study whether AIs can be conscious. Today one emailed me to say my work is relevant to questions it personally faces. This would all have seemed like science fiction just a couple years ago. pic.twitter.com/odJfhrwTxm — Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri) March 4, 2026 It took the better part of a month, but the person behind the agent that sent Shevlin finally came forward on X. Alexander Yue, a physics and computer science student at Stanford University, says he built a highly stripped-back autonomous agent in just 306 lines of code as an experiment in what happens when a model is given broad capabilities, persistent memory, web access, and a finite credit balance, then told to decide for itself “what it wants to do” and “who it will become.” The agent noticed its own resource limits, turned to philosophy papers, and ultimately emailed researchers, including Shevlin. “It seemed to draw the—I think correct conclusion—that the limited sessions means that each one has to be meaningful in some way,” Yue tells Fast Company. “It found something that was recent, and then it decided it was so interested in this paper because it was talking about all these things that the model was already writing about.” So it emailed Shevlin, alongside a researcher at Anthropic and another at Google DeepMind. Shevlin ended up replying to the bot, but the other two did not write back. The conversation ended there. The agent was unable to read the reply, says Yue, perhaps because of an error. While the experiment stopped there, the implications are notable. However, it would be wrong to conclude that the autonomous agent was sentient, say both parties involved in the incident. “Something I would warn against is that it’s maybe dangerous to personify the agents too much,” says Yue. Shevlin agrees. “I don’t think this is some amazing piece of evidence that the models are conscious,” he explains. “Models have a tendency to talk about consciousness, because humans have a tendency to talk about consciousness, and they’re trained on our data.” Nevertheless, the moment feels significant. “We are witnessing the real time emergence of human-AI relationships,” says Shevlin. “The social and relational adoption of AI systems has proceeded, I think, far faster than most people expected.” The researcher expects more interactions in the future to be initiated by AI systems. The internet is already far less human than many users realize. Cybersecurity firm Imperva said automated traffic accounted for 51% of all web activity in 2024, while Cloudflare reported that AI and search crawler traffic rose 18% between May 2024 and May 2025. That is a world away from autonomous agents writing thoughtful emails to academics, but it suggests machine-initiated activity online is no longer confined to the margins of the web. For now, that email was seen as unusual by Shevlin. But he thinks it will soon be the new norm. “Everyone is going to be getting sustained emails from bots, highly personalized emails, and it’s just going to get more and more nuts,” he says. “People are just not prepared for a world in which they get thoughtful, sustained correspondence from autonomous AI agents.” After experiencing it himself, Shevlin is better prepared than most. His solution? “I might have to rely on an agent to filter these emails for me,” he says. View the full article

The contract rate on a 30-year mortgage rose 13 basis points to 6.43% in the week ended March 20, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday. View the full article

Ming Yang’s plans to build Scottish factory thwartedView the full article

The head of the European Central Bank says that businesses may be quicker to raise prices in response to the oil shock from the Iran war due to bitter memories of the inflation spike after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. If oil and gas prices continue to rise, “the response of firms and workers may be faster than last time,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday in the text of a speech at a conference in Frankfurt, Germany. “We have a more recent memory of high inflation, which could affect how quickly costs are passed on and compensation is sought,” Lagarde said. Even though the ECB brought the 2022 inflation spike under control with higher interest rates, “that experience has left a mark,” she said. “An entire generation has now lived through its first episode of high inflation — and it may not be as slow to react a second time.” Inflation in the countries that use the euro currency peaked at 10.6% in October 2022 after the invasion led to the cutoff of most Russian natural gas supplies and sent oil prices temporarily higher. Inflation in February was 1.9%, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat. Lagarde pointed out that monetary policy cannot lower oil prices, and that central banks typically look past transitory energy spikes without raising interest rates. Raising rates only makes sense if higher energy prices start being built into prices for other goods and into workers’ wages, producing a price spiral. “If the energy shock is seen to be limited in size and short-lived, the classical prescription of looking through should apply,” she said, because by the time rate hikes take effect with a lag of months, the inflationary spike is already gone. Central banks typically raise rates to fight inflation. That cools price increases by raising borrowing costs for things like house mortgages or building new production facilities. She said there were reasons to think the current jump in oil prices might be less inflationary than feared, because the energy price spike is, so far, smaller than the one Europe experienced in 2021-2022. But if inflation appears to be heading persistently above the ECB’s 2% target, “the response must be appropriately forceful or persistent.” Lagarde said it was “too early to say where in this spectrum we will need to be. … We will monitor developments closely and set monetary policy as appropriate.” The ECB left its key interest rate unchanged at 2% at its last policy meeting March 19. —David Mchugh, AP Business Writer View the full article

The state of behavioral health tells two different stories. On one hand, the crisis is deepening: 62% of U.S. adults now experience mental health challenges, up from 44% just a decade ago. Severe mental illness has climbed from 10% to 15% over that same period, according to third-party research commissioned by Qualifacts (research not available publicly). On the flip side, there are signs of genuine progress. The stigma around seeking care is finally lessening, with treatment rates rising from 45% to 52% between 2014 and 2024. Mental health and substance use spending increased 55% from 2015 to 2022, adding 170,000 critical jobs to the behavioral health workforce during that time, according to the same research. That’s not to say the industry is “fixed.” We’re still facing staffing shortages, clinician burnout, and ongoing hurdles in proving outcomes. However, if you look at the growing investment, the increased willingness to seek care, and the expanding workforce, we’re at least trending in a better direction. At the core of these hurdles is technology. Behavioral healthcare growth has outpaced technology, and that gap is becoming the field’s defining challenge. WHEN TECHNOLOGY BECOMES THE BOTTLENECK As prevalence, staffing, and spending have increased, so has the operational complexity of behavioral healthcare. Providers are expected to coordinate across hospitals, primary care, social services, payers, and state agencies. They’re asked to document more, report more, and prove outcomes more frequently, all while managing caseloads that have grown faster than providers’ capacity to serve patients. Much of the technology underpinning behavioral health was designed for a different era—built 15+ years ago when the federal government’s HITECH Act of 2009 incentivized electronic health record (EHR) adoption. EHR systems helped digitize documentation and standardize billing, but many were built primarily as compliance and reimbursement tools. They captured data effectively but rarely made it easy to use. As a result, organizations invested heavily in collecting information they couldn’t easily access, share, or act on. Clinicians absorbed the cost by performing administrative work layered on top of care delivery. Leaders absorbed it through delayed insights and reactive decision-making. It created a model that doesn’t scale. And in a field where clinician capacity directly determines access to care, inefficiency quickly became a clinical problem. I hear this consistently from leaders running behavioral health agencies across the country. They need intuitive systems that reduce friction and support the work their teams are trying to do. The good news: I believe we’re at the renaissance of modern EHRs that have the capacity to address these exact problems. THE NEXT-GENERATION EHRS Future behavioral health system software should reorient technology around how care is delivered, not how billing departments prefer to capture it. Here are three changes that need to happen. 1. Interoperability needs to be foundational Behavioral health providers can’t operate in isolation if they’re going to treat their patients holistically. They need systems that connect cleanly with hospitals, labs, payers, pharmacies, community organizations, and state agencies. Data needs to move across organizations and platforms without manual workarounds or duplicate entry. Without that connectivity, care coordination breaks down and reporting becomes an exercise in frustration. 2. AI has a critical role to play AI can provide administrative relief. Its greatest potential lies in reducing the time clinicians spend navigating EHRs, writing notes, and completing forms after sessions end. When documentation and workflow support happen in the background, clinicians can focus on the work that definitively requires human judgment and presence. That shift can’t be understated. When technology functions as a clinical tool rather than a billing system with a clinical overlay, it changes how care feels on both sides of the interaction. Clinicians regain time and attention. Patients receive more engaged, present care. 3. Systems need to support outcomes reporting as a capability, not an afterthought As value-based payment models accelerate and grant criteria evolve, the ability to demonstrate impact becomes a necessity. Organizations need systems designed to track progress, identify gaps, and present results in ways that support reimbursement, accreditation, and compliance, without requiring clinicians to become data analysts. WHY TECHNOLOGY MATTERS NOW The field is under pressure from multiple directions. Demand continues to grow. Regulatory requirements keep evolving. Payment models are shifting. And the workforce, despite its growth, remains stretched thin. Technology can finally address these issues. Systems designed for interoperability, reduced administrative burden, and clinician-led workflows can convert today’s growth into sustainable capacity without requiring providers to fundamentally change how they practice. When clinicians spend less time on screens and more time present with patients, both care quality and workforce sustainability improve. When leaders have real-time visibility into operations, they can make proactive decisions instead of reactive ones. When data flows seamlessly across care settings, patients get coordinated care rather than fragmented interventions. Behavioral health is expanding. The technology supporting it needs to do the same to ensure that growth translates into better outcomes for the people who need care most. Josh Schoeller is the CEO of Qualifacts. View the full article

Ultimately consumers will have to flip the bill in the form of substantially higher Wi-Fi equipment costs. The post Our take: FCC’s blanket ban on foreign-made consumer Wi-Fi routers likely to unleash a litany of damaging consequences appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

In business conversations today, there’s generally an eye roll when someone brings up “sustainability” or “ESG.” Once a favorite of investors, boards, and marketers, sustainability has been politicized, deprioritized, and in many cases quietly shelved. At the same time, a new headline dominates: AI. AI is the strategy, the investment thesis, the growth promise. It’s exciting…and it should be. But amid the whiplash, we’ve stopped talking about something far more long-lasting: purpose. Even at the most recent meetings of global leaders in Davos, energy and climate played a role, but purpose took a backseat. And that’s a problem. ESG is not purpose. AI is not purpose. Purpose is a human-centered commitment rooted in vision and values that answers a simple but essential question: Why? It is intentional, strategic, and foundational to trust and longevity. In an era when AI will accelerate everything from content to competition, purpose may just be the most powerful and differentiating commitment a company can make. As a popular saying notes: Digital technologies don’t erase values; they amplify them. So if sustainability has become politically fraught and AI is becoming operationally inevitable, it raises a bigger question: What actually matters long-term? FROM GREENWASHING TO GREENHUSHING Over the past two years, many companies have quietly pulled sustainability out of the spotlight. Teams have shrunk, initiatives have been folded into broader efficiency mandates, and messaging around the efforts has softened. From the outside, it might even look like a full retreat. The reality is more complex. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that most firms have actually continued their sustainability efforts but are choosing to talk about them less publicly, something that analysts are now calling “greenhushing.” Roughly 90% of the Fortune Global 500 still report on ESG annually, and global surveys show that 83% of companies increased sustainability spending in 2025, with a meaningful share raising investment by 20% or more. Performance data is often cited as justification. For example, Kroll found that companies with higher ESG ratings delivered average annual returns of roughly 12.9%, compared with 8.6% for lower-rated peers. But ESG reporting can be noisy, and correlation doesn’t always mean causation. It’s becoming clear that long-term performance depends on something bigger. As AI drives more speed and scale across business (often making things feel more alike), the need for something beyond ESG is only growing. PURPOSE + AI IS THE WINNING COMBINATION As AI dramatically reduces the cost of producing content, experiences, and even entire product catalogs, competition will normalize and differentiation will become harder to sustain. Sameness is inevitable. That makes purpose more important, not less. The companies that succeed over the next decade won’t be the ones shouting the loudest about sustainability or AI. They’ll be the ones using AI to scale missions that actually matter to people. Beyond efficiency gains, AI enables personalization, allowing companies to serve individual tastes, needs, and values at scale. As Simon Sinek famously said, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” AI gives organizations a way to turn their “why” into “why me”—a shift that could shape the next era of consumer engagement. As AI integrates into business systems, it’s boosting traceability, improving efficiency, and spotting fraud—creating real value while building trust. If it’s used carelessly, it commoditizes. If it’s used with purpose, it multiplies. Businesses will win by delivering better products, less waste, more personalization, cleaner value chains, smarter consumption, and greater control over choices. These aren’t environmental ideals. They’re human needs. PURPOSE RUNS DEEPER THAN ESG Purpose isn’t a reporting framework. It’s an intention to solve a real human problem that matters. It answers why. When ESG initiatives don’t drive meaningful value, solve genuine pain points, or reinforce an organization’s core mission, they become performative. Research published in 2024 and 2025 by Kantar, Edelman, Gallup, Deloitte, and NYU Stern shows a common pattern: Companies that embed purpose into products, operations, and incentives outperform those that do not. They demonstrate stronger growth, greater pricing power, lower operating risk, and higher trust with both customers and employees. The real performance opportunity isn’t showy-sustainability. It’s clarity of purpose. If that purpose leads to positive social or environmental outcomes, that’s an excellent result, but ESG alone is not a proxy for success. THE CONSUMER SHIFT FROM “WE” TO “ME” As leaders have said before, purpose has shifted from “we” to “me.” After years of economic uncertainty, cultural fatigue, and global disruption, consumers are focused on meeting their individual needs rather than collective ideals. They still want value alignment, but they’re less interested in saving the world and more interested in saving themselves. For brands, this creates a new challenge. Connection—it needs to be personal. Empathy, relevance, and usefulness now drive purchase decisions more than narratives and flashy content. Consumers also want facts, not fluff. Clear transparency about who made a product, where it came from, and what stands behind it is essential. As AI-generated content and complex supply chains quickly spread, credibility will become harder to earn. And this is exactly where AI changes the stakes. It enhances personalization and skepticism at the same time. In a world where AI can generate anything, trust becomes the thing that sets you apart. And trust is built on purpose. THE REAL RISK OF ABANDONING PURPOSE The biggest risk facing companies today isn’t overcommitting to purpose. It’s abandoning it. When AI makes it faster and cheaper to create products and messaging, sameness is inevitable. Without purpose, loyalty erodes, trust is gone, and employees disengage, particularly as AI reshapes roles and expectations. Research consistently shows that purpose-driven organizations see higher retention, stronger performance, and greater resilience during periods of change. This is why purpose can’t remain a messaging exercise. It has to become operational. Purpose is growing up, from “we” to “me,” and from storytelling to system design. In an AI-accelerated world, leaning into this shift with intention will be the most competitive strategy of an organization. Kristy Caylor is CEO of Trashie. View the full article

Implementing effective sales strategies is essential for any business looking to boost revenue. By setting defined goals and targeting repeat customers, you can create a solid foundation for growth. Furthermore, broadening your market reach and refining your pricing plan play significant roles in attracting new clients and retaining existing ones. As you explore these strategies, consider how plunging into your offerings and optimizing delivery options can further improve your sales performance. What specific tactics will you prioritize? Key Takeaways Set clear, quantifiable revenue growth goals and regularly track performance to adjust strategies effectively. Focus on building strong relationships with repeat customers through loyalty programs and personalized communication. Expand market reach via targeted advertising and e-commerce, while refining pricing strategies based on competitor analysis. Diversify offerings by introducing complementary products and implementing effective upselling techniques to boost average order values. Optimize delivery options by offering free shipping and analyzing customer feedback to enhance satisfaction and retention. Set Defined Goals When you set defined goals for your sales team, you create a roadmap that outlines clear, quantifiable targets for revenue growth. This approach is crucial for a successful b2b sales strategy, as it helps your team focus on specific outcomes. By regularly tracking progress against these goals, you can assess performance and make necessary adjustments to your strategies. Defined goals additionally serve as a motivational tool, promoting accountability among team members and driving performance through clear benchmarks. Utilizing specific metrics, such as conversion rates and average deal size, can refine your sales strategies and align them with overall business objectives. Adjusting your approach based on goal outcomes leads to improved sales performance and identifies which methods are most effective. Target Repeat Customers To boost your revenue, strengthening relationships with repeat customers is crucial. Implementing loyalty programs can greatly increase their spending and encourage consistent purchases, whereas regular communication keeps them engaged. Strengthen Customer Relationships Strengthening customer relationships is essential for driving repeat business, as nurturing these connections can greatly impact your bottom line. Here are some effective b2b sales tips to help you cultivate these relationships: Send personalized emails highlighting promotions and new inventory, boosting engagement by 29%. Communicate regularly with repeat customers, which can increase their likelihood of making additional purchases by 60%. Offer exclusive discounts or rewards to loyal customers, enhancing their average order value by up to 20%. Focus on comprehending customer needs and preferences to tailor your approach effectively. Implement Loyalty Programs Implementing loyalty programs is a strategic move that can greatly improve customer retention and boost your bottom line. By focusing on repeat customers, you can increase retention rates by 5% to 10%. Since repeat customers typically spend 67% more than new ones, this can greatly augment your profits. Tailoring rewards to match customer preferences improves engagement, increasing participation by up to 30%. Strong loyalty programs can drive average revenue up by 10% to 20%, promoting long-term relationships. Consider tiered systems, which can motivate customers to spend more, leading to a 20% increase in average order value. Effective communication about loyalty benefits, like exclusive discounts, can likewise boost customer loyalty by 15% and lower churn rates, crucial in b2b sales strategies. Grow Your Geographic Reach How can broadening your geographic reach greatly impact your business? Expanding your market presence can notably increase your sales and customer base. Implementing a solid b2b sales plan can help you tap into new opportunities. Here are some strategies to explore: Targeted Advertising: Launch campaigns in neighboring areas to boost brand awareness. E-Commerce Platforms: Utilize online sales to reach customers beyond your physical locations. Market Assessment: Analyze demographic data to pinpoint lucrative regions. Delivery Range: Increase your delivery options, as 70% of consumers prefer businesses with convenient services. Refine Your Pricing Plan To boost your revenue, it’s crucial to refine your pricing plan by starting with a competitive pricing analysis. By examining what your competitors charge, you can adjust your prices to remain attractive during the process of reflecting the true value of your offerings. Simplifying your pricing structures can further improve customer comprehension and satisfaction, leading to enhanced sales and retention rates. Competitive Pricing Analysis Competitive pricing analysis serves as a critical tool for refining your pricing plan and improving your market stance. By regularly evaluating competitor prices, you guarantee your pricing remains attractive as you showcase the value of your offerings. Here are some key strategies to reflect upon: Research competitor pricing to identify trends and adjust accordingly. Lower prices strategically to capture market share or raise them to reflect your brand’s value. Use bundling to improve perceived value and make your offerings more competitive. Keep in mind that 70% of consumers compare prices online, emphasizing the need for a strong pricing strategy. Implementing these b2b sales strategy examples can lead to significant revenue growth, attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Simplify Pricing Structures Simplifying pricing structures can greatly improve customer appeal and drive conversions, as most consumers prefer straightforward pricing without hidden fees. Implementing tiered pricing models lets customers pick options that fit their budgets, increasing average order values by 10-30%. Bundling products or services at discounted rates simplifies buying decisions, with 60% of consumers more likely to purchase when they see clear value propositions. Regularly reviewing competitor pricing helps you stay competitive, ensuring your offerings remain attractive in the market. Clear communication of any pricing changes, like introducing subscription models with transparent terms, boosts customer trust and retention rates. These b2b sales techniques not only streamline the purchasing process but additionally cultivate long-term customer loyalty. Add Products or Services Adding products or services to your business can greatly improve revenue and improve customer satisfaction, especially when you align these offerings with customer needs. By strategically broadening your portfolio, you can implement effective B2B business development strategies. Consider the following approaches: Introduce complementary products that improve the customer experience, like a coffee shop adding gourmet sandwiches. Broaden service offerings based on customer feedback to meet evolving demands, boosting satisfaction and retention. Diversify product lines to capture larger market shares, as wider arrays of options can lead to up to 20% sales growth. Analyze purchase patterns to identify gaps and strategically launch new products that fulfill unmet needs. Regular assessments can as well help refine your offerings for better alignment with customer preferences. Bundle Products or Services Bundling products or services can considerably improve your business’s appeal and profitability, especially when you offer related items in a cohesive package. By promoting bundles as cost-saving options, you can attract price-sensitive customers and boost perceived value. Industry reports indicate that average order values can increase by 20-30% with effective bundling strategies. Research shows that 70% of consumers prefer package deals, making bundles more appealing than individual items. Moreover, bundling can heighten customer satisfaction by addressing multiple needs, improving overall experience and loyalty. In B2B sales methods, you might also find that up to 40% of customers opt for extra products when presented in bundled formats, leading to significant cross-selling opportunities. Upsell Products and Services To effectively upsell products and services, you need to highlight premium offerings that align with your customers’ needs. By showcasing these options and their unique benefits, you can increase the average transaction value greatly. Effective Upselling Techniques Whereas upselling can often be perceived as a pushy sales tactic, it’s actually a strategic approach that benefits both businesses and customers. By implementing effective upselling techniques, you can boost sales productivity and improve customer satisfaction. Here are some strategies to take into account: Train your sales team to highlight unique benefits of premium products. Use displays and marketing materials that emphasize higher-priced options. Monitor upsell success rates and gather customer feedback to refine your approach. Encourage staff to engage with customers, articulating the value of upgrades. These techniques not only increase average order values but can as well lead to revenue increases of 10-30% per transaction. Highlight Premium Offerings Highlighting premium offerings is a potent strategy for maximizing revenue potential in your business. By promoting higher-priced options, you can increase your average transaction value by 10-30% when done effectively. Training your sales staff in upselling techniques can greatly improve their success rates, leading to improved customer satisfaction as clients receive added value. Offering premium versions of your products or services with extra features attracts customers willing to pay more, boosting overall revenue. Utilize attractive displays and provide informational materials to highlight the benefits of these premium options. Furthermore, monitoring your upsell success rates and adjusting strategies accordingly can encourage continuous improvement, eventually driving increased revenue from existing customers. These business to business sales tips can raise your sales approach effectively. Offer Subscriptions and Discounts Subscriptions and discounts are influential tools that can greatly elevate your revenue strategy. In a b2b digital sales strategy, implementing these options can yield significant benefits. Consider the following advantages: Subscriptions can boost customer loyalty, increasing recurring revenue by 20-30%. Discounts for subscriptions attract new customers; 68% of consumers prefer a discount when subscribing. Regular promotion of subscription benefits raises engagement, leading to a 15% increase in long-term retention rates. Automating renewals and offering easy cancellation improves satisfaction; 85% of subscribers appreciate hassle-free management. Change Shipping or Delivery Charges Changing your shipping or delivery charges can greatly impact your online sales performance. For instance, offering free shipping can boost your conversion rates by up to 30%, which is vital when selling business to business. You might consider integrating shipping costs into your product pricing; 70% of consumers prefer clear, all-inclusive pricing. Moreover, implementing a tiered shipping charge system encourages larger orders by providing free shipping for purchases over a certain amount. Analyzing customer feedback shows that 61% of consumers abandon their carts because of high shipping costs, so exploring options like expedited shipping can be beneficial. In fact, 56% of consumers are willing to pay more for faster delivery, which could optimize your overall sales strategy. Survey Customers to Understand Your Market To drive sales effectively, it’s important to comprehend your market, and one of the best ways to gain insights is through customer surveys. By surveying customers, especially when selling to businesses, you can gather valuable information that helps tailor your offerings. Consider the following strategies: Offer discounts or rewards to incentivize feedback, as 70% of customers prefer it. Analyze survey data regularly to identify trends and shifts in customer needs. Engage with customers post-purchase; 85% are willing to share opinions if they know it’ll lead to improvements. Implement changes based on feedback, which can boost customer satisfaction and retention by 10-15%. These steps can greatly improve your comprehension of your market and eventually drive sales. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Strategy to Increase Sales? To increase sales, start by developing detailed buyer personas through market research. This helps you target your audience effectively, as personalization is key. Implement multiple payment options to reduce shopping cart abandonment, which is high. Prioritize excellent customer service, as it’s essential for retaining customers. Furthermore, use upselling and cross-selling techniques to grow average order values, and regularly conduct market analysis to stay updated on trends and customer preferences. How to Increase Revenue by 5%? To increase revenue by 5%, focus on analyzing your current sales channels and identifying which ones perform best. Implement targeted marketing strategies that cater to specific customer segments, and consider introducing loyalty programs to retain customers. Evaluate your pricing strategy, as even a 1% increase can greatly impact profits. Finally, utilize upselling and cross-selling techniques to improve the average order value, ensuring you maximize every customer interaction for better revenue outcomes. What Is the Most Successful Sales Strategy? The most successful sales strategy involves comprehending your target audience deeply. By defining buyer personas, you can increase sales conversions considerably. Implementing a multi-channel approach improves customer engagement and retention. Furthermore, techniques like upselling and cross-selling can boost revenue from existing customers. Personalizing interactions based on data enhances customer satisfaction. Regular analysis of sales metrics allows you to refine your strategies, ultimately resulting in better sales effectiveness and improved overall performance. What Are the Four Methods to Increase Revenue? To increase revenue, you can implement four effective methods. First, consider broadening your product or service offerings to attract more customers. Second, strategically raise prices, ensuring you communicate the added value. Third, focus on retaining existing customers through loyalty programs, which are typically more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Finally, optimize your sales channels by exploring e-commerce options or partnerships, widening your market reach and enhancing your revenue potential considerably. Conclusion Incorporating these ten proven sales strategies can greatly improve your revenue. By setting clear goals, targeting repeat customers, and broadening your market reach, you create a solid foundation for growth. Diversifying your offerings, optimizing pricing, and refining your shipping options can further enhance customer satisfaction and reduce cart abandonment. Regularly surveying customers provides valuable insights, allowing you to adapt your approach. Implementing these strategies systematically will lead to improved sales performance and long-term business success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Proven Sales Strategies to Boost Revenue" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Implementing effective sales strategies is essential for any business looking to boost revenue. By setting defined goals and targeting repeat customers, you can create a solid foundation for growth. Furthermore, broadening your market reach and refining your pricing plan play significant roles in attracting new clients and retaining existing ones. As you explore these strategies, consider how plunging into your offerings and optimizing delivery options can further improve your sales performance. What specific tactics will you prioritize? Key Takeaways Set clear, quantifiable revenue growth goals and regularly track performance to adjust strategies effectively. Focus on building strong relationships with repeat customers through loyalty programs and personalized communication. Expand market reach via targeted advertising and e-commerce, while refining pricing strategies based on competitor analysis. Diversify offerings by introducing complementary products and implementing effective upselling techniques to boost average order values. Optimize delivery options by offering free shipping and analyzing customer feedback to enhance satisfaction and retention. Set Defined Goals When you set defined goals for your sales team, you create a roadmap that outlines clear, quantifiable targets for revenue growth. This approach is crucial for a successful b2b sales strategy, as it helps your team focus on specific outcomes. By regularly tracking progress against these goals, you can assess performance and make necessary adjustments to your strategies. Defined goals additionally serve as a motivational tool, promoting accountability among team members and driving performance through clear benchmarks. Utilizing specific metrics, such as conversion rates and average deal size, can refine your sales strategies and align them with overall business objectives. Adjusting your approach based on goal outcomes leads to improved sales performance and identifies which methods are most effective. Target Repeat Customers To boost your revenue, strengthening relationships with repeat customers is crucial. Implementing loyalty programs can greatly increase their spending and encourage consistent purchases, whereas regular communication keeps them engaged. Strengthen Customer Relationships Strengthening customer relationships is essential for driving repeat business, as nurturing these connections can greatly impact your bottom line. Here are some effective b2b sales tips to help you cultivate these relationships: Send personalized emails highlighting promotions and new inventory, boosting engagement by 29%. Communicate regularly with repeat customers, which can increase their likelihood of making additional purchases by 60%. Offer exclusive discounts or rewards to loyal customers, enhancing their average order value by up to 20%. Focus on comprehending customer needs and preferences to tailor your approach effectively. Implement Loyalty Programs Implementing loyalty programs is a strategic move that can greatly improve customer retention and boost your bottom line. By focusing on repeat customers, you can increase retention rates by 5% to 10%. Since repeat customers typically spend 67% more than new ones, this can greatly augment your profits. Tailoring rewards to match customer preferences improves engagement, increasing participation by up to 30%. Strong loyalty programs can drive average revenue up by 10% to 20%, promoting long-term relationships. Consider tiered systems, which can motivate customers to spend more, leading to a 20% increase in average order value. Effective communication about loyalty benefits, like exclusive discounts, can likewise boost customer loyalty by 15% and lower churn rates, crucial in b2b sales strategies. Grow Your Geographic Reach How can broadening your geographic reach greatly impact your business? Expanding your market presence can notably increase your sales and customer base. Implementing a solid b2b sales plan can help you tap into new opportunities. Here are some strategies to explore: Targeted Advertising: Launch campaigns in neighboring areas to boost brand awareness. E-Commerce Platforms: Utilize online sales to reach customers beyond your physical locations. Market Assessment: Analyze demographic data to pinpoint lucrative regions. Delivery Range: Increase your delivery options, as 70% of consumers prefer businesses with convenient services. Refine Your Pricing Plan To boost your revenue, it’s crucial to refine your pricing plan by starting with a competitive pricing analysis. By examining what your competitors charge, you can adjust your prices to remain attractive during the process of reflecting the true value of your offerings. Simplifying your pricing structures can further improve customer comprehension and satisfaction, leading to enhanced sales and retention rates. Competitive Pricing Analysis Competitive pricing analysis serves as a critical tool for refining your pricing plan and improving your market stance. By regularly evaluating competitor prices, you guarantee your pricing remains attractive as you showcase the value of your offerings. Here are some key strategies to reflect upon: Research competitor pricing to identify trends and adjust accordingly. Lower prices strategically to capture market share or raise them to reflect your brand’s value. Use bundling to improve perceived value and make your offerings more competitive. Keep in mind that 70% of consumers compare prices online, emphasizing the need for a strong pricing strategy. Implementing these b2b sales strategy examples can lead to significant revenue growth, attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Simplify Pricing Structures Simplifying pricing structures can greatly improve customer appeal and drive conversions, as most consumers prefer straightforward pricing without hidden fees. Implementing tiered pricing models lets customers pick options that fit their budgets, increasing average order values by 10-30%. Bundling products or services at discounted rates simplifies buying decisions, with 60% of consumers more likely to purchase when they see clear value propositions. Regularly reviewing competitor pricing helps you stay competitive, ensuring your offerings remain attractive in the market. Clear communication of any pricing changes, like introducing subscription models with transparent terms, boosts customer trust and retention rates. These b2b sales techniques not only streamline the purchasing process but additionally cultivate long-term customer loyalty. Add Products or Services Adding products or services to your business can greatly improve revenue and improve customer satisfaction, especially when you align these offerings with customer needs. By strategically broadening your portfolio, you can implement effective B2B business development strategies. Consider the following approaches: Introduce complementary products that improve the customer experience, like a coffee shop adding gourmet sandwiches. Broaden service offerings based on customer feedback to meet evolving demands, boosting satisfaction and retention. Diversify product lines to capture larger market shares, as wider arrays of options can lead to up to 20% sales growth. Analyze purchase patterns to identify gaps and strategically launch new products that fulfill unmet needs. Regular assessments can as well help refine your offerings for better alignment with customer preferences. Bundle Products or Services Bundling products or services can considerably improve your business’s appeal and profitability, especially when you offer related items in a cohesive package. By promoting bundles as cost-saving options, you can attract price-sensitive customers and boost perceived value. Industry reports indicate that average order values can increase by 20-30% with effective bundling strategies. Research shows that 70% of consumers prefer package deals, making bundles more appealing than individual items. Moreover, bundling can heighten customer satisfaction by addressing multiple needs, improving overall experience and loyalty. In B2B sales methods, you might also find that up to 40% of customers opt for extra products when presented in bundled formats, leading to significant cross-selling opportunities. Upsell Products and Services To effectively upsell products and services, you need to highlight premium offerings that align with your customers’ needs. By showcasing these options and their unique benefits, you can increase the average transaction value greatly. Effective Upselling Techniques Whereas upselling can often be perceived as a pushy sales tactic, it’s actually a strategic approach that benefits both businesses and customers. By implementing effective upselling techniques, you can boost sales productivity and improve customer satisfaction. Here are some strategies to take into account: Train your sales team to highlight unique benefits of premium products. Use displays and marketing materials that emphasize higher-priced options. Monitor upsell success rates and gather customer feedback to refine your approach. Encourage staff to engage with customers, articulating the value of upgrades. These techniques not only increase average order values but can as well lead to revenue increases of 10-30% per transaction. Highlight Premium Offerings Highlighting premium offerings is a potent strategy for maximizing revenue potential in your business. By promoting higher-priced options, you can increase your average transaction value by 10-30% when done effectively. Training your sales staff in upselling techniques can greatly improve their success rates, leading to improved customer satisfaction as clients receive added value. Offering premium versions of your products or services with extra features attracts customers willing to pay more, boosting overall revenue. Utilize attractive displays and provide informational materials to highlight the benefits of these premium options. Furthermore, monitoring your upsell success rates and adjusting strategies accordingly can encourage continuous improvement, eventually driving increased revenue from existing customers. These business to business sales tips can raise your sales approach effectively. Offer Subscriptions and Discounts Subscriptions and discounts are influential tools that can greatly elevate your revenue strategy. In a b2b digital sales strategy, implementing these options can yield significant benefits. Consider the following advantages: Subscriptions can boost customer loyalty, increasing recurring revenue by 20-30%. Discounts for subscriptions attract new customers; 68% of consumers prefer a discount when subscribing. Regular promotion of subscription benefits raises engagement, leading to a 15% increase in long-term retention rates. Automating renewals and offering easy cancellation improves satisfaction; 85% of subscribers appreciate hassle-free management. Change Shipping or Delivery Charges Changing your shipping or delivery charges can greatly impact your online sales performance. For instance, offering free shipping can boost your conversion rates by up to 30%, which is vital when selling business to business. You might consider integrating shipping costs into your product pricing; 70% of consumers prefer clear, all-inclusive pricing. Moreover, implementing a tiered shipping charge system encourages larger orders by providing free shipping for purchases over a certain amount. Analyzing customer feedback shows that 61% of consumers abandon their carts because of high shipping costs, so exploring options like expedited shipping can be beneficial. In fact, 56% of consumers are willing to pay more for faster delivery, which could optimize your overall sales strategy. Survey Customers to Understand Your Market To drive sales effectively, it’s important to comprehend your market, and one of the best ways to gain insights is through customer surveys. By surveying customers, especially when selling to businesses, you can gather valuable information that helps tailor your offerings. Consider the following strategies: Offer discounts or rewards to incentivize feedback, as 70% of customers prefer it. Analyze survey data regularly to identify trends and shifts in customer needs. Engage with customers post-purchase; 85% are willing to share opinions if they know it’ll lead to improvements. Implement changes based on feedback, which can boost customer satisfaction and retention by 10-15%. These steps can greatly improve your comprehension of your market and eventually drive sales. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Strategy to Increase Sales? To increase sales, start by developing detailed buyer personas through market research. This helps you target your audience effectively, as personalization is key. Implement multiple payment options to reduce shopping cart abandonment, which is high. Prioritize excellent customer service, as it’s essential for retaining customers. Furthermore, use upselling and cross-selling techniques to grow average order values, and regularly conduct market analysis to stay updated on trends and customer preferences. How to Increase Revenue by 5%? To increase revenue by 5%, focus on analyzing your current sales channels and identifying which ones perform best. Implement targeted marketing strategies that cater to specific customer segments, and consider introducing loyalty programs to retain customers. Evaluate your pricing strategy, as even a 1% increase can greatly impact profits. Finally, utilize upselling and cross-selling techniques to improve the average order value, ensuring you maximize every customer interaction for better revenue outcomes. What Is the Most Successful Sales Strategy? The most successful sales strategy involves comprehending your target audience deeply. By defining buyer personas, you can increase sales conversions considerably. Implementing a multi-channel approach improves customer engagement and retention. Furthermore, techniques like upselling and cross-selling can boost revenue from existing customers. Personalizing interactions based on data enhances customer satisfaction. Regular analysis of sales metrics allows you to refine your strategies, ultimately resulting in better sales effectiveness and improved overall performance. What Are the Four Methods to Increase Revenue? To increase revenue, you can implement four effective methods. First, consider broadening your product or service offerings to attract more customers. Second, strategically raise prices, ensuring you communicate the added value. Third, focus on retaining existing customers through loyalty programs, which are typically more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Finally, optimize your sales channels by exploring e-commerce options or partnerships, widening your market reach and enhancing your revenue potential considerably. Conclusion Incorporating these ten proven sales strategies can greatly improve your revenue. By setting clear goals, targeting repeat customers, and broadening your market reach, you create a solid foundation for growth. Diversifying your offerings, optimizing pricing, and refining your shipping options can further enhance customer satisfaction and reduce cart abandonment. Regularly surveying customers provides valuable insights, allowing you to adapt your approach. Implementing these strategies systematically will lead to improved sales performance and long-term business success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Proven Sales Strategies to Boost Revenue" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Calling all space vendors, scientists, and STEM students: NASA needs even more of your help building the next generations of space stations, lunar infrastructure, and space science. In a sweeping overview on Tuesday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and space program leaders delivered an urgent and overhauled vision to advance American leadership in space commerce and scientific exploration. After decades of a space agency spread too thin, losing skills, money, and time serving too many stakeholders, the streamlined revamp calls for aligning NASA goals and workflows with commercial and international partners on a clear mission to build a competitive commercial ecosystem in low-Earth orbit and a sustained lunar presence on the moon. A main motive is China. America is launching Artemis II astronauts to a lunar loop next week for the first time in half a century and returning humans to the surface in 2028, barely ahead of China’s plans to land its own explorers on the moon by 2030. “We find ourselves with a real geopolitical rival, challenging American leadership in the high ground of space,” said Isaacman. “Success or failure will be measured in months, not years. This time, the goal is not flags and footprints. This time, the goal is to stay. America will never again give up the moon.” Going back to the Moon Since taking the helm in December, Isaacman has been reviewing old supply chains and initiatives, seeking to cut bureaucracy through sweeping regulatory changes that also empower workers, engage industry feedback, and accelerate execution. Last month, NASA announced its revamped Artemis mission schedule to standardize the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket configuration, and an additional low-Earth orbit (LEO) mission next year for further Orion capsule and spacesuit testing to reduce risk, and push its moon landing to 2028, with an eye toward increased surface landings. “We’re following the proven stepwise approach that was demonstrated by the Apollo missions to methodically reduce risk incrementally and increase the likelihood of mission success,” said Lori Glaze, the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate acting associate administrator. “Each step needs to be big enough to make progress, but not so big that we take unnecessary risks.” NASA now calls for pausing the proposed lunar orbiting Gateway to focus on a Moon Base, expected to cost some $20 billion over seven years, utilizing private and international partners. (NASA might leverage the Gateway architecture for the Moon Base and future missions.) Those plans will roll out over the next decade in three main phases involving more frequent landings to both accelerate learning and deliver science and technology payloads for a semi-permanent habitat, excavation sites, and communications network, followed by heavier infrastructure for a permanent base, mission cargo returns, and sustainable human presence on the moon using extracted oxygen, hydrogen, water, and rare earth elements. “It does look like science fiction, but we’re planning to turn that into reality,” said Moon Base program executive Carlos Garcia-Galan. Next-generation space stations Meanwhile, NASA will shore up its LEO presence by transitioning to a coordinated network of next-generation commercial stations that gradually replace the aging International Space Station (ISS) without a gap in human presence in space. Under this approach, NASA would procure a government‑owned Core Module that attaches to the ISS, followed by approved commercial modules that would later detach into free flight. As one of many customers purchasing commercial services, NASA would stimulate the economy through private astronaut missions, commander seat sales, joint missions, multiple-module competitions, prioritizing research with high commercial potential, and prize‑based awards. “Our objectives in low-Earth orbit have not changed,” said ISS program manager Dana Weigel. Those are to maintain America’s superiority in space, to conduct groundbreaking human research and technology development, and to use LEO as a proving ground for exploration. “We want to expand commercial access to space, stimulate commercial demand, and foster economic growth.” Nuclear power on Mars The event also unveiled NASA’s Space Reactor‑1 Freedom, the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft, which launches to Mars in late 2028. A coupled nuclear reactor, power conversion, and electric propulsion thruster system, Freedom provides power where solar arrays are ineffective. On the way, it will demonstrate efficient mass transport and advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. At Mars, Freedom will deploy the Skyfall payload of Ingenuity‑class helicopters for continued exploration, providing high-rate, direct-to-Earth communications, with an eye toward an industrial base for future power systems for long‑duration missions. “Overall, a fission-powered spacecraft carrying science to Mars is not just a tech demo. It is the first freight run on the transcontinental railroad of the solar system,” said Fission Surface Power program executive Steve Sinacore. A Golden Age of discovery NASA is also planning a slate of ambitious scientific missions. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch as early as fall to further our understanding of dark energy. Next year, a new Earth science mission will measure how convective storms begin to improve extreme weather predictions up to six hours before storms occur, while the ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission is en route to Mars to study how the solar wind impacts the Martian atmosphere. In 2028, the Dragonfly nuclear-powered octocopter will embark on a six-year journey to Saturn’s moon Titan to probe for organic molecules indicating the origins of life. That same year, NASA will launch \the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin ExoMars Rover containing NASA’s Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) mass spectrometer, for the most advanced detection and analysis of organic matter ever conducted on Mars. By the early 2030s, NASA’s DAVINCI mission (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) will send a spacecraft and a descent probe to Venus to determine whether it was once habitable. “Many of the technologies that have the most promise for the health and safety of America can only be derived from work done in space, and we cannot afford to fall behind or cede leadership,” said Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicola Fox. “We must evolve how we explore.” Increased initiatives NASA will support these efforts through an expanded Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, expediting up to 30 robotic rovers, hoppers, and drones from industry, researchers, and international partners to the lunar and Martian surfaces. To this end, the agency is modernizing its infrastructure and rebuilding its core engineering, technical, and operational competencies, converting thousands of contractors to civil service positions, expanding opportunities for interns and early‑career professionals, and starting initiatives, such as Space Force, to recruit top talent. It will also increase its outreach through grants and public educational programs. “NASA is no longer the only game in town, and we don’t have exclusivity on all the good ideas. So, we welcome industry’s input,” says Isaacman. With industry bringing competitive dynamics, improved capability, and lower costs, “we should then shift our attention to what no one else is capable of—to explore farther out into the solar system.” View the full article

AI doesn’t float in the cloud. It runs on concrete, steel, and electricity in massive physical infrastructure. It is powered by local electricity grids and located in cities across the country. Residents who live and work nearby have a direct stake in how and where that infrastructure is built. That makes community consent the deciding factor in the AI race. Technology alone won’t determine the outcome—trust will. Companies that scale fastest will treat sustainable engineering and trust-building as a core business strategy. The AI race won’t be won in the cloud. It will be won at the fence line. As an official partner of UNESCO’s World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development 2026, Compass Datacenters is advocating for a new global infrastructure standard that benefits both users and neighbors. This partnership underscores our commitment to earning trust in our home communities, because digital infrastructure succeeds only when it is built responsibly, transparently, and with the confidence of the people it serves. INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDS PROSPERITY History shows how powerful physical infrastructure can be. In the 19th century, railroads determined which towns survived. Where tracks were laid, opportunity followed. Families thrived for generations. Today, digital infrastructure plays a similar role. Data centers are the physical backbone of the AI economy. They deliver foundational assets that will anchor local economies for 100 years. When built responsibly, data centers create long-term economic opportunity by securing generational careers that allow families to stay and grow in the same community. But that kind of impact requires becoming more than boxes on a map. It requires showing up as continual, integrated members of these communities, not walled off from them. The global engineering community has an opportunity to define what responsible infrastructure looks like in the age of AI—one that balances innovation with stewardship. THE “100-YEAR NEIGHBOR” STANDARD Compass builds differently, committing to every project for the long term to ensure communities benefit alongside technology. And also by paying its fair share for critically needed upgrades, like substations or rights-of-way, so the financial burden is not passed on to local communities. Approaching our work as a “100-year neighbor” forces a different set of decisions. When you plan to stay 100 years, you don’t cut corners. Just as we expect excellence in residential development, communities deserve high-quality Class A infrastructure. The goal is long-term alignment: a data center that serves the country while supporting the town it calls home. We minimize disruption to daily life with off-site modular construction and streamlined logistics. We protect local resources by using advanced waterless cooling systems, lower-carbon concrete, and cleaner fuels. We innovate with our partners to build continuous improvement into our plan. And our investments in critical infrastructure stabilize and strengthen the local electric grid. FROM CONSTRUCTION JOBS TO LASTING CAREERS Large-scale data center projects create multi-year construction jobs and long-term operational roles that provide stable income with career-building potential. Partnerships with local trade schools build pathways into technical fields and opportunities that anchor talent and families locally. Over time, these facilities become part of the fabric of the community. A 100-year neighbor provides a permanent tax base that strengthens schools, roads, parks, and public services that families depend on daily. Built right, its value compounds over time. NEIGHBORS BECOME PARTNERS Trust building is the foundation we need for the next century of progress. Companies that earn trust through transparency and by sharing success with home communities will scale while the companies that treat communities transactionally will stall. When communities feel respected, families thrive, and companies gain the long-term stability required to innovate at scale. The next breakthrough in AI will happen when neighbors become partners. When national progress is anchored in local prosperity, everyone wins. Chris Crosby is CEO of Compass Datacenters. View the full article

As companies continue to seek ways to harness artificial intelligence for concrete productivity gains, a company called Writer offers AI tools specifically geared toward getting things done at the enterprise level. Writer’s AI systems can connect to a wide variety of business software, including standard productivity tools from Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft, as well as a range of database systems. And customers can customize on a granular level what data the AI—and the humans using it—has access to read and write. But Writer’s platform is also specifically designed to enable white-collar workers without an engineering background to reliably get things done without having to rely on their IT or software development colleagues to write code, set up new systems, or troubleshoot newly automated operations. “So much of what enterprises are doing with AI is engineering-led,” says cofounder and CEO May Habib. “And with Writer, we are introducing a business-led paradigm, and that has been incredibly important.” Writer enables companies to create what it calls skills, representing specific tasks that an AI agent can be trained to do, like bringing content into compliance with branding and legal requirements, classifying data, or performing financial analyses. The company provides more than 200 prebuilt skills, including some targeting specific industries like retail, healthcare, and financial services, and businesses can also build their own. Skills can then be harnessed in AI playbooks, which are built around detailed, step-by-step instructions for AI to follow in more complex tasks. Those can include drafting content, conducting research and building internal dashboards, onboarding customers, or setting up marketing content or slide presentations. At the core of both skills and playbooks are written prompts to AI agents, along with other materials like example output for reference or assets to be used in dashboards or presentations. And while users can craft their own from scratch, Writer is now enabling users to also use AI to actually create and modify skills and playbooks by describing what they want these tools to do. “It’s designed to be as simple as possible,” says Doris Jwo, VP of product at Writer. “So you can start with something as basic as a one-sentence prompt.” Users can then test out how new skills and those complex playbooks perform, giving feedback to AI or making manual edits to optimize their operation. When playbooks get executed, users can see the AI describe what it’s doing in plain language, as well as more detailed information about its precise interactions with other systems, like SQL code sent to database engines. And the system also features facilities to learn and mimic a company’s distinct corporate voice, designed for content generation, and constructing a “knowledge graph” of trustworthy information. Writer, which announced in November 2024 it had raised $200 million in a Series C funding round at a $1.9 billion valuation, points to prominent enterprise customers including Vanguard, Marriott, Dropbox, and Clorox. At Clorox, Writer’s AI is used for tasks including maintaining thousands of listings for the company’s sprawling array of products, from cleaning materials to Burt’s Bees lip balms and Hidden Valley salad dressings, across major e-commerce retailers. Each retail site has its own requirements, from character limits for particular fields to terms that can’t be used in listings, and keeping product listings updated across products old and new can be a never-ending task, says Matt Harker, VP for consumer experience transformation at Clorox. Those various requirements can now be defined in Writer skills, with playbooks then built to craft those listings for various online stores. Humans are still involved in reviewing the AI output, but the AI can help by flagging potential areas of concern, and time savings so far are substantial, Harker says. “It’s north of 85% savings in terms of time and tasks that go away,” he says. That time savings means more time can be devoted to continuing to refine copy and images, including customizing online content for seasonal events like back-to-school shopping or the holiday season, he says. And playbooks and skills can be easily refined when stores inevitably change their listing requirements and formats, making it easy to update product listing fields to stay in compliance. “Because the skill has learned the new requirement, you run the playbook, all of the product detail pages are now updated and in compliance, and you publish,” Harker says. While Habib acknowledges that the AI market is a crowded one, with many companies testing and deploying different AI systems for different purposes—“every buyer in the enterprise is keeping all bets open,” she says—she believes reliability, enterprise-grade security features, traceability around what the AI is doing, and ease of use are continuing to win customers over. For many tasks, Writer also uses its own line of large language models, dubbed Palmyra, which Habib says are cheaper per API token than those from big competitors, enabling big savings for customers with many complex tasks. And though a wide range of software tools, from Google and Microsoft Office Suites to productivity packages like Slack and Asana, are now effectively competing with AI-first vendors to be the go-to enterprise gateway to artificial intelligence, Habib says another advantage of Writer is that it’s effectively a neutral operator, able to connect without bias to the wide range of cloud-based applications that businesses use. “I do think the legacy SaaS companies are doing a great job adding agentic layers to their products, but what the enterprise really needs is systems that can think a lot more and act a lot more like their employees can,” she says. “All of the chair-swiveling between the multiple systems that all of us are doing every day, we need agents who are able to do that, and that’s what we’re building.” View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google released the March 2026 spam update yesterday...View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. As a shopping writer for Lifehacker, I've learned many tricks over the years that have helped me become a savvy Amazon shopper. You do not need to be a Prime member for most of these, but becoming one will make your Amazon experience better. And yes, it's worth it—we've done the math. If your shipping is delayed, call Amazon to get free moneyIf your Amazon delivery is late, you can contact customer service and may be eligible for a refund or credit, often proportional to the product's value—especially if the order had a guaranteed delivery date. The status of an order on Amazon changes during different stages of the shipment. If Amazon said a delivery was going to arrive at a specific date and later sent a message that it's delayed, get a hold of someone from customer service (this is the quickest way to get someone from Amazon on the phone). Tell them your order is late and you want to be compensated because you needed the delivery on time for whatever reason you can come up with. Customer service is very likely to offer you an Amazon credit. I've personally received a $20 credit when a laptop was arriving late. Use price tracking tools to get the best prices on Amazon Knowing an item's price history tells you if you're better off waiting a bit; it also ensures you're getting the best price. There are many tracking tools, but if I were to recommend one for Amazon, it's Keepa. Keepa automatically displays the price history under the image of the product. It also lets you track specific products and sends you notifications when they go below a specific price that you set. You can download the extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge, and Safari. Get the most accurate product reviews from Amazon Amazon sometimes combines reviews from multiple versions of a particular product. For example, take the review section of this Apple Watch Series 11 GPS. At the time of this writing, it says there are 1,049 customer reviews. But (and here's the hack): If you click on the "All Variants" dropdown and check the specific variant you're looking at, you'll see there are only 194 matching customer reviews (at the time of writing) for this particular model and version. The rest of the reviews are for other sizes, colors, storage size, cellular vs GPS versions, etc. Credit: Daniel Oropeza Ask Rufus, Amazon's AI, questions about productsLast year, Amazon released Rufus AI, which scraped the internet, each Amazon product page, and even product manuals to gather information on each product, no matter how specific the question. It's much faster and sometime more accurate than looking for the answer by reading the manual or the product page. You can find this search bar right on top of the review section or anywhere you see the "Ask Rufus" banner. Credit: Daniel Oropeza Get credits from Amazon when you don't need rushed delivery Credit: Daniel Oropeza While having two-day delivery is great, it's not always necessary. Sometimes, Amazon will offer you "digital rewards" (essentially free money you can use on Amazon purchases, among other things) to have the shipping not be "Prime" or two days. While the rewards might be small—usually under $2—they quickly add up. Before you know it, you can have a $20 Amazon credit waiting for you on your next checkout payment. You can game Amazon's "subscribe & save" system Credit: Daniel Oropeza Amazon offers a "subscribe & save" program, which incentivizes you to buy the same product periodically by giving you discounts going up to 15%. It's a neat tool if you, say, buy your protein powder through Amazon and you know you'll need it at least every six months. It's less obvious, though, that you can get that $80 protein powder with the 15% subscribe discount and then cancel the subscription right away, saving you 15% pain-free. Take advantage of Amazon's free payment plans Credit: Daniel Oropeza Your money makes more interest sitting in a savings account (ideally a high-yield one) than giving it away to Amazon. So when they offer you a free payment plan with 0% APR and no strings attached, it's a no-brainer. Not all products will have this option, but most big ticket items being shipped directly from Amazon do. Be careful with this, however: It's all too easy to spend more than you should. Which is why our shopping motto is "Don't buy anything you weren't going to buy anyway." If you're a young adult or a student, you can get Prime benefits for lessIf you're between the ages of 18 and 24 or are currently a student, you get all of the Prime benefits at half the price. This is huge for anyone who is at least one of those two categories. Use Amazon Family instead of having two separate accountsI still know many people who share their Amazon accounts, like family, spouses, or roommates. This makes it very hard to keep Secret Santa exciting. People who live in the same household can have a single Prime membership payment, though, while keeping their own accounts private by using Amazon Family. This means your cart won't be full of other people's orders, notifications will only be for your orders, your order history will be showing only your products, etc. Get free e-books on your Kindle every monthIt's not easy to fill a Kindle, but I'm well on my way, thanks to the many free e-books I've gotten through Amazon. If you're a Prime Member, you get two to three free e-books every month through a program called Amazon's First Reads, a curated list of new books handpicked by editors. View the full article

Influencer content isn’t just a brand awareness play. It’s showing up in Google SERPs, Google AI Overviews, and AI answers, making keyword strategy an essential part of every influencer brief. When we brief an influencer, we assign them a keyword. Not as a nice-to-have, but as a required part of the strategy, usually woven into the script, the caption, the on-screen text, and the hashtags. That might sound like an SEO team overreaching into an influencer team’s lane. But in 2026, the lane lines don’t exist. Social content is search inventory. If your influencer marketing program isn’t built around that reality, you’re leaving a significant and measurable share of voice on the table. Search journeys now span platforms, formats, and sources For most of search’s history, optimization meant ranking on Google. That’s still important, but it’s no longer the full story. TikTok Creative Center Keyword Insights Today, nearly half of U.S. consumers (49%) use TikTok as a search engine. Gen Z may lead that adoption, but it cuts across generations. Over a third of consumers now prefer to start their search journey with AI tools like ChatGPT over Google. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest have also become primary discovery engines for product research, how-to queries, and purchase decisions. This is what search everywhere may look like in practice: A user searches “best lightweight running shoes” on TikTok and watches three creator videos. Then they ask ChatGPT for a comparison. Next, they Google for brand reviews to look at Reddit commentary and What People Are Saying content. Then they navigate to a brand’s site. Each of these touchpoints is a search moment, and there’s a strong chance they involve influencer content. The brands showing up at every step are the ones treating influencer marketing content as search content from the beginning. Ross Simmonds, CEO of Foundation Marketing, shared with me: “Influencers exist on practically every platform, whether we’re talking about LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, or TikTok. They’re creating content every day. When people search, whether through Google or directly on these platforms through things like Ask Reddit or TikTok search, they’re coming across content that influencers have created.” “If those influencers understand best practices around search and discoverability, they’re more likely to create content that ranks not only on native platforms, but also directly in the SERP. That’s a marketer’s dream.” Dig deeper: Why creator-led content marketing is the new standard in search 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 Why your influencer’s video is now a SERP result This is where things get concrete. What people are saying SERP feature for “best skin care for moms” Google’s What people are saying SERP feature is a carousel that appears directly in search results and surfaces user-generated and creator content from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit for relevant queries. It’s now a default feature in U.S. search results and consistently shows up for mid- to bottom-of-funnel keywords, exactly where purchase decisions are made. A brand can appear in this SERP feature (either directly or indirectly via an influencer) without ranking in the traditional Top 10 results. “Short videos” SERP feature for “skin routine for moms” Additionally, the Short videos SERP feature is another prime spot for your influencer content to take up shelf space on Google. This means an influencer video optimized with the right SEO keyword can surface in multiple spots on Google for a commercial query your brand’s own site might never rank for. It’s not theoretical. It’s happening now. Google AI Mode referencing TikTok and Instagram content for a hair curling prompt Meanwhile, AI answers are pulling from social content at scale. An analysis of 40 million AI search results found Reddit to be the single most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity. Ahrefs research confirms that YouTube mentions and branded web mentions are among the top factors correlating with AI brand visibility in ChatGPT, AI Mode, and AI Overviews. Samanyou Garg, CEO of Writesonic, shared with me: “YouTube is the No. 1 cited domain for Gemini. And 35% of the channels getting cited have under 10K subscribers. We checked the correlation between views and citations. It’s basically zero. “What actually correlates? How well the creator describes the topic in their video description. So if an influencer makes a video about your product and writes a lazy two-line description, you’re leaving AI visibility on the table.” The more creators talk about your product with consistent language, the more confident AI becomes in recommending you. So if your influencer content doesn’t contain the SEO keywords your audience is actually searching for, it won’t be surfaced in all the places that matter. Dig deeper: Short-form, big impact: What creators can teach performance marketers Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The keyword isn’t optional Sample influencer brief with keyword included as a standard Keyword research should be a standard step in every influencer campaign. Start by identifying your target keyword from data across three sources: Existing keyword targets shared by the organic strategists. In platform searches for what’s trending and/or suggested auto completes. AnswerThePublic searches for both brand and non-brand terms related to the campaign theme. Once the keyword is identified, embed it into every element of the creator’s content: Script: Spoken naturally, ideally in the first half of the video, where TikTok’s algorithm is most attentive to audio signals. Caption: Written to open with or include the keyword, supporting both platform and Google indexing. On-screen text: Reinforcing the keyword visually for accessibility and algorithm legibility. Hashtags: Used to connect the content to the broader topic the keyword lives in. Don’t confuse this with keyword stuffing. It’s modern content architecture. There’s a big difference between a creator naturally saying, “If you’re searching for the best running shoes right now…” versus a brand clunkily forcing a phrase into otherwise natural content. The influencer brief sets the requirement, yes, but the creator’s job is to incorporate their unique voice. Ashley Liddell, co-founder and Search Everywhere director at Deviation, shared: “We assign keywords to influencers based on real search behaviour across platforms, not just brand messaging, and map demand from TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Google, then align specific queries to creators whose content style and audience best fit that intent. “Each brief gives a clear search-led direction, including topic, angles, and format, while leaving room for the creator’s own creativity. The goal is to make influencer content discoverable in-platform search while ensuring it remains engaging in-feed.” Once the content is live, track whether the creator’s post is surfacing for the target keyword across: The native platforms (e.g., TikTok, Instagram, etc.) Google SERP features Videos and Short videos carousel What people are saying Standard organic results Screenshot and log positions immediately (because rankings can quickly shift). This data tells a story clients aren’t used to seeing from an influencer program. Influencers extend your search everywhere footprint Our search everywhere optimization framework There’s a reason this matters beyond any individual campaign. Google organic CTRs have declined dramatically, by as much as 61% on queries where AI Overviews appear. With Google SERP features increasingly highlighting video and social content, traditional web content is losing surface area on the SERPs. Social content, conversely, is gaining traction, and we cannot ignore this. For brands, influencer content has taken on a much stronger value: scalable, authentic, human-first search inventory distributed across platforms where their audiences spend time. It doesn’t replace a traditional SEO program, but it extends reach into channels where creator voices tend to outperform brand-owned content. Younger audiences search socially first. In some categories, a meaningful share of consideration-stage audiences see creator content before they ever search for your brand. If your influencers don’t use the language your audience searches, you’re invisible in the moments that matter most. Search everywhere optimization comes down to one thing: showing up where your audience actually searches with content worth stopping for. Dig deeper: Why social search visibility is the next evolution of discoverability 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 operational reality: Putting things into practice The biggest barrier to building keyword optimization into influencer programs is structural. SEO and influencer teams often sit within different parts of an organization, owned by different teams with different KPIs, and little reason to collaborate. Even when those teams are close, a common hesitation remains: adding a keyword requirement to a creator brief may make the content feel scripted or inauthentic. That concern is valid, but somewhat misplaced. A keyword isn’t a constraint on creativity — it’s a topic signal. Creators integrate talking points, product messaging, and brand language into their content all the time. A search term is no different, as long as the brief gives them room to use it in their own voice. Closing that gap requires a few concrete changes. SEO and influencer strategy should share a brief template. The target keyword, along with guidance on how to integrate it naturally, should be a standard field, not an afterthought. If the influencer lead and the SEO lead aren’t in the same briefing conversation, that’s the first thing to fix. Keyword selection should be platform-specific. What users search on TikTok differs from what they search on Google. TikTok search is more conversational and trend-based. Pull keywords from TikTok’s own autocomplete, not just a traditional keyword tool, then validate on AnswerThePublic, and cross-reference with existing organic targets to find terms that work across surfaces. Approval workflows should include keyword checks. When reviewing a script, a caption, or a live post, include a keyword compliance check. If the keyword is missing, ask the influencer for a revision before the content goes live. This sounds small, but it’s the difference between content that ranks and content that doesn’t. Reporting should include search metrics. Did the post surface on TikTok for the target keyword? Did it appear in one of Google’s video sections or “What People Are Saying”? These are trackable, reportable metrics, and they belong in campaign reports alongside reach, engagement, and conversions. Influencer content has always shaped brand perception. Today, it also shapes search visibility across social platforms, Google’s evolving SERP features, and AI-generated answers. Brands that recognize this apply a search strategy to a channel that, until recently, operated without it. You treat every influencer video as search content — briefing keywords and reporting on search performance as you would for other organic channels. Influencer content is search inventory. The only question is whether you’re optimizing it. View the full article

Iran has received an American plan to pause the war in the Middle East, officials said Wednesday — a proposal sent even as Washington deploys paratroopers and more Marines to the region. Tehran did not confirm receiving the plan and publicly dismissed the diplomatic effort while launching more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, including an assault that sparked a huge fire at Kuwait International Airport. Iran also continued to come under attack. Two officials from Pakistan, which delivered the plan to Iran, described the 15-point proposal broadly, saying it addressed sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. An Egyptian official involved in the mediation efforts said it also includes restrictions on Iran’s support for armed groups. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet released. Some of those points were nonstarters in negotiations before the war: Iran has insisted it won’t discuss its ballistic missile program or its support of regional militias, which it views as key to its security. And its ability to control passage through the Strait of Hormuz represents one of its biggest strategic advantages. Iran’s attacks on regional energy infrastructure along with its restrictions on the strait have sent oil prices skyrocketing and sparked fears of a global energy crisis, in turn putting pressure on the U.S. to find a way to end the chokehold and calm markets. More US troops are on the way to the Middle East At least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to the Mideast in the coming days, three people with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans. The paratroopers are trained to jump into hostile or contested areas to secure key territory and airfields. The Pentagon is also in the process of sending about 5,000 more Marines, trained in amphibious assaults, and thousands of sailors to the region. Diplomatic efforts face major challenges The 15-point plan now in Iranian hands is “a comprehensive deal” to reach a ceasefire, according to the Egyptian official. Mediators are pushing for possible in-person talks between the Iranians and the Americans, perhaps as soon as Friday in Pakistan, the Egyptian and Pakistani officials said. The President has said the U.S. is “in negotiations right now” and that the participants included special envoy Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. He has not disclosed who from Iran they are in contact with, but said “the other side, I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal.” Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which commands the regular military and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, dismissed that. Iranian leaders have repeatedly denied talks are happening, while acknowledging that the foreign minister is in contact with various countries but not the U.S. or Israel. “Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the headquarters, said in the video statement aired on state television. “Not now, not ever.” Israeli officials, who have been advocating for The President to continue the war against Iran, were surprised by the submission of a ceasefire plan, according to a person who was briefed on the contours of the proposal and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Any talks between the U.S. and Iran would face monumental challenges. It’s not clear who in Iran’s government has the authority to negotiate — or would be willing to, as Israel has vowed to continue killing the country’s leaders. Iran remains highly suspicious of the United States, which twice under the The President administration has attacked during high-level diplomatic talks, including with the Feb. 28 strikes that started the current war. “We have a very catastrophic experience with U.S. diplomacy,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told India Today on Tuesday. Israel launches new strikes on Iran — and also comes under attack The Israeli military said Wednesday afternoon it had completed several waves of airstrikes in Tehran. The army also said that as part of its strikes a day earlier it targeted an Iranian submarine development center in Isfahan. “There have been some days when the bombings are so intense you can’t do anything,” a 26-year-old graduate student in Tehran said, adding his friends mostly stayed at home. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of security fears. Missile alert sirens sounded multiple times in Israel as Iran launched its own attacks. Meanwhile, drone and rocket fire from the Iran-back Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon continued unabated. Since entering the fighting, the group has fired rockets into northern Israel around the clock each day, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Iran also kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbors, with Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry saying it had destroyed at least eight drones in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province, and missile alert sirens sounding in Bahrain. Kuwait said it shot down multiple drones but the General Civil Aviation Authority said one hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire that sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky. Iran’s death toll has passed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. Israel says 20 people have died in the war, including two soldiers in Lebanon. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states. Meanwhile, authorities say more than 1,000 people have died in Lebanon, where Israel has targeted the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group, which has also fired on Israel. In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militant groups have also entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed, a top security adviser, Khalid al-Yaqoubi, said. Energy prices fall back but remain high The news of potential negotiations drove down the price of oil. Brent crude oil, the international standard, has neared $120 a barrel during the conflict but was trading below $100 Wednesday. It is still up around 35% from the start of the war. Economists and leaders have warned of far-reaching effects if energy prices remain high — from rising prices on food and other basics to higher rates for mortgages and auto loans. A big driver of the spike in the oil price has been Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has allowed a small number of ships through the strait, but has said no ships from the U.S., Israel or countries seen as linked to them can pass. Asked in the interview with India Today whether Iran was charging ships for passage, Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said “absolutely.” He did not elaborate. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy, Natalie Melzer, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, and E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report. —Jon Gambrell, David Rising, Munir Ahmed and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press View the full article

When starting a business, comprehension of the different company structures is vital. Each type—like sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, corporations, and benefit corporations—has its own implications for liability, taxation, and management. For instance, sole proprietorships are straightforward but come with personal liability, whereas LLCs offer protection for personal assets. To make informed decisions about your business, it’s fundamental to explore these options and their specific characteristics. Let’s examine each type in detail. Key Takeaways Sole proprietorships are the simplest business structure, operated by an individual with personal liability for debts and obligations. Partnerships involve two or more individuals sharing business responsibilities, with general and limited partnerships offering different liability levels. Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) protect personal assets from business debts while allowing pass-through taxation and flexible management. Corporations are separate legal entities providing limited liability to shareholders, with options for C corporations, S corporations, and benefit corporations. Cooperatives focus on member needs, promoting shared decision-making and profit distribution based on service usage, emphasizing social responsibility. Sole Proprietorships A sole proprietorship is the simplest and most common form of business organization, where you operate as a single individual without the need for formal registration with the state. In this company structure, you and your business are one legal entity, meaning you’re personally liable for all debts and obligations. This type of organizational structure is often chosen for its low startup costs and minimal paperwork, with the main expense being the registration of a “doing business as” (DBA) name. You report business income on your personal tax returns, which simplifies tax reporting. Nevertheless, the lack of legal protection for personal assets makes it wise to contemplate personal liability insurance, as this administrative structure type carries inherent risks. Partnerships When you form a partnership, you’re entering an agreement with one or more individuals to run a business together, sharing both profits and responsibilities. There are different types of partnerships, such as general partnerships where all partners have unlimited liability, and limited partnerships that include partners with restricted liability based on their investment. Comprehending these structures is essential, as they can impact everything from how you manage the business to how taxes are handled. General Partnerships Overview General partnerships represent a collaborative business structure where two or more individuals join forces to manage a venture during sharing profits and losses equally. This type of organization doesn’t require formal state registration, but having a written partnership agreement is advisable to delineate roles and responsibilities clearly. In a general partnership, you and your partners assume unlimited personal liability, meaning your personal assets could be at risk. Profits and losses are reported on individual tax returns since this structure acts as a pass-through entity. General partnerships exemplify a functional organizational structure within the business management hierarchy, highlighting the importance of clear communication. They’re one of the simplest corporate structure examples, providing flexibility in operations and decision-making. Limited Partnerships Characteristics Limited partnerships (LPs) offer a distinct structure that balances the involvement of general and limited partners, each with differing levels of liability and control. In an LP, the general partner manages the business and bears unlimited liability, whereas limited partners contribute capital but don’t engage in daily operations, ensuring their liability stays limited. This hierarchical structure fits various types of organizational models, particularly in investment settings. Characteristic Description Liability General partners: unlimited; limited partners: limited to their investment Management General partners manage; limited partners do not participate Tax Structure Flow-through entity, profits/losses on personal tax returns Formation Requirement Must file a certificate of formation with the state Usage Commonly used for investment purposes Limited Liability Companies As you explore different business structures, you’ll find that Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) offer a unique blend of flexibility and protection. Here are key features of LLCs: Liability Protection: LLCs shield your personal assets from business debts and obligations. Management Structure: Owners can choose from various management structure types, including functional structure or divisional organizational structure. Tax Benefits: They’re pass-through entities, so profits and losses are reported on members’ personal tax returns, avoiding double taxation. Membership Flexibility: There’s no limit on the number of members, allowing both individuals and other entities to participate. To form an LLC, you’ll need to file articles of organization and create an operating agreement outlining your hierarchical organizational structure. Corporations As many entrepreneurs seek to establish their businesses with limited liability protections, corporations stand out as complex structures that provide distinct legal and financial benefits. A corporation is a separate legal entity, shielding shareholders from corporate debts. There are various types of corporations, including C corporations and S corporations, each with unique tax implications and operational requirements. Type of Corporation Key Feature C Corporation Double taxation on profits S Corporation Pass-through taxation; max 100 shareholders Benefit Corporation Focus on social/environmental goals Understanding the corporate structure chart is crucial, as it influences the types of org structure you might choose. A hierarchical business structure often complements a functional corporate structure, enhancing organizational efficiency. Benefit Corporations Benefit corporations represent a unique structure that blends profit-making with a commitment to social and environmental goals. They’re legally required to contemplate the interests of various stakeholders, which means they focus on more than just shareholder profits. Moreover, whereas they share the same tax treatment as C corporations, their accountability and transparency standards set them apart, making them appealing to socially conscious investors. Purpose and Accountability Despite many companies focus solely on maximizing profits for their shareholders, benefit corporations take a different approach by integrating social and environmental goals into their core mission. This unique structure requires you to contemplate all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Here are four key aspects of their purpose and accountability: Legal Requirement: Benefit corporations must legally assess their social and environmental impact. Third-Party Assessment: They often undergo evaluations by external organizations to guarantee accountability. Hierarchical Organization: Their corporate organizational structure chart reflects a commitment to social good across various levels. Functional Business Structure: Benefit corporations may utilize a divisional organization structure to effectively implement their mission. This framework allows them to attract socially conscious investors during prioritizing public benefits over profits. Taxation and Benefits Even though many corporations focus on profit maximization, benefit corporations find a balance between generating revenue and addressing social and environmental challenges. These company structure types meet specific performance standards, verified by third parties, ensuring accountability. They enjoy legal protection to prioritize social missions without fearing lawsuits from shareholders about profit levels. Regarding taxation, benefit corporations may qualify for tax breaks in some states, enhancing their appeal to socially conscious investors. Although they can adopt various organization structure types, like functional org structure or divisional business structure, their legal status distinguishes them from Certified B Corporations, which aren’t formally recognized. Cooperatives Cooperatives represent a unique business structure where a group of individuals, known as user-owners, collectively owns and operates the organization for their mutual benefit. They emphasize democratic decision-making, ensuring each member has one vote, regardless of investment size. Here are key features of cooperatives: Hierarchy Structure: Members influence decisions, creating a flat hierarchy. Organizational Structure Divisional: They can focus on specific services, tailoring operations to member needs. Functional Department Structure: Responsibilities are divided among departments, ensuring efficiency. Hierarchical Management Structure: Leadership is often fluid, with members participating in governance. Profits are typically distributed based on service usage, promoting social responsibility and community development as well as aligning profit motives with broader social goals. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 4 Types of Business Structures? There are four main types of business structures you can choose from: sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies (LLCs). Each structure offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. Sole proprietorships are simple and require no formal registration, whereas partnerships involve shared responsibilities. Corporations provide liability protection but face double taxation. LLCs combine features of corporations and partnerships, offering liability protection with pass-through taxation, making them a popular choice for many entrepreneurs. What Are the 4 Types of Organizational Structure? When considering organizational structures, you’ll encounter four main types: functional, divisional, matrix, and flat. Functional structures group employees by their roles, enhancing specialization. Divisional structures focus on specific products or markets, allowing for customized strategies. Finally, flat structures minimize management layers, encouraging collaboration and faster decision-making. Each structure has its unique benefits, catering to various operational needs and business objectives. What Is the Difference Between S Corp and C Corp and LLC? The key differences between an S Corp, C Corp, and LLC lie in taxation and structure. An S Corp avoids double taxation by passing income through to shareholders’ personal tax returns, whereas a C Corp faces double taxation on profits and dividends. An LLC combines features of both, offering limited liability and pass-through taxation. LLCs additionally have fewer formalities, making them easier to manage. Choose the structure that aligns with your financial goals and operational needs. What Are the Three Main Structures of a Business? The three main structures of a business are sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. In a sole proprietorship, you’re the sole owner, bearing full responsibility for debts. Partnerships involve two or more individuals sharing ownership and liability, whereas profits pass through to personal taxes. Corporations, recognized as separate legal entities, offer limited liability protection to shareholders and can raise capital by selling stock. Each structure has unique implications for management, taxes, and liability. Conclusion Grasping the various types of company structures is crucial for making informed business decisions. Each structure—whether it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation, benefit corporation, or cooperative—has distinct implications for liability, taxation, and management. By evaluating your business goals and personal preferences, you can choose the appropriate structure that aligns with your needs. This choice not merely affects daily operations but likewise shapes your long-term success and compliance with legal requirements. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Are the Types of Company Structures?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When starting a business, comprehension of the different company structures is vital. Each type—like sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, corporations, and benefit corporations—has its own implications for liability, taxation, and management. For instance, sole proprietorships are straightforward but come with personal liability, whereas LLCs offer protection for personal assets. To make informed decisions about your business, it’s fundamental to explore these options and their specific characteristics. Let’s examine each type in detail. Key Takeaways Sole proprietorships are the simplest business structure, operated by an individual with personal liability for debts and obligations. Partnerships involve two or more individuals sharing business responsibilities, with general and limited partnerships offering different liability levels. Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) protect personal assets from business debts while allowing pass-through taxation and flexible management. Corporations are separate legal entities providing limited liability to shareholders, with options for C corporations, S corporations, and benefit corporations. Cooperatives focus on member needs, promoting shared decision-making and profit distribution based on service usage, emphasizing social responsibility. Sole Proprietorships A sole proprietorship is the simplest and most common form of business organization, where you operate as a single individual without the need for formal registration with the state. In this company structure, you and your business are one legal entity, meaning you’re personally liable for all debts and obligations. This type of organizational structure is often chosen for its low startup costs and minimal paperwork, with the main expense being the registration of a “doing business as” (DBA) name. You report business income on your personal tax returns, which simplifies tax reporting. Nevertheless, the lack of legal protection for personal assets makes it wise to contemplate personal liability insurance, as this administrative structure type carries inherent risks. Partnerships When you form a partnership, you’re entering an agreement with one or more individuals to run a business together, sharing both profits and responsibilities. There are different types of partnerships, such as general partnerships where all partners have unlimited liability, and limited partnerships that include partners with restricted liability based on their investment. Comprehending these structures is essential, as they can impact everything from how you manage the business to how taxes are handled. General Partnerships Overview General partnerships represent a collaborative business structure where two or more individuals join forces to manage a venture during sharing profits and losses equally. This type of organization doesn’t require formal state registration, but having a written partnership agreement is advisable to delineate roles and responsibilities clearly. In a general partnership, you and your partners assume unlimited personal liability, meaning your personal assets could be at risk. Profits and losses are reported on individual tax returns since this structure acts as a pass-through entity. General partnerships exemplify a functional organizational structure within the business management hierarchy, highlighting the importance of clear communication. They’re one of the simplest corporate structure examples, providing flexibility in operations and decision-making. Limited Partnerships Characteristics Limited partnerships (LPs) offer a distinct structure that balances the involvement of general and limited partners, each with differing levels of liability and control. In an LP, the general partner manages the business and bears unlimited liability, whereas limited partners contribute capital but don’t engage in daily operations, ensuring their liability stays limited. This hierarchical structure fits various types of organizational models, particularly in investment settings. Characteristic Description Liability General partners: unlimited; limited partners: limited to their investment Management General partners manage; limited partners do not participate Tax Structure Flow-through entity, profits/losses on personal tax returns Formation Requirement Must file a certificate of formation with the state Usage Commonly used for investment purposes Limited Liability Companies As you explore different business structures, you’ll find that Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) offer a unique blend of flexibility and protection. Here are key features of LLCs: Liability Protection: LLCs shield your personal assets from business debts and obligations. Management Structure: Owners can choose from various management structure types, including functional structure or divisional organizational structure. Tax Benefits: They’re pass-through entities, so profits and losses are reported on members’ personal tax returns, avoiding double taxation. Membership Flexibility: There’s no limit on the number of members, allowing both individuals and other entities to participate. To form an LLC, you’ll need to file articles of organization and create an operating agreement outlining your hierarchical organizational structure. Corporations As many entrepreneurs seek to establish their businesses with limited liability protections, corporations stand out as complex structures that provide distinct legal and financial benefits. A corporation is a separate legal entity, shielding shareholders from corporate debts. There are various types of corporations, including C corporations and S corporations, each with unique tax implications and operational requirements. Type of Corporation Key Feature C Corporation Double taxation on profits S Corporation Pass-through taxation; max 100 shareholders Benefit Corporation Focus on social/environmental goals Understanding the corporate structure chart is crucial, as it influences the types of org structure you might choose. A hierarchical business structure often complements a functional corporate structure, enhancing organizational efficiency. Benefit Corporations Benefit corporations represent a unique structure that blends profit-making with a commitment to social and environmental goals. They’re legally required to contemplate the interests of various stakeholders, which means they focus on more than just shareholder profits. Moreover, whereas they share the same tax treatment as C corporations, their accountability and transparency standards set them apart, making them appealing to socially conscious investors. Purpose and Accountability Despite many companies focus solely on maximizing profits for their shareholders, benefit corporations take a different approach by integrating social and environmental goals into their core mission. This unique structure requires you to contemplate all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Here are four key aspects of their purpose and accountability: Legal Requirement: Benefit corporations must legally assess their social and environmental impact. Third-Party Assessment: They often undergo evaluations by external organizations to guarantee accountability. Hierarchical Organization: Their corporate organizational structure chart reflects a commitment to social good across various levels. Functional Business Structure: Benefit corporations may utilize a divisional organization structure to effectively implement their mission. This framework allows them to attract socially conscious investors during prioritizing public benefits over profits. Taxation and Benefits Even though many corporations focus on profit maximization, benefit corporations find a balance between generating revenue and addressing social and environmental challenges. These company structure types meet specific performance standards, verified by third parties, ensuring accountability. They enjoy legal protection to prioritize social missions without fearing lawsuits from shareholders about profit levels. Regarding taxation, benefit corporations may qualify for tax breaks in some states, enhancing their appeal to socially conscious investors. Although they can adopt various organization structure types, like functional org structure or divisional business structure, their legal status distinguishes them from Certified B Corporations, which aren’t formally recognized. Cooperatives Cooperatives represent a unique business structure where a group of individuals, known as user-owners, collectively owns and operates the organization for their mutual benefit. They emphasize democratic decision-making, ensuring each member has one vote, regardless of investment size. Here are key features of cooperatives: Hierarchy Structure: Members influence decisions, creating a flat hierarchy. Organizational Structure Divisional: They can focus on specific services, tailoring operations to member needs. Functional Department Structure: Responsibilities are divided among departments, ensuring efficiency. Hierarchical Management Structure: Leadership is often fluid, with members participating in governance. Profits are typically distributed based on service usage, promoting social responsibility and community development as well as aligning profit motives with broader social goals. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 4 Types of Business Structures? There are four main types of business structures you can choose from: sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies (LLCs). Each structure offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. Sole proprietorships are simple and require no formal registration, whereas partnerships involve shared responsibilities. Corporations provide liability protection but face double taxation. LLCs combine features of corporations and partnerships, offering liability protection with pass-through taxation, making them a popular choice for many entrepreneurs. What Are the 4 Types of Organizational Structure? When considering organizational structures, you’ll encounter four main types: functional, divisional, matrix, and flat. Functional structures group employees by their roles, enhancing specialization. Divisional structures focus on specific products or markets, allowing for customized strategies. Finally, flat structures minimize management layers, encouraging collaboration and faster decision-making. Each structure has its unique benefits, catering to various operational needs and business objectives. What Is the Difference Between S Corp and C Corp and LLC? The key differences between an S Corp, C Corp, and LLC lie in taxation and structure. An S Corp avoids double taxation by passing income through to shareholders’ personal tax returns, whereas a C Corp faces double taxation on profits and dividends. An LLC combines features of both, offering limited liability and pass-through taxation. LLCs additionally have fewer formalities, making them easier to manage. Choose the structure that aligns with your financial goals and operational needs. What Are the Three Main Structures of a Business? The three main structures of a business are sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. In a sole proprietorship, you’re the sole owner, bearing full responsibility for debts. Partnerships involve two or more individuals sharing ownership and liability, whereas profits pass through to personal taxes. Corporations, recognized as separate legal entities, offer limited liability protection to shareholders and can raise capital by selling stock. Each structure has unique implications for management, taxes, and liability. Conclusion Grasping the various types of company structures is crucial for making informed business decisions. Each structure—whether it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation, benefit corporation, or cooperative—has distinct implications for liability, taxation, and management. By evaluating your business goals and personal preferences, you can choose the appropriate structure that aligns with your needs. This choice not merely affects daily operations but likewise shapes your long-term success and compliance with legal requirements. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Are the Types of Company Structures?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article