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Residents living near SpaceX headquarters in Boca Chica, Texas, will soon have a new public body through which to raise concerns about everything from road maintenance to garbage collection. Earlier this month, more than 200 residents voted to establish the city of Starbase, Texas—a 1.5-square-mile community governed by three elected officials, all of whom have ties to SpaceX, the space exploration company based in the area. Of the 218 people who voted in the election—many believed to be SpaceX employees—only six opposed incorporation. The news marks a win for Musk, who has wanted the area around his company’s headquarters to become a city since at least March 2021. “It sounds like the city will be governed by a city commission comprising current and former SpaceX employees, who presumably answer to Musk,” says Lily Roberts, managing director of inclusive growth at the Center for American Progress, a think tank that published a report on the rise of the new company town in 2019. Roberts believes SpaceX’s control of Starbase poses concerns. But Ajay Agrawal, a professor of management at the University of Toronto who has studied company towns and visited Starbase for a SpaceX launch before the incorporation effort began, sees potential upside. Agrawal noted the area’s lack of infrastructure. “If SpaceX succeeds in its mission, then it will be like the Port of Los Angeles, except the gateway to space,” he says. What he saw during his visit, however, didn’t match that vision. “It struck me how underdeveloped the route [from the airport] was.” The fact that the commission is composed of individuals with ties to Musk may give some observers pause. Still, the incorporation process introduces limits on the city’s authority. “They obviously can’t legally create some kind of independent society,” says Roberts. “They’re still subject to state and federal laws. Given how little Musk has demonstrated that he knows about how government works, I’m not sure that he knows that.” Musk did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment. However, he posted on X when the incorporation election was ratified by Cameron County’s election department: “Now, it is official!” While Musk has welcomed the decision, Roberts argues that the company’s desire to incorporate a city is misguided. “Most businesses do not want to incorporate cities,” she says. “Businesses typically make a product or sell a service—they don’t want to worry about the sewer system or run a school district.” Nevertheless, they may now find themselves responsible for managing those services alongside the civic aspects they want control over. “It sounds like SpaceX wants power over closing the public beaches and public roads during their launches,” says Roberts. “Because this is a relatively isolated area, they might want to find a faster track to building new housing. But all of the city services that come along with being a city seem far beyond what SpaceX is equipped to provide.” Agrawal isn’t convinced that’s a problem. “Having visited the site, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had already taken over things like garbage management and security,” he says. “They would need far greater security than what sort of a local police force of that area would have had [for their launches].” There are also checks and balances in place that prevent Starbase from seceding from federal oversight. “They will only be able to control, or certainly influence, municipal-level decisions,” says Agrawal. “They won’t be able to override federal or state rules.” Even if the three elected commissioners wanted to manage everything from trash pickup to road maintenance—and hand control to Musk—there’s no guarantee that Musk has the capacity or interest to govern effectively. “I think that Musk has proven with DOGE that any skills he has are not transferable from business to government,” cautions Roberts. “He can’t find the cost savings he promised, he accidentally fired people who keep track of nuclear weapons and then had to rehire them, and he keeps claiming that people receiving Social Security are dead when they’re very much alive.” Because of these issues, Roberts offers a cautionary note to potential residents: “SpaceX employees who move to Starbase may come to realize that there’s a huge difference between the campus model of big tech firms and a whole town where everyone—including the teacher and the firefighter, not just the scientists—has the same boss.” View the full article

Google is testing showing images within the sitelinks carousel in Google Ads and sponsored results. We've seen images in sitelinks before, numerous times, but here is a version of them in the ads extension.View the full article

Google has a "new feature," as it labeled it, within Google Merchant Center, for event promotions. This allows you to promote an event, such as a sale, promotion or occasion, that may help you sell product.View the full article

The revolt against him isn’t huge, and it isn’t about constitutional principleView the full article

Following sweeping local election victories there is intense scrutiny of the rightwing party’s platformView the full article

It’s not your SEO strategy. It might be the hidden silos that choke ROI, delay execution, and derail even your best-laid digital plans. The post Internal Silos Are An Overlooked Problem That Can Hurt Search Performance appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Want to supercharge your customer acquisition efforts? Join industry-leading experts as they share their acquisition strategies at Acxiom’s exclusive Accelerate Acquisition event, May 14 at The Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad. Connect with top marketers and enjoy an afternoon learning proven strategies designed to boost your customer acquisition programs. The agenda includes: Guiding principles marketers need to know to better understand and engage customers How a top retailer used Adobe Customer Journey Analytics to improve customers’ experience Multi-touch strategies you can use today to increase response rates Stick around for cocktails at the stunning Nubeluz by Jose Andreas and meet other top marketers while enjoying views of the city’s skyline. Acxiom will provide $75 Uber vouchers to and from the event. RESERVE MY SPOT View the full article

San Francisco-based company forecast stronger than expected outlook for current quarterView the full article

As far back as records of the subject go, the art and science of leadership has always addressed one constant question: How should humans lead other humans? Today, that paradigm is shifting. Leaders must now learn to guide hybrid teams—composed of both human professionals and AI systems that support and augment human team members, while increasingly also performing complex tasks independently. Already, more than 75% of knowledge workers report using AI at work. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that 100 million workers will collaborate with “robo-colleagues” by 2026. This is not a minor evolution. It may be the most profound transformation in human history of how we conceive of and implement leadership. As AI systems grow more advanced, we must reimagine what it means to lead. The skills that ensured success in the past will not be sufficient for what lies ahead. Through my research and my work with organizations undergoing this shift, I have identified seven essential ways that leaders must evolve if they are to lead effectively in this new age of AI-augmented work. 1. Become a Conductor of the AI Orchestra Shift: from task director to systems orchestrator As AI moves into the mainstream, and as agentic AI begins its rollout in workplaces around the world, leaders must understand how humans and AI systems interact across their organizations. They must become skilled conductors of what I call the “AI orchestra.” This requires more than just tool proficiency. It means enabling and supporting every human team member with the skills they need to coordinate across multiple AI systems. It means learning to give clear and strategic direction to AI systems, human team members, and the unified system of which they both form a part. Critically, it also means learning how to assess AI-generated outputs with discernment. Just as a conductor ensures harmony and rhythm without playing every instrument, today’s leader must orchestrate intelligent collaboration between humans and machines. Exercise: Assign a team project that requires the use of three distinct AI tools to solve a single challenge. Afterward, debrief together: How did team members coordinate their use of the tools? Where did friction arise? What did the exercise reveal about managing complexity? 2. Gain Firsthand Experience of Collaborating with AI Shift: From delegating AI adoption to modeling it You can’t lead what you haven’t lived. Leaders must personally engage with AI tools—not to become technical experts, but to develop an intuitive understanding of their evolving capabilities and limitations. When team members see their leaders using AI thoughtfully, it normalizes adoption and sets the tone for healthy human-AI collaboration. Just as importantly, this firsthand experience equips leaders to make better strategic decisions about where and how to implement AI. Exercise: Use AI for three leadership-related tasks this week—writing a summary, analyzing trends, and preparing communications. Note what worked, what didn’t, and share your reflections with the team. 3. Intentionally Create Skill Development Opportunities Shift: From assuming organic growth to designing skill resilience As AI handles more cognitive tasks, human skills like critical thinking, reasoning, and interpersonal judgment risk erosion. Leaders can no longer rely on natural work progression to build these abilities. Paradoxically, we must sometimes introduce friction—by designing projects that intentionally limit AI use—to preserve the skills AI cannot replicate. Exercise: Create “AI-free zones” within select tasks or stages of a project. Ask teams to complete these without assistance, then reflect: Which human capabilities were most essential? What gaps became visible? 4. Master the Art of Asking Questions Shift: From providing answers to elevating inquiry The most effective leaders of hybrid teams will distinguish themselves not by giving commands but by asking better questions. Prompting AI well requires the same clarity, curiosity, and critical thinking that great leadership has always demanded. This shift also enhances team dynamics. Asking questions encourages dialogue, surfaces blind spots, and builds collective intelligence—both human and machine. Exercise: Create a “questioning matrix” focused on five areas: ethics, data quality, user experience, regulatory impact, and business value. Apply this to your next AI initiative to guide both human discussion and machine prompting. 5. Cultivate Clarity of Purpose Shift: From doing more to focusing on what matters most AI dramatically expands what is possible. But when everything becomes feasible, the leadership challenge becomes discernment—knowing what is worth doing. Purpose provides direction amidst the noise. It ensures AI is deployed to amplify what truly matters—not just what’s trendy or easy. Exercise: Draft a one-sentence “AI purpose filter” (e.g., “We implement AI only when it deepens customer trust or improves outcomes”). Then evaluate all current AI initiatives through this lens and realign as needed. 6. Develop Enhanced Emotional Intelligence Shift: From performance oversight to emotional stewardship The AI transition is deeply human—and often unsettling. People worry about their relevance, identity, and future. Leaders must acknowledge this emotional landscape and create psychological safety. Leading AI-augmented teams requires greater empathy, openness, and emotional clarity. Teams need help not just with tools, but with meaning. Exercise: Host “AI concern circles” where each person shares one fear and one hope about AI in their work. Listen without judgment. Follow up with individuals who express high anxiety and help them envision new roles for their unique human strengths. 7. Transform Into a Moral Agent Shift: From operational decision-maker to ethical guide AI raises urgent questions about bias, surveillance, accountability, and human dignity. These questions cannot be outsourced or automated. They are leadership responsibilities. Studying AI ethics is important—but ethical leadership begins with cultivating your own moral compass. Leaders must be willing to pause, challenge assumptions, and prioritize long-term human impact over short-term gains. Exercise: Run an “ethical pre-mortem” for your next AI project. Imagine it has failed ethically one year from now. What went wrong? Who was harmed? Use this scenario to build safeguards and accountability from the outset. The Future of Leadership Is Human + Machine The integration of AI across the workforce will not make human leadership obsolete—but it will reshape the role of leader from the ground up. In this new era, the most successful leaders will be those who evolve from directive to facilitative, from efficient to intentional, from reactive to reflective. Leading AI-augmented teams requires more than technical adaptation. It demands a deeper humanity—one that blends curiosity, ethics, emotional intelligence, and purpose. If done right, the result won’t be less human leadership—it will be more. View the full article

In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective problem-solving isn’t just about finding quick fixes—it’s about developing a systematic approach that leads to innovative and sustainable solutions. While many leaders get caught up in complex frameworks and lengthy processes, I’ve found that the following three simple yet powerful questions will revolutionize how you and your team tackle challenges. These questions—”What if?”, “So what?”, and “Now what?”—form a natural progression that guide you from creative ideation to practical execution. Let’s explore how each question serves as a crucial waypoint in your problem-solving journey. Start with “What if?” Innovation begins with the permission to imagine. The “What if?” question creates a space for bold thinking, encouraging you to temporarily set aside practical constraints and explore the full spectrum of possibilities. This is where breakthrough solutions often emerge. Recently, a midsize manufacturing company faced declining market share. Instead of immediately jumping to conventional solutions like cost-cutting or incremental product improvements, their leadership team started with “What if?” What if they completely reimagined their customer experience? What if they could transform their waste products into a new revenue stream? This expansive thinking led them to develop an innovative recycling program that not only reduced costs but also opened up an entirely new market segment. The Critical “So What?” While “What if?” generates possibilities, “So what?” helps you to turn a critical lens inward and evaluate relevance and impact of your new ideas. This question forces you to examine how potential solutions align with your strategic objectives and whether they truly address the core problem. Be prepared for the necessity to leave some ideas on the cutting-room floor. Consider a tech startup that brainstormed dozens of new features for their project management software. By asking “So what?” for each idea, they realized that many of their exciting possibilities, while innovative, wouldn’t meaningfully improve their users’ experience or solve their actual pain points. This crucial filtering process helped them focus their limited resources on developments that would deliver real value. Turning Vision into Reality with “Now What?” The final question—”Now what?”—bridges the gap between ideation and execution. This is where you break down your chosen solution into actionable steps, identify required resources (e.g., Budget? People?), and establish clear timelines. A retail chain exemplified this approach when implementing a new customer loyalty program. After confirming the strategic value of the initiative, their “Now what?” phase involved mapping out specific technical requirements, training needs, and rollout phases. This detailed planning revealed potential bottlenecks early and allowed them to launch the program smoothly across hundreds of locations. Making it Work in Practice To implement this three-question framework effectively: 1. Create dedicated space for each phase. Don’t rush from “What if?” to “Now what?” before thoroughly exploring the “So What?” of possibilities and validating their value. 2. Involve diverse perspectives. Different team members from a range of departments will bring unique insights to each question, enriching the problem-solving process. 3. Document your journey. Capture the key insights and decision points at each stage—they often prove valuable for future challenges. The Power of Simplicity In an era where business challenges grow increasingly complex, there’s profound value in straightforward frameworks that cut through the noise. These three questions provide a versatile tool that can be applied to everything from product development to organizational change. By moving systematically from imaginative exploration to practical execution, this three-question approach ensures that innovation remains grounded in reality while still pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. The next time you face a significant challenge, try starting with these three simple questions. You might be surprised by how effectively they guide you toward meaningful solutions. View the full article

As the arms race in the artificial intelligence world ramps up, Big Tech companies are rushing to become your default AI source. Meta, last week, launched the Meta AI app to challenge ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. It’s a system that measures up feature-wise with its competition and some might argue it improves on some aspects. But with Meta’s long history of privacy problems, it’s reawakening some old concerns about the company. The tool offers “personalized” answer and advice as well as a social network for people to share their AI conversations and images. But if you’re looking to scrub the system’s memory of you, that’s a bit more challenging. And our early tests show the tool still could use some polishing when it comes to accuracy. In my first conversation with Meta AI, the chatbot offered to create a “hype intro” for me. How could I refuse? Meta, after all, has plenty of my personal data on file from my Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts, not to mention my use of the Quest AI headset. So, I figured, it should be able to describe me pretty well. Here’s what it said: “You’ve got that effortlessly cool, indie vibe going on, like you’re perpetually sipping coffee in a vintage bookstore. You’re probably a fan of obscure indie bands, spend hours curating your Spotify playlists and have a fondness for vinyl records. Your wardrobe’s probably filled with thrifted cardigans and skinny jeans and you can wax poetic about the merits of artisanal coffee versus your local coffee shop’s brew.” Meta AI, apparently, thinks I am a total hipster. While it might have been trying to suck up to me in that summary, boy did it whiff on the facts. I don’t drink coffee. I like the Beatles, The Who, and ’80s and ’90s pop. The only curating I’ve done on Spotify is recreating playlists from concerts I’ve gone to. And, as I munch on my second fistful of Fritos Queso Flavor Twists in the past 5 minutes, I can promise you that there are no skinny jeans in my wardrobe, nor will there ever be. Obviously, the AI has a ways to go, but then again… most AI systems still do. Still, Meta’s AI made an aggressive effort to get to know me better as we chatted (rather than requiring you to type in your replies, Meta’s app welcomes voice chat), asking me about everything from my favorite book to my political views. While it’s not hard to appreciate an AI system’s efforts to learn more so it can answer questions with a response tailored to the person asking them, Meta’s history with handling personal information in the past could give some users pause. Meta AI keeps a history of your chats, archiving your inputs and its replies. It also, however, keeps what it calls a Memory file, with specific pieces of information, based on your previous talks. Those Memories and the transcripts of previous talks can be deleted, but there is a bit of hunting that you’ll have to do to find where they’re stored. (And, as The Washington Post points out, you’ll need to delete both the Memory and the chat history where the system learned that factoid for it to be completely erased.) You’ll also have to trust Meta has permanently deleted the information or—if you choose not to delete it—that it will use the information responsibly. That may be a big ask for some people, given the recent information provided by whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee in April that Meta is able to identify when users are feeling helpless and can use that as a cue for advertisers. (Meta denied the allegations at the time, telling TechCrunch the testimony was “divorced from reality and riddled with false claims.”) Meta AI said it didn’t have access to my Facebook account or to any pictures or visual content when I asked about its access. And when I tested it by asking about a few recent posts, it seemed to not know what I was talking about, though when I asked if it had access to my Instagram page it got a bit squirrely. Meta AI says beyond our conversations, it uses “information about things like your interests, location, profile, and activity on Meta products.” I then asked about something related to my Instagram page and it said it did not have real-time access “or any information about your current activity or interests on the platform.” When I tried to press for more information, it regurgitated the same answer about “interests, location, profile, and activity.” A Meta spokesperson told Fast Company, “We’ve provided valuable personalization for people on our platforms for decades, making it easier for people to accomplish what they come to our apps to do — the Meta AI app is no different. We provide transparency and control throughout, so people can manage their experience and make sure it’s right for them. This release is the first version, and we’re excited to get it in people’s hands and gather their feedback.” People who use Meta AI to inquire about or discuss deeply personal matters should be aware that the company is retaining that information and could use it to target advertising. (Ads are not part of the platform now, but Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear he sees great revenue potential in AI. Competitor Google, meanwhile, has reportedly begun showing ads in chats with some third-party AI systems, though not Meta AI.) That may be fine if Meta AI eventually tries to upsell me Frito Twists or (shudder) skinny jeans, but it’s a lot more concerning if it’s mining your deepest secrets and insecurities to make a buck. View the full article

From brainstorming ideas, creating outlines, repurposing content — AI can make your job as a writer a whole lot easier. Artificial intelligence is not going to do your best work for you, of course. We know there’s (thankfully?) still work to be done in replicating the weirdness and wonder of human creativity. But AI can take some of the work off your plate, so you can focus on exactly that: creating. However, with the ever-growing list of AI software and tools on the market — all promising to help you generate, streamline, and automate your writing process — it can be tricky to figure out which ones are worth your time (and money). Which is where I come in. I’m a productivity nerd who loves testing out new tools, and I’ve put dozens of AI writing assistants to the test in the hope of working smarter, not harder. My ultimate goal is to remove the admin and repetition from my to-do list as a writer so I can focus on what brings me joy. (The creating part, as you may have guessed.) In this article, I’ll take a deep dive into my favorite AI writing generators and who I think they’ll be most useful for. Jump to a section: Buffer’s AI Assistant Jasper Copy.ai Writer Hubspot Breeze Sudowrite Type SEOWind ChatGPT The AI writing tool landscape: why choosing the right one mattersA couple of years ago, AI writing tools felt experimental — even niche. Fast forward to today, and it seems like everyone has launched one. From Google Docs to Notion to every app with a ‘magic’ button, AI writing is no longer a shiny feature — it’s table stakes. But here’s the thing: while many tools use the same underlying models (like OpenAI’s GPT or Anthropic’s Claude), they’re not all built the same. The difference is in the workflows, the interface, and whether the tool actually helps you do your job better — or just adds another tab to your browser. That’s why this list isn’t just a collection of the most popular apps. It’s a roundup of the tools I’ve personally tested and found useful as a writer and content creator. Tools that help me spend less time formatting, fiddling, or fighting writer’s block — and more time actually writing. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the options out there, I hope this breakdown helps you find something that fits your workflow and your brain. How I use AI in my workAt Buffer, our approach to AI is simple: it’s a tool, not a replacement. You’ll never find completely AI-generated content on Buffer’s blog, website, or the product itself — a human reviews everything. (You can read more about how we use AI on the content team here.) There are a plethora of ways to use AI tools in your content creation process, but here are some ways I’m using AI as a writer: Generate ideasDraft article outlinesRephrase paragraphs or phrases with a specific toneGenerate sentences or paragraphs when I’m hit with writer’s block (though I’ll always fact-check, edit, or rewrite these)Repurpose blog posts into social media postsWrite silly poems I can share for friends’ birthdaysOK, that last one doesn’t exactly count as work, but it’s one of my favorite ways to use it. For all of the above (and a few more tasks), these are the best AI writing tools I’ve tested*. How I chose these toolsThere are a lot of AI writing tools out there — and plenty of them sound great on paper. But I was looking for ones that actually made writing easier, not more complicated. Here’s what I prioritized when testing each one: Usefulness for content creators — I focused on tools that support tasks like outlining, repurposing, writing for social, or breaking through writer’s block.Ease of use — I didn’t want to spend hours learning a new tool. These are all beginner-friendly, with minimal setup required.Smart defaults — Whether it’s tone, formatting, or SEO, the best tools offered strong outputs even when I gave minimal input.Room to grow — Bonus points if the tool had features I could grow into (like custom brand voice settings or workflow automation).None of these tools are perfect — but they all earned a spot by saving me time, reducing friction, and helping me get words on the page faster. The best AI writing tools 1. Buffer’s AI AssistantBest AI writing tool for social media content ⚡Get AI help writing and refining your social media posts right in Buffer. Sign up for our forever-free plan here →Buffer's AI Assistant was built for social media. You can use it as and when you create and schedule your content with Buffer, making the content creation process seamless (no more copy-pasting to various social networks — especially tedious if you’re cross-posting to multiple platforms). The best thing about Buffer’s AI Assistant is that it understands the nuances of each social media platform. For example, the content you create for X (formerly Twitter) won’t exceed your character limit. It’s also trained to make the tone of LinkedIn content more professional, Instagram more playful, and so on. Another time-saving feature is the editing buttons within the assistant. Instead of having to type further instructions to the Assistant to tweak your post, just click Rephrase, Shorten, Expand, More casual, or More formal to get you closer to the content you’re after. You can also use these buttons to tweak certain parts of your posts if you don’t want to rewrite the whole lot — another time saver. (If you’re new to using AI in this way, this beginner’s guide to using AI for social media is a helpful read.) Beyond these fundamental features, here are some of my favorite use cases as a writer looking to create more content on social media and build my personal brand: Personalized ideas In my experience as a creator and social media manager, social media writer’s block is SO much worse than the regular kind. Perhaps it’s the sheer volume of content you have to create. Who knows. Mercifully, I’ve found Buffer’s AI Assistant, which means this is a thing of the past. When I’m stuck on what to post, I head over to Buffer’s Create Space (where I brain-dump all my post ideas) and click the Generate Ideas button. To get a better sense of what is going to resonate with your audience, the assistant will ask you two things: What is your business about?Who is your target audience?From there, the Assistant will generate a stream of ideas for you to assess, one at a time. On each one, you’ll be able to hit Use it, which will open a pre-filled post creation window, or Try another to regenerate. Repurpose other posts and content One of the best use cases for this tool is the ability to repurpose content that has performed well or rewrite it to be more appropriate for another platform. I often use the latter to rework posts I’ve created for LinkedIn into a Twitter thread (something that used to take me ages). Something else I’m leaning into right now is repurposing older social media posts into something fresh. There’s a fair chance a huge chunk of my audience missed certain posts, and those who saw them likely won’t remember if they did (especially if the original post has been given a glow-up). I also use the AI Assistant to summarize entire blog posts I’ve written into bite-sized social snippets — another thing that used to take me ages. Free and limitless on all Buffer plans Unlike many other AI writer tools, especially those built for social media, there’s no ‘credits’ system in place. The AI Assistant is free to use, as is Buffer (for up to three channels). When it comes to the number of prompts and rephrases you can submit, the limit does not exist! ⚡Level up your social media presence with Buffer AI Assistant. Get started here →Bonus: No-sign-up-required Social Media Post Creator You don’t need to be a Buffer user to use the AI Assistant. With the free Social Media Post Creator, you can take the tool for a test run (or use it indefinitely) without creating an account or sharing your email address. 2. JasperBest AI writing tool for Marketing teams As one of the first AI writing tools to market (then known as Jarvis), Jasper has had time to hone its UI and feature set. Along with AI text generation for a plethora of specific projects — everything from landing pages to full-on marketing campaigns, Jasper also boasts Remix (a dedicated tool for reworking content via a link, uploaded document, or text), Chat (a back-and-forth chat box with the AI to help you brainstorm or hone ideas), plus a Chrome extension. Jasper has moved beyond just copywriting and now aims squarely at marketing teams. The collaborative features mean everyone can jump into various documents and view projects and campaigns at a glance with nifty Kanban and calendar views. Managers and editors can also add in things like brand voice and style guide documents to ensure things stay on track across all content pieces. When writing, Jasper’s intuitive system will ask you to enter a simple prompt or choose from a list of templates. From there, you’ll be asked for more information upfront, which differs depending on what you’re working on. Before generating your draft, you can add things like your target audience, specific points to include, and more — but the AI can predict these things so well that this usually just involves choosing from some recommended options. While Jasper is intuitive and great for teams, it’s worth noting that the foundation of the tool is the same as most of the other (cheaper) options on this list. Jasper “uses over a dozen language models,” but the marketing copy generated is similar to what you’ll get from ChatGPT and other AI writing software. Pricing: 7-day trial, then prices start at $49 per month 3. Copy.aiBest AI writing tool for automating repetitive writing tasks Copy.ai is another tool on this list that has outgrown the content generation mold it was born into. The multifaceted tool aims to help Sales and Marketing teams go from “go-to-market bloat to velocity.” What that means in practice is a slick tool a lot like Jasper. However, Copy.ai places more emphasis on repeatable workflows that will help save marketers (or salespeople) time — think “repurpose this blog post into a LinkedIn post,” “Check this copy for plagiarism,” or “Find prospects at company X.” You can choose these workflows from an impressive library or customize your own. The finished product will look something like a flowchart, where each step in the process is effectively an AI prompt (or a series of them). If you’re not bothered with workflows, you can jump straight into Chat, their AI content generator. It’s a lot like the usual prompt-and-generate system most AI tools use and requires lots of context to generate what you’re looking for — which is why you might be better off getting the hang of the workflow system. Like Jasper, you can have Copy.ai assess your content to match your tone and style. Pricing: Free version with limited features, paid plans starting at $49 per month. 4. WriterBest AI writing tool for editing and improving your content Writer is a whole lot more than a simple AI text generator. Like Jasper and Copy.ai, the web tool is packed with more powerful features that take the tool beyond what ChatCPT can do — but instead of workflows and systems, they’re called ‘Apps.’ These apps, all baked into the web application, are things like ‘Blog Builder’ (which will help you spin a blog post up out of a headline idea), ‘Recaps’ (to convert a recording into a summary of key takeaways), and ‘Ask Writer’ (the chat-style prompt-and-generate AI system you’ll be familiar with). You’ll also find apps to help you create product descriptions, push notifications, and help center articles. It’s a neat and tidy system that’s a lot easier to get to grips with than Jasper and Copy.ai, and is squarely aimed at writers rather than marketers or sales folk. Writer’s interface, for example, looks a lot like Grammarly. Here, you’ll see suggestions for improving grammar and readability, a plagiarism checker, and recommendations for improving language inclusivity. Writer is also a solid option for content teams, with a helpful terms list where you can save all your unique terms and saved snippets for copy you reuse often. You can also set specific punctuation rules, which is a helpful time saver for editors. Writing is one of my favorite tools for proofreading and editing existing content. What sets Writer apart from the other copywriting tools on the market is that it’s not built on GPT or other (sometimes controversial) AI models. Writer uses its own Palmyra Language Learning Models, specifically “trained for business writing and business use cases,” offering higher security and transparency. For example, Writer says Palmyra does not store your proprietary data for training its foundational models. That said, many of Writer’s most powerful tools — like the ability to add your own brand and style guide — are locked behind its enterprise-level paywall. Pricing: 14-day free trial, then prices start at $18 per month. (There is a free plan, but it doesn’t allow much beyond text editing.) 5. Hubspot Breeze Best AI writing tool to streamline business operations Think of HubSpot Breeze as the Swiss Army knife of AI tools. The platform helps marketers, sales reps, and customer service agents take out most of the grunt work that comes with their activities and boost their productivity. HubSpot Breeze handles anything from writing quick emails and social captions down to more complex tasks like generating website pages and summarizing CRM data into digestible reports. The way it does this is through Breeze Agents — think of them as separate AI assistants, each specialized in its own department. For example, the Content Agent generates blogs, landing pages, podcasts, and anything else content-related. Meanwhile, the Breeze Customer Agent handles basic customer service inquiries, offers reply suggestions, and compiles customer service data into visual reports. There’s also the Breeze Co-pilot, which does a little bit of everything — it can update CRM records, generate content, and summarize customer support tickets, for example. Pricing: Breeze is available in HubSpot’s free starter suite as well as throughout HubSpot’s premium product offerings. Paid pricing starts at $15 per user per month. 6. Sudowrite Best AI writing tool for creative writing and fiction If, like me, you’ve been threatening to write a novel for years, Sudowrite may soon become your new best friend. Not only will Sudowrite help you generate ideas and write stories for the characters you’ve had floating around in your head for years, but it’s also an AI-powered project management tool of sorts specifically designed for fiction writers. As for the writing itself, you’ll start by entering the genre of your masterpiece-in-progress, then get cracking on the draft. Instead of entering a prompt, start by entering what you have. With a few sentences to start a chapter, click the ‘Write’ button, and the AI generator will suggest several options to keep moving the story forward. Highlight a word or phrase and hit ‘Describe’ to generate a description of the object based on each of the senses or a metaphor. There’s also a ‘Rewrite’ button to help you paraphrase or rework something and a ‘Brainstorm’ button to help get your creative juices flowing in specific directions, from characters to world-building to plot points. If you’re not ready to jump right into chapter 1, you might want to play around with Sudowrite’s Story Engine, a space where you can go into more detail about your genre, characters, and outline, add more writing samples to help the AI match your style or just brain dump ideas. Then there’s Sudowrite’s Canvas – a space for mind mapping your (and the AI’s) imaginings to give you a bird’s-eye view (and keep track of) the story you’re creating. Sudowrite also boasts a handy Google Docs extension so you can work where you write best and a bustling Slack community of other Sudowrite users so you can bounce ideas off of humans from time to time. Pricing: Credit-based free trial (for a certain amount of words generated), then prices start at $10 per month 7. TypeBest AI writing tool for a simple AI writing assistant Type describes itself as an AI-first document editor. With the tool, you can create short and long-form content, from emails to YouTube scripts to cover letters. The interface — clean and user-friendly — requires you to begin with a simple prompt to get you started. There’s a template library to tap into, which is handy for those moments when you just can’t face staring at a blank page (we’ve all been there). From there, Type will generate a high-quality content draft, which you’re then encouraged to play with and make your own. Type’s generative AI makes it really easy to do this with a host of different options — for example, you can switch between OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude 3. “Claude tends to be more creative and expressive but not quite as good at complex reasoning, whereas the GPT models are often much better at reasoning, but maybe a bit drier with tone,” Type Founder Stew Fortier explains in an onboarding video. There’s also the ‘What to write about next’ block, a handy springboard for anything you might want to add. The sidebar contains a list of suggestions related to whatever you’re working on that you can use to generate another paragraph. In the main editor, you can also- highlight specific sentences, paragraphs, or phrases and ask Type to rework them for you. All the common options are available, but ‘Custom transform’ is particularly handy, allowing you to ask the AI to do something really specific with your highlighted text. Pricing: 14 days free, then $29.00 per month. 8. SEOWindBest AI writing tool for SEO content briefs SEOWind is not a multi-purpose tool like many of the others on this — it’s laser-focused SEO (search-engine optimized) content, making it a great tool for content marketing. As such, SEOWind doesn’t ask you to enter a prompt to kick-start your writing but a primary search term. From there, it’ll jump you to a fascinating dashboard that analyzes blog posts and pages already ranking for this term to help you create your ‘brief.’ In this build-you-brief dashboard, you’ll see a competitor analysis (an overview of blog posts and pages already ranking in Google for your term), competitor outlines (the structure of their content), and questions to answer (related queries pulled from Google, Quora and Reddit). Along with this, the tool recommends the ideal word count, the number of headings, and even the number of images to include. With this information at your fingertips, you can set about pulling bits and pieces to create your own brief, from which SEOWind’s AI will generate a draft for you to download in your format of choice — from there, you’re left to edit the article on your own. While SEOWind makes briefs super customizable, there’s no way to edit and rework with AI once your draft is generated. All briefs are saved within projects, where SEOWind encourages you to add details about your brand tone, details about your company and products, and even integrates with Google Search Console to help you find internal linking opportunities (one of the more tedious tick-boxes in SEO writing for sure!). Pricing: 7-day trial, then prices start at $59 per month. 9. ChatGPTBest free AI writing tool You might be surprised to find ChatGPT in and amongst some of its more niche competitors, but I’d be remiss not to mention it here. As a free AI writing tool (for GPT-3, at least), ChatGPT is one I keep returning to for quick ideas, blog post outlines, and goofy metaphors. ChatGPT, a chatbot based on Open AI’s GPT model, is what many of the bells-and-whistle-filled tools above are built on and what helps generate the copy that lands in their fancy interfaces. Learning to prompt ChatGPT takes some doing — I tend to err on the side of providing as much context as possible — but the chat-style interface can be helpful as you refine your ask and tweak prompts as you go. Pricing: Free for the basic version, with paid plans starting at $10 per month A quick note on privacy and AI modelsMany of the tools in this list are powered by large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT-4 or Anthropic’s Claude. These models have been trained on a wide range of internet text to generate high-quality writing, but they also come with questions around privacy and accuracy. When choosing tools, I stuck to ones that are upfront about how they handle your data — especially for work-related awriting. Some, like Writer, use their own proprietary models designed with compliance in mind. Others rely on third-party models but offer settings to keep your prompts private. If data security is a concern for your team, I recommend checking each tool’s privacy policy before diving in. More AI writing tools to try? While I’ve tested many AI writing generators, I’m not an AI myself and, as such, can’t test them all. (In case you’re wondering, that cheesy simile was all mine.) If there’s a tool out there that I have to put through its paces, I’d love to hear about it! Please comment below or tag @buffer or @bufferapp on all major social channels, and I’ll put your favorite tool to the test. View the full article

Inside a new factory near Louisville, Kentucky, bright orange robots will soon begin carefully loading boot parts into a machine that adds soles. It’s one step in the highly automated process of making a Keen work boot—and an illustration of what it looks like now to bring factories back to the United States. Keen, which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, started planning the new factory last year, long before current tariffs were in place. And the company, unlike the majority of shoe brands, had already been manufacturing some shoes in Portland for more than a decade. The Portland factory is now closing as the company prepares to open the larger factory in Kentucky next month. When it first started operations in Oregon in 2010, the business world was skeptical. “Many people told us that [making shoes] could not be done in the U.S., primarily because of some of the cost factors,” says Hari Perumal, Keen’s chief supply chain officer. The company wanted to be closer to its American market, so it looked for a solution. Labor was the biggest challenge. “Footwear is a very labor-intensive product to make,” Perumal says. And it’s 10 to 12 times more expensive to hire workers in the U.S. than in factories overseas, he says. The team focused on its high-end work boots, a product with strong demand for an “American built” label. They started by streamlining the process to add soles to the boots. In a traditional factory in Asia, adding soles would happen on a long production line. Instead, Keen turned to a process called direct injection fusing. The shoe’s upper is loaded into a machine where heated polyurethane is molded into an outsole, bonding it directly to the rest of the shoe without glue. Robots also prep materials. In the new Kentucky factory, robots will also handle steps like “flash” trimming of excess material. Even with advanced automation in place, it’s still more expensive to make shoes in the U.S. than in other countries. Keen plans to continue making many of its shoes elsewhere, including in a factory that the company owns in Thailand. But making boots in the U.S. has some obvious advantages, and the brand plans to continue growing the number of products it makes in Kentucky. With a U.S. factory, Keen can more nimbly respond to demand from American customers if it needs to make more or less of a particular style. The carbon footprint of delivery is much lower, Perumal says. (Kentucky was chosen strategically since it’s within a two-day drive of 80% of the U.S. population; the company already had a distribution center next door to the new factory.) And customers have made it clear that they want American-made work boots. “We have seen a huge surge in the request for American-built products,” says Perumal. That’s not to say that the rest of the footwear industry is necessarily likely to follow. Keen struggled to find and keep workers at its Portland factory, despite paying high wages. It also has to invest in training, since American workers no longer have experience making shoes. Because the company has to source components globally—and tariffs now apply to those parts—the cost of manufacturing in the U.S. is now growing even more. The company has pledged not to raise prices for consumers because of tariffs for the rest of the year, however. To encourage more American shoe manufacturing, Perumal says the government could help by eliminating tariffs on components. “We don’t have a supply chain ecosystem,” he says. “All that’s needed to make the shoes is outside the U.S. right now. It took 40 years to build this global supply chain.” Even if more factories relocated to America, it’s not clear that there are enough workers who’d take traditional shoe manufacturing jobs. “If you have 4% unemployment in the U.S., are we going to find 20,000 or 40,000 people that want to work for shoe company wages here?” he asks. “Our economy has migrated more toward service.” The new Kentucky factory will create jobs, but at a small scale: the factory is initially launching with a lean team of 24 skilled production and operations staff. Robots will do the rest. View the full article

TikTok has spent nearly $1 billion cracking down on intellectual property violations in its marketplace. So why is TikTok Shop still flooded with knockoffs? From July to December 2024, the platform shut down 900 stores for IP infringements and brought on 400 additional IP protection specialists. Yet TikTok remains a hub for “dupe” culture—promoting and selling low-cost imitations of popular products. Even when sellers aren’t blatantly copying major brands, they often market untested look-alike items at a fraction of the price. Hiring more staff isn’t enough to make TikTok Shop a safe, trustworthy brand. What’s needed is a full-scale culture shift. The TikTok Shop IP crackdown TikTok Shop is expanding fast. According to The New Consumer, by the end of 2024, it was already outpacing Shein, Sephora, and home shopping TV in quarterly spending. Of course, The President’s proposed tariffs could threaten that growth, though the data isn’t in yet. Still, TikTok Shop remains crowded with cheap products, many of which mimic more established (and expensive) brands. TikTok wants those big-name brands on its platform. Cracking down on IP theft helps win them over—like with LVMH, which partnered with ByteDance last year to target copycats. Some brands, such as Nike and E.l.f., have joined the platform; others remain hesitant. In the second half of 2024 alone, TikTok blocked more than 7 million items from being listed. The company also expanded its global IP specialist team from 1,400 to 1,800. On the creator side, TikTok removed 675,000 videos and livestreams that promoted IP-infringing goods and revoked the selling privileges of 16,000 creators. “While the vast majority of our sellers play by the rules, we are focused on keeping bad actors off our platform,” reads a recent report published by the company. “That’s why we’ve strengthened our reactive governance efforts to keep pace with the rising volume and complexity of activity on the platform.” “Dupe” culture runs wild on TikTok Focusing solely on “the rules” won’t fix TikTok Shop’s brand safety problem. While some sellers engage in outright IP theft, many more push look-alike products—slightly tweaked, drastically cheaper versions of established goods. A quick scroll through TikTok Shop’s homepage reveals dozens of knockoffs. There’s the $18 Miniso “Crocs Design” bag, which closely resembles a pricier tote from Crocs. (Miniso is based in Guangzhou.) Or the $4 star-shaped Qustere pimple patches, strikingly similar to Starface. (Qustere operates out of Shenzhen.) You’ll also find budget Chelsea boots and shapewear from brands that overlap with Shein’s catalog. Just one swipe away from TikTok Shop, the For You Page is flooded with more of the same. In response to The President’s proposed tariffs, some Chinese manufacturers recently went viral for urging Americans to buy directly from their factories to bypass fees. The catch? Many of the goods were counterfeit. TikTok Shop’s brand safety issues go far beyond IP enforcement. The platform—from its marketplace to its short-form content—thrives on cheap imitations. Until that culture changes, brands will remain wary. View the full article

In the city of Bethlehem, a team of mechanics is currently working around the clock to install a medical fridge, air diagnostic equipment, oxygen supply, and blast-proof windows into one of the most iconic vehicles in the world. The team is tasked with turning Pope Francis’s old popemobile into a mobile health clinic for the children of Gaza—and it could be operational as soon as next week. The project, called Vehicle of Hope, is spearheaded by the Catholic humanitarian organization Caritas, which runs more than 160 agencies across the world that work to provide aid in crisis zones. Caritas Jerusalem, which has advocated for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, currently operates 14 medical teams across the Gaza Strip, two of which are actively working in Gaza City. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas originally gifted the popemobile currently undergoing renovation to Pope Francis, who died in April, during his visit to Bethlehem in 2014. Francis later donated the car, a custom-designed Mitsubishi, to the Franciscan Order in Jerusalem. This allowed Caritas Jerusalem to convert it into a medical clinic. Now, amidst Israel’s resumed air and ground campaign in Gaza, Caritas is hoping that the symbolic vehicle will help humanitarian workers enter the Gaza Strip to treat children in need. Repurposing a long-standing tradition Since the beginning of automobiles, nearly every pope has used multiple cars for travel, including Pope Francis. Francis’s characteristic popemobiles included several different Jeeps, an Isuzu, and a Kia Sedona, and were typically outfitted with a raised transparent barrier to protect the pontiff as he greeted onlookers. According to Peter Brune, secretary general of Caritas Sweden, it’s become a tradition for local leaders to gift the Pope a special popemobile when he visits a new country. “I guess hundreds of them by now, all over the world,” Brune says. The idea for a popemobile clinic comes as, on March 17, Israel ended a two-month-long ceasefire and resumed airstrikes and ground attacks in Gaza. More than 48,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip so far, and only 48% of primary care facilities in the area are currently functional, according to a report from the World Health Organization in early March. It also follows Israel’s full blockade of humanitarian aid and other supplies into the Gaza Strip, which began March 2. The stoppage leaves communities there in desperate need of humanitarian supplies, food, and medical attention. Brune hopes that the symbolic popemobile clinic will be enough to convince authorities to allow the vehicle into Gaza. In an interview with The Washington Post, Anton Asfar, secretary general of Caritas Jerusalem, shared that Caritas Jerusalem plans to request permission for entrance from COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry unit that coordinates civil affairs in occupied territories (COGAT told The Post that approval would actually need to come from the government itself.) “We are trying to use this powerful symbol to convince those who are in charge to let it in, and we hope that it will be allowed in,” Brune says. “It’s very important to make sure that the humanitarian community can do their job.” Giving a papal symbol new purpose The idea to transform the popemobile into a clinic came from a conversation last year between Brune and Asfar during which they brainstormed “new symbols” that could represent this cause and bring more attention to the children in Gaza. “Caritas Jerusalem has more than 100 staff working out of Gaza—actually, several of them have been killed,” Brune says. “We are so desperate about bringing across this message that the civilians in Gaza, especially the children, are being so badly affected by this [conflict]. A few months ago, when it was colder, they were freezing to death; they were starving to death.” They realized that the popemobile could be the perfect tool. “The popemobile is a very powerful symbol,” Brune says. “So we said, ‘Let’s upscale it. Let’s give it a new mission.’” That mission, Brune says, would be to turn the popemobile into a mobile medical clinic, staffed by doctors and nurses from Caritas Jerusalem, which could provide on-the-move assistance to those in need. Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden, who is set to join the upcoming conclave, relayed the concept to the Pope late last year. Francis, who repeatedly advocated for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and spent the last month of his life calling a small church in Gaza every day, quickly gave his consent. “We presented the idea to the late Pope Francis, and he approved the idea. That was amazing,” Brune says. “He said, ‘Go for it. Gaza is very close to my heart, and if my popemobile can be used for this new and much more important mission, then go for it.’” Installing a decade’s worth of repairs, and then some When mechanics started work on the once-retired popemobile several weeks ago, they found several problems that you might expect from a car that’s been out of use for over a decade: rust, a faulty engine, and a flat tire. “When we found the car in Bethlehem, we looked into whether it was actually still in such a condition that you could make it function in its new role,” Brune says. “The mechanics said, ‘Yes, it’s doable. It’s in a bit of a bad shape, but it’s absolutely doable.’” The complicated process involves fitting the vehicle with equipment for diagnosis, examination, and treatment—including rapid infection tests, suture kits, syringes and needles, and oxygen supply. A special air-conditioning system will be used to keep medicines at the right temperature, and mechanics will also install blast-proof windows to protect occupants. “It’s not only beautiful, it’s also very practical,” Brune says. “It will be capable of serving kids, and it will be equipped with air-conditioning so that it can keep the medical equipment at the right temperature and then make it also a good environment for the child to feel safe and taken care of.” Using design to create a practical solution, and an emotional connection While parts of the popemobile have to be changed in order to add medical equipment, Brune says one of the main goals of this project is actually to keep the bones and appearance of the car as similar to its original appearance as possible. Brune and his team made a specific point to keep the seat Pope Francis once used intact. “One important symbolic piece is the seat where the Pope used to sit during when he was riding the popemobile—that’s where we will place the children who will be attended to by medical doctors and nurses,” Brune says. “We want to say, ‘You are the most important, now you sit in the chair of the Pope.’” Initially, the Vehicle of Hope was scheduled to be completed in around three weeks from now. But Brune says mechanics are so invigorated by excitement around the concept that they’ve predicted it could be ready as soon as this coming Tuesday. In the future, Brune hopes that similar mobile clinics can be scaled and used in other areas facing crises. For now, though, his focus is on Gaza. “The Vehicle of Hope is telling the children, ‘There is a future for you. There is a time when the adults have agreed to stop fighting, stop bombing. And we want to give you this notion of hope,’” Brune says. View the full article

Artificial intelligence. It’s pretty cool, I guess? Look at those neat videos. And the thousands of product design iterations just to get those creative balls rolling. Sure. Awesome. Or is it? Maybe. Who knows. All that seems to be the summary of Figma’s 2025 AI Report, based on a survey of 2,500 designers and developers. While tools like ChatGPT and Figma’s AI features are embedded in daily workflows, the report reveals a stark disconnect. Enthusiasm for AI’s potential is high, but its practical impact remains uneven, the numbers show, constrained by vague goals, quality concerns, and cooling expectations. The report underscores a paradox: professionals see AI as essential to their future, but struggle to meaningfully harness it today. It kind of fits my own experience. It’s there, but not there yet. Figma’s study shows that a staggering 76% of AI projects prioritize vague objectives like “experimenting with AI” over concrete goals such as revenue growth, with an eye-popping 9%. It makes me weep for all the gigawatts evaporating in the name of a revolution that’s not actually happening, at least for designers and developers. The ambiguity reflects the technology’s nascent state, Figma’s Head of Insights Andrew Hogan tells me in a phone interview. “There’s a lot of play and experimentation happening—it’s natural,” he explains, comparing the current moment to early mobile app development, where rapid iteration preceded clear use cases. One survey respondent likened building AI products to “running a restaurant where the menu changes daily,” a metaphor Hogan calls “the quote of the survey.” So much contradiction I’m not so sure about that parallelism with mobile app development, which struck me as a much faster, much more impactful revolution than AI, in practical, tangible economical terms, not just paper gains. Past technological shifts, like desktop publishing or the iPhone, delivered seismic industry changes within months. By comparison, AI’s impact feels incremental and anecdotal. Sure, there are brilliant examples of big AI impacts in some industries—mostly audiovisual—but having a synthetic research minion, a repetitive-task assistant, or an artificial creative buddy don’t seem quite as revolutionary as a billion smartphones taking over our lives. Hogan acknowledges the tension and, at the same time, has a warning: Companies risk dismissing AI too early if experiments fail to yield quick wins, potentially missing strategic advantages. He also says that, while the research highlights these contradictory data points between expectations/desires and reality, the data shows real progress: 34% of Figma users shipped AI products this year, up from 22% in 2024. The question is whether the vague goals—again, back to the figure of 76% of companies saying let’s play, throw some mud against the wall and see if it sticks—will harden into measurable ROI before disillusionment sets in. The research shows that there are efficiency gains thanks to AI. But there’s a dichotomy here, too. Seventy-eight percent of professionals say it speeds up their work (up from 71% last year), but only 58% believe it improves quality, while 47% feel it makes them better at their jobs. What about the ones who think the quality is just the same or worse, and the 53% who don’t think AI makes them better at their jobs? It’s a strange, puzzling juxtaposition. Developers report higher satisfaction (67% say AI boosts work quality) than designers (40%), partly because code generation tools offer clearer utility. Designers, meanwhile, grapple with generative AI’s unpredictable outputs. Hogan attributes this gap to the “limitations of how we as humans interact with these things,” not the technology itself. He cites Amara’s Law: We overestimate short-term change and underestimate long-term transformation. “Mobile took years to reshape industries,” he says, pointing to Uber’s evolution. Yet tools like ChatGPT sparked expectations of rapid, iPhone-level disruption—a bar AI hasn’t yet cleared. Cooling expectations Despite 85% of professionals calling AI essential for future success, expectations for its near-term impact are cooling. Only 27% predict AI will significantly influence company goals in the next year, unchanged from 2024. Hogan frames this as a recalibration, not disillusionment. “The hype gets ahead of what most people can do today,” he says, likening AI’s trajectory to the internet’s gradual adoption. Yet the “Cambrian explosion” of AI apps—like the one that happened with the iPhone’s apps—is yet to come. Sure, there are niche applications like medical document interpreters or predictive maintenance tools, but where are the truly transformative apps beyond being able to talk to glorified Wikipedia oracles? Where’s the Uber of AI? The answer may lie in agentic AI, the fastest-growing product category. These tools, which automate multistep tasks, saw a 143% year-over-year surge in development (from 21% in 2024 to 51% in 2025). But Hogan warns they require rethinking design principles. “When should an agent check in with users? What information should it share?” Design’s role here is critical—52% of builders say design is more important for AI products than traditional ones, as intuitive interfaces bridge the gap between capability and usability. AI’s paradox—ubiquitous yet underutilized, and underwhelming for a large part—stems from its adolescence. Designers and developers are caught between excitement, collective hysteria, and pragmatism, navigating a landscape where prototyping and iteration matter more than ever. The technology’s potential is real, yes. Code generation already accelerates development, and is used by 59% of developers. Agentic tools promise workflow revolutions, and adoption is rising. But without clearer goals, trust in outputs, and design-led refinement, AI risks becoming a toolbox without a blueprint. As Hogan puts it, “We’re still early.” The challenge isn’t whether AI will reshape design, but whether teams can evolve their processes fast enough to meet its uneven promise. For now, the future belongs to those who treat AI not as a magic wand, but as clay—malleable, demanding, and far from fully molded. View the full article

“He just put it in bold!” exclaimed Ryan Gosling’s character in a Saturday Night Live video that attracted a cult following in the world of graphic design last year. The follow-up to a 2017 SNL bit in which Gosling played a man haunted by his realization that the logo for the 2009 blockbuster Avatar was expressed in the gauche Papyrus typeface, the newer video centered on his fresh horror of discovering that the same graphic designer responsible for the first logo had updated the wordmark for the movie’s sequel by simply setting it in bold type. A year later, it seems that life is imitating satire, as, following last week’s announcement of Amazon’s brand refresh, 2025’s three biggest rebrands to date—including those of Walmart in January and OpenAI in February—have, to the untrained eye, more or less involved hitting “Ctrl+B” on the companies’ wordmarks and logos to put them in bold. All three of these corporate behemoths’ updated wordmarks are somewhat heavier than their predecessors, while not representing radical changes. Unlike Walmart’s brutalist look of a generation ago, with its massive and intimidating all-caps, sharp-cornered letterforms projecting its retail dominance, these new marks are all clean, respectable sans-serifs with enough roundedness to signal a degree of friendliness and approachability. Perhaps this style might be dubbed Blanding Bold. Their associated symbolic elements have undergone a similar transformation. While OpenAI’s “blossom,” Walmart’s “spark,” and Amazon’s “smile” all look basically the same as they did before, much to the consternation of some social media users who feel personally affronted that these expensive rebrands did not result in more noticeable changes, the differences are there. The blossom’s strokes have thickened and evened, improving its overall composition while still allowing it to evoke an unfolding flower, a foreboding whirlpool, or imagery of a more alimentary nature. The new spark met the approval of logo guru Armin Vit, who called it “softer, warmer, and more friendly while being so much better executed,” and noted that “the bolder weight of the segments gives the icon more presence and strength to stand on its own as it moves forward as the company’s primary logo.” And the Amazon logo received an injection of lip filler, resulting in what the design agency Koto calls a “deeper and more emphatic smile” (to the extent that a smile can be “emphatic”). While the rebrands of these three giants, with their estimated combined value of $3 trillion, have attracted the most attention, this bold new trend in corporate graphics has been spotted in many other quarters over the past year or so, including PayPal, ABC, Reddit, the CW network, Workday, the Guggenheim, Herman Miller, Eventbrite, Crumbl, New York City Football Club, New York Botanical Garden, and even Fluz. Patient zero in this outbreak might be the 2019 Slack redesign, in which the wordmark was Ctrl+B’d and the logo’s hot dog shapes plumped just like Ball Park Franks. What accounts for all this boldness? Companies have long expressed the desire to get more bang for their branding buck; “Make the logo bigger” is a common refrain among design clients (and one that designers tend to dread hearing). It would seem that making the logo bolder is the next best thing, allowing for more logo per square inch, a denser deployment of general logo essence, and a symbol that, like Amazon’s, is more emphatic overall. For what brand would not want its logo to be emphasized? And if a company’s goal is to use its logo to communicate boldness as a brand attribute, the single most obvious, literal, no-brainer way to do so is to just put it in bold. View the full article

Measures would take effect if insufficient progress is made to reduce US leviesView the full article

Tit-for-tat strikes represent most extensive exchange between neighbours in decadesView the full article

Opposition bill includes annual cap on arrivals as party seeks to arrest flow of support to Reform UK View the full article

If you’ve gone shopping for a home appliance sometime in the last 30 years, you’ve probably noticed a blue “Energy Star” label on certain water heaters, stoves, light bulbs, and even windows. The program, launched by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1992, helps consumers identify energy-efficient products. But now the The President administration is planning to shut it down. President Donald The President has been attacking energy-efficiency measures since his return to office. In February, he said he would call on the EPA to revert to older efficiency standards for light bulbs, toilets, showers, and more. In his “Unleashing American Energy” order, The President promised to “safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and shower heads.” Experts say the Energy Star standards are meant to help the environment by reducing water and energy consumption; they also lower U.S. households’ energy bills. And though The President has framed standards as limiting to consumer choice, the Energy Star program itself is voluntary, and doesn’t narrow what manufacturers can produce. To earn the Energy Star label, products do have to meet certain efficiency standards—but the program doesn’t stop manufacturers from making items that are not considered energy efficient, or Americans from purchasing them. (Energy Star stopped recommending any gas stoves in 2022, for example, but gas stoves are still available in America.) Energy Star also points consumers toward tax credits to bring down the cost of efficient appliances. Energy Star certifies all sorts of items, from heating and cooling (including heat pumps, ceiling fans, air conditioners, and thermostats) to appliances (like washers and dryers, dehumidifiers, dishwashers, refrigerators, and cooking products), plus water heaters, lighting, windows, and personal electronics like computers and TVs. By certifying efficient appliances, Energy Star has helped American households and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs since its founding, per a 2023 report. With an annual budget of around $50 million—less than 1% of the EPA’s spending, the Alliance to Save Energy notes—Energy Star saves Americans $40 billion on energy bills each year. Energy Star has also prevented about 4 billion metric tons of emissions from entering the atmosphere—equivalent to taking more than 933 million gas cars off the road for one year. The President considered dismantling Energy Star in his first term. His move to eliminate it now comes alongside plans to shutter the EPA’s climate change division and climate protection partnership division, sources told CNN. Historically, Energy Star has had bipartisan support, and more than 1,000 companies, cities, and organizations have signed a letter to the EPA urging continued support for the program. Republican senators have even praised the program, The Washington Post notes, saying it helped customers reduce their energy bills. Energy efficiency in general has strong public and bipartisan support. A March 2025 survey by Consumer Reports found that 87% of Americans agree that new U.S. home appliances should need to achieve a minimum level of efficiency (that included 94% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans). Supporters of Energy Star add that axing the program goes against the The President administration’s promises to lower energy costs for Americans, as well as efforts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to save taxpayer money. “If you wanted to raise families’ energy bills, getting rid of the Energy Star label would be a pretty good way,” Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said in a statement. “This would take away basic information from consumers who want to choose cost-saving products easily. There’s a reason this program has been so popular with consumers and manufacturers alike.” The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which represents a variety of appliance makers, said the industry is proud of its efficiency achievements, and that Energy Star is an example of a successful private-public partnership. “AHAM supports the continuation of a streamlined Energy Star program, which could be managed through the Department of Energy,” a spokesperson added. (Energy Star is currently a joint program of the EPA and DOE.) “Moving the program to DOE would meet the administration’s goals of preserving a full selection of products from which consumers can choose, and also reducing unnecessary regulatory burden.” View the full article

Remote work is going mobile. Starting today, the Florida-based high-speed rail service Brightline is launching a partnership with the shared workspace provider Industrious to turn parts of its stations—and even entire train cars—into coworking spaces. Industrious coworking spaces are now open in Brightline’s stations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, as well as a bookable train car for business meetings or private events on the move. “If people can work from anywhere, then anywhere can be a workplace,” says Jamie Hodari, cofounder and CEO of Industrious. “I think that’s something that’s been underdeveloped.” Brightline sees the addition of formal workspaces as a way to build on its high-speed connections between cities across Florida, giving riders more ability to use its network for both leisure and business travel—sometimes simultaneously. “It’s a solution for modern professionals where we’re enhancing productivity through mobility,” says Megan Del Prior, Brightline’s vice president of corporate partnerships. “A lot of folks are riding for business. With our long-haul offering going from Miami to Orlando people are traveling during the workday and still need to work within the station spaces as well as on the trains,” she says. The coworking spaces are built in underutilized conference and meeting rooms inside Brightline’s stations, according to Del Prior. The bookable train cars available through the partnership have no special features, but do include Wi-Fi and charging ports like all Brightline train cars. Hodari says the idea for the partnership grew from Industrious’s previous experience building out workspaces in unconventional locations. In 2018, the company partnered with the outdoor apparel brand L.L. Bean to create a pop-up outdoor coworking space in New York City’s Madison Square Park. “The whole thing sold out within five minutes,” Hodari says. “It was such a sign that people are really curious about trying working and being productive in unfamiliar or new settings.” According to Hodari, the addition of coworking spaces to train stations is a recognition that people are already doing work in these spaces, either taking calls while waiting for their train or working on projects once their train is in motion. The experience of working like this, though, can be less than ideal. “Oftentimes it can be this really unpleasant, highly unproductive thing,” he says. “And it can be kind of painful for the people around you, where you’re talking loudly and you’re in your earphones and you’re unwittingly a nuisance.” Having dedicated spaces for meetings or focused work will enable people to make more of their travel time, Hodari says, noting, “You don’t stop being productive or engaging with your colleagues or other people because you’re in movement.” View the full article

Ever wondered what happens when you add random household items to the same bowl every day for 100 days straight? Well, you’re in luck. One TikTok account has made it their mission to find out—so you don’t have to. The anonymous account, known simply as Bowl of Danger, adds “random stuff” to a bowl each day until they “get in danger.” The experiment began in January with a dollop of sunscreen. Each day, something new entered the mix: sugar, whipped cream, deodorant, lit firecrackers, batteries, nail polish, vodka, a whole pizza, a Big Mac. “Can’t imagine how bad that reeks,” someone wrote in the comments. “I just unlocked a new facial expression,” added a second. Another warned, “No cuz I genuinely think we’re making a pandemic” (check out day 25 at your own risk). For every person who scrolls past in horror, plenty are invested. Some of the most viral Bowl of Danger videos have racked up millions of views, with fans suggesting new items to add. As for Day 100? The video was taken down, but according to the comments, it involved a firecracker and an explosion. Since Bowl of Danger went viral, a number of copycat accounts have emerged. There’s The Danger Bowl, naturally, and Bowl of Living—an organic version of the original series. “Mold is just a simple form of life,” the creator says. “I want to create something more—like a new species.” If you prefer your bowl of rot with an educational edge, there’s also Bowl of Science. “While other bowls waste food or resources, we mix a bowl with things that only physically or chemically react,” the creator said in one video, taking a swipe at the competition. “Where you actually can learn from.” A theory is also circulating that the different anonymous accounts may be run by the same person under different aliases. Warning: If you’re considering making your own bowl at home, remember that mixing random stuff can have harmful, even deadly, side effects. (Ever heard of mustard gas?) But if you missed the first round, good news: Season 2 of Bowl of Danger just started. View the full article

Wake up, go to class, grab a panini, then go to work. The day in the life of students James Haupt, Caroline Pirtle, and George Small seemed nothing out of the ordinary, except “going to work” meant entering restricted buildings in the Vatican, and reporting on what was happening at the papacy, just a few minutes away from the Holy See. As part of Villanova University’s 22-year-old Vatican and Rome Internship Program, which over the years has helped boost the Pope’s social media presence, the three students were on exchange for nearly five months. Small and Pirtle, both computing sciences majors, were stationed at the Vatican Museum and the Vatican Media Office respectively, assisting on the creation of VR tours. Haupt, a communication major, worked at Rome Reports, a local newsroom covering the papacy in English and Spanish. What was supposed to be just an opportunity for immersion in Italian culture, and privileged access to one of the world’s most visited institutions, quickly changed into a different sort of educational opportunity. These three students soon found themselves at the epicenter of a historical event: the papal transition. Pope Francis’s passing Pirtle, while helping to create the VR tour of St. Peter’s Basilica, had enjoyed privileged access to restricted areas in the Vatican, including the Altar of the Confessio, escorted by Basilica security. Still, she found the news of the pontiff’s death just like everyone else. On Easter Monday, Pirtle had to sleep in, exhausted from attending Easter mass the day before. Caroline Pirtle At noon, she was awoken by a text from her friend, notifying her that Pope Francis had passed away. She was shocked. “I literally saw him the day before, and he drove right past me,” Pirtle says. After almost two months working in the Vatican, this was the first time she had seen Pope Francis in person. “Going from seeing him the day before and being right next to him, to him dying the next morning was a crazy feeling.” Small and Haupt had a similar experience. Working at a newsroom, Haupt had been covering the Pope’s illness, “I knew his prescribed rest was two months,” Haput says, “and he was on a medicine program.” Yet he, too, learned of the news when he woke up on Monday, from TikTok. In disbelief, he checked Rome Report’s Instagram, and then woke up Small, who was his apartment mate. As the news sunk in, the interns went to work. Working through it “Back at home you’d look at your phone once, and then kind of forget about it. Here, you go outside and right there is Vatican City, and that’s where Pope Francis died, maybe a couple 100 feet from where we’re staying,” Small says. Pirtle continued taking photos and setting up annotations for the interactive virtual reality project. Small went back to coding for the Vatican Museum’s VR. “Trying to actually access the office was a lot crazier, because everything was blocked off, and they just had so many more police, so many more guards, and just so many more people,” Pirtle says. “But inside the building, nothing really felt too different.” Haupt’s job, at the newsroom of Rome Reports, was the most affected. Haupt had been translating the publication’s stories from Spanish to English, doing audio recordings for the outlet’s broadcast stories, and looking for American angles on stories related to the Pope, Catholicism, and the Vatican. (Vice president JD Vance’s visit to the Vatican was an easy one, he says.) He had written stories about Pope Francis’s relationship with Father Federico Lombardi, the former director of the Holy See press office, and the coordinator behind the 35,000 flowers that covered the Vatican during Easter Sunday. James Haupt But upon the Pope’s death, Haupt realized he was part of something bigger. “There were, like, 400 journalists that came within a day” to the Vatican, he says. “It was so packed, people were in and out, so much was going on . . . Seeing all those journalists in the Vatican immediately made me realize how significant this was.” An unexpected end to studying abroad In the weeks before the end of their internships, the three students joined the crowds flocking to bid farewell to Pope Francis before the burial. Small and Haupt bypassed the long lines by visiting the open casket at 1:40 a.m. on a school night, while Pirtle got lucky with a 25-minute wait on a Thursday at 5 p.m. They also bid farewell to the various projects they’d helped build. “Working on something that could provide a lot more accessibility” to “people who might not have the chance to come to Rome has been special to me,” Pirtle says. For Haupt, the experience “gave me the skill of adjusting to the environment. My coworkers would tell me how they would have to be ready to come into the office at any moment no matter the day or time,” he says, and “hearing about how they had to switch gears on their days off and holidays made me realize how important it to be alert as a journalist.” For all three Villanova students, the end of their Vatican internship coincided almost exactly with the beginning of the long awaited papal election process. They are looking forward to following news about the Conclave. “I’m planning on at least grabbing a coffee in St. Peter’s Square and just seeing,” Pirtle says. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and see some smoke.” View the full article

When Katie Hammel arrived at her company’s offsite in Cabo San Lucas, she expected the usual formula: long meetings, awkward icebreakers, and a packed agenda that left little room to breathe. What she experienced instead was something different—a thoughtfully curated, empowering, and inclusive retreat. “There was a little wrap-up at the end of each day,” says Hammel, director of content at travel rewards booking platform Point.me. “At first I thought it was going to be kind of corny, and I actually ended up really loving it. Hearing what surprised people, what they learned—it just really crystallized the day.” Hammel, who’s attended nine retreats while working at four different companies, has witnessed firsthand how offsites have evolved. “Early retreats were like, ‘Let’s rent a cabin and figure it out.’ Now, they’re much more intentional. It’s something you need to invest time and money and real deep thought into planning so that you can make the most of that time.” As remote and hybrid work have become more permanent, companies are rethinking the role of retreats. What used to be a perk is now a necessity: a way to reinforce culture, rebuild trust, and create connection in the absence of daily in-office interactions. But simply gathering people in a room (or on a beach) isn’t enough. Today’s distributed teams require something more thoughtful, more inclusive, and more strategic. Designing With, Not For One of the biggest mistakes companies make when planning offsites is assuming that physical presence alone will foster connection. But as Stephanie Felix, a DEI leader and social impact strategist who has organized offsites across companies, explains. “If the format isn’t inclusive or meaningful, built with shared purpose in mind, it can actually deepen disconnection.” Retreats often reflect outdated traditions—activities designed in a pre-remote era that may no longer serve diverse, distributed teams. Planning, says Felix, needs to begin with intentionality, not logistics. “Gathering isn’t inherently inclusive,” she says. “It has to be designed that way.” For Milton Rivera, global VP of the Experience Studio at Amex Global Business Travel, this starts with co-creation. “Putting an emphasis on gathering employee or attendee input early in the planning process has greatly helped events to be much more relevant and engaging,” he says. His team collects not only schedules and availability, but also pain points, accessibility needs, and emotional goals—helping clients map how attendees want to feel at each stage of an event. (Rivera’s team not only handles clients looking for team event planning help, but also manages his own remote team, with their own offsites, as well.) It’s also a matter of resourcing: outsourcing logistics, hiring professionals, and avoiding the common pitfall of assigning retreat planning to someone who already has a full-time job. At The Corcoran Group, this kind of collaborative planning is already embedded in its retreat culture. “Our events are carefully curated by our events team and shaped by insights from leaders across all departments,” says Pamela Liebman, president and CEO at the real estate firm. “We intentionally create space for conversations at all levels and encourage cross-functional participation.” This includes having casual on-site gatherings where convos across teams can happen, as well as senior leadership-led open events that can get people talking, like exercise walks with the company president or morning meditations led by a team member. Basically, “creating space for organic moments of interaction,” says Liebman. That intentionality transforms offsites from top-down presentations to genuinely shared experiences. Understanding the ‘Why’—And Going Smaller If Needed Instead of asking “Should we host an offsite?” more teams are now asking “Why are we hosting one?” says Julie Noda, GM of Groups at Fora Travel. “Retreats are becoming more intentional, inclusive, and purpose-driven,” she says. “Whether they’re focused on alignment, celebrating top performers, or helping employees recharge, the ‘why’ behind a retreat shapes everything—from destination choice to daily schedule.” Rather than hosting one massive, annual event, more companies are turning to smaller, regional gatherings throughout the year. “Smaller, intimate retreats are increasingly common for remote teams, fostering better collaboration and deeper conversations,” Noda adds. “Teams are leaning into informal formats like fireside chats, rather than over-structured sessions.” “Every quarter, we host varying degrees of offsites—social, educational, collaborative,” says Rivera. “We also host a larger annual event per region. But a critical element in all of this is to determine the expected outcomes of the event, the personas of the attendees, and the objectives.” Liebman echoes that clarity of purpose. “The goal has always been to connect and celebrate our brand, and while that hasn’t changed, the ‘how’ has,” she says. “In a more remote/hybrid environment, retreats have become even more important to reinforce our shared purpose.” Rivera’s team uses a process called “experience mapping” to help both their internal teams and their clients understand what impact the retreat should have and what value it should deliver. The result? More tailored experiences that serve their specific goals—whether it’s aligning on strategy, deepening peer-to-peer bonds, or co-creating solutions. This level of intentionality has led many organizations to think smaller—trimming attendance, focusing on meaningful moments, and allowing flexibility for personal circumstances, like caregiving or travel burdens. At Corcoran, “we announce conference dates well in advance, and begin the first day’s events midday to support those balancing caregiving responsibilities or long-distance travel,” Liebman says. Removing Financial Barriers As companies push for inclusivity, many are rethinking the financial side of offsites. While most employers now cover core expenses, how they do so matters more than ever—particularly for newer employees, junior staff, or those without access to personal credit. “Yes, we cover all major expenses,” says Jaclyn Fu, CEO of the bra company Pepper, who oversees a remote-first team. “We want the experience to be something the team can look forward to and wholeheartedly enjoy, without having to stress.” Rivera adds that even well-intentioned policies can have unintended consequences. “Policies that ask people to use personal funds upfront for business travel create a potential barrier,” he says. “They may not have access to a credit card or might not have the funds, which creates an unintentional barrier to attending the offsite and enjoying the benefits.” Felix underscores that financial equity is often overlooked—especially when it comes to internal dynamics like dinners or group outings once at the retreat. “When I was a manager, company policy dictated that I cover junior team members’ expenses on a personal card,” she says. “It’s a problematic assumption that any individual manager, a relatively junior role, is always in the financial position to cover those costs. Team dinners can run hundreds of dollars. We need to be sure company policy is equitable.” Making the Exceptions the Default The best retreat experiences today prioritize proactive inclusion. Instead of making accommodations for individuals, smart organizers now build accessibility and choice into the default experience. “One of the things I really appreciate about my current company is that they take requests—like dietary restrictions or not drinking alcohol—and make them standard,” says Hammel. “So instead of just having one mocktail, every drink has an equivalent mocktail. It’s not like, ‘Here’s something for them.’ It’s just, ‘Here’s something for everyone.’” That same thinking applies to food, schedules, and even accommodation arrangements. True inclusivity is invisible. It’s not about creating separate options, but about making everyone feel seen without having to ask. At Corcoran’s events, inclusion extends to cultural and regional representation, too. “Our network spans diverse markets, so we aim to reflect that in our programming,” Liebman explains. “At our conference in Scottsdale, for example, we opened with a performance by Mariachi Rubor, Arizona’s international all-female mariachi band.” True inclusion, she says, is about “spotlighting local voices and tailoring content to highlight what makes a region [and our employees] special.” Rethinking the Corporate Retreat Location Choosing the right destination has always mattered. But beyond cost and climate, companies are now also weighing sustainability, accessibility, and cultural relevance. “We’ve seen eco-friendly and socially responsible destinations becoming increasingly more popular,” says Noda. This might include locally sourced food, carbon offsetting, service projects, or immersive cultural experiences. “We try to choose cities where we have a strong team presence—NYC, Denver, and Austin, for example,” adds Fu. “We look for spaces that feel both energizing and accessible: a mix of creative inspiration, practical travel logistics, and comfort.” Rivera also notes that diverse teams require venues that accommodate different travel needs, from sensory-friendly environments to direct flights. His company has developed a Global Venue Sourcing team for exactly this reason. Building in Down Time and Preventing Burnout One challenge with offsites is the temptation to over-program. For remote workers who rarely see each other, time feels precious. But not every moment needs to be filled. “There’s so much pressure to make the most of every moment,” says Hammel. “I think companies pack it in a little too much. Even just 45 minutes to decompress before a social event would be so valuable.” Designing for all personality types—especially introverts—means allowing space to recharge. Quiet time isn’t a waste; it’s a necessary part of creating connection that lasts beyond the event. Noda sees this understanding of accommodating different types of individuals at the planning level. “The most progressive organizations are offering flexible engagement options—high-energy and low-energy activities, quiet spaces, hybrid participation tools, and agendas that leave space to breathe,” she says. “Inclusivity isn’t just about food or access. It’s how people engage.” Including Those Who Stay Behind Not everyone can (or wants to) attend an offsite. Health issues, family obligations, and financial constraints still keep some employees home. That doesn’t mean they should be excluded from the experience. In her most recent retreat, Hammel’s team did their best to include remote attendees, despite logistical challenges. “Everything was outdoors, so we didn’t have a lot of AV,” she says. “But we took photos of our exercises and wrote up little reports to share in Slack.” Felix notes that in-person environments can also carry a different emotional toll, especially for employees from marginalized backgrounds. “There’s compelling data showing that microaggressions increase in in-person environments, particularly for Black women and other women of color,” she says. “Remote work gave many people a reprieve. There’s more control, and often more accountability [when communicating remotely].” Therefore, making sure environments not only have structure in comms but also opportunities for feedback is so important. In planning retreats, companies need to think beyond who can attend, and design with inclusion in mind for those who stay back, too. The New Retreat: Less Perk, More Purpose Retreats used to be framed as perks—fun escapes from routine. But as the nature of work changes, they’ve become something far more meaningful: rare chances to build trust, reinforce shared purpose, and cultivate belonging across distance. “Inclusion is about emotional safety, psychological comfort, and cultural sensitivity, not just physical presence,” says Felix. Today’s most successful retreats are grounded in intention. “Retreats have become essential for building trust, empathy, and friendship. It’s not just about alignment on strategy. It’s about feeling like you’re part of something meaningful, even when you work from different zip codes,” says Fu. View the full article