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The 30-year fixed rate climbed to 6.46% this week, its highest mark since September, as mortgage applications fell 10.4% and sellers outnumber buyers by a record 46%. View the full article

A court and jury found a father-son executive team liable for wage violations, and a federal judge recently increased the amount of damages for plaintiffs. View the full article

A new analysis of more than 40,000 daily ChatGPT ad placements by AI ad intelligence firm Adthena suggests the format is rapidly standardizing, revealing that what once felt experimental is now becoming a disciplined, high-intent messaging system built for users already deep in decision-making mode. The big picture: ChatGPT ads are converging on a style that is short, structured, and highly contextual, favoring precision over persuasion and utility over storytelling, which marks a shift away from traditional creative-led advertising toward something closer to real-time, intent-driven assistance. By the numbers: The average headline clocks in at just 30 characters and around 5 words, Body copy averages 116 characters and roughly 19 words This reinforces the idea that every word must carry weight and contribute directly to clarity or conversion. What’s working. The dominant pattern is a “Brand: Benefit” headline structure, where advertisers clearly separate their name from a specific value proposition. Its a format that works because users in conversational environments expect immediate clarity rather than intrigue or ambiguity. Whilst almost every ad leads with the brand name itself, winning brands need easy recall in a setting where users are already evaluating options rather than discovering them. Headlines are notably compressed, often feeling more like functional labels than traditional slogans, and this brevity extends into the body copy. This typically consists of two tight sentences structured around a proof point followed by an offer or nudge, indicating that advertisers are not trying to win arguments but rather provide one compelling reason to act. Context mirroring has emerged as a defining feature, with the strongest ads directly reflecting the user’s query or situation, effectively signaling that the message is tailored in real time. This represents a new level of AI-native targeting that goes beyond keyword matching and into conversational relevance. Concrete value signals play an outsized role, with the dollar symbol and specific numerical claims such as prices, savings, or performance metrics consistently outperforming vague promises, while numbers in general dominate body copy because they feel more credible and native in an environment where users are actively researching and comparing options. Low-friction offers, particularly those using the word “free” such as trials or demos, are the most common conversion lever, as they reduce commitment barriers for users who may still be exploring. Calls to action are highly explicit and action-oriented, favoring direct phrases like “Shop now,” “Compare,” or “Book” and largely abandoning generic prompts like “Learn more”. The overall tone across these ads is calm, confident, and measured, with minimal use of exclamation points or question marks, aligning more closely with the voice of helpful guidance than traditional advertising hype, which helps ads blend seamlessly into the conversational flow rather than disrupt it. Why we care. ChatGPT ads are reaching users at high intent, where clarity and relevance matter more than creativity or storytelling. In a conversational environment, ads compete with useful answers, so vague or overly branded messaging gets ignored while precise, value-driven copy performs better. This shift rewards shorter, structured messaging and gives early adopters an advantage as the format standardizes. Between the lines. While ChatGPT ads share DNA with paid search, particularly in their focus on intent and relevance, they differ in that they must integrate naturally into dialogue, respond to users who are already high intent, and deliver messaging that feels assistive rather than interruptive. The takeaway. Success in ChatGPT advertising increasingly depends on precision, relevance, and credibility rather than creativity, emotional appeal, or brand-led storytelling, suggesting that the winning strategy is not to stand out loudly but to fit in perfectly at the exact moment a user needs a clear and trustworthy answer. Dig deeper. See full info graph shared by Adthena CMO Alex Fletcher on LinkedIn. View the full article

Here are three updates from past letter-writers. 1. My boss made me verify that I’m really exercising (first update) A happy update. Today we had our spring quarterly all-staff meeting, where HR announced the return of the flex-time exercise program. Two changes were made to the program: 1. Structure around verification requests, include who may request verification and why. (Only your direct manager may initiate the request, which must be routed through human resources.) 2. A “exercise program log” is now the only document that we must produce for a verification request. This is a spreadsheet provided by HR that we can complete electronically or by hand, and simply includes the date and a brief description of the activity. Our executive director remains, but his one-year contract is up early this summer. Last year, I found it notable the management board’s renewed his contract for one year when the standard for his position (the only contract position in the organization) is two years. He spoke at length today about how important family is, so we are all hopeful he will opt to “spend more time with his family” instead of pushing for another contract renewal. 2. Our next work meeting is being held in a church (#2 at the link) Thank you all so much for responding regarding the church meeting space. I wanted to provide more context and an update. I should have written that this meeting was going to be the second one in that particular space, and I did attend the first. It is located more in the community hall than the sanctuary as commenters specified. There was some religious signage, mostly unobtrusive. After that first meeting, I learned that one of our leaders is a member there. I chalked the location up to being the best they could do on short notice, and moved on. For me, the issue is that after 3-4 months they didn’t bother to ask about the venue or look for other options in that time. This was going to continue indefinitely unless someone said something. So I wrote here, and then I wrote to HR asking for some guidance. It was my first experience with my HR and it was a positive one. I was mostly expecting that, best case, future meetings would be changed and wrote off this one, but they intervened and with even shorter notice (literally 2 days) we met on a local university campus. It felt like a normal meeting. And I’ll give credit to my leadership team and HR for making that happen. Thank you again for all of your insights on this. 3. How should I explain why I’m leaving my job? (#5 at the link) Your post went up after I gave notice but I did game plan it out with my therapist, who had much the same advice — don’t over-explain. I was hoping I could somehow give notice without anyone being upset, but their feelings are not mine to manage. I did end up being a bit more forthcoming about the fact that my new position was a step back in responsibility, and that is what is best for me and my family. That felt right to me as a way to model that different choices outside of the constant grind up the ladder are valid. I also acknowledge that I am in a privileged position to be able to take that step back without taking a pay cut, which often isn’t the case — but for anyone feeling trapped by their salary, don’t let that stop you from looking, because you never know. Thanks for publishing and for those who responded in the comments! The post updates: my boss made me verify that I’m really exercising, the work meeting in a church, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Cut costs and make your life a little nicer. By Sandi Leyva The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms Go PRO for members-only access to more Sandi Smith Leyva. View the full article

Cut costs and make your life a little nicer. By Sandi Leyva The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms Go PRO for members-only access to more Sandi Smith Leyva. View the full article

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on OpenAI’s gigantic new funding round and valuation. I also look at a recent leak around Anthropic’s models, and at backlash to ads placed in GitHub Copilot. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @thesullivan. OpenAI closes $122 billion funding round at $852 billion valuation OpenAI has closed what may be the largest private funding round ever, raising $122 billion (well more than the $110 billion target it announced in February.) The company is now valued at $852 billion, making it more valuable than most publicly traded companies. Investors include some of the biggest (and richest) names in big tech and big finance. Amazon reportedly committed around $50 billion, Nvidia put in $30 billion, and SoftBank contributed roughly $30 billion. Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, TPG, T. Rowe Price, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX also participated, along with Microsoft and other existing backers. The AI company is clearly laying the groundwork for a 2026 IPO, and it may come sooner rather than later, depending on market conditions. Currently, about a third of the total value of the stock market is being buoyed up by faith that the AI models and agents will transform the way business operates. OpenAI says it’s now generating about $2 billion per month in revenue, mostly from ChatGPT subscriptions, enterprise contracts, and API usage. (OpenAI was quick to point out that 40% of its revenue comes from enterprise sales, hoping to dispel the narrative that rival Anthropic is capturing the enterprise market.) Still, the company remains unprofitable, burning through cash on computing power, data centers, chips, and talent. OpenAI will use the additional funding to continue scaling up its models so that they can support the advanced agentic systems that are capable of autonomously handling challenging business tasks. Analysts’ reaction to the gigantic new round has been mixed. Winning the race to the smartest AI models depends in large part on access to abundant computing power, so some analysts read Nvidia’s and Amazon’s involvement in the round as a sign that OpenAI may have the inside track in that regard. Bernstein and others said the new funding is good news for Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, since it shows that OpenAI actually has the funds to pay for all the infrastructure capacity it’s contracting. Others are nagged by doubts about OpenAI’s potential for becoming profitable anytime soon. Developing and deploying AI models is a hugely expensive business, and the biggest line item is computing costs. HSBC and Deutsche Bank analysts believe that OpenAI and other general-purpose model developers may yet need to spend hundreds of billions more for compute alone before they reach profitability, while in the meantime reporting unprecedented losses. The current AI boom is often compared to the dot-com bonanza of the late 1990s, in which tech companies raked in large investments despite little evidence of a business model. Some suspect that the same “irrational exuberance” may be driving the record-breaking investments in AI companies. OpenAI’s new $852 billion valuation won’t help matters. A Bloomberg report says demand for OpenAI shares has cooled on secondary markets, while demand for shares of Anthropic, which has a far lower valuation of $380 billion, has been strong. So the new funding round should position OpenAI as the frontrunner in the AI race for now, but everybody will be watching for signs that the AI startup is cranking up profits to offset its frightening cash burn. Why the leak of Anthropic model information matters Another day, another Anthropic Claude Code source material leak. A debugging file was accidentally bundled into a routine Claude Code update and pushed to the public code package repository, and as a result we got information about the tool’s architecture and some performance data. The leak revealed no customer information or anything about the code or weights of Anthropic’s model, but it did provide a look at how Anthropic is scaling its Claude models, including new features that appear to be fully built and ready for release. Anthropic is steadily turning Claude into a more proactive assistant. The company appears to be developing features that let users schedule tasks to run automatically at set times, alongside expanding voice interaction so Claude can be spoken to and respond out loud. At the same time, it is improving memory capabilities, enabling future models to revisit past chats, learn from them, and apply those insights in new sessions. All of this points toward a “persistent assistant” that runs in the background even without an active session, with control extending across devices. Based on the direction of previous model releases, and on the agentic features already in Claude Code, the product road map direction revealed in the leak aren’t terribly surprising. They are all targeted toward getting Claude models ready to perform key tasks within the business operations of large companies. Anthropic’s continued growth in the enterprise market is crucial to the IPO the company hopes to hold this year. What’s of greater concern is what the leak says about Anthropic’s own operational security. The company was founded on the idea of being a “safer” AI provider. To enterprises that likely means not only that the company’s models aren’t easily used to do harm, but also that they can be entrusted with sensitive proprietary information. Some may wonder if Anthropic can deliver on that promise when it can’t even keep its own product plans private. What GitHub Copilot ad insertion goof says about AI monetization GitHub’s AI coding assistant Copilot recently injected some promotional text into more than 11,000 pull requests (code change proposals) across thousands of code repositories. Developers were not amused. The issue surfaced when developer Zach Manson noticed that a teammate had asked Copilot to correct a typo in a pull request description. Copilot fixed the typo but also quietly inserted a promotional message for itself and Raycast, a productivity app with a Copilot integration. “Quickly spin up Copilot coding agent tasks from anywhere on your macOS or Windows machine with Raycast,” it read. The Register found the same statement in 11,400 pull requests. GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, had been adding “helpful tips” to pull requests created by Copilot for some time. The company told The Register that a bug caused the tips to bleed into human-created PRs whenever someone mentioned Copilot. Now GitHub has removed agent tips from pull request comments. Was GitHub soft-launching a form of ad monetization? Maybe. But the backlash may show how sensitive developers are to having ads, no matter how benign, injected into their professional work. “This is horrific,” Manson wrote. “I knew this kind of bullshit would happen eventually, but I didn’t expect it so soon.” More AI coverage from Fast Company: The Navy’s AI bet to fix its submarine bottleneck Intuit thinks it’s found your company’s next CFO: AI 4 AI chatbots tried to fact-check Rubio on Iran. They couldn’t agree When to use human English vs. AI English Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “In accounting, our impact on businesses, lives and futures is substantial.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “In accounting, our impact on businesses, lives and futures is substantial.” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Your upper chest could be the key to your long-term health. A new study found a correlation between the health of a human’s thymus and the likelihood of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Published on Wednesday in the science journal Nature, researchers detailed the “crucial” effect of the thymus on long-term health and lifespan, reshaping prior assumptions about the organ. “These findings reposition the thymus as a central regulator of immune‑ mediated aging and disease susceptibility in adulthood,” the report states. Thymus health a key indicator Using AI tools, scientists analyzed more than 27,000 patient scans and medical records to evaluate thymus health. According to the journal, people with high thymic health had a mortality rate of 13.4 percent, compared with 25.5 percent among those with low thymic health. The thymus, a two-lobed gland sitting in the upper chest between the lungs, is responsible for T-lymphocytes, white blood cells that protect the body against pathogens and diseases. Throughout the years, the thymus “decays with age,” turning a once enlarged organ for health into fatty tissue replacement as it shrinks. The report added that 5.3 percent of people with low thymic health developed lung cancer, and that 16.7 percent of people with low thymic health developed cardiovascular disease. Other conditions, such as endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases, including diabetes, were common for those with low thymic health. “Even practical approaches, such as lifestyle changes including exercise and sleep, as well as healthy food choices and supplement intake, are likely to notably impact thymic health,” notes the report. AI and health care To further analyze their original hypothesis, scientists conducted two major cohort studies, the Framingham Heart Study and the National Lung Screening Trial. Researchers and scientific contributors Simon Bernatz and Vasco Prudente established an emphasis in using AI to more accurately measure thymic health. The duo stated in the report that manual assessment can oftentimes be unreliable: “Previous studies did not find any associations between thymic imaging characteristics and outcomes … indicating insufficient thymic quantification using a visual scoring system.” Instead of leaning on an external AI platform, the study relied on an in-house deep learning system to better evaluate the patients. Primarily by quantifying the thymic health on computed tomography (CT) scans and extracting a thymic health score with it. The study highlights the model’s consistency, particularly when tested on independent data sets. “These results demonstrate that the performance of the thymic health model is robust against input variations, and that it captures contextual information directly from the anatomical region of the thymus,” the report states. AI and deep learning systems have continued to shape research and health care. A recent collaboration between Nvidia and Roche created one of the largest hybrid‑cloud AI factories in the pharmaceutical sector. The ongoing momentum of AI in the biopharma sector is fueled by an interest to speed up research and discovery in order to save lives. —Moses Jeanfrancois This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

AI isn’t just transforming industries. It’s transforming the way energy is stored and distributed. Scaling at unprecedented speeds across the country, data centers today require a reliable, uninterrupted power supply, often consuming as much electricity as small cities. This puts immense pressure on power grids. Nationwide electric demand is forecast to increase by nearly 16% by 2029. The main drivers of that increase are investments in data centers, manufacturing, and geopolitical and national strategic industries. Two years ago, the amount of global electricity generated to supply data centers was 460 TWh. This is projected to more than double to 1,000 TWh in 2030, and increase to 1,300 TWh by 2035. For AI data centers, batteries are no longer just for emergencies. They ensure these centers remain operational. Large-scale energy storage is now embedded in daily operations, giving operators the ability to actively manage power and predict reliability of these installations. Predictable cycles allow batteries to smooth demand through load shifting and peak mitigation. They also support renewable integration by storing and dispatching energy as needed. As policy and lifecycle considerations evolve, batteries are the long-term infrastructure solution to support both grid stability and operational resilience. THE NEED FOR BATTERIES Because of this, there is a surging demand for batteries to support the AI boom and this “always on” power mentality. This will be especially true for large-format batteries due to the technological advancements of lithium-based batteries. Today, the U.S. is heavily reliant on foreign sources for the critical minerals required to manufacture batteries. It is estimated that nearly three-quarters of the United States’ lithium-ion batteries come from foreign entities. The rise of AI data centers is dramatically accelerating the demand for critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and more. And even with the focus on current initiatives, the United States is not strategically positioned to support the needs of the AI data center industry fully with domestically produced materials. BATTERY RECYCLING AND CRITICAL MINERAL REFINEMENT That’s where battery recycling and critical mineral refinement come in. Both are foundational to the core infrastructure required to stabilize AI data centers long term, given the current growth trajectory. End-of-life batteries contain valuable critical minerals. And there are plenty of batteries available—in cars driving on our roads, living in our junk drawers, stored in our garages, etc. So, we must take advantage of what we have domestically, recycle those used batteries, and extract the critical minerals to be used over and over again. These critical minerals can be used for batteries AI data centers rely on. Extracted critical minerals from end-of-life batteries and manufacturing scrap are already in the U.S. and can be put back into the nation’s supply chain. This not only allows us to be more globally competitive in the AI race. But by strengthening our critical mineral supply chain, we can enhance national security, reinvent our manufacturing capabilities (including the refining of critical minerals and battery manufacturing), and position ourselves as a leading critical mineral producer. INFRASTRUCTURE AND CAPACITY The infrastructure and capacity to recycle and process end-of-life batteries and refine those materials into battery-grade metals is required. It is needed to achieve global independence and power the AI data centers being built at an unprecedented pace across the country. We must be leaders in all aspects of battery technology—from extracting critical minerals from end-of-life batteries through to the manufacturing of new batteries. Batteries are truly the connection between uninterrupted power supplies and AI stabilization. With the increased demand for batteries, and ultimately critical minerals, recycling creates a closed-loop approach that strengthens domestic supply chains. In this global AI race, the real advantage is centered around who dominates the critical mineral supply chain. David Klanecky is CEO and president of Cirba Solutions. View the full article

Former Kingfisher boss vying for key internet and broadcast regulation role with politicians Margaret Hodge and Jeremy WrightView the full article

An accounts payable audit is a crucial process that examines a company’s financial obligations to guarantee accuracy and compliance. It helps identify discrepancies in payments and liabilities, preventing fraud and enhancing transparency. For instance, by verifying recorded expenses, you can maintain trust with vendors and stakeholders. Comprehending the objectives and key areas of focus during this audit can greatly impact your organization’s financial integrity. Let’s explore the steps involved and the benefits this audit brings to your business. Key Takeaways An accounts payable audit ensures financial integrity by verifying the accuracy, validity, and completeness of payments and liabilities. It identifies errors, prevents fraud, and guarantees compliance with company policies and regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Regular audits mitigate risks of duplicate payments and unauthorized transactions, enhancing trust among vendors and stakeholders. The audit evaluates the effectiveness of internal controls, safeguarding financial assets and supporting long-term business growth. Automating the audit process improves efficiency, reduces errors, and enhances fraud detection through real-time transaction visibility. Understanding Accounts Payable Audit An accounts payable audit is vital for maintaining financial integrity within an organization, as it involves an independent assessment of accounts payable records to verify the accuracy, validity, and completeness of payments and liabilities. Grasping accounts payable audit procedures is fundamental, as they help identify errors, prevent fraud, and guarantee compliance with company policies and regulations. These audits not merely uncover unrecorded liabilities but additionally improve record-keeping practices, enhancing transparency. A thorough accounts payable recovery audit can reveal discrepancies, such as duplicate payments or incorrect vendor information, allowing you to recover lost assets. Objectives of an Accounts Payable Audit Verifying the accuracy of recorded liabilities, payments, and invoices stands as the primary objective of an accounts payable audit, as it helps prevent errors and detect potential fraud. This audit of payables aims to guarantee compliance with company policies and regulatory standards, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Another key objective is evaluating the effectiveness of internal controls, which protects against unauthorized transactions and payment errors. An effective AP recovery audit identifies discrepancies, assuring all financial obligations are accurately reflected. By validating the completeness of recorded expenses and liabilities, you safeguard your organization’s financial integrity. In the end, a thorough accounts payable recovery process contributes to a transparent and reliable financial system, nurturing trust among stakeholders. Importance of Auditing Accounts Payable Even though many may overlook it, auditing accounts payable plays a vital role in maintaining the financial integrity of an organization. By regularly conducting audits, you can mitigate fraud risks, preventing issues like duplicate payments and unauthorized transactions. This process nurtures trust among vendors and stakeholders, enhancing your company’s reputation. Audits additionally guarantee compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which simplifies tax filing through accurate expense categorization. Furthermore, adhering to regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is significant for public companies, as it promotes transparency and accountability in financial reporting. Implementing effective auditing practices strengthens internal controls, safeguarding financial assets and protecting your bottom line, ultimately supporting long-term business growth and stability. Key Areas of Focus During the Audit During an accounts payable audit, several key areas demand your attention to secure thorough evaluation and compliance. First, verify the completeness of recorded liabilities to make certain all expenses are documented in the correct accounting periods. Next, assess validity by confirming transactions through vendor confirmations, making sure payables align with actual goods or services received. Compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is vital, so scrutinize adherence to these standards in transaction recording. In addition, evaluate accuracy through mathematical checks against purchase orders and invoices, confirming payments reflect the correct amounts owed. Finally, review internal controls and authorization processes to verify all payments have proper approvals, maintaining segregation of duties to mitigate fraud risks effectively. The Audit Process: Steps Involved The audit process involves a systematic approach to evaluating an organization’s accounts payable, guaranteeing transparency and accuracy in financial reporting. It typically consists of four main stages. First, during the planning phase, you define the audit’s scope and objectives, notify the organization, and discuss relevant standard operating procedures. Next, in the fieldwork stage, you thoroughly examine financial records, guaranteeing all transactions are accurately recorded, including conducting cutoff tests to verify fiscal year transactions. After that, you compile a final audit report that summarizes findings, identifies discrepancies, and offers recommendations for improving internal controls. Finally, a follow-up review occurs about a year later to assess the implementation of the auditor’s recommendations and guarantee compliance with suggested changes. Required Documentation for an Effective Audit To guarantee an effective accounts payable audit, you’ll need to gather essential documentation that supports the accuracy and completeness of financial records. Required documents include year-end financial statements, check registers, purchase orders, vendor invoices, and delivery receipts. These documents help verify recorded payables and payments, ensuring compliance with accounting standards. Establishing an effective audit trail involves matching payments to recorded payables and identifying unmatched documents. A thorough examination of these records aids in identifying discrepancies and reinforces adherence to Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Document Type Purpose Year-End Financials Verifies overall financial accuracy Check Registers Tracks payments made and outstanding amounts Purchase Orders Confirms orders placed with vendors Vendor Invoices Validates amounts owed to suppliers Benefits of Automating the Accounts Payable Audit Automating the accounts payable audit can considerably boost both efficiency and accuracy in your financial processes. By centralizing document management and reducing manual data entry errors, you’ll find that the audit completion time decreases, allowing you to focus on other critical tasks. Furthermore, automated systems improve fraud detection by providing real-time visibility into transactions, making it easier to spot discrepancies and potential fraud indicators, such as duplicate invoices. Increased Efficiency and Accuracy When organizations implement accounts payable automation, they streamline invoice processing and approval workflows, which can greatly reduce manual data entry errors by up to 80%. This increase in efficiency allows you to identify discrepancies more swiftly, improving the overall accuracy of your financial recordings and reporting. Centralizing document management enables easy access to necessary records for auditors, enhancing the audit process’s efficiency. In addition, automated systems help detect irregularities, like duplicate invoices, early in the workflow, mitigating potential financial losses. Enhanced Fraud Detection Improved fraud detection through accounts payable automation considerably boosts a company’s ability to identify and prevent financial irregularities. By utilizing automated software, you can quickly detect issues like duplicate invoices and rounded dollar amounts, which often signal fraudulent activity. Electronic invoicing and payment systems streamline the audit process, allowing for rapid identification of discrepancies and real-time monitoring of transactions. Automation furthermore creates a secure, easily searchable audit trail, simplifying the tracing of transactions and verifying their authenticity. This reduces the risk of tampered invoices. In addition, advanced AI-driven features analyze transaction patterns, enabling you to proactively mitigate fraud risks before they escalate, ensuring your financial records remain accurate and trustworthy. Common Challenges in Accounts Payable Audits Many organizations face common challenges during accounts payable audits that can hinder the accuracy and efficiency of the process. One major issue is the manual review of paperwork, which often leads to human error and inaccuracies in financial reporting. Furthermore, identifying unmatched documents complicates verifying liabilities and payments, making it tough to guarantee completeness. Fraud detection is another significant challenge, as accounts payable departments can be targets for duplicate payments and tampered invoices. Smaller businesses may experience high control risks, necessitating robust internal controls. Finally, compliance with evolving regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act adds pressure, requiring regular audits to avoid penalties. Challenge Description Manual Review Prone to human error and inefficiency. Unmatched Documents Complicates liability and payment verification. Fraud Detection Vulnerable to duplicate payments and invoice tampering. High Control Risks Smaller businesses struggle with effective controls. Compliance Requirements Need for regular audits to meet regulations. Future Trends in Accounts Payable Auditing The scenery of accounts payable auditing is swiftly evolving, primarily as a result of advancements in technology. Automation is set to streamline your processes, making financial data management more efficient. You’ll notice an increasing use of AI-driven fraud detection tools that improve accuracy and minimize risks during audits. Furthermore, cloud-based solutions are gaining traction, offering centralized access to records and enabling remote audits, which enhances compliance documentation. As data analytics becomes integral to auditing, you’ll need to develop skills to analyze large datasets for identifying anomalies. In addition, stay informed about continuous changes in laws and regulations, as these will shape future auditing practices, ensuring your organization remains compliant and competitive in the financial scenery. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Purpose of the Accounts Payable Audit? The purpose of an accounts payable audit is to verify the accuracy and completeness of recorded liabilities, payments, and invoices. By conducting this audit, you can identify errors or potential fraud, like duplicate payments. It guarantees compliance with internal policies and regulations, safeguarding your financial health. Moreover, an audit provides insights into cost-saving opportunities, improving your accounts payable processes as well as nurturing trust with vendors and stakeholders through timely and accurate payments. How Do You Audit Accounts Payable? To audit accounts payable, start by planning the audit, which involves scheduling and defining objectives. Next, conduct fieldwork by reviewing financial records and performing tests, like matching invoices with payment records. Confirm compliance by examining vendor documentation and evaluating internal controls. After gathering data, compile a final report summarizing findings. Finally, conduct a follow-up review to verify that recommendations are implemented effectively, ensuring ongoing accuracy and reliability in your accounts payable processes. What Is an AP Audit? An accounts payable (AP) audit is a systematic review of your company’s AP records. It verifies the accuracy and completeness of recorded liabilities and payments, ensuring compliance with internal policies and regulations. During the audit, you’ll assess vendor invoices, confirm their authenticity, and check for duplicate payments. This process not just helps identify errors or fraudulent activities but additionally improves overall financial health, providing stakeholders with reliable reporting and transparency in financial dealings. Is Accounts Payable Hard to Audit? Yes, accounts payable can be hard to audit because of the high volume of transactions and complex matching of invoices with purchase orders and payments. You’ll face challenges in ensuring all records are accurate and complete, especially in smaller organizations where control risks are high. Furthermore, compliance with regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires careful documentation and verification, which can extend the audit timeline, making the process more demanding. Conclusion To sum up, an accounts payable audit is crucial for maintaining financial integrity and compliance within your organization. By systematically examining liabilities and payments, you can identify discrepancies, prevent fraud, and improve transparency. The audit process not just safeguards financial assets but furthermore builds trust with vendors and stakeholders. Embracing automation can streamline this process, making it more efficient. As the environment of finance evolves, staying informed about trends in accounts payable auditing will help you adapt and maintain effective financial practices. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is an Accounts Payable Audit and Why Is It Important?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

An accounts payable audit is a crucial process that examines a company’s financial obligations to guarantee accuracy and compliance. It helps identify discrepancies in payments and liabilities, preventing fraud and enhancing transparency. For instance, by verifying recorded expenses, you can maintain trust with vendors and stakeholders. Comprehending the objectives and key areas of focus during this audit can greatly impact your organization’s financial integrity. Let’s explore the steps involved and the benefits this audit brings to your business. Key Takeaways An accounts payable audit ensures financial integrity by verifying the accuracy, validity, and completeness of payments and liabilities. It identifies errors, prevents fraud, and guarantees compliance with company policies and regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Regular audits mitigate risks of duplicate payments and unauthorized transactions, enhancing trust among vendors and stakeholders. The audit evaluates the effectiveness of internal controls, safeguarding financial assets and supporting long-term business growth. Automating the audit process improves efficiency, reduces errors, and enhances fraud detection through real-time transaction visibility. Understanding Accounts Payable Audit An accounts payable audit is vital for maintaining financial integrity within an organization, as it involves an independent assessment of accounts payable records to verify the accuracy, validity, and completeness of payments and liabilities. Grasping accounts payable audit procedures is fundamental, as they help identify errors, prevent fraud, and guarantee compliance with company policies and regulations. These audits not merely uncover unrecorded liabilities but additionally improve record-keeping practices, enhancing transparency. A thorough accounts payable recovery audit can reveal discrepancies, such as duplicate payments or incorrect vendor information, allowing you to recover lost assets. Objectives of an Accounts Payable Audit Verifying the accuracy of recorded liabilities, payments, and invoices stands as the primary objective of an accounts payable audit, as it helps prevent errors and detect potential fraud. This audit of payables aims to guarantee compliance with company policies and regulatory standards, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Another key objective is evaluating the effectiveness of internal controls, which protects against unauthorized transactions and payment errors. An effective AP recovery audit identifies discrepancies, assuring all financial obligations are accurately reflected. By validating the completeness of recorded expenses and liabilities, you safeguard your organization’s financial integrity. In the end, a thorough accounts payable recovery process contributes to a transparent and reliable financial system, nurturing trust among stakeholders. Importance of Auditing Accounts Payable Even though many may overlook it, auditing accounts payable plays a vital role in maintaining the financial integrity of an organization. By regularly conducting audits, you can mitigate fraud risks, preventing issues like duplicate payments and unauthorized transactions. This process nurtures trust among vendors and stakeholders, enhancing your company’s reputation. Audits additionally guarantee compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which simplifies tax filing through accurate expense categorization. Furthermore, adhering to regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is significant for public companies, as it promotes transparency and accountability in financial reporting. Implementing effective auditing practices strengthens internal controls, safeguarding financial assets and protecting your bottom line, ultimately supporting long-term business growth and stability. Key Areas of Focus During the Audit During an accounts payable audit, several key areas demand your attention to secure thorough evaluation and compliance. First, verify the completeness of recorded liabilities to make certain all expenses are documented in the correct accounting periods. Next, assess validity by confirming transactions through vendor confirmations, making sure payables align with actual goods or services received. Compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is vital, so scrutinize adherence to these standards in transaction recording. In addition, evaluate accuracy through mathematical checks against purchase orders and invoices, confirming payments reflect the correct amounts owed. Finally, review internal controls and authorization processes to verify all payments have proper approvals, maintaining segregation of duties to mitigate fraud risks effectively. The Audit Process: Steps Involved The audit process involves a systematic approach to evaluating an organization’s accounts payable, guaranteeing transparency and accuracy in financial reporting. It typically consists of four main stages. First, during the planning phase, you define the audit’s scope and objectives, notify the organization, and discuss relevant standard operating procedures. Next, in the fieldwork stage, you thoroughly examine financial records, guaranteeing all transactions are accurately recorded, including conducting cutoff tests to verify fiscal year transactions. After that, you compile a final audit report that summarizes findings, identifies discrepancies, and offers recommendations for improving internal controls. Finally, a follow-up review occurs about a year later to assess the implementation of the auditor’s recommendations and guarantee compliance with suggested changes. Required Documentation for an Effective Audit To guarantee an effective accounts payable audit, you’ll need to gather essential documentation that supports the accuracy and completeness of financial records. Required documents include year-end financial statements, check registers, purchase orders, vendor invoices, and delivery receipts. These documents help verify recorded payables and payments, ensuring compliance with accounting standards. Establishing an effective audit trail involves matching payments to recorded payables and identifying unmatched documents. A thorough examination of these records aids in identifying discrepancies and reinforces adherence to Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Document Type Purpose Year-End Financials Verifies overall financial accuracy Check Registers Tracks payments made and outstanding amounts Purchase Orders Confirms orders placed with vendors Vendor Invoices Validates amounts owed to suppliers Benefits of Automating the Accounts Payable Audit Automating the accounts payable audit can considerably boost both efficiency and accuracy in your financial processes. By centralizing document management and reducing manual data entry errors, you’ll find that the audit completion time decreases, allowing you to focus on other critical tasks. Furthermore, automated systems improve fraud detection by providing real-time visibility into transactions, making it easier to spot discrepancies and potential fraud indicators, such as duplicate invoices. Increased Efficiency and Accuracy When organizations implement accounts payable automation, they streamline invoice processing and approval workflows, which can greatly reduce manual data entry errors by up to 80%. This increase in efficiency allows you to identify discrepancies more swiftly, improving the overall accuracy of your financial recordings and reporting. Centralizing document management enables easy access to necessary records for auditors, enhancing the audit process’s efficiency. In addition, automated systems help detect irregularities, like duplicate invoices, early in the workflow, mitigating potential financial losses. Enhanced Fraud Detection Improved fraud detection through accounts payable automation considerably boosts a company’s ability to identify and prevent financial irregularities. By utilizing automated software, you can quickly detect issues like duplicate invoices and rounded dollar amounts, which often signal fraudulent activity. Electronic invoicing and payment systems streamline the audit process, allowing for rapid identification of discrepancies and real-time monitoring of transactions. Automation furthermore creates a secure, easily searchable audit trail, simplifying the tracing of transactions and verifying their authenticity. This reduces the risk of tampered invoices. In addition, advanced AI-driven features analyze transaction patterns, enabling you to proactively mitigate fraud risks before they escalate, ensuring your financial records remain accurate and trustworthy. Common Challenges in Accounts Payable Audits Many organizations face common challenges during accounts payable audits that can hinder the accuracy and efficiency of the process. One major issue is the manual review of paperwork, which often leads to human error and inaccuracies in financial reporting. Furthermore, identifying unmatched documents complicates verifying liabilities and payments, making it tough to guarantee completeness. Fraud detection is another significant challenge, as accounts payable departments can be targets for duplicate payments and tampered invoices. Smaller businesses may experience high control risks, necessitating robust internal controls. Finally, compliance with evolving regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act adds pressure, requiring regular audits to avoid penalties. Challenge Description Manual Review Prone to human error and inefficiency. Unmatched Documents Complicates liability and payment verification. Fraud Detection Vulnerable to duplicate payments and invoice tampering. High Control Risks Smaller businesses struggle with effective controls. Compliance Requirements Need for regular audits to meet regulations. Future Trends in Accounts Payable Auditing The scenery of accounts payable auditing is swiftly evolving, primarily as a result of advancements in technology. Automation is set to streamline your processes, making financial data management more efficient. You’ll notice an increasing use of AI-driven fraud detection tools that improve accuracy and minimize risks during audits. Furthermore, cloud-based solutions are gaining traction, offering centralized access to records and enabling remote audits, which enhances compliance documentation. As data analytics becomes integral to auditing, you’ll need to develop skills to analyze large datasets for identifying anomalies. In addition, stay informed about continuous changes in laws and regulations, as these will shape future auditing practices, ensuring your organization remains compliant and competitive in the financial scenery. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Purpose of the Accounts Payable Audit? The purpose of an accounts payable audit is to verify the accuracy and completeness of recorded liabilities, payments, and invoices. By conducting this audit, you can identify errors or potential fraud, like duplicate payments. It guarantees compliance with internal policies and regulations, safeguarding your financial health. Moreover, an audit provides insights into cost-saving opportunities, improving your accounts payable processes as well as nurturing trust with vendors and stakeholders through timely and accurate payments. How Do You Audit Accounts Payable? To audit accounts payable, start by planning the audit, which involves scheduling and defining objectives. Next, conduct fieldwork by reviewing financial records and performing tests, like matching invoices with payment records. Confirm compliance by examining vendor documentation and evaluating internal controls. After gathering data, compile a final report summarizing findings. Finally, conduct a follow-up review to verify that recommendations are implemented effectively, ensuring ongoing accuracy and reliability in your accounts payable processes. What Is an AP Audit? An accounts payable (AP) audit is a systematic review of your company’s AP records. It verifies the accuracy and completeness of recorded liabilities and payments, ensuring compliance with internal policies and regulations. During the audit, you’ll assess vendor invoices, confirm their authenticity, and check for duplicate payments. This process not just helps identify errors or fraudulent activities but additionally improves overall financial health, providing stakeholders with reliable reporting and transparency in financial dealings. Is Accounts Payable Hard to Audit? Yes, accounts payable can be hard to audit because of the high volume of transactions and complex matching of invoices with purchase orders and payments. You’ll face challenges in ensuring all records are accurate and complete, especially in smaller organizations where control risks are high. Furthermore, compliance with regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires careful documentation and verification, which can extend the audit timeline, making the process more demanding. Conclusion To sum up, an accounts payable audit is crucial for maintaining financial integrity and compliance within your organization. By systematically examining liabilities and payments, you can identify discrepancies, prevent fraud, and improve transparency. The audit process not just safeguards financial assets but furthermore builds trust with vendors and stakeholders. Embracing automation can streamline this process, making it more efficient. As the environment of finance evolves, staying informed about trends in accounts payable auditing will help you adapt and maintain effective financial practices. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is an Accounts Payable Audit and Why Is It Important?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Oracle has unveiled a groundbreaking advancement that promises to reshape how small businesses manage their operations. The introduction of Fusion Agentic Applications signals a shift from traditional enterprise software, enabling small business owners to harness the power of specialized AI agents for more efficient and effective management solutions. The new set of applications, integrated within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, is designed to execute decision-making processes in real time. This level of automation doesn’t just streamline operations; it transforms the way businesses achieve their objectives. “The way work gets done no longer matches the speed, complexity, or expectations of modern business,” explained Steve Miranda, Oracle’s executive vice president of Applications Development. He emphasized that these applications allow for proactive action rather than reactive management, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives. Key Benefits for Small Businesses Fusion Agentic Applications offer several notable advantages tailored for small business needs: Outcome-Driven Execution: The applications focus on defined business goals and continuously push work forward. This not only enhances productivity but ensures alignment with overarching business objectives. Shared Context: Small businesses often juggle multiple tasks and information sources. These applications maintain a persistent context, remembering past decisions and current challenges. This significantly reduces the time employees spend trying to reconstruct context in ongoing tasks. Continuous Reasoning: These applications are designed to adjust on the fly, evaluating situational nuances and making decisions that drive work toward objectives. This constant reevaluation ensures that small businesses can keep pace with changing conditions, avoiding stalls in processes. Enterprise-Grade Governance: Security and oversight are crucial for small businesses, especially in sensitive areas like finance and HR. The Fusion Agentic Applications operate within Oracle’s established security framework, providing reliable governance and auditability. Practical Applications for Small Business Leaders With 22 new applications now available, small business leaders can tap into specialized tools to drive better results: Workforce Operations Agentic Application: Simplifies HR tasks by streamlining scheduling and payroll processes, enabling HR managers to shift from a reactive to a proactive approach. Design-to-Source Workspace Agentic Application: Helps streamline supply chain processes by coordinating decision-making across various functions, leading to reduced costs and quicker product cycles. Cross-Sell Program Workspace Agentic Application: This can help sales teams identify growth opportunities. The application aims to enhance revenue while reducing customer acquisition costs. Collectors Workspace Agentic Application: Focuses on accelerating cash collection, minimizing delays, and improving cash flow management. This is crucial for maintaining healthy working capital. By deploying these applications, small business owners can reclaim valuable time and resources, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down in operational details. Potential Challenges on the Horizon While the benefits are significant, small business owners should also consider a few challenges: Integration with Existing Systems: Transitioning to the new applications may require adjustments to existing workflows. Owners need to ensure that their teams are trained and ready to use the new tools optimally. Cost Considerations: Adopting sophisticated AI-driven applications can come with upfront costs. Small business leaders should evaluate the potential return on investment and seek scalable options that suit their budget. Trusting AI Decisions: As businesses incorporate AI into decision-making, ensuring that human judgment remains integral will be essential. Systems should provide avenues for oversight where significant decisions are concerned. Industry experts have noted the importance of integrating AI deeply into existing systems. “Oracle’s approach with Fusion Agentic Applications is notable because the agents operate inside the application suite itself, with native access to data,” said Michael Fauscette, CEO and chief analyst of Arion Research. This integration is seen as a crucial differentiator for small businesses looking to leverage AI for operational efficiency. The introduction of Oracle Fusion Agentic Applications represents a significant advancement for small businesses seeking to enhance their operational workflows. By streamlining processes and improving governance, these applications offer small business owners the tools needed to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. As the landscape of enterprise software evolves, embracing these innovations may very well be the key to staying ahead. To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, visit www.oracle.com/applications. For further details about the Fusion Agentic Applications, check out the original press release here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Oracle Unveils Fusion Agentic Applications to Transform Enterprise Workflows" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Oracle has unveiled a groundbreaking advancement that promises to reshape how small businesses manage their operations. The introduction of Fusion Agentic Applications signals a shift from traditional enterprise software, enabling small business owners to harness the power of specialized AI agents for more efficient and effective management solutions. The new set of applications, integrated within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, is designed to execute decision-making processes in real time. This level of automation doesn’t just streamline operations; it transforms the way businesses achieve their objectives. “The way work gets done no longer matches the speed, complexity, or expectations of modern business,” explained Steve Miranda, Oracle’s executive vice president of Applications Development. He emphasized that these applications allow for proactive action rather than reactive management, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives. Key Benefits for Small Businesses Fusion Agentic Applications offer several notable advantages tailored for small business needs: Outcome-Driven Execution: The applications focus on defined business goals and continuously push work forward. This not only enhances productivity but ensures alignment with overarching business objectives. Shared Context: Small businesses often juggle multiple tasks and information sources. These applications maintain a persistent context, remembering past decisions and current challenges. This significantly reduces the time employees spend trying to reconstruct context in ongoing tasks. Continuous Reasoning: These applications are designed to adjust on the fly, evaluating situational nuances and making decisions that drive work toward objectives. This constant reevaluation ensures that small businesses can keep pace with changing conditions, avoiding stalls in processes. Enterprise-Grade Governance: Security and oversight are crucial for small businesses, especially in sensitive areas like finance and HR. The Fusion Agentic Applications operate within Oracle’s established security framework, providing reliable governance and auditability. Practical Applications for Small Business Leaders With 22 new applications now available, small business leaders can tap into specialized tools to drive better results: Workforce Operations Agentic Application: Simplifies HR tasks by streamlining scheduling and payroll processes, enabling HR managers to shift from a reactive to a proactive approach. Design-to-Source Workspace Agentic Application: Helps streamline supply chain processes by coordinating decision-making across various functions, leading to reduced costs and quicker product cycles. Cross-Sell Program Workspace Agentic Application: This can help sales teams identify growth opportunities. The application aims to enhance revenue while reducing customer acquisition costs. Collectors Workspace Agentic Application: Focuses on accelerating cash collection, minimizing delays, and improving cash flow management. This is crucial for maintaining healthy working capital. By deploying these applications, small business owners can reclaim valuable time and resources, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down in operational details. Potential Challenges on the Horizon While the benefits are significant, small business owners should also consider a few challenges: Integration with Existing Systems: Transitioning to the new applications may require adjustments to existing workflows. Owners need to ensure that their teams are trained and ready to use the new tools optimally. Cost Considerations: Adopting sophisticated AI-driven applications can come with upfront costs. Small business leaders should evaluate the potential return on investment and seek scalable options that suit their budget. Trusting AI Decisions: As businesses incorporate AI into decision-making, ensuring that human judgment remains integral will be essential. Systems should provide avenues for oversight where significant decisions are concerned. Industry experts have noted the importance of integrating AI deeply into existing systems. “Oracle’s approach with Fusion Agentic Applications is notable because the agents operate inside the application suite itself, with native access to data,” said Michael Fauscette, CEO and chief analyst of Arion Research. This integration is seen as a crucial differentiator for small businesses looking to leverage AI for operational efficiency. The introduction of Oracle Fusion Agentic Applications represents a significant advancement for small businesses seeking to enhance their operational workflows. By streamlining processes and improving governance, these applications offer small business owners the tools needed to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. As the landscape of enterprise software evolves, embracing these innovations may very well be the key to staying ahead. To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, visit www.oracle.com/applications. For further details about the Fusion Agentic Applications, check out the original press release here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Oracle Unveils Fusion Agentic Applications to Transform Enterprise Workflows" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Over the past few years, the Chinese-made Boox Palma e-reader has gained a cult following in the U.S. for its phone-like form factor, Android compatibility, and less-addictive grayscale screen—I've personally credited it with helping me spend more time reading and less time scrolling on my iPhone. But as much as I love it, I do still always need to carry my phone with me, because the Palma—even the newer Palma 2 Pro with mobile data—just isn't a good match for many of the tasks I use my phone for, including navigation and tap-to-pay. Soon, though, there may be a dual-purpose device that will serve both masters. Bigme, another Chinese tech company best known for its e-ink devices like e-readers and digital notebooks, has announced plans to produce a smartphone with two displays—an LCD screen on one side, and a color e-ink screen on the other. The "world's first" color e-ink/LCD smartphoneThis new phone doesn't yet have a price tag or a release date, but it does have a placeholder product page on the Bigme website, which promises the "Hibreak Dual" will be the "world's first color e-ink + LCD = dual-screen smartphone." The company has also posted cryptic comments on Reddit, encouraging you to "reserve your front-row seat" by signing up for more information about the device when it becomes available. While the tech sounds intriguing, I have some reservations. It's true that Bigme has a track record with e-ink smartphones—it has made a few of them, including the Hibreak Pro, which is generally recognized as the best e-ink smartphone in a (very) niche market. But I've tried it, and it has the same problem that plagues Bigme's e-readers: absolutely horrendous software. I imagine the "Hibreak Dual" will use a similar OS, with the added technical hurdle that it will have to be optimized for two display formats. So my interest is piqued, but I'm skeptical the user experience will be good enough to actually make me consider ditching iOS. Though there are no indication of what it might cost, the Hibreak Dual is likely to be on par with the entry level iPhone 17e at the very least—the existing Hibreak Pro costs between $400 and $430, depending on the model and the current promotions Bigme is offering. Bigme HiBreak Pro $386.00 at Amazon $439.00 Save $53.00 Get Deal Get Deal $386.00 at Amazon $439.00 Save $53.00 Not truly the first dual-screen deviceWhile Bigme may be technically correct that the Hibreak Dual would be the first phone with both an LCD screen and color e-ink, it's not quite the innovation it seems: Yota, a now-defunct Russian mobile phone manufacturer, debuted the "Yotaphone" way back in 2012. That device had a 4.2-inch LCD screen on the front and a black-and-white e-ink display on the back. Though a few different models were introduced over the years, it was never widely available internationally, however, and Yota went out of business in 2019. View the full article

There’s a flood coming. A downpour of noise — more content, more channels, more AI-generated everything, moving faster than most teams can keep up with. Somewhere in that volume, your customers are quietly drowning — overwhelmed, underserved, and one bad experience away from choosing someone else. You’ve probably felt it on your team, too. Another tool. Another sprint. Another quarter of doing more with less. The productivity metrics look fine from the outside. But inside, people are running on empty. There’s an old story about a man named Noah who, facing catastrophic disruption, didn’t freeze or panic. He didn’t look for shortcuts or try to outswim the storm. He built — with intention, with a clear design, and with people he trusted. When the waters rose, the ark held. The brands that lead don’t adopt the most technology the fastest. They build with intention — designing systems and experiences that protect people. What follows is the case for building your ark — and a practical framework to do it. The hidden emotional tax nobody is measuring Customer-obsessed organizations achieved 49% faster profit growth and 51% better customer retention rates than their peers, according to Forrester. The gap between what customers need emotionally and what brands deliver comes down to design. The strain isn’t only on the customer side. AI power users report that it makes their overwhelming workload more manageable (92%), boosts creativity (92%), and helps them focus on their most important work (93%), per Microsoft and LinkedIn’s Work Trend Index,. Yet, 60% of leaders say their company lacks a concrete AI vision or plan — meaning the very tool that could relieve team burnout is sitting underutilized. That gap shows up in real ways. For customers, it creates friction — too many choices, unclear navigation, and messaging that misses where they are. They arrive with a question and leave with more confusion. They don’t feel seen or helped. For marketing teams, the impact is quieter but just as serious: Decision fatigue disguised as strategy. Tool overload framed as innovation. Burnout that looks like productivity — until it doesn’t. Fragmented workflows that drain energy faster than they produce results. Brands that recognize these human issues move faster, retain stronger talent, build deeper customer loyalty, and drive better business outcomes. Enter what I call the wellness sweet spot. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Where AI, empathy, and design come together The wellness sweet spot is the moment where AI, empathy, and human-first design converge — creating conditions where both your customers and your team can think clearly, act confidently, and trust the experience they’re in. It’s an architectural decision about how your entire marketing ecosystem is designed to make people feel. When its three pillars are genuinely working together, four things become true simultaneously: AI reduces waste and cognitive load in the experience — making things simpler. Emotional friction is intentionally minimized at every touchpoint. Marketing teams operate from a foundation of wellness (and well-being). Systems and workflows support human thriving, not just throughput. When these conditions are in place, something shifts. AI stops feeling like a disruption and starts working as a stabilizing layer — supporting, protecting, and quietly holding the system together. It manages the overwhelm. The ark keeps floating. Dig deeper: How to avoid decision fatigue in SEO AI as an invisible wellness layer Most marketing leaders still think about AI in terms of what it does — automate, generate, optimize, analyze. Those outcomes matter, but they don’t tell the full story. The more consequential question is how AI makes people feel while it’s doing those things. For customers, AI used well is a guide that: Summarizes complexity without dumbing it down. Narrows choices in ways that feel helpful rather than manipulative. Anticipates what someone needs next and removes ambiguity from decision paths. Saves time — which is, in a very real sense, saving emotional energy. For teams, thoughtfully deployed AI absorbs the work that depletes people most: the repetitive, the reactive, and the administrative. It creates space for what human brains do best: strategy, creativity, relationship-building, and nuanced judgment. When you build your marketing systems around it, the output quality goes up because the people producing it aren’t running on fumes. This is empathy at scale. Not the kind that lives in a tagline, but the kind that’s baked into how your systems are structured and how your content is designed to reach people. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The new emotional metrics: What to measure when you start caring about feelings This is where things get practical and start to move ahead of the curve. Most marketing dashboards show what happened — click-through rates, conversion rates, and time on page. Those metrics matter, but they don’t explain why someone left or how they felt along the way. Emotional metrics help fill that gap by focusing on the conditions under which decisions are made. Research in psychology and neuroscience shows that people make better decisions, build stronger brand relationships, and become more loyal when they feel clear, confident, and calm. Here’s how traditional metrics map to emotional KPIs: Traditional metricEmotional KPIWhat it measures, reimaginedTime on pageClarity indexHow quickly someone finds what they need — without confusionConversion rateDecision effort scoreCognitive load required to complete an actionEngagement rateCustomer calm markersBehavioral signals of confidence, not stress (Qualified attention)Team output volumeWellness throughputStrategic output produced with reduced burnout These are upstream indicators that help explain downstream performance. A low clarity index often shows up as stalled conversion rates. A high decision effort score can lead to rising cart abandonment. Declining wellness throughput tends to result in average output from top strategists. Brands that start tracking these now gain an advantage over those that wait to react. 5 steps to design toward your wellness sweet spot A caution before the roadmap: more speed and scale applied to a broken system will not fix it. It will amplify everything that’s wrong with it. These five steps are meant to be done before you push harder on AI adoption. Step 1: Run an empathy audit Where are customers confused? Hesitating? Leaving? Map these moments using behavioral data combined with qualitative insight — customer interviews, session recordings, support tickets, search data. Focus less on what people clicked and more on where they felt lost. Step 2: Simplify for cognitive ease Fewer choices. Plain language. Cleaner navigation. Every step you remove from a decision path is a small act of respect for your customer’s mental energy. This is generous. It’s designing with intelligence. Step 3: Use AI as a shepherd Deploy AI to enhance orientation, clarity, and confidence. Don’t push aggressive automation or manufacture a sense of urgency. AI should make customers feel helped, not herded. There’s a difference, and your audience feels it. Step 4: Rebuild team workflows around energy Audit where your team’s cognitive energy actually goes each week. Identify the work that is routine, reactive, or repetitive — and build AI into those gaps first. Protect the hours that require human judgment, creativity, and relationship-building. Those are the hours that drive real growth. Step 5: Measure the feels Begin tracking emotional outcomes alongside performance metrics. Start simple: add a one-question post-interaction survey. Review search data for confusion signals. For example, growing volume for “how do I” or “why can’t I” phrases on your own site may indicate your content isn’t answering questions before they’re asked. Monitor support ticket themes for friction patterns. A perfect measurement system isn’t required to start. The intention to look is. Dig deeper: The secret to work-life harmony in SEO: Setting boundaries See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The future belongs to emotionally intelligent brands In a market where nearly every brand claims to be customer-centric and frictionless, the real differentiator comes down to how people feel and whether systems consistently deliver on that promise. Leading organizations don’t rely on bigger AI budgets. They align technology with clear intent, prioritize well-timed, empathy-led content over volume, treat customer well-being as part of the brand promise, and protect their teams’ energy as rigorously as performance. Creating value starts with protecting the people who create it. Noah didn’t survive the flood by ignoring it or fearing it. He paid attention, took action, and built with intention — something designed to carry what mattered most: his people, his purpose, his peace, and his future. That’s the kind of leadership this moment calls for. You don’t have to figure this out alone. The tools are here. The framework is yours. The decision is whether to build before the pressure hits or react once it’s already underway. View the full article

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes: I am looking for advice on managing ADHD at work, but the caveat is that I’m still nursing a baby, so most medication is off the table and when I do stop (hopefully soon – he’s over a year old and I’m actively working on weaning), I know it may take me months to find something that works. So I am really looking for non-medication strategies in the meantime. I recently got diagnosed with ADHD (in my late thirties) after having my second child and going off the executive functioning cliff deep end (thanks, hormones!). I’ve always had symptoms and have nearly always managed okay enough, but after coming back to work post-baby I would just spend hours in front of the computer and get absolutely nothing done. Cue the diagnosis. It’s been an eye-opener and such a relief, and I’m working through years of internalized shame, obsession with perfectionism, and anxiety. I did initially get on some rapid-release Adderall, taken just for work as needed (the only thing I can take while still nursing, since it gets out of my system fast enough between feedings). It was an absolute miracle at first, lifting my mood and getting me to concentrate seamlessly. And then a couple of months ago, it just stopped working, and if anything made things worse. So now here I am typing this out at noon, on double my original dose, having not even opened my work the whole morning. I’ve tried blocking websites, but then I find workarounds. Trello used to work, and just doesn’t. I’ve given up on zero-inbox. I find myself either deep-diving into the task and hyper-focused for hours (sometimes the right task, and sometimes not), missing appointments and calls, or jumping from one irrelevant thing to another like some squirrel on steroids. My kids and I have lots of medical appointments, and missing them is a big deal and not something I’ve ever done before in my life, so I’m absolutely reeling from missing three (out of about 10) in the past two weeks. And I know I’m coming off as kind of manic during phone calls and emails. (My contact recently called an email to a colleague “unnecessarily dramatic”… and it was! I’m a very high-functioning professional at a world-class organization. What am I doing?!) My work situation doesn’t help. I’m a contractor, working from home half-time, with most of my contacts six hours ahead of me in Europe. I love, love, love my field and my job; it’s truly meaningful, full of passionate and incredible people, prestigious, and pays well enough. I need the flexible, limited hours to manage my health. However, I am working solo the vast majority of the time and I am the one in charge of driving the timeline for the project and getting other people to get things to me, and … so when I drop the ball, there is no one to prod me on it until something falls behind spectacularly. I’m currently primarily working on a non-urgent, least-liked task (writing an academic paper), and I’ve gotten maybe 10 hours of work done in the past two weeks total, when I should be averaging about 20 per week. If I damage my reputation with this organization – through dramatic emails, late work, poor quality, or otherwise being difficult – I will never get another contract with them and I’m unlikely to get another opportunity even close to this good. Our field has been decimated by the recent The President funding cuts, and jobs are scarce and competition is unbelievably intense. I’m worried it’s already happening, as I wasn’t invited to join another project that I really would’ve been a natural fit for, and I think the contracts will stop coming once my current multi-year project comes to an end sometime this year. The readers have always been so kind and full of information and strategies, so I’m really hoping someone has been in my shoes and people can recommend things to try, so I can throw them all at the wall and see what sticks. I actually would also love to hear about experiences with medications, especially on what worked if rapid-release Adderall stopped helping. Readers with firsthand experience, what’s your advice? The post managing ADHD at work when you can’t use medication appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Artificial intelligence-generated content is everywhere these days, making it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction, particularly when it comes to breaking news. Look no further than the Iran war. Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, researchers have identified an unprecedented number of false and misleading images that were generated using artificial intelligence and have reached countless people around the world. Among them, fake footage of bombings that never happened, images of soldiers who were supposedly captured and propaganda videos created by Iran that depict President Donald The President and others as blocky, Lego-like miniatures. Thursday, the 10th annual International Fact-Checking Day, provides a good opportunity to look at these evolving challenges. Misinformation created with AI is being shared with unprecedented speed from an endless number of sources. From the outset of the Iran war, accounts from all sides of the conflict promoted such content. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks disinformation and online extremism, has been examining social media posts around the Iran war. Among their findings was a group of X accounts that regularly post AI-generated content and collectively gained more than 1 billion views since the conflict began. This was done by roughly two dozen accounts, many of which had blue check verification. Here are some tips for distinguishing AI-generated content from reality in an online world where that continues to get harder. Look for visual cues When AI-generated images first began spreading widely online, there were often obvious tells that could identify them as fabricated. Perhaps a person had too few — or too many — fingers or their voice was out of sync with their mouth. Text may have been nonsensical. Objects were frequently distorted or missing key components. As the technology continues to evolve, these clues aren’t as common as they once were, but it’s still worth looking for them. Watch for inconsistencies such as a car that is in a video one moment and gone the next or actions that aren’t possible according to the laws of physics. Some images may also be overly polished or have an unnatural sheen. Seek out a source AI-generated images get shared over and over again. One way to determine their authenticity (or lack thereof) is to hunt for their origin. Using a reverse image search is a simple way to do this. If you’re looking at a video, take a screenshot first. This can lead to a social media account that specifically generates AI content, an older image that is being misrepresented, or something entirely unexpected. Listen to the experts Look for multiple verified sources that can help authenticate the image. For example, that can mean a fact-check from a reputable media outlet, a statement from a public figure, or a social media post from a misinformation expert. These sources may have more advanced techniques for identifying AI-generated content or access to information about the image that is not accessible by the general public. Make use of technology There are many AI detection tools that can be a helpful place to start. But be wary, as they are not always correct in their assessments. Images that have been generated or altered with AI using Google’s Gemini app include an invisible digital watermarking tool called SynthID, which the app can detect. Other AI creation tools have added visible watermarks to content they generate. They are often easy to remove though, meaning the absence of such a watermark is not proof that an image is genuine. Slow down Sometimes it’s just about going back to basics. Stop, take a breath and don’t immediately share something you don’t know is real. Bad actors are often counting on the fact that people let their emotions and existing viewpoints guide their reactions to content. Looking at the comments may provide clues about whether the image you’re looking at is real or not. Another user might have noticed something you didn’t or been able to find the original source. Ultimately though, it’s not always possible to determine with 100% accuracy whether an image is AI-generated so remain alert to the possibility it might not be real. See something that looks false or misleading? Email us at FactCheck@ap.org. Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck. —Melissa Goldin And Barbara Whitaker, Associated Press View the full article

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Frank Barrett on Provocative Competence: “Leadership as design activity means creating space, sufficient support, and challenge so that people will be tempted to grow on their own. The goal is the opposite of conformity: a leader’s job is to create the discrepancy and dissonance that trigger people to move away from habitual positions and repetitive patterns. I’ve come to think of this key leadership capacity as ‘provocative competence.’” Source: Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz II. Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske on self-awareness: “Developing your sense of Self-Awareness not only helps you gauge how you are likely to react in a given situation, but it can also provide some in-sight into the people around you. Having a stable sense of self can therefore ground you in situations when many other circumstances are beyond your immediate control.” Source: The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. * * * Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas. View the full article

U.S. egg prices have fallen 60% from last year’s record highs, making it easier for consumers to fill their Easter baskets and Passover Seder plates. Bird flu was to blame for elevated retail prices during the first five months of 2025, and the course of the highly contagious disease is a big reason why prices are much lower now. An outbreak forced farmers and commercial producers to slaughter entire broods of egg-laying hens, but ebbing cases in the second half of last year helped restore egg supplies, said Mark Jordan, the executive director of agricultural research firm LEAP Market Analytics. The stubborn outbreak is still affecting U.S. poultry flocks, with the number of infected commercial flocks rising in March. But farmers have been rapidly replenishing flocks that died or had to be destroyed. Between July 2024 and July 2025 the number of egg-type chicks hatched in the U.S. rose 8%. It was the first sustained and substantial increase in the availability of specially-bred layer chicks since the bird flu outbreak began in 2022, Jordan said. The The President administration’s decision to import nearly 1 billion eggs last year also helped lower prices, Jordan said, although imports have since returned to more normal levels. The U.S. also exported fewer eggs last year to help boost domestic supplies. But what’s good for consumers isn’t necessarily good for farmers, who are finding it difficult to recoup their costs as egg prices plummet. They also may have to pay more for feed, including corn and soybean meal, because of the Iran war. “Farmers are no strangers to volatility. It’s part of the business. But in recent months, many have been selling eggs at or below the cost of production,” said Emily Metz, the president and CEO of the America Egg Board, a trade group. Here’s a look at U.S. egg prices by the numbers, according to government figures: — $2.50 per dozen: Average U.S. price for a dozen eggs in February. — $6.23 per dozen: Average U.S. price for a dozen eggs in March 2025, which was an all-time high. — 315.8 million: Number of egg-laying hens in the U.S. as of March 1. That’s 8% higher than last year. — 45 million: Number of egg-laying hens in Iowa, the top U.S. state for egg production. — 205.7 million: Number of chickens and other birds in commercial and backyard flocks that died or were culled due to bird flu since February 2022. — 5.22 million: Number of chickens and other birds that died or were culled because of bird flu in March 2026. That is more than double the number affected in March 2025. — 657%: The percentage increase in U.S. imports of shell eggs in 2025 compared to the year before. — $1.05: Average cost for farmers to produce a dozen eggs, not including labor and transportation, according to the American Egg Board. In late March, the national average wholesale price of eggs was $1.17 per dozen. — 40,000: Number of real eggs that will be used for this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll, —Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer View the full article

MVP culture, investor pressure, and marketing—not product quality—often decide winners. Accounting ARC With Liz Mason and Byron Patrick Center for Accounting Transformation Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

MVP culture, investor pressure, and marketing—not product quality—often decide winners. Accounting ARC With Liz Mason and Byron Patrick Center for Accounting Transformation Go PRO for members-only access to more Center for Accounting Transformation. View the full article

You’ve done everything right. You have a fast website with comprehensive content, pages ranking in the top 10, and a strong backlink profile. Yet when you search the query you rank for, your site doesn’t appear in Google’s corresponding AI Overview. This is a retrieval problem, not a ranking issue. And the difference between the two is the most important shift SEOs need to understand right now. AI Overviews don’t work like traditional organic rankings. Instead of considering which page has the most signals, AI Overviews look for the page that gives the cleanest, most usable answer. If your content doesn’t meet that standard, your traditional search ranking is irrelevant. Here’s what’s going wrong, and how to fix it so your content appears in more AI Overviews. The ranking-citation gap is real — and growing The overlap between AI Overview citations and organic rankings grew from 32.3% to 54.5% between May 2024 and September 2025, according to a BrightEdge study. This trend sounds encouraging. But it also means that even at peak convergence, nearly half of all AI Overview citations come from pages that don’t rank at the top of organic results. Google actively bypasses higher-ranking pages when it finds content that better serves the AI Overview format. The pattern varies sharply by sector, though. BrightEdge data shows that in ecommerce, the overlap barely changed, remaining essentially flat over the entire 16-month period. And in your money or your life (YMYL) categories like healthcare, insurance, and education, the overlap between AI Overview citations and organic rankings ranges from 68% to 75%. Ranking and visibility are no longer the same thing. You can rank second and be invisible. Or, you can rank on the second page and be the first thing a searcher reads. Dig deeper: 7 hard truths about measuring AI visibility and GEO performance Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 5 reasons AI Overviews skip your content 1. Your content answers the wrong version of the question Informational queries — specifically long-tail and conversational searches — typically trigger AI Overviews. Informational queries drive 57% of AI Overviews, while commercial queries trigger this AI feature far less frequently, according to Semrush research. Google’s AI engine looks for content that matches what the user asks, not just the keyword you’ve targeted. So, an AI Overview answering the query “what’s the best way to manage a remote team’s workload?” probably won’t cite a page that ranks for the keyword “project management software” and leads with features and pricing. 2. You’ve buried the answer If your introduction spends three paragraphs establishing context, warming up the reader, or restating the question before answering it, the retrieval system moves on. It seeks information it can extract cleanly. If that answer isn’t near the top of the page, the system skips that page. 3. Your structure is opaque to AI systems Traditional SEO content is built around comprehensive long-form content: 3,000-word guides covering every angle of a topic, written for readers who scroll and skim. AI retrieval systems don’t work the same way. They need to identify discrete, self-contained answers within your content. That requires clear heading hierarchies, short paragraphs, and content that AI systems can extract. A section under a specific heading should completely answer the question posed in that heading, without requiring the surrounding context to make sense. Content written as one long, unbroken narrative is harder for AI systems to parse. Even if every word is accurate and authoritative, it may not earn a citation if the structure doesn’t help the retrieval system identify individual answer units. Dig deeper: AI Overview citations: Why they don’t drive clicks and what to do Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. 4. Your E-E-A-T signals aren’t visible at the content level Google has been clear that experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) signals are important for content quality in traditional search. It likely matters for AI Overviews, too. But these signals need to appear in the content itself, not just in your domain profile or link graph. Strong domain authority counts for less than you’d think if the content itself carries no credibility signals. Who wrote it? Where did the data come from? Is there anything here that couldn’t have been written by someone who’d never worked in this field? A retrieval system evaluating an individual page doesn’t know your domain’s track record. The page must make the case for itself. Content-level E-E-A-T signals are particularly important in YMYL categories, where AI Overviews are selective about sources because the risk of misinformation is higher. 5. You’re targeting queries that don’t trigger AI Overviews Before optimizing your content for AI engines, it’s worth checking whether your target queries trigger AI Overviews at all. As of late 2025, AI Overviews appear in 16% of search results, though that figure isn’t evenly distributed across query types. Transactional queries, navigational searches, branded queries, and highly local searches are far less likely to trigger an AI Overview. If most of your traffic comes from commercial or transactional keywords, the lack of AI Overview citation may not be a content problem. It may simply be that those query types are less likely to generate overviews in the first place. What the data tells us about the impact of this shift The stakes are significant. Research by Seer Interactive shows that organic click-through rates (CTRs) for informational queries that displayed AI Overviews dropped 61%, from 1.76% to 0.61%, between June 2024 and September 2025. Paid CTR fell even further, from 19.7% to 6.34%. But the same research reveals a critical asymmetry: Brands cited in AI Overviews saw 35% higher organic CTR and 91% higher paid CTR than when they weren’t cited. A citation in an AI Overview doesn’t just protect you from a CTR decline. It actively amplifies your visibility. The Pew Research Center’s study of searches by U.S. adults in March 2025 found that only 8% of users who encountered an AI Overview clicked a traditional search result, compared to 15% who clicked when no overview appeared. And 26% of searches with AI Overviews resulted in no clicks at all. If AI Overviews appear for your most valuable queries and you aren’t cited, you aren’t just missing out on the overview. You’re losing clicks you previously received from the organic listing underneath it. How to optimize for retrieval, not just rankings These trends require you to adjust how you think about content structure and intent. Here’s where to focus: Rewrite your introductions: Your first paragraph should directly and completely answer the primary question of the page. Save context and elaboration for later sections. Write as if the first 100 words of your page represent a standalone answer. Restructure your headings: Each heading should be a question or a complete, specific claim. The following section should fully answer or support that heading without requiring the reader to review previous sections. Think of each section as a self-contained answer unit. Add explicit expertise signals: Include author attribution with credentials, first-person experience language, original data, and links to primary sources and original research. These signals matter at the content level, not just at the domain level. Audit your query triggers: Manually test your target queries in Google to see which ones actually generate AI Overviews. For those that do, study how the cited sources are structured, the length of the cited sections, and the format of the answer. Use that as your editorial brief. Expand your topical coverage: AI Overviews favor sources that demonstrate breadth of knowledge across a topic, not just single-page depth. Focus on answering several related questions well instead of building one exceptional page surrounded by thin content. Dig deeper: Want to beat AI Overviews? Produce unmistakably human content See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with How to shift your SEO approach What AI Overviews represent is something that’s been discussed for years, but few have truly prepared for: the separation of content quality from ranking signals. For two decades, we used rankings as a proxy for quality. High-ranking content was, by definition, good enough. But that assumption no longer holds. Ranking in traditional search indicates that your brand has authority and that your page is relevant to the search query. It says nothing about whether your content is structured in a way that AI retrieval systems can use. Visibility now goes to whoever understands how AI systems identify, extract, and surface answers. A strong backlink profile won’t help you if the answer is buried on page three of a 4,000-word guide. Ranking in the top 10 is still worth pursuing. But it’s no longer the whole game. View the full article