What does a little purple alien know about healthy human relationships? More than the average artificial intelligence companion, it turns out.The alien in question is an animated chatbot known as a Tolan. I created mine a few days ago using an app from a startup called Portola, and we’ve been chatting merrily ever since. Like other chatbots, it does its best to be helpful and encouraging. Unlike most, it also tells me to put down my phone and go outside.Tolans were designed to offer a different kind of AI companionship. Their cartoonish, nonhuman form is meant to discourage anthropomorphism. They’re…
As the cost of a college education continues to climb, with average tuition and fees seeing a 60% jump between 2000 and 2022, some young adults wonder about the return on such a significant investment — and how rapid advancements in AI might impact their entry-level job prospects.Big Tech companies,…
There’s a reason the OECD slashed US growth outlook to an anemic 1.6% this year. Inflation forecasts have risen, major companies are warning of slower sales and tariffs have led to unprecedented trade uncertainty.Yet even as storm clouds gather, most businesses still aren’t tapping a critical resource to boost their…
They’ll be competing with Delta Air Lines, the largest US carrier by revenue, which provides some of the industry’s plushest business-class seating. Its Delta One suites come with a Missoni-branded duvet and slippers, a mattress pad that doubles as a lumbar pillow, and a memory foam cuddle pillow.Delta One passengers…
When Han Qin launched Jarsy, he didn’t just want to build another investing app. He wanted to crack open the velvet ropes of private equity — where firms like SpaceX, Anthropic, and Stripe trade hands in boardrooms, not browsers. Qin’s startup, now out of stealth with $5 million in backing…
The business landscape has shifted significantly in recent years, and as a result, the meaning of leadership has evolved. Amid volatility and uncertainty, today’s leaders are increasingly focused on productivity and results.What previously made a CEO successful may not be what allows their business to thrive in 2025 and beyond.…
Last year, internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare launched tools enabling its customers to block AI scrapers. Today the company has taken its fight against permissionless scraping several steps further. It has switched to blocking AI crawlers by default for its customers and is moving forward with a Pay Per Crawl program…
The Senate’s approval of more than $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade puts severe pressure on healthcare systems, and CIOs can’t afford to stay in the background. With CMS and Medicaid budgets on the line, IT leaders must step up and collaborate with CFOs to streamline operations…
In 2006, Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge didn’t have visions of becoming entrepreneurs with a goat milk skincare and body care brand. The New York City-based couple went on an apple-picking getaway upstate one weekend and stumbled on a little town called Sharon Springs. They fell in love with the…
When it comes to implementing AI for customer experience (CX), the gap between technology promises and enterprise deployment reality can be vast. During the NiCE Interactions conference, customer experience executives from three major companies—Disney, Walmart, and Carnival UK—shared how their companies navigated these challenges with different approaches, offering a glimpse…
A typical student graduating from high school in 2025 could take on an estimated $40,000 in student loan debt before they finish their college education, and interest rates on undergraduate federal student loans are the highest they’ve been in more than 10 years, Nerdwallet reported.The price tag that comes with…
Busy Philipps wasn’t trying to disrupt the celebrity marketing model when she first cried on Instagram stories. She wasn’t pitching brand deals or testing a strategy. She was just being real. But it turns out that unfiltered vulnerability — streamed to millions — wasn’t just cathartic. It was transformative.Long before…
Before June 8, the skilled and respected ABC News television journalist Terry Moran was neither a household name nor political lightning rod. That changed abruptly when Moran posted on X that Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was “a world-class hater,” followed by an addendum that the president…
The industry is bracing for a number of reported, upcoming Xbox layoffs, coming in the wake of enormous transformations for the brand, many of which may not be panning out as anticipated. All these changes and the current state of Xbox have caused a few former executives to chime in…
Most people assume that to succeed in private equity, you need to raise a multimillion-dollar fund first. But what if you could flip that script?A new generation of dealmakers is doing just that, acquiring and growing businesses without a traditional PE fund. This “fundless sponsor” model isn’t just a workaround…
Spotlight
Netflix is promoting the series finale of Squid Game, out this Friday,…
It’s the era of the side hustle, and if you’ve ever considered…
For years, leadership development has focused on hard skills like operations, finance…
Some airlines are stepping away from kerosene-based jet fuel to an unlikely…
