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The AI landscape is evolving rapidly and its important to keep up. No one can afford to stay out of the loop on AI, so here are five new books to fill you in on the latest updates, concerns, and uses of this world-changing technology. AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand By Adam Brotman & Andy Sack In AI First, youll hear from a whos who of tech visionaries who spoke with the authors, including Sam Altman himself, Bill Gates, and Reid Hoffman, sharing how theyre thinking of the transition to the new reality. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by authors Adam Brotman and Andy Sack, or view on Amazon. The AI Con: How to Fight Big Techs Hype and Create the Future We Want By Emily Bender & Alex Hanna A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why its crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by authors Emily Bender and Alex Hanna, or view on Amazon. More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valleys Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity By Adam Becker How Silicon Valleys heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessionswith escaping death, emergent AI tyrants, and limitless growthpervert public discourse and distract us from real social problems. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by author Adam Becker, or view on Amazon. AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence By Gary Rivlin A veteran Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist shadows the top thinkers in the field of Artificial Intelligence, introducing the breakthroughs and developments that will change the way we live and work. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by author Gary Rivlin, or view on Amazon. More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead By Rasmus Hougaard & Jacqueline Carter AI has the potential to transform leadership and the human experience of workor to lead us into an automated and uninspiring work reality. Which one will it be? Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by coauthor Rasmus Hougaard, or view on Amazon. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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E-Commerce
Employees are in a burnout crisis. A 2023 Mercer report found that 82% of workers were at risk of burnout. Overworked employees say they need time off, work-life balance, and flexibility. But the same report noted only 32% of leaders thought reducing employee burnout was important. Still, some companies are getting wildly innovative with their well-being perks. Last week, Deloitte made headlines for a new approach: offering its staffers $1,000 to purchase Legos and puzzles. While some employees might argue they’d prefer time off, or a raise, Deloitte isn’t the only company to try a quirky new approach to improving employee well-being. Here are five offbeat benefits companies are offering. 1. Pawternity leave Bringing home a new human is a whirlwind of joy, excitement, and pure exhaustion, and companies are well-versed in granting leave (paid and unpaid) to employees who have had a baby. On the other hand, providing time off for bringing home a new pet is pretty atypical. Still, some companies, who clearly value pets, have offered time off for adopting a new fur baby. New York-based data company mParticle offers PTO to employees who adopt a rescue dog. It also allows employees to bring their pups to work. Likewise, Minneapolis marketing firm Collective Measures allows pet owners to work from home for the first week after bringing home a new cat or dog. While pawternity leave might be new, many companies have become more pet-friendly, including Amazon. The company’s Seattle headquarters allows dogs and caters to pups with an entire floor designed for them. The workplace also built a dog park (open to the public) on company grounds. 2. All-expenses-paid vacations Burned-out employees say they could use more time off. How about having a vacation paid in full by your company? If you work for Airbnb, this desirable benefit can be yours. The vacation rental platform helps staff take vacations by giving them travel stipends. And those stipends aren’t piddly either. Airbnb employees receive $2,000 per year ($500 per quarter) to spend on travel bookings. “Our benefits are centered around our Live and Work Anywhere policy, prioritizing flexibility to meet individual needs,” Airbnb’s career page reads. “Employees receive quarterly travel credits, an annual educational stipend, and a quarterly Live and Work Anywhere allowance, empowering them to enhance their lives professionally and personally as desired.” BambooHR, a human resources company, offers the same perk with its “Paid Paid Vacation” policy. Employees receive $2,000 that can be used to pay for hotels and airfare. 3. Home-cleaning services Keeping your home clean takes time and energy. And if you spend a lot of time at the office (or on work-related tasks), housecleaning can easily fall by the wayside. But California-based staffing company Akraya offers a perk designed to help keep employees’ homes spotless, and the stress at bay. Akraya offers professional housecleaning services to all employeesand not just once in a while. Every two weeks we have a cleaning service that goes to our employees homes. . . . I dont know of any other company that has [that benefit], cofounder and CEO Amar Panchal told Staffing Industry Analysts. Panchal got the idea after talking with an employee who was tired from spending the weekend keeping up with housework. 4. Snow(boarding) days Many of us enjoyed snow days as school-age children. But most companies don’t provide time off when the white stuff comes down. Burlington, Vermont-based Burton isnt most companies. The snowboard maker offers “snow days” for its employeeswith one rule: They have to hit the slopes. Per Entrepreneur, whenever there’s a big storm, Burtons offices close and employees are encouraged to get out and snowboard, which is, after all, what the brand is all about. In addition to snow days, employees get majorly discounted lift tickets, season passes, demo gear, and more. 5. Unlimited ice cream Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont-based ice cream company known for its lovable flavors and outspoken founders, is a pretty sweet place to work. Not only is the atmosphere casual, dog-friendly, and seemingly full of joy, it also offers employees virtually unlimited ice cream. Employees say they’re allowed to take home three pints each and every day, though when new flavors roll in, they have to hustle. “Even though we get three pints a day as a sweet work perk, its always a mad rush to the freezers when a new flavor comes in,” the company website reads. “And camping out overnight to be first in line is, well, frowned upon.” With all the ice cream offerings, it’s no wonder Ben & Jerry’s was ranked Vermont’s Most Coveted Employer this year.
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E-Commerce
When people think about artificial intelligence, they often picture sleek start-ups or futuristic labs. But what happens when AI meets a company that has been innovating for over 100 years? Unilever is one of the worlds largest consumer goods companies, home to brands like Dove, Hellmanns and Vaseline, with products used by 3.4 billion people every day. And behind those everyday items is a deep and evolving commitment to science. From soap and margarine in the early 20th century to todays breakthroughs in sustainable packaging and personalized skincare, Research and Development (R&D) has always been our engine of progress. But now, that engine is being transformed by AI. AI is not just a new tool in our labs, it is a new way of thinking. And for a company with a centurys worth of scientific data, that is a game-changer. AI is reshaping every industry, but the companies that will be the most successful are the ones that know how to adapt, learn, and build on what they already know. While many legacy companies are exploring how to modernize through AI, the real opportunity lies in how they harness their institutional memory: the decades of research, product development, and consumer insights that can often sit untapped. This requires deep domain expertise, robust data stewardship, and a culture that values learning as much as legacy. When those elements align, AI can become a catalyst for transformation, by revealing the full potential of what has come before. Unilever was born in the Victorian era, shaped by the industrial and scientific revolutions. Over the decades, we have evolved by responding to cultural shifts; from the transformation of domestic life in the mid-20th century to todays shifting expectations around skin health, beauty, and wellbeing to the growing urgency of sustainability. When new materials like Formica and stainless steel became common in mid-century kitchens, our scientists developed products tailored to these surfaces. This was not just chemistry, it was a scientific response to a changing way of life. That same mindsetscience in service of real lifestill drives us today. But the questions were asking have become more complex: How do we support the skins natural microbiome? How do we clean homes without disrupting the ecosystems that live on our surfaces? How do we design products that are both effective and sustainable? These are not simple problems, and they require new ways of doing science. Thats where AI comes in. With machine learning, we can uncover patterns that would take human researchers hundreds of years to detect. We are using AI to understand how microbes interact with our products, how skin responds to environmental stressors, and how we can personalize formulations for different needs and regions. But here is what makes our approach uniquewe are not starting from scratch. Like many legacy companies our R&D archives stretch back over 100 years. We have records of every formulation, every trial, and every consumer insight. This historical depth gives our AI models something incredibly rare: context. While many companies are just beginning to build their data sets, established companies like ours are standing on a foundation that has been carefully constructed for generations. Our scientists can unlock proprietary knowledge that was once siloed, scattered across teams, or locked in an archive. A century of skincare expertise is now structured, searchable, and ready to be applied. We are using AI to connect the dots across decades of research, accelerating discovery in new materials while simultaneously optimising formulations for specific needs, like different skin types. Were moving from research and discovery to formulation design and refinement in a single, integrated process, helping us respond faster and more precisely to peoples needs around the world. This is not about replacing scientists with algorithms. It is about creating the conditions where human talent can thrive. Agentic AI systems give our teams the ability to ask better questions, explore more possibilities, and unlock insights from our data. By amplifying human creativity and empathy not automating it, were enabling our scientists to focus on what they do best: imagining, experimenting, and designing products that meet real human needs. So why should this matter to anyone outside Unilever? Because it shows what is possible when legacy meets learning. In an era where AI is reshaping every industry, the companies that thrive will not just be the newest or the loudest, they will be the ones that know how to adapt, how to learn, and how to build on what they already know. AI rewards data maturity. It rewards curiosity. And it rewards companies that see technology not as a threat to tradition, but as a way to reimagine it. We do not have all the answers. But we have learned that staying curious, being a learn-it-all not a know-it-all, is what keeps a company relevant for a century. AI is helping us stay curious at scale. We believe the next 100 years of innovation will be driven by companies that embrace the partnership between human talent and agentic AI: hybrid systems that augment creativity, empathy, and scientific intuition. This is not just a story about technology. It is a story about legacy, learning, and the enduring power of science to shape the everydayonly now with a little help from artificial intelligence. Alberto Prado is global head digital & partnerships at Unilever.
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E-Commerce
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