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These days, investors, founders, analysts, and tech loyalists cant stop talking up how artificial intelligence will radically remake the future of work. But a new study suggests that while AI might have some amazing future uses, at the moment, it’s not doing much good to anyone. In a “State of AI in Business 2025” report, researchers at MIT Media Lab found that despite enterprise investments of as much as $40 billion in generative AI, 95% of organizations have seen no return on their investment so far. “Just 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable P&L [profit and loss] impact,” the report reads. “This divide does not seem to be driven by model quality or regulation, but seems to be determined by approach.” Tools like OpenAI’s Chat GPT and Microsoft’s Copilot have been widely tested, with more than 80% of organizations either exploring them or using them in pilot programs. But while these tools boost individual productivity, when it comes to overall P&L, there’s very little measurable impact, the study found. Enterprise-level AI systems aren’t doing a lot to impress either. While 60% of the enterprise companies that the researchers spoke with said they evaluated these tools, only 20% made it as far as the pilot stage. And just 5% took those to a full production model. A lack of contextual learning, brittle workflows, and misalignment with day-to-day operations were cited as the chief reasons the tools were rejected. The slop problem Behavioral researcher BetterUp Labs, in collaboration with the Stanford Social Media Lab, says it has identified one possible reason enterprise companies are rejecting AI: slop. Employees, the two labs say, are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable-looking work. They’ve taken to calling this “workslop”well-formatted slides, reports, summaries, or code that might seem helpful at first, but that ultimately prove to be incomplete or missing context, shifting the burden of work to someone else. “Of 1,150 U.S.-based full-time employees across industries, 40% report having received workslop in the last month,” the groups wrote. “Employees who have encountered workslop estimate that an average of 15.4% of the content they receive at work qualifies.” There is one advantage for workers when it comes to AI not living up to its billing: Job losses, so far, haven’t been as bad as doomsayers have predicted. Should more companies stick with AI integration, however, that could change. “While most implementations don’t drive head count reduction, organizations that have crossed the GenAI Divide are beginning to see selective workforce impacts in customer support, software engineering, and administrative functions,” the report reads. Dispelling doom When it works, AI can cut back-office operational expensesfor example, in administration, finance, and human resourcesthe MIT researchers found. In addition, it can improve customer retention and sales conversion by using automated outreach and by following up intelligently. Best of all, few of these improvements come with a human cost. “Early results suggest that learning-capable systems, when targeted at specific processes, can deliver real value, even without major organizational restructuring,” the report reads. That’s likely a relief to some workers who have heard little but fatalistic scenarios. In July, for instance, Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, warned that recruiters and executive assistants could be made extraneous as AI browsers become more prevalent. And in May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios that AI could wipe out roughly 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, which he said could cause unemployment to spike to between 10% and 20%. That warning, he said, was aimed at both lawmakers and his peers in the AI world. “Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei said. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it. . . . We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming.”
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Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season. Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026. Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher, or batter signaled by tapping their helmet or cap and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards. Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers, and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct. Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards. Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way thats acceptable to players, Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today. ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for thats year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022. At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS. MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges. At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%. In the first test at the big League All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassognas calls were successful in July. Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining. MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%. This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts, and larger bases. The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete. Not that everyone loves it. The idea that people get paid for cheating, for stealing strikes, for moving a pitch thats not a strike into the zone to fool the official and make it a strike is beyond my comprehension, former manager Bobby Valentine said. Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a big league catcher from 1978-87, maintained old-school umpires such as Bruce Froemming and Billy Williams never would have accepted pitch framing. He said they would have told him: ’If you do that again, youll never get a strike.’ Im cutting out some words. Management officials on the competition committee include Seattle chairman John Stanton, St. Louis CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort, Toronto CEO Mark Shapiro and Boston chairman Tom Werner. Players include Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit’s Casey Mize, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, and the New York Yankees’ Austin Slater, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit’s Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams. Ronald Blum, AP baseball writer Bill Miller is the umpire representative.
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Tariffs and years of teetering mall traffic have roiled much of the toy industry. But Build-A-Bear investors are continuing to reap sizeable gains. Shares of Build-A-Bear Workshop are up more than 60% since the start of 2025, trading at just under $72 apiece as of Tuesday afternoon. That compares to just 13% for the S&P 500 since the start of the year, and marks dramatic growth from five years ago, when the St. Louis-based retailer’s stock sat under $3. The toy industry overall has been reasonably soft in recent years, notes Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData but certain categories, including craft-oriented products, have done very well following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And that’s key to Build-A-Bear’s core business model: welcoming consumers into their brick-and-mortar stores to make their own plush animals. That may also set Build-A-Bear apart from the malls its stores are often inside, many of which have struggled to see overall traffic rebound over the years. The mall may not be a destination, but Build-A-Bear often is because its often a planned trip,” Saunders said. Its a store within a mall that many consumers make a beeline for. Build-A-Bear is still not isnt entirely immune to macroeconomic pressures, but the company’s profit has soared to record after record in recent quarters. Last month, the retailer reported what it said were the best results for a second quarter and first half of a fiscal year in the history of the Build-A-Bear, which opened its first store in 1997. Company executives pointed to strong store performance and other expansion efforts. In the first half of its 2025 fiscal year, the companys revenues hit $252.6 million and its pre-tax income climbed to $34.9 million up 11.5% and 31.5%, respectively, year-over-year. The company also raised its financial outlook for the full year, despite anticipated costs of President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on goods coming into the U.S. from around the world and other headwinds. Tariffs are a real cost that we are facing, Voin Todorovic, chief financial officer at Build-A-Bear, said in the company’s Aug. 28 earnings call pointing to current U.S. import tax rates of 30% on China and 20% on Vietnam, where the retailer sources much of its products. Some of that has already trickled down to the cost of Build-A-Bear’s merchandise in North America, but Todorovic noted that such levies would impact the company “even more in the second half of the year. Still, he and other executives pointed to preparations Build-A-Bear had made to lessen the blow, including previous inventory increases. The company also maintained that consumer-facing price impacts would be limited. While the retailer offers some ready-made toys and toy clothing, “what Build-A-Bear generally buys is materials, Saunders noted. This can hedge against tariffs much more effectively,” he explained, as they reduce labor costs and potentially allow for more flexibility on sourcing. Still, Saunders notes that everyone is going to be affected by tariffs and Build-A-Bear isn’t an exception. He adds that consumers will probably eat that extra cost because they’re paying for the entertainment value.” Barring any significant changes, Todorovic said in August’s earnings call that tariffs are anticipated to cost Build-A-Bear under $11 million for the 2025 fiscal year. But despite that and other costs, he noted that the company is still on track to approach or slightly beat last year’s earnings. The company’s latest guidance expects its pre-tax income to reach between $62 million to $70 million for the full 2025 fiscal year, compared to just over $67 million reported in 2024. Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer
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