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Astronomerthe company whose CEO resigned after being caught on a kiss cam at a Coldplay rock concert embracing a woman who was not his wifeis trying to move on from the drama with someone who knows the band pretty well.Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin for 13 years, announced Friday on X that she has been hired by Astronomer as a spokesperson.Astronomer, a tech company based in New York, found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight when two of its executives were caught on camera in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concerta moment that was then flashed on a giant screen in the stadium.CEO Andy Byron and human resource executive Kristin Cabot were caught by surprise when Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd during a concert earlier this month.“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” Martin joked when the couple appeared on screen and quickly tried to hide their faces.In a short video, the Shakespeare in Love and Ironman star said she had been hired as a “very temporary” spokesperson for Astronomer.“Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,” Paltrow said, smiling and deftly avoiding mention of the kiss cam fuss.“We’ve been thrilled that so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,” she said. “We will now be returning to what we do bestdelivering game-changing results for our customers.”When footage from the kiss cam first spread online, it wasn’t immediately clear who the couple were. Soon after the company identified the pair, and Byron resigned followed by Cabot. The video clip resulted in a steady stream of memes, parody videos, and screenshots of the pair’s shocked faces filling social media feeds.Online streams of Coldplay’s songs jumped 20% in the days after the video went viral, according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company.
Category:
E-Commerce
The next time you order a sack of White Castle sliders, a robot might come rolling up to you. The restaurant chain, a Midwestern fast-food staple, is partnering with Coco Robotics and Uber Eats to bring robotic delivery to the Chicago area. The partnership, announced today, will allow customers ordering from White Castles first participating location to order directly from the Uber Eats app and receive a robotic delivery with no additional steps or fees. And in a dense urban area like Chicago, having more robots and fewer cars on the road could help ease traffic and emissions issues related to delivery. We’re always open to whats new and what’s next, Jamie Richardson, White Castles vice president of marketing, tells Fast Company. If there’s a way to do something a little bit better, we want to find out what that is and try it. A fast food innovator looks ahead For White Castle, which innovated the concept of a fast-food restaurant in 1921, this is the next step in a shift toward an autonomous experience. The chain first deployed Flippy, the robotic fry cook, to a Chicago restaurant in 2020 before expanding its use to over 100 locations. The restaurant chain considers these shifts toward new technology a reflection of its core value of continuous crave, or continuous innovation, Richardson says. [Photo: White Castle X Coco] The robots used in the new partnership were developed by Coco Robotics, a last-mile delivery startup that was named one of Fast Companys most innovative robotics companies in 2022. More recently, it announced significant venture capital funding and partnerships with large companies like OpenAI, Uber Eats, and DoorDash. Part of the force propelling Cocos little red robots is their capacity for moving large amounts of goods while keeping costs low and carbon emissions at zero. They accomplish it with a 100-pound vehicle that uses artificial intelligenceand remote human operatorsto drive safely over unpredictable city terrain. We built these purpose-built autonomous vehicles that are designed to be the best way to move goods around a city, Zach Rash, Coco Robotics cofounder and CEO, tells Fast Company. They’re lightweight, they’re compact, they’re super energy efficient, and they’re big enough to fit six extra large pizzas and two liter bottle sodas and four grocery bagsmost of the types of things you would get delivered on demand. Bots and the city First launched in Santa Monica, California, the robots are now in several cities around the world, as far afield as Helsinki. The robots work best where there is a vibrant local economy of delivery, Rash says, but where congestion or other barriers add cost and hassle to traditional delivery. Chicago, in particular, fits the bill because it is a dense city where difficult winters can drive disparity between demand for delivery and supply of available drivers, Rash says, adding that theyve been successful in the Chicago market so far and are looking forward to launching the robots in new cities with similar characteristics later this year. For Uber Eats, also looking to expand its autonomous services and its reach in the Midwest market, the new partnership with White Castle offers an important opportunity. First launching in Chicago, this partnership with Coco Robotics and White Castle marks an important step in bringing zero-emission, sidewalk delivery to one of our most dynamic and operationally complex markets, Megan Jensen, Uber Eats global head of autonomous delivery operations, said in a statement to Fast Company. The robots, which started picking up burgers in Chicago a couple weeks ahead of the partnerships official launch, are already finding success in what Richardson considers White Castles second home town.
Category:
E-Commerce
When you log into Amazon, its AI-powered recommendation engine guides you towards a purchase. After you select your items and order, computer vision guides robots in fulfillment centers to pick up the inventory, and machine learning optimizes delivery routes. The Amazon order fulfillment system is paradigmatically hybridhundreds of thousands of human employees work closely with AI systems to deliver over 9 billion packages on the same or the next day to customers all around the world. This isnt the future. This is how your groceries get delivered. Its the hybrid world, where transactions blend multiple intelligences, and where leadership requires convergence. The Great Convergence We thought digital transformation was a destination: install software, train teams, done. We were wrong. Whats actually happening is a profound reshaping of business realitythe creation of a world where previously hard distinctions like humandigital, physicalvirtual, and emotionalalgorithmic are softening and blurring, a world where humans and AI systems are becoming inseparably entangled. Consider three seismic shifts: Markets Have Become Hybrid OrganismsCustomers dont distinguish digital from physical. They shop on Instagram, in-store, and via apps, expecting virtual assistants to remember everything. Customers exist everywhere, in all realities, fluidly moving between interacting with human and AI sales agents. Workforces Are HumanDigital PartnershipsRather than employees simply using digital tools, they are moving towards developing symbiotic relationships with them. For example, medical professionals can use AI to detect patterns invisible to humans, and simultaneously, human feedback trains and improves the AI system. The result is better than either humans or AI could achieve alone. Leadership Is Multi-Dimensional ChessRunning a company was complicated; now its complex. Complicated problems have solutions. Complex systems have endless, interconnected variables changing unpredictably. Leading in the hybrid world means deciding across dimensions you can never fully see. ‘Digital-First’ No Longer Holds Leaders often respond to technological transformation by demanding that everything must be reoriented around the new technologythe digital-first approach. But in a hybrid world this approach is mistaken. In a hybrid world, the challenge isnt that we must choose between physical versus digital or human versus machine. The challenge is that we need to orchestrate their convergence. This requires a new approach in three areas: 1. Hybrid Markets: Where Algorithms Meet Emotions Hybrid markets are fluid ecosystems where customers interact through multiple touchpoints hourlyhuman, AI, or blended. Starbuckss mobile app creates a hybrid experience, with AI-driven personalization generating hundreds of thousands of email variations. Predictive ordering and human barista craftsmanship drive 31% of U.S. orders via mobile, growing active rewards members to 34.3 million in 2023. But hybrid markets arent just about technologytheyre about emotional coherence. Targets predictive analytics identified pregnant customers but violated privacy expectations, showing algorithmic intelligence needs human judgment. The Convergence Solution: Blend data science, behavioral psychology, and ethics. Before deploying customer-facing AI, ask: What does the data say? (Analytics) How will customers feel? (Psychology) Should we do this? (Ethics) 2. Hybrid Workforces: Partners, Not Tools Goldman Sachs estimates AI could impact 300 million jobs, with two-thirds of occupations facing automation. But real value comes from augmentationAI handles routine tasks, humans focus on complex decisions, relationships, and innovation. For example, AI is revolutionizing the legal industry by speeding up and even fully automating routine operations like reviewing contracts, preparing client summaries, and tracking billable hours. This allows firms to redeploy lawyers to strategic roles like negotiating deals and advising on regulations, boosting both efficiency and job satisfaction. At Moderna, AI helped design its COVID-19 vaccine. AI created mRNA for scientists to test, scientists experimented with them in the lab, and AI then examined the resulting data to identify which of the mRNA sequences were suitable to advance to animal trials. In just 42 days, Moderna had a COVID-19 vaccine it could test on humansan unprecedented result, and one that would have been impossible without the close collaboration between human beings and AI systems. The Convergence Solution: Reimagine the workforce as a hybrid organism. Stop separating human resources and digital transformation. Create roles like: Human-AI Collaboration Designer: Engineers workflows leveraging each intelligences strengths. Cognitive Load Balancer: Ensures humans arent overwhelmed by digital complexity. Partnership Ethicist: Navigates moral implications of human-AI collaboration. 3. Hybrid Leadership: Navigating Paradox The test of a first-rate intelligence, said the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. Hybrid leaders will have to be first-rate leaders, because hybrid-age leaders must be paradox navigators. Every decision involves opposing extremes, and rather than choosing one or the other, hybrid leaders must hold them both in creative tension. Some fundamental contrasts are: Personalization versus Privacy Efficiency versus Employment Automation versus Authenticity Speed versus Reflection Global versus Local Virtual versus Physical Hybrid leaders dont respond to these contrasts with “either-or”they respond with both-and. The Convergence Solution: Build leadership teams blending: Technical Fluency: Knowing whats possible Psychological Insight: Understanding human responses Systems Thinking: Seeing connections Philosophical Depth: Navigating ethics Creative Courage: Embracing paradox as opportunity The 3 Pillars of Hybrid Success From studying thriving hybrid companies, three capabilities emerge: Fluid ArchitectureBuild systems that shift between human-led, AI-led, or blended modessystems that amplify human strengths like creativity when needed and automate tasks like background removal when appropriate. Convergent TeamsEnd departmental silos. Build teams blending: engineers who understand psychology, marketers who grasp data science, HR leaders who think like systems architects, and finance professionals who consider ethics. Adaptive GovernanceTraditional governance assumes stability. Hybrid governance assumes flux. Create frameworks handling paradox, ethical councils with technologists and philosophers, and metrics balancing efficiency and meaning. The Convergence Imperative: Your Next 90 Days The hybrid world rewards fast action and deep thinking. Heres your plan: Days 1 to 30: Map Your Hybrid Reality Identify humandigital interactions in your business. Document where they create value or friction. Spot paradoxes youre eliminating instead of leveraging. Days 31 to 60: Build Convergence Capabilities Form a convergent team mixing disciplines. Run a paradox workshop for leaders to practice holding contradictions. Redesign one process as a humanAI partnership. Days 61 to 90: Launch Your Hybrid Transformation Pilot a hybrid market initiative blending digital precision and human intuition. Redesign one role as a humanAI partnership. Establish hybrid governance to handle paradox. Hybrid Reality is Here to Stay Every interaction, employee experience, and leadership decision now exists in multiple dimensions. And in this multi-dimensional world, success belongs to those who think, lead, and create across all dimensions simultaneously. Thriving companies see hybrid as opportunity, creating convergence where human creativity and digital capability amplify each other, turning paradoxes into possibilities. And this world isnt temporaryits now the permanent condition of business. Either you decide what that means for your organization, or it will be decided for you.
Category:
E-Commerce
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