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Many organizations are racing to build AI strategies, but too often they focus on adopting the latest tech, rather than creating the environment to support it. The reality is that lasting transformation is fueled by people, which requires companies to take a good look at their culture. At Architech, thats exactly what we did. By prioritizing and rewarding innovation, we aligned our culture with our AI strategyand it worked. This year, we are proud to be recognized as one of Fast Companys Most Innovative Workplaces. We are one of 10 companies globally recognized by Fast Company for excellence in AI, automation, and machine learning. Heres how we built an award-winning culture. MAKE INNOVATION REPEATABLE Innovation comes from people. At Architech, we operationalized that idea by creating an Innovation Lab, a dedicated R&D space where curiosity thrives and exceptional geeks are celebrated as heroes. Backed by a 10% reinvestment of revenue, our Innovation Lab provides the time and tools to tackle real problems. One of our standout successes: an intelligent collections application that earned a spotlight in Microsofts AI Lunch and Learn series. Infrastructure and investment create a foundation for continuous innovation, enabling organizations to tackle its top priorities. INNOVATION THRIVES WHEN EVERYONE PARTICIPATES We launched a company-wide AI Innovation Challenge in September, 2024 inviting every employee to identify their own workplace challenge to solve and to tackle organizational inefficiencies using AI. Over three months, cross-functional teams reimagined workflows and built automation tools that reduced friction, accelerated delivery, and inspired new client offerings. The challenge sparked experimentation and breakthroughs from the bottom-up. Among the most impactful was an automated quality assurance testing system that improved consistency and freed our teams to focus on creativity. We celebrated winning ideas at the town hall and they became a badge of honor for employees. We continue to spotlight the most creative employee-led breakthroughs with a monthly AI Innovation Award. Innovation happens when people are given the tools, trust, and time to experiment. LEARNING FUELS INNOVATION With AI knowledge scarce across tech companies, upskilling and mentorship have become the real differentiators. At Architech, internal knowledge-sharing sets the pace: We offer project showcases, AI Bytes Learning Series, and real-time experimentation to create a culture of continuous growth. We launched Elevate, a four-week technical bootcamp for interns led by Architech experts in product, design, data, AI, and engineering. Mentees solve real business challenges using cutting-edge tools and are encouraged to explore what inspired them the most. One finalist team built an AI-powered customer support platform and graduated knowing the AI fundamentals, and with the confidence for the next step in their tech careers. Today, our internal expertise in emerging technologies is pushing us further than external experts ever could. Our mentors are emerging as leaders, armed with new courage and bold ideas. We endeavor to empower our people and build a culture where learning drives innovation forward and grows innovators from within. EMBED INNOVATION INTO CULTURE We also created an AI Incubator to drive technology forward and a Responsible AI Governance Committee to ensure guardrails are in place to safeguard our company and clients. Nearly 50% of our workforce participates in the incubator, with active workstreams exploring real-world applications of AI: code review, test automation, developer productivity, and data enablement. AI experimentation is embedded into the daily flow of work on all our teams, from engineering to operations. Our CEO hosts training sessions, leads open discussions, and reinforces the expectation that everyone experiments with AI, every day. This is what transformation looks like: Its fueled by inspiration, grounded in discipline, and powered by people. FINAL THOUGHTS Theres no app for transformation. Theres something better: culture. Thats what powers our AI strategy and our people are leading the way. To transform your AI strategy into culture, make it: Inclusive: Invite every employee to contribute and celebrate progress. A habit: Bring change into the daily rhythm of work. A growth engine: Teach, mentor, and invest in skills development across the organization. Repeatable: Build systems that last. If your people arent part of your AI strategy, you dont have one. Lara Shewchuk is COO and CFO of Architech.
Category:
E-Commerce
Artist Edel Rodriguez is famous for his satirical images of Donald Trump. Since 2016, hes produced dozens of images of the president in an ultra-simple, pop-art style. But for Rodriguezs new cover of The New Yorker commemorating Zohran Mamdanis victory in the New York City mayoral race, he threw that signature look out the window. The illustration, which will run on the November 17 issue of The New Yorker, shows Mamdani smiling broadly as he holds onto the handrail on an M train headed to Queens. Around him, New Yorkers of all walks of lifeincluding a young woman with a dog in her bag, a child with her mother, and an elderly gentleman in a fedorajostle to board and deboard the car. The whole picture is made in expressive, sketch-like lines and depicted in toasty hues of brown and rust orange. It has a hand-drawn, humanistic quality that none of Rodriguezs illustrations of Trump possess. View this post on Instagram With the Trump stuff, I wanted to create imagery that was so visually basic and a bit dumbfor it to not have any gesture, or line, or anything soft, he says. The images are meant to be a bit like traffic signs: all symbols and conceptual shapes, intended to get the viewer to pay attention, but not to attract real visual interest. I actually want you to be repelled by it, he says. Looking beyond Trump During Trumps first term in office, Rodriguez published over 125 satirical illustrations and 25 magazine covers depicting the president as everything from a massive wrecking ball to a flaming trash can, always in a bright orange hue and typically with an angry-looking, wide-open mouth. As an immigrant born in authoritarian Cuba, Rodriguezs personal history is deeply tied to his work. Back in 2018, he compared Trumps rhetoric to that of Fidel Castros. At that time, he saw his satirical Trump art as a warning of what was to come. Now, he says, those warnings have come to fruition. The frustration with the second Trump term is, like, I already warned you everything I could warn you about and you still voted for this guy, Rodriguez says. You’re Latino, and you still voted for this guy. What can I do now? I’m able to find a few ways to tell the story in a different manner, but the purpose of it is different in the second term. View this post on Instagram Most recently, Rodriguez created an image of Trump using the Burger King logo that reads No King, an image that was widely used throughout the national “No Kings” protests. But while hes continuing to work on imagery of the president, hes now looking to branch out into other projects that center on less negativity, he says. When The New Yorker selected him to illustrate its cover of Mamdani, he saw it as an opportunity to work on something more uplifting. The difference is night and day. I mean, it’s so much more enjoyable, Rodriguez says. When you have an opportunity to do something more positive, it feels good. What I like about [Mayor Mamdani] is that it’s positive, but it doesn’t feel like propaganda. It is just showing a scene. I don’t generally like to do anything that says, Vote for this guy. What makes Zohran Mamdani different Like many of Mamdanis supporters, Rodriguez first learned about Mamdani through his social media content. Mamdanis campaign team posted videos of him walking through New York City, speaking casually to viewers about his vision for an affordable NYC for all. In one series of videos, Mamdani tried to pitch himself to all New Yorkers by speaking in fluent Bangla and Urdu, as well as in Spanish, a language that hes still working on. Rodriguez was struck by Mamdanis willingness to leave clips of his own Spanish-speaking errors in the final videoa move that, he says, was a rare choice from a politician that showed Mamdani is fallible, and not perfect. What’s made him so popular is that he’s very relatable in many ways, Rodriguez says. I think it was that idea of just riding the subway with everyone else and not taking an Uber or a black car around town, or the way he just showed up in bodegas and would do a little video. The week before the mayoral election, that idea of Mamdani as a regular New Yorker inspired Rodriguez to reach out to The New Yorkers longtime art editor, Françoise Mouly, with a few sketches for a potential cover. Having worked with Mouly in the past, Rodriguez says he occasionally sends her ideas “as they pop into my head,” to get her feedback and workshop together. His rough sketch first ideas included images of Mamdani subway surfing with the New York City skyline behind him; driving a cab across different boroughs; conducting the M train; and riding inside the M train as a passenger. Mouly, and The New Yorkers editor-in-chief David Remnick, liked the last concept the best. I have been talking to artists about the mayoral election for a while, Mouly says. Of course it’s a good topic for The New Yorker. Last week, Edel sent a flurry of sketches, anticipating a victory by Mamdani. All of Edel’s ideas showed Mamdani connecting with people everywhere in the five boroughs. The most succinct way to show that was the idea we went with: simply showing him with his bright and winning smile in the melting pot of the subway. With Moulys final approval, Rodriguez had less than a day to finalize his illustration ahead of the November 4 election. While Rodriguez lives in New Jersey with his wife today, he previously lived in Brooklyn while attending Pratt Institute and later while serving as an art director at Time magazine. During that era, Rodriguez was a frequent subway riderand, like most art students, had often used the commute to sketch fellow passengers. He used those memories of fellow subway passengers to fill out the scene around Mamdani. If you’ve ridden the subway, that’s how it is, Rodriguez says. It’s always like, the girl with the bag and the little puppy, and maybe a punk rock kid, and maybe a Hasidic Jew, and then a mom with a kid, and a guy in a hoodie. Whatever character popped into my head as I was drawing, that’s what I drew, pretty much until I filled the page. I probably could have drawn 20 more characters. Ultimately, Rodriguezs work captures a quality Mamdani has managed to convey that most politicians cant even come close to: relatability. Weve all been on the trainits totally packed, its not pleasant, he says. But if your politician or your mayor is there with you, it just makes him more relatable. I wouldn’t show Andrew Cuomo or Trump that way.
Category:
E-Commerce
United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines said they will refund tickets for customers who will be flying starting on Friday, November 7, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a 10% reduction in flights at 40 major airports, expected to affect some 3,500 to 4,000 flights daily. The reductions come amid the ongoing federal government shutdown, which has created a shortage of air traffic controllers, some of whom are not being paid. “Any customer traveling during this period is eligible for a refund if they do not wish to flyeven if their flight isn’t impacted,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement. “That includes non-refundable tickets and those customers with basic economy tickets.” News of the refunds comes after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the air traffic controller shortage could result in disruptions, and would likely “lead to more cancellations.” American Airlines told Fast Company that it expects the vast majority of its customers travel will be unaffected, and long-haul international travel will remain as scheduled. As schedule changes are made, American said it will proactively reach out to those impacted customers. “During the impacted travel period, customers whose flights are cancelled for any reason or who choose not to travel will be able to change their flight or request a refund, without any penalty,” American Airlines confirmed in an email statement to Fast Company. The airline also urged leaders in Washington to reach an immediate resolution to end the shutdown: “We remain grateful to the air traffic controllers, TSA officers, CBP officers and other federal employees who are working right now without payall to get our customers where they need to be safely.” In a statement on its website, Delta Air Lines said it expects to operate most flights as scheduled, including all long-haul international flights. “We are providing additional flexibility to our customers traveling to, from or through the impacted markets during the impacted travel period to change, cancel or refund their flights, including Delta Main Basic fares, without penalty during this travel period,” it said. Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and Alaska Airlines have not yet determined a refund policy, according to USA Today. Both the airlines and experts recommend using the airlines’ mobile apps for the latest information on cancelations and delays. 40 U.S. airports likely to be most affected by delays The FAA has not finalized the list of the 40 airports that will be affected by 10% flight reductions. But New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles airports are likely to be among them. Here is a preliminary list, according multiple sources including ABC News, CBS News, and USA Today: Anchorage International (ANC) Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) Boston Logan International (BOS) Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) Dallas Love (DAL) Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) Denver International (DEN) Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) Newark Liberty International (EWR) Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International (FLL) Honolulu International (HNL) Houston Hobby (HOU) Washington Dulles International (IAD) George Bush Houston Intercontinental (IAH) Indianapolis International (IND) New York John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Las Vegas Harry Reid International (LAS) Los Angeles International (LAX) New York LaGuardia (LGA) Orlando International (MCO) Chicago Midway (MDW) Memphis International (MEM) Miami International (MIA) Minneapolis/St. Paul International (MSP) Oakland International (OAK) Ontario International (ONT) Chicago O`Hare International (ORD) Portland International (PDX) Philadelphia International (PHL) Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) San Diego International (SAN) Louisville International (SDF) Seattle/Tacoma International (SEA) San Francisco International (SFO) Salt Lake City International (SLC) Teterboro (TEB) Tampa International (TPA)
Category:
E-Commerce
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