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2025-10-14 08:00:00| Fast Company

OpenAI never wanted to build a chatbot.  As an early beta tester for OpenAIs GPT-3 model, I can vouch for the fact that the company was caught totally off guard by ChatGPTs runaway success. An email that OpenAI sent me on November 28, 2022just two days before ChatGPT came to market and kicked off a trillion-dollar, multiyear, economy-distending AI scrambledidnt even mention the new interface.  Rather, it bragged about the companys then-revolutionary DaVinci model and how it could deliver clearer, more engaging, and more compelling content and allow developers to take on tasks that would have previously been too difficult to achieve. From the breathless tone of the email, it was clear that OpenAI had bigger ambitions than creating a text-based tool to help you argue with your insurance company or write KPop Demon Hunters fanfics. As Nick Turley, OpenAIs head of product, admitted this week, the company got a little sidetracked by ChatGPT.  Now OpenAIs true ambitions are becoming increasingly clear. In Turleys words, OpenAI never meant to build a chatbot. Instead, the company always planned to build a super assistant. And thats exactly what its now doing. The super app In America, our app landscape is highly fragmented. Yes, if you want to know how fast bamboo grows or figure out the chords for R.E.M.s 1985 classic Wendell Gee, you might fire up the ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini app and ask the bots. If you want to post to social media, though, youre likely to reach for Instagram, TikTok, orperhaps steeling yourself for the possibility of encountering MechaHitlerX. Need to bank? Open up the crappy app for your local bank branch with the UI from 2012, and hope for the best. Buying something? Theres Amazon, Instacart, and DoorDash for that. Want to secretly determine how much wealth your friends have accumulated? Zillow to the rescue! In other parts of the world, apps arent like that at all. Many countries, especially in Asia, have super apps that integrate all those functions and more into one tool, often controlled by a single, über-influential company. In China, WeChat provides messaging and gaming, but also mobile payments, social media, and mini apps for things like ride-hailing, paying bills, and even getting city services. In many Southwest Asian countries, Grab provides financial services, rides, food delivery, and much else. In the Middle East, Careem provides similar functions. Africa, Latin America, and many other geographies have similar super apps. America doesnt. And to American technology companies, thats a big problem.  Because the apps are so all-encompassing, their creators control incredible amounts of capital and power. Tencent, the company behind WeChat, had revenues of more than $90 billion and profits approaching $30 billion in 2024much of it driven by WeChatand is growing fast.  Thats an especially colossal sum in China, making Tencent one of the country’s most profitable companies, behind only a handful of largely state-controlled banks and conglomerates. Here in America, Elon Musk had ambitions to turn X into a super app, but his politics and penchant for second grade humor got in the way. No one else has really taken up the gauntlet. Until now. OpenAI Eats Everything At its October 2025 Developer Day, OpenAI made clear that it intends to create a super app, and will spend an almost limitless amount of money to make that happen. During the event, the company announced the ability to run apps directly within the ChatGPT interface. These are very similar to the mini apps that have made WeChat so powerful. Initial partners include Spotify and Zillow, but the list will inevitably grow. Simultaneously, the company has rolled out multiple functions that make it look less like a chatbot maker and more like a super-app company.  Last week, OpenAI launched new features that let the bot spend your money for you, as well as a protocol to allow direct purchasing from any merchant who opts in.  OpenAIs Sora social networkwhere all the content is joyfully faketakes on TikTok and has immediately leapt to the No. 1 spot in Apples App Store. And earlier this year, OpenAI shared that it plans to launch a browser to rival the ubiquitous Google Chrome. OpenAI seems to suddenly be everywhere, doing everything. That broad-ranging ambition is the hallmark of a super-app maker. And again, if all the signals werent clear enough, Turley essentially confirmed the companys new direcion with his super assistant comments. So, will it work? If any company can create a super app, its OpenAI. With its wild consumer success, the company has access to bottomless pits of capital. ChatGPT has 800 million weekly active users, and that number continues to grow. OpenAI is the first company in a generation to create an entirely new way of interacting with computers. Its intelligent chat interface lends itself to the integration of other apps and services. My own experience using Instant Checkout confirms that buying things within the ChatGPT interface really is seamless. Still, Americas existing tech titans wont go quietly. Google is reportedly expanding its own Gemini app, and its Nano Banana system proves it can still grab the publics attention. Meta already has its own Sora doppelgänger. And while OpenAI is growing quickly, its revenue is only around $10 billiona drop in the bucket compared to Googles $350 billion, and still a fraction of the revenue of its Chinese super-app rivals. OpenAI would love to take over every aspect of your digital life. And it may. But despite the hype, the company still has a very long way to go.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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2025-10-14 06:00:00| Fast Company

While most employers offer mental health care coverage as part of their health insurance packages, major gaps in care exist. According to new research, many employers aren’t sure how mental health care services are being used by employees. The 2025 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) Employer Survey, released Friday, polled professionals at 400 companies with 500 or more employees who made benefits decisions. Mental health coverage was a given almost across the board (97% of respondents said their company offered it), and several companies covered nontraditional programs, like financial therapists (62%) and mindfulness apps (74%). However, there were also several gaps in coverage. Only two-thirds of companies covered substance use treatment. Only one-third of companies covered ongoing treatment for chronic conditions, and only a quarter covered care for those with “diverse cultural backgrounds and unique employee needs.” Even lower on the spectrum was stigma reduction campaigns that help create an environment that encourages employees to seek mental health care. Interestingly, the gaps in coverage could be explained, at least in part, by the fact that companies largely aren’t tracking whether their employees are using mental health services. Only 22% analyzed claims data to ascertain how benefits were being used. Likewise, only 37% of employers measured how satisfied employees were with their health care plans overall.  “Complete and transparent access to claims data enables employers to design benefit programs that truly meet the needs of their employees and their families, said Margaret Faso, policy director with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, in a press release. This study reinforces the importance for employers to continue efforts to achieve transparency to better support the health and wellbeing needs of their workforce. However, the survey also found that employers don’t feel that the breadth of mental health care services, pricing, or quality should be their responsibility. Only 10% said that the employer should be responsible for those aspects of care plans, and instead, that responsibility is on insurance companies (28%), federal (30%), and state governments (24%). 


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-10-13 19:55:00| Fast Company

Thirteen months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Metro Mattress Corp. is set to become the latest brick-and-mortar chain to wind down operations in 2025. The New York-based bedding retailer has disclosed in a court filing that it plans to shutter its remaining stores after some 21 attempts to find a buyer or strategic partner that would have allowed it to continue. Headquartered in Syracuse, Metro Mattress had 70 locations across New York and four New England states when it sought Chapter 11 protection in September 2024. At the time, the company said it planned to close roughly two dozen of those stores and refocus its efforts specifically on its New York locations.  It eventually closed 30 stores, including all of its locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, in addition to some underperforming stores in New York. CEO Dino Cifelli, a furniture retail veteran who had been hired only six months earlier to execute a growth strategy at Metro Mattress, noted in his initial court declaration that the New England stores faced various existential headwinds, including higher operating costs and inefficiencies of scale. Shedding the New England locations, Cifelli added, would help Metro Mattress return to profitability and result in a sustainable business.  But things havent turned out that way, in part due to low foot traffic, and now the retailer says it will close all of its remaining stores. In a court filing in early October, Metro Mattress said it will transfer most of its inventory to five or six locations and conduct going-out-of-business sales, with the spaces being returned to landlords after a roughly five-week liquidation period.  Which Metro Mattress locations are closing?  All remaining Metro Mattress locations are expected to close, and in fact, many already have. The company has not confirmed which stores will remain open to conduct the liquidation sales. Emails to Metro Mattress went unreturned, and a representative declined to comment to Fast Company when reached by phone.  According to its store locator tool, the following seven locations appear to still be open as of Monday, October 13: Metro Mattress Albany Metro Mattress John Glenn Blvd.: Syracuse, NY Metro Mattress Syracuse: Dewitt, NY Metro Mattress Irondequoit: Rochester, NY Metro Mattress Greece: Rochester, NY Metro Mattress Amherst Metro Mattress Glenmont In court documents, Metro Mattress has identified the following 40 stores across New York state that will shutter as part of its wind-down process: Metro Mattress Amherst: Tonawanda, NY Metro Mattress Horseheads: Horseheads, NY Metro Mattress Irondequoit: Irondequoit, NY Metro Mattress Greece: Rochester, NY Metro Mattress Olean: Olean, NY Metro Mattress Glenmont: Glenmont, NY Metro Mattress John Glenn: Syracuse, NY Metro Mattress Wolf Road: Albany, NY 12205 Metro Mattress Hamburg: Hamburg, NY Metro Mattress Utica: Yorkville, NY Metro Mattress Batavia: Batavia, NY Metro Mattress Lansing: Ithaca, NY Metro Mattress Lockport: Lockport, NY Metro Mattress Geneseo: Geneseo, NY Metro Mattress Auburn: Auburn, NY Metro Mattress Liverpool: Liverpool, NY Metro Mattress Watertown: Watertown, NY Metro Mattress Union Road: Cheektowaga, NY Metro Mattress Clifton Park: Clifton Park, NY Metro Mattress Delaware: Buffalo, NY Metro Mattress New Hartford: New Hartford, NY Metro Mattress Niagara Falls: Niagara Falls, NY Metro Mattress East Dewitt: Syracuse, NY Metro Mattress Geneva: Geneva, NY Metro Mattress Niskayuna: Niskayuna, NY Metro Mattress Johnson City: Johnson City, NY Metro Mattress Johnstown: Johnstown, NY Metro Mattress Oswego: Oswego, NY Metro Mattress Norwich: Norwich, NY Metro Mattress Wilton: Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Metro Mattress Cortland: Cortland, NY Metro Mattress Oneonta: Oneonta, NY Metro Mattress Vestal: Vestal, NY Metro Mattress West Fairmount: Syracuse, NY Metro Mattress Henrietta: Rochester, NY Metro Mattress Ithaca: Ithaca, NY Metro Mattress Canandaigua: Canandaigua, NY Metro Mattress North Cicero: Cicero, NY Metro Mattress Rome: Rome, NY Metro Mattress Webster: Webster, NY Retail closures pile up in 2025 Metro Mattress joins a number of well-known retail chains that have ceased operations after seeking bankruptcy protection over the last 18 months. The list includes much larger operations such as Party City, fast-fashion brand Forever 21, and the arts-and-crafts and fabric retailer Joann. But smaller and mid-size chains are obviously not immune to the same unfavorable forces that have plagued so many retail businesses in recent yearsincluding soaring operating costs, consumers with less money to spend, and the broader shift to online shopping.


Category: E-Commerce

 

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