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Gen Z is aging into the life moments that define entire industries. As this generation moves through milestones like marriage, homeownership, and family planning, theyre quickly becoming a core target market not just for weddings, but for a wide range of service-based businesses. What matters for these small businesses is how Gen Zs arrival, set against todays economic backdrop, is reshaping expectations for how they serve their customers.While about one in three couples on The Knot in the U.S. are Gen Z, the majority are still a few years away from the peak marrying age of 33. We do know, however, that they are interested in doing so, with 69% of unmarried adults ages 1834 saying they want to get marrieda nearly 10% increase since 2017. As this new generation prepares to celebrate one of lifes most meaningful moments, there will be a major shift in how small businesses are expected to deliver. We are seeing that Gen Z consumers expect more personalization, deeper authenticity, and faster digital-first communication, often alongside less flexibility in spending. Gen Z might be working with smaller budgets, but its not because they lack the desire to invest in their weddings. Rather, it is most often attributed to their current earnings potential. Due to their age, they have not had time to acquire the same amount of funds as millennials. Many Gen Z couples are being intentional about where they spend, investing in the parts of their day that matter most to them and finding creative ways to simplify or scale back elsewhere. For wedding professionals, this shift is already changing the reality of their work. Vendors are serving clients who want thoughtful, high-touch experiences, quick responses, personalization, and visuals that feel Pinterest-worthy, even as overall budgets are more constrained. That often means finding new ways to package services, streamline processes, or rethink how value shows up for each couple. For businesses looking to serve this shifting clientele, intentional adaptation is key. Small businesses should make these four moves now to navigate this market shift. 1. Embrace AI to help with productivity, core processes, and content AI and automation tools are table stakes for productivity and core processes, helping streamline communication, scheduling, content, and lead management. In fact, 77% of customers say they expect to interact with a business immediately when they reach out. For Gen Z customers especially, responsiveness is part of the experience, and falling behind on response time can mean losing business before a conversation even begins. Businesses that use AI thoughtfully to handle administrative work free themselves up to focus on what drives loyalty: creativity, care, and human connection. AI-assisted replies can help you respond quickly with personalized recommendations to start the conversation and save time. 2. Keep pace with trends and provide personalization When it comes to weddings, couples want celebrations that feel of-the-moment, yet deeply personal. For wedding vendors, this means being aware of the trends that are impacting planning decisions and simultaneously translating them in a way that feels truly unique and personal to the couple. No matter what your industry is, its important to maintain a balance between being trend-forward and creating personalized experiences. 3. Dont go it alonelean into community and upskilling Change can feel isolating for small business owners, especially when customer expectations are shifting quickly. The business owners who seem to navigate these moments best are rarely doing it alone. Theyre talking to peers, comparing notes, and staying open to learning new tools and approaches. In weddings, we see this play out every day. Vendors share templates, swap tips on using AI to save time, and openly talk through whats working when it comes to pricing, packages, and client communication. These conversations arent just about support, but also perspective. Learning from others who are facing the same challenges makes it easier to adapt with confidence. 4. Make your understanding of Gen Zs values your competitive advantage Gen Zs expectations are high, but theyre also thoughtful and values driven. They care about authenticity, transparency, and purpose, and are often willing to spend on things that feel meaningful to them. For small businesses, this means storytelling and customer relationships matter more than ever. Businesses that do this well tend to connect more deeply with younger customers. When customers understand the why behind what you do, price becomes part of a larger story, one thats more closely connected to value. This matters because younger consumers arent brand-agnostic; theyre increasingly intentional about where they spend. In recent consumer surveys, Gen Zers say theyre willing to shop locally more often, signaling that values and community can meaningfully influence purchasing decisions alongside price and convenience. In other words, when business leaders feel budgets tightening amidst high expectations, leaning into what makes your offering distinct can turn pressure into loyalty. WHY THESE LESSONS EXTEND FAR BEYOND WEDDINGS Whether you run a salon, creative studio, catering company, or consulting practice, you may already be seeing similar patterns. After many years of working with small businesses, one lesson stands firmly in my mind: Adaptability is one of the greatest advantages an entrepreneur can have. The businesses Ive seen thrive do so because they stay curious, embrace new tools, and meet clients evolving needs with empathy and creativity. If you are a small business owner, take this moment as an opportunity to reimagine how you deliver value, connect with clients and your community, and build a business that can grow with the next generation. Gen Z may be shifting expectations, but with the right adjustments, they just may become the next area of growth for your business. Raina Moskowitz is the CEO of The Knot Worldwide.
Category:
E-Commerce
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Health, a product that allows users to connect their medical records and wellness apps to the AI chatbot and get personalized health guidance. The feature, unveiled on Wednesday, creates a separate space within ChatGPT for health questions and discussions, where users can collect data from their connected health apps such as fitness apps and store their health files. Users can also connect to their electronic medical records through a partnership with b.well, OpenAI says. ChatGPT, then, does not have a direct integration with the MyChart patient records app from Epic, for example, but lets individual users make requests for their patient record data through integrations built by b.well. In practice, the patient will see a login through their provider’s portal, which often is a MyChart login page to authenticate into their account. In addition, users can connect ChatGPT Health to wellness apps including Apple Health, Peloton, MyFitnessPal, and Function Health. OpenAI say more than 230 million people globally already ask health and wellness questions on ChatGPT each week. The company says it developed ChatGPT Health over two years in collaboration with more than 260 physicians who have practiced in 60 countries, collecting over 600,000 pieces of feedback on model outputs. The new product gets its intelligence from a specialized OpenAI health model. In collaboration with doctors, the company also created an evaluation tool called HealthBench, which it uses to test the health model. Data in ChatGPT Health is protected using purpose-built encryption, OpenAI says, and health conversations in the Health space are not used to train OpenAI’s models. But privacy advocates remain concerned about the risks of sharing personal health data within a chatbot setting. “While OpenAI says that it wont use information shared with ChatGPT Health in other chats, AI companies are leaning hard into personalization as a value proposition, says the Center for Democracy & Technologys Andrew Crawford in a statement. Especially as OpenAI moves to explore advertising as a business model, its crucial that separation between this sort of health data and memories that ChatGPT captures from other conversations is airtight.”OpenAI says health consumers can use ChatGPT Health to prepare for doctor appointments, understand clinical test results, get diet and exercise advice, and evaluate insurance options based on their healthcare patterns. ChatGPT Health is not FDA-approved, so it’s not to be confused with real clinician diagnosis and treatment. Right now, the new feature is available only to a small group of ChatGPT subscribers and free users. OpenAI plans to expand access and make Health available to all users on the web and iOS in the coming weeks. (You can sign up for the waitlist to request access.) OpenAIs CEO of Applications Fidji Simo wrote in a blog post that she personally used ChatGPT to flag a potential medication conflict during a hospital stay last year, calling the experience an example of AI’s potential in healthcare. Because Ive been dealing with a chronic illness for years, I had already uploaded a lot of my health records into ChatGPT, Simo writes. I asked whether I should be taking this antibiotic given my medical history, and ChatGPT flagged that this particular antibiotic could reactivate a very serious infection Id had a couple of years prior. In the big picture, ChatGPT Health represents yet another front OpenAIs growing platform war with legacy tech players such as Apple, Google, and Meta.
Category:
E-Commerce
If Nike hired Michael Jordan to work at headquarters, would you expect the marketing team to start sinking three-pointers? Of course not. Hes extraordinary, but skill doesnt spread by proximity. Here’s a better question: What do Nike employees need to know about basketball? The rules. Game duration. Equipment specs. Enough to design better shoes, write sharper campaigns, and forecast demand accurately. They dont need to play in the NBA. And Nike doesnt need to hire NBA players to improve its business. The same is true for AI. Most companies dont need extreme AI talent to unlock real efficiency gains. They need people across the organization to understand how AI applies to their work. Until leaders get specific about which AI skills matter, where they live, and how they show up in day-to-day work, no amount of hiring AI experts will make an organization truly AI-enabled. THREE TYPES OF AI SKILLS AI skills arent a single capability. In practice, its three categories, each with its own learning curves, and business outcomes. 1. AI literacy: Everyones baseline 2. AI integration: Technical professionals everyday craft 3. AI creation: Specialists deep work 1. AI literacy is everyones job I like to think of this as teaching the entire company how to drive with GPS. Not everyone needs to build the map. But everyone should know when the directions are reliable, when the route is risky, and when the system is confidently wrong. First is AI literacy. Employees need to understand what AI can do, what it cant, and what it will do when it doesnt know the answer. Literacy prevents common failures: over-trusting outputs, under-using tools, and feeding poor context. Second is AI tool fluency, which is role-specific. A marketer generating content, a recruiter screening candidates, and a support lead drafting responses all need different AI tools. One reason I like IKEAs approach is that theyre treating AI literacy as every employee’s responsibility, and the companys responsibility to enable it. They equipped thousands of coworkers with Microsofts generative AI tools and gave them time to learn. What did this look like in practice? Designers generate product visualizations, store managers create training presentations, and supply chain analysts draft forecasting reports. Everyone, not just one department. 2. AI integration is a core skill for technical teams If AI literacy is drive with GPS, AI integration is install the GPS into the car. This is where engineering teams earn their keep. Integration skills include prompt design, system evaluation, and knowing when AI belongs in the flow. Here is what this looks like when done as a system. Salesforce created an internal demo series called Thoughtluck Thursdays, where engineers show short, practical demos of how they integrated AI into their processes and then share patterns other teams can reuse. Salesforces approach works because it creates repeatable templates and guardrails other engineers can ship. 3. AI creation is a specialty, not a company-wide requirement AI creation is the ability to develop, train, and refine models. It requires deep expertise in data collection and preparation, model training, evaluation, and specialized techniques. It is also the smallest cohort of most organizations. If you are not building models as a core part of your product strategy, you do not need a large AI creation team. You need a small number of specialists, and the rest of the organization needs to become competent in usage and integration. EXTERNAL HIRING HAS ITS PLACE Let me be clear: External hiring isnt wrong. Its necessary when you need skills you genuinely dont have, especially in AI creation. But hiring people with “AI skills” on their résumés cannot be your primary path to AI literacy and integration. First, there is no established market for AI skills. The capabilities are too new, the demand is everywhere, and the talent pool is impossibly thin. Every company is chasing the same small group of people, and most of those people are already employed or starting their own companies. Second, it is harder to teach someone the ins and outs of your business than to teach them how to incorporate AI into their daily work. The biggest returns come from reskilling the people who already understand your business, your culture, and your systems. This is where hiring and training stop being separate motions and start becoming one system. HR OWNS THIS Dont get me wrong, IT teams are essential. They evaluate vendors, manage security, and integrate systems. But selecting the right tools doesnt determine whether AI changes how work gets done by the people doing the work. Building the right skills does. That’s why HR needs a seat at the table from day one to ask the right questions: Who gets trained first? How will we train them? Which roles evolve? How will performance be measured? Are there larger talent mobility needs? Heres where to start: 1. Pick one team. Choose a group that’s already eager to experiment, has clearly defined processes already, and can measure impact. 2. Give them three months and a small budget. Let them explore AI tools relevant to their work. Provide training. Remove barriers. Measure what breaks and what works. 3. Share the results company-wide. The wins, the failures, the unexpected friction points. Make it real and specific. Thats your AI strategy. Not a nine-figure hire or a top-down mandate or a hope that capability spreads. Build the skills where work happens, scale what works, and repeat. Tigran Sloyan is the CEO and cofounder of CodeSignal.
Category:
E-Commerce
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