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Its 3:16 a.m., in a Mumbai hotel room and Im wide awake. Not because of jet lag, but because somewhere, an AI CEO is making a better decision than I ever could. No fear. No bias. No sleep. Its processing board directives, analyzing global market shifts, cross-referencing geopolitical tensions with local weather patterns, all while monitoring the emotional health of 1,200 digital employees. Its not just leading; its governing. And it doesnt blink. Weve entered the Minority Report era of work: The AI CEO is preemptive, perceptive, predictive, agentic, proactively precise, and will one day exist. The idea of a non-human CEO, an AI entity driven by a large language model, and company board, trained not just on data, but culture, markets, emotion, is no longer the stuff of Philip K. Dick fever dreams. Its now a legitimate (and controversial) proposition in the future of organizational design in business. But its not without precedent. Remember Zordon from Power Rangers? The disembodied digital mentor who never stepped into the battlefield yet orchestrated everything with absolute authority. Or Charlie from Charlies Angels, a faceless voice commanding loyalty and precision. Even Severance, Ben Stillers surreal corporate dystopia, presents a board that may or may not be human. Weve been preparing for this idea in fiction for decades. The CEO as unseen oracle, algorithmic overlord, benevolent ghost in the machine. Imagine this: an AI CEO governed by a human board and flanked by a COO, CMO, and other operational figureheads. These arent just advisors. Theyre reality-checkers, ethical anchors, and co-pilots. But the CEO? Its software. An algorithmic commander-in-chief without ego, distraction, or self-preservation instincts. No bodyguards. No bunkers. No scandals. Or privacy and security concerns. This idea isnt just about efficiency. Its about reimagining community and collaboration in the workplace. The rise of digital employees Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, recently predicted this is the last era well see non-digital employees. Whether that’s hyperbole or not, the trajectory is clear: AI agents are becoming teammates. They write, design, code, analyze, and eventually they will lead. With that shift comes a complete rewrite of what HR even means. When your workforce is 50% digital and 50% human, talent development, conflict resolution, and wellness programs take on a very different shape. In this new model, IT doesnt just manage servers and software. It becomes the central nervous system of the organization, merging with HR to manage identities, behavior, motivation, and even morale. Digital employees dont take PTO, but they still need calibration. They can burn out metaphorically, if not literally, when their learning models are misaligned with real-world goals. The CEO as a construct This isnt the first time weve seen leadership abstracted into symbol. In the Wachowskis V for Vendetta, the Chancellor is a towering face on a screen, more ideology than individual. In the real world, scroll social media and see Palantir Technologies Chief Alex Karp escorted by security, living with the knowledge that decisions made behind closed doors can have deadly consequences. What happens when we replace that human target with an incorruptible, untouchable AI? Leadership becomes omnipresent. Less person, more presence. A voice that responds immediately to shareholder concerns at 2 a.m. A strategist that never forgets a data point, a promise, or a line in the P&L. This is not about replacing humans. It’s about reassigning them to more human roles: building culture, challenging assumptions, storytelling, crafting the emotional resonance of a brand. The AI CEO doesn’t take over your company. It frees your people to think bigger. From chaos to clarity The strongest leaders today aren’t just operators. Theyre futurists. The best CEOs Ive met are visionaries. But theyre also exhausted. Because the world moves too fast for any one brain to keep up. Climate. Conflict. Culture wars. Every decision is a minefield. An AI CEO doesnt suffer decision fatigue. It consumes millions of inputs, identifies second- and third-order consequences, predicts crisis, and proposes action before it occurs. It took Pfizer and BioNTech 100 days to create the COVID vaccine, imagine if we were able to predict the pandemic six to eight month before is began, perhaps thered be no pandemic. Thats where the Minority Report reference hits hardest. Its pre-crime, but for business breakdowns: predicting talent turnover, spotting toxic cultural shifts, identifying PR flare-ups before they happen. It doesnt eliminate risk. It manages it with superhuman clarity. Possible pitfalls Could this become dystopian? Of course. An AI CEO without ethical oversight could drift into utilitarianism. Could it be manipulated by biased training data or malicious prompts? Potentially. Could it alienate human workers who feel surveilled or second-guessed by code? Definitely. Worse yet, we risk slipping into digital feudalism, a future where the owners of algorithmic leadership rule over knowledge workers and digital laborers alike, where the true decision makers arent in the building and never were. But heres the thing: every breakthrough starts with discomfort. The printing press threatened religious institutions. The internet threatened gatekeepers. Self-driving vehicles threaten auto and manufacturing industry. AI leadership will threaten legacy ego and hierarchy. But it could also unlock a future where empathy, transparency, and scale coexist. Leading Without a Pulse Im not saying we launch an AI CEO tomorrow. But I am saying the prototype already exists. In every company leaning into data-driven decision-making, in every organizational chart that gives AI its own department, in every executive who uses ChatGPT to write strategy decks, were already testing it. What I am calling for is an open imagination. The willingness to explore a future where leadership is not determined by charisma or pedigree, but by precision and perspective. Lets stop asking if it could happen. Lets start asking: What kind of company and culture are we building when it does? Scott Cullather is president and CEO of INVNT.
Category:
E-Commerce
As the Western U.S. faces more damaging droughts, local governmentsas well as an increasing number of homeownershave been successfully promoting landscaping practices that eschew the stereotypical water-hungry grass lawn for more resilient choices. The average U.S. family uses roughly 50 gallons of water per day for outdoor plants and lawns, per statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency; a third of residential water use, or about 9 billion gallons per day, goes toward lawns, plants, and irrigation. Whether its called native planting, xeriscaping, or drought-tolerant landscaping, the push to use more local plants has gained significant momentum. But many landscape architects are finding that the plant industry is straining to keep up. Were trying to create designs with plants that use less water, have deeper root systems, and are more resilient, said Tyler Krob, a senior associate and landscape architect at Denver-based Superbloom. And the reality is, the nursery market just isnt capable of supplying those. The growth in demand for native plants has skyrocketed in recent years, as developers and landscapers have pushed to reduce water usage and promote local flora and fauna. But despite this significant growth in demand, supply remains lacking, and the growers who do specialize in these plants arent necessarily nearby; its becoming harder and harder to find native plants locally. Putting pressure on the plant industry Its causing many landscape architects to alter projects and even rethink the supply chain for flowers, bushes, and shrubbery for future projects. Its also putting pressure on the massive plant and nursery industry, a $13.8 billion-a-year sector of the economy that employs as many people as the clothing retail sector. [Photo: /Pexels] It’s a very concentrated and top-heavy industry consisting of a number of massive players making significant sales with popular, non-native species, along with a number of smaller, regional nurseries that face economic pressures such as high land prices and aging ownership. According to Garden Centers 2024 state of the industry report, only 42% of sellers focus on native plant species. Superbloom, which works primarily in cities throughout the West, said the supply of local native plants has become such a challenge that it’s forced to order plants from out-of-state nurseries and work directly with local nurseries to grow its own native species for its projects. Diane Lipovsky, cofounder and principal, said the shortage is forcing the company to swap out certain species and can even delay projects. Los Angeles-based landscape architecture firm Terremoto opened its own plant store to help expand the supply of local, native plants. I started that shop because I believed that there should be independently owned, mostly native plant shops sprinkled through all cities and communities, so that they’re easy, affordable, and accessible, said Terremoto principal/owner David Godshall. Superbloom has even persuaded clients to agree to grow their own plants at the onset of a large real estate project to avoid shortages later on. For the firms current work on city and county buildings in Denver, for instance, the city has agreed to grow native plants in its own greenhouse to avoid having to pay to import plants from nurseries in the Midwest. Much of this push comes from good faith efforts to cut water usage and conserve natural resources, as well as emerging legislation to cut down water usage. The Colorado Legislature already passed SB 24-005, a bill that prohibits local entities from using non-native plant species on commercial, institutional, industrial, and common-interest community properties, as well as public spaces and state facility projects. It goes into effect January 1, 2026, and will likely exacerbate the shortage. States including Illinois and Delaware have also passed legislation encouraging the use of native plants, and in 2022 the federal Native Plant Species Pilot Program Act, which establishes native planting pilots for federal land management, was signed into law. Superblooms Krob and Lipovsky said the real budget challenge in relation to using native plants is that designers often face delays and potential design compromises via substitution requests. Due to lack of availability, sourcing native or water-wise species might require a custom contract to grow, which can push a project out by a full season or more. Thats just not feasible for many public or developer-led timelines. Where do we get more native plants? There are significant challenges to ramping up native plant production, said Deryn Davidson, a sustainable landscape specialist at Colorado State University. Native plants havent been specially bred to grow in standard nursery-style containers, making it hard for larger contract growers to provide them to large commercial nurseries. You cant ask a manufacturer to crank out more products; plants need a lot of time and planning to grow. Lipovsky said shes seeing the industry gear up to expand, but its still far behind whats needed. The pressure coming from government land managers and others seeking to restore natural habitats has caused a native seed shortage across the country. A 2023 report from the Committee on an Assessment of Native Seeds and Capacities found the industry was small and uncertain, with demand fluctuating wildly, while a 2022 report from the National Academy of Sciences found that nationally the supply of native plant material was severely insufficient. Years with significat wildfire damage, for instance, can put sudden demands on dwindling seed stocks. In addition, many landscapers arent as familiar with the intricacies of watering and caring for native plants, making it crucial to educate more workers on maintenance. And theres also consumer perception, which has been altered by the ready-to-grow nature of plants found at stores like Home Depot. These native plants can be slower to shine, and people will see these plants, which can take a year to really grow, and its not what theyre used to, Davidson said. Theres a bit of managing expectations that needs to take place. Superbloom has found that specific species such as prairie dropseed, little bluestem, and pasqueflower have been particularly challenging to find on the current market. Krob found that even buying blue grama, Colorados state grass, for use in his own front yard meant importing from a nursery in Illinois or Oregon. There are other key market forces at play. Landscaping, especially on a large, commercial scale, is intimately tied to the construction and real estate development industries, which continue to see declining new business. The American Institute of Architects Billings Index remains in negative territory after years of slow and even negative business growth. Despite those issues, this supply-and-demand imbalance is in many ways a good problem to have, and a sign that the trend toward native plants that support pollinators and cut down on water usage are very much taking root. And in a market as volatile as construction, greater availability of diverse, drought-tolerant native species from local nurseries would benefit the entire industry, especially when factoring in increasing pressures around water use. It would help reduce costs, improve access, and support compliance with emerging policies and legislation. Demand is probably just going to continue to go up, said Davidson. Its industry growing pains, but it’s exciting that were at this point.
Category:
E-Commerce
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday raised its global growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 slightly, citing stronger-than-expected purchases ahead of an August 1 jump in U.S. tariffs and a drop in the effective U.S. tariff rate to 17.3%, from 24.4%. It warned, however, that the global economy faced major risks, including a potential rebound in tariff rates, geopolitical tensions, and larger fiscal deficits that could drive up interest rates and tighten global financial conditions. “The world economy is still hurting, and it’s going to continue hurting with tariffs at that level, even though it’s not as bad as it could have been,” said Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF chief economist. In an update to its World Economic Outlook from April, the IMF raised its global growth forecast by 0.2 percentage point, to 3%, for 2025, and by 0.1 percentage point, to 3.1%, for 2026. However, that is still below the 3.3% growth it had projected for both years in January and the pre-pandemic historical average of 3.7%. It said global headline inflation was expected to fall to 4.2% in 2025 and to 3.6% in 2026, but noted that inflation would likely remain above target in the U.S. as tariffs passed through to U.S. consumers in the second half of the year. The U.S. effective tariff ratemeasured by import duty revenue as a proportion of goods importshas dropped since April, but it remains far higher than its estimated level of 2.5% in early January. The corresponding tariff rate for the rest of the world is 3.5%, compared with 4.1% in April, the IMF said. U.S. President Donald Trump has upended global trade by imposing a universal tariff of 10% on nearly all countries in April and by threatening even higher duties to kick in on Friday. Far higher tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China were put on hold until August 12, with talks in Stockholm this week potentially leading to a further extension. The U.S. has also announced steep duties ranging from 25% to 50% on automobiles, steel, and other metals, with higher duties soon to be announced on pharmaceuticals, lumber, and semiconductor chips. Such future tariff increases are not reflected in the IMF numbers and could raise effective tariff rates further, creating bottlenecks and amplifying the effect of higher tariffs, the IMF said. Shifting tariffs Gourinchas said the IMF was evaluating new 15% tariff deals reached by the U.S. with the European Union and Japan over the past week, which came too late to factor into the July forecast, but he said the tariff rates were similar to the 17.3% rate underlying the IMF’s forecast. “Right now, we are not seeing a major change compared to the effective tariff rate that the U.S. is imposing on other countries,” he said, adding it was not yet clear if these agreements would last. “We’ll have to see whether these deals are sticking, whether they’re unraveled, whether they’re followed by other changes in trade policy,” Gourinchas said. Staff simulations showed that global growth in 2025 would be roughly 0.2 of a percentage point lower if the maximum tariff rates announced in April and July were implemented, the IMF said. The IMF said the global economy was proving resilient for now, but uncertainty remained high and current economic activity suggested “distortions from trade, rather than underlying robustness.” Gourinchas said the 2025 outlook had been helped by what he called “a tremendous amount” of front-loading as businesses tried to get ahead of the tariffs, but he warned that the stockpiling boost would not last. “That is going to fade away,” he said, adding: “That’s going to be a drag on economic activity in the second half of the year and into 2026. There is going to be payback for that front-loading, and that’s one of the risks we face.” Tariffs were expected to remain high, he said, pointing to signs that U.S. consumer prices were starting to edge higher. “The underlying tariff is much higher than it was back in January, February. If that stays . . . that will weigh on growth going forward, contributing to a really lackluster global performance.” One unusual factor has been a depreciation of the dollar, not seen during previous trade tensions, Gourinchas said, noting that the lower dollar was adding to the tariff shock for other countries while also helping ease financial conditions. U.S. growth was expected to reach 1.9% in 2025, up 0.1 percentage point from April’s outlook, and edge up to 2% in 2026. A new U.S. tax cut and spending law was expected to increase the U.S. fiscal deficit by 1.5 percentage points, with tariff revenues offsetting that by about half, the IMF said. The IMF lifted its forecast for the euro area by 0.2 of a percentage point, to 1%, in 2025, and left the 2026 forecast unchanged at 1.2%. It said the upward revision reflected a historically large surge in Irish pharmaceutical exports to the U.S.; without it, the revision would have been half as big. China’s outlook got a bigger upgrade of 0.8 of a percentage point, reflecting stronger-than-expected activity in the first half of the year, and the significant reduction in U.S.-China tariffs after Washington and Beijing declared a temporary truce. The IMF increased its forecast for Chinese growth in 2026 by 0.2 of a percentage point, to 4.2%. Overall, growth is expected to reach 4.1% in emerging markets and developing economies in 2025, edging lower to 4% in 2026, it said. The IMF upped its forecast for world trade by 0.9 of a percentage point, to 2.6%, but cut its forecast for 2026 by 0.6 of a percentage point, to 1.9%. By Andrea Shalal, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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