For decades now, we have been told that artificial intelligence systems will soon replace human workers. Sixty years ago, for example, Herbert Simon, who received a Nobel Prize in economics and a Turing Award in computing, predicted that machines will be capable, within 20 years, of doing any work a man can do. More recently, we have Daniel Susskinds 2020 award-winning book with the title that says it all: A World Without Work.
Are these bleak predictions finally coming true? ChatGPT turns 3 years old this month, and many think large language models will finally deliver on the promise of AI replacing human workers. LLMs can be used to write emails and reports, summarize documents, and otherwise do many of the tasks that managers are supposed to do. Other forms of generative AI can create images and videos for advertising or code for software.
From Amazon to General Motors to Booz Allen Hamilton, layoffs are being announced and blamed on AI. Amazon said it would cut 14,000 corporate jobs. United Parcel Service (UPS) said it had reduced its management workforce by about 14,000 positions over the past 22 months. And Target said it would cut 1,800 corporate roles. Some academic economists have also chimed in: The St. Louis Federal Reserve found a (weak) correlation between theoretical AI exposure and actual AI adoption in 12 occupational categories.
Yet we remain skeptical of the claim that AI is responsible for these layoffs. A recent MIT Media Lab study found that 95% of generative AI pilot business projects were failing. Another survey by Atlassian concluded that 96% of businesses have not seen dramatic improvements in organizational efficiency, innovation, or work quality. Still another study found that 40% of the business people surveyed have received AI slop at work in the last month and that it takes nearly two hours, on average, to fix each instance of slop. In addition, they no longer trust their AI-enabled peers, find them less creative, and find them less intelligent or capable.
If AI isnt doing much, its unlikely to be responsible for the layoffs. Some have pointed to the rapid hiring in the tech sector during and after the pandemic when the U.S. Federal Reserve set interest rates near zero, reports the BBCs Danielle Kaye. The resulting hiring set these firms up for eventual workforce reductions, experts saida dynamic separate from the generative AI boom over the last three years, Kaye wrote.
Others have pointed to fears that an impending recession may be starting due to higher tariffs, fewer foreign-worker visas, the government shutdown, a backlash against DEI and clean energy spending, ballooning federal government debt, and the presence of federal troops in U.S. cities.
For layoffs in the tech sector, a likely culprit is the financial stress that companies are experiencing because of their huge spending on AI infrastructure. Companies that are spending a lot with no significant increases in revenue can try to sustain profitability by cutting costs. Amazon increased its total CapEx from $54 billion in 2023 to $84 billion in 2024, and an estimated $118 billion in 2025. Meta is securing a $27 billion credit line to fund its data centers. Oracle plans to borrow $25 billion annually over the next few years to fulfill its AI contracts.
Were running out of simple ways to secure more funding, so cost-cutting will follow, Pratik Ratadiya, head of product at AI startup Narravance, wrote on X. I maintain that companies have overspent on LLMs before establishing a sustainable financial model for these expenses.
Weve seen this act before. When companies are financially stressed, a relatively easy solution is to lay off workers and ask those who are not laid off to work harder and be thankful that they still have jobs. AI is just a convenient excuse for this cost-cutting. Last week, when Amazon slashed 14,000 corporate jobs and hinted that more cuts could be coming, a top executive noted the current generation of AI is enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before. Shortly thereafter, another Amazon rep anonymously admitted to NBC News that AI is not the reason behind the vast majority of reductions. On an investor call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy admitted that the layoffs were not even really AI driven.”
We have been following the slow growth in revenues for generative AI over the last few years, and the revenues are neither big enough to support the number of layoffs attributed to AI, nor to justify the capital expenditures on AI cloud infrastructure. Those expenditures may be approaching $1 trillion for 2025, while AI revenuewhich would be used to pay for the use of AI infrastructure to run the softwarewill not exceed $30 billion this year. Are we to believe that such a small amount of revenue is driving economy-wide layoffs?
Investors cant decide whether to cheer or fear these investments. The revenue is minuscule for AI-platform companies like OpenAI that are buyers, but is magnificent for companies like Nvidia that are sellers. Nvidias market capitalization recently topped $5 trillion, while OpenAI admits that it will have $115 billion in cumulative losses by 2029. (Based on Sam Altmans history of overly optimistic predictions, we suspect the losses will be even larger.)
The lack of transparency doesnt help. OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI creators are not public companies that are required to release audited figures each quarter. And most Big Tech companies do not separate AI from other revenues. (Microsoft is the only one.) Thus, we are flying in the dark.
Meanwhile, college graduates are having trouble finding jobs, and many young people are convinced by the end-of-work narrative that there is no point in preparing for jobs. Ironically, surrendering to this narrative makes them even less employable.
The wild exaggerations from LLM promoters certainly help them raise funds for their quixotic quest for artificial general intelligence. But it brings us no closer to that goal, all while diverting valuable physical, financial, and human resources from more promising pursuits.
Dole invented a new fruit.
The Dole Colada Royale Pineapple is sweet and tangy with notes of coconut and, as the name suggests, pia colada. Unlike its golden yellow counterpart, the Colada Royale has a cream-colored pulp with a green-to-golden shell. It also took more than 15 years to get it just right. The suggested recipes the company released with the new fruit include snacks like a pineapple and coconut carpaccio and a basil-wrapped pineapple with pine zest. Clearly this is meant to be a luxury pineapple experience.
The fruit, which is now available in select grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada, is 100% non-GMO and naturally bred. The company didn’t share its suggested retail price, but the Colada Royale comes amid a wider trend toward “designer” pineapples. Just last year, Fresh Del Monte released a pink pineapple it called the Pinkglow, which it followed up with a $400 Rubyglow.
[Photo: Dole]
A new growing process
Developing new pineapples requires patience since the natural process can stretch out for nine years or more.
“You have to go through thousands of pollinations and develop thousands of seeds and then have the capacity to pinpoint that particular plant that combines what you are looking for,” says Roberto Young, director of pineapple breeding at Doles farm in La Ceiba, Honduras. He led the team that developed the Colada Royale variety.
The new pineapple also had be grown in different seasons, since temperature can affect the taste of the finished product. All in all, that means it takes thousands of attempts that go wrong in hopes of getting one that goes right.
Dole pineapple breeder Roberto Young [Photo: Dole]
“Usually, you have to discard most of the fruit because it could taste very good during the summer, but in the winter you cannot really taste it because it’s too tangy, it’s very acidic,” Young tells Fast Company.
Plant breeders consider factors like size, productivity, and color as they’re developing a new product, but taste, of course, is the most important.
“It doesn’t help if the fruit is a good size, good productivity, but doesn’t taste like pineapple,” Young says.
Dole’s new pineapple had the right taste, but its cream-colored pulp was at first a concern since consumers today are used to yellow pulp in pineapples. At the produce and floral trade show in Anaheim, California, where Dole unveiled the Colada Royale in October, Young says people were hesitant about the fruituntil they tasted it. Then, he says, their reaction was Wow, this is something different.
[Photo: Dole]
Developing a new market
The goal from the beginning was to develop a unique flavor and bring something new to the market.
Pineapple is genetically very variable, Young says, and the biggest challenge was consistency. Plant breeding doesn’t have a high success rateIf you are a plant breeder, you might be successful, or you might not,” he concedesand pineapple is especially tricky since it has a relatively long harvest cycle.
The process requires first planting parents, which take about a year to produce flowers that can be pollinated. From there, it’s about five more months until the fruit can be harvested. The seeds from that harvest are then planted to get all new plants, repeating the cycle.
[Photo: Dole]
The results need to be repeatable to ensure the fruit can be mass-produced, so it takes at least three generationsroughly nin yearsto develop a new product. The Colada Royale took longer, and Young, a Honduran native who’s been with Dole for 28 years, has been on the project from the start. He considers it his legacy.
“I feel really very, very grateful,” he says.
Dole is also looking at the new fruit as a legacy play of its own. The company plans to reinvest a portion of the proceeds of every box of the pineapple sold to create a community center in La Ceiba that will provide healthcare services, language classes, and vocational training.
In its most recent earnings report, Dole said its second-quarter 2025 revenue was $2.4 billion, an increase of 14.3% over the same period in 2024. The company is expected to report third-quarter financials on November 10.
Designer pineapples may sound like a novelty, but since they can be upsold, fruit growers and grocers alike may find they’re a sweet addition to the produce section.
Amid the mass layoffs in tech and retail in the past month, YouTubes CEO Neal Mohan sent out a recent internal memo that hes also looking to lay off employeeswho volunteer. Mohan details how YouTube is undergoing a major AI-focused reorganization and introduces a Voluntary Exit Program with a severance package to eligible YouTube employees. This voluntary exit deal has been couched as an opportunity for employees, but its really just a buyout.
Companies have long used this strategy as a way to reduce headcount, usually to avert traditional layoffs. For employees approaching retirement, voluntary severance may be a great opportunity, a wonderful deus ex machina late-career plot twist. But many employees worry that saying no, thank you now may mean an involuntary layoff later on.
So how do you decide if you should take a voluntary layoff? Here are four questions to consider.
Whats happening in your industry?
YouTube has offered its employees a buyout because of AI restructuring.
Duke University created a voluntary severance program in April 2025 in response to federal funding cuts.
UnitedHealthCare invited an undisclosed number of employees to take part in its Voluntary Resignation Separation Program in early 2025 in response to the financially tumultuous fallout of the murder of its CEO, Brian Thompson, and to a 2024 cyberattack that cost the company $3 billion.
In all of these cases, the organizations are offering buyouts because of larger technological, political, and economic forces. The decisions are about more than just whats happening in the organization itselfwhich may indicate that more changes are coming as the industries adapt.
But not all buyouts are prompted by larger industry forces. Thats why its important to understand the bigger trends. Then you can better predict whether voluntary layoffs are likely to be the end of your companys reduction in forceor just the beginning. Typically, voluntary buyout packages are more generous than the kinds of severance packages that come with involuntary layoffs.
What are your employment prospects?
The best-case scenario for a voluntary layoff is either stepping straight into retirement or having a new job already lined up. Then your severance package becomes an unexpected pot of gold in the path you were already walking. Unfortunately, most of us arent that lucky.
So if you werent planning on leaving before the buyout was announced, what prospects would you have if you took the voluntary severance?
One of the upsides of voluntary layoffs is the opt-in window. Typically, employers offer a window of several weeks to several months to opt-in to voluntary severance, giving you some time to put out feelers for other potential job prospects. This can let you see what the job market is like before you make your decision.
Whats in the severance package?
While the specific severance package will vary from one organization to another, voluntary layoff programs typically make the buyout a tempting carrot in order to avoid more painful involuntary layoffs later on. Often, these severance packages will give volunteers several weeks or months worth of base pay, depending on the number of years of service. (And depending on which state you live in, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits once the severance pay has run out.)
For instance, when Duke University offered voluntary severance earlier this year, it gave volunteers a compensation package equal to one week of severance pay, multiplied by years of service, up to a maximum of 26 weeks.
But cash may not be the only benefit in your severance package. Your employer may also offer to pay health insurance benefits for a few months, provide career counseling, or offer financial planning services to help with the transition.
What do you want?
Learning that your employer is offering voluntary layoffs is stressful, but it doesnt mean the company has all the cards. The organization wants somethinga reduction in forcewhich means you have leverage. Because you can help give that to them, if they give you what you want.
So just like when you were hired, figure out what you want and decide what youre willing to compromise to get it. Dont assume the severance package your employer offers is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.
Start with the severance compensation package. Just because the severance pay offered by the voluntary layoff program is capped at a certain amount doesnt mean you cant ask for more. The company is willing to pay people to quit, so feel free to ask for more money to give them what they want.
Similarly, you could ask to be vested in the companys retirement plan if youre not fully there yet or ask to stay on the organizations health insurance until the next calendar year. The worst they can say is no.
Deciding what you want to make leaving feel good can make a voluntary layoff a winning proposition for you, rather than an employment catch-22.
Lay off me!
If youre facing a Voluntary Exit Program or other euphemistically named quit-or-well-start-laying-people-off process, there are four questions you can ask yourself to help determine whether or not you should opt in.
First, think about whats going on in your industry as a whole. If there are larger technological, political, or economic forces that are causing structural changes in your organization or in your industry, then it may make sense to take thebuyout, since there may be bigger shakeups on the horizon.
From there, think about your employment prospects. Since buyouts typically have a window of several weeks for you to decide whether or not to opt-in, you have some time to determine if you can quickly find another position.
Then consider whats in the severance package your company is offering, including the full payment amount and any additional perks that are included. Whats offered and how much is it worth to you?
Finally, think about what you want. What would the company have to offer you to make walking away worthwhileand ask for it. Because a voluntary layoff is a negotiation, and you should treat it like one.
The value of higher education has been on a steady decline for Americans over the past 15 years. According to a September Gallup poll, only 35% of U.S. adults said a college education is very important, compared to 75% in 2010.
This is what a marketer would call a brand problem. The University of North Carolina is unveiling a refreshed brand identity and reorganizing its marketing structure to meet these 21st-century challenges.
The centuries-old university has a storied history as a top-ranked academic institution and a legendary sports brand (thank you Michael Jordan). Chancellor Lee Roberts says that awareness isnt UNC’s problem. Everyone in North Carolina knows the school, and applications continue to climb each year.
The truth is, it is a competitive landscape across higher ed. We are in a competition for research dollars, for rankings, and for the best students, Roberts says. We thought it was time to do a better job telling our story in a more proactive and effective way. In the contemporary media environment, you can’t just sit back and hope that everyone will recognize what makes you great and unique. You need to be a little bit more aggressive about communicating your story to the world.
[Image: courtesy UNC]
First. And for all.
Its an obvious observation, but universities are not the same as corporations. The stakeholders involved in a brand refresh are many more than you’d find in a typical boardroom. Its why marketing at UNC has long been decentralized, spread across its more than 25 schools and units, all telling their own stories in a variety of ways. As a result, even the UNC logo had been spread thin. All told, there were 666 variations of the UNC logo being used.
In order to more effectively tell the universitys story, as Roberts wanted, the decision was made to break down these silos and create a centralized marketing department. Adrienne King was hired in February, coming from Indiana University, as UNCs associate vice chancellor for marketing to lead the effort. Roberts also brought in former Phoenix Suns CMO Dean Stoyer, a veteran of brands like Nike, Under Armour, and ESPN, as vice chancellor for communications.
This is the first time we’ve ever had a centralized marketing team at the university, King says. But this isn’t a situation where we needed to come in and start all over.
[Image: courtesy UNC]
King and her team partnered with creative agency 2×4 to conduct market research, do a comparative analysis, and develop an updated brand positioning. The research included surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one discussions with alumni, faculty, staff, students, and North Carolina residents.
For starters, they found that the schools interlocking NC logo dates back to the 1870s, and it has remained the symbol alumni and North Carolina residents most identify with. From a brand perspective, it is internationally recognized. But more importantly, back at home we feel like it represents the people in the state that we serve, King says. This is the university for the people. And you can’t create a new logo that would have better equity than that.
The brand refresh utilizes one version of that logo, as well as a standardized version of the iconic “Carolina Blue color. For a tagline, the school looked back at its history as Americas first public university and landed on First. And For All.
[Image: courtesy UNC]
In terms of the declining opinion about higher ed, Roberts says people tell pollsters they think universities are expensive, elitist, and don’t do a good job preparing students for the workforce.
Well, here at Carolina, our tuition’s been flat for 9 going on 10 years in nominal terms, meaning it’s gone down by about 20% in real terms, and 82% of our undergraduates are from right here in North Carolina, Roberts says. We were just No. 3 nationally in the Princeton Reviews ROI survey. So we don’t think any of those concerns really apply to us. But again, that comes back to telling our story as effectively as we can.
Meanwhile, competitors are stepping up, and not just the traditional rivals. Roberts name-checks schools like the University of South Florida, which is now a leader in new patents. You have an entire crop of new entrants who are gunning for the traditional top tier of public higher ed in the United States, and it requires everyone to continue investing, continue raising the bar, he says.
[Image: courtesy UNC]
Demographic cliff vs. Reputation cliff
Twenty years ago, King wrote her dissertation on the role of marketing and higher education. I remember at the time marketing was seen as very much a negative term, and when you thought of marketing and higher ed, it was strictly enrollment focused, she says.
For years, the postsecondary education industry has been bracing for what it calls the demographic cliff, when high school graduation numbersand consequently potential enrollment numberswill decline significantly. A Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education report says high school graduates will peak this year at about 3.9 million, and then start falling until there are about 13% fewer graduates by 2041.
Kings says that given all the other challenges and narratives around the perceived value of a college education, more people within the industry are recognizing that while they were focused on that demographic cliff, they missed the reputational cliff that it has fallen off of.
Now the work to repair and rebuild that reputation includes acting like a world-class brand and telling the story of its value.
“I think often we in the public higher-ed sector take for granted that we are uniquely positioned within our states to drive economic development to benefit the people of the state, King says. I like to think our greatest investors are the citizens of North Carolina, and we need them to know all the ways that we are positively impacting their lives. That’s a very different position than strictly focusing on enrollment. That really is about reputation, and that’s what the focus is now.
When corporate crises hit, the public looks to the CEO. From product recalls to workplace discrimination to customer mistreatment scandals, CEOs are often thrust into the spotlight and forced to apologize.
But do the exact words they choose really matter?
Im a professor of marketing, and my preliminary research suggests the answer is yes. In fact, they can even move stock prices.
A tale of 2 apologies
Consider two examples from the not-too-distant past. When Samsung Electronics had to recall 2.5 million smartphones in 2016 due to battery fires, the company ran full-page ads in major American newspapers that said, We are truly sorry. Despite the apology, Samsungs stock continued falling, wiping out billions of dollars in market value.
Contrast that with a famous case: the 1982 Tylenol crisis, in which seven people died after taking capsules that a still-unidentified criminal had laced with cyanide, circumventing the companys safety protocols. The then-CEO of Tylenols parent company, Johnson & Johnson, said I apologize to consumers and immediately ordered a nationwide recall, costing the company over US$100 million. His direct acknowledgment of responsibility and swift action helped restore public trust and became a case study in effective crisis leadership. The companys stock price didnt take much of a hit, either.
While the two cases are different in many ways, together they illustrate a pattern my colleagues and I observed in our study: Markets respond differently to I apologize versus We apologize.
Investors reward personal accountability
I collaborated with marketing professors Jennifer H. Tatara and Courtney B. Peters to analyze 224 corporate apologies between 1996 and 2023. Using event-study methods common in finance, we tracked unusual stock returns around apology announcements and linked them to how CEOs framed their statements.
Our results, which we are preparing for publication, were striking. CEOs who said I apologize often saw short-term stock returns rise by a statistically significant amount. CEOs who said We apologize saw no such effect. Saying I apologize lessens the market penalty by roughly 86%, we found.
We think this is because markets reward leaders who take individual responsibility. I signals personal accountability and decisiveness. We, by comparison, dilutes ownership of the problem.
But context matters, we found. When we zeroed in on diversity-related casesthose involving mistreatment based on race, gender, disability, or LGBTQ+ status, for examplethe positive effect of I apologize weakened or disappeared.
Thats because investors often interpret diversity crises as signs of systemic failure, rather than isolated mistakes. In those cases, investors, employees, and the public may expect accountability that goes beyond the CEO. A lone I apologize can seem hollow, while We apologize may resonate more by acknowledging shared institutional responsibility.
Beyond CEOs: Why stakeholders should care
Apologies are among the most scrutinized executive communications. Their effects ripple across different audiences.
For investors, apology language provides a real-time signal of leadership quality and future governance. Our research shows these signals are strong enough to move stock prices.
For corporate boards, an apology can be as important as a balance sheet in shaping market perceptions. Our research suggests that boards should insist leaders prepare for crisis communications as a standard part of risk management.
For employees and customers, apology language sends a message about corporate culture. I can demonstrate accountability; we can affirm inclusion and shared responsibility. Both matter, depending on the situation.
Leading in a skeptical era
Corporate apologies are nothing new. But in todays environmentwhere social media amplifies every word and trust in institutions is fragilethe stakes are higher. A single poorly framed statement can trigger outrage, stock sell-offs, or viral boycotts.
The good news is that sorry doesnt have to be the hardest word. In fact, this research suggests that a good apology can pay off, literally. The key is to remember that apologies arent one-size-fits-all. The right words depend on the nature of the wrongdoing.
Prachi Gala is an associate professor of marketing at Kennesaw State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Racing along the Potomac River at 26 knots (almost 30 mph) usually guarantees a raucous ridebut not on a battery-electric Candela C-8 hydrofoil.
Instead of the roar of a conventional boats fossil-fueled engine and the smack of its hull on the water, this vessel smoothly whirred along, barely shuddering over the wake of a passing water taxi as its foils cleanly sliced through the surface.
The placid experience belied the speed shown on the C-8s touchscreen. And the loudest noise heard on a mid-October ride came not from the C-8s electric motor, but from planes taking off from Washington National Airport that were following a prescribed course above the river.
Stockholm-based Candela (a Most Innovative Companies honoree in 2025) doesnt just want to electrify the boating-for-fun experience, however. Along with a few other companies, it aims to purge fossil fuels from the passenger ferries that regularly ply city waterways.
A ride for the ruling class
You can think of the C-8, starting at $300,000, as a Candela equivalent of the Tesla Roadsterthe high-priced plaything that helps boot up a line of more useful electrified conveyances.
The hardtop edition we took around the Potomac and the Anacostia rivers is a sleek machine that drew compliments from boardwalk passersby when we pulled up to the Washington Harbour development in Georgetown.
[Photo: Candela]
The C-8 pulls out of a marina as a boat, but then starts flying on its foils at about 17 knots (19.5 mph). Candelas engineers are fixated on foilsnot only because of the speed they allow but also because, by getting the hull above the water, they vastly cut down on the drag.
Candela quotes a range of 57 nautical miles (almost 66 miles) for the C-8s 69 kWh battery, with the ability to go from 10% of a charge to 80% in under 30 minutes with 135 kW DC charging.
[Photo: Candela]
You helm the C-8 via a steering wheel, a throttle, and a 15.4-inch touchscreen. Candelas software monitors the boat and will automatically slow it down if you bank it too muchas I found out firsthand during an August 2023 ride on the San Francisco Bay in an earlier model of the C-8.
Three seats and a bench aft of them can accommodate up to six passengers, while a cozy belowdecks space forward of the controls hides sleeping quarters and, below a cover, a small toilet.
[Photo: Candela]
Almost two hours of cruising up and down the Potomac and the Anacostia, most of it on the foils, took the battery from 100% of a charge to 63%.
Candela has sold more than 100 C-8s and delivered about 90, spokesman Mikael Mahlberg says; about half of those deliveries have gone to U.S. customers. It has also delivered 32 C-7 boats, the companys debut electric hydrofoil that it no longer produces.
The privately held firm has raised $96.2 million in funding so far, according to Crunchbase data, but isnt disclosing financial details. Were aiming to be profitable next year, Mahlberg says, describing Candelas current phase as a hyper-growth curve optimized for research, development, and sales.
Fossil-fuel-free ferries
That joyride on the C-8 doubled as a chance to show off how passenger ferries can provide a useful transportation alternative.
With Washington roads gridlocked due to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys White House meeting with President Trump, as well as the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, my boating-enthusiast friend Bob Vanasse couldnt make it to Columbia Island Marina on the south side of the Potomac. So we zipped up to Washington Harbour to pick him up there instead.
Vanasse, whose day job is representing seafood and fishing-industry interests, pronounced himself impressed and gave an impromptu sales pitch to a guy at his boat club by the District Wharf in Southwest D.C., when we pulled up there.
[Photo: Candela]
Candela aims to offer that convenience to larger groups of people with its P-12 battery-electric hydrofoil ferry. It can transport up to 30 people at a cruising speed of 25 knots (almost 29 mph), with a range estimated at 40 nautical miles (46 miles).
Candela doesnt specify a price for the ferry; Mahlberg only says its of course more expensive than the C-8 and slightly more expensive to purchase than the cheapest diesel vessels of the same sizeoffset by annual operating costs about 60% to 70% lower.
As with electric vehicles, the low maintenance of an electric motor makes a large contribution to those savings.
[Photo: Candela]
The P-12, however, is just pulling out of the dock in terms of commercial deployment. One P-12 is providing ferry service around Stockholmwhere Candela was able to get a waiver from no-wake speed limits, cutting travel time on an 11-mile commuter route from an hour to 30 minutesand another serves as a demo vessel for the firm.
Candela has 50 P-12 orders booked, with plans to deliver the first eight starting in the first quarter to customers in Saudi Arabia and Mumbai. And it has one new U.S. ferry operator, FlyTahoe, that’s considering the P-12 for a planned service going north and south across Lake Tahoe.
FlyTahoe CEO Ryan Meinzer says that the company, based in San Francisco and Tahoe Vista, California, considered and rejected non-hydrofoil ferry concepts.
[Image: Candela]
Conventional hull and propulsion designseven when electricstill displace water as they push through it, making them far less efficient and less comfortable in choppy conditions, he says.
Meinzer isnt disclosing FlyTahoes financial arrangements with Candela but says the company is advancing toward a tentative 2026 launch for our cross-lake service, subject to regulatory approval.
Candela, meanwhile, will need to start building boats in the U.S. to advance its own ferry business herepre-Depression U.S. laws impose a buy-American requirement on vessels transporting people between American ports.
The U.S. is potentially our biggest market potential, Candelas Mahlberg says. Were in advanced discussions with several states regarding a U.S. factory, and we hope we can shed more light on this soon, as we aim to deliver our first U.S. vessel in 2026.
Other passenger ferry prospects
Candela already has company in that market. Belfast-based boat builder Artemis Technologies inked an agreement in February with the U.S. firm Delta Marine to develop battery-electric hydrofoils for Puget Sound routes. Artemis’s EF-24 will carry 150 people at a cruising speed of 34 knots (39 mph) and a range on foils of 70 nautical miles (80.5 miles).
And in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Ferry placed an order in December for three battery-electric, 150-passenger catamaran ferries from All American Marine, with the first vessel set to begin service on its shorter routes in early 2027. That ferry operators electrification ambitions include converting four 400-passenger diesel ferries to electric power.
Putting batteries in a boat might seem like a much more ambitious venture into zero-emission transportation than electric cars, but the concept also has some nonobvious virtues.
[Photo: Candela]
Ferries are the largest vessels capable of becoming pure electric due to their well-defined operational profilesoften the exact routes, energy profile, stoppage times, size, load requirements, etc., are accurately known during the powertrain design, eliminating range anxiety and allowing high-cost batteries or other energy storage systems to be right-sized, says Mika Takahashi, senior technology analyst at IDTechEx, a Cambridge, England-based research firm.
But electric ferries also constitute a tiny raction of the worldwide ferry fleet. IDTechEx estimates that only 280 e-ferries have been sold, with 440 more sales predicted through 2030. In the U.S. alone, 604 passenger ferries were in service in 2022, per the latest Department of Transportation statistics available; the industry group Interferry estimated there were 15,400 in operation worldwide in 2019.
Takahashi also notes two other possible obstacles. One is being a relatively small subset of the EV industry relative to cars, meaning a slower pace of innovation. Another is unpredictable policy shifts in the U.S. and other countriessuch as the Trump administrations weird and evidence-detached hostility to EVs.
You may have seen warnings that Google is telling all of its users to change their Gmail passwords due to a breach. Thats only partly true. Google is telling users to change their passwords, but not because of a breach that exposed them. In fact, Googles real advice is to stop using your password altogether. Heres what I mean.
The breach traces back to Salesforce, whose systems were compromised by the hacker group known as ShinyHunters (also tracked as UNC6040). Attackers obtained business-related Gmail data, including contact lists, company associations, and email metadata. No actual Gmail account credentials were stolen, but the nature of the stolen data makes phishing and impersonation attacks far more dangerous.
Google confirmed the link between the Salesforce breach and a rise in targeted phishing campaigns and said attackers are already impersonating Google, IT departments, or trusted vendors to trick people into handing over login information. Some campaigns even involve vishing, or fraudulent phone calls made from spoofed 650-area-code numbers that resemble Googles corporate lines.
Phishing attacks increase
For years, phishing has been one of the most effective tools hackers use to break into accounts. Googles own data shows that phishing and vishing now account for roughly 37% of successful account takeovers across its services. With the data from Salesforce in hand, hackers can customize attacks that look far more authentic than the usual spam message.
Imagine receiving a message that references your actual employer, colleagues, or recent communications. That level of detail raises the likelihood that youll trust the email, click a malicious link, or provide sensitive information. Once credentials are stolen, hackers can bypass additional protections and take over accountssometimes without the victim realizing it until significant damage has been done.
Protect your email password
Look, the most important rule here is that you should literally never give anyone your Gmail password, especially not someone who calls you and purports to be tech support. No matter how convincing it may seem, Google is never ever going to call you and ask you for your login information. Seriously, even if your son calls you to help you with tech support, you should not give him your Gmail password.
Why? Well, because your email is basically the key to everything. In an interview I did last year, Cloudflare CTO John Graham-Cumming explained the problem.
If you do not have a good password on your email, the rest of your life is pretty much wide open, because every single service out there does reset password by sending you an email, says Graham-Cumming. So if I can compromise your email, I can compromise pretty much everything else you have.
Of course, even better than not giving out your password or clicking on links in fake tech-support emails is to stop using passwords altogether on your Gmail account. Google has been encouraging users for years to adopt passkeys instead.
Switch to a passkey
I also spoke with Jeff Shiner last year about passkeys. As the CEO of 1Password, Shiner knows a few things about how people use passwords and why they should be switching to more secure ways of protecting their accounts.
A passkey, from an end user point of view, looks like the biometrics on your device, says Shiner. The cool thing about a passkey is that to the end user, you never have a password for that service. You just use your biometrics, and then a passkey is created. But, from a security point of view, its actually stronger than a passwordeven a strong passwordbecause it cant be phished.
In light of the breach, Google is encouraging Gmail users to change their password. In fact, you should change your password on a regular basis in the event it is ever compromised. But even better is to stop using passwords at all.
Google is also pushing users toward stronger forms of authentication, including passkeys and app-based two-factor authentication (2FA). Unlike SMS codes, which can be intercepted or spoofed, authenticator apps and passkeys make it much harder for hackers to break into accounts even if they trick you into handing over a password.
Googles warning for users
Googles guidance can be summed up in five steps:
Reset your Gmail password regularly. Choose something unique and complex. Do not reuse passwords across accounts.
Turn on two-factor authentication. Preferably, use an authenticator app or a passkey.
Be skeptical of unsolicited messages. If you receive an email or call about account security, go directly to your Google account dashboard instead of clicking links or giving information over the phone.
Use Googles Security Checkup. The tool provides a quick overview of devices, apps, and settings tied to your account.
Stay alert. If something feels offstrange login notifications, unexpected password reset requests, or unusual email activityact quickly by securing your account.
This episode underscores a broader truth about modern cybersecurity: Your accounts are only as safe as the weakest link in the chain. In this case, a breach at Salesforce created risk for Gmail users who had no direct relationship with the company. Even if Googles ow infrastructure remains secure, attackers can exploit data leaked from partners to undermine trust.
With more than 2.5 billion Gmail users, it isnt surprising that the worlds most popular email service would represent one of the most irresistible targets for hackers. Googles latest warning is a reminder that in a world of constant breaches, vigilance is the only reliable defense.
Jason Aten
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Get laid off with me. So read the closed captions of a recent TikTok post.
My boss just put a 15 minute sink on my calendar, creator @mbraindump said in the now-viral post. I cant believe this is really happening. Getting laid off, okay, here we go. It is a sinking feeling that’s sadly familiar to myriad workers.
In just the past week, thousands have fallen victim to mass layoffs at Amazon, Target, Paramount, CBS, and other large companies. After Amazon laid off 14,000 corporate employees last week, or 4% of its white-collar workforce, a number of workers started cropping up on social media to document their experiences.
The trend of documenting being laid off first emerged post-pandemic and gained traction as mass layoffs hit in 2023 and 2024. Now it is back, as a fresh wave of workers joins the ranks of the unemployed.
Pretty sure Im about to get laid off from my 9-to-5 right now, so come with me to my meeting, one TikTok user posted in late October. The video has over 670,000 views.
Day in my life as a software engineer, except I got laid off before I could finish it, another posted around the same time, which has almost 250,000 views.
Rather than posting a LinkedIn update, being laid off is now lucrative content. On TikTok, the hashtag #layoffs has almost 60,000 videos. Many of these riff off the ubiquitous “Get Ready With Me (GRWM)” genre of content, in which creators showcase their hair, makeup, or outfit while chatting about their inner lives or zeitgeist-y topics. Some, like @mbraindump, go on to turn unemployment into a content series post-layoff.
In an era of mass unemployment, layoffs are no longer seen as an individual failing. Instead, they are an unfortunate fact of life. For many, its not their first rodeo. Some are on their secondor even thirdlayoff in just one year.
Amid the job losses, a new culture around layoffs has emerged. As more layoffs have hit in the past year, the stigma has lifted. Studies have shown that employees are more disengaged than ever, making them more inclined to hold their employers accountable, even on the way out.
@mbraindumps video has received hundreds of comments of support and solidarity since it was posted. “Im so sorry. This sucks. These companies really dont view us as humans. Something has got to change. Sending you a hug!” one person wrote. “Living in this constant state of anxiety at your job is AWFUL. My God, they couldn’t have made this any less humane,” another commented. “Ive dealt with 2 layoffs within 12 months. I am really sorry youre in the club now,” a third commiserated.
Of course, filming and posting workplace meetings to social mediafor former and future employers to seedoes come with some risk. It could give hiring managers pause, or even put severance packages at risk.
And while watching others get laid off online might help destigmatize the process, it certainly doesnt make it any easier when a call with HR gets added to your calendar.
Ann Hummond knew the office software like the back of her hand. Based in Yorkshire, England, she could untangle any spreadsheet snafu in her sleep.
Over the past 23 years, she had worked her way up from a data entry clerk to her finance companys administrative director, quietly becoming the person everyone relied on when things went sideways.
She was, in short, indispensable.
And then, one Tuesday morning last year, during a quarterly team meeting attended by directors, colleagues, and a team leader, her bosswho is nearly 10 years her seniortold her publicly, in a roomful of people: Youre too old to do this job.
I must have looked like a goldfish with my mouth open, says Hummond, whose name and location have been changed for job security reasons.
I felt like I had been hit on the head with a shovel, she says.
Hummond, who speaks about her experience for the U.K.s Age Without Limits campaign to raise awareness of ageism in England, says she didnt break down in the meeting. I didnt want to give him the pleasure of seeing how much he had hurt me, she says.
Instead, she coolly finished her work day, gathered her belongings, and then went home and fell to pieces.
Although she took two weeks off work, quitting at the age of 64 was not an option. I cant afford to give up working. I have lots of responsibilities and a family to support, and I need to build up more savings. She also knows the prospect of finding a new job often collides with the cold reality of age bias, and is still working at the company.
Age discrimination is one of the last accepted prejudicestolerated in jokes, embedded in hiring, and often brushed off as pragmatism rather than bias.
In the U.S., legislation against it has existed since the passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in 1967. Yet, Between 1997 and 2024, the number of age discrimination charges filed with the EEOC exceeded 15,000 in every year except fourthree of which were right after the pandemic, which caused a dip in all employment discrimination litigation, says Nicole Buonocore Porter, law professor at William & Mary Law School.
Research suggests ageism is underreported to begin with.
Jobs, across cultures, are quietly coded by age. Regardless of industry, workers experience age discrimination across their careers: negative stereotypes, discriminatory recruitment processes, being passed over for training opportunities, not being recognized. Some studies suggest a staggering 77 to 93% of older adults report experiences with ageism, and 42% of hiring managers admit they consider age when reviewing résumés.
And most insidious of all: it compounds mentally and emotionally for those experiencing it, to the point where they really do feel like they might be incapable of doing great things at work.
Its illegal, its wrong, and its bad for business, says author, speaker and activist Ashton Applewhite. Older people make up the fastest-growing segment of the workforce, both because they need to work and because they want to.
Everyone, everywhere, is living longer, and everyone is old or future old.
Microaggressions, major consequences
The rules are there, tucked neatly into HR handbooks and federal law. The trouble is, they rarely make it off the page, and holding people answerable is complicated.
Weve made progress in policy awareness, but not in accountability, says Sheila Callaham, cofounder and board chair of Age Equity Alliance. Many policies that would strengthen age protections at work have languished in Congress for years, leaving outdated frameworks in place.
Even when cases do make it to the courtroom, such as 63-year-old James Barrios recent lawsuit against Atmos Energy Corporation and its affiliate, Atmos Energy Services, LLC, there are myriad reasons his case, and many others like it, will probably fail.
Most large employers require workers to agree to binding arbitration, which moves age discrimination claims out of court and into private proceedings, limiting transparency and reducing external enforcement of anti-age-bias rules, Callaham explains.
Another reason may simply be because of how deeply we internalize socially constructed beliefs.
A 2024 study found employees mimic the age discrimination they once experienced themselves, practicing negative observed and learned traits in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Age discrimination varies from other types of discriminationspecifically race or ethnicity discrimination, and perhaps sex discriminationin that most age discrimination is not based on animus, but rather, it is based on stereotypes about declining competence as one ages, explains Porter.
Age discrimination also persists because of the subtle, covert ways it slips into daily life.
Ariane Froidevaux, associate professor of management at the University of Texas, Arlington, cautions research of overt age discrimination can overlook subtle “microinsults.” Seemingly innocuous comments like the once-ubiquitous Okay, Boomer! or Youre pretty tech-savvy for someone your age, she explains, can be insulting.
Froidevauxs recent research about the changes in perceived age discrimination over time followed Swiss employees with the mean age of 42.64 over a six-year period. She examined how workers sensitivity to age discriminaton is shaped by their cognitive frameworks: Those who see the world as fundamentally fair”belief in a just world”appeared to be less sensitive, and less likely to perceive increasing age discrimination at work, she explains.
Surprisingly, some older workers may also perceive decreased age discrimination over timenot necessarily because of a tangible reduction in patterns of behavior, but because, darkly enough, repeated exposure gradually numbs their response and desensitizes them. For instance, an older worker repeatedly passed over for high-profile projects may start to notice it less over time, as bias fades into background noise.
Yet, even when repeated exposure lessens its sting, other research finds that age discrimination still quietly chips away at workers confidence and perceived work abilitymaking it one of the more insidious forms of bias.
Hummond says it poisons even things like sick leave.
My advice is try not to take too much time off for anything, she says. If you’re ill, you’re ill, but I feel judged in a way that youngsters aren’t.”
Nothing personaland everyones next
We know discrimination against older workers has impacts on their well-being, mental health, and motivation. But it reshapes workplace dynamics for others, too.
When exclusion of a certain group is embedded into the work culture, the safety of belonging is threatened, explains Callaham, who calls this the “shadow threat” of ageism.
She coined the term after a 31-year-old tech worker told her that his 38-year-old manager was stockpiling savings in case he was fired for “being too old,” stoking the younger employees own fears of being next. Collectively, this spawns a frenzied attitudeyoure never too young to start running out of time.
What we can do
Research suggests age diversity statements have a positive impact, while Applewhite makes a case for blind interviews.
Many orchestras use blind auditions, where musicians perform behind a screen, in order to diversify their ranks. How about replicating this in business practice? Conducting virtual interviews with the camera off?
Callaham adds debunking age stereotypes starts with awareness, which can in turn increase accountability. When organizations talk openly about how age bias shows up, theyre better able to build systems, habits, and expectations that make inclusion real, she says.
Managers and HR professionals can do a lot to prevent age discrimination at work by modeling and adopting an age-inclusive culture, says Froidevaux.
In Hummonds case, she was (and still is) the person the office turns to for her technical prowess and knowledge of the company, but things have turned pretty sour.
Over the past year, her responsibilities have been reduced and flexible work arrangements withdrawn.
I dont feel trusted, she says, Ill knock on a door and hear the conversation stop.
For her colleagues, too, the atmosphere in the office is different, more guarded: You go in on a Monday and nobodys talking. With its innate universality, few realize how toxic age discrimination can make workplaces, with everyone wondering Whos next?
Hummond keeps working, still indispensable, still sidelined.
Im working down to retirement, but its not fun anymore, she says.
If one founder is good, then more must be better, right? Not necessarily. New research shows that the benefits of cofounding a startup with strangers can be eclipsed by the risks.
Yes, cofounders can bring their own perspectives, along with access to wider networks, greater capacity, and access to funding, says Monique Boddington, a management practice associate professor at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, whose research includes early-stage venture formation and startup strategy development.
And yet: An increasing number of individuals have been setting up businesses with no intention of taking on employees, she explains.
Thats because more people are identifying as solo entrepreneurssolopreneurs”since the pandemic, Boddington adds. And while the distinction between self-employed, freelancer, and solopreneur is still murky, the way to spot [solopreneurs] is whether their venture pursues novelty and scalable opportunity or mainly income replacement or replication, she says. For those running startups, many such workers are choosing to go it completely alone.
In 2022, 84% of all U.S. firms had no employees, meaning there was just the one person running the business. These 29.8 million “nonemployer businesses” accounted for $1.7 trillion, or about 6.8% of the economy. And the momentum hasnt slowed; in 2023, Americans filed over 5.5 million new business applications, and Gustos 2025 New Business Formation survey suggests more than 4 in 5 small businesses in the U.S. have no employees.
Why people do it
According to the same Gusto survey, over 50% of solopreneurs cite career autonomybeing ones own boss”as the reason for adopting a lone wolf, owner-only business model.
Many, like growth marketing consultant and content creator Kevin Fernando, do so because of the unmatched freedom it affords them. Fernando, who is the founder of Solopreneur Digital, where he helps entrepreneurs and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies grow, says that you get to move quickly, make decisions that align with your vision, and build something thats fully your own.
Of course, going solo, and starting a venture with no cofounder or employees, doesnt come without its challenges.
The flexibility and autonomy of being your own boss often come with the vulnerability of being on your own, says Filip Majetiæ, sociologist and senior researcher at the Ivo Pilar Institute in Croatia. While strong social support from family and friends can improve solopreneurs overall mental and physical health, he explains, this support does not buffer specific stress-related health problems such as exhaustion and headaches.
Like many others, Fernando finds everything falls on him, and the constant context switching can be draining.
When youre a solopreneur, youre not just the strategist. Youre the marketer, customer support, designer, and operations managerall rolled into one. You have to be self-motivated and resilient because theres no one else, he says. Thats especially the case if youre not sharing responsibilities with a cofounder in your ventures early days.
But new research posits that this may be a good thing.
Stranger danger
Conventional wisdom would suggest that bringing on a cofounder with a vastly different network from your own leads to more potential funds, as the chances of overlap in who you know would be lower. While that may be true, an analysis of over 3,500 Kickstarter campaigns in a study titled, “The ‘Devil’ You Don’t Know,” reveals that new ventures that include strangers on the team are less than half as likely to deliver the product or service they pitched, and almost twice as likely to cease operations.
Studies challenging beliefs that resilience is universally beneficial to entrepreneurial teams are gaining traction, suggesting the very advantages that seem so compelling on paper can also introduce frictionmaking teams less reflexive, slowing decision-making, and complicating execution.
While having people with diverse skills and experience on a founding team has significant benefits, their ability to work together effectively is just as important, explains Kimberly A. Eddleston, the Schulze Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Montoni Research Fellow at the DAmore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. They need to be compatible, trustworthy, and able to communicate.
Its one of businesss oldest truths: If you work with the right people, everything else falls into place. The problem? Nailing the people part of the equation is really hard.
The limitations of going it alone
Solopreneurship can be a great starting point to get an idea off the ground. A single person can bootstrap with greater resource efficiency, greater control, rapid iteration, and hire-in capabilities, Boddington says. But to scale, she explains, a team is critical.
Founding teams are also more likely to attract funding in the first place, and the Kickstarter research revealed that teams comprised of strangers garnered more crowdfunding backers because they served as novel bridges to resources.
Crucially, operational struggles (such as coordination breakdowns, delays in delivering promised products or services, differing work styles leading to relational uncertainty, misalignment of vision and goals, and potential early stage dissolution) appeared in teams with strangers in the boardroom, not businesses bound by strong family or friendship ties.
Not all cofounders are a liability, Eddleston says. In ventures with family, for example, team members can rally quickly in a crisis, and [they] have a ‘survival’ advantage because family members are willing to work for below-market wages, and even for free, to keep their business float, she says.
Still, entrepreneurs can thrive totally alone, without a cofounder or a team.
With AI revolution, the next wave of entrepreneurship wont be about bigger teams, but smarter individualsAI-powered solopreneurs who turn technology into their growth partner, says Areti Gkypali, an assistant professor at Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece.
The strategy has worked well for Fernando. By automating repetitive tasks and building systems to handle things like client communications, lead generation, and content distribution, hes shaved 20 to 25 hours off his workweek, freeing him to focus on strategic priorities.
Ultimately, for anyone eyeing a new startup, its worth being strategic about who, if anyone, to partner with. As Fernando says: Its a lifestyle that rewards focus and leverage more than raw effort.
