Brands that arent using artificial intelligence will soon be left behindbut its not too late to start, argues a new book, AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business or Brand.
The same way that business leaders once explored what it means to be digital first or mobile first or video first, digital strategists and authors Adam Brotman and Andy Sack pose the question: What does it mean to be AI first? Brotman and Sack, cofounders of the digital consultancy Forum3, interviewed some of the most influential leaders in technology for their book, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, and Reid Hoffman, best known for cofounding LinkedIn. The book shares their insights as well as a playbook for businesses on how to integrate AI.
Brotman, the former chief digital officer for Starbucks who shaped the brands highly successful mobile app and loyalty program, spoke to Fast Company about what he hopes readers will gain from their new book.
Fast Company: Why did you and Sack want to write this particular book, and why now?
We had actually been asked by Harvard Business Review Press to write a book on digital loyalty, which is my background and our specialty. But we had just had a holy s— moment, like a lot of other people, when we saw ChatGPT. We didn’t understand what was really behind these generative AI systems and where the various frontier labs and systems were going with it. We thought, we better learn this. We asked Harvard if we could go on this journey and share it with our readers, and they said yes.
Why does AI feel different to you than other technological advances?
There are two ways. One is that we’re talking about intelligence as a service, and that just felt like something that was always reserved for either science fiction or human beings. It wasn’t just software that you programmed, that either worked or didn’t work. The fact that it could think and reasonat least seemingly sofelt very human and unlike anything that we had seen. The second thing was how fast it was moving.
You brought up the holy-s— moment. Ive heard that you and Sack at one point wanted that to be the title of the book. Why?
We talked to Sam Altman as our first interview for the book. He said that the mission of OpenAI was to achieve artificial general intelligence. And by definition, thats when the AI can effectively do what any human can do, if not better, pretty much instantly and for free. We were like, Oh my God, youre focused on that. When do you think thats going to happen? And he said, I cant predict it, but probably in around five years. That was a holy-s— moment for us. We were sort of stunned. When you try this technology, I think everybody has their own aha moment, if you will. How do I take advantage of this? What is this going to mean for jobs? What is this going to mean for society? Theres a lot of exciting things but theres also a lot of scary unknowns. We thought that was an appropriate name, but of course thats not the best name for a book published by an established publisher. So we compromised and called the introduction chapter The Holy-S— Moment and the book is called AI First.
You also interviewed Bill Gates. Can you tell me what your biggest learning or takeaway was from your conversation with him?
Yeah, two things: One was that he likened the first time he saw ChatGPT4 to the first time he saw graphical user interface, before Microsoft came up and led the PC revolution with Windows. So he validated and confirmed the significance of this technology. The other thing Bill Gates said to us that was a key takeaway was about the contours of the concept of productivity. Most of us think of productivity as just quantitative, meaning output. He reminded us that productivity has a qualitative edge and dimension to it, and that if you have access to a tool like generative AI and you know how to harness it, you’re going to not just up your productivity, but the quality of your work. I thought that was really interesting.
How should business leaders today be leveraging AI?
Most organizations want to skip to the AI innovation. They want to skip to the application, like the chatbot or the robot. What theyre skipping over is the powerful effects of everybody using AI many times a day, every day, to enhance their decision-making and analysis and insightsfrankly, to do their job better and faster. Thats not as sexy as some advanced voice-mode, drive-thru technology you deploy across all your QSR [quick-service restaurant] locations. Its not as sexy as completely innovating your creative output through text-to-image, text-to-video capabilities. Those are really important AI use cases, but theyre not the everyday, always-on superpower of letting every individual get that benefit of co-intelligence to make decisions faster. One of the key nuggets from the book is that AI-first organizations start with AI-first people.
Is that what you mean when you say that business owners should be thinking of AI as a colleague?
Yes. Its collaborating, soundboarding with the AI, inviting AI to the table, as [AI expert and Wharton] professor Ethan Mollick likes to say. Its thinking of it as a member of your team, a colleague.
Is there anything else you want readers to know about your book or AI in general?
I think a lot of people are intimidated or afraid of either not being able to keep up with the advancements in AI or of the implications of AI, given how fast-moving and powerful it is. What I would say is: Its absolutely not too late. There are so many business leaders in the same spot as you. This is the perfect time to develop a game plan to figure out how to make your organization keep up with whats going on. But dont waitget started.
The AI landscape is evolving rapidly and its important to keep up. No one can afford to stay out of the loop on AI, so here are five new books to fill you in on the latest updates, concerns, and uses of this world-changing technology.
AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand
By Adam Brotman & Andy Sack
In AI First, youll hear from a whos who of tech visionaries who spoke with the authors, including Sam Altman himself, Bill Gates, and Reid Hoffman, sharing how theyre thinking of the transition to the new reality. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by authors Adam Brotman and Andy Sack, or view on Amazon.
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Techs Hype and Create the Future We Want
By Emily Bender & Alex Hanna
A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why its crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by authors Emily Bender and Alex Hanna, or view on Amazon.
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valleys Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
By Adam Becker
How Silicon Valleys heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessionswith escaping death, emergent AI tyrants, and limitless growthpervert public discourse and distract us from real social problems. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by author Adam Becker, or view on Amazon.
AI Valley: Microsoft, Google, and the Trillion-Dollar Race to Cash In on Artificial Intelligence
By Gary Rivlin
A veteran Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist shadows the top thinkers in the field of Artificial Intelligence, introducing the breakthroughs and developments that will change the way we live and work. Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by author Gary Rivlin, or view on Amazon.
More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead
By Rasmus Hougaard & Jacqueline Carter
AI has the potential to transform leadership and the human experience of workor to lead us into an automated and uninspiring work reality. Which one will it be? Listen to the Book Bite summary, read by coauthor Rasmus Hougaard, or view on Amazon.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Employees are in a burnout crisis. A 2023 Mercer report found that 82% of workers were at risk of burnout. Overworked employees say they need time off, work-life balance, and flexibility. But the same report noted only 32% of leaders thought reducing employee burnout was important.
Still, some companies are getting wildly innovative with their well-being perks. Last week, Deloitte made headlines for a new approach: offering its staffers $1,000 to purchase Legos and puzzles. While some employees might argue they’d prefer time off, or a raise, Deloitte isn’t the only company to try a quirky new approach to improving employee well-being.
Here are five offbeat benefits companies are offering.
1. Pawternity leave
Bringing home a new human is a whirlwind of joy, excitement, and pure exhaustion, and companies are well-versed in granting leave (paid and unpaid) to employees who have had a baby. On the other hand, providing time off for bringing home a new pet is pretty atypical. Still, some companies, who clearly value pets, have offered time off for adopting a new fur baby.
New York-based data company mParticle offers PTO to employees who adopt a rescue dog. It also allows employees to bring their pups to work. Likewise, Minneapolis marketing firm Collective Measures allows pet owners to work from home for the first week after bringing home a new cat or dog.
While pawternity leave might be new, many companies have become more pet-friendly, including Amazon. The company’s Seattle headquarters allows dogs and caters to pups with an entire floor designed for them. The workplace also built a dog park (open to the public) on company grounds.
2. All-expenses-paid vacations
Burned-out employees say they could use more time off. How about having a vacation paid in full by your company? If you work for Airbnb, this desirable benefit can be yours. The vacation rental platform helps staff take vacations by giving them travel stipends. And those stipends aren’t piddly either. Airbnb employees receive $2,000 per year ($500 per quarter) to spend on travel bookings.
“Our benefits are centered around our Live and Work Anywhere policy, prioritizing flexibility to meet individual needs,” Airbnb’s career page reads. “Employees receive quarterly travel credits, an annual educational stipend, and a quarterly Live and Work Anywhere allowance, empowering them to enhance their lives professionally and personally as desired.” BambooHR, a human resources company, offers the same perk with its “Paid Paid Vacation” policy. Employees receive $2,000 that can be used to pay for hotels and airfare.
3. Home-cleaning services
Keeping your home clean takes time and energy. And if you spend a lot of time at the office (or on work-related tasks), housecleaning can easily fall by the wayside. But California-based staffing company Akraya offers a perk designed to help keep employees’ homes spotless, and the stress at bay. Akraya offers professional housecleaning services to all employeesand not just once in a while.
Every two weeks we have a cleaning service that goes to our employees homes. . . . I dont know of any other company that has [that benefit], cofounder and CEO Amar Panchal told Staffing Industry Analysts. Panchal got the idea after talking with an employee who was tired from spending the weekend keeping up with housework.
4. Snow(boarding) days
Many of us enjoyed snow days as school-age children. But most companies don’t provide time off when the white stuff comes down. Burlington, Vermont-based Burton isnt most companies. The snowboard maker offers “snow days” for its employeeswith one rule: They have to hit the slopes.
Per Entrepreneur, whenever there’s a big storm, Burtons offices close and employees are encouraged to get out and snowboard, which is, after all, what the brand is all about. In addition to snow days, employees get majorly discounted lift tickets, season passes, demo gear, and more.
5. Unlimited ice cream
Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont-based ice cream company known for its lovable flavors and outspoken founders, is a pretty sweet place to work. Not only is the atmosphere casual, dog-friendly, and seemingly full of joy, it also offers employees virtually unlimited ice cream. Employees say they’re allowed to take home three pints each and every day, though when new flavors roll in, they have to hustle.
“Even though we get three pints a day as a sweet work perk, its always a mad rush to the freezers when a new flavor comes in,” the company website reads. “And camping out overnight to be first in line is, well, frowned upon.” With all the ice cream offerings, it’s no wonder Ben & Jerry’s was ranked Vermont’s Most Coveted Employer this year.
When people think about artificial intelligence, they often picture sleek start-ups or futuristic labs. But what happens when AI meets a company that has been innovating for over 100 years?
Unilever is one of the worlds largest consumer goods companies, home to brands like Dove, Hellmanns and Vaseline, with products used by 3.4 billion people every day. And behind those everyday items is a deep and evolving commitment to science.
From soap and margarine in the early 20th century to todays breakthroughs in sustainable packaging and personalized skincare, Research and Development (R&D) has always been our engine of progress. But now, that engine is being transformed by AI.
AI is not just a new tool in our labs, it is a new way of thinking. And for a company with a centurys worth of scientific data, that is a game-changer.
AI is reshaping every industry, but the companies that will be the most successful are the ones that know how to adapt, learn, and build on what they already know. While many legacy companies are exploring how to modernize through AI, the real opportunity lies in how they harness their institutional memory: the decades of research, product development, and consumer insights that can often sit untapped. This requires deep domain expertise, robust data stewardship, and a culture that values learning as much as legacy. When those elements align, AI can become a catalyst for transformation, by revealing the full potential of what has come before.
Unilever was born in the Victorian era, shaped by the industrial and scientific revolutions. Over the decades, we have evolved by responding to cultural shifts; from the transformation of domestic life in the mid-20th century to todays shifting expectations around skin health, beauty, and wellbeing to the growing urgency of sustainability. When new materials like Formica and stainless steel became common in mid-century kitchens, our scientists developed products tailored to these surfaces. This was not just chemistry, it was a scientific response to a changing way of life.
That same mindsetscience in service of real lifestill drives us today. But the questions were asking have become more complex: How do we support the skins natural microbiome? How do we clean homes without disrupting the ecosystems that live on our surfaces? How do we design products that are both effective and sustainable? These are not simple problems, and they require new ways of doing science. Thats where AI comes in.
With machine learning, we can uncover patterns that would take human researchers hundreds of years to detect. We are using AI to understand how microbes interact with our products, how skin responds to environmental stressors, and how we can personalize formulations for different needs and regions.
But here is what makes our approach uniquewe are not starting from scratch. Like many legacy companies our R&D archives stretch back over 100 years. We have records of every formulation, every trial, and every consumer insight. This historical depth gives our AI models something incredibly rare: context. While many companies are just beginning to build their data sets, established companies like ours are standing on a foundation that has been carefully constructed for generations.
Our scientists can unlock proprietary knowledge that was once siloed, scattered across teams, or locked in an archive. A century of skincare expertise is now structured, searchable, and ready to be applied. We are using AI to connect the dots across decades of research, accelerating discovery in new materials while simultaneously optimising formulations for specific needs, like different skin types. Were moving from research and discovery to formulation design and refinement in a single, integrated process, helping us respond faster and more precisely to peoples needs around the world.
This is not about replacing scientists with algorithms. It is about creating the conditions where human talent can thrive. Agentic AI systems give our teams the ability to ask better questions, explore more possibilities, and unlock insights from our data. By amplifying human creativity and empathy not automating it, were enabling our scientists to focus on what they do best: imagining, experimenting, and designing products that meet real human needs.
So why should this matter to anyone outside Unilever?
Because it shows what is possible when legacy meets learning. In an era where AI is reshaping every industry, the companies that thrive will not just be the newest or the loudest, they will be the ones that know how to adapt, how to learn, and how to build on what they already know.
AI rewards data maturity. It rewards curiosity. And it rewards companies that see technology not as a threat to tradition, but as a way to reimagine it.
We do not have all the answers. But we have learned that staying curious, being a learn-it-all not a know-it-all, is what keeps a company relevant for a century. AI is helping us stay curious at scale.
We believe the next 100 years of innovation will be driven by companies that embrace the partnership between human talent and agentic AI: hybrid systems that augment creativity, empathy, and scientific intuition. This is not just a story about technology. It is a story about legacy, learning, and the enduring power of science to shape the everydayonly now with a little help from artificial intelligence.
Alberto Prado is global head digital & partnerships at Unilever.
In a world where leadership is often mistakenly understood as a position of control, Ive found that true impact comes from serviceleading not from above, but alongside your team to achieve success.
This point was driven home about 15 years ago, when I made a resolution to read more books. Since starting this journey, one book stood out and shaped my leadership style more than any other: The Way of The Sheperd. It resonated with me so much that I even named my youngest son, Shep, after it.
This book takes readers through core principles of servant leadership and outlines a leadership plan that showcases how true influence comes not from authority, but from trust, empathy, and a genuine devotion to the growth and well-being of your team. I reread this book once a year to remind myself that the most effective leaders are ones who lead with compassion, understand what motivates each team member, and empower everyone to hold themselves accountable.
It underscores how a leader cant manage what they dont know, and how too many well-intentioned leaders focus solely on performance rather than their people. These lessons have influenced the way I lead, inspiring me to prioritize building trust and authentic connections with our team. At Kendra Scott, I make it a point to ensure everyone has direct access to memy email is always openand I encourage team members to reach out or schedule time to discuss anything on their minds.
Company connections
Weve also established a tradition of celebrating the meaningful connections within our company. For the past 9 years, weve passed down the shepherds staff. The tradition involves the current holder receiving the staff and keeping it for a set period of time before nominating someone else at the next family meeting. They share how this person has impacted them, add a meaningful token to the staff, and pass it on to the new nominee. The cycle continues from there. This simple yet powerful practice has reinforced our culture and the importance of the connections we share with one another.
However, this modern leadership philosophy wasnt one that always came naturally to me. Growing up, my life was all about sports, which helped me become the first in my family to go to college. The competitive mindset required for sports can sometimes be too focused on the individual. But the real lesson I took away, doing whatever it takes with your team to win, shaped my early approach to leadership.
3 things I know
As I moved into the business world and started working with founders like Ralph Lauren and Kendra Scott, I began to see how personal their connection to their companies was. That shifted my approach to leadership, and I started to focus more on building trust and creating a more supportive, nurturing environment for my team.
Here are three things I know now:
Fostering a sense of purpose leads to stronger performance
Investing in your team and infusing every position with importance helps to instill passion and purpose in your employees. Every employee should be empowered to feel as if they represent a brands vision. This authentic connection fuels productivity and drives success.
Making mistakes can be your biggest asset
You learn the most through your mistakes. In those moments, the best lessons come from acknowledgement and accountability. As a leader, being transparent and vulnerable about your own missteps can set a tone that not only enhance company culture, but also make employees feel secure in taking risks.
The importance of leading with a learners heart
Great leaders are great learners. No one has all of the answers, regardless of their position in an organization. Thats why its important to maintain a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. The more you learn, the more tools and opportunities you have.
In the end, leaders cant be successful without their team, and leadership isnt about control, power, or having all the answers. Its about showing up for your people, creating space for them to grow, and demonstrating humility through it all. Whether its by reading a book about servant leadership or establishing supportive methods, Ive learned that true leaders are those who cultivate intentional connections with their employees. There is still much to learn, and my journey is still unfolding, but one thing I know to be true is that leading with trust and empathy is the type of legacy worth leaving.
Tom Nolan is CEO of Kendra Scott.
Amaras Law, coined by the American scientist and futurist Roy Amara, says humans tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. If the first half of 2025 is anything to go by, in the AI era, the runs are getting shorter, and the effects of the technology will be larger than weve seen in a generation.
In a matter of months, the conversation in companies has accelerated far beyond if AI is a useful productivity tool, to where and when it can be applied. Across industries and geographies, executives are acknowledging that AI is a general-purpose business solution, not just a technical one.
Despite widespread workplace adoption, the focus on cybersecurity has not kept pace. In the rush to adopt AI systems, applications and agents, companies are failing to consider that rapid deployment of these new technologies could lead to data breaches and other security risks.
That matters because AI models are not only getting more powerful but also more useful for enterprises.
More enterprises are using AI agents
As of early June, OpenAIs base of paying business users reached 3 million, up from 2 million in February. In a move for that market, ChatGPT can now connect to popular business apps such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Sharepoint, allowing workers to quickly access answers that are locked in dispersed documents and spreadsheets.
Confusion, and even fear, about AI agents has given way to exploration and adoption. Among US-based organizations with annual revenues of $1 billion or more, 65% were piloting AI agents in the first quarter of this year, up from 37% in the space of a single quarter.
Microsofts Azure AI Foundry, its platform for building AI agents, processed 100 trillion tokens in the first three months of 2025 (with one token representing the smallest unit of text that an AI model processes)a five-fold increase year-on-year. At the same time, the cost per token more than halved, spurring higher use and creating virtuous cycles of innovation.
As John Chambers, the former CEO of Cisco, says, AI is this generations internet revolution but at five times the speed, with three times the outcome. Beyond the hype that haunts the sector, there are signs of enterprise AI adoption everywhere.
In his latest letter to shareholders Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, describes a ravenous whirlwind of adoption of AI. IBM, which has rolled out its AI strategy to 270,000 employees, reports that AI already handles 94% of routine human resources tasks.
At Shopify, the e-commerce group, AI usage is now a baseline expectation, CEO Tobias Lütke said in an employee memo. The workplace automation company Zapier, which took steps to embed AI across its workforce, says that 89% of employees actively use AI in their daily work.
The list goes onand its not just technology companies. JP Morgan, the worlds largest bank, has rolled out GenAI tools to 200,000 staff members, and says employees have each gained one-to-two hours of productivity each week.
AI acquisitions are plentiful
The shift from novel to mass-market tech is reflected in the business strategies of the main AI model makers, which are reimagining themselves as application companies. In the space of two weeks, OpenAI, the ChatGPT parent, appointed a CEO of Applications and then acquired IO, the AI device startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion.
Meta, perceived to be behind in the AI race, has invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, which provides data and evaluation services to develop applications for AI. Meanwhile, Apple is reported to have had internal talks about buying Perplexity AI, a two-and-a-half year-old AI model maker.
AI app security is rarely discussed
Companies are naturally focused on the potential and performance of AI systems, but it’s striking how rarely security is part of the story. The reality is that the speed of deployment of AI apps and agents is leaving companies at risk for breaches, data loss, and brand impact.
For example, an AI system or agent that has access to employee HR data or a banks internal systems leaves a company open to possible cyberattacks by bad actors. In business-critical applications, risks emerge at every stage of the development cycle, from choosing which AI model to use and what systems to give it access to, right through to deployment and daily use.
In our work on testing the security of AI models with simulated attacksknown as red-teamingand creating the CalypsoAI Model Security Leaderboards, we have discovered that, despite performance improvements, new or updated AI models are often less secure than existing ones. At the same time, existing models can see their security score slip over time.
Why? Because the attacks keep progressing and bad actors learn new tricks. More techniques and capabilities of breaking or bypassing AI model securities keep being invented. Simply, the attack techniques are getting better and they’re causing AI models that have only recently launched to become less secure.
That means that organizations that begin using an AI system or agent today, but don’t stay up to date with the latest threat intel, will be more vulnerable as attack techniques increase in capability and frequency. As corporate AI systems gain autonomy and access to sensitive data, what is safe today may not be safe tomorrow.
The research firm Gartner has forecast that 15% of day-to-day business decisions will be made autonomously by agents by 2028, though that percentage may increase by then. Against that backdrop, virtually all the security protocols and permissions in enterprises are built for human workers, not for AI agents that can roam through company networks and learn on the job.
That mismatch opens up vulnerabilities, such as the ossibility of agents accessing sensitive information and sharing it inappropriately. Poorly secured agents will be prime targets for hackers, particularly where they have access to valuable data or functions such as money transfers. The consequences include financial loss and reputational damage.
Final thoughts
Securing these new systems will be critical to AI adoption and to successful return on investment for the companies involved. A new security paradigm, using the capabilities of agentic AI to secure enterprise AI, is needed to allow innovation to thrive and agents to reach their potential.
While the development of AI models and systems so far can reasonably be summarized as better, cheaper, less secure, the final part of that equation must improve significantly as the emerging application-first AI era accelerates. Once that happens, Roy Amara seems certain to be proven right once again.
Donnchadh Casey is CEO of CalypsoAI.
As Zohran Mamdani declared victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday night, one had to wonder: Has anyone checked on the finance bros?
On X, the Wall Street meltdown was already well underway. It appears that NYC is electing to commit suicide by Mayor, wrote Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research. Its officially hot commie summer, added Dan Loeb, CEO of hedge fund Third Point and longtime Cuomo backer.
every NYC finance guy on my main feed right now pic.twitter.com/Z7anouAFio— (@EffMktHype) June 25, 2025
Loeb wasnt alone. Billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Ackman had backed Andrew Cuomo, still seen as the frontrunner even in the races final days. Bill Ackman drafting his thoughts on Mamdani rn, one post joked, alongside an image of an essay-length text being written. Another great part of Mamdanis victory is that it means Michael Bloomberg pretty much lit over $8 million on fire for no reason lol, another X user wrote.
Bill Ackman drafting his thoughts on Mamdani rn pic.twitter.com/e7pCMMKKO4— litquidity (@litcapital) June 25, 2025
The finance industrys reaction isnt surprising. A Mamdani win in Novembers general election could bring what Wall Street dreads most: tax hikes and tighter regulations threatening corporate and investment interestsfueling the familiar cry of a wealthy exodus. Wealthy New Yorkers moving to Miami if Zohran wins, one Instagram meme joked.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by New Yorkers (@newyorkers)
Lets not forget the finance bro who did vote for Mamdani (starter pack includes a Carhartt beanie and a copy of The Communist Manifesto). NYC girls with trust funds were calling him Zaddy Zohran and you thought he was going to lose? one user posted on X.
pic.twitter.com/0mZY1Kfw2s— Overheard on Wall Street (@OHWallStreet) June 24, 2025
One post, acknowledging defeat, featured an AI-generated image of fleece-clad finance bros scanning groceries at a city-run market: Well boys, onto the new bullpen.
Well boys, onto the new bullpen. pic.twitter.com/GUxzYaYZw6— Overheard on Wall Street (@OHWallStreet) June 25, 2025
Another post on X perfectly summed up the general mood: Investment bankers reacting to NYC nominating a socialist for Mayor. The accompanying caption? wed all be fine with a lot less, right?
Investment bankers reacting to NYC nominating a socialist for Mayor pic.twitter.com/4SY66q4qTn— litquidity (@litcapital) June 25, 2025
In my conversations with business leaders around the world, I consistently hear the same phrase to describe what they want to achieve for their workforce: AI fluency.
I often tell them that to achieve AI fluency, we need to treat it as a foreign language.
Like learning a new language, becoming AI fluent requires dedication, immersion, and practice. Fluency transforms how we think and communicate. Becoming fluent requires us to overcome the fear of making mistakes or incurring risks.
Yet theres one crucial difference between achieving fluency in AI versus a new language: When learning a new language, we step into an established culture. With AI, were learning the culture while simultaneously creating it.
The big question: How can organizations build these cultures and become laboratories of AI fluency? Here are three ways to foster AI fluency.
1. Create an immersive environment
Whether were learning Spanish, Mandarin, or any of the other 7,000 languages in the world, immersion is an essential step to fluency. Living where the language is spoken forces you to adapt, to think differently, and to develop new neural pathways.
AI requires the same commitment. Organizations are uniquely positioned to create these immersive environments where employees interact with AI tools daily, not as occasional novelties but as essential components of their workflow. From Udemys work with thousands of organizations around the world, helping to create these environments, weve found that organizations succeed when they integrate AI across departments, from marketing teams using generative AI for content creation to HR departments employing AI-powered skills assessments.
Immersive environments are built when employees understand they need to become fluent to reach their goals. That means the most successful AI adoption happens when tools directly address employees pain points. Just as language learners progress faster when they need the right words to order food or navigate transportation, employees embrace AI more readily when it solves real problems they face.
Organizations seeking AI fluency must balance structure with exploration. Consider how language learning works: Structured lessons provide grammar and vocabulary, but real learning happens through conversation and experimentation.
Similarly, building organizational AI fluency requires a few basic building blocks:
Upskilling on foundational AI capabilities and limitations, like learning the rules of grammar.
Creating a sandbox-style environment where people can experiment without fear of consequences.
Developing communities of practice where people can find social support to troubleshoot, ask questions, celebrate successes, and motivate each other to keep experimenting.
Establishing guidelines for when to rely on human judgment versus AI, how to evaluate AI outputs, and how to maintain human connection in AI-mediated interactions.
2. Overcome fluency barriers
The barriers to AI fluency mirror those of language learning. Fear of embarrassment prevents many language learners from practicing conversation, just as fear of looking incompetent may prevent employees from experimenting with AI. Imposter syndromethe feeling that everyone else knows more than you doimpacts both AI and language fluency.
The solution is creating psychologically safe environments where questions are welcomed, and mistakes are treated as learning opportunities. Leaders like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff model this by encouraging employees to approach new challenges with a beginners mind, getting curious instead of expecting immediate mastery and understanding.
Whats more, both language learners and AI adopters often experience an uncanny valley stage where they know enough to recognize their limitations but not enough to feel confident. Supporting people through this phase is critical. This is where many abandon the journey if theyre not properly encouraged. In this case, encouragement can come not only from leaders, but from the environments leaders create such as building supportive communities of practice where learners can share their struggles with gaining fluency. This normalizes the experience, while reminding them that this uncomfortable stage is not just common but also a sign of meaningful growth.
3. Create culture while learning
This is where the language metaphor ends.
While becoming AI fluent, were simultaneously students and architects of the culture. This dual role presents unprecedented responsibility and opportunity.
Leaders must consciously shape how AI integrates into the organizational culture by establishing rules and norms that preserve human creativity and connection while leveraging AIs capabilities. This means modeling thoughtful AI usage, celebrating innovative applications, and continuously reinforcing that AI serves human objectives, not the reverse.
The organizations that thrive will be those that build immersive environments where employees can become AI fluent and build cultures where technology amplifies uniquely human capabilities. In a workplace where managers offload administrative or basic creative tasks to AI agents, employees would gain hours back in their day. This would allow them to spend more time coaching their teams, helping them solve problems, identify opportunities for growth, and learn the best ways to motivate them during times of change and upheaval.
The journey to this future begins with recognizing that AI, like any language, isnt just a skill to acquire but a new way of thinking.
Hugo Sarrazin is the CEO of Udemy.
Donald Trump is no stranger to selling unusual merch. The president has been known to slap his likeness on Bibles, guitars, and gold-plated phones if itll bring in a bit of cash. Just last year, the Trump Organizations licensing deals netted Trump tens of millions of dollars in profits. But today, Trump has outdone himself with what has to be his strangest piece of merch ever: a T-shirt featuring his own mug shot captioned with the word Daddy (in call caps).
The official Trump Daddy shirt, featured in an email newsletter sent to subscribers on June 26 from the Trump National Committee JFC, appears to be a limited-time offering separate from the official Trump store. Its being sold through its own webpage with the notice These are going to sell FAST. HURRY, claim your shirt today, as well as the somewhat more unsettling all-caps call to action CLAIM DADDY SHIRT.
[Screenshot: Winred]
The merch-ification of Trumps mug shot is a fairly tired tack at this point, given that the president has already sold pieces of the suit worn in the image, reprinted it on rally posters, and used it as inspiration for his official White House portrait. Earlier this month, Cara Finnegan, author of the book Photographic Presidents: Making History From Daguerreotype to Digital, told Fast Company that the mug shot has been used so often by Trumps administration that it arguably is his presidential portrait.
However, the use of the moniker Daddy is altogether new. It seems to be a nod to a comment made June 25 by Mark Rutte, secretary-general of NATO, who appeared to give Trump the title when he said, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language. The media (and, now, it seems, Trumps team) took the comment as a reference to a viral moment earlier in the week when Trump casually dropped the f-bomb on camera.
Rutte has since denied that the term was directed at Trumpbut, unfortunately, that didnt stop the White House from posting an edit of the President set to Ushers sexual innuendo-laden R&B song, “Hey Daddy (Daddys Home). Trump himself appeared to endorse Ritters use to the term daddy at a later press conference. Now, it seems, the Trump National Committee is shortening the life cycle of real news-turned meme-turned merch. Mere hours after the initial stir around the daddy comment, its already a shirt.
Its not entirely shocking to see Trumps fundraising committee capitalize on this moment, given that his administration has already thrown convention to the wind by constantly glamorizing his mug shot. Still, this development is markedly more unusualand if this flies as a kind of Presidential merch, we dont want to know what might appear on a Trump shirt next.
A first public test of robotaxis by Tesla in Austin, Texas led to multiple traffic problems and driving issues, videos from company-selected riders showed over the first few days.
Chief Executive Elon Musk has tied Tesla’s financial future to self-driving technology, and with Tesla sales down, the stakes are high. He said Tesla would roll out the service to other U.S. cities later this year and predicted “millions of Teslas” operating “fully autonomously” by the second half of next year.
The Tesla fans invited to the trial were strongly supportive and posted videos of hours of trouble-free driving, but issues drew questions from federal road safety regulators and auto safety experts.
Issues included Tesla robotaxis entering the wrong lane, dropping passengers off in the middle of multiple-lane roads or at intersections, sudden braking, speeding and driving over a curb.
In one instance, a robotaxi drove into a lane meant for oncoming traffic for about 6 seconds. It had pulled into an intersection in its left-turn lane with its turn blinker on. Then the steering wheel wobbled momentarily, and instead of turning it proceeded straight into the lane meant for oncoming traffic, prompting a honk from a car behind it.
In another incident, the car suddenly braked with no obstruction apparent in the video. The passenger jerked forward and their belongings were thrown to the floor. In a third video, taken from another vehicle, a robotaxi abruptly stopped twice in the middle of the road while passing police vehicles with flashing lights.
Tesla is conducting the test with human safety monitors in the front passenger seat. A fourth video showed the safety monitor hitting a button to stop the robotaxi when a delivery truck in front of it started backing up.
“This is awfully early to have a bunch of videos of erratic and poor driving,” said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor and autonomous-technology expert. “I was not expecting as many videos of problematic driving on the very first day,” he said. Tesla is testing about 10 to 20 robotaxis, which are standard Model Ys with advanced software, and has been giving rides since Sunday afternoon.
Reuters was able to independently verify the locations of at least 11 videos showing issues. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
A City of Austin spokesperson said officials are aware of the Tesla issues documented on social media and that “when a potential legal or safety concern is brought to our attention, we promptly share it with the company.” The spokesperson added that the police department is “actively collaborating with Tesla” to ensure officers can safely interact with the robotaxis.
‘Caught on camera’
The incidents caught on camera did not involve accidents, and one expert said some reflected a decision to focus on safety.
“So far so good. It handled the situations very well and likely better than even good drivers,” Alain Kornhauser, Princeton University professor of operations research and financial engineering, said by email. He added that it would be more dangerous to drive at less than the speed of prevailing traffic, for instance.
Tesla’s experiment is unusually public. Other companies faced similar issues: Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise had their own share of traffic mishaps after showing up on Austin streets. City officials logged dozens of instances over the past two years where residents and authorities reported that robotaxis blocked traffic by stopping in the middle of roads, failed to respond to police directions and could not deal with emergency vehicles and road closures.
A serious accident involving a pedestrian in 2023 led Cruise to shut down last year. Waymo is the only robotaxi service in the U.S. to ferry paying customers without a human backup driver or in-car safety monitor. It started offering rides to the general public through Uber in Austin earlier this year.
Musk for years has failed to deliver on promises that self-driving Teslas are just around the corner. Tesla rolled out the service for a flat fee of $4.20 to a limited number of handpicked riders. The service is not available to the broader public and the robotaxis operate in a limited area, and avoid difficult intersections and bad weather.
Riders were rarely bothered much by driving issues. Farzad Mesbahi, a former Tesla program manager, and his co-passenger hit the “drop off early” option during a ride. The vehicle stopped in an intersection with a stoplight, his video showed. They exit quickly and walk to the sidewalk. “The car should have known to not stop there,” Mesbahi is heard saying after the ride. “Opportunities for improvement,” the co-passenger says.
That is an example “most companies would not be comfortable with,” said Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that she was surprised by the traffic mistakes.
“Dropping off people in the middle of a six-lane road or edge of a busy intersection when the traffic is going in the opposite direction is pretty dangerous. They definitely did not want to do this or be caught on camera,” she said.
Abhirup Roy, Rachael Levy, and Chris Kirkham, Reuters
Additional reporting by Inaki Malvido, Fernando Robles, and Richa Singh.
