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CIOs are grappling with how to leverage AI, but most are asking the wrong question. Its not about an AI strategy. Its about a business strategy powered by AI. At Samsara, when we focused AI on clear business problems, we cut support chat volume by 59% with virtual agents, our IT help assistant auto-resolved 27% of tickets during the pilot, and engineers accepted about 40% of suggested code from AI code-assist, freeing teams to ship faster and tackle harder work. My takeaway is that if you treat AI as a separate initiative, youll chase tools. If you treat it as leverage on a business KPI, youll create impact. The VC Mindset: Investing in AI My philosophy on AI investment mirrors how a Venture Capital firm manages its portfolio. While every investment should strive for success, organizations must adopt a portfolio mindset: expecting only 10% of AI pilots to yield a high return. This crucial insight is what drives a VC firm, and what should drive your AI funnel. This means maintaining an active, well-fed funnel of AI investments. Working diligently to narrow this funnel through rapid pilots and experimentation allows businesses to move fast and fail quickly on small, contained experiments to find the few truly transformative applications. This approach is crucial given the sheer volume of AI solutions available. The typical vendor evaluation process might involve vetting three or four key solutions. In the AI space, that number can balloon into the thousands. Applying a VC mindset allows us to efficiently triage and prioritize, focusing our resources where the potential business impact is highest. Scaling AI Through Change Management Investment is only half the battle. The most sophisticated AI tool is worthless if employees don’t use it effectively. Success demands a robust AI change management program that builds new organizational muscles. 1. Driving Adoption: A Top-Down and Bottom-Up Engine True organizational change requires synchronized effort from the C-suite to the front lines. This is the top-down and bottom-up mandate for AI adoption. Top-Down Commitment: This begins with the CEO and C-suite making AI a core business priority. At Samsara, two of our four company priorities are explicitly AI-relatedone focused on internal efficiency, and the other on product innovation. This executive mandate, championed by leaders like our CEO and reinforced through my partnership with our CFO, ensures AI initiatives are treated as strategic imperatives, not discretionary projects. Bottom-Up Application: While CIO organizations are natural early adopters, the people best positioned to apply AI are those who live with the business problems dailyin supply chain, finance, sales, and operations. These colleagues have a nuanced, first-hand understanding of where AI tools can create the most value. And they can bridge this gap by empowering those teams to identify and lead implementation. 2. Scale Literacy with an AI Champions Network To connect the top-level vision with bottom-up execution, businesses must actively cultivate AI literacy. At Samsara, weve implemented a two-pronged approach to ensuring that AI skills and uses are being scaled across our business. AI Champions Network: Our AI Champions are a bridge to realizing our AI ambitions. We identify individuals across every function with a strong understanding of technologythe natural thought leadersand designate them as AI Champions. We give them concrete roadmaps for how to use AI in their specific function, making them evangelists who drive enablement and comfort within their teams. General Education: We use channels like our daily Slack digest to deliver short, 5-minute to 10-minute lessons to provide general AI education and demystify the technology for all employees. 3. Frame AI as Partnership, Not Replacement Any companys ethos on AI should be clear: AI wont replace people who embrace it. They should position these tools to their staff as partners that will better their teams and outputs, freeing them up for higher-value work. As I alluded to above, for our R&D and BizTech teams, weve implemented AI Code Generator tools. Our teams accept, on average, over 40% of the prebuilt code suggested, accelerating development cycles and allowing them to focus on complex, innovative challenges. On the service side, our use of AI chat agents has driven a 59% reduction in chat ticket volume in customer support, allowing staff to focus on complex issues. Similarly, our internal Generative AI-powered help assistant for the IT Help Desk resolved 27% of tickets with no human touch during the pilot, freeing up IT staff for strategic work. The CIOs Evolving Role In this new era, the CIO’s job is to stay intensely agile. They must mirror the companys need for external innovation with a commensurate drive for internal modernization. The path to AI success is not paved with technology alone, but with strategic discipline and cultural transformation. The new CIO mandate is simple: Stay intensely agile. Mirror the companys need for external innovation with an equivalent drive for internal modernization. The path to AI success is not paved with technology alone, but with strategic discipline and cultural transformation. Stop chasing the latest platform and start asking: What is the core business problem we need to solve? Anchor your investments in quantifiable business value, embrace a venture-style portfolio approach to experimentation, and aggressively equip your employees to be partners of AI, not its victims. This shift from technology buyer to strategic portfolio manager is the key to enduring competitive advantage.
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E-Commerce
Across America, a new generation of farmers is reimagining what it means to work the land. They are engineers, ecologists, and entrepreneurspeople who see farming not only as a way to grow food, but as a form of innovation. In fields across the country, these farmers are harnessing soil science, biodiversity, and technology to restore what decades of extractive agriculture have depleted. Their work represents one of the most powerful opportunities of our time: The opportunity to regenerate our planet from the ground up. Yet, the odds they face are immense. Land prices have soared, access to capital is limited, and isolation comes with choosing a career path few understand. Farmland continues to disappear, and for those eager to farm differently, access to resources and mentorship remains limited. These farmers are proving that the next era of agriculture can be both economically viable and ecologically sound. They are experimenting with cover crops to build soil health, integrating renewable energy into operations, and rethinking distribution through community-based models. Their work underscores a truth we must all recognize: The future of farming depends on our ability to empower the people willing to reinvent it. THE FUTURE OF REGENERATIVE FARMING At Rodale Institute, weve seen firsthand how supporting beginning farmers can accelerate this transformation. Through training, mentorship, and research, weve helped growers adopt regenerative organic methods that improve soil biology, reduce chemical dependence, and restore carbon to the earth. But the broader movement must go further, requiring not only scientific innovation but cultural and corporate partnerships. Thats why Rodale Institute and Davines Group have partnered to launch the second annual U.S. Good Farmer Award, a program recognizing beginning farmers and ranchers who have been in operation for 10 years or less and who embody environmentally responsible, community-focused, and forward-thinking agricultural practices. The award honors individuals whose work demonstrates a profound respect for nature, fosters biodiversity, and strengthens their local communities. More than an accolade, the award reflects a global mindset shift where innovation is not just about new technology but about regenerating what sustains us. In 2025, our U.S. inaugural winner, Clarenda Farmer Cee Stanley of Green Heffa Farms in North Carolina, showed us what this vision looks like in practice. Her herb and tea farm blends economic impact, education, and equity into a model of regenerative success. Shes a farmer, but also a mentor, an advocate, and a catalyst for change. Her story, and those of farmers who will follow, remind us that progress doesnt always come from technology or policy. Often, it grows quietly in the soil, nurtured by people whose courage to plant seeds in uncertain times defines what regeneration really means. WHY INVESTING IN NEW FARMERS IS ESSENTIAL Investing in beginning farmers is essential to a more resilient and regenerative future worldwide. At first glance, it may seem unlikely that a beauty, skincare, and haircare company like the Davines Group shares our commitment and passion for supporting new farmers. However, Davide Bollati, chairman of Davines Group, like us, sees regeneration as the next evolution of sustainability. It is not enough to minimize harm, but we must actively restore it. In a recent conversation, he shared that the protection and preservation of biodiversity are a cornerstone of our environmental strategy, alongside decarbonization, circularity, and water. Like us, Bollati also sees an energy among young farmers who have the energy and the courage to innovate with an approach that considers the wellbeing of our planet. Through The Good Farmer Award, in both Italy and the U.S., its about empowering the next generation of farmers to lead with empathy, intelligence, and creativity. The path forward must be multigenerational, inclusive, and rooted in community. FINAL THOUGHTS When Bollati and I met to prepare for the upcoming award application, he summarized our shared purpose perfectlyregeneration today is the only possible path to ensure a future for next generations, and for our planet. It is farmers like our inaugural award winner, Clarenda Farmer Cee Stanley, who are embracing agriculture for a different quality, and a different pace of life where they can grow high-quality crops, use sustainable and regenerative practices to protect the soil, and connect others with limited access to farm-fresh products. Jeff Tkach is CEO of Rodale Institute.
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E-Commerce
Paul Thomas Andersons One Battle After Another scored a leading nine nominations to the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Monday, adding to the Oscar favorites momentum and handing Warner Bros. a victory amid Netflix’s acquisition deal. In nominations announced from Beverly Hills, California, One Battle After Another landed nods for its castLeonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Chase Infinitiand for Andersons screenplay and direction. Its competing in the Globes category for comedy and musicals. Close on its heels was Joachim Triers Sentimental Value, a Norwegian family drama about a filmmaking family. The Neon releases eight nominations included nods for four of its actors: Stellan Skarsgrd, Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. The Globe nominations, a tattered but persistent rite in Hollywood, are coming on the heels of a potentially seismic shift in entertainment. On Friday, Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion. If approved, the deal would reshape Hollywood and put one of its most storied movie studios in the hands of the streaming giant. Warner Bros., Netflix, and the Golden Globes Both companies are prominent in this year’s awards season. Along with One Battle After Another, Warner Bros. has Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed vampire hit. It was nominated for seven awards by the Globes, including box office achievement, best actor for Michael B. Jordan, and Coogler for best director. Netflix’s contenders include Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly (which landed nods for George Clooney and Adam Sandler), Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (five nominations), and the streaming smash hit, KPop Demon Hunters. Arguably the most-watched movie of the year, the three nominations for KPop Demon Hunters included one for cinematic and box office achievementan oddity for Netflix, which typically gives its films only small, limited theatrical runs but found a No. 1 box office weekend in singalong screenings for the animated film. The two studios led all others in nominations across film and television on Monday. Netflix landed 35 nominations, boosted by its expansive film slate and television nominees like the British limited series Adolescence (five nominations). Warner Bros. had 31 nominations, including 15 from HBO Max for series such as The White Lotus, the lead TV nominee with six. The proposed deal for Warner Bros. has stoked concern throughout the industry that Netflix might devote one of the most theatrical-focused studios to streaming. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has pledged a theatrical commitment to many Warner releases, but the leading trade group for exhibitors has called the deal an unprecedented threat. On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the market share created by the merger could be a problem, and Paramount said Monday it was mounting a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Neon shines on a bad day for Wicked: For Good Yet the studio that triumphed on the movie side of the Globe nominations was Neon. The indie specialty film company has emerged as a dominant force in international releases, winning a string of Palme d’Or awards at the Cannes Film Festival. It earned 21 nominations Monday, including five of the six international film nominees. Some of those nominations came at the expense of some high-profile studio films. Wicked: For Good was nominated for five awards, including two nods for its songs and acting nominations for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. But it was overlooked for an award it was presumed to be in contention for: best comedy or musical. The nominees instead were One Battle After Another, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice (a Neon release), and a pair of Richard Linklater movies in Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague. In the drama category, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet scored six nominations, including nods for its stars, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. It was nominated for best film, drama, along with Frankenstein and three Neon titles: The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and It Was Just an Accident. Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, the acclaimed Iranian revenge drama, was nominated for a total of four awards. At different times, Panahi has often been imprisoned, put under house arrest and prohibited from leaving Iran by the Islamic Republic while making films over the past two decades. Earlier this month, while traveling outside of Iran with the film, he was sentenced to a year in prison and a new two-year travel ban. Podcasters and A-listers mingle As the Globes continue to transition out of their scandal-plagued past, there’s one notable change this year. For the first time, the Globes are giving a best podcast trophy. The inaugural nominees are Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, Call Her Daddy, Good Hang With Amy Poehler, The Mel Robbins Podcast, SmartLess, and NPR’s Up First. Many of those nominees aren’t exactly outsiders to Hollywood. But they’ll mingle with a wide array of stars that the Globes, long known for packing their red carpet with A-listers, were sure to nominate. Those include Timothee Chalamet, nominated for his performance in Marty Supreme, Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love), Julia Roberts (After the Hunt), Tessa Thompson (Hedda), Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Delivr Me From Nowhere), Emma Stone (Bugonia), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) and the two stars of The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. After a series of controversies for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that previously put on the ceremony, the Globes were sold in 2023 to Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, a part of Penske Media. A new, larger voting body of more than 300 people now vote on the awards, which moved from NBC to CBS on a shorter, less expensive deal. Nikki Glaser is returning as host to the Jan. 11 Globes, airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. This past January, Glaser won good reviews for her first time emceeing the ceremony. Ratings were essentially unchanged, slightly dipping to 9.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen, from 9.4 million in 2024. Helen Mirren will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award in a separate prime-time special airing Jan. 8. Sarah Jessica Parker will be honored with the Carol Burnett Award. Jake Coyle, AP film writer
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E-Commerce
Joshua Aaron, the developer of the ICE agent tracking app ICEBlock, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and ICE for unconstitutionally pressuring Apple to remove the app from its App Store. Apple pulled ICEBlock in early October after Justice Department officials contacted the company claiming that the app enables users to evade immigration raids and endangers ICE agents. The app, which has more than a million downloads, gives users notifications when ICE agents are nearby, and allows users to anonymously report the location of ICE agent activity, but only if they are located in the same area. Aarons lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks reinstatement of the app, plus appropriate damages. The case could reshape how tech platforms handle government requests, particularly when those requests come without formal warrants or court orders. The developer argues the app simply facilitates sharing of public information, similar to community apps that track traffic or weather. The lawsuit claims Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials violated Aarons rights by forcing the apps removal without a court order. The goal is pretty simplewere hoping to set a precedent that says not only is ICEBlock protected by the First Amendment but they cannot come after me and threaten me as they’ve been doing over the past year, Aaron tells Fast Company. If successful, the lawsuit could prevent the Justice Department or other federal agencies from depriving other lawful apps of distribution in the future. The ICEBlock app removal may be a case of an unconstitutional government tactic known as jawboning, in which a government official uses their official capacity to pressure a private sector entity to do something. In another recent example of the practice, FCC chairman Brendan Carr used an implicit threat of regulatory entanglement to pressure ABC and its affiliates to drop Jimmy Kimmels Kimmel Live show. Bondi may have admitted, in public, to jawboning, when she spoke on Fox Digital the night after Apples removal of ICEBlock on October 2, 2025. We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Storeand Apple did so, Bondi declared, according to the lawsuit. With this admission, Attorney General Bondi made plain that the United States government used its regulatory power to coerce a private platform to suppress First Amendment-protected expression, the suit states. Bondi again boasted of the ICEBlock take-down during a congressional oversight hearing two days later. But it may take more than Bondis public statements to prove that the government violated the First Amendment. The EFF, a digital rights group, recently filed suit to compel the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to release documentation of their communications with Apple and other tech platforms that led to the app removals. Meta removed a Facebook group with 80,000 members called ICE Sighting-Chicagoland at the request (or demand) of the government. Chicago residents had been using the apps to warn neighbors when the masked federal agents were near area schools, grocery stores, and other community locations. Google removed an ICE tracking app called Red Dot from its Google Play store, saying the app violated its policy against apps that share the location of what it describes as a vulnerable group. Large tech companies have largely overlooked the authoritarian tendencies of the Trump administration, choosing instead to appease and coddle it, and capitulate to its demands. The tech industry is engaged in investing trillions in AI, and wants the administration to continue hobbling the governments normal regulation and oversight. Precedent may be on Aarons side. There is a long history that shows documenting law enforcement performing their duties in public is protected First Amendment activity, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Mario Trujillo tells Fast Company. The government acted unlawfully when it demanded Apple remove ICEBlock, while threatening others with prosecution. Reuters reported that members of the House Homeland Security committee argued in a letter to tech companies that free speech does not protect incitement to lawless action, and called on them to explain how they vet and monitor such content. Apple cited its App Store guidelines prohibiting content that poses “safety risks” as justification for the removal, but critics argue the vague policy allows for arbitrary enforcement influenced by government pressure. As AppleInsiders Wesley Hilliard points out, the App Store carries the Waze and Apple Maps apps, both of which allow users to post information about nearby traffic enforcement personnel.
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E-Commerce
On December 5, the entertainment world was rocked when Netflix and Warner Bros. announced a massive deal that set Netflix up to purchase the legendary Hollywood studio, creating one of the largest media entities of all time. Today, Paramount Skydancewhich has been vying for Warner Bros. for monthsappears to be saying, Not so fast. Paramount Skydance, the David Ellison-led company fresh off of its own merger earlier this year, has been circling around a potential buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner Bros. parent company) since at least September. Last week, it appeared that Netflix was swooping in to snatch a large part of the deal. And now, Paramount Skydance has countered with a hostile takeover bid to secure Warner Bros. Discovery once and for all. Heres everything you need to know about the saga and whats at stake. Whats the backstory? Back in early September, initial reports emerged that Paramount Skydance was preparing a bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, one of its rivals. The following month, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that it was open to a potential sale in a press release, sharing that it had received unsolicited interest from multiple parties for the entire company. Paramount Skydance and Netflix were two of the top contenders identified for the deal. In late October, Reuters reported that Ellisons initial $60 billion approach offer was rejected by Warner Bros. Discovery, though analysts still pegged Paramount Skydance as the most likely victor in the bidding wars. Then, on December 5, Netflix and Warner Bros. came forward to announce a deal in which Netflix would purchase the legendary Hollywood studio, along with its HBO Max and HBO divisions, for a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion (which Netflix says has an equity value of $72 billion). The agreement came after Warner Bros. Discovery announced this summer that it would split the current company into two, with the newly created companies owning its Streaming & Studios assets and Global Networks divisions, respectively. Through the proposed acquisition, Netflix would be buying the Streaming & Studios company that will spin off from Warner Bros. Discovery next year. Paramount Skydance, on the other hand, had expressed interest in buying all of Warner Bros. Discoverys assets. How did people react to the Netflix deal? Experts say that the colossal Netflix-Warner Bros. deal would give the worlds largest streaming service access to a giant library of valuable IP, including the Harry Potter film franchise, the DC Universe, Barbie, and more. The proposed deal sparked immediate concerns that Netflix might gain too much of a monopoly within the entertainment industry, potentially allowing the company to bump up its subscription prices. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the deal an anti-monopoly nightmare in a statement. It would create one massive media giant with control of nearly half of the streaming marketgiving Americans fewer choices over what and how they watch, and putting American workers at risk, she wrote on X. Another notable commentator was President Trump, who said on December 7 that the deal could be a problem because of the size of the combined market share. What’s happening now? Now, it seems that the Netflix deal could be on shaky ground. On December 8, Paramount Skydance announced that it would go straight to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders with an all-cash, $30-per-share offer that equates to an enterprise value of about $108.4 billion. Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly rejected the deal last week, but now its investors will get a chance to weigh in. This tactic is called a hostile takeover bid, and its intended to put pressure on a target company by recruiting its shareholders on the side of the deal. Were really here to finish what we started, Ellison told CNBC this morning. He added: Were sitting on Wall Street, where cash is still king. We are offering shareholders $17.6 billion more cash than the deal they currently have signed up with Netflix, and we believe when they see what it is currently in our offer, thats what theyll vote for. At this point, the deal is in limbo as shareholders react to Ellisons new offer. And, no matter which company comes out victorious, the acquisition is likely to face regulatory fights to determine whether the megamerger truly represents a media monopoly.
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E-Commerce
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