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Six of the Group of Seven leaders discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Iran conflict but failed to reach major agreements on those and many other top issues closing a summit that was forced to try and show how the wealthy nations’ club might still shape global policy despite the early departure of U.S. President Donald Trump. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his counterparts from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan were joined during Tuesday’s final sessions by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO chief Mark Rutte. “We need support from allies and I’m here,” Zelenskyy said, before adding, “We are ready for the peace negotiations, unconditional ceasefire. I think it’s very important. But for this, we need pressure.” The remaining leaders agreed to jointly attempt to combat what they called non-market policies that could jeopardize global access to critical minerals. They also pledged to limit the downsides of artificial intelligence on jobs and the environment, while still embracing the potential of the “technological revolution.” There was consensus on other issues, but though the summit was meant to showcase unity on top global concerns, no joint statement on the conflict in Ukraine was released. Zelenskyy had been set to meet with Trump while world leaders were gathering in the Canadian Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis, but that was scrapped. The U.S. also previously signed an agreement granting American access to Ukraine’s vast mineral resources. A senior Canadian official who briefed reporters at the summit said the U.S. opposed a joint statement on Ukraine amid its efforts to promote negotiations with Russia. The official said it only became clear during the summit’s first day on Monday that there wouldn’t be a joint statementthough other attendees suggested no consensus agreement was seriously on the table. Emily Williams, a spokeswoman for the prime minister, later retracted the briefing statement and said “no proposed statement regarding Ukraine was distributed to other leaders.” In Trump’s absence, the remaining six leaders held an extensive session on Ukraine. Lacking unanimity, individual leaders also met with Zelenskyy to reassure him of their support. The summit also was largely overshadowed by a showdown over Iran’s nuclear program that could escalate. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran, and Iran has hit back with missiles and drones. French President Emmanuel Macron warned against the U.S. and other powers pushing for regime change in Iran, suggesting it could destabilize the greater Middle East. “I believe the greatest mistake today would be to pursue regime change in Iran through military means, as that would lead to chaos,” Macron said. Before leaving, Trump joined the other leaders in issuing a statement saying Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.” Getting unanimityeven on a short and broadly worded statementwas a modest measure of success. Macron said Carney fulfilled his mission as G7 host by preserving the unity of the multilateral organization. “We shouldn’t ask the Canadian presidency to resolve every issue on earth today. That would be unfair,” said Macron, who will host the G7 next year. Carney said in his final remarks Tuesday evening that Trump’s early exit was about the “extraordinary” situation in the Middle East, not anything that occurred during the summit. “There was no problem,” Canada’s prime minister said. “Mr. Trump felt it was better to be in Washington, and I can understand that.” Carney said Canada would impose new economic sanctions against Russia and was releasing its own statement offering “unwavering support for a secure and sovereign Ukraine.” Asked if the U.S. pushed to soften any possible joint statement from the gathered leaders on Ukraine, Carney said he consulted with Trump while preparing the language his own country used. Still, Trump’s departure only served to heighten the drama of a world on the verge of several firestormsand of a summit deprived early of its most-watched world leader. ` “We did everything I had to do at the G7,” Trump said while flying back to Washington. But things were getting awkward even before he left. After the famous photo from the G7 in 2018 featured Trump and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel displaying less-than-friendly body language, this year’s edition included a dramatic eye-roll by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as French President Emmanuel Macron whispered something in her ear during a Monday roundtable. That, and concerns about the Russia-Ukraine war, little progress on the conflict in Gaza and now the situation in Iran have made things all the more tense especially after Trump imposed severe tariffs on multiple nations that risk a global economic slowdown. Members of Trump’s trade team remained in Canada to continue discussing tariffs, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who sat at the table as world leaders met with Zelenskyy. Trump’s stance on Ukraine also put him fundamentally at odds with the other G7 leaders, who are clear that Russia is the aggressor in the war. The U.S. declined to join new sanctions against Russia, with Trump saying, “When I sanction a country, that costs the U.S. a lot of money, a tremendous amount of money.” Trump also said at the summit that there would have been no war in Ukraine if G7 members hadn’t expelled Putin from the organization in 2014 for annexing Crimea. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the G7 now looks “very pale and quite useless” compared to “for example, such formats as the G20.” Additionally, the U.S. president has placed greater priority on addressing his grievances with other nations’ trade policies than on collaboration with G7 allies. He has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as 25% tariffs on autos. Trump is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period set by him would expire. One bright spot for Trump during the summit came when he and British Prime Minister Keir Starmersigned a trade framework that was previously announced in May. Trump said British trade was “very well protected” because “I like them, that’s why. That’s their ultimate protection.” But, while announcing that agreement, Trump brandished pages spelling out the deal and dropped them. Starmer stooped to pick them up, later explaining that he was compelled to ditch diplomatic decorum because anyone else trying to help risked spooking the president’s security team. “There were quite strict rules about who can get close t the president,” Starmer said, adding that he was “just deeply conscious that in a situation like that it would not have been good for anybody else to have stepped forward.” ___ Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Calgary, Alberta, and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report. Rob Gillies, Jill Lawless and Will Weissert, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Today I woke to find that yet another CEO has written yet another memo about how head over heels in love they are with AI. This time, the memo was from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. It was posted publicly to Amazon’s website on Tuesday. Tech CEOs have been rattling off these love letters from time to time lately, and they usually sound similar: They talk about how the technology is transformative, how chatbots will somehow benefit customers, how it will make their company more efficient because AI will enable them to lay off more humans, and, most ominously, how this is just the beginning.” We get the gist: CEOs of large companies love the bottom line and AI is going to do wonders for it. But since Jassy is the CEO of the largest online retailer on the planet, his all-too-samey memo raises a burning question: Who is going to buy all of Amazons products once AI takes most of our jobs? Jassy does admit in the memo that AI is going to cost people jobs at Amazon. Speaking about how the company is rolling out AI agentsartificially intelligent programs that will do the work a company used to pay human workers to doJassy said that Amazon will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. He goes on: Its hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company. Jassy is likely right that AI is going to reduce the total corporate workforce, but not just at Amazon. AI will reduce the total workforce at many companies in the years ahead, likely the majority of them. How bad could things get? Estimates vary, but a 2023 report from investment bank Goldman Sachs said that AI could threaten 300 million jobs over a 10-year period. A 2017 report from McKinsey stated that the automation of jobs could result in between 400 million and 800 million individuals being displaced by 2030. Automation refers to the process by which code or robotics perform a task that a human was once required for, and often at a much lower operating cost than what a company would need to pay an individual. So, again, if every company in the world does what Amazon plans to doreplace workers with AIand that does lead to a potential billion or so white-collar workers seeing their jobs evaporate, who exactly is Amazon going to sell to? Honest question. Once AI is doing all the work, and humans can no longer earn a paycheck, who buys Amazons stuff? Does AI start trying to sell cheap goods to other AI? I mean, surely AI has no use for clothes, sporting goods, or shampoo. And it doesnt have any need for the books, movies, or art prints that Amazon sells because, lets be honest, AI models have already stolen most of that stuff. It knows them so well that it can replicate them instantly. AI might be a good workerand great for a companys bottom linebut it’s the worst customer a company could ask for. So if AI cant buy Amazons stuff, and human workers are now unemployable because AI took their jobs, who shops at Amazon, then? Thats something that none of the CEOswho seem so determined to be seen as AI thought leaders every time they rattle off one of these AI love lettersever address in these memos. If theres one thing that humans can take heart inat least for nowit’s that some companies that have already announced their plans to go all in on AI at the expense of their employees’ livelihoods have faced public backlash for it. But I think thats a problem companies may solve as AI advances. As for what happens to these companies bottom lines once consumers can no longer afford to buy their products because AI has taken their jobs? Well, Im still waiting to hear CEOs offer a solution to that problem.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to a special edition of Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs; this week Im dropping a few extra newsletters from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. To hear the creative leaders assembled at Cannes Lions this week, reports of the advertising industrys death by AI are greatly exaggerated. In keynote speeches and panel discussions, advertising and marketing executives say they are wholeheartedly embracing generative AI as a partner they are integrating into their work. In 2023, AI were the two most-used letters at Cannes, Josh Rosenberg, cofounder and CEO of Day One Agency, an independent creative and communications shop, tells Modern CEO. Fast-forward two years, and the conversation has evolved from novelty to practicality. Weve moved beyond the hype into implementation, and with that comes a more grounded understanding of both the potential and the limitations of the technology. The AI advantage Susan Howe, CEO of the Weber Shandwick Collective, says the communications advisory group uses GenAI to create synthetic personas to understand how different demographics and constituencies might respond to a clients message. Other executives have talked about using AI to review written work to query what questions they forgot to ask or topics they failed to address. The AI enthusiasm is tempered by an admittedly self-serving belief that the technology is a tool that will helpnot replacethe human touch. The good news is AI is not going to kill advertising, declared Tor Myhren, Apples vice president of marketing communications, in his keynote speech here. The bad news is AI is not going to save advertising. Weve got to save ourselves by believing in whats always made this industry special: human creativity. Day Ones Rosenberg concurs, noting, The dominant theme at Cannes isnt just what AI can do but how it should coexist with human creativity. AI will never replace our most powerful creative asset: emotion. It can accelerate workflows and expand possibilities, but it cant replicate taste, intuition, or the spark that makes a piece of work truly move people. Exceptional work still requires humans Of course, Rosenbergs and Myrens organizations are responsible for award-winning, groundbreaking campaigns that embody the ingenuity, heart, and humor that feel viscerally humanat least for now. Apple is the 2025 Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year, and Day One was short-listed in the last year for a Chipotle social campaign. So while a computer might not be able to conceive, script, shoot, edit, and recruit talent such as Pedro Pascal to star in a short film promoting AirPods, it is pretty easy to imagine GenAI capably replacing mediocre or uninspiring advertisingof which there is plenty. In fact, AI is just one of the forces buffeting the ad business: The large holding companies that dominate the industry are consolidating (Omnicom late last year agreed to acquire rival Interpublic Group, prompting fears of layoffs). Taking the lessons from AI in advertising What lessons can the rest of the business world learn from advertisings experiences with AI? Companies in the space have successfully moved beyond proof of concept into adoption of the technology, but whats perhaps most striking is the way AI has galvanized agencies and brands to move quickly and take risks. In an environment where products and services need to constantly differentiate and reach new audiences, such nimbleness is a good skill to havewhether or not your company is responding to the potential disruption of AI. Read more: creativity at work Where the design jobs are in 2025 121 Brands That Matter How MNTN is bringing creativity to small business
Category:
E-Commerce
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