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Dallas and Houston are just 250 miles apart, but a train trip between the two cities currently takes more than 23 hours, including a seven-hour stopover in San Antonios Amtrak station. The Texas Central high-speed rail project aims to change that. The proposed project would cut the travel time down between the nations fourth- and fifth-largest metro areas to 90 minutes, using Japanese technology to propel the trains 200-plus mph. It also would include a stop in the Brazos Valley. Former President Joe Bidens Department of Transportation was eager to help advance the project. Amtrak came aboard in August 2023 to determine if it was viable. The DOT also issued a $63.9 million planning grant last year. But the DOT under President Donald Trump quickly reversed course. Last month, the department announced that it had rescinded the grant and that Amtrak would no longer be involved in the project. [Rendering: courtesy Texas Central] If the private sector believes this project is feasible, they should carry the preconstruction work forward, rather than relying on Amtrak and the American taxpayer to bail them out, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated in the news release announcing that the department was canceling the $63.9 million grant. The move comes as the U.S. continues to lag behind other wealthy countries in its pursuit of high-speed raila mode of transport that’s safer, more efficient, and more sustainable than traveling by car. High-speed trains can cover the 820 miles between Beijing and Shanghai in a little over four hours. In Europe, a new high-speed train connecting Paris and Berlin launched in December. Even though it’s a red state, Texas has recently been pursuing high speed railand it could certainly use it. For example, Houston ranks among the 10 most congested cities in the country and among the 10 most polluted. The state of Texas hasnt gone a day without a death on its roads since November 7, 2000. High-speed rail in a pro-car administration The Trump administrations early actions show that the next four years are likely to be challenging for high-speed rail projects. The DOT has set its sights on two of the country’s three most advanced high-speed rail projects. In February, it announced a review of a high-speed rail project in Californiaanother state with air quality and congestion issuesthat would connect San Francisco and Anaheim. Eric Goldwyn, an assistant professor at New York Universitys Marron Institute of Urban Management, said it’s not a great moment to be working on a high-speed rail projectparticularly one that needs public funding. That said, it’s not totally clear how the Trump administration will come down on projects that rely on private financing. Materials laid out during the construction of a high-speed rail project in Fresno County, California, on March 24, 2025 [Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images] Right now, it sort of has the feeling of dramatic statements coming from USDOT and dramatic gestures, but less substantive actions, Goldwyn said. Trump’s DOT seems to favor privately funded projects. In the announcement about the California High Speed Rail probe, the department praised Brightline, a private company that operates a rail line between Orlando and Miami and plans to open another line between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas in 2028. Even those projects require public support, including a $3 billion grant for Brightline Westof which the company has spent $98 million thus far. The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority also received $25 million from the federal government for Brightline West stations in Hesperia and Victor Valley, California. The long and winding history of Texas Central The Texas Central project has seen many iterations since it first kicked off in 2014. In fact, the states efforts to build high-speed rail go back to 1989 when it created the Texas High Speed Rail Authority. As for Texas Central, it appeared to be dead when transportation projects nationwide slowed to a halt during the pandemic, but the partnership with Amtrak helped to revive it. Peter LeCody has been advocating for high-speed rail in Texas since the early 2000s and has watched the entire Texas Central battle play out. LeCody, who’s the president of the Texas Rail Advocates, sees a line between the two cities as a no-brainer. [Rendering: courtesy Texas Central] You’ve got two of the largest population areas in the country that really don’t have much of a transportation system, unless A. you want to drive, or B. you want to fly, he said. Now, he said the project is on the 10-yard line, because of the regulatory hurdles it has cleared. The FRA approved the route in 2020. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Central project had eminent domain authority in 2022. The preference for privately backed rail projects could portend well for the Texas project. As Amtrak exits the project, Texas Central has turned to the private sector. Kleinheinz Capital Partners, a Fort Worth-based hedge fund, became the lead investor on the project earlier this year, although they declined to share specifics about how much they had invested so far. (Kleinheinz Capital did not respond to a request for an interview but in a statement said the project was “shovel ready” and would create new jobs in Texas. “We agree with Secretary Duffy that this project should be led by the private sector, and we will be proud to take it forward.”) A representative from Texas Central told Texas legislators the project could be completed in 80 to 86 months during an April 17 hearing. John Kleinheinz, the companys CEO, told the Houston Chronicle that he believes the Trump administration is interested in this deal if it comes from the private sector. Kleinheinz, a longtime Republican donor, will likely be looking to bring aboard additional investors to push the project across the finish line. The DOT news release stated that the project cost is $40 billion. A project with bipartisan supportkind of Despite having some bipartisan support, skeptics and opponents remain. In November, State Representative Brian Harrison filed a bill seeking to strip Texas Central of its eminent domain authority. State Representative Cody Harris filed a bill that would bar the state from spending on a high-speed rail project operated by a private entity. It also would forbid the state from spending money to alter the roadway for high-speed rail. For years, Ive led the fight to expose the truth about Texas Central and protect our landowners from an overreaching, taxpayer-funded boondoggle, Harris said in a statement. At the time of publication, neither Harrisons nor Harriss bills have been voted on by the Texas House of Representatives. ReRoute the Route is one of the groups opposed to the project. While they aren’t opposed to high speed rail in theory, the group says it wants the rails alignment moved from its currently proposed route to run alongside I-45the highway that connects Houston and Dallasinstead. ReRoute the Route spokesperson Jennifer Stevens said the organization wants the project to proceed without taxpayer dollars, but said she isnt confident Kleinheinz is the right person to lead the project. We’ve had a lot of discussion about his overall lack of knowledge or experience in the rail industry, she said. Stevens added that her group has not met with Kleinheinz, who has been an investor in the project for 10 years. Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, said high-speed rail projects should be seen as an enticing investment for private entities. All these rail investments, they’re very capital-intensive, but they return enormous, enormous multiples on what you put into them, he said. When you put the money in, you get alongside it mixed-use, retail, condo buildings, high-rises. . . . That, in turn, generates additional economic activities. [Rendering: courtesy Texas Central] He added that the DOTs decision to rescind the grant isnt necessarily a death blow to the project, but he said government money is typically needed for well-run high-speed rail systems. High-speed rail doesnt exist yet in the U.S., Mathews said. In fact, its so unique that the FRA needed to create a special set of rules for the Texas Central project. But he and other advocates say high-speed rail is attractive to Americans. A 2015 APTA survey found that 63% of Americans said they were likely to use high-speed rail if it were available to them. From a policy and a psychology standpoint, we tie bricks around our ankles and then we wonder why we can’t run, Mathews said. It gets done everywhere else. We’re just uniquely bad at it. There’s no reason we have to be.
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E-Commerce
Twenty-four-hour customer support with zero hold time, infinite personalization, customized care, and behavior-based response are all aspects of the customer experience that will be expected sooner rather than later from every one of your customers. All of this is becoming reality, thanks to agentic artificial intelligence. Agentic AI is the most advanced form of artificial intelligence to date. It works autonomously, can understand natural language, sets goals and plans workflows, and makes decisions in real time based on the data it collects and examines. It learns from results and then teaches itself a new way to satisfy the needs of those that interact with it, immediately. An Expert Answers Every Question Agentic AI agents never need a break, never need vacation, and don’t need benefits or mental health days. They can work without respite for as long as your company exists. This is important because your customers hate waiting. Waiting for a mere two minutes will cause 60% of potential customers to hang up and call a competitor, and if your competitor deploys agentics before you, your customers will become their customers. Youll either want to outsource to a top-end team or to use your more talented in-house programmers to finalize design and create your AI guardrails before deployment. This one implementation will free up revenue dedicated to customer service agents, alleviate time your current team has to spend solving mundane simple questions and issues, and leave your top talent free to solve customer challenges that actually require a creative solution. AI-Powered Personalization at Scale People will become increasingly accustomed to advertising and products tailored to feel exclusive to them. A staggering 91% of people will shop with a company that provides personalized, relevant offers and recommendations, and 68% of people have increased brand affinity due to personalization. On the flip side, 62% of customers will abandon a brand if they are not delivered a personalized experience. The days you could rely on simple generic offers in an ad or subject line are dead. Remember, youre not sending an email to an inbox; youre sending it to a person. Think of your inbox every morning, filled with dozens of emails you’ve been meaning to unsubscribe from that dont speak to you. Every email you send is being seen exactly as the ones you receive. What Employees Will Fear The surface level fear around agentic AI centers around loss of jobs, but a deeper dive shows employee fears are far more complex. A recent survey revealed that 47% of employees feel AI lacks emotional intelligence, 40% are not comfortable submitting AI-generated work, and 34% dont think AI-produced work will be as good as theirs. Involve your most trusted employees throughout the duration of your AI development. This will make them a part of the process, giving them a sense of ownership. Additionally, the better they understand the process from start to finish, the more likely they are to trust itand trust that your use of the technology isnt just to save costs or cut jobs, but for their benefit as well. They will become the ones that can sell the rest of your workforce on your new processes and technology. The message must be that this technology is being used to better serve customers, stay ahead of the competition, and grow the business. With that growth comes opportunity for current employees to grow and advance. Preparing Your Business for Ethical AI Integration Stricter audits and bias-free practices need to come first for any AI system implementation. All components that enter the system need careful planning, such that each instruction and training parameter reflects focused ethical direction. Assemble a cross-functional advisory groupcomprised of trusted leaders and high-performing team membersto collaboratively design, test, and evaluate your AI tools. This internal coalition acts as a safeguard, ensuring that your deployment adheres to both ethical standards and your companys values. A Human-Centric Approach to AI Deployment The adoption of AI should always be in service of your workforce, not in place of it. Before rolling out any system, ask: Does this enhance or hinder the employee experience? AI systems deliver their best results when organizations prioritize human needs at the start of their integration efforts. From the outset, align your AI strategies with your organizational culture and principles. Transparent Communication is Equally Crucial Engage your team in open conversations about the role of AI, and how it will enhance the customer experience and lighten the load on the workforce. Present clear background information while scheduling question-and-answer discussions, or an open office hour, accepting feedback from the team. Reinforce that AI is not a replacement but a reinforcementdesigned to improve working conditions and to elevate team performance and customer satisfaction. The use of agentics will only increase across industries in the months and years to come. As its prevalence grows, any end user that interacts with it will become accustomed to the experience. They will start to expect quicker complaint resolution, zero wait times, personalized communication, and tailored product and service recommendations, and they will reject any generic approaches from companies. Ultimately, as business leaders, we bear a collective responsibility to uphold excellencenot only in our products and services but also in the systems we use to build and support our teams. Your willingness to embrace this technology for the benefit of your clients, your employees, and ultimately your business are what will keep you ahead of your competition and on a clear path to growth and increased relevancy.
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E-Commerce
Its no secret that when it comes to simplicity and convenience, insurance has lagged behind modern businesses across most industries. While many legacy products have been overturned by newer, intuitive solutions or adapted to meet todays consumers needs, insurance offerings have remained a complex anomalybuilt more for business and regulatory needs rather than real people. We already know that healthcare in America is too expensive, and far too many people simply cant afford to get sick. Health insurance deductibles are at an all-time high, while denied and delayed claims payments persist. Insurance companies have continued making money while a staggering number of people are putting off care because of the cost, or pulling money out of their 401(k) plans early to pay for medical expenses. We also know that there is no shortage of people who are fighting for healthcare policy changes, more accountability around business practices, and broader reform. But consumer patience is running out. And with 100 million American adults in medical debt, incremental regulatory changes wont be quick enough to take on the challenges that so many people face today in affording basic, and sometimes unexpected, costs related to their healthcare. Consumer Sentiment Its time we ask the question: Can we start making progress by rethinking how health insurance products are fundamentally designed? In order to do this, we have to accept some consumer truths about health insurance today. First, more than 50% of Americans dont understand their health insurance. Thats because, unlike most other industries that have embraced simplicity and ease, insurance remains complex, filled with exclusions, jargon, and unnecessary paperwork. So even with the best of educational tools, were looking at a large literacy gap. Second, consumer animosity toward health insurance companies is almost as old as the business itself. Even traditional supplemental health insurance offerings like Accident Insurance and Critical Illness that are intended to provide extra support were not designed to cover very much. And the amount of money that goes back to the insured at the end of the day is low for every dollar of premium paid. So its not surprising that people are tired of frequent claim denials and delays, and dont trust that their coverage will minimize their out-of-pocket exposure as much as they need it to. Its obvious that we have to start with addressing whats covered, and how we pay claims, which is core to any insurance product. We cant just slap technology onto insufficient coverage and hope that itll improve consumer confidence and trust. But there are some things we can do today to help health insurance catch up with other consumer industries through human-centered design. Here are three: 1. We can set up insurance products like subscriptions Digital simplification across industries has been happening since the dawn of Amazon and Uber, and has taught consumers to have certain expectations around their apps and online experiences. Just for the purposes of this exercise, lets think about insurance in terms of the direct-to-consumer fulfillment modeland treat insurance like a subscription where care is the purchase and benefits are refunds. Thinking of benefits as refunds enables us to align insurance innovation with the digital simplicity todays consumers expect. By removing the complexity wrapped around benefits, we can make claims intuitive and the delivery of benefits seamless. We have to eliminate the common limitations and restrictions as well as the excessive paperwork and evidence required for claim approval to enable quicker benefit decisions. People should be able to track the status of their claim in real time, so they can stop chasing their insurance companies for answers. Payment should be electronic, and take days, not weeks. In doing this, we can start to replicate the standards of efficiency and transparency people today are accustomed to when they buy and return products, and build a modern insurance experience that meets digital consumers expectations and needs. Treating health coverage like a subscription also provides clear opportunities for engagement. And insurance companies across sectors are just starting to take note. Beam Technologies tracks teeth-brushing habits through a Wi-Fi-connected toothbrush to tailor dental insurance discounts, while Discovery offers its Vitality Program that rewards customers with points for preventative checkups. By encouraging consumers to engage with their coverage, motivating them to use it by offering rewards and discounts like other consumer businesses, these companies drive utilization and deliver value as a result. 2. We can take an (active) back seat Another school of thought tells us that the best insurance companies are the ones that people dont think about at all. Unlike the previous approach, which assumes consumers will use their coverage like they do their subscriptions, this strategy doesnt expect that the modern consumer wants to interact with their insurance company at all. Instead, it offers a simple promise of value without any participation required. This approach provides obvious opportunities for leveraging data and automation to set up a product experience where the claim end-to-end is managed by the health insurance company, with no necessary intervention from the insured at all. Innovators in the space are just getting started automating several, if not all, aspects of the claims process. Current players like ClaimsMinder, Human API, and Claritev are just beginning to unlock the power of data to streamline the notification, filing, processing, and payment of a claim so that employees can get more out of their benefits. Ansel Health offers medical claims integration, which enables them to determine when individuals have a covered condition and are eligible for a benefit, and pays them directly without requiringthem to ever file a claim. In doing this, we eliminate coverage disputes, delayed claims payments, or even just make someones day a little bit easierand maybe then begin to build some trust. 3. We can become a logical extension of the modern care-delivery revolution When people get sick, they dont see their preventative care or treatment and their health insurance as two separate entities, but rather one experience. Unlike insurance, modern care delivery has evolved at a rapid pace over the past 25 years. Digital and in-person clinics like Wally, Maven, Tia, Omada, Parsley, and One Medical are setting new standards for the way people experience care, and even legacy care providers are mimicking their practices with apps and more. Notably, most of these providers have chosen to offer subscription-based or up-front payment models and to cut out the insurance middleman. Why? Because it just doesnt align with their promise of simplicity and empathy through the provider experience. By applying human-centered design, we can bridge this gapcreating insurance brands that look and feel like a natural extension of the modern care delivery experience. Companies like Oscar, Rightway, and Sana are already proving this is possible, offering an integrated experience that resonates with todays consumers. Its a fair question to ask, but why will business stakeholders care? A part of it will be about finding a set of believers and innovators who are both mission-aligned and consumer-focused. But its also important to acknowledge that fixing the flaws in the health insurance experience doesnt just address the financial crisis around healthcare, it aligns with business needs too. In fact, theres a clear business case for creating simpler health insurance products. According to the Integrated Benefits Institute, serious illnesses, when not treated, result in an average of 1.5 billion lost work days per year, costing employers $575 billion annually. When employees dont delay or skip care because theyre confident in their health coverage, theyre less likely to require sick time, workers compensation, disability, or family and medical leave. Employers see higher retention, insurance brokers and agencies build deeper trust with their clients, and insurance companies see a higher rate of renewals. Established companies can participate too through partnerships with modern solutions, allowing them to stay competitive in an evolving marketplace, benefiting new, innovative players seeking broader distribution. Our goal is simple: In 10 years time, we want people to be talking about how complex health insurance used to be, and finally build some real trust.
Category:
E-Commerce
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