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CEOs have become more than just corporate leaderstheyre among the most valuable assets on the balance sheet. Great leadership can drive billions in market cap by shaping narratives and galvanizing stakeholders. But what happens when the communication tools they use to build credibility start to erode it? Were entering a new era in CEO communications, one where human messages increasingly filter through the lens of AI. Analysts and investors have long leaned on AI-powered language models and sentiment analysis to dissect earnings calls, parsing executive tone, word choice, and delivery for signals on strategy, risk, or future performance. Now, CEOs and their teams are flipping the scriptcrafting messages with the help of generative AI to appeal to the very same systems analyzing them. Its a feedback loop of machines talking to machines. And while the tech arms race might make earnings calls look polished and sentiment scores spike, it also risks creating a sentiment gap. In the end, credibility is still the most valuable currency in leadershipand AI cant replace that. The CEO Premium Meets the AI Arms Race Corporate valuation has always been about more than just numbers. Investors have baked intangibles like brand equity, leadership narratives, and cultural impact into their models. As NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran puts it, valuation is as much about a companys story as it is about spreadsheets. The CEOs job is to integrate those stories with their strategies. Jensen Huang didnt make Nvidia a trillion-dollar company because of flawless financial executionhe did it by selling a vision of AI as the engine of the future, powering everything from healthcare to climate solutions. Thats the CEO premium in action: the ability to turn a strategic story into market-moving value. But heres what no ones saying out loud: when that story is over-engineered with AI, something critical is lost. Consider this: Bank of Americas S&P 500 corporate sentiment tracker, based on an analysis of thousands of earnings transcripts, hit an all-time high earlier this year, even as analysts lowered growth expectations for 2025. The disconnect is stark. While executives are optimizing their tone and language to look and sound bullish, its masking underlying realities. Were looking at a sentiment bubble, where polished communications are designed to impress algorithms but are creating distance from actual performance. The result? A risk to long-term stakeholder confidence and broader market integrity. The Credibility Gap is Realand Risky AI-powered communications is an incredible asset. It can help executives sharpen their messages, anticipate audience reactions, and streamline delivery. But when it starts to obscure realityor worse, is used as a veilit risks blowing up the most important thing any CEO has: credibility. Markets thrive on credibility. Investors place a premium on CEOs who communicate clearly and consistently, and are transparent about their strengths and challenges. When communication becomes engineered for algorithms rather than stakeholders, it creates a hollow effectpolished on the surface, but leaving questions below. This is more than theoretical. A recent study published in Harvard Business Review found that employees rated CEO messages as less helpful if they thought the message was AI-generatedeven when it wasn’t. Perception alone was enough to damage trust. That finding underscores the growing credibility risk CEOs face when misusing or leaning too heavily on AI. What CEOs Need to Do Now So where does this leave us? The CEOs who win in this new reality wont be the ones with the most AI-polished messagingtheyll be the ones who balance technology with authenticity. Heres how: Speak to Stakeholders, Not Just Algorithms: Say what you mean. Own the hard truths. AI should enhance a message, not sanitize it. AI-generated communications might score well with language models, but stakeholdersinvestors, employees, customersarent grading on polish. Theyre looking for clarity. Anchor Narratives in Performance: Narratives drive valuation, but theyre meaningless without numbers. If the results are strong, show your math. If theyre weak, explain why. Dont let AI overinflate optimism. Instead, use it to sharpen transparency. Ensure AI Augments, Not Replaces: AI is great for refining delivery and identifying blind spots, but it cant replace human judgment or instinct. Companies that over-rely on AI-driven clones or sentiment engineering risk losing the real connection that drives stakeholder engagement. Anticipate the Credibility Pivot: As sentiment inflation continues, markets will inevitably adjust. Investors will begin looking for the next differentiator, pivoting from polished delivery to deeper signals of authenticity. CEOs who lean into direct, unvarnished communication will stand out. Get Ahead of Whats Coming: The tools analyzing your every word are only getting more advanced. The only sustainable strategy? Consistency. Authenticity. Messages that hold up under scrutinyalgorithmic or human. If your leadership story cant survive deep analysis, it was never leadership to begin with. The Way Forward: Still a Human Game AI is reshaping the rules of executive communications, but the most successful leaders will recognize that technology is a supporting actnot the star of the show. At the end of the day, the algorithms dont close deals, inspire employees, or build relationships with customersCEOs do. In this next chapter of leadership, The CEOs who win wont be the ones scoring highest on sentiment trackers. Theyll be the ones who use AI responsibly, stay grounded in performance, and lead with clarity and authenticity. Because when machines talk past each other, the whole system breaks down. Credibility is still the most valuable asset a CEO has. And no algorithm can replace that.
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E-Commerce
For the Los Angeles area neighborhoods devastated by January’s wildfires, rebuilding is a question of how, not if. A new effort involving 40 architecture firms from L.A. and beyond aims to broaden the scope of what that rebuilding looks like. Case Study 2.0 is a model home design program that is creating a catalog of preapproved and deeply discounted house plans for fire victims in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods. Combining the quality of custom design with the speed and affordability of mass production, the designs are intended to be easily permitted, quick to build, relatively affordable and, just as importantly, beautiful. Xenia Projects [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] This effort was launched in February by Crest Real Estate, a land-use-consulting and permit-expediting company that works with architects, developers, and municipalities to get development projects approved for construction. Third-generation Angeleno Steven Somers, who founded Crest with his brother, Jason, 13 years ago, says that once the fires broke, he knew the company was obligated to do something to help in the eventual recovery. “We’re in a position where we understand the next steps,” Somers says. Emre Arolat Architecture [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] To expedite the rebuilding process, Crest recruited 40 top architecture firms from L.A. and beyond to develop more than 50 fire-resilient home designs that can be quickly approved for construction permits. The homes range from Spanish Colonials and compact bungalows to minimalist ranch-style single-story homes and modernist spectacles with sculptural rooflines. Designed to meet the parameters of the eight most common lots in the fire-affected areas, these house plans are contemporary in design but intended to be built in multiples rather than as one-offs. Tracy Stone [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] The architects have agreed to make their plans available to fire victims for $25 per square foot, which, depending on the firm, is just 25% to 35% of what they’d usually charge for architectural services. And once each design goes through the initial approvals process with either the city or county, it will take less than half the usual amount of time to get any additional build of that design permitted. “The question we were asking was how do you rebuild 100 years of character over the next five years?” Somers says. “People are really concerned that what gets built back feels like a tract development and doesn’t have the unique variation from lot to lot that made these communities entirely unique.” Solkatt [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] A historical precedent This effort was inspired by the postwar-era Case Study House Program, which sought to meet the booming demand for housing in the 1940s and ’50s by commissioning architecture firms to design replicable modern homes for the L.A. region. The resulting houses are now regarded as icons of mid-century modern design, but they didn’t achieve their intended scale. Stahl House: Case Study House #22 [Photo: kjmagnuson/Flickr] “Today we have a similarly urgent need for thousands of units of housing to be built. We want that to be done beautifully, just like the first Case Study House Program, but it must be done economically,” Somers says. “That’s where we feel like we’re picking up the baton.” Grant Kirkpatrick is founding principal of L.A.-based KAA Design, and he worked with Somers as Crest was developing the idea for the Case Study 2.0 program. “As someone who has worked in the hillsides of Los Angeles for over 35 yearsand has seen more than a dozen of our projects lost to fireI feel a deep responsibility to be part of the solution,” Kirkpatrick says. “We see this as an opportunity to help reimagine whats possible after lossnot only to restore homes, but to restore hope.” Marmol Radziner [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] Somers says the program cuts the cost of rebuilding in several ways. First is the discount on the designs offered by all the participating architects, including Morphosis, Marmol Radziner, and Tighe Architecture. Second is a range of 15% to 30% discounts offered by partner companies on building materials including doors, windows, roof tiles, and exterior cladding. There’s also the reduced overall cost that comes from having plans that are already preapproved. Morphosis [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] Once the first iteration of a design goes through that four-to-six month permitting process, Somers says each subsequent use of that design should be approved in just two months. And if the same contractor is used to build each iteration of a design, there are likely to be further cost and time savings. “They’re going to start to really create almost an assembly line process,” he says. Solkatt [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0] All this combines to reduce the cost of building a nearly custom contemporary home by 20% to 35%, Somers says. In L.A., that could translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The goal, Somers says, is for the houses to be built for between $600 and $800 per square foot. That translates to between $1.2 million and $1.8 million for a 2,000 square foot house, which is more than the $970,000 cost of the average home in the city of L.A., according to Zillow. For the affluent residents of the Pacific Palisades, the cost may be more manageable than for the middle class residents of Altadena. The homes offered through this program are not the cheapest option on the market, nor are they intended to be. “The real goal here is giving homeowners an option to rebuild something beautiful and that they’re really excited about, but that can cost less than what a typical one-off custom home would cost to build,” Somers says. The program is still in its early phases, and none of the designs in the catalog has gotten to the point of going up for official city or county approval. But Somers says multiple architects are currently working with clients to pursue rebuilding through the program. “I’m absolutely confident that some of these homes will be built,” he says. “Whether that’s 10 homes or 250 homes remains to be seen.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Kings Hawaiianthe maker of the sweet, buttery rolls that were a staple in many American childhoodsjust got a fluffy rebrand. The updated identity, which includes a new wordmark, logo, color palette, and packaging, was executed by the creative agency Mrs&Mr for Kings Hawaiians 75th anniversary. The brand crests this milestone at a tricky time for the grocery industry, as inflation and the rising cost of living continue to dampen consumer spending. Based on a report from the market research firm Circana, bread and rolls sales have declined by around 1% in the past yearbut, in an interview with CNN, Kings Hawaiian chief marketing officer Raouf Moussa shared that the brands sales have actually grown year-over-year despite this overall downturn. According to Kate and Daniel Wadia, the duo behind Mrs&Mr, the goal of the new look included a careful balance of two priorities: modernizing the brand while also reconnecting its identity with the decades-long heritage thats turned it into an enduring source of nostalgia. To do that, they started by turning to the classic rolls themselves. [Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] 75 years of Hawaiian rolls Before it became a packaged goods company, Kings Hawaiian was a small local bakery in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1950. Its founder, Robert R. Taira, was the Hawaiian-born son of Japanese immigrants, who ultimately perfected a more shelf-stable version of the Portuguese sweet bread hed enjoyed in his childhoodan invention that would later become Kings Hawaiians iconic packaged Hawaiian rolls. Kings Hawaiians current CEO, Mark Taira, is Roberts grandson. He worked directly with Mrs&Mr to help transform King’s Hawaiian’s branding. [Photo: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] [Kings Hawaiian] saw themselves as this heritage brand that really needed to modernize, but also to stay true to its DNA and to its heritage, Daniel says. The impetus for the project was, How do we become relevant to new generations of Kings Hawaiian consumers, while building on our legacy as this iconic brand that’s been around since 1950? [Photo: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] To answer that question, Daniel and Kate parsed through archival materials from the brands early days, including original signage, vintage packaging, and old advertisements. And, because Daniel grew up in London and Kate in Australia, they also had to actually try the product for the first time. Once we experienced the fluffiness, the squidginess, it reminded me of a French briochemy mother’s brioche has that squidginess, Daniel says. We really saw an opportunity for both the crown itself and also the wordmark to reflect the puffiness and the softness of the product. We wanted it to feel as if it had been bakedlike, literally, the logo just came out of the oven. [Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] Kings Hawaiians former logo, adopted in 2018, included a thin, uppercase serif font, encased in a pointed crown and surrounded by a bursting floral motif. Kate notes that the look had a messy quality, but, more significantly, it also had a very regal, formal feel. It felt almost a little standoffish,” Kate says. “This product is a family recipe, there’s such love and warmth and humanity that goes into this product, that we wanted it to feel a little bit more approachable.” [Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] Baking the King’s Hawaiian brand To give Kings Hawaiian a friendlier feel, Mrs&Mr started by metaphorically baking the brands core assets. The crown logo, for example, has been given rounded edges and a chunkier feel. And, alongside lettering artist Alec Tear, Daniel and Kate developed a custom wordmark font that looks freshly risen. While the wordmarks font is still a serif, in keeping with the brands history, its now bubbly and weighty. The dots above each i, as well as the letters tails, are shaped to mimic a puffy Haiwaiian roll. [Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] Crucially, Daniel and Kate decided to keep the brands signature orange packaging, which has come to be strongly visually associated with the brand. To give the identity a brighter feel, though, they lightened the core hue a few shades and kicked up its vibrancy. They also expanded the brands usable color palette to include complementary colors like golden yellow and bright red. In place of the packagings former floral motif, Daniel and Kate opted to add in a more simplified pattern of illustrated hibiscus, monstera, and plumeria plants, all of which are native to Hawaii. [Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian] The result is a versatile branding system thats now been applied across Kings Hawaiians entire portfolio of products, as well as on its website and social media. It’s an iconic, beloved American brandand it’s something that people are very nostalgic about, Kate says. They sell Kings Hawaiian merch; people wear their T-shirts and hats and socks. So its really exciting, but there’s also a true responsibility when you rebrand these iconic brands that you dont give people design whiplash: it has to be familiar, yet updated.
Category:
E-Commerce
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