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To anchor the long rows of server racks that power the artificial intelligence boom, every data center needs thousands of holes drilled into its concrete floor. It’s a precise part of the construction process that has required workers to bend over with handheld drills for hours at a time grinding meticulously placed holes into thick pads of concrete. Now, there’s a robot doing it up to 10 times as fast. Tool brand DeWalt has just revealed a downward-drilling robot that can autonomously roam the floors of under construction data centers to drill the thousands of holes that are necessary for installing server hardware and other building elements. Developed in conjunction with August Robotics and tested on data centers being built by an unnamed “hyperscaler” tech company, the autonomous robotic drill has been used to pop more than 90,000 holes into the floors of data centers, all without human involvement. [Photo: DeWalt] A task that can take human workers up to two months in a large data center can now be handled by a fleet of three or four robots in a matter of days. “That is so critical from a construction perspective, because they can’t move to the next stage of construction until this is done,” says Bill Beck, president of tools and outdoor for Stanley Black and Decker, the parent company of the DeWalt brand. The pace is striking. For a smaller hole less than 1 inch wide and 2 inches deep, the robot can locate and drill one hole every 80 seconds. For a larger hole, 1 inch wide and 8 inches deep, it can finish a hole every 180 seconds. During its pilot phase, the robotic drill managed an accuracy rate of 99.97%. And because the robot is capable of operating 24 hours a day, project timelines can be drastically slashed. [Video: DeWalt] Making this process faster is increasingly important as data centers balloon in size. From single buildings to sprawling campuses, data centers are taking up vast amounts of space and becoming increasingly complex to build. “They’re huge slabs of concrete,” says Beck. With upwards of 10,000 holes needed to be drilled in each one, the job can be daunting. “And they’ve got to be perfect,” Beck says. “You can’t have the hole be a quarter-of-an-inch off.” That would make it seem like a hard job to want to do, but that’s assuming there are even enough people to take on the role. One analysis suggests there is currently a shortage of more than 500,000 skilled laborers in the construction industry. And workforce shortages are the leading cause of construction delays, according to a recent survey from the Associated General Contractors of America. The robotic drill offers an alternative. It also offers significant cost savings. Beck says it could cost about $65 per hole for this drilling work to be done by human crews. Using a fleet of the autonomous drilling robots developed by DeWalt and August Robotics, that cost comes down to about $20 per hole. DPR Construction, the largest data center contractor in the U.S., is prioritizing this drilling robot for testing and validation in 2026, according to Tyler Williams, the company’s field and robotic innovation leader. He says the technology has “real potential to reduce ergonomic strain on craft teams, boost productivity, and generally make the onsite experience better for people.” “Ultimately, everything were doing here is about supporting our customers, many of whom are focused on speed to market,” Williams says. “These kinds of methods are changing how projects get built and helping customers see returns on their capital investments sooner.” DeWalt and August Robotics have been piloting this technology for the past few months and believe the robotic drill is ready for wider adoption. It will be commercially available by mid 2026. As the scale of data center construction increases, especially among hyperscaler tech companies like Meta, Google, and OpenAI, there’s likely to be pent-up demand. “They’ve got money, and they want to go as fast as they can,” Beck says. “They know it’s a race in terms of getting these data centers up and making sure they’ve got the capacity to be able to compete from an AI perspective. So their big push obviously is how fast can you go?” For at least this one part of the job, the answer is much, much faster.
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E-Commerce
When you think of dangerous jobs, an office job that requires you to sit for hours probably doesnt come to mind. And while many jobs are objectively riskier, a sedentary job can pose a serious risk to your health. The average office worker spends 70% of their workday sitting down, according to data by workplace supplies firm Banner. Yet, research shows that sitting for prolonged periods without any physical activity significantly increases the risk of ill effects such as high blood pressure, numerous musculoskeletal issues, and potentially heart disease. All in all, a desk job increases your risk of mortality by 16%, according to a study published by JAMA. Our main objective at Zing Coach is to help millions take up exercise and lead healthier lives. And as a fitness coaching company, we wanted to avoid falling into the classic corporate trap of working long hours and leading a sedentary lifestyle. We didnt want to sacrifice our employees health in the pursuit of our goals. Were seeing more and more workplaces spotlight mental health, which is important. However, physical health is just as important. Not only does it have a huge impact on productivity and performance, but its also a huge component of mental well-being. How we took the right steps towards success Like most companies, we felt the pressure to optimize productivity through processes and technology. Yet, as productivity gradually plateaued, it was evident to me that the real issue was a lack of energy. I knew that a huge part of this came from sedentary work. As a cofounder, I decided to implement a culture of wellness and vitality. This included practical steps like providing a small but welcoming in-house training space, so that employees can do short, flexible workout sessions during gaps in the workday. When employees feel their minds wandering or their backs aching, they can stand up, head to the training area, complete a workout, or even just walk and stretch a little. Science supports this approach. Physical activity increases blood flow throughout your body, including to the brain, and particularly to the prefrontal cortex. This is the part in charge of planning, decision-making, problem-solving, working memory, and impulse control. We suspected (and found) that this practice ended up boosting overall energy, which in turn sharpened focus, improved output, and reduced distractions. It was also a great way to build in more opportunities for interactions. Being a fitness company, these social workout sessions often led to innovative ideas. Small moves, big returns: what I learned by introducing workout breaks It doesnt take long to see results People are often put off improving their physical health by a perceived lack of progress. Sure, it takes time to see your hard work paying off substantially, if youre solely focusing on the physical and visual aspects. Encouraging employees to get up and move isnt just a way to counteract the harms of prolonged sitting; it actively and instantly improves mental function and overall energy. Research shows exercise boosts brain function immediately, with effects lasting hours. Even 10 minutes of moderate activity has been found to increase cognitive performance by 14%, according to research published by Neuropsychologia. We havent crunched the numbers, but the difference in focus during meetings and the higher energy levels throughout the day are obvious. And weve seen this across multiple teams. Better health leads to better teamwork Introducing workout breaks didnt just boost individual performance. It improved the team collectively. Exercise releases endorphins, the bodys natural mood elevators, which help us manage stress and deal with discomfort. Its the same chemical behind the runners highthat euphoric feeling you get after a good workout. It also improves sleep quality. It helps the person get better nighttime rest, reducing the likelihood of low-energy afternoons that are otherwise the norm. As it turns out, feeling good both mentally and physically makes it easier for colleagues to get along and work together. We also found that teams that are energetic and enthusiastic automatically become less irritable and conflictual, which fuels far stronger cross-team collaboration. Time at the desk and productivity arent the same One important lesson is how little time at a desk actually correlates with output. Sure, youll see more empty chairs throughout the day, but that doesnt mean productivity will drop. Far from it. Workers arent machines, and after 60 to 90 minutes, many lose focus and effectiveness. Short breaks in general can help refocus and recharge, and teams said that they experienced restorative effects after a physical break. They noticed improvement in all aspects of work performance and personal engagement with the next task after the active break. When it comes to working out, theres a saying that quality often beats quantity. Turns out this is also true in a corporate job. Health is the best productivity tool Ultimately, good health equals good performance. Sure, software and systems can go so far, but if you dont take the steps to prioritize your employees health and well-being, youll never be able to get them to perfom to their true potential.
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E-Commerce
On January 22, President Donald Trump unveiled the logo for the Board of Peace, an international coalition his administration is forming to oversee the reconstruction of war-torn Gaza and address other global conflicts. There’s just one issue: The logo leaves out half the world. Trump initiated the effort last year, but has expanded its scope since then, imagining an organization that he leads personally and that member countries pay at least $1 billion to remain a part of. From left: The United Nations seal; the Board of Peace logo Longtime allies and NATO members including Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K. are not members, while member nations include authoritarian countries or illiberal democracies like Saudi Arabia and Belarus that the nonprofit Freedom House rates as “not free.” It’s “like if Law & Order: SVU starred Diddy,” Saturday Night Lives Colin Jost joked about the board’s membership during SNLs Weekend Update” segment on January 24. Yet the group’s logo leans on the visual tropes of global peace to suggest a much different story. A page from the past The logo for the group riffs off the U.N. emblem, but in typical Trump fashion, it’s goldand cuts off more than half the rest of the world from the United States. Reaction online has been similar to the reaction to the board itself: negative. A team led by American designer Oliver Lincoln Lundquist created the United Nations emblem in 1945. Lundquist was a World War II veteran who also designed the blue-and-white Q-Tip box and was on the team that designed the Chrysler Motors Exhibition at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, according to his 2009 obituary. For the U.N., Lundquist and his team designed a mark showing the globe centered on the North Pole and encircled by a laurel wreath for the official badges worn by conference delegates. That mark was later modified to the current U.N. emblem by spinning it around so Alaska and Russia are on top of the world, and it’s now zoomed out to include more of the globe, as the original badge mark cut off Argentina and the bottom of South Africa and Australia. The U.N. Blue color used by the organization was chosen because it’s “the opposite of red, the war color,” Lundquist said. Trump’s board logo is presumably gold because it’s Trump’s favorite color, and it centers roughly on the U.S. sphere of influence as Trump sees it, from Greenland to Venezuela, though Alaska is cut off and Africa peeks out. The logo is housed inside a shield instead of a circle. A version of the logo initially shared by the White House X account has been criticized as made by AI (among its inaccurate details: a U.S.-Canada border that cuts off a big chunk of Ontario). A modified version of the logo that appeared onstage during the Board of Peace signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, was shinier and used a different map that covers roughly the same area. Curiously, the logo’s map doesn’t include the very place the coalition was created to oversee. That means slides shared by the White House showing a nebulous timeline for a development plan of Gaza are all stamped with a logo that shows the U.S., but not Gaza. Trump said at the signing that the Board of Peace represents the first steps to “a brighter day for the Middle East.” That’s not the story his logo tells.
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E-Commerce
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