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I recently had an unsettling rideshare experience. Let me paint a visual picture. You have a Tesla doing its self-driving thing, a guy just sitting in the drivers seat supervising, and a terrified human (me) in the backseat looking on in horror. Finally, I said, Please keep your hands on the wheel when youre driving me, OK? Teslas autonomous functionality might be safe, but I dont have enough trust yet to allow a Tesla to get me from Point A to Point B without a human steering it. Theres a parallel between self-driving cars and the current perceptions of AI and agents. You might be comfortable letting one of these automobiles make a simple right-hand turn, but turning left to cross through busy traffic? Probably not so much. Were in the early days of agentic transformation, which describes the shift from traditional software to a more autonomous enterprise that relies on software that can act independently. Businesses are eager to embed agents in processes to make operations more efficient. Yet were in a remarkably similar place to autonomous vehicles with our level of trust, or lack thereof. Implementing simple agentic pilot use cases are one thing. But yielding control of critical workflows is another. WHAT RESEARCH TELLS US This trust gap isnt just a hunch on my part. Its backed by respected research. In a recent KPMG International study of more than 48,000 people in 47 countries, 66% said that while they use artificial intelligence, 54% were unwilling to trust it. A McKinsey & Company report cited something similar, calling it the GenAI paradox. It found that almost eight in 10 companies use generative AI, but the same number has not seen any significant bottom-line impact. This is why the biggest AI challenge isnt technical, the report stated. Instead, It will be human: earning trust, driving adoption, and establishing the right governance to manage agent autonomy and prevent uncontrolled sprawl. AI adoption is happening, but its not happening with great confidence. Every business leader should also think about a Pew Research Center study that found a vast chasm between the views of AI experts and the general public. The public is far less optimistic and enthusiastic about the technology. Bridging this skepticism divide will be the difference between success and failure for businesses as they agentify their operations. So, we still dont fully trust AI to make meaningful decisions for us. Weve all heard the stories of AI hallucinations and businesses rolling out initiatives that, in hindsight, werent ready for prime time. Caution is not the same thing as moving slowly. That said, the companies that figure out how to adeptly use agents in their businesses sooner will be the ones that move faster, execute smarter, and operate leaner. Building trust is the key that unlocks it all. WHY TRUST IS THE HARD PART Of course, the trust in technology issue predates AIs arrival. Ive worked in software for three decades. For a significant portion of that time, the focus has been on digital transformation to make businesses more efficient through digitizing processes. One of the biggest obstacles companies have long faced is a deep distrust of their data. Incomplete, inaccessible, or inaccurate data can fundamentally paralyze organizations. Businesses dont know what to trust. When facing critical decisions that can impact their companies trajectory, some of the most intense leadership team discussions are whether they believe what the data tells them. Ive been part of those conversations. Now, as we shift into agentic transformation, if you dont get the data right, AI can make the problem 10 times worse. Thats because AI models and agents use the data available as fuel to make decisions and generate outputs based on probabilities and likelihoods in a black box environment that can lack transparency. Because AI responses and actions are based on those probabilities, it will never be 100% accurate. (Much like humans, by the way.) But AI can be made as trustworthy as possible. Its all predicated on: Accurate data. Access to information. Without setting a strong foundation for managing data and fully connecting systems so that information moves where needed, the conviction required to support your AI initiatives will be lacking. Youll understandably have doubts about the actions that agents are taking within your organization and externally on behalf of your business. WHAT EVERY LEADER SHOULD CONSIDER Change only happens at the speed of trust. If we believe in something, well use it. Building confidence in AI models and agents requires control and governance. It starts with the foundation I mentioned: well-managed data and well-integrated systems. Solving the age-old garbage in, garbage out problem of poor data is a crucial first step. It will give AI what it needs to make more accurate and responsible decisions. Then there are the agents themselves. Weve reached a point where every organization can build agents, and every vendor is making them part of their products. But something else is more essentialmanaging them. You need to know about every agent in your operations. Youll need visibility into what theyre doing and how theyre performing their assigned tasks. If theyre not acting as expected, you must be able to fix the issue quickly. These guardrails are the backbone upon which trust is nurtured as this new agentic world evolves and matures. For leaders, this requires striking the right balance between championing speed and responsible innovation in ways that enable AI to enhance efficiency while amplifying human capability. Thats because human interactionshelping customers, managing employees, and so onwill always be those more challenging left-hand turns where we want people to make decisions requiring empathy and judgment. Just as were moving toward a self-driving car that inspires unequivocal trust, were also on a path to metaphorically creating the self-driving enterprise with agents. For now, though, most of us arent yet willing to take our hands off our businesss steering wheel. Agents have to earn that kind of trust through governance. Steve Lucas is chairman and CEO of Boomi.
Category:
E-Commerce
Too many jobs today have a PR problem, limiting opportunities for our young people and our economy. The jobs that now exist and the training needed for them have changed dramatically over the past half-century, but our perceptions havent kept up. Consider the manufacturing industry. A sector once synonymous with grimy factory floors, repetitive labor, and aggressive offshoring is now a hub for advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and big data analytics. Yet Deloitte found that only 4 in 10 Americans would likely encourage their children to pursue a manufacturing career. While working in Kentucky several years ago, I heard from many parents who were hesitant for their kids to go into manufacturing because they had lost manufacturing jobs due to economic factors. But the manufacturing floor and global dynamics have evolved, and their generations experiences may bear little resemblance to modern manufacturing work. PERCEPTION VERSUS REALITY Today, reshoring has gained political popularity. Advanced technologies do much of the heavy lifting, and the most in-demand skills are AI, big data, cybersecurity, and creative thinking. Still, the World Economic Forum predicts that nearly half of the 3.8 million new U.S. manufacturing jobs expected by 2033 may go unfilled. Parents may not know that many of these are quality jobs that dont require a bachelors degree yet provide high wages, great benefits, and opportunities for postsecondary education and career advancement, and the employer may cover the costs. While the manufacturing industry is just one example, it comprises a wide range of occupations, from semiconductor manufacturing in clean rooms to advanced manufacturing of reinforced composite materials used for clean energy sources. This gap between perception and reality is more than a branding problemit’s a barrier to opportunity. And this isnt a criticism of parents. Its an acknowledgement that the professionals helping students and their families explore options after high school need moreand more compellinginformation on whats available. If we want to prepare the next generation for a thriving future, we need to do a better job communicating the full range of high-quality education, training, and career pathways. COLLEGE FOR ALL? If the education and workforce space has branded one thing well in the past 30 years, it may be the college for all movement. The notion catalyzed classroom changes, like plastering pennants on the wall, that put college awareness front and center as early as kindergarten. It led to local investments in pioneering college promise programs (the Kalamazoo Promise is celebrating 20 years) to make college financially accessible to more students. The branding was arguably too good. What started as an initiative to ensure any child, regardless of background, could go to college (such as by increasing awareness and removing barriers) turned into an assumption that every child should attend college. Conversely, many assumed that anyone who did not go to college had somehow failed. ALTERNATE PATHWAYS If only other paths to careers had similarly effective slogans. The Voices of Gen Z Study, released recently by Gallup, Jobs for the Future, and the Walton Family Foundation, found that most parents of high schoolers say they know a great deal about only two postsecondary pathways for their child: earning a bachelors degree or working at a paid job. Meanwhile, only about 1 in 10 say they know a great deal about other options like completing an internship or apprenticeship, earning a short-term certificate, starting a business, or enlisting in the military. As career paths have changed, the need to better define the skills for success in a fast-changing economyand develop an effective PR strategy for the many quality jobs still seen as dirty or less thanhas perhaps never been greater. Too often, we in the education community have oversimplified a complex space by defining things by what theyre not, or by their relationships to other things (usually, a four-year degree). Great careers in occupations that require more education than a high school diploma but less than a four-year degree are often called middle-skill jobs. This reflects the type of education and training the roles require, not the skill level or capabilities needed for those fields. Similarly, industry-relevant certificates or certifications that can offer a pathway to secure, well-paying jobs are called non-degree credentials. While both terms aim to highlight areas of the economy that deserve more attention, they might reinforce the idea that a college degree is the only path to success. They overlook the reality that having a degree doesnt always mean youll land one of those jobs. And they reinforce the artificial either-or between college and non-college pathways into the workforce. APPRENTICESHIPS One area of particular PR failure is apprenticeships. The idea of learning while earning has attracted growing interest among businesses and policymakers alike, but apprenticeships are still struggling to break out of their historic association with the trades. President Trumps Executive Order on apprenticeships, for instance, focuses predominantly on skilled trades, despite the growing number of apprenticeships that are a path to occupations such as teaching, firefighting, and advanced manufacturing. Today, over half of apprenticeships are outside of the trades. All of these programs are powerful tools for financial resilience and economic mobility, but only if people know about them. If we want to solve this PR problem, we need a PR overhaul across the education and workforce sectors. We need compelling narratives about quality jobs, shared terminology that isnt centered on college as a default, and storytelling that reflects the realities of todays opportunities. We also need to provide better career guidance at earlier ages so that young peopleand their parentsunderstand all of the options available, see the steps required to move forward, and overcome outdated perceptions. Just as the college for all movement sparked a shift in thinking, a similar campaign for skills-baed, multiple-pathway approaches to career development could do the same. Lets move toward a world where the new rallying cry is about the right path for each person, not the same path. Where internships, apprenticeships, certifications, service programs, and entrepreneurship are seen not as fallback options, but as strategic choices tailored to individuals strengths and aspirations. Where a bachelors degree is one of many validand valuedpaths, not the only one. Maria Flynn is president and CEO of Jobs for the Future.
Category:
E-Commerce
Before I was ever involved in the flower business, I jumped from job to job, trying to figure out where I belonged. I grew up in South Queens, New York, where the role models on my block were police officers and firemen who showed up when others needed them most. Naturally, I thought Id follow that path and become a cop. That dream shifted into social work, a field that fed my heart but not my wallet. To make ends meet, I took on whatever work I could, flipping houses, tending bar, you name it. Through it all, I never forgot what my dad, a painting contractor, used to tell me: If youre old enough to walk, youre old enough to work. On paper, none of this looked like the résumé of someone who would build a company still thriving 50 years later. But every odd job and hard-earned lesson taught me the secret to longevity: the relationships you build along the way. Plant the seed in a flower shop In 1976, I bought my first flower shop on Manhattans Upper East Side and poured all I had into the little business. It soon became clear to me that we were not just selling bouquets but also becoming part of peoples lives. While customers came in to buy flowers, they also sought restaurant advice and shared stories of love and loss, among many other things. Before long, the shop had become a neighborhood hub. As I opened more locationsfirst one, then another, until there were about 40the lesson became even clearer: Success didnt come from the number of shops, it came from the trust and connection inside them. But physical store growth could only take us so far. Thats when opportunity knocked in the form of a failing company that owned the 800 number that spelled the word FLOWERS. Everyone told me I was crazy to buy it. After all, they said, who would order flowers over the phone? Turns out, a lot of people do! Before long, thousands were calling every day, sending flowers across town or across the country, and discovering a new way to stay connected with the people they loved no matter the distance. Stay the course in a changing world A few years later, my younger brother Chris convinced me the internet was going to change everything. He was right. We became one of the first e-commerce retailers, making it even more convenient for people to show up for each other. Of course, none of this was a straight line. We tried dozens of technologies and abandoned most of them. But failure never discouraged us; it reminded us that learning and evolving were part of our DNA. Sometimes, luck and relationships create a breakthrough. In 1988, for instance, I met Ted Turner, who gave me a shot to run ads on CNN. When the Gulf War broke out a couple of years later and advertisers pulled their spots, Ted asked me to leave ours on. Suddenly, 1-800-Flowers was everywhere. The war, brought to you by 1-800-Flowers, people joked. Such exposure transformed our brand overnight. But it never would have happened if Ted hadnt taken an interest, if I hadnt been willing to take a risk, or if we hadnt forged a relationship. Over the ensuing years, we embraced social media, mobile shopping, and conversational commerce. We were one of the first retailers on Facebook. When COVID hit, we paused traditional marketing and started writing directly to our community. That Sunday newsletter, Celebrations Pulse, has grown to more than 14 million subscribers. It isnt about selling flowers but rather speaks about resilience, rituals, and the relationships that matter most. Enter the latest wave Today, AI is the latest wave. I know it sparks both excitement and concern, but to me its simply the next tool to help us serve people better. Imagine sitting down to write a note to your mom on Mothers Day and not knowing how to put your feelings into words. Our AI tools, properly positioned, can help you express yourself in a way that feels authentic. Or think about a campaign designed around your needs, not ours. Its technology that serves humanity, not the other way around. If theres one lesson from five decades of building 1-800-Flowers, its this: Longevity comes from evolving with every new wave while staying rooted in your values. You have to listen, learn, adapt, and keep experimenting. But at the heart of it all, you have to remember why: More meaningful relationships are not only good for business, they also make life better for everyone. Jim McCann is founder of 1-800-Flowers.com.
Category:
E-Commerce
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