Every company wants to be innovative. Most approach this by trying to hire highly creative specialists or by spinning up a new innovation team. But companies that consistently innovate do something different: They build company-wide systems focused on customer solutions and make innovation part of everyday business.
Smart organizations focus on building reliable processes to understand customers, test assumptions, and scale what works. In my experience at Verra Mobility, the difference between companies that talk about innovation and companies that deliver it often comes down to a repeatable process that drives creativity.
QUESTION EVERYTHING YOU “KNOW”
The biggest innovation killer isn’t resistance to change; its the assumption that we already know the answer.
When someone says they “know” what customers want, we dig deeper. Who did you talk to? How long ago did you talk to them? In our business reviews, we’ve made it mandatory for every business review to include not only operational performance, but also market updates and competitive intelligence. We want to push people to ask more questions, not just review more slides.
This creates a culture where expertise is valued, assumptions are challenged, and customer insight drives decisions. When you force teams to back up their opinions with current data, they start questioning how they’ve worked and look for better solutions.
UNDERSTAND WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT TO ACCOMPLISH
Most innovation fails because we solve the wrong problems. Teams focus on how customers are using a product instead of understanding what theyre trying to achieve.
Take time to sit with customers and understand their complete workflowswhich teams they interact with, how they’d be impacted by process changes, and identifying opportunities to improve. Go deeper than marketing personas to understand the decision makers who will ultimately sign off on new programs.
A few years ago, a car rental company client told us their biggest issue wasnt reconciling $100 traffic violations, it was accounting for daily $10 tolls. We created a whole new business line for automated toll management. We started with one state, then expanded based on what worked.
MAKE EXPERIMENTATION PART OF THE PROCESS
Innovation requires observation, but success requires testing assumptions quickly and cheaply.
We’ve built experimentation into our standard improvement process. When teams create solutions, I ask them to identify their biggest assumptions upfront, then look at the probability that assumption is correct. If we’re not sure, we test it quickly with a pilot or single customer trial.
Take rough prototypeseven napkin drawingsdirectly to customers. The less finished it looks, the more honest the feedback you receive. When something looks polished, people don’t want to hurt your feelings. When it’s obviously a sketch, they’ll tell you exactly what’s wrong.
Rather than funding only well-developed ideas in annual planning cycles, we create ways to test concepts early and build our business on what succeeds.
MAKE INNOVATION EVERYONE’S JOB
Innovation isnt a special teams responsibility. Everyone needs the mindset that there’s always room for improvement, and that they play an active role in identifying solutions. When innovation is part of everyones daily work, it becomes sustainable.
This means regular forums where teams share customer insights and have clear processes for moving from hypothesis to experiment to implementation. It means bringing together product management, sales, and customer success to ensure new innovations don’t create support nightmares. Most experiments will failbut they’ll fail fast and cheap, not slow and expensive.
THE INNOVATION DISCIPLINE
Here’s what most companies get wrong: They think innovation is about creativity and inspiration. While those are important, real success is driven by discipline and systems.
Companies that succeed long-term create processes where good ideas surface, get tested quickly, and spread when they work. Any organization can do that if theyre willing to watch, question, and pilot solutions quickly.
David Roberts is CEO of Verra Mobility.
President Donald Trump said Sunday he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center performing arts center for two years starting in July for construction, his latest proposal to upturn the storied venue since returning to the White House.Trump’s announcement on social media follows a wave of cancellations by leading performers, musicians and groups since the president ousted the previous leadership and added his name to the building. Trump made no mention in his post of the recent cancellations.His proposal, announced days after the premiere of “Melania,” a documentary of the first lady was shown at the center, he said was subject to approval by the board of the Kennedy Center, which has been stocked with his hand-picked allies. Trump himself chairs the center’s board of trustees.“This important decision, based on input from many Highly Respected Experts, will take a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center, one that has been in bad condition, both financially and structurally for many years, and turn it into a World Class Bastion of Arts, Music, and Entertainment,” Trump wrote in his post.Neither Trump nor Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell, a Trump ally, have provided evidence to back up their claims about the building being in disrepair, and last October, Trump had pledged the center would remain open during renovations. In Sunday’s announcement, Trump said the center will close on July 4th, when he said the construction would begin.“Our goal has always been to not only save and permanently preserve the Center, but to make it the finest Arts Institution in the world,” Grenell said in a post, citing funds Congress approved for repairs.“This will be a brief closure,” Grenell said. “It desperately needs this renovation and temporarily closing the Center just makes sense it will enable us to better invest our resources, think bigger and make the historic renovations more comprehensive. It also means we will be finished faster.”The sudden decision to shutter and reconstruct the Kennedy Center is sparking blowback as Trump disrupts the popular venue, which began as a national cultural center but Congress renamed as a “living memorial” to President John F. Kennedy in 1964, in the aftermath of the slain president’s death. Opened in 1971, it is open year-round as a public showcase for the arts, including the National Symphony Orchestra.Since Trump returned to the White House, the Kennedy Center is one of many Washington landmarks that he has sought to overhaul in his second term. He demolished the East Wing of the White House and launched a massive $400 million ballroom project, is actively pursuing building a triumphal arch on the other side the Arlington Bridge from the the Lincoln Memorial, and has plans for Washington Dulles International Airport.Leading performing arts groups have pulled out of appearances at the Kennedy Center, most recently, composer Philip Glass, who announced his decision to withdraw his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” because he said the values of the center today are in “direct conflict” with the message of the piece.Last month, the Washington National Opera announced that it will move performances away from the Kennedy Center in another high-profile departure following Trump’s takeover of the U.S. capital’s leading performing arts venue.The head of artistic programming for the center abruptly left his post last week, less than two weeks after being named to the job.A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center could not immediately be reached and did not respond to an emailed request for comment.Late last year, as Trump announced his plan to rename the building erecting his name on the building’s main front ahead of that of Kennedy he drew sharp opposition from members of Congress, and some Kennedy family members.Kerry Kennedy, a niece of John F. Kennedy, said in a social post on X at the time that she will remove Trump’s name herself with a pickax when his term ends.Another family member, Maria Shriver, said at the time that it is “beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy,” her uncle. “It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.”Late Sunday evening, Shriver posted a new comment mimicking Trump’s own voice and style, and suggesting the closure of the venue was meant to deflect from the cancellations.She said that “entertainers are canceling left and right” and the president has determined that “since the name change no one wants to perform there any longer.”Trump has decided, she said, it’s best “to close this center down and rebuild a new center” that will bear his name. She asked, “right?”One lawmaker, Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat and ex-officio trustee of the center’s board, sued in December, arguing that “only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.”On Sunday, Beatty said that once again Trump “has acted with total disregard for Congress,” which allocates funds to the center.She questioned what comes next for the artists and the building itself. “Let’s be clear: remodeling the premises will not restore the Kennedy Center to what it was. A return to artistic independence will,” she said. “America’s artists are rejecting this attempted takeover, and the administration knows it.”
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
Michelle L. Price and Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press
Bad Bunny won album of the year at the 2026 Grammy Awards for his critically-acclaimed “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” closing out a surprising and history-making night. It is the first time a Spanish-language album has taken home the top prize.“Puerto Rico, believe me when I tell you that we are much bigger than 100 by 35,” he said in his acceptance speech in Spanish, referring to a Puerto Rican colloquialism about the island’s small size. “And there is nothing we can’t achieve. Thank God, thank you to the Academy, thank you to all the people who have believed in me throughout my career.“To all the people who worked on this album, thank you mami for giving birth to me in Puerto Rico, I love you,” he continued.Then he switched to English: “I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams.”Harry Styles presented the award the English singer previously took home the top prize in 2023 for “Harry’s House.” He beat Bad Bunny that year, who was nominated for “Un Verano Sin Ti” the first Spanish-language album to be up in the category.
Anti-ICE messages from the stage
Billie Eilish won song of the year for “Wildflower” and used the moment to add her voice to the chorus of musicians criticizing immigration authorities Sunday.“No one is illegal on stolen land,” she said while accepting the award for the song from her 2024 album “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” “(Expletive) ICE is all I want to say.”Immigration was a central theme of the night. The first time Bad Bunny was on stage after winning the award for música urbana album he used his speech to share an anti-ICE message, highlighting the humanity of all people.“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said, starting out his speech in English to huge applause. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”Before that, Olivia Dean was named best new artist.“I never really imagined that I would be up here,” she said, receiving her first Grammy while wiping away tears. “I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant. I wouldn’t be here I am a product of bravery, and I think that those people deserve to be celebrated.”Those statements all aired live on the CBS telecast. Earlier in the day, at the Premiere Ceremony where 86 Grammys are handed out, artists were equally as pointed about ICE and immigration enforcement.Shaboozey accepted the award for country duo/group performance with tears in his eyes. “I want to thank my mother, who as of today, has retired from her job of 30 years working as a registered nurse in a psych ward as an immigrant in this country. Thank you, mom.“Immigrants built this country, literally, actually. So, this for them,” he concluded. “Thank you for bring your culture, your music and your stories.”Kehlani, after winning her first Grammy, ended her acceptance speech with “Imma leave this and say, (expletive) ICE.”“I’m scared,” Gloria Estefan said of the current political moment backstage at the Grammys. “There are hundreds of children in detention centers. I don’t recognize my country in this moment right now.”
Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Jelly Roll and more win big
Kendrick Lamar and SZA won record of the year at an electric 2026 Grammy Awards Sunday night for “Luther.”Cher presented the award and mistakenly said it goes to “Luther Vandross” instead of Kendrick Lamar and SZA.One of the song’s producers, Sounwave, began the acceptance speech by saying, “Let’s give a shoutout to the late and great Luther Vandross.”Lamar also won the first televised award of the night, rap album for “GNX,” accepting the trophy from Queen Latifah and Doechii.“It’s an honor to be here,” he said in his acceptance speech. “Hip-hop is always going to be right here We’re gonna be having the culture with us.”The victory means Lamar broke Jay-Z’s record to become the rapper with the most career Grammys. Jay-Z has 25; after he took home rap album and record of the year, Lamar’s total is 27.Pop vocal album went to Lady Gaga for “Mayhem,” while pop solo performance went to Lola Young for “Messy,” whose speech playfully lived up to the song’s spirit.“I don’t know what to say,” she joked about “obviously” not having a speech prepared. “I’m very, very grateful for this.”The inaugural contemporary country album category went to Jelly Roll for “Beautifully Broken.”This year, the Grammys renamed country album to contemporary country album and added a traditional country album category, a distinction that exists in other genres. But the news arrived right after Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” won best country album, inspiring backlash online.“I believe music had the power to change my life,” Jelly Roll said in his acceptance speech, which he spent the majority of thanking God.Pharrell Williams received the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.“To everyone in this room who believes in the power of Black music,” he said, “thank you so much.”
A live concert experience
A powerful Grammy Awards in memoriam segment celebrated the legacies of the late D’Angelo and Roberta Flack at the 68th annual ceremony Sunday night.Ms. Lauryn Hill appeared on the Grammy stage for the first time since 1999, when she became the first hip-hop artist to win album of the year for her “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”The D’Angelo tribute was first: A medley of several songs, among them “Brown Sugar” with Lucky Daye, “Lady” with Raphael Saadiq and Anthony Hamilton and “Devil’s Pie” with Leon Thomas.Then, Hill focused her attention on Roberta Flack: “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” with Jon Batiste, “Where Is The Love” with John Legend and Chaka Khan, and a mesh of “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” with her Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean.If there was one set that felt like an avant-garde artistic performance piece on Sunday night, it was Tyler, the Creator’s medley of “Thought I Was Dead,” “Like Him,” (in which he was joined by Regina King) and “Sugar On My Tongue.” It played out like theater: others would be wise to take note.All eight nominees in the best new artist category participated in a medley at the award show across multiple stages, the back halls of the arena and even the venue’s loading dock. It was an interesting and impressive mod-podge of different styles, from the British soul of Young and Dean to Addison Rae and Katseye’s hypnotic pop. The Marías kicked things off with their dreamy indie rock; sombr and Alex Warren offered their radio hits “12 to 12” and“Ordinary” respectively. Leon Thomas reminded the audience why he’s the only nominee also up for album of the year with his fully formed R&B.The hits arrived fast and furious in the show’s first hour. Rosé and Bruno Mars’ opened Grammys with an electric rendition of their multicultural pop smash, “APT.”; the Blackpink singer channeled a pop-punk Gwen Stefani in her tie and platinum blond hair. Sabrina Carpenter with her “Manchild” kiss-off. Justin Bieber slowed things down with “Yukon” from his comeback record “Swag.” Lady Gaga reimagined her hit “Abracadabra” as an electro-rock song.
First-time winners were abundant even before the show started
During the Premiere Ceremony, the Dalai Lama won his first Grammy for audio book, narration and storytelling recording, beating out Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. You read that correctly.“Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” won song written for visual media at the Premiere Ceremony, marking the first time a K-pop act has won a Grammy. Songwriters delivered their acceptance speech in both English and Korean, highlighting the song’s bilingual appeal.Music film went to “Music for John Williams,” which means director Steven Spielberg has officially won his first Grammy. That makes him an EGOT winner an artist with an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar.
Associated Press Writer Berenice Bautista contributed to this report.
For more coverage of this year’s Grammy Awards, visit: www.apnews.com/GrammyAwards
Maria Sherman, AP Music Writer
Short staffing and the transition from paper checks to digital refunds are among the biggest challenges facing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this tax season.
Thats according to the National Taxpayer Advocates expansive Annual Report to Congress, the latest version of which was recently posted online. The annual report aims to help Congress strengthen taxpayer rights, reduce taxpayer burden, and improve IRS performance.
The Taxpayer Advocate Service, or TAS, is an independent office within the IRS that’s meant to look after the interests of taxpayers. Erin M. Collins, who submitted and signed off on the latest report, has served as the National Taxpayer Advocate since 2020. Here are some highlights of the report:
Transition away from paper checks could impact refunds for some
Specifically, the report notes that while the majority of refunds were issued electronically last year, taxpayers who do not provide direct deposit information may experience significant refund delays, as the IRS will generally hold refunds for up to six weeks while requesting banking information or determining whether an exception applies, with paper checks only issued afterward.
As a result, some taxpayers will be disproportionately affected by the agency’s phasing out of paper checks.
That includes taxpayers without bank accounts, or who are disabled, elderly, or underbanked, and other vulnerable taxpayers for whom paper checks have often been the only practical means of receiving refunds needed to cover basic living expenses.
Average refunds last year tallied $3,167, the report saysa significant amount for many households.
Filing your tax return online should result in a refund being issued within a few weeksbut, again, the report is warning that may not be the case for some.
Only 6% of taxpayers filed their returns last year on paper. And only 7% received their refund via paper check.
The IRS is significantly smaller this year
Staffing issues at the IRS could be an even bigger issue. The IRS last year had a relatively large workforce, due in part to an influx of funding from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
Over the past year, however, the IRS has had its workforce reduced by 27%, according to Collins’s report.
That’s in addition to leadership turnover, and the implementation of extensive and complex tax law changes mandated by the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025], many of which apply retroactively and require significant IRS programming, guidance, changes to tax forms and instructions, and taxpayer education.
The number of customer service agents was also cut by 22%, meaning it will likely be more difficult to get help if youre trying to work out any issues with or get an update on your refund.
In all, the agency’s manpower stood at around 74,000 in December, down from 102,000 a year ago. That could mean a more turbulent experience for taxpayers trying to keep track of their refunds.
Even so, taxpayers expecting a refund can use the Wheres My Refund online tool to check their status 24 hours after filing electronically.
They can also try using the IRS2Go app or log in to their IRS Individual Online Account for updates.
From tech titans to Wall Street power brokers and foreign dignitaries, a who’s who of powerful men make appearances in the huge trove of documents released by the Justice Department in connection with its investigations of Jeffrey Epstein.All have denied having anything to do with his sexual abuse of girls and young women. Yet some of them maintained friendships with Epstein, or developed them anew, even after news stories made him widely known as an alleged abuser of young girls.None have been charged with a crime connected to the investigation. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.Here’s a primer on some of the notable names in the Epstein files:
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
The man formerly known as Britain’s Prince Andrew has long been dogged by questions about his relationship with Epstein, including allegations from the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre that she was trafficked by Epstein and instructed to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor when she was 17.The former prince has repeatedly denied that it happened, but his brother, King Charles III, still stripped him of his royal titles late last year, including the right to be called a prince and the Duke of York.Mountbatten-Windsor’s name appears at least several hundred times in Friday’s document release, including in Epstein’s private emails.Among the correspondence is an invitation for Epstein to dine at Buckingham Palace, Epstein’s offer to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a 26-year-old Russian woman, and photos that appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor.
Sarah Ferguson
In March of 2011, Sarah Ferguson, then the Duchess of York, made a public apology for letting Jeffrey Epstein pay off some of her debts. Both she and her ex-husband, the former Prince Andrew, had come under tremendous public scrutiny for continuing a friendly relationship with Epstein after he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.She told London’s Evening Standard newspaper she would have “nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.” But just two months later, she emailed Epstein to say she was going on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show and wanted his advice on how she should answer questions about their relationship.“I just want to make sure you are aware of this and seek your advice on how you would like me to answer,” Ferguson wrote.Epstein replied, “Jeffrey was unfairly characterized as a pedophile by the tabloid press. Many years ago jeffrey pleaded guilty to soliciting underage prostitutes. He paid his debt to society and has sought forgiveness. I have nothing more to say.”
Elon Musk
The billionaire Tesla founder turns up at least a few times in Friday’s document release, notably in email exchanges in 2012 and 2013 in which he discussed visiting Epstein’s infamous Caribbean island compound.But it’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday or Saturday.Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025.
Richard Branson
The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, a global conglomerate, exchanged numerous emails with Epstein.In a 2013 exchange, Branson invited Epstein to his own private Caribbean island, which regularly hosts large conferences, charity events and business meetings.“Any time you’re in the area would love to see you,” he wrote. “As long as you bring your harem!”In another message that year, he suggested Epstein rehabilitate his image by convincing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to tell the public how Epstein had “been a brilliant adviser to him” and had “more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since.”The company stressed in a statement Saturday that there was no wrongdoing on Branson’s part and that any dealings with Epstein were “limited to group or business settings” more than a decade ago.Branson also declined a charitable donation and decided not to meet or speak with him again after his team “uncovered serious allegations,” the company said.“Had they had the full picture and information, there would have been no contact whatsoever,” the statement reads. “Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims.”
Donald Trump
It’s long been known that Epstein was friends with Trump before the two had a falling out.The new trove of documents contain thousands of references to Trump, much of which sheds little additional light on the men’s relationship. They included emails in which Epstein and others shared news articles about Trump, commented on his policies or his politics, or gossiped about him and his family.The Justice Department also disclosed a spreadsheet created last August that summarized calls made to law enforcement tip lines from people claiming to have some knowledge of wrongdoing by Trump.That document included a range of uncorroborated stories involving many different celebrities, and somewhat fantastical scenarios, occasionally with notations indicating what follow-up, if any, was done by agents.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the FBI fielded “hundreds of calls” about prominent individuals that were “quickly determined to not be credible.”
Bill Clinton
Like Trump, Clinton spent time with Epstein more than two decades ago, including flying occasionally on his private jet and seeing him at the White House. Clinton also denied any knowledge of Epstein’s wrongdoing.Clinton’s representatives say the former president broke off relations with Epstein after the first round of criminal charges in 2006.The investigative file includes snapshots of Clinton and other famous people that Epstein kept in his home in New York. It also contains messages investigators received from members of the general public, demanding to know why Clinton wasn’t being investigated. None of Epstein’s victims have publicly accused Clinton of being involved in Epstein’s crimes.
Steven Tisch
The New York Giants co-owner is mentioned more than 400 times in the files released Friday. Correspondence between the two shows Epstein offered to connect Tisch to numerous women over the years.In one 2013 email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian girl,” Epstein encouraged Tisch to contact a particular woman, whose physical beauty he praised in crude terms.“Pro or civilian?” Tisch asked in reply.Tisch, a scion of a powerful New York family that founded the Loews Corporation, has acknowledged knowing Epstein but denied ever going to his infamous Caribbean island.“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” said Tisch, who also won an Academy Award in 1994 for producing “Forrest Gump.” “As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Brett Ratner
The film director who made the recently released Melania Trump documentary appears in several photographs included in the government’s files.One, first released in December, shows him with his arms wrapped around the shirtless torso of Jean Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent who killed himself in jail in 2022 while awaiting trial on rape charges.The more recent document release has a sequence of other photos apparently taken around the same time. Some show Ratner sitting on a couch with Epstein, Brunel and at least two young women. In the photos, Rattner has his arms wrapped around one of the women, whose faces are blacked out.Ratner and a spokesperson for his film company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Casey Wasserman
The president of the committee for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles exchanged flirty emails with Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, Friday’s document release shows.In a 2003 exchange, Wasserman wrote to Maxwell: “I think of you all the time. So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”In another, Maxwell asks whether it will be foggy enough during an upcoming visit “so that you can float naked down the beach and no one can see you unless they are close up?”Wasserman released a statement Saturday saying he never had a personal or business relationship with Epstein and that he regretted the correspondence with Maxwell, which he said came “long before her horrific crimes came to light.”Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Ehud Barak
The former Israeli prime minister and his wife turn up frequently in the documents released Friday, showing they stayed in regular contact with Epstein for years, including well after his 2008 guilty plea for sex crimes in Florida.Among the correspondence are plans for a 2017 stay at Epstein’s New York residence. Other missives discuss mundane logistics for other visits, meetings and phone calls with Epstein.Barak has acknowledged regularly visiting Epstein on his trips to New York and flying on his private plane, but maintains he never observed any inappropriate behavior or parties.Barak served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001 and later served as its defense minister.
Larry Summers
Clinton’s former Secretary of the Treasury and the onetime president of Harvard University is another of Epstein’s well-known longtime acquaintances. The new documents are full of references to meetings and dinners between the two men.A previously-released trove of documents show Summers emailing Epstein in 2019, after the financier had been charged with sexual abuse of minors, to discuss his interactions with a woman, writing he’d told her “awfully coy u are.” Epstein replied: “you reacted well.”Summers has called his interactions with Epstein “a major error of judgment.”
Howard Lutnick
President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island with his family on at least one occasion, records released Friday show.That appears to contradict prior statements he’s made claiming he cut ties with the disgraced financier, who he’s called “gross,” decades ago.But emails show Lutnick and his wife accepted an invitation to Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2012 and planned to arrive by yacht with their children.The former chairman of Newmark, a major commercial real estate firm, also had drinks on another occasion in 2011 with Epstein and corresponded with him about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.The Commerce Department, in a statement, said Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
Sergey Brin
The billionaire Google co-founder made plans to meet with Epstein and Maxwell at his townhouse in New York years before he was publicly accused of sexually abusing underage girls, emails show.In one exchange in 2003, Maxwell invited him to join her at a screening of the Renee Zellweger film “Down with Love” in New York.She followed up a few weeks later to invite him to a “happily casual and relaxed” dinner at Epstein’s house. Brin offered to bring along Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt.Spokespersons for Google didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
Steve Bannon
The one-time adviser to Trump exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Epstein, some sent months before the financier’s 2019 arrest and jailhouse suicide.The two discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.One 2018 exchange, for example, focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a 2019 message, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.Epstein and Bannon also exchanged gossipy messages about Trump and his politics.Bannon hasn’t responded to emails seeking comment.
Miroslav Lajcak
A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister, Lajcak resigned Saturday after his past communications with Epstein appeared in Friday’s document release.Opposition parties and a nationalist partner in Fico’s governing coalition had called for him to step down.Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister and a onetime president of the U.N. General Assembly, has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but was photographed meeting with Epstein in the years between his initial release from jail and his subsequent indictment in 2019 on sex trafficking charges.He said his correspondence with Epstein were part of his diplomatic duties.
Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from Versant, CBS and NBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.Philip Marcelo and Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press
Trevor Noah once again roamed through the audience during his monologue to open the Grammy Awards, taking pokes at the stars while standing right next to them, but he saved his most pointed jokes for absentees, and elicited an angry post from the president.“Nicki Minaj is not here,” Noah said, to big cheers from the audience at Crypto.com Arena. “She is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues.”Minaj this week visited and praised the president, the culmination of a move toward MAGA that she’s made in recent months.Noah broke into a Trump impression. “Actually Nicki, I have the biggest ass, everybody’s saying it Nicki.”In his sixth time hosting the showand what he says will be his lastNoah mostly played it safe during his monologue, not delving too much into politics or controversy, at least during his monologue. There was no mention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (on a night when many attendees were wearing “ICE OUT” buttons).But Noah got more pointed later in the show, after Billie Eilish won song of the year.“Wow. That is a Grammy that every artist wants,” Noah said, “almost as much as Trump wants Greenland. Which makes sense. I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.”After the show in a Truth Social post, Trump reacted.“Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!! I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory, statement, have never been accused being there, not even by the Fake News Media,” the post said. “Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast. It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C.”After the crowd’s reaction to the joke during the show, Noah said, “Oh, I told you, it’s my last year. What are you going to do about it?”At a different point in the show, Noah joked about the president’s penchant for suing TV networks when he said the Grammys were airing “completely live” because “if we edited any of the show, the president would sue CBS for $16 billion,” referring to Trump’s recent history with CBS News and a settlement he got from Paramount last summer.It had seemed at first like he wasn’t going to go very far into such material.He said during the monologue Lauryn Hill was performing on the show for the first time since 1999.“Do you understand how long ago that is?” he said. “Back in 1999, the president had had a sex scandal, people thought computers were about to destroy the world, and Diddy was arrested.”Later in the show, Noah cozied up to the night’s biggest nominee, Kendrick Lamar, and only congratulated him.“I actually thought about writing a few jokes roasting you, but then I remembered what you can do to light-skinned dudes from other countries,” Noah, who is from South Africa, said in a reference to Lamar’s beef with the Canadian rapper Drake that culminated in last year’s big Grammy winner “Not Like Us.”Later, he sat with Bad Bunny, and asked if he could come live with him in his native Puerto Rico if things got too bad in the U.S.“Trevor I have some news for you,” Bad Bunny said. “Puerto Rico is part of America.”The Recording Academy announced less than three weeks ago that Noah was returning “one final time.”“I believe in term limits,” Noah said during the show.Only singer Andy Williams, who hosted the Grammys seven times in the 1970s, has hosted more often.Noah himself is a four-time Grammy nominee, and was up this year in the best audio book recording category for Into The Uncut Grass, a children’s story. He lost to the Dalai Lama.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nicki Minaj in several places.
For more coverage of the 2026 Grammy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards
Andrew Dalton, AP Entertainment Writer
To say it’s been a bad few days for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would be an understatement.
As of the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading in the range of $77,000 per coina price point not seen since last March, when the world was thrown into economic uncertainty by President Donald Trumps tariffs.
And Bitcoin isnt the only crypto facing a bloodbath.
Other major tokens, including Ethereum and BNB are also in free-fall. XRP, the closely watched native token of the XRP Ledger from Ripple Labs, dipped below $1.60 earlier on Monday, a level it hasn’t seen since 2024.
Heres what you need to know.
Cryptocurrencies plunged over the weekend
Nearly all major cryptocurrencies plunged this weekend, with the tokens seeing drastic selloffs, particularly on Saturday.
But things are even worse when you look back over the past five days. As of the time of this writing, during that period, many major cryptos have suffered double-digit percentage declines, including:
Bitcoin: down nearly 13% over the past five days to $77,843
Ethereum: down nearly 24% over the past five days to $2,293
BNB: down more than 15% over the past five days to $764
XRP: down nearly 15% over the past five days to $1.62
And those arent the only cryptocurrencies getting hammeredmost major coins are, including Solana (down almost 18% over the past 5 days to $102.88) and memecoin Dogecoin (down more than 15% over the past five days to $0.104.
The dramatic fall of major cryptocurrencies have led to fears of a new crypto winter, a period when cryptocurrencies across the board see steep selloffs and new investors tend to shy away from adding the coins to their asset portfolios. The last major crypto winter occurred around 2022.
Why are cryptocurrency prices sinking?
Its never possible to attribute the exact reason why a volatile asset class like cryptocurrencies rises or falls, as so much of crypto investor activity is driven by greed and fear, which fuel buy-and-sell cycles.
However, you can look back over the past five days to when the precipitous drops began and correlate the crypto price declines with external geopolitical and economic news, which is likely contributing to the outflow of investment in digital tokens.
The first happened on Friday when President Donald Trump announced that he would nominate former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. That news caused the dollar to surgeand safe-haven assets like gold and silver to crash.
Since most cryptocurrencies are bought and sold against the dollar, when the dollar grows stronger, it takes fewer of them to buy the same amount of cryptocurrencies, and some investors may choose to sell their tokens before the dollar’s rising buying power makes their digital assets look any cheaper.
Meanwhile, news on the geopolitical front may have also played a role in the crypto selloff. Over the weekend, the U.S. military began moving forces and equipment into the Middle East after President Trump said he is considering a strike on Iran.
The potential strike is in response to recent widespread demonstrations in the country, which could signal a strong enough appetite for regime changesomething Trump would likely consider very appealing, especially after the president ordered the attack on Venezuela at the beginning of the year to oust its leader.
Any potential conflict can be good for the U.S. dollar, but it will also serve to raise geopolitical uncertainty.
Investors generally hate uncertainty, and when such conditions arise, they typically dump their more volatile assets so they can park their profits in ones that are more stable.
Where does crypto go from here?
It is still too early to tell whether the recent cryptocurrency decline over the past five days is a temporary event or is indeed the beginning of another long crypto winter.
The good news for investors is that many tokens are already showing signs of a slight recovery as of Monday morning, with Bitcoin up 1.21%, ETH up 1.41%, and XRP up 3.12% over the last 24 hours as of this writing.
Hello and welcome to 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, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
The corporate response to the Trump administrations immigration enforcement actions has been muted at best. After the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis, the CEOs of more than 60 Minnesota-based companies issued a carefully worded letter calling foran immediate de-escalation of tensions. Targets incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke sent a video message to employees calling the events incredibly painful. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was lambasted for attending a White House movie screening hours after protester Alex Pretti was shot and killed, said he was heartbroken.
Few executives have been willing to criticize ICEs sweeping clampdown, which has also resulted in the detention of U.S. citizens, refugees, and others legally in the country. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman came close, saying in a note to employees: Whats happening with ICE is going too far. There is a big difference between deporting violent criminals and whats happening now, and we need to get the distinction right.
Corporate tepidness is strategic and, according to those who work with CEOs, unlikely to change. Whether they are willing to admit it or notsee this exchange between JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and Zanny Minton Beddoes of The EconomistCEOs are afraid of retaliation by the administration and backlash from activists who may feel statements in response to current events are either too woke or not full-throated enough. As a result, many companies are staying on the sidelines.
Fear and chaos
Communications experts say CEOs will never go back to the volume of commentary or commitments companies issued in the wake of George Floyds murder and the racial justice marches that followed. In 2020, clients frequently asked us how best to weigh in on these kinds of issues, says Jim OLeary, North America CEO and global president of communications firm Weber Shandwick. Today, there is a greater focus on assessing the risks of engaging.
Another CEO adviser I contacted, who asked to remain anonymous so he could speak freely about a topic that many deem sensitive, says corporate leaders can and should speak out on issues that impact the overall standing and reputation of U.S. businesses, and affect employees, customers, and shareholders. The goal for businesses in these moments should be to talk to their stakeholdersemployees, customers, investorsnot to garner headlines, he adds. It is about corporate and leadership values, not scoring points.
Lets be clear: The events unfolding in Minneapolis and other cities around the country are impacting businesses. Silence isnt neutral. Its expensive, says Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Moms First, which held a virtual call after the killing of Alex Pretti that attracted thousands of moms who discussed grassroots responses, including national strikes such as the one organized last Friday. Letting this chaos continue is fiscal malpractice. Everyone I know is distracted. People feel scared. Workers are disappearing. Productivity is dropping. Local economies are taking a hit.You cant run a healthy economy based on fear and chaos.
CEOs may or may not wish to speak out about the killings of Pretti and Renee Nicole Good or the clashes in the street. But executives at every level need to be willing to support civil liberties and the rule of law, which are the very underpinnings of democracy and capitalism. If more CEOs rise to meet this moment, we may see what true leadership looks like.
Taking a stand
Has your company responded to the ICE crackdowns, and if so, how? Send your responses to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and well publish excerpts in an upcoming newsletter.
Read more: CEOs speak out. Or not.
CEOs who shy away from defending voting rights do so at their peril
E.l.f.s Tarang Amin is doubling down on board diversity
We asked Minnesotas biggest companies about ICE
Staying focused for an entire workday can feel like a losing battle. Between constant notifications, shifting priorities, and mental fatigue, even the most disciplined professionals struggle to maintain momentum from morning to evening. To understand what actually helps people stay in the zone, we turned to experts who study attention, performance, and productivity. They shared nine practical, research-backed strategies for sustaining deep focus and getting meaningful work done throughout the day.
1. Reset With Box Breath
High performers don’t usually lose discipline. They lose regulation. When your body flips into fight-or-flight, focus gets choppy and your thinking narrows. The fastest lever you control is your breath because it shifts you back into a more focused state, the zone.
One technique I use to regulate is box breathing. It’s widely used by elite performers, including military and athletes, and is also recommended by medical practitioners to reduce stress and restore calm.
Here’s my exact reset with box breathing. When my nervous system starts running hot, or I notice I’m rushing when I have to present, I pause for two minutes. I close my eyes and mentally put my inbox and to-dos into an imaginary jar outside my door. Then I breathe in a simple cadence: inhale four counts, hold four counts, exhale four counts, hold four counts, for four cycles. That small sequence restores presence, focus, and clarity fast, so I’m not stumbling through on adrenaline by the time I reach my audience. With self-regulation, I have full attention and get full results. I’m in the zone.
It works so well that I also teach it to my clients. One CEO I coached had three back-to-back calls immediately after our session, followed by a high-stakes pitch to his board. We practiced four cycles together before he started his day.
Later, he told me he used it twice. First, right before his second call, when he noticed his pace speeding up and his thoughts scattering. Two minutes of box breathing helped him slow down, speak with intention, and stay on message. The meeting ended 10 minutes early, decisions were cleaner, and the team left with concise deliverables instead of a vague “we’ll circle back.”
He repeated another four cycles right before the board pitch, not as a “calm down” trick, but as a performance switch: nervous-system reset, remarkable clarity, and executive-level delivery. The result was a tighter presentation with a more confident ask, which shortened the Q&A and increased alignment in the room. The CEO told me the biggest difference wasn’t just that his message landed better, but that he felt in control of his narrative.
That’s why I love this tool. It’s fast, repeatable, and portable. You can do it at your desk or in an elevator before any high-stakes conversation, mid-day, or anytime your attention scatters and your energy dips. When you box-breathe back into regulation, you trade adrenaline for authority and get back in the zone on demand.
Shelley Goldstein, Leadership Development Coach and Corp Trainer, Remarkable Speaking
2. Cycle Dopamine With Structured Focus Intervals
Unlike traditional productivity advice that focuses on time management or motivation hacks, I target the neurological substrate where sustained performance actually lives: your dopamine regulation cycle.
What I have found working with Fortune 500 executives is this: high-performance states are not willpower; they are dopamine availability. When your prefrontal cortex has optimized dopamine, you stay in flow. When dopamine depletes, you cannot force focus.
The technique that produces the most consistent results is strategic dopamine cycling through 90-minute work blocks with complete neural reset intervals. Here is how it works. Your brain can sustain peak dopamine availability for approximately 90 minutes before the prefrontal cortex starts losing executive control. Most executives push through this, not realizing they are operating on progressively degraded neurological capacity.
I coached a hedge fund managing director who was working 12-hour days but losing decision quality after hour four. We implemented strict 90-minute work blocks followed by 15-minute complete disengagement: walking outside, no screens, no cognitive load. Within three weeks, he reported that his decision speed improved 40% and he was leaving the office two hours earlier while producing better work.
The mechanism is straightforward: during the 15-minute reset, your brain clears dopamine metabolites and restores prefrontal capacity. This is not a break for rest; it is a neurological recalibration that makes the next 90 minutes as sharp as the first.
The key insight most people miss: productivity is not about working longer; it is about protecting the neurological windows when your brain actually performs.
Sydney Ceruto, Founder, MindLAB Neuroscience
3. Set Tomorrows Three Clear Tasks
One technique I use to stay in the zone is a three-task reset at the end of each day.
In my coaching practice, my to-do list is always long. If I start the day reacting to everything on it, I end up busy but not effective. To avoid that, I spend the last 30 minutes of each workday reviewing everything on my list and then narrowing it down to three small, specific tasks that will genuinely move my work forward the next day.
Those three tasks go on a sticky note that becomes my only priority list the following morning. When I sit down to work, I’m not deciding what matters as I already decided that the day before. This removes decision fatigue and keeps my attention on progress rather than activity.
Since adopting this approach, I start my days with clarity, stay focused longer, and avoid the trap of spinning my wheels on low-impact work. It’s simple, but it consistently keeps me operating in a high-performance zone.
Brandi Oldham, Career Coach, Talent Career Coaching
4. Honor Your Energy and Pace
In 2025, I wrote a book. As a first-time author, I was barraged with advice: write X number of words every day, write first thing in the morning, set a timer and write until it rings. I quickly realized that while those techniques might sustain high writing performance for others, they did not work for me. What did work was to write when I was excited to write, when I wanted to write. When my brain overflowed with ideas and insights itching to translate to fingers on keyboards. And to stop writing when my brain stopped generating, my back started aching in my chair, and my fingers cramped. My recommendation for staying “in the zone” is to identify what this zone feels like and to recognize when you enter and leave it. Make your zone real for youand ignore everyone else’s advice for maintaining high performance throughout the day. If you’re energized early morning but need a break by 10, own it. If you rev up after lunch, terrific. If your juices flow when the sun goes down, optimize the evening. Manag your time as the gift that it is.
Tina Robinson, Founder and CEO, WorkJoy
5. Design Intentional Work Windows
We should abandon the myth of all-day “peak performance” and replace it with what I call “designed performance windows.” Most high achievers believe that staying “in the zone” from morning to evening is a willpower and/or discipline issue. It isn’t. It is a biological and cognitive impossibility, and treating it as a goal impacts judgment. The creative and emotional processes are also affected.
I work with clients to structure their day around intentional performance cycles, rather than continuous intensity. This is how the technique works in practice.
With each client, we identify three separate windows:
One primary high-intensity 90120 minute block used exclusively for work that requires analysis, synthesis, or decision-making. No meetings. No tasks reactive to external impulses are allowed, including meetings, emails, and SMSs.
One secondary, lower-intensity window, used for either preparation or refinement/execution work that needs less focus.
Deliberate recovery and low-stakes periods. These are not “breaks” in the motivational sense. They are important periods necessary to reset to consolidate insight.
One senior executive was trying to maintain the same level of intensity across 1012 hour days toward the end of a particularly difficult quarter. The result was predictable, with slower, more conservative decisions, and a more burdensome management of emotions.
We redesigned his schedule so that:
All critical analytical work happened in the protected morning window.
Meetings were clustered after that window, when relational and operational skills mattered more than analytical thinking.
End-of-day work was intentionally lighter and reflective.
Within weeks, decision quality improved because he worked better, rather than simply more. His best thinking happened when his mental system was capable of it.
This technique rests on a simple but widely resisted idea: Long-term high performance comes from respecting natural mental fluctuation, not fighting it. It is not about staying activated at all times. It is about timing effort, accepting limits, and preserving long-term capacity.
Federico Malatesta, Founder & Executive Coach, FM Transformational Coaching
6. Block Time for Top Priorities
Staying in the zone requires being realistic about what you can actually achieve in a day, particularly when you’re a high-performing senior leader. It’s common to overestimate daily capacity and then feel defeated when tasks inevitably spill over.
Instead of attempting to conquer a massive to-do list, clarify the top two to three priorities that would make the day a success. Here’s the critical part: realistically estimate how long each will take and deliberately block that time on your calendar.
My executive clients who consistently map their highest priorities are recognized for their ability to deliver sustained, repeatable value. And remember, two to three completed priorities per workday add up fast. That’s 10 to 15 per week, 40 to 60 per month, and 500 to 700 meaningful wins per year.
Kyle Elliott, Tech Career Coach & Executive Coach, CaffeinatedKyle.com
7. Integrate Brief Meditation Sessions
One technique I rely on to stay in the zone and sustain high performance throughout the day is meditation, practiced consistently and intentionally integrated into my daily rhythm rather than treated as a one-time fix.
To begin, I set a clear eight-week commitment. For me, the goal is not to “clear my mind,” but to strengthen focus, emotional regulation, and self-awareness. I choose a realistic structure: 10 minutes of meditation at the start of the workday and five minutes midafternoon. Framing it as a leadership practice, not a wellness add-on, helps me to stay consistent.
During a demanding eight-week stretch involving overlapping deadlines and stakeholder expectations, the afternoon meditation is essential. Instead of pushing through fatigue, I used those five minutes to reset attention. As a result, late-day meetings are more focused, communication more thoughtful, and the end-of-day fatigue that previously affected my performance is mitigated.
Simone Sloan, Executive Strategist, Your Choice Coach
8. Name Triggers to Regain Control
The real productivity killer is not your phone or overflowing inbox. It’s the background anxiety, the tension you can’t quite put your finger on, or the boredom that comes from being stuck on a challenging problem. In the early days of my business, I was reactive to every ping and distraction. I was hopping from one priority to the next, and it seemed like no matter how disciplined I was, the overwhelm always managed to shatter my attention span. But then I learned to treat distraction as an opportunity to pilot my attention instead of treating it as an adversary.
Now, whenever I have the urge to check out from whatever I’m supposed to be doing, whether it’s writing our crisis playbook or mapping out narrative threats for one of our clients, I make it a point to first pause and write down on a physical piece of paper the internal trigger or thought that makes me want to break focus. It could be, “I’m anxious about my presentation next week,” or simply, “This work is hard and challenging.” It sounds trivial, but doing so gives me control over my itch to escape. Instead of running from it, I’m now using my internal discomfort as a launch trigger to bring me back to what I should be doing right now.
Confirming and tracking your internal triggers when you want to chase distractions will give you data on what exactly causes you to want to break focus so you can do something about it. If you keep a log for a week, you’ll have enough data to uncover a pattern about your attention escapes. For me, capturing that thought in that time of itch revealed to me that the best way to manage it is to reframe and treat the discomfort as a trigger to perform on the hard, high-value task I should instead be doing versus an escape to a lower-value one.
Adrienne Uthe, Founder, Kronus Communications
9. Estimate Durations to Reduce Friction
Managing my cognitive load and staying “in the zone” as much as possible is essential.
My biggest win is a technique I call Time-Tagging, where I assign a specific duration to every item on my to-do list. I found that when a task lacks a time estimate, my brain perceives the effort required as infinite. This ambiguity creates subconscious resistance and fear. When every task has an estimated duration, like 15 minutes, I can easily scope theproject and jump in.
This approach boosts the total amount of time I spend in the zone because I simply start with a task labeled 10 minutes or less. This low barrier to entry allows me to generate immediate momentum. I complete that first small win and use the dopamine hit to roll right into the next larger task. I have tracked my output on days using this method versus days I do not, and the increase in deep work is significant enough that I now do this every single day.
Phil Santoro, Entrepreneur and Cofounder, Wilbur Labs
In my suburban Boston Ulta, I’m sitting with my hand in a little box. I’ve been promised that in roughly 30 minutes I’ll have nails that are shaped, buffed, and paintednot by a human, but by an AI-powered robot.
It feels like an episode of The Jetsons come to life, but the truth is that the AI boom has officially entered the physical world. Most of us interact with artificial intelligence through screensGemini drafts our emails, ChatGPT summarizes our docsbut behind the scenes, engineers are racing to give AI hands and feet. Robots already pack boxes in warehouses and make guacamole in fast-food kitchens. Soon, they will be washing dishes, taking care of pets, and performing your manicure.
Here at Ulta, the robot holding my hand was built by Boston-based startup 10Beauty. After six years of R&D and $50 million in venture funding, the company has created a machine meant to replicate the entire manicure process: polish removal, shaping, buffing, and painting. The company plans to roll the robots out to Ulta, Nordstrom, and high-end salons later this year. The manicures will be priced at $30no tipping required.
[Photo: 10Beauty]
But first comes the beta test. Ulta has agreed to pilot the machines in select stores, where customers can get free manicures while 10Beauty gathers real-world data. Human nail techs stand by to fix mistakes, ensuring customers still leave with salon-worthy nails.
Weve done more than a thousand manicures on real people already, says Justin Effron, 10Beautys cofounder. Thats how we’ll figure out exactly what works and what doesnt. Were cocreating this with customers.
The Benefits of Being an Early Adopter
Kecia Steelman, Ultas CEO, says the retailer is now on a mission to weave AI into nearly every corner of the businessfrom experimenting with agents like ChatGPT to fine-tuning its inventory management. “None of us have figured it out,” she says. “But youve got to start moving in that direction and pivot as things continue to change. Thats whats going to separate strong retailers in the future.”
The robot manicures are an example of one such pivot. The 10Beauty team reached out to Ulta, whose leadership team was intrigued by the way the technology fuses AI with a service that customers are asking for. The nail salon industry is expected to hit $14 billion by the end of this year. Ulta already differentiates itself from rivals like Sephora by offering in-store beauty services, often in suburban strip malls. But rising labor costs and finding skilled nail technicians can make it challenging to meet the demand.
[Photo: 10Beauty]
Ulta has agreed to buy hundreds of 10Beauty’s machines when they officially launch this summer. But it has also taken the bold move of allowing 10Beauty to test the service with customers. “This pilot allows us to learn alongside [10Beauty], gathering real guest feedback, understanding how the technology performs in a retail environment, says Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Ulta’s chief retail officer. “We can shape what the future of tech-enabled beauty services could look like.”
The Robot Manicurist
I’m among the group of early testers. The robot works on one hand at a timeintentionally. In focus groups, 10Beauty found that users wanted to be able to continue using their phone with their other hand.
I slide my left hand into the machine and try not to move as seven cameras scan my fingers, creating a precise 3D map of each nail. Then a robotic arm gets to work, tackling one finger at a time using tools far smaller and more precise than what a human would use.
[Photo: 10Beauty]
Instead of cotton pads, 10Beauty designed a star-shaped sponge that glides over the nail to remove polish. Instead of clippers, it uses a crystal file to shape the nail safely. And rather than cutting cuticles, it applies a softening serum and gently pushes them back with a brush. That part, Ill admit, didnt quite work. The brush barely touched my cuticles at all.
Then came the moment of truth: painting. A thin brush applied delicate layers of polish to each nail. This is where things went sideways. Some nails had bare gaps along the edges; others overshot the mark, leaving polish on my skin.
Effron wasnt surprised. Were working on a software update that should fix this, he says. And even after launch, well keep improving it based on how customers use it.
A human nail tech quickly stepped in, cleaned up the polish, and applied a top coat. From start to finishincluding dryingthe whole process took under 40 minutes. Eventually, Effron says, the goal is to do both hands in about 20 minutes.
The Future of AI Is Physical
Walking out, it was clear the robot still isnt as good as a human manicuristyet. But the appeal was obvious. The machines dont depend on skilled labor, which means manicures could become cheaper, faster, and available 24/7. You could imagine them popping up in airports, hotels, coffee shopsor, one day, even your own bathroom.
Ulta believes that by being an early adopter, it might be able to influence how these manicure robots evolve. “We saw this as an opportunity to bring something entirely new into the store experience,” says Bayer-Thomas. “Piloting early allows us to help shape the experience, ensure it meets our guests expectations, and continue delivering newness and excitement.”
Effron argues that the beauty industry is full of tasksblow-drying hair, dyeing roots, plucking browsthat could be easier with machines. The challenge, of course, is proximity to the human body. Beauty requires precision and gentleness. My manicure made that tension obvious: The robot was so careful with my cuticles that it barely touched them at all.
Still, 10Beauty is betting that rapid improvements in software, sensors, and robotics will soon close that gap. If my slightly imperfect robot manicure is any indication, the future of beauty isnt flawless yetbut its already here, humming quietly inside a little white box at Ulta.
