Executives like to say they are integrating AI. But most still treat artificial intelligence as a feature, not a foundation: they add a chatbot here, an automated report there, and call it transformation. Thats the same mistake companies made in the early days of the web: building websites as brochures instead of re-thinking their business models around digital interaction.
AI is not a feature. Its an architectural layer that will reshape every workflow, decision, and product. Those who treat it as decoration will fade, those who treat it as structure will lead.
From automation to agency
As product strategist Connor Davis noted, every great company will soon have an agentic layer, a system that not only automates tasks but also orchestrates them across functions. The distinction is crucial.
Automation is about efficiency: doing existing tasks faster or cheaper. Agency is about delegation: letting the system make decisions, coordinate actions, and even manage other software on your behalf. Think of it as moving from tools that execute commands to assistants that understand context.
The leap is subtle but profound. When a finance team uses an LLM to summarize quarterly reports, thats automation. When the same system proactively flags anomalies, adjusts forecasts, and alerts the CFO with recommendations, thats agency.
Companies that understand this shift are already reorganizing around it. They are not adding AI to workflows: they are building workflows around AI.
What an AI-first roadmap really means
To be AI-first doesnt mean using the latest model or adding generative features. It means designing products and processes that assume continuous intelligence at their core.
Andrew Bolis captured this well: AI will become the orchestration layer across every SaaS tool. Instead of humans jumping between apps, agents will execute intent across systems.
Thats the future of enterprise software. Todays SaaS stack forces humans to be the middleware: copying data between CRMs, spreadsheets, and dashboards. Tomorrows agentic layer will do that work automatically, turning enterprise systems from silos into a single, adaptive organisms. And heres no less than a biologist telling you so, and a few years in advance.
This evolution mirrors what happened when APIs transformed the web. At first, companies built isolated web apps: then APIs connected them. Now AI agents will do the connecting and the deciding too.
The three pillars of an AI-first architecture
From what were seeing across industries, AI-first organizations share three foundational traits:
A data substrate, not a data warehouse Traditional data systems store information; AI-first systems understand it. That means building contextual layers, from embeddings, to knowledge graphs and retrieval systems) that make data retrievable in natural language and usable in real time.
A semantic interface If your team still clicks through dashboards, youre behind. The AI-first enterprise interacts through language: voice, text, or context-aware prompts. The interface becomes conversational because the workflow becomes cognitive.
An agentic layerEvery AI-first company needs an orchestration layer that can act autonomously within defined boundaries. Agents handle not just information retrieval but task execution, generating code, scheduling, procurement, customer response, and compliance checks. The challenge isnt whether they work: its how much you trust them to decide.
The cultural reset executives must lead
This is not a technical project: its a cultural one. Building an AI-first organization requires leaders to unlearn decades of linear thinking about processes and hierarchy.
The question is no longer how can technology support our employees, but how can employees supervise technology that works alongside them. The manager of the near future wont just oversee people: theyll coordinate agents.
Executives who think in terms of software adoption will miss this entirely. The right question isnt which vendors AI tool to buy , but which decisions youre ready to delegate to a machine.
That shift demands a new kind of governance: clear ethical boundaries, data transparency, and oversight mechanisms that ensure AI recommendations remain auditable and explainable. Companies that fail to define those boundaries early will end up with AI that works but works for the wrong goals.
The new competitive advantage
The competitive edge in the AI era wont come from access to the biggest model or most GPUs. It will come from organizational adaptability, or the ability to incorporate AI decision-making without losing accountability.
In every industry, a similar pattern will emerge: the incumbents will integrate AI as a feature, the challengers will rebuild their stack around it. The difference will show up in speed: companies that treat AI as infrastructure will compress decision cycles from weeks to hours. Those that dont will move at human speed while their competitors move at machine speed.
But dont confuse velocity with chaos. The best AI-first companies arent automating indiscriminately: theyre orchestrating intelligently. They design human-in-the-loop architectures where humans remain the moral and strategic governors, and AI handles execution at scale.
Building the agentic future responsibly
The temptation, of course, is to delegate everything. After all, if agents can optimize marketing spend, supply chains, and code deployment, why not let them? The reason is simple: trust is earned, not automated.
AI agents must be auditable: their decisions explainable and reversible. Without that, an organization risks the black box syndrome that has already plagued large-scale AI deployments. Ive written before about this risk in Fast Company: when you build on systems you dont understand, you surrender control.
Agentic systems make that surrender seductive. They dont crash, they comply. And thats precisely why theyre dangerous if left unsupervised. Remember the paperclip maximizer
Practical steps for executives
For leaders beginning their AI-first journey, heres a roadmap:
Start with one value chain Pick a process with measurable outcomes such as customer service, logistics, or internal reporting, and prototype an agentic version. Dont start with chatbots, start with impact.
Form an AI governance board Blend technical and ethical oversight early. Youll need both to scale safely.
Invest in retraining Your teams dont need prompt engineers: they need problem-framers who understand what can and cant be delegated.
Keep data open inside the enterprise AI thrives on accessibility, not silos. Build policies for responsible internal sharing.
Measure decision latency, not output volume The real gain from AI-first design isnt producing more: its deciding faster.
From feature to foundation
AI is no longer the icing on the product: its the yeast in the dough. It changes everything from the inside out.
Companies that understand this will design architectures where agents and humans collaborate seamlessly, data flows freely, and decisions happen in real time. Those that dont will keep bolting AI onto outdated systems and wondering why nothing truly changes.
The agentic future isnt coming: its already here. The only question left is whether your company is ready to stop piloting and start delegating.
It became clear in the late 2010s that Amherst Colleges science center had aged far past its prime. As the concrete building fell into disrepair, school leaders suspected a demolition was in order.
Old, poorly insulated, and inadequate for the technical demands of todays research, it seemed like too steep a challenge to repurpose, says Tom Davies, the schools Executive Director of Planning, Design, and Construction. Especially after a new science center opened on campus in 2020.
It was a stranded asset with essentially no value, he says. But what our consultants were able to show is that it does have quite a bit of value.
[Rendering: Herzog & de Meuron]
In the course of exploring options, engineers and the architectural team at Herzog & de Meuron devised a different future for the building, firmly rooted in its past. They decided that the hefty concrete frame could be stripped down, and two comparatively lightweight floors of mass timber could be added on top to create additional space. This approach, which stays within the schools commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, was approved, and the repurposed building will soon reopen as a new student center in the fall semester of 2026.
[Rendering: Herzog & de Meuron]
The Amherst project exemplifies the potential of found capacity, a concept advocated by Justin Den Herder, vice president and principal at global engineering firm TYLin, which worked on science center renovation. He believes theres extensive opportunity in this form of mass timber top-off, but theres simply not enough familiarity with this material, or enough examples, to spur additional investment and development.
Engineers like Den Herder have concluded that much of the older building stock in big cities, built with solid foundations able to hold additional weight, could easily support a few additional floors, especially if they were constructed of more lightweight material. More modern office projects, value engineered to cut costs, likely wouldnt have this capacity.
I would be willing to say the majority of buildings could accept this, said Den Herder. I think the number of buildings that couldn’t accept at least one story in mass timber are probably certainly in the minority.
An architectural rendering of the Amherst “Living Room” and study space (left), and an in-progress photo of the construction (right). [Images: Maria Stenzel (photo)/courtesy Amherst News]
Mass timberrising in popularity due to its biophilic properties and lower carbon footprintfits this use case perfectly. A number of recent projects utilizing this concept of stacking additional floors on existing buildings suggests a new direction for those seeking added density in our downtowns.
Europeans have been doing these designs for years. Theres even a Dutch design concept, optoppen (topping up in Dutch) that describes these kinds of developments. A coalition of industry partners has gathered a portfolio of dozens of existing projects, and created tools to evaluate the potential of such projects in cities like London.
The 80M building in Washington, DC.[Photo: Ron Blunt Photography]
But its starting to see more recognition in the United States, with a few recent high profile projects. In Washington, D.C., the 80M building, which opened in the fall 2022, added three mass timber floors atop a downtown office, which were quickly leased by BP and the American Trucking Association. The project didnt require costly reinforcement of the existing foundation, says Steve Trapp, executive vice president for Columbia Property Trust, and the wood interiors and 12-foot-tall windows with commanding views of the nations capital offered a compelling, unique office environment for tenants.
[Photo: Ron Blunt Photography]
Other projects rely ess on mass timber, but take a similar approach to expanding the square footage of an existing building. The Terminal Warehouse renovation in New York City, designed by CookFox, will add six floors of new office space, clad in glass and metal, atop a brick warehouse during renovations set to commence this year. Another recent project in Manhattan, 787 11th Avenue, added additional floors with floor-to-ceiling glass atop a 20s-era building that initially served as an automobile showroom.
[Photo: Ron Blunt Photography]
Adding floors in this manner can work well, says Trapp, especially for something like a warehouse-to-office conversion, since the original structure has such a solid foundation. Columbia was also behind the Terminal Warehouse project.
However, the current office market, with demand down and vacancy rates over 20% in many U.S. cities, means theres little to no appetite at the moment to stack new floors and add space when theres already too much. If we had the right investment conditions, we would absolutely go forward with [similar projects], says Trapp. Mass timber has really taken off since 80M was conceived. We just havent had the right circumstances.
But the proof of concept for projects like 80M suggest the idea would work well when the economics become more favorable. And mass timber additions remain ripe for residential projects. Den Herder says that in New York City, for example, the building code allows for adding a few additional stories on many townhomes and brownstones, offering a potential pathway for more densification, especially in the outer reaches of boroughs like Queens and Brooklyn. By changing the lens by which you view a building renovation, this kind of vertical addition with mass timber can help save a building, instead of demolishing it.
A lifelong Manchester City fan stands in front of a 3D virtual avatar of the teams star player, Erling Haaland, at an EA Sports FC prelaunch event. Towering and lifelike, the avatars every grin, gesture, and movement is perfectly synced to Haaland himself. The fan plays, interacts, and even shares a laugh during a spontaneous dance battle with the digital Haaland in real time. For a few electrifying moments, its as if their football hero has come to life in front of their eyes, blurring the line between reality, fandom, and technology.
This isnt a far-off sci-fi scenario; it already happened.
3D digital avatars are starting to transform how humans connect in virtual spaces, offering a level of immediacy, responsiveness, and personalization that was once impossible.
For brands, this represents a massive opportunity to engage audiences in ways that feel human, scalable, and alive.
The shift is already underway
According to Gartner, 54% of brands are using some form of chatbot or conversational AI platform for customer-facing interactions. But while 2D avatars and text-based chatbots have paved the way, 3D digital avatars are poised to take this evolution to the next level. With advancements in AI, real-time animation, and emotional modeling, brands can now create avatars that move, react, and even emote like humans, making digital encounters feel as authentic as real ones.
And audiences are ready. Gen Z, in particular, is primed for animated interactions. Nearly half (48%) of this generation prefers animation to live-action, and adults aged 18 to 34 are now the biggest fans of animated content. From Roblox to VTubers, the language of animation has become the language of self-expression. For a generation that socializes online and personalizes digital avatars, interacting with 3D animated identities feels naturalan extension of how they already live and connect.
The opportunity for brands
The challenge for brands has always been how to create meaningful connections at scale. Brand ambassadors are one way, but talent isnt scalable. A celebrity ambassador cant record personal videos for every fan, and a top athlete cant be in three cities at once.
3D digital avatars are changing the equation. With real-time animation tools and AI modeling, brands can create content that feels live-action in quality but is lightning-fast to produce. This allows brands to be reactive, spontaneous, and human, without waiting for a shoot day or a gap in a busy brand ambassadors schedule.
Picture Shaquille ONeals digital twin welcoming customers to multiple Home Depot events simultaneously, each interaction tailored to the audience; Lionel Messis 3D avatar hosting a live Q&A with fans after a big game; or Wendys iconic mascot bantering with fans in real time, trained on years of the brands famously sassy tweets.
Why just use words on X when you can connect visually in real time?
Why 3D digital avatars feel real
A common question is, how can a digital avatar feel “real?” The answer lies in expressiveness. The difference between a 3D character and a 3D avatar is emotion. Characters like the M&Ms mascots communicate through jokes and dialogue. Avatars, on the other hand, mirror the subtlety of human interactionan idiosyncratic smirk, a pause, or a glance that creates genuine emotional resonance.
Early prototypes already show how users can pose questions to a digital avatar and receive individualized, emotionally attuned responses. This glimpse into avatar-based interaction hints at transformative potential, not just in marketing but in education, customer service, and healthcare. Imagine a child preparing for intensive medical treatment, comforted by a 3D animated character that brings warmth and understanding to the daunting journey ahead. Pediatric personas would be able to respond to the childs questions and concerns in a calm, reassuring manner, reaching them in the familiar environment of their own home.
Building empathy into the system
To make avatars feel authentic, AI models are trained on everything from a persons interviews to their mannerisms and speech patterns. If someone has a signature laugh, gesture, or way of speaking, the avatar learns it too. This ensures interactions feel personal, not mass-produced.
What excites me most is the scalability of empathy. Two people can have completely different, yet equally real, experiences with the same avatar, each interaction tailored to their interests, questions, and emotional tone. This level of personalization is a game changer for brands looking to deepen their connection with audiences.
How brands can get ahead now
Technically, this ecosystem relies on real-time animation engines like Unreal, AI-driven facial and voice modeling, and cloud-based data storage. The human layer is just as critical. This isnt plug-and-play software; it takes creative producers, animators, and AI engineers to make an avatar feel alive.
For brands to truly own this technology, theyll need to find experienced partners or build small internal avatar studios that blend storytelling with tech fluency. Its an investment in people as much as in infrastructure.
If youre a brand leader, heres how to prepare for this shift:
Identify your expressive assets. Who in your ecosystemmascots, ambassadors, talentbest represents your brands values and story?
Start gathering inputs. Video, voice, and movement data are the raw materials that power authenticity.
Establish creative guardrails. Set clear boundaries for what your avatar can and cant do, ensuring alignment with your brand values.
Build hybrid teams. Youll need a mix of creativity and AI literacy to bring avatars to life.
Experiment. Start small. Let an avatar greet fans, appear at an event, or respond to a limited set of questions. The goal is to learn how people connect.
The next phase of human connection
To understand where this space is headed, consider how far virtual representation has already come. When I played Madden NFL in college, the players were pixels. Today, they look like real athletes. In two years, our digital avatars could look and sound exactly like us, in 3D, and be fully trained to interact on our behalf.
The next frontier of digital experience isnt about technology aloneits about emotional presence. Brands that learn to speak this new language of presence have a distinct advantage.
If you are reading this from outside the U.S., you may have already seen the videos. Clouds rolling over the Grand Canyon. Kids screaming down roller coasters. Snowboarders gliding through white forests.
America’s latest tourism campaign, America the Beautiful, is out, and it is selling the American dream. But will tourists buy it?
According to a May 2025 report from the World Travel and Tourism Council, international visitor spending to the U.S. is projected to fall to just under $169 billion in 2025, down from $181 billion in 2024. Even in 2024, 90% of all tourism spending came from domestic travel, while international travel dipped from many of the countrys key source markets, including the U.K, Germany, South Korea, Spain, Ireland, and the Dominican Republic.
The country’s national tourism marketing agency, Brand USA, developed “America the Beautiful” to rebuild confidence in these shrinking markets. The campaign glows with idealism and nostalgia for the great outdoors, the great American road trip, and majestic landscapes that pulse with life in spite of their sovereign’s attempts to turn large swaths of it over to fracking.
By choosing a title that is associated with an 1890s poem that has become one of America’s most patriotic songs, Brand USA seems to want tourists to forget about the country’s present issues and travel back to a time, or a place, where patriotism didn’t so often manifest as nationalism.
[Image: Brand USA]
A campaign with high stakes
“America the Beautiful,” first announced in June, launched on October 20months after Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” tax and spending law slashed Brand USA’s federal funding by a staggering 80%. (Travel lobbyists are now fighting with Congress to restore the budget.) The agency laid off 15% of its staff in September, and shut down its ad-supported streaming service GoUSATV, which promoted inbound tourism.
By undercutting a national tourism marketing agency that promotes the U.S. internationally, Trump ostensibly flipped the finger to global visitors, reflecting, instead, his America-first priorities.
But America needs international tourism. International visitors contributed just over $217 billion in revenue in 2019, supporting nearly 18 million jobs nationwide. The tourism sector more broadly is also a reliable driver of federal, state, and local tax revenue, contributing more than $585 billion annually. The stakes for “America the Beautiful” are high.
[Image: Brand USA]
The fall of the American Brand
Next year will be a big year for the United States. Between America’s 250th anniversary, the 2026 World Cup that will take place across 11 U.S. cities, and the Route 66 centennial, the country is poised for celebration on many fronts.
“America the Beautiful” was timed to boost tourism ahead of those big events. Brand USA partnered with AI-powered software Mindtrip, which offers interactive maps and custom itineraries. They also created various video spots highlighting “America the Brave” and “America the Big Hearted.”
[Image: Brand USA]
“We’re not asking people to simply visit America; we’re inviting them to feel it, taste it, and carry home experiences that become core memories, Leah Chandler, Brand USA’s chief marketing officer, said in a recent press release.
What if not enough people don’t want what America has to offer? “My view is that advertising campaigns are useless at persuading people to change their minds about countries,” says Simon Anholt, a leading researcher and advisor on nation brands and national image. “You cant talk yourself out of an image that you behaved yourself into.”
According to the 2025 Anholt Nation Brands Index, a systematic survey of international perceptions of countries, the United States has dropped out of the top ten for the first time in 19 years. After topping the index in both 2005 and 2016, the U.S. fell from 1st to 7th place following Trump’s election in 2016. After his re-election in 2025, the U.S. has dropped to what Anholt calls an “unprecedented” 14th place. (Japan and Germany remain at the top of the list.)
The fall isn’t just about perception. Anholt says there is a “more than 80% correlation” between a countrys score in the Nation Brands Index and the amount of money it makes from tourism, foreign investment and trade. The exact breakdown remains unclear, “but its a certainty that when image declines, visits decline too,” he says.
[Image: Brand USA]
Politics or pleasure?
Whether some tourists are able to separate the political from the pleasurable will depend on who you ask. For Tom Buncle, the former chief executive of the Scottish Tourist Board and a tourism consultant who helps destinations improve their global competitiveness, the U.S. remains an appealing destination despite geopolitical tensions. “Regardless of all the issues, California is still going to have amazing beaches, Arizona is going to have amazing deserts, Florida is going to have amazing surfing, Colorado is going to have great mountains,” he told me. “Politics aren’t going to change that.”
Buncle agrees that many challenges are hard to ignore: Some tourists have said they are afraid to visit for fear of being turned away at the border. Others worry about visa restrictions and higher visa fees. “But as I keep saying, our countries, our cultures, our landscape is bigger than all of us,” says Buncle. “It’s been there for centuries, it’s going to outlast all of us.”
Anholt is less optimistic. He brings up the “halo effect,” namely when people start to dislike a countrys policies so much that they unconsciously downgrade many other unconnected aspects of the country. If tourists still want to like America, they’ll overlook the bad stuff. If they no longer want to like America, they might pick another travel destination. “Once they’ve flipped, they tend to stay flipped,” he says. And if enough people stay flipped, he adds, it will be “the beginning of payback time for America First.”
[Image: Brand USA]
Repairing the image
Brand USA, which declined an interview, is aware of the challenges. “So what’s our assignment? At this moment, the U.S. travel industry needs a rallying cry,” Leah Chandler told Travel Weekly in July. “We know that international audiences still love many things about the U.S. and are connected to the people through our culture and our stories. And while right now might not feel like it’s the right time for some, there are others who have the means and desire to visit the United States, and those people will prioritize a visit here.”
As an American resident (admittedly, not the target demo) I can’t help but cringe at the tone-deafness of the campaign. On the one hand is an agency promoting “connection,” “boundless adventures,” and the kind of open-armed welcome that has made what America is today. On the other hand is a president who has willfully stoked violence, torpedoed America’s global standing, and slashed refugee allotment (unless they’re white).
The dissonance is deafening, and it likely won’t be lost to those who get their news abroad. But perhaps there’s room for hope beyond the cynicism. “Yes, the global news is coming out with not a very pretty picture, but [there is value in] reminding people that the real USA is still there for them to visit to enjoy,” says Buncle.
Even if reality is dark, shining a light on the brightest spots doesn’t have to be false advertising. It could be an attempt at repair. Americans deserve that.
OpenAI is going house hunting.
The world-leading AI company is reportedly looking for a massive corporate campus of at least 500,000 square feet to house its ever-growing workforce of insanely well paid engineers and support staff.
Whats more important than OpenAIs desire to expand, though, is the companys choice of where to do it.
OpenAI is looking not in the trendy, vibrant heart of San Francisco, but deep in the dull, gray corporate expanses of Silicon Valley.
That bucks a major trend in the AI spaceand signals a broad and impactful change to the industry.
Corporate hermit crabs
For generations, Americas most successful tech companies have followed a familiar pattern: start in some tiny, inappropriate space, then expand to a massive office park in Palo Alto or Mountain View.
Hewlett Packard famously started in a garage before expanding to ever-larger campuses. Apple did the same, and now controls most of Cupertino from a bizarre, insular spaceship of a building.
Google started in a Stanford dorm room before moving to (surprise!) a garage, and later a 3 million square foot compound in Mountain View, the Googleplex.
Often, Silicon Valleys tech companies behave like corporate hermit crabs, taking over the campuses of their failed predecessors.
When Facebook moved to the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, they didnt even bother to invest in a new signthey just flipped the old one around and put a big Facebook logo on it.
Even today, the original Sun Microsystems sign still hides on the back of the Facebook one. When Google repurposed the former campus of Silicon Graphics to build the Googleplex, they kept a dinosaur named Stan.
Things will be great when youre . . .
A new wave of tech companies coming to power in the mid 2010s, though, started to trod a different path.
The social network X (née Twitter) had its headquarters in the Civic Center neighborhood of San Francisco until Elon Musk forcibly excised it. Uber and Square were originally down the block. Airbnb, Zynga, and Cloudflare are all in San Franciscos trendy but rough-around-the-edges SoMA district.
These newer companies realized that their hip, young engineers didnt want to live in the suburban doldrums of the Valley. They wanted nice food, bars that stay open past 10 pm, and all the other cultural trappings of a major city.
After the pandemic, the trend towards downtown tech HQs accelerated. Companies realized it was easier to lure engineers back to the office if it happened to be down the block in a city where theyd love to live, rather than a chartered bus ride away.
As todays AI companies started their meteoric growth, then, it was only natural for them to situate themselves downtown.
OpenAI started in SoMAs historic Pioneer Building. When they outgrew that space, they moved to a massive, glass-fronted campus in the up and coming Mission Bay neighborhoodall skybridges, living walls, louvered windows to let in the bay breezes, and fancy cafes that serve boba tea in little glass bottles you get to take home.
Although a quietly-imposing security guard stares down anyone who approaches the front doors too closely, I love walking around the OpenAI campus and its adjacent urban parks.
Anthropic likewise started in a historic building right by San Franciscos Financial District, before moving to something a bit more corporate, but still in the heart of the city.
This influx of AI talentand the buckets of money that go with ithas been fantastic for San Francisco. As a professional photographer, I visit the city at least once a week to take photos.
Union Square, which struggled mightily during the pandemic and became a symbol of San Franciscos failings, is now home to a new Nintendo store, a bar from basketball star Steph Curry, and an eyeball-scanning hub for Sam Altmans crypto startup World. SF was just rated one of the safest cities in the world.
Back to the burbs
Now, though, that trend seems to be reaching its limits. Its one thing to locate your headquarters in an energetic, happening part of the city when youre a scrappy startup pursuing the impossible dream of AGI.
But when youre planning a trillion-dollar IPO and have a headcount in the thousands, even the biggest downtown office will struggle to hod you.
And so, the AI worlds inexorable march to the Valley begins! OpenAI is the first big AI company to plan an exodus from San Francisco. But as the flood of money continues to flow in, its unlikely to be the last.
To me, its indicative of the fact that the AI sector is slowly growing up.
Much as many young engineers start out living downtown, only to answer the siren song of the burbs as they have kids, cars, and schools to consider, so too has the rapidly maturing OpenAI decided to live somewhere with easier access to neighbors, more room to spread out, and virtually unlimited oceans of parking.
The startups serving the AI sector will surely continue to choose downtown digs. And OpenAI and its ilk will likewise keep satellite offices in the city, much as Google does today.
But as companies like OpenAI increasingly pursue a path toward serving corporate customers and worrying about such petty things as profitability, theyre moving back in line with the path taken by the tech giants who came before them. And that means moving to Valley HQs.
Ill admit, Im a little sad to see the locus of AI starting to move so predictably to the burbs. But it’s also strangely comforting. People are terrified of OpenAI and its friends for their ability to rapidly disrupt industries and otherwise remake the world.
But people felt the same way about Google back in the day. And Fairchild Semiconductor before it.
OpenAIs all-too-predictable march to the Valley is a reminder that AI companies feel powerful and all-encompassing today, but ultimately stand on the same ever-shifting tech sands as their predecessors.
Give it a few decades, and another hermit crab will come along to flip their signs around, move in their own generations of talented young engineers, and get to work building whatever comes next.
A business owner I know tends to only hire people in their twenties, under the assumption they bring new life into his business: new ideas, new innovations, new skills.
And hes sometimes right, especially in the specific.
But in general? Science says his hiring approach is probably wrong.
In a review of studies published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, researchers found that the age at which scientists and inventors reach their moment of “genius” is increasing: while the average age used to be younger, the majority now make their biggest contributions to their field after the age of 40.
As the researchers write:
This research consistently finds that performance peaks in middle age: the life-cycle begins with a training period in which major creative output is absent, followed by a rapid rise in output to a peak, often in the late 30s or 40s.
The same is often true for entrepreneurs. A Journal of Business Venturing study found that the most successful entrepreneurs tend to be middle-aged, even in tech. In fact, a 60-year-old startup founder was three times more likely to launch a successful startup than a 30-year-old startup founder, and nearly twice as likely to launch a startup that landed in the top 0.1% of all companies in terms of revenue and profits.
Why does scientific genius tend to occur later, rather than earlier? Sure, occasionally an apple will still fall off a tree to spark insight; Sir Isaac Newton was 23 when he developed his theory of gravity (as well as calculus, a subject my high school report card despised him for).
But true mastery typically takes time. As the researchers write, The link between creativity and extant knowledge may depend not just on the acquisition of extant knowledge via training, but may depend on the nature and difficulty of the cognitive processes involved in drawing together and extending sets of extant knowledge.
Or in non-researcher speak, its not enough to just know things; you have to know how those things fit within larger frameworks in order to make new connections and new breakthroughs.
The same is true for entrepreneurs. While younger startup founders tend to be more tech savvy and less risk-averse, older startup founders benefit from greater experience, business skills, connections, and access to connections and capital.
In a broader sense, its hard to develop a sound strategy, to make the endless number of tactical decisions required to build a business, or to be a good leader when you have limited experience. For entrepreneurs, being older isnt something to overcome. Experience is a genuine competitive advantage.
And thats also true for new employees. Sure, younger workers tend to be more tech savvy. They may possess recent education more applicable to a rapidly changing industry. If you need specific skills, a younger job candidate may be the perfect fit.
But if you need broader skills, or an interconnected set of skills like leadership, take a closer look at a more seasoned candidate.
Younger or older, the person you hire should be the best person for the job, regardless of age. Thats why the real key is to identify the skills and attributes you need, and then focus on finding the best fit regardless of any preconceptions you might haveespecially if you assume older dogs cant be taught new tricks.
Because contrary to popular belief, genius usually takes time to develop and emerge.
After all: Steve Jobs may have been 21 when he cofounded Apple, but his most commercially successful innovations came when he was in his late 40s and early 50s.
Jeff Haden
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Most people recognize that when youre answering email while walking your dog and listening in on a meeting, youre bound to lose effectiveness. Whether its that awkward silence when your boss asks for your input and you didnt hear itor you stepping in something not so pleasant because you didnt realize your dog had done his business right in front of you.
The limitations of multitasking present themselves in an obvious fashion.
But as a time management coach, Ive seen that its not just trying to do too many small things at once that can trip you up. I also see people dramatically reduce their effectiveness when they try to do too many large things at oncea tendency I like to call macrotasking.
Macrotasking can look like remodeling your kitchen while switching jobs and also having a baby. Or it can look like redesigning your companys website while also launching a podcast and hiring for multiple key leadership positions.
Its technically possible to do multiple large projects at once. But macrotasking can leave you in a state of paralysis because youre not quite sure where to start. And even if you do begin, you can end up with many projects that linger on for far too long because you dont have the focus to complete them.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by all of your open endeavors personally and professionally, here are three steps to move forward more effectively and efficiently.
Limit Your Starts
The first key to effective macrotasking is limiting how many new projects you start at once. If you have a really large item, such as a remodel or launching a new product, avoid beginning other major projects at the exact same time.
The initial phase of any project has a high startup cost of completing research, framing out what needs to happen, getting the right team in place, and making strategic decisions on direction. Most people can only do this effectively in one or two key areas at once.
After the initial direction is set and you can potentially delegate out the ongoing work, then you can turn your attention to kicking off another major project. But trying to start three or more of these at once can backfire. It can either slow you down because you arent giving any one of the projects the attention they need, or it can cause you to make poor decisions because youre not giving yourself the space you need to be thoughtful.
If the idea of limiting the number of projects youre starting is anxiety inducing, map out your projects over the coming quarter: In October, Ill launch the remodel, in November, Ill look into starting a podcast, and in December, Ill do strategic planning for a rebranding. Having a place to put your project ideas so you know when youll get to them can help with focusing on accomplishing whats in front of you now.
Leave Space for Implementation
Ideas are amazing. Strategic planning is great. But implementation is the only thing that truly leads to results.
If other people are doing the majority of the work on projects, macrotasking can work when those projects are in the implementation phase. Youve set the direction, now others are executing and can move multiple workstreams forward concurrently.
That being said, youll still need to leave space in your calendar to review the work and provide feedback. That might look like having weekly project meetings or blocking in recurring time to look at whatever has been sent to you and answer questions.
If youre the primary person responsible for implementation, macrotasking will be more difficult. In my experience as a time management coach, I typically dont see people able to move along more than two to three large projects when they are the person doing the heavy lifting.
If you find yourself in that situation, youll need to pace yourself. Each month, define what are the two or three projects that you can really move forward and focus on them. Then youll need to accept that the other projects may progress much more slowly, or might need to wait until an upcoming month to receive your attention at all.
Bring Work to Closure
By following the above two pieces of advice, you should be able to bring projects to completion on a consistent basis. But a tendency that Ive seen in macrotaskers is that they really enjoy starting things, but dont find it exciting to complete them. That can leave them with a multitude of almost-done projects that havent made it across the finish line.
If you find yourself in that situation, you may need to create a rule for yourself that you cant start anything new until youve wrapped up some of the old items. Then pick a few close-to-completed projects to get your devoted attention. Most likely when you decide to do this, a myriad of ideas will pop into your mind of new things to do. Resist the urge to start on them and instead write them down on a list for future months.
And if youre finding even with your best of intentions to focus on completion, youre still not getting projects completely done, get help. That could look like having a coworking session with a colleague where you commit to getting specific work done, partnering with a coach to hold you accountable or hiring more help. Theres no shame in needing support to get projects to closure.
Macrotasking is possible with the right approach. By using these three strategies, you can get multiple large projects done without getting overwhelmed.
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so, is a quote, often attributed to Mark Twain, that people like to repeat because it so captures our everyday experience. You can learn things that you dont know, but its incredibly difficult to unlearn something you believe to be true.
Theres real science behind this. Things we experience are packed away in our brain as the connections called synapses, which form and evolve over time. These connections strengthen as we use them and degrade when we do not. Or, as neuroscientists who study these things like to put it, the neurons that fire together, wire together.
Thats why leaders pursuing change often default to a managers mindset instead of a changemakers mindset, because thats what they know and what theyve been successful with. Yet just like in that famous quote, those same assumptions can undermine a transformational initiative. Here are three beliefs that sabotage change and what you can replace them with.
1. Transformation Is Persuasion At Scale
For 35 years, psychologist Robert Cialdini researched which types of communication were effective and which were not. He found that influence is based on six key principles: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. More recently, Whartons Jonah Berger has used data analysis to come up with his SPEACC framework. Others emphasize using emotional rather than analytical arguments.
Salespeople trained in these techniques find them effective. They qualify the customer by asking good questions, do a needs analysis and then tailor their pitch to a unique value proposition. When they encounter resistance they use proven techniques to overcome objections and close the sale.
Most leaders have some familiarity with these techniques so they naturally apply them to transformational initiatives. The problem is that changing mindsets and behaviors isnt a one-time decision and the best indicator of what we think and do is what the people around us think and do and this effect extends out to three degrees of influence, so its not just people we know personally, but the friends of our friends friends that shape our opinions and actions.
The truth is that change isnt about persuasion, but collective dynamics. Decades of research has shown that change spreads through peer networks rather than communication campaigns. Or, as network science pioneer Duncan Watts once put it to me, ideas propagate through easily influenced people influencing other easily influenced people.
Instead of trying to shape opinions, were often better off shaping networks. Thats why we advise our clients pursuing transformational change efforts to start with a majority, even if that majority is only three people in a room of five. You can always expand a majority out, but once youre in the minority youre going to get immediate pushback. You need to go where there is already energy and enthusiasm around an idea, not try to create and maintain it yourself.
2. Transformation Is Like A Product Launch
Anybody whos ever taken a marketing course is familiar with Phillip Kotlers ideas about marketing. The legendary professor advised us to differentiate our product or service, analyzing customer needs and building awareness about how what were selling meets those needs. He also showed how these same concepts apply to nonprofits and government agencies.
So it shouldnt be surprising that change leaders often take a similar approach. They create a big launch event to create awareness about their ideas differentiating values, endlessly promote and drive their message home. The aim is to reach and convert enough people fast enough to make change seem inevitable.
This is a terrible approach for a number of reasons. First, a product is targeted at a particular segment and everybody else can ignore it. But an organizational change affects everybody. Inevitably, there are going to be some people who arent going to like it and they will resist, seeking to undermine your efforts in ways that are dishonest, underhanded and deceptive.
Thats why in our change workshops we help clients design a Keystone Change, something with a concrete and tangible goal, involving multiple stakeholders that they can work on with their core team of early enthusiasts. This isn’t a quick and easy win, often they can take months or even years to achieve. But it paves the way to the larger change.
Every idea starts out weak and unproven. Pixars Ed Catmull called them ugly babies. They need to be protected and nurtured so that they can mature and grow. Exposing them to hostile forces early on will only get them killed in their cradle.
3. Once People Understand Change, They Will Embrace It
When were passionate about an idea, we want others to see it the same way we do, with all its beautiful complexity and nuance. We want people to share our devotion and fervor. Itseems obvious that once everyone else understands the idea the way we do, they will embrace it. Yet the simple truth is thats almost never true.
This assumption, sometimes known as the information deficit model, emerged in the 1930s, as electronic media gained traction and scientific advances reshaped our understanding of the world. The logic was simple: More public engagement would lead to greater scientific literacy. But the evidence doesnt back that up. One study found that information about agricultural science didnt change opinions, and an NSF survey showed that many who understood evolution still didnt believe it
Even when we do shift knowledge and attitudes, behavior often remains stubbornly unchanged. For example, a 2009 study found that rising concern about climate change did not lead to meaningful action. In the business world In studying corporations, Stanfords Jeffrey Pfeffer and Bob Sutton found consistent gaps between what executives know and what they actually do.
At any given time, people are navigating a tangle of competing influencesprior beliefs, ingrained habits, social pressures, and noise from all directions. Thats why ideas spread most effectively through peer networks, not top-down campaigns. Were social creatures. More often than not, people dont adopt ideas because theyre convinced by argumentsthey adopt the ideas they see working around them.
Adopting A Changemaker Mindset
People become successful managers by adopting a manager mindset. They treat transformational initiatives as if they were just a scaled-up sales process. They focus on persuasion to try and build consensus. They plan a big launch event as if they were unveiling a new product and create top-down informational campaigns to evangelize the idea.
Yet adopting a changemaker mindset starts with letting go of the illusion that change is simply a matter of better messaging, bigger launches, or more information. Those strategies might work for selling products or ideas, but transformation runs deeper. Its not about convincing people to think differentlyits about creating the conditions that allow them to act differently.
That requires a shift in how we see our role as leadersnot as promoters or persuaders, but as architects of influence and weavers of networks. The beliefs that sabotage change persist because they work in other contexts. Weve seen how persuasion techniques can win over a client or how a well-timed product launch can drive adoption.
But transformation isnt a transactionits a journey. Its messy, social, and nonlinear. Leaders who succeed in driving meaningful change understand that what matters most isnt how persuasive they are, but how effectively they can empower others to bring in others, who can bring in others still.
You dont need to convince everyone all at onceyou start with a local majority that can build traction. Change spreads not through force or logic alone, but through people witnessing others like them doing things differentlyand succeeding. Ultimately, transformation isnt about getting people to embrace your ideaits about helping them make it their own.
Below, Ranjay Gulati shares five key insights from his new book, How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage.
Gulati is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. He is a leading expert on purpose-driven leadership and helps organizations unlock growth and meaning.
Whats the big idea?
Courage is essential in the uncertain world we live in. It allows us to expand our horizons, grow in unexpected ways, and reach our fullest potential by taking bold action. How to Be Bold provides a road map for understanding what courage really is, explains why its important in our personal and professional lives, and offers a set of practical tools for becoming more courageous.
Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Gulati himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea app.
1. Courage is a choice, not an innate trait.
One day, back when I was a teenager, my mother and I received a visitor at home. The man introduced himself as a representative of a real estate development company intent on buying some land my mother had purchased years before. The company had approached her repeatedly in the past and, each time, she had refused to sell. This time, the man began by pleading with her and offering a blank check. When she refused, he became adamant that his boss had insisted he must close this deal. When that didnt work, he pulled back his blazer, and there was a gun tucked in his waist belt. While I was frozen in place, pondering what to do next, my mom immediately stood up, walked up to the man, and slapped him hard across the face. He was stunned, and so was I. She then ordered him out of the house, and we never saw the developer again.
After he left, I immediately asked her if she was scared of the gun. To my surprise, she replied that yes, she had seen his gun and yes, she was afraid. But she said, I will not let my fear define me. No one was going to come to my house and bully me into selling land I have worked hard to buy. Her behavior was couragetaking action in the face of fear.
Courage is a choice. My mother had made a choice to face her fear and not cave into it. For a long time, I assumed she and others like her were innately courageous, while I was not. I saw these few individuals as among the chosen onesmade of steel, like the ancient samurai or modern-day test pilots. When it came to myself, I took solace in the fact that humans are wired not for courage but for cowardice. Evolutionarily, fortune favored those who hunkered down rather than those who exposed themselves to danger.
But I soon realized that opting for cowardice, while safe, is not a wise choice: it locks us into complacency and keeps us from leading a full life. Courage doesnt come naturally, but it is necessary for thriving. Courage leads us to empowerment.
The first step toward courage is becoming acquainted with the discomfort of fear. Our bodies and minds yell run! or hidebut what if we made the conscious choice to lean into the fear, stay with it for a moment, understand it, and move through it?
2. Courage starts with the stories we tell.
Imagine dedicating your life to opposing a brutal authoritarian government and advocating for a just and open society. You narrowly survive an assassination attempt. You and your family escape to safety in a different country. Would you return to your homeland, knowing it means certain arrest, imprisonment, or even death?
This was the choice Alexei Navalny faced. In January 2021, Navalny boarded a flight back to Russia, leaving his children behind. He was detained upon arrival and died in a remote Siberian prison three years later. What compelled him to walk back into the fire? Navalnys unimaginable courage was the product of a powerful story he had crafted for himself and others. His vision was to create the beautiful Russia of the futurea prosperous, democratic nation allied with the West and immersed in world commerce.
This potent, tension-filled story articulated a moral quest and a series of principles to uphold. When we embrace a powerful story and make it our own, we feel a sense of personal responsibility and feel compelled to act even in the face of fear and possible harm. For Navalny, facing the ultimate consequences, the stakes were reframed, elevating the dream of a prosperous nation above the fear of isolation, risk, or death.
You dont have to be a political activist, combat warrior, or astronaut to embrace such a path. Stories are courage magnifiers. Courageous behavior starts with moral clarity that becomes a catalyst for bravery. As you train your courage muscles, ask yourself: What core values do I stand for? And then ponder: What would I do to defend them?
3. Courage relies on imperfect theories, not perfect intel.
Many situations that require courage are rife with uncertainty. While risk is something we can usually comprehend and mitigate, uncertainty feels like walking through fog, unable to foretell consequences or outcomes. We simply dont have enough information to make sound predictions. No amount of analysis can help us credibly pin down a strategy. There is no optimizing our way around it.
When we face uncertainty, it triggers a sense of losing control. Most of us remain paralyzed and wait for the fog to dissipate. But there is another way. A brilliant social scientist, Karl Weick, defined the process of moving through uncertainty as sensemaking. Sensemaking consists of progressively understanding an unclear situation by taking small strategic steps.
Im reminded of how Tom Cruise approaches the incredible stunts in his movies. How can this man jump off a cliff while racing a motorcycle with such confidence? He spends countless hours taking small steps to progressively know more about every aspect of the stunt: the setting, the gear, the training. He and his team simulate small versions and learn from each effort, gradually incorporating more elaborate moves before taking the ultimate leap. He said in an interview: Im going to learn to crawl before I walk, walk before I jog, jog before I run, run before I sprint, and then I sprint off a cliff or a building.
This is exactly what we do in sensemaking: We take a small step and gather data, then take stock to analyze what it means. With this knowledge, we formulate a theory of what is going on. We then take additional steps, gather more data, and keep contrasting it with what we knew before so we can revise the theory. This is done over and over again. We move through uncertainty to understand it: we dont stand still. We drive away the fog through our actions. We act our way into knowing.
4. Courage takes a village.
When we encounter uncertain situations, we often turn inward and tackle them alone. We hesitate to seek help, fearing it might seem like a burden or sign of weakness. This reluctance is fueled by the cultural ideal of the self-made hero. As a result, we mistakenly view self-sufficiency as strength and needing others as failure.
But ths belief may undermine courage. Courageous individuals dont shy away from seeking support. They recognize that strong relationships are key to bravery. Having people to count on in tough moments boosts confidence.
Take Frances Haugen, a former MBA student of mine who became a whistleblower at Facebook. She tried to fix the issues at Facebook from the inside first, but when that didnt work, she went publicknowing full well it could cost her dearly. She lost her job and valued connections, but she gained peace of mind knowing that she helped spearhead a movement to hold social media companies accountable for the content they publish and promote.
Research highlights four distinct kinds of support that can boost your boldness:
Moral support or Ive got your back: When things get tough, just knowing someones in your corner can make all the difference. That emotional boostfeeling seen, supported, and believed incan keep you going. Haugen found it in her family.
Informational support or Heres what you need to know: Facing uncertainty means dealing with the unknown. Your crew can fill in the blanks, give advice, or clue you in on things you might be missing. Haugen relied on Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit law firm that helped her navigate the legal risks of disclosing internal documents to regulators, lawmakers, and journalists.
Resource support or Ill lend you my tools: Sometimes courage requires concrete resourcesspecific skills, manpower, access. Haugen needed a trusted platform to disseminate her message. Once she connected with the press, she worked closely with journalists to ensure the information would be responsibly reported.
Appraisal support or Youre doing wellkeep going!: Its hard to gauge your own performance accurately under pressure. Trusted confidants offer honest feedback, helping reality-check perceptions and make adjustments. Haugen relied on good friends.
Building and nurturing these connections is fundamental to developing the capacity for bold action. Dont wait for a crisis to forge your connections. Start now. Cultivate relationships with people who can offer this multifaceted support. And remember, its a two-way street. Just as you rely on others to build your courage muscles, offer your support to help them build theirs. The myth of the lone hero is compelling, but the reality of supported courage is far more powerful.
5. We can design organizations and teams to boost courage.
We can be courageous as individuals, but we make the biggest difference when we infuse teams and organizations with courage. Most teams and organizations are inherently risk-averse. They rely on systems of predictability and accountability that help processes run smoothly, but these very systems also hold people back from acting boldly or speaking up. And yet, some teams and organizations have avoided this trap and created environments where collective courage flourishes.
The workers of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel provide a striking example of collective courage. In 2008, as terrorist attacks rocked iconic landmarks of Mumbai, the Tajs staff and guests were trapped under siege for nearly 60 hours. At this trying time, the staffs ethos of guest first overrode the primal instinct of self-preservation: not one of them fled the sceneinstead, they all stayed and made sure the guests who were stuck in the hotel were protected.
In one of the banquet halls, staff were serving dinner to about 60 VIP guests. Twenty-three-year-old Mallika Jagad was the young manager in charge. She heard what initially sounded like fireworks, only to realize they were gunshots. Without panic, she took charge, instructing everyone to get down on the floor and remain silent. She and her team shut all the doors and windows, turned off the lights, and locked the room to remain undetected by the terrorists walking the halls. They lay awake overnight, guarding the guests and reassuring them. At one point, smoke seeped into the room, triggering the sprinklers and causing further panic. Mallika and her team quieted the emerging commotion and broke one of the windows to call the firemen below for help. They watched as all guests were evacuated safely down a ladder, and only then did they accept their own evacuation.
The hotels director, Karambir Kang, kept directing rescue operations throughout the siege, even though his wife and children were trapped in their apartment inside the hotel and ultimately perished. A guest later said: He never once mentioned his own family. He was only asking about us, telling us to stay calm.
This remarkable story illustrates how collective courage is activated when organizational values are truly lived, rather than simply declared. Make a point to join teams and organizations that allow that collective spirit to rise. Do your part to model courage for others and inspire them. And if you are able to make the rules, dont let complacency stifle bold action.
Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea app.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Every professional faces cycles consisting of booms, busts, restructurings, and reinventions. The difference between those who endure and those who fade isnt luck or timing; its adaptability. In volatile economies, careers built on curiosity and agility thrive long after others stall.
No market cycle lasts forever. Careers, like economies, move through expansions and contractions. Its vital to continue upskilling, remain flexible, and adapt to market cycles. They are not always predictable, but the leaders who adapt, always learn, network, reflect, and rebalance will outperform the cycles.
Adaptability Is the New Alpha
In finance and beyond, resilience has become the defining metric of leadership. According to a 2024 McKinsey report, only 16% of global employers actively invest in adaptability and continuous learning programs. Yet among 10,000 employees surveyed worldwide, 26% ranked adaptability as their top skill need, particularly among frontline and early-career workers. The market rewards those who evolve. A career that endures market cycles is one built to adapt. Think of your skills like an investment portfolio; diversify, rebalance, and hedge against obsolescence.
Continuous Learning Beats Tenure
Experience used to equal expertise. Today, its learning velocity that wins. Experience once defined expertise. Today, its the speed of learning that sets leaders apart. According to a 2023 World Economic Forum Report, 44% of a workers skills will need updating by 2027. Staying relevant now requires continuous reinvestment through certifications, side projects, or stretch roles that broaden your capabilities. Build optionality into your career so when markets shift, youre already ahead of the curve.
Networking Compounds Like Capital
Strong relationships grow exponentially, much like capital. A 2020 Forbes Publication states 80% of jobs are secured through networking, yet only 24% of professionals network consistently. Focus on building authentic connections before you need them. People remember collaboration and genuine engagement far more than acts of desperation.
Reflect and Rebalance
Every few years, pause and audit your professional portfolio. What are your strongest performing assets: skills, relationships, projects? Which ones are underperforming? The leaders who survive downturns are the ones who treat their careers like living systems: dynamic, data-informed, and purpose-driven.
Its a Marathon Build for the Long Run
A career that survives market cycles is not built on luck. Its built on adaptability, continuous learning, networking, and reflecting. Like an investor who thrives in volatility, the resilient professional knows; downturns reveal true value.
A resilient career isnt built in bull markets; its forged in the storms. The goal isnt to predict every wave but to learn how to surf.
