In Central Texas, a bitter fight over a $1 billion water project offers a preview of the future for much of the state as decades of rapid growth push past the local limits of its most vital natural resource.
On one side: Georgetown, the fastest growing city in America for three years straight, which in 2023 signed a contract with an investor-funded enterprise to quickly begin importing vast volumes of water from the Simsboro Formation of the Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer, 80 miles to the east.
On the other side: the cities atop the Simsboro that rely on its water. Bryan, College Station, and the Texas A&M University System, a metro area with almost 300,000 people, have sued the developer to stop the project. A trial is set for the first week of May.
The site of a water pipeline project by the company Recharge through Lee County into Williamson County is pictured on March 28. [Photo: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News]
Were going to fight this thing until the end, said Bobby Gutierrez, the mayor of Bryan. It effectively drains the water source of the cities.
The pump and pipeline project to Georgetown, developed by California-based Upwell Water, is the largest of at least a half dozen similar projects recently completed, under construction or proposed to bring rural Carrizo Wilcox aquifer water into the booming urban corridor that follows Interstate 35 through Central Texas.
It would eventually pump up to 89 million gallons per day, three times the usage of the city of Bryan, to Georgetown and its neighboring cities.
That basically stops all the economic development we have, Gutierrez said. Were talking about our survival.
The fight over the Upwell project could well be a prelude for the broader battles to come as cities across Texas outgrow their water supplies. Lawmakers in the state Capitol are pushing to avert a broad scarcity crisis with funding to desalinate seawater, purify salty groundwater, and treat oilfield wastewater to add to the supply. But all of these solutions remain years from realization. In the near term, only import projects from freshwater aquifers will continue to meet the growing water demands of thirsty Texas cities.
Regulation of such projects falls to a patchwork of small, rural agencies called groundwater conservation districts, which might not be fully equipped or empowered to manage plans for competing regional water needs that can affect entire cities for generations to come.
Texas law offers limited clarity, generally preferring a landowners right to pump their own groundwater over regulations on private property. Despite fierce denunciations of the Upwell project from nearby city leaders, no one has alleged that its developers have broken any laws.
Were following the rules. Why are we being vilified? said David Lynch, a managing partner at Core Capital investment firm in Houston and a partner in the Upwell project. I think they feel uncomfortable about whats coming and their reaction is to make us go away.
After all, hes not the only one doing this. Five years ago, San Antonio started pumping up to 49 million gallons per day through a 140-mile pipeline from the Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer. Another pipeline was completed last year and will soon begin pumping to the city of Taylor and the new Samsung microchip manufacturing complex there. Another, scheduled for completion this year, will take water into the cities of Buda and Kyle.
After the lawsuit delayed the Upwell projects tight timeline, Georgetown commissioned two other pipeline projects from the same aquifer.
[Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News]
People are starting to pay enough for water to make these sorts of projects work, Lynch said, driving his black Ford Super Duty Platinum truck down the dirt roads of Upwells 9,000-acre farm property and well field in Robertson County. Theres no cheap water left in Texas.
In the middle of all this is the little Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District, based in the small town of Hearne and also a defendant, alongside Upwell, in the lawsuit.
District manager Alan Day feels for the cities of Bryan and College Station. To an extent, he said, they’re right. The more pumping from the aquifer, the sooner everyone will reach conditions of scarcity, though he doesnt think it will happen as quickly as city leaders say.
At the same time, he said, Bryan cant claim the water. Groundwater is a private property right in Texas as sacred as any other. Everyone is allowed to pump whatever their land produces.
Water is the new oil, said Day, a former ranch manager of 27 years. They have a commodity that can be sold and they have every right to sell it.
At this time, he said, he has no authority to stop landowners from pumping as long as they fulfill the requirements of the permitting process, which Upwell did. Even if he could do it, Day chuckled at the notion that state leaders would let his tiny office put the brakes on development along the I-35 corridor, home to manufacturing campuses of Tesla, Samsung, and Apple, and offices of Amazon, Meta, and Google, as well as one of the nations largest clusters of data centers and its fastest growing cities.
However, Day said, there will come a day when that changes. The laws for his district, like all others in Texas, specify a threshold at which new rules kick in. Its called the desired future condition, or DFC, a level below which the district is not willing to go. When they get there, everyone will face restrictions on pumping and the days of groundwater abundance will be over for the Simsboro portion of the aquifer. To date, no district in Texas has hit its DFC.
Day said hes only following the rules. Hell honor the property rights of landowners who want to pump, and when they hit the DFC, hell implement restrictions district-wide.
What does that do to the growth of Bryan and College Station and Texas A&M and anyoneelse who is depending on Simsboro? Day asked. It stops it.
The offices of the Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District in the tiny town of Hearne. [Photo: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News]
The Texas Miracle
This situation follows a generation of steep growth and development that state leaders have dubbed the Texas Miracle. The population of Williamson County, seated in Georgetown, 28 miles north of Austin, doubled in 17 to 700,000 people while its median household income increased by more than 90%. Neighboring counties share similar stories, where sprawling subdivisions and shimmering tech campuses now cover former ranchlands.
Georgetown needs to add millions of gallons per day to its water supply within the next several years. When it signed the pipeline contract in 2023 that stipulated deliveries beginning in 2030, it was acting on a much tighter timeline than decades that are typically considered for large scale water planning.
Based on hyper growth that weve seen in our water territory, weve seen the need for higher levels of contracted water sooner than we originally anticipated, said city manager David Morgan.
Most of the new water will serve new residential areas, he said, and will be used primarily to irrigate lawns and other neighborhood landscaping. Williamson County is also courting a cluster of five large data centers that it expects would bring another 100,000 people to the county.
But what if Bryan, and the cities of the Brazos Valley, want data centers, too? The region is currently pursuing ambitious opportunities in semiconductors, nuclear energy, aerospace, defense, and life sciences, said Susan Davenport, president of the Greater Brazos Partnership, an economic development group.
These sectors, along with the growing workforce and families who support them, are directly dependent on access to our local water resources, she said.
Gold Rush on Water
Although many major projects importing groundwater into Central Texas are just now being realized, the plans have been in the works for decades, according to Michelle Gangnes, a retired finance lawyer and co-founder of the Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund.
In 1998, Gangnes moved from Austin to rural Lee County. That same year, San Antonio, 140 miles away, announced plans to import 49 million gallons per day from wells in Lee County on the site of an old Alcoa aluminum smelter. A prolonged fight ensued and the project was never realized, but many others would follow.
Thats what started the whole gold rush on water, Gangnes said. It resulted in all these groundwater districts being formed, trying to resist the water rush on the Simsboro.
The groundwater districts were formed by an act of the Texas legislature in 2001. But, when the time came to make groundwater rules, powerful interests kept them loose, according to Ken Kramer, who previously directed the Texas office of the Sierra Club for 24 years. Chief among them was T. Boone Pickens, the iconic Texas oilman who also wanted to export groundwater from his land holdings in the Panhandle.
There was heavy lobbying by groundwater exporters to make sure that groundwater districts could not stop exports, Kramer said. Groundwater then became more of the target for moving water to growing areas and populations.
A sign on a water pipeline scar in Lee County on March 28. [Photo: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News]
Under a principle in Texas called the right of capture, landowners are allowed to pump from their land whatever they are able to. Changes made to the Texas Water Code in 2001 stipulated that withdrawals are allowed so long as they dont affect other permit holders unreasonably, which lacks a firm legal definition. That leaves lots up to interpretation for the groundwater districts of Texas.
They live in a difficult world where its unclear exactly what their power is to tell somebody no, said Robert Mace, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. If you tell somebody no youre almost guaranteed to get sued.
In recent years, several major pipeline projects into Central Texas came online. San Antonio eventually got its Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer water through a 6-foot-wide, 140-mile-long Vista Ridge pipeline which began drawing water from Burleson County in 2020, causing levels in neighboring landowners wells to plummet.
The old Alcoa wells in Burleson County were also put to use. A developer called Xebec Holdings bought the 50-square-mile property in 2022 and signed deals to pipe almost 18 million gallons per day to the City of Tyler.
Theres constantly people out there trying to lease water rights to see if they could do a project to sell water, said Gary Westbrook, general manager of the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District. Were going to have to find a way to regulate. You cant just say no.
The Gatehouse Pipeline is currently under construction to Georgetown, with another one called Recharge in development. Morgan, the Georgetown city manager, said those two projects were identified and accelerated after the lawsuit challenged the Upwell project.
We believe the lawsuit is going to likely delay getting that fully resolved, he said.
The Upwell Project
Upwell Water, a San Francisco-based financing firm, announced&nbp;in 2020 that it had raised $1 billion from investors to monetize water assets.
Upwell partnered with CoreCapital investors in Houston, which bought its 9,000-acre Robertson County farm property in 2021. Lynch, the managing partner at CoreCapital, said he expected to sit on the property for 10 years until the economics of water made it attractive to develop a major export project.
But as soon as he entered the market, he found eager buyers willing to pay well.
We bought it and all of a sudden we had everybody calling saying we need water, Lynch said. Then we said, we have more demand than we can supply, lets talk to the neighbors.
Upwell recruited seven neighboring landowners to put company wells on their property and contribute to the export project.
These arent regular irrigation wells, which in this area can tap water 40 feet down. These are 1,400 feet deep, cased in 2-foot-wide steel pipe, able to produce large volumes.
Mark Hoelscher, a landowner who is selling groundwater from his land to the Upwell project, stands in front of a 1,200-foot-deep Simsboro Well in rural Robertson County on March 20. [Photo: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News]
Its a million-dollar hole, said Mark Hoelscher, one of the neighboring landowners involved in the project, as he looked up at one of the diesel-powered well installations. Its big time.
In October 2022, Upwell received permits for 16 wells to pump nearly 45 million gallons per day without any challenges in the hearing process. Four months later it received its permit to export the water out-of-district. Then in September 2023, the district issued permits for another 32 wells belonging to the seven adjoining landowners to produce an additional 45 million gallons per day.
Until that point, authorities in the Bryan-College Station metro area, some 30 miles south, apparently remained unaware of the project transpiring in Robertson County. Not until September 2024, when the district considered applications for updated permits to export the combined 89 million-gallon-per-day production of all 48 wells, did Texas A&M University enter into the proceedings, filing a request for review by the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Texas A&M University declined to comment for this story.
No one has questioned the fact that we own the land and we have rights to the water underneath it, said Hoelscher, a third generation landowner in the Brazos River Valley. The fact of the matter is the water is ours.
The Lawsuit
One week later, A&M filed a lawsuit in state district court seeking a temporary injunction stopping the groundwater district from recognizing any of the permits associated with the Upwell project until a hearing is held.
A&M argued that the previously issued permits should be open for re-examination because some board members of the groundwater district were ineligible for service at the time the permits were originally approved.
In November, Bryan and College Station filed papers to join the lawsuit. It said their ability to produce groundwater from their Simsboro wells and the economic vitality of the region will be adversely affected if the Contested Applications are granted.
College Station Mayor John Nichols, a former professor of agricultural sciences at Texas A&M, said in a statement: The transfer of groundwater from our district to users in other areas is one of the most significant issues facing the College Station/Bryan area. Im a staunch proponent of private property rights, but we are deeply concerned about the long-term impact of excessive extraction on our community.
He called on lawmakers to adopt statewide groundwater regulations ensuring the rights of current permit holders over new water users.
None of that, however, matters to the trial that will take place in early May. All the judge will decide is whether or not A&M and the cities have rights to challenge the previously issued permits.
In court filings, Upwell argued A&Ms petition demands that the Court turn back time and recognize a nonexistent right to administratively contest final groundwater permits that the Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District properly noticed and issued to Intervenors months and years priorall without any complaint or contest by any party, including Plaintiff.
If the judge denies A&Ms request, the permits will be issued and work will begin on the Upwell project pipeline.
If the judge grants A&Ms request, the permits will head into a potentially yearslong process of state administrative hearings that could threaten the viability of the project and its promised returns to investors.
Construction on a water tank and tower, part of a Manville Water Supply Corp project through Lee County to Williamson County, on March 28. [Photo: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News]
Desired Future Condition
Whether or not the pipeline gets built, other similar projects are likely to follow. The situation is headed in one direction: towards the DFC, the threshold at which restrictions begin.
In the Brazos Valley and surrounding districts, that threshold is a 262foot drop in water wells from levels measured in 2000. In the 25 years since then, pumping has led the wells water to drop by one quarter of that allotted reduction, according to district manager Day, suggesting ample water supplies remain.
But, that remains to be seen. In total, Day said his district has issued permits for up to 291 million gallons per day of pumping from the Simsboro Formation, averaged yearly, of which 89 million gallons per day are associated with the Upwell project. However, only a fraction of that permitted volume is actually pumped.
If all permitted pumping were to suddenly come online, Day said, computer models showed they would hit the DFC in six years.
In reality it wont happen quite that fast. The Upwell project plans to scale up its pumping gradually over years. And many farmers hold irrigation permits to pump much more water than they ever actually will, unless they also encounter the opportunity to join an export project.
When the aquifer hits the DFC, the rules say it mustnt fall further. That means all users would face mandatory curtailment. Its unclear how such unprecedented measures would be enforced in Texas.
For Gutierrez, the mayor of Bryan, this management method creates a contest for investors to tap the water-wealthy Simsboro Formation and sell off its bounty before time runs out.
They want to exploit everything we have for their personal benefit, he said. Its a race of who can take the most amount of water in the least amount of time to deplete a resource for their pocketbooks.
Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
A new study confirms what urban residents and advocates have known for decades: that Americas urban highways are barriers to social connection.
The research, published this month in the journal PNAS, quantifies for the first time how highways have disrupted neighborhoods across the 50 biggest U.S. cities. Every single city studied showed less social connectivity between neighborhoods where highways are present.
Nobody could put a number on the disruption, and now we can give a score to every single highway segment, says Luca Aiello, a professor at the IT University of Copenhagen and the studys lead author.
By comparing the social connections among people living on either side of highways to a baseline model of the same city with no highways, researchers found that the three U.S. cities that have experienced the most social disruption from highway infrastructure are Cleveland, Orlando, and Milwaukee.
To infer individual social ties, the study relied upon geolocated user data from social media platform X. Researchers assumed that two individuals were connected if they had mutual followers and estimated users home location based on where their posts were sent from.
Aiello notes that there has long been qualitative or small-scale evidence that highways and other urban infrastructure are disruptive to local communities, especially Black neighborhoods.
The problem is that nobody had any way to quantitatively measure how much this infrastructure impacts or decreases peoples opportunities to connect across these large highways, he says. If we can quantify and put a number on this, we can quantify the damage that it is doing to our social fabric.
In all the cities studied, the barrier effect was stronger at shorter distances (less than about 3 miles) and weaker at longer distances (of about 12 miles and more). If someone wants to cross a multilane highway, it takes a lot of effort, explains coauthor Anastassia Vybornova of the IT University of Copenhagen. So highways connect over long distances, but divide over short ones.
A long history of disruptive infrastructure
Researchers found several examples of highways as interracial barriers, where a predominantly Black community lives on one side of the highway and a predominantly white community exists on the other. Detroits Eight Mile Road is a classic example.
They also found examples of highways as intraracial barriers, where the highway runs directly through a predominantly Black community. Nashvilles I-40which split up a vibrant middle-class Black neighborhood, displacing about 80% of Nashvilles Black businesses, more than 600 homes, and close to 1,500 peopleis one of many such cases.
Highway infrastructure has long been connected to racial segregation practices across the United States. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower passed the Federal Aid Highway Act, allotting $25 billion to build 41,000 miles worth of highways.
The goal was to create a way to connect cities and address the poor road conditions. Ultimately, though, building highways through cities provided white suburbanites with convenient commutes to urban centers, while also allowing governments to remove entire communities of color in the name of urban renewal and slum clearance.
As Black Americans began migrating to cities to pursue economic opportunities, wealthier white residents left urban areas for the suburbs in a phenomenon known as white flight. The interests of white suburbaniteswho wanted to use highways to access the city for work and entertainment but also wanted to protect their own property values and businessesheavily influenced infrastructure development plans.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, these interstates displaced more than 475,000 households and more than 1 million people. Today, community leaders and historians alike acknowledge that highways were a key tool for segregating and displacing Black communities during the 1950s and 60s.
A call for policy solutions
Research has long established negative long-term health impacts for those living and working near highways. The exposure to increased air and noise pollution, particularly with 300 meters of highways, can lead to an increased risk for lung disease, heart problems, premature birth, respiratory diseases, neurological disorders, and more.
But more sparse social connections have very real consequences for residents health and economic well-being, too.
[Highways] limit social opportunities, and those social opportunities are connected directly to financial opportunities, Aiello says. Over time we see how these communities continue to lose.
City governments and urban planners have increasingly begun working to mitigate these effects by removing or capping highways, with former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg noting in 2021 that there is racism physically built into some of our highways.
Last year, the Biden administration announced $3.3 billion for projects to reconnect neighborhoods divided by the federal highway system. Funds for this program, and others with equity goals, have been halted under the Trump administration.
This story was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit news outlet covering solutions for equitable cities. Sign up for Next Citys newsletter for the latest articles and events.
Spatial intelligence is an emerging approach to deploying AI in the physical world. By combining mapping data with artificial intelligence, it aims to deliver smart data tied to specific locationseven indoors and across multiple stories. With this technology, maps become more intelligent, evolving into 3D representations that offer contextual information not just about places, but also about the people and activities within them. While Google Maps and other platforms have long mapped streets and roads, the vertical, or Z-axis (i.e. spaces above and below ground) has remained largely uncharted. Until now.
The ability to project dynamic intelligence into our world has long been a staple of science fiction and has indeed inspired some real world innovations in Silicon Valley such as early cellphones at Motorola, which were inspired by the Star Trek communicator; or the metaverse, which was inspired by Neil Stephensons novel Snow Crash); any one of several technologies inspired by the film Minority Report, and holograms inspired by Star Wars, to name a few. Today, with large language models handling the delivery and interpretation of information, maps are struggling to catch up. Embedding AI more deeply into our physical environments not only gives contextual relevance to the structures and parts of our physical world, it creates new channels for data collection and analysisabout people, behaviors, and interactions. This means, in effect, that information about places is no longer limited to a flat map; it can now be dynamic, hyper-localized, and personal.
Whos building spatial intelligenceand why
Many companies are working on spatial intelligence from different angles. Some, like Descartes Labs, synthesize satellite, weather, and market data into actionable intelligence. Blacksky supports military and commercial partners by tracking rapid changes in geography. Mapbox customizes route planning by adding layers of intelligencelike dining options, scenic routes, or even music. Carto helps businesses analyze spatial data to identify patterns and turn those insights into strategy or revenue. While companies like Carto work on backend analytics, others like Mapbox provide direct consumer utility. And the AR industry continues to geolocate content.
However, todays spatial analysis is still largely limited to flat maps. To broaden its utility, mapping must become more immersiveaccounting for 3D objects, vertical space, and highly localized environments.
Another ambitious player in the field, World Labs, was cofounded by Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, often called the godmother of AI. The company is building Large World Models (LWMs) that can perceive, generate, and interact with 3D worldscomplete with physics, semantics, and control. With $230 million in funding from a sizable roster of Silicon Valley luminary VCs and companies, World Labs aims to generate limitless virtual spaces, essentially layering privatized dimensional data onto the digital world. Dr. Lis dual roleleading this company while also advising the state of California on AI policyraises potential conflicts of interest, especially as other companies lack such access or influence.
The energy problem behind the tech
Building and operating spatial intelligence systems demands massive power, and already AIs energy consumption is straining the grid. As AIs energy appetite grows, some tech companies are turning to nuclear power. Microsoft, for example, is funding the restart of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; and Amazon has acquired land near the plant. Alphabet/Google signed a deal to purchase energy from multiple small modular reactors through Kairos Power, and Nvidia, has been backing nuclear-powered AI deployments with PG&E at Californias Diablo Canyon by managing the facilitys First Commercial Deployment of an On-Site Generative AI solution for their Nuclear Energy Sector. Meanwhile Meta, whose prior attempts towards nuclear energy were thwarted by bees, has not given up its effort, and has released an RFP seeking nuclear power partners with either small or large reactors to help them reach their energy usage goals.
It is worrying that the companies that have created the move fast and break things ethos are now getting into the nuclear energy gameand selling their generative AI software to run these nuclear power plants. Many small distributed reactors are being proposed by startups with limited nuclear experience, some near population centers. There are also questions about the dangers and resilience of AI-run software and testing practices, especially when applied to systems as critical as nuclear energy.
The return of nuclear power in service of AI and spatial intelligence raises serious concerns, given past nuclear efforts in the U.S. have been fraught with issues such as meltdowns, leaks, and equipment failures. Now, with climate change intensifying and weather patterns destabilizing, previously safe waste storage sites may also be at risk.
Spatial intelligence holds undeniable appeal to many, both for utility and profit. The ability to access real-time, contextual information about any spaceeven vertical onesis indeed seductive. But underneath that convenience lies a complex reality: a world where every space could be subject to tracking, surveillance, and monetization. And that, combined with a nuclear push, plays into powering the tech sector and governments vision for new kinds of smart cities, hinted to have less regulation and broader experimentation, with big energy needs. As AIs energy demands grow, the quiet revival of nuclear power by tech folks suddenly disrupting power to build, restore, and run private nuclear power plants, may carry many more unforeseen consequences that will impact all of our lives.
Tres Xemeneies (Three Chimneys) is a former coal-fired power plant in Sant Adri de Bess. Think of it as Barcelonas own Battersea Power Station, London’s iconic power station that has been redeveloped into a technological hub (and Apple’s new London digs). Like Battersea, Barcelona’s plant is set to undergo a radical transformation into the new Catalunya Media Citya cutting-edge hub for digital arts, technology, and education.
The winning design is called E la nave va, a nod to Federico Fellinis film of the same name, which translates to And the Ship Sails On, a reference to how this long-dead structure that resembles a three-mast ship will keep cruising history in a new era. According to its creatorsBarcelona-based Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and New York-Barcelona firm Marvelthe project promises to honor the sites industrial legacy while propelling it into a sustainable, community-centric future. The project is slated to break ground in late 2025 and be completed by 2028.
[Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
Three Chimneys looks exactly how it sounds: a gigantic structure dominated by three 650-foot-tall chimneys. The brutalist plant was built in the 1970s and faced controversy even before its opening. Many of the residents of Badalona and Barcelona hated it both for the aesthetics and the environmental implications. Its problems continued in 1973, when workers building the station went on strike for better working conditions, and one person was killed by police. The company that ran the station was also sued because of the pollution it caused, and the plant eventually shuttered.
[Photo: courtesy Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
The structure is imposing. Its giant concrete vaults, labyrinthine floors, and towering chimneys presented a unique challenge to preserving its industrial DNA while adapting it for the 21st century. Guido Hartray, founding partner of Marvel, tells me over email that the buildings dense structure and distinct spatial qualities guided the strategy. Rather than force modern elements onto the existing framework, the team used the buildings features to organize its function.
[Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
For instance, the lower floorswith their enclosed, cavernous spaceswill house vocational training classrooms and research labs, while the airy upper levels with their panoramic coastal views will host incubators and exhibition halls. We kept the existing structure largely unaltered, Hartray says, retaining its experiential qualities and limiting modifications. This approach ensures that the power plants raw, industrial essence remains palpable, even as it accommodates immersive media studios and a modern, 5,600-square-meter exhibition hall likened to Londons Tate Modern Turbine Hall. The intervention isnt a sharp contrast between old and new, Hartray notes. Its a dialogue.
[Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
The architects leveraged the buildings robust concrete skeletona relic of its industrial pastas a sustainability asset. Barcelonas mild climate allows the thermal mass of the concrete to passively regulate temperatures, reducing reliance on mechanical systems. Spaces requiring precise climate control, such as recording studios and laboratories, are nested in a building within a building, insulated from external fluctuations, according to the studios.
The rooftop will double as a public terrace and energy hub, with 4,500 square meters of solar panels generating renewable power. This dual function not only offsets the energy demands of lighting and HVAC systems but also creates a communal vantage point connecting Barcelona, Sant Adri de Bess, and Badalona. The rooftops role as both infrastructure and gathering space embodies our vision of sustainability as a social and environmental practice, Hartray says.
[Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
From turbine hall to coastal balcony
The projects most striking interventionthe transversal cuts that slice through the turbine hallemerged from a meticulous study of the buildings anatomy. Marvel and Garcés de Seta Bonet identified natural breaks in the long, warehouse-like structure, using these to carve openings that link the interior to the outdoors. These cuts create fluid transitions between the industrial hall and the surrounding landscape, stitching together the Barcelona-Badalona urban axis and the natural borders of sea and mountains.
[Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
The north facades new balcony, overlooking the Badalona coastline, epitomizes this connectivity. Jordi Garcés, cofounder of Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes, tells me via email that they have designed a proposal that plays with connections and knotstemporal, landscape, and territorial. One of the key features will be linking the city with the sea, where users and residents can share a large communal space. For the first time, there will be a balcony facing the city of Badalona, north of Barcelona. The architectural elements at different heights will offer new landscape perspectives, as if it were a land art piece. In this shared communal space, he says, residents and visitors alike can engage with the Mediterranean horizon.
[Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel]
The building is the core of Catalunya Media City, which is a project that the regional government says will democratize access to technology and creativity. It claims that it will house educational programs for more than 2,500 students annually, including vocational training; research incubators partnering with universities and corporations; immersive installations and performances in a monumental hall with 56-foot-tall ceilings; and production studios, including an auditorium, soundstages, and UX labs.
Ren Barrus was just an intern at Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear and apparel company, when he noticed piles of used backpacks and jackets sitting in boxes at the warehouse. The company was only 3 years oldstill a startupbut already, customers were eagerly using its 61-year warranty. One broken zipper and the brand would send a completely new backpack, no questions asked. It wasnt that consumers were gaming the system; they just expected durability.
Two years later, by then a team lead, Barrus launched a guerrilla repair program: When customers sent in their broken gear, hed drive it to his moms house in Utah where she would fix it up on her sewing machine, and ship it back. While no one at the company knew about it, this type of initiative was encouraged in Cotopaxis culture. Once he had a few success stories, he pitched it to leadership and they made it official in 2018.
That homegrown effort laid the foundation for Cotopaxis now fully developed circularity program. Today, the brand starts with sustainably sourced materials and extends the life cycle of products through Mas Vida, its resale platform that sells pre-loved gear. Although the brand still offers a lengthy warranty, repairsnot replacementsare now the first line of defense.
[Photo: Cotopaxi]
Lifetime warranties, which have long served as a signal of quality, used to be the gold standard. But in an era of fast fashion, shifting consumer habits, and rising climate urgency, that promise doesnt carry the same weight. Some companies now use lifetime warranties more as a customer loyalty hack than a commitment to longevityoften because sending out a new product is cheaper than handling repairs or returns. While many customers love the convenience, others are growing tired of the waste. Reddit threads are full of users whove replaced an item multiple times, only to run into the same flaw again and again.
Brands like Cotopaxi are rethinking what it really means to stand behind a productand theyre betting that todays consumers want something more lasting, thoughtful, and adaptable.
From Policy to Practice
Mattress company Saatva, which has been around for 15 years, is another example of a long-standing repair model. Through its Friends for Life warranty, the company replaces any defective mattress within the first two years, free of charge. After that, we instead encourage our customers to repair if there’s a damage or defect versus disposing of a perfectly fine mattress, says Rocco DiMilta, senior vice president of business operations.
Of course, not every brand has the infrastructure to make this work. DiMilta explains that most bed-in-a-box mattress companies would struggle to manage returns and repairs through third-party services like FedEx or UPS, which can be prohibitively expensive. Saatva, by contrast, operates more than 150 distribution centers across the country, which makes localized logistics far more manageable.
Still, even Saatva asks customers to share in the cost. We ask the customer to understand that moving merchandise around isn’t cheap and that’s why they pay $149 for the transportation, DiMilta says.
[Photo: Saatva]
While the in-house repair model works for Saatva and other brands, it also requires keeping spare parts in stock and having a team that can refurbish products. For highly technical repairs. Cotopaxi works with third-party partners: Sometimes, it’s neither desirable nor effective to try to build out your own programs. There are already amazing providers in this space, says Annie Agle, vice president of sustainability and impact at Cotopaxi. We have a really amazing technical repair partner called Rugged Thread.
Companies can also outsource the job by having a network of affiliated repair businesses around the country that carry the parts or materials needed to repair the brands products, says Anna Sáez de Tejada Cuenca, circularity researcher and assistant professor of operations, information, and technology at IESE Business School in Spain. This also reduces the carbon footprint, because a customer can drop by a local store instead of shipping a product back.
However, theres no one-size-fits-all model. Each company should consider what works best for their materials and product category. When repair isnt realistic, brands like Levis and Arcteryx have implemented buyback programsin which brands purchase the used product from a customer and keep the item in circulation through resale or material reuse.
Designing for Longevity
A repair program is only as good as the product it supports. Brands and manufacturers have to make things designed to last a long timedesigned to be repaired, says Sáez de Tejada Cuenca. A poorly made itemone with thin fabric or weak seamsmight fall apart before the zipper even has a chance to fail.
[Photo: Cotopaxi]
Brands like Cotopaxi are using repair insights to inform future design choices. If we see the same repair happening over and over again on the same product, then that information goes back to design and development so that on the next iteration of that product we can implement changes, Agle says.
Some companies are exploring modular designproducts built with interchangeable or replaceable partsto extend usable life even further. Running brand Nnormal, for example, created a shoe with replaceable midsoles, offering runners a more sustainable alternative to tossing the whole shoe once the cushioning is worn out. Fairphone takes a similar approach with its smartphones: Users can replace everything from the battery to the camera module with just a screwdriver. Its a stark contrast to the sealed, short-lifespan design of most mainstream electronicsand a glimpse at what a more circular tech industry could look like.
Building Buy-In
Circularity programs work only if consumers understand and believe in them. We try to educate the consumer from the very first moment that they’re introduced to our brand, says DiMilta. We make sure that we explain that the high-quality materials can be refreshed rather than discarded, right? Customers’ expectations are not only lived up to, but they’re known ahead of time.
[Photo: Saatva]
For both Cotopaxi and Saatva, sustainability is baked into the brand ethos. Theyre attracting many of their customers because of their earth-friendly policiesso many were already on board with these changes from the start.
But some larger brands dont have that kind of credibility. With less of a sustainability track record, companies may face more frictionand more skepticism. Still, theyre the ones with the reach to drive real change. Big brands that already have the name should start taking the lead on these kinds of programs because the big impact is on the mainstream and the mass consumption, says Sáez de Tejada Cuenca. It’s a culture shift that needs to happen at the consumer and brand level at the same time.
Streamlining the Process
For consumers to actually choose the more sustainable option, it has to be easy. A lot of people want to do better for the planet but dont have the money, or time, or skills, says Riani Kenyon, consumer behavior analyst at Canvas8. If their favorite brand gives them the tools that they need, its kind of like handing it on a platter like, Ill make this easy for you. It allows people to bridge the intention-action gap when it comes to sustainability.
This means eliminating as many logistical barriers as possible: prepaid shipping labels, home pickupsanything to make repair or resale as easy as throwing something away. If the experience of participating in these business models is as similar as possible to dropping something in your trash bin, more people will participate just naturally, Sáez de Tejada Cuenca says.
Saatva, which offers pickups, has found that when the repair process is simple and affordable, customers are often eager to take that route. Customers are more likely to opt for the repair rather than the replacement option because they know that they can get the product fixed at no additional cost other than the transportation, DiMilta says.
That kind of frictionless experience also builds trust and brand loyalty. Still, Sáez de Tejada Cuenca notes that getting the average consumer to buy in remains extremely difficult. Different consumers might need different reasonings to hop on board, she says. For some, its about environmental values and reducing waste. For others, it might resonate more if framed around durability, craftsmanship, or even Made in America pride. In todays polarized climate, brands may need to adapt messaging depending on their audience.
A New Mode of Ownership
For many consumers, a lifetime warranty no longer feels relevant. People are going from working in the office to going freelance to moving to a new country, Kenyon says. When people don’t even know what the next year is going to look like for them, they want offers that keep up with their changing lifestyles.
[Photo: Cotopaxi]
Resale or rental opportunities are providing much needed flexibility for consumers who care about waste but dont necessarily want to commit to owning something forever. Increasingly, brands like Cotopaxi, Zara, and Ganni are bringing these offerings in-houselaunching their own resale and rental programs instead of relying on third-party platforms like ThredUp. Giving customers an easy, branded way to return, repair, or recirculate products builds more trustand keeps them coming back.
All of this doesnt mean warranties should disappear. However, they need to be part of a broader, more thoughtful approach. We need to rethink how we produce and consume things, says Sáez de Tejada Cuenca. Do we want to make a profit out of large volumes and thin margins? Or do we want to sell much less volume and establish long-term engagement with the consumer?
The psychological contract hasnt just shifted around where we work. It has shifted, and continues to shift, around the entire relationship between organizations and employees. That shift in expectations feels most dramatic when we look at Gen Z, the latest entrants to the workforce.
More than 40% of Gen Z employees have refused a work assignment because of ethical concerns. Nearly four in 10 have turned down a job with a company that doesnt align with their values. In the workplace, they are driving the conversation around social justice, mental health, and work-life balance.
More than 90% of workers say theyve been influenced by Gen Z on issues of meaning at work, and more than six in 10 say Gen Z has made them more likely to speak up when they dont approve of something at work.
Career Stage vs. Generational Differences
Some of the generational differences were experiencing are just career stage differences. While the Three Cs of meaningful workcommunity, contribution, and challengeare important for everyone, different people will value different sources of meaning more highly. In particular, those newer to the workforce tend to want opportunities to learn and grow.
Jennifer Deal, who has studied generational changes at work for many years, says, When people talk about generations, what they do is they think about lumps of people cohorts that were born at a particular time, and that doesnt really have as much of an effect in the workplace as does life stage, career stage, and level in the organization. Young people want to be challenged. While you should focus on all Three Cs for everybody, you might want to put more weight on challenge for people who are new to the workforce and weigh things differently for people who are middle or later career.
Other generational differences, however, represent a shift in employees expectations of organizations and their leaders. Arthur Brooks shares, Every year I teach Harvard MBA students about happiness and its unique relationship to leadership. These students are almost all destined for tremendous success as measured in worldly terms: money, prestige, and power. To most people in our society, this seems like a dream come true and the secret to happiness. Yet each year, when I speak to my MBA studentsboth in class and in private office hoursmany are concerned. Are they truly on the path to happiness because of their near-certain success? They talk to alumni who complain about workaholism, broken relationships, and trouble finding passion. This provokes a lot of anxiety about meaning.
What Gen Z can teach
In our consulting work, were frequently called in to help leaders navigate the divide between younger and older employees. We commonly hear things like, These kids just dont want to work. We find it more accurate to say, These kids dont want to work the way you did.
While younger employees of course have a lot to learn, we believe this generation also has some things to teach. As we move toward a new, better model of work, this rising cohort is challenging many long-held ideals and broken structures. They arent encumbered by the old system because they havent invested in it.
Kahlil Shepard, a Gen Z worker, says, I want to do things that matter. I want to feel like Im constantly evolving. I want to work at a place where leaders are facilitating not just my growth broadly but also my ability to live out my values in the world.
Leaders can, and should, challenge this cohort to temper their ideals with practical realities. At the same time, leaders have an opportunity to take their aspirations of a better model and help bring it to life. This requires leaders to unlearn some of the meaning-killing behaviors that are a part of the old model and adopt better ways of working.
The future holds the promise of better work for all of us. We all want meaningful workwork that builds community, that contributes to others, and that challenges us to grow. As a leader, you have far more influence than you think in creating this meaning for others.
Small moments of meaning can create ripples that reach our families, friends, and neighbors. The impact of these moments can extend far into the future. We believe that now and into the future every job can, and should, be meaningful with the help of a great leader. We believe that leader is you.
What if all jobs were meaningful?
Imagine a world where every job is designed to be sustainable and fulfilling. Where jobs offer not just a paycheck but also a sense of contribution. Imagine work environments that prioritize relationships and connections over mere transactions. What if every employee was valued not as a temporary fix or a number on a balance sheet but as a crucial, long-term contributor to the organizations success? Imagine a world where earning a living did not come at the cost of living a meaningful life. How would this shift in work impact our organizations, our society, and our personal well-being?
Making work meaningful is not an item to check off your to-do list. Its the critical lens through which you must view every decision, interaction, and task. Meaning is createdor destroyedin daily moments. Every conversation in which you truly listen, every piece of positive feedback you give, and every project you assign that encourages learning and growth dont just add upthey multiply.
Excerpted from Meaningful Work: How to Ignite Passion and Performance in Every Employee. Copyright 2025 by Wes Adams and Tamara Myles. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Things are tough right now, with complexity and uncertainty in the world driving stress and worry. Youre probably trying to stay positive and muscle through. But theres an important difference between keeping appropriately optimistic and acting with toxic positivity.
If youre faced with toxic positivity in yourself or others, its probably based on good intentions that have run amok. But it can actually create a negative spiral that can make things worse.
Staying positive during trying times
According to a survey from MyPerfectResume, people are reporting record levels of exhaustion, anxiety, and stress with 88% who said they were burned out. In addition, 32% of respondents reported they felt anxiety, including 30% who had headaches and 25% who had muscle pain related to their burnout, according to the data.
Attempting to stay optimistic is a reasonable response, but toxic positivity is what happens when that goes too far. It involves ignoring reality, suppressing negative emotions, and trying to be overly positive in every situation, regardless of reality. Those with toxic positivity may also try to impose their attitudes on othersto the annoyance of those around them.
Toxic positivity has multiple negative effects. First, when people demonstrate toxic positivity, it can result in denying reality, and undermining their ability to respond constructively to negative situations. Second, an unwillingness to express real emotions can result in feeling isolated from others and can cause mental health challenges for the person expressing toxic positivity.
Third, when someone is acting with toxic positivity and denying others emotions, it creates barriers to forming a trusting relationship, because others may feel devalued. Fourth, when someone is perceived as inauthentic, others may question their honesty or integrityagain getting in the way of building relationships.
So, how can you be positive without embracing toxic behavior? There are some strategies that work.
Be aware and be realistic
You can avoid toxic positivity by staying aware of whats going onincluding the bad news or challenges that emerge. Repressing or avoiding difficulties or uncomfortable facts is a classic characteristic of toxic positivity. Avoid burying your head in the sand. Instead, seek information, stay in the know, and be aware. You dont have to overdo negative thinking or marinate in bad news, but you will want to keep your eyes open to real situations and circumstances.
Its also important to be realistic. You dont need to overcorrect toxic positivity by catastrophizing or anticipating all the worst outcomes, but its constructive to be clear about whats going on and face up to the need for solutions. Put energy into responding to problems instead of investing energy in sealing them out.
As youre working through disappointment or discouragement with yourself or others, also avoid using insincere positive statements or gimmicks. A study published in Psychological Science found that most people believe positive statements can help their mood and their self-esteem. But in the experiment, people who struggled with low self-esteem and who also repeated positive self-statements like, Im a loveable person, felt worse than they did before using the self-statement.
The bottom line: Sometimes inauthentic or superficial solutions like hollow self-talk are worse than an honest assessment of whats difficult and an intention to deal with it. Encourage and empower yourself and others, but stop short of using superficial feel-good statements that get in the way of authenticity or action.
Be empathetic
At the same time youre aware of situations and realities, youll also need to stay in tune with people and be empathic toward them. Consider what theyre going through, ask questions, and listen to their points of view.
By validating what people are going through and by being present with them in tough times, you can both support them and empower them to work through difficulties. This is helpful to them and it also builds the relationship, which is good for both of you.
Also avoid imposing your attitudes on others. If youre naturally an optimistic person, thats fine, but avoid attempting to change others. Youll want to support them, but if you try to convince someone that everything is okay despite all theyre going through, youll just irritate them and drive a wedge in the relationship.
Its okay to be optimistic
While youre avoiding a toxic approach to positivity, you can be optimistic. Look to the future and be hopeful about itand take action to find solutions for the issues that are important to you.
Optimism can lead to positive outcomes. In a study of over 70,000 people researchers from Boston University surveyed respondents about their optimism and compared it to their health data, over a 10 to 30 year period. They found that those who were more optimistic boosted their longevity by 11% to 15% and increased their chances of living to age 85 by 50%.
These effects on longevity were in spite of participants age, education, diseases, or depressionand regardless of habits related to alcohol use, exercise, or diet. Researchers believe that optimism is so powerful because it may help people bounce back from stress and regulate emotions.
The difference between toxic positivity and healthy optimism is a matter of degree. If you deny reality, you may be tipping into toxic territory. But if you can be empathetic and avoid imposing your positivity on others, you reach a reasonable balance and connect more deeply with others.
In the past week, I had “conversations” with two leaders who talked too much. They were good people with interesting stories to share. But they went on for far too long while I just sat and listened. Characteristically, they asked few questions and, when they did, didn’t seem to be interested in my responses. These two leaders were engaged but seemingly not curious or fully present.
These encounters crystallized something I’ve observed repeatedly in my decades of executive coaching: A damaging leadership blind spot is the simple inability to stop talking.
I call this a “leadership trap” because it ensnares otherwise effective executives in a paradox: The same verbal fluency that may have helped them rise through organizational ranks becomes a liability once they arrive in positions of authority. What got them noticed now gets in their way.
The drivers of excessive talking
As I reflected on these two leaders, I realized they reflected a pattern I’ve seen many times. Contrary to what many might assume, their excessive talking wasn’t rooted in narcissism or self-absorption. Instead, it flowed from more complex motivations they likely didn’t even recognize.
The first executive, a fast-moving consumer goods leader, seemed driven by an underlying insecurity. Despite his considerable achievements, his need to recount every detail of his company’s growth story suggested he was still seeking validation. His monologues were attempts to prove his wortha verbal résumé delivered even when no one had questioned his credentials.
The second leader, a newly promoted senior vice president in healthcare, displayed what I’ve come to recognize as “the silence phobia.” Whenever our conversation reached a natural pause, she would quickly fill the gap with another anecdote. This discomfort with silence is not uncommon among leaders, who often experience momentary quiet as a vacuum that must be filled.
Why leaders often talk too much
In my coaching practice, I’ve identified several other drivers that cause well-intentioned leaders to monopolize conversations:
Some leaders talk excessively due to underdeveloped self-awareness. They genuinely don’t realize they’re dominating discussions. Without deliberate attention to their communication patterns, these leaders never notice the subtle signs of disengagement around themthe avoided eye contact, the phones checked under the table, the contributions that gradually diminish.
Others feel intense pressure to appear intelligent and in control, especially those promoted based on technical prowess rather than leadership ability. They may dive into excessive detail, not realizing that their desire to impress often achieves the opposite effect, frustrating employees who prefer clear, concise direction.
The organizational cost
When leaders don’t create space for others’ voices, organizations pay a steep priceoften without realizing the source of their struggles.
Both leaders I met last week lead sizable teams. I couldn’t help wondering how their communication styles were affecting their organizations. Were team members experiencing the same one-sided conversations? Were valuable insights going unshared because there was simply no space to offer them?
This pattern creates what I think of as “conversational quicksand.” The more leaders talk, the less others contribute. The less others contribute, the more leaders feel compelled to fill the silence. Each interaction reinforces the dynamic, gradually pulling teams deeper into passivity.
The business consequences extend beyond frustrating meetings. When employee engagement diminishes, team members feel their input is neither valued nor necessary. Innovation suffers as people become less inclined to voice their opinions, knowing they’ll struggle to find space in the conversation.
Perhaps most damaging, leaders who talk too much paradoxically undermine their own influence. When someone speaks at length, their key messages get lost in the verbal deluge important signals drowning in noise. Team members start tuning out, missing crucial information as they struggle to maintain focus through lengthy monologues.
In exit interviews, feeling “not listened to” consistently ranks among the top reasons talented people leave organizations. The efficiency of team operations also suffers, with long-winded explanations making meetings feel like endurance exercises rather than productive gatherings.
Breaking the pattern
One of the most difficult challenges in helping verbose leaders change their approach is that many don’t recognize the problem. The first step toward change is typically a wake-up callobjective feedback that makes the pattern impossible to ignore.
A structured 360-degree feedback process often provides this necessary reality check. One leader I worked with was genuinely shocked when his feedback revealed that team members felt “steamrolled” in meetings.
For leaders ready to address this challenge, I recommend a simple but powerful practice: the “talk time” journal. After each significant meeting, they estimate the percentage of time they spent talking. One executive I coached was stunned to discover he was talking 7080% of the time in meetings explicitly called to get input from his team.
The “WAIT principle”asking oneself “Why Am I Talking?” before continuing to speakoffers another practical checkpoint. This simple internal question helps leaders assess whether their contribution adds value or merely takes up space.
Today’s technology offers additional support. AI-driven meeting analytics tools can monitor speaking patterns, providing objective data on who speaks and for how longa communication fitness tracker where numbers tell the truth when perception might not.
Many leaders benefit from enlisting a “communication buddy”someone they trust to provide honest feedback with subtle real-time cues during meetings when the leader begins to dominate.
Perhaps the most powerful technique is practicing strategic silence. By consciously pausing after asking questions and resisting the urge to fill quiet moments, leaders create space for reflection and encourage more thoughtful contributions from others.
An increase in influence
After my encounters last week, I reflected on a leader I’d coached several years ago. He had initially displayed the same pattern of dominating conversations but had committed to changing his approach. After six months of deliberate practice, he had reduced his talking time from approximately 60% to 30% of team meetings.
The results were transformativenot just more engaged employees but also better decisions, faster execution, and ultimately stronger business results. “I used to think leadership was about having all the answers,” he told me. “Now I understand it’s about asking the right questions.”
This paradoxicalresultincreased influence through decreased talkingemerges consistently in my work with leaders. When they create space for others’ voices, they not only access more diverse thinking but also elevate the significance of their own contributions.
The goal isn’t to make leaders talk less just for the sake of it. Instead, it’s about helping them become more effective communicators who create environments where every voice contributes to success. When leaders master this balance, their influence increases even as their word count decreases.
As I left my meetings with those two leaders last week, I wished I could offer them this insight: Your greatest impact as a leader often comes not from what you say, but from what you enable others to say. Leadership communication isn’t about holding the floorit’s about creating the conditions for collective intelligence to flourish.
The next time you find yourself dominating a discussion, ask yourself: Am I talking because it’s necessary, or simply because I can? Your leadership effectiveness may depend on your answer.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Since ChatGPTs launch in 2022, it feels like artificial intelligence is finally going mainstream. From Fortune 500 board rooms to dinner tables, everyone is talking about AI, its applications, and its promise. With more than $500 billion flowing into AI infrastructure investments, many investors predict the AI wave is just gaining momentum.
Those investors are right, AI still has a long way to go before it is truly ubiquitous. But more importantly, we have to tread carefully when we talk about AI going mainstream. The reality is that while many reading this article are already using AI in our daily lives, there are billions of people around the world who are a long way away from feeling AIs impacts and opportunities.
So how do we truly change the world with AI? The opportunity isnt just about reach, but about the underlying data and infrastructure that will be needed to make AI a truly global technology revolution.
Lessons from mobile phone adoption
We can learn a lot about the promises and pitfalls of technology revolutions by looking to the past. Today, 70.5% of the worlds population uses a cellphone. Yet, its taken nearly 50 years for cellphones to gain worldwide adoption since the first mobile phone call was made in 1973 by Martin Cooper, a Motorola executive, using a prototype mobile phone.
While mobile phone technology has improved significantly, with phones getting smaller and smarter over the years, the real power of mobile phones took hold with the cellular networks evolution. The 2G cellular network introduction in 2000 catapulted mobile phone usage forward and made it possible for companies like Apple to imagine the first iPhone, launched in 2007.
Without significant investment and expansion in global cellular networksthe foundational infrastructure required to bring cell phone technology to every corner of the worldits possible that cell phones would never have gained popularity or market share.
Biases and blind spots
So, what hurdle does AI need to overcome to truly become a global technology? While many investors are looking towards power and chipsthe critical GPUs that allow AI to performthey are missing a much more important foundation: data.
Large language models (LLMs)the backbone of todays AIare only as good as the data they are trained on. Unfortunately, data often comes with built-in biases and blind spots.
Consider for a moment that many of the most popular LLMs have been built by U.S. companies and are trained on large, publicly available datasets using online sources like literature, news, social media, and Wikipedia. While expansive, this data is inherently influenced by Western cultural norms, political ideologies, and historical viewpoints. This is a problem if the AI product is meant to be used globally.
Its a simple truth: Online data tends to reflect wealthier, tech-savvy populations that represent a very small percentage of the world population. As a result, the LLMs powering the most exciting AI are only relevant and working for English-speaking users with regular internet access, but are failing to account for the experiences and realities of the global majority.
The path forward
One solution is stronger AI governanceimplementing policies and procedures that actively mitigate biases in AI models and the underlying data they depend on. This has become a growing focus for policymakers and industry leaders alike, aiming to make training data more inclusive and models more reflective of diverse perspectives. Auditing systems for algorithmic fairness is one way to address this.
However, relying on a handful of AI companies to self-regulate has its limitations. Arriving at an industry standard consensus can be difficult, policy adoption can be slow, and enforcement is often inconsistent. We need a broader approach.
Another way forward is for companies to take matters into their own hands by pairing the depth of their own proprietary datasets and domain expertise with the breadth and processing power of existing AI models. By making a commitment to their own data management, companies across industries and regions present a huge opportunity to help improve and expand available data sets. Leveraging new, alternative sources of customer data is core to my company Talas thesis on reaching true global scaleand has enabled Tala to efficiently implement AI in its financial infrastructure.
A truly global revolution
One thing is clear: AI is here to stay, and its pace of development will only accelerate. But if we do not address its biases and blind spots now, we risk leaving billions of people out of the equation.
There is hope that the AI industryfrom incumbents to disruptorswill recognize the global opportunity to implement AI. Companies must take proactive steps by adopting forward-thinking AI governance, while also leveraging proprietary data to fill in the gaps of the first generation of LLMs. The opportunity starts with global data and infrastructure. We are early enough in the lifecycle of AI to make sure we are building products to revolutionize the entire world, not just parts of it.
Shivani Siroya is founder and CEO of Tala.
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
The economy is something of a rollercoaster and consumer behavior is shifting just as fast. From fluctuating costs to changing shopping habits, todays market represents a real opportunity to support transformation for brands.
As trusted marketing partners, our role isnt to predict whats next but to help clients confidently navigate the complexity, adapt with agility, and stay closely attuned to what their customers need right now. The evolving climate requires media and marketing professionals to develop a deeper understanding of how macroeconomic forces directly impact their clients’ decision-making processes. For example, when tariffs increase for say, a tequila producer targeting the U.S. market, the ripple effects are immediate. Those costs must be accounted for, either through increased pricing, which affects consumer purchasing patterns, or adjusting allocations elsewhere, including ad and marketing budgets.
It is imperative to maintain client-centricity. So how can we, as agency leaders, support clients during unpredictable economic times and show up as more strategic business partners?
Stay informed
Every business is dealing with unprecedented shifts in how people shop, plus inconsistency in the market and supply chain. Everything is moving faster, and agencies need to move with agility, forecasting marketing plans for clients in real time. Theres HUGE opportunity out there, but also high risks.
Clients consistently tell us they value partners who adapt quickly to changing circumstances and who not only keep pace with the changing tides, but anticipate the shifts. Earlier this year, one of our retail clients faced potential sales losses when a major publication was ending print circulation in a key market. We responded with a proposal to shift advertising based on data insights that could potentially exceed the lost sales. The ability to respond to shifts in real time can provide a competitive edge in client service.
Instead of resisting this uncertainty, embrace it. Stay informed and stay current in the newsready to adapt, innovate, and lead the conversation. While we cant control market fluctuations, we can control our response.
Focus on human, not just machine
While businesses race towards AI adoption and automation, its easy to get swept up in the speed and scale of technology. Its important to remember that while these tools offer insights and efficiency, they dont provide the creativity, intuition, and strategic thinking that only human connection and emotional intelligence can provide.
At Havas, we show up with a mindful understanding of what our clients are going through on a day-to-day basis. The heart of our approach is a commitment to people-centricity. Professionals are seeking environments where they feel genuinely valued, where personal and professional growth are nurtured, and contributions recognized in meaningful ways. Creating a culture where employees feel heard, supported, and empowered is essential in this market.
This same value extends to client partnerships; our strategy emphasizes human expertise and technological capabilities working in harmony. Technology and automation are a means to an end (not the end itself!). Clients want more diagnostic data tools and increased media data optimization so their reporting can be more accessible and actionable. However, these tools enhance but dont replace the creativity, intuition, and strategic thinking that forge meaningful connections.
Our clients are real humans, looking at data points of real customers. This requires their agency partner to go beyond the numbers, partnering with real people at the helm to interpret customers needs with empathy and humility.
As businesses face constant recalibration with every news alert, they need their partners to care about the things they care about. By gaining a deeper understanding of their unique challenges and daily nuances, we can offer better visualizations, data granularity, collaborative insights, and recommendations, ultimately turning numbers into stories, patterns into strategy, and clicks into brand affinity.
Act in real time
Speed is currency in today’s market. By staying informed and monitoring the market, youll be able to quickly recognize and respond to organic waves of market conversation.
Success lies in agility. For one fashion client, this meant accelerating planning cycles from weeks to days to capitalize on a products viral moment, leading to increased budgets and stronger future campaigns. Because we spent the time building a trusted and collaborative partnership with this client, we understood their audiences, objectives, and goals. We established media and culture monitoring processes to better react in real time which allowed us to swiftly activate because of our shared understanding.
Spot the trend and seize the momentum because in a world that moves fast, the brands that act in real time to consumers wants and needs gain consumer share.
When wildfires hit Los Angeles earlier this year, the combination of global media attention, celebrity-driven social coverage, and AI-generated images of Hollywood in flames exacerbated the problem and led tourists to believe the cityand maybe even the statewas closed for business, sparking a wave of misinformation.
For Visit California, a nonprofit 501(c) corporation with a mission to market the state as a premier travel destination, speed was essential to deliver a powerful message of hope, resilience, and community during the Oscars. We were able to produce a meaningful moment for our client in several weeks. Leveraging agency connections, the campaign coordinated a strategic integration with award season, providing an empowering message that California is open for business, rolling out the red carpet for visitors from around the world.
Activating celebrity ambassadors, strategic media buys, and perfectly timed messaging helped negate misinformation and bolster the state’s tourism and the livelihoods of countless workers who depend on visitors.
By staying informed about market conditions, not shying away from client pressures, demonstrating adaptability, and maintaining empathy, you can deliver better, stronger results for your clients. Tomorrows successful media agencies will embrace this and build meaningful partnerships that last longer than any economic turbulence.
We only exist because our clients trust us. Understanding their business is our business and agile actions in times that are changing faster than ever before, is how we win together.
Greg James is North America CEO of Havas Media Network.
