The stock price of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is sinking yet again this morning after reports that the private healthcare company is now under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over possible Medicare fraud.
The company says it has not been notified by the DOJ about the alleged investigation, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal.
As of the time of this writing, UNH shares are currently down over 6% to $289.20 per share in premarket trading. UNH shares have not seen that low since 2020. Before todays premarket fall, UNH shares had already been hammered since 2025 began.
The stock closed at $308 yesterday, marking a more than 39% decline since the year began. Over the past six months, UNH stock had fallen 48% as of yesterdays close.
However, a majority of the stock’s fall has happened in the past five days. As of yesterdays close, the stock was down more than 21% over the periodand todays further fall is only adding to its losses.
Here are three reasons why UNH shares have fallen this week, including the latest news about the reported DOJ criminal investigation.
CEO Andrew Witty abruptly steps down
On Tuesday, UnitedHealth Group investors were hit with a double whammy of bad news, which sent the stock tumbling as much as 18% that day.
The first bit of that bad news was the announcement that UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty was abruptly stepping down from his role as chief executive.
Witty had been in the role since 2021 and was a leader whom investors adored. During his tenure, shares in UnitedHealth Group had soared more than 60%.
However, after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024and the glee with which many Americans reacted to itWitty wrote a much-maligned op-ed in the New York Times. Witty was criticized as being out of touch with the negative experiences of customers who have been denied coverage for critical and sometimes lifesaving health procedures.
Announcing Wittys immediate departure on Monday, UnitedHealth Group did not give any detailed explanation of the unexpected move. The company merely said that Witty was stepping down for personal reasons.
When a CEO abruptly leaves a company, it can make investors nervous. And nervous investors often sell, which is what happened on Tuesday after the announcement of Wittys departure.
However, Wittys departure isnt the only thing that sent UNH shares falling 18% that day.
UnitedHealth Group suspends 2025 outlook
Also announced on Tuesday was that UnitedHealth Group had decided to suspend its 2025 outlook. When a company suspends its fiscal outlook, its a sign to investors that it does not have a lot of confidence in its financial projections for the next year. This uncertainty makes investors nervous and is another reason why the stock plummeted 18% on Tuesday.
The reason UnitedHealth Group gave for suspending its 2025 outlook was due to the fact that medical costs for the companys new Medicare Advantage customer base were higher than expected.
Announcing the suspension of its 2025 outlook, UnitedHealth Groups new CEO, Stephen Hemsley, said he was deeply disappointed in and apologize for the performance setbacks we have encountered from both external and internal challenges.
The suspension of the 2025 outlook followed a cut that UnitedHealth Group made to its 2025 outlook last month. That cut came after the company missed its quarterly earnings expectations for the first time in more than 10 years.
Rumored DOJ criminal investigation
Investors were surely hoping yesterday that the worst news for UnitedHealth Group this week was behind it. After the 18% drop in UNH shares on Tuesday, UnitedHealth Groups stock price closed down just over 1% yesterdaya sign the bleeding had mostly stopped.
But now UNH shares are down more than 6% this morning in premarket trading after the Wall Street Journal reported that UnitedHealth Group is now under a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice over possible Medicare fraud.
The Journal was light on details in what the alleged criminal allegations covered, saying the exact nature of the potential criminal allegations against UnitedHealth is unclear, but it added that it was focused “on the companys Medicare Advantage business practices.
The Journals reporting of a criminal investigation follows a February report from the paper in which it said that UnitedHealth Group was facing an investigation from the DOJ over its Medicare billing practices.
Insurers get paid lump sums from the government via the Medicare Advantage system, and if patients have certain conditions, those lump-sum payments could be higher. In its February report, the Journal reported that Doctors said UnitedHealth . . . trained them to document revenue-generating diagnoses, including some they felt were obscure or irrelevant.”
It added, The company also used software to suggest conditions and paid bonuses for considering the suggestions, among other tactics, according to the doctors.
At the time, UnitedHealth Group called the Journals report misinformation.
Reached for comment about the Journal‘s latest report, UnitedHealth Group referred Fast Company to a statement published on its website:
We have not been notified by the Department of Justice of the supposed criminal investigation reported, without official attribution, in the Wall Street Journal today. The WSJs reporting is deeply irresponsible, as even it admits that the exact nature of the potential criminal allegations is unclear. We stand by the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program.
Fast Company has also reached out to the DOJ for comment. We will update this post if we hear back.
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised on Thursday to consider Donald Trump’s attempt to broadly enforce his executive order to limit birthright citizenship, a move that would affect thousands of babies born each year as the Republican president seeks a major shift in how the U.S. Constitution has long been understood.
The justices are scheduled to hear arguments on the administration’s emergency request to scale back injunctions issued by federal judges in Maryland, Washington and Massachusetts blocking Trump’s directive nationwide. The judges found Trump’s order likely violates citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The case is unusual in that the administration has used it to argue that federal judges lack the authority to issue nationwide, or “universal,” injunctions, and have asked the justices to rule that way and enforce Trump’s directive even without weighing its legal merits.
Trump’s order was challenged by Democratic attorneys general from 22 states as well as individual pregnant immigrants and immigrant rights advocates. His administration is seeking to narrow the injunctions to apply only to the individual plaintiffs and the 22 states, if the justices find the states have the required legal standing to sue. That could allow the policy to take effect in the 28 states that did not sue, aside from any plaintiffs living in those states.
Trump signed his order, a key part of his hardline approach toward immigration, on January 20, his first day back in office. It directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority, including three justices appointed by Trump during his first term as president.
The plaintiffs argued that Trump’s directive violated the 14th Amendment, which long has been understood to confer citizenship on almost anyone born on U.S. soil. The 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause states that all “persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
The administration contends that the citizenship clause does not extend to immigrants in the country illegally or immigrants whose presence is lawful but temporary, such as university students or those on work visas.
The Justice Department has argued that these people are not subject to the “political jurisdiction” of the United States because their primary allegiance is to foreign countries.
Automatic birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and “birth tourism” by expectant mothers traveling the United States to give birth and secure citizenship for their children, the Justice Department said.
Universal injunctions have become increasingly contentious and have been opposed in recent years by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Judges often have impeded Trump’s aggressive use of executive orders and other initiatives this year, sometimes employing universal injunctions.
The plaintiffs and other critics have said Trump’s directive is the quintessential example of a case in which judges should retain the power to issue universal relief, even if that power is curtailed by the Supreme Court. The 14th Amendment overrode an infamous 1857 Supreme Court decision called Dred Scott v. Sandford that had denied citizenship to Black people and helped fuel the Civil War.
An 1898 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case called United States v. Wong Kim Ark long has been interpreted as guaranteeing that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are entitled to American citizenship.
Trump’s Justice Department has argued that the court’s ruling in that case was narrower, applying to children whose parents had a “permanent domicile and residence in the United States.”
Andrew Chung, John Kruzel, Reuters
While estimates of the percentage of neurodivergent people globally typically range from 1520%, new survey results from neurodiversity advocacy and support nonprofit Understood suggest that the true percentage of neurodivergent adults may be higher.
For one, more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism and other conditions that fall under the umbrella of neurodivergence. But more people may also be self-identifying as neurodivergentespecially in younger generations. Deloittes 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey showed that 53% of Gen Z self-identify as neurodivergent.
The people who identify or have symptoms of [neurodivergence], will far exceed the most conservative estimate of those who have been actually diagnosed, says Nathan Friedman, copresident and chief marketing officer of Understood. He suggests that barriers such as high psychiatry costs and the misdiagnosis of neurodivergent women might prevent individuals from pursuing (or acquiring) a formal diagnosis.
In April, Understood conducted a weighted survey of over 2000 U.S. adults, 659 of whom identify as neurodivergent. Thirty-one percent of respondents had at least wondered if they were neurodivergent although only 11% had received an official diagnosis.
Stigma around requesting accommodations
In a recent ResumeGenius poll of 1000 hiring managers, 86% claim that disclosing neurodivergence in an application would have either a positive or neutral effect on their hiring decision.
But Understoods research suggests that neurodivergent workers have real concerns. In the survey, 64% of employed U.S. adults agree that people speak about their neurodivergence at work more openly now, but 70% agree theres a stigma around asking for workplace accommodations. Thats a 10% increase from their results last year.
Among those workers who have requested accommodations, only 56% received ones that actually improved their work experience. One in four got accommodations that werent helpful, one in five were outright denied, and nearly one in five later regretted asking.
Asking for accommodations doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unable to perform or you’re unable to achieve the results of what’s expected, says Friedman. The accommodations that workers typically ask for are simple to implement, he says. Accommodations could be anything from a flexible work environment to changing desks . . . [These] are pretty simple things that can help somebody improve how they work, the output of their work, and their feeling about how they work.
Despite this, 15% of respondents said they had lost a job, were demoted, or lost a job opportunity after asking for accommodations. Part of this increase in perceived stigma may be connected with the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI in the workplace. In fact, the survey results show that 64% of U.S. adults believe DEI program rollbacks will make it more difficult for people to access workplace accommodations. Difference right now is not seen as a good thingregardless of where you’re at, says Friedman.
What can be done
Reducing stigma and improving the efficacy of workplace accommodations starts with proper education about neurodivergence in the workplace. We hear so many stories about individuals who don’t have the right accommodations and are let go because they don’t have what’s needed to do their job, says Friedman. So providing the education, providing the pathway to get an accommodation, and delivering the accommodations are all required.
This is especially crucial as Gen Z now outnumbers boomers in the workplace. Over 50% of Gen Z believes they are neurodivergent, says Friedman. If you’re a company of 10,000 people, that’s upwards of 5,000 people that you could get a better work product from. . . . So [offering accommodations] is a win for everyone.
Youve made it past the recruiter and the first round of interviews. Now youre meeting with the hiring manager. They’ll likely ask you a series of behavioral questions to evaluate whether youre a good cultural fit for the team. They’ll also assess whether they believe you are up to the managerial and leadership challenges facing the role.
Preparing for behavioral interviews can be nerve-wracking. The stakes are high, and its easy to feel overwhelmed by all the possible scenarios they could throw at you. I’ve spent over a dozen plus years of preparing folks for interviews and talking to people on the hiring side. As a result, Ive developed an approach to behavioral questions that will help you shine in the behavioral interview. Its all about ensuring that you start strong.
The STAR framework and why it doesnt quite work
Many people use the STAR framework to structure interview responses. This method helps candidates describe their experiences to illustrate desired competencies. Start with S the Situation they faced, T their Task, A what Action they took, and R the Result they achieved.
Now, this framework does help you organize your thoughts and distill a story to illustrate your experience and competencies. Unfortunately, this approach fails rhetorically because it lacks a strong start. When you lead with situations or context before getting to the task, the interviewer has to wait too long for the payoff. You risk losing the interviewer before you get to the action and results.
An interview is like any presentation, you have somewhere around 30 seconds to hook your audience. Starting strong means a clear, concise statement of value that captures what kind of leader or manager you are. It also provides the interviewer a blueprint of what to listen for in your response.
How behavioral interviews work
Behavioral interviews are based on the premise that past experience is a predictor of future performance. The questions are generally less about getting the right answer. It’s more about helping the interviewer understand your approach, how you think, how you relate to others, and your values.
As one hiring manager told me, When a candidate explains how he or she thinks about solving a problem, I get a lot more insight into what it would be like to have them on my team than I do from them reciting the solution.
In my view, the STAR formula focuses too much on the story and not enough on the meaning. To borrow language from Simon Sineks Golden Circle model for organizations, interview candidates who strictly adhere to the STAR approach focus too much on the what and not enough on the how or the why. When you start your answer by naming the principles or values that guided your action, you get to the heart of the matter quickly. You also cue the interviewer on what to listen for as the story unfolds.
How to prepare for behavioral interviews
The STAR method is a good start to help you distill the narratives that illustrate your experience and competence. But to ensure that you have a strong start for each STAR story. Reflect on the foundational values that guided your actions. That might be empathy, accountability, collaboration, customer focus, data-driven decision-making, fairness, relationships, trust, or transparency. Articulating these principles will help establish what kind of leader, manager, or contributor you are.
Examples of strong answers
Once you’ve identified a set of 58 principles or values, you can use them to frame almost any answer. For example:
Behavioral question #1
Tell me about a time when you had to influence without authority.
Influencing without authority was a key part of my role at ABC Company. There were three things I always tried to keep in mind: empathy for my cross-functional stakeholders, transparent communication, and relentless customer focus.
On xyz project, as the product manager (situation) I needed to influence my engineering counterpart to commit to an aggressive timeline (task). I knew that her team was under a lot of pressure. I had a series of 1:1 conversations with her about the requirements. I made sure to listen with empathy so that I understood all her constraints (action).
I also shared the potential customer impact of the feature. It turned out that her team had been expressing frustration about not feeling valued. So it was key that she could motivate her team to work on a more visible feature (action). We found some compromises and were able to land on a timeline that would be a stretch for her team but that she was excited about (result).
Here are some other examples of strong starts:
Behavioral question #2
What was a time when you failed?
First, let me start by saying that in order for a goal to be meaningful, it needs to be beyond what youve done before, and so there is always a risk of falling short. The key is to communicate to stakeholders as soon as I know we are going to miss, take ownership of the failure, and use it as an opportunity for learning. An example of this is when I led a team in product marketing at xyz . . .
Behavioral question #3
How have you managed conflict within your organization?
Well, conflict is inevitable, and in my view, if it is handled with empathy for both participants while maintaining accountability for results, it can be an opportunity to learn more about each other and build trust and improve collaboration. The conflict I want to talk about was between someone who reported to me and someone on another team and was related to overlapping roles and responsibilities . . .
The importance of principles
Once you have a strong list of principles, you can plug them into almost any behavioral question and nail the response. And if your interview is on video, you can write each of your values on a post and attach them to your monitor. This will act as a reminder to cue you during the interview. Then you can kick off any response with an articulation of your values and priorities. This will ensure that your interviewer gets a true sense not just of what youve done, but of how you approach problem-solving and what you stand for.
SpaceX owns 98% of global rocket launches, a monopoly with virtually no competition. Only China is competing with Elon Musk at this point in number of launches and, while the country is getting closer to mass-producing reusable rockets, it appears far from making that happen. The world needs to scramble. We cant let a single company dominate the future of humanityand much less one that is owned by Musk.
If you copy SpaceX, itll take you 10 years to get where they are today, Lin Kayser, cofounder of Dubai-based engineering AI firm Leap 71, tells me in a video interview. But in 10 years, SpaceX wont be where they are today. The game will be over. Startups and nations need to catch up to Musk, but that means solving a brutal equation: designing engines with comparable thrust (measured in kilonewtons, or kN) and efficiency, but without the decade-long development cycles. And to beat SpaceX, you also need to be able to mass-produce the rockets.
[Photo: Leap 71]
This is now more important than ever because the stakes are even higher than just five years ago. Satellite constellations like Starlink, which may soon enable direct-to-phone internet, threaten to sideline telecom operators and centralize control of earths critical communication infrastructure on top of controlling the space economy. Every region needs sovereign launch capability, Kayser contends. Otherwise, youll pay 10 times what SpaceX pays to access spaceif they let you.
His company may have a solution to fix that conundrum. Leap 71 developed artificial intelligence called Noyron that, so far, has successfully designed two rocket engines. Kayser believes that his company, legacy rocket makers, and startups will be able to leverage this synthetic rocket engineer to create a cheaper match to the SpaceX Raptorand beat Musk at his own game.
The 10-foot-high Raptorwhich powers the Starshipis arguably the most advanced Western rocket engine in production. Its latest iteration produces 280 tonnes of thrust at sea level, surpassing competing engines like Blue Origins BE-4. It uses methalox, an efficient fuel that can be manufactured in places like Mars, which makes it key for deep-space exploration. But the Raptors importance lies in the fact that it is the first operational full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) engine in history. This means that it optimizes efficiency and thrust while minimizing thermal stress, so you can reuse it many times, the key for cheap, sustainable space exploration.
Only two other FFSC engines have been tested, but they’ve never flown. Leap 71 now wants to achieve the same spaces but better, with fewer 3D-printed pieces, which will make it less expensive than Musk’s engine.
[Photo: Leap 71]
Computational blueprint
Leap 71 describes its Noyron computational model as an engineer brain in a box. Unlike generative AI tools that require human oversight because they are just guessing what could work, Noyron encodes physics, material science, and manufacturing rules to autonomously design rocket engines. It generates not just shapes but also functional hardware ready for 3D printing. Traditional parametric CAD is geometry-driven. Ours is physics-driven, Kayser explains. Calling it parametric CAD would be like saying ChatGPT is autocomplete.
The systems first breakthrough came in 2024 with a 5 kN rocket engine. The compact, high-efficiency rocket was fully designed by AI and 3D printed in one go as a single-piece copper engine with intricate internal cooling channels. During trials in an old World War II bunker in the U.K., the engine fired flawlessly, validating Noyrons ability to predict thermal stresses and fluid dynamics. Then, in January 2025, Leap 71 really pushed the envelope by designing one of the most challenging and elusive rocket engines in the aerospace industry: a cryogenic aerospike thruster, an engine capable of working at every altitude to eliminate the need for multiple rocket stages, minimizing elements and costs in the process.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by LEAP 71 (@leap.71)
Now the company wants to scale up this approach to engines 400 times larger. The new road map includes two reference designs: the 200 kN XRA-2E5 aerospike and the 2,000 kN XRB-2E6 bell-nozzle engine, equivalent to SpaceXs Raptor. The first, he says, is slated for testing within 18 months of April 2025 (placing it around late 2026). The second is targeted for readiness by 2029.
From left: A rocket injector head designed by Leap 71 in 2024; the new, much larger injector head designed for a 2 meganewton engine [Photo: Leap 71]
For rocket engine developmentwith design and testing cycles measured in decadesthis is incredibly ambitious. But the timeline is achievable because of how Noyron works, Kayser says. Instead of manually iterating prototypes, Noyron treats all engines as variations of a unified DNA. And instead of having to be programmed, its edge lies in its ability to absorb decades of engineering knowledgeeven from obscure sources.
For its new model, Leap 71 has not only incorporated learnings from its past tests (like data on cooling efficiency and material strain), but also vast amounts of new information, including digitized Soviet-era rocket manuals. We plug these into Noyron to refine our thermal models, Kayser says. The AI also learns from every test, creating a feedback loop that collapses design cycles and speeds up the development process.
Noyron is not generative AI, but a computational model capable of producing deterministic results that are consistent every time. They are accurate according to the actual physical world and data. It understands. It doesnt just guess. Input the same specs, and it generates identical designs (try that with ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney, or Sora). This is critical for aerospace reliability. Human engineers can see the rationale behind evey decision, Kayser says. Its not a black box.
The challenges
While Noyron can design a rocket engine in minutes, proving it works in the physical world is the real test. The companys ambitions collide with a stark reality: Even the most advanced AI cannot shortcut the laws of physics and bureaucracy.
Securing test facilities for large engines is another hurdle. While smaller subsystems (like the 28 kN turbopump it wants to test this year) fit on existing stands, the 2,000 kN engines sheer size demands specialized infrastructure. The critical path here is test-stand availability, says Kayser.
Current options are scarce and scattered around the world. Shipping engines abroad triggers export controls and delaysa problem compounded by geopolitical tensions. Moving a small engine from Germany to the U.K. already takes two to three weeks, Kayser tells me. Thats why Leap 71 is in talks with governments in Dubai, Singapore, and New Zealand to co-locate manufacturing and testing. Omans planned spaceport and New Zealands remote Twhaki facility, with its vast sound-dampening landscapes, are leading candidates. You cant just put a loud rocket engine next to a city, Kayser says.
[Photo: Leap 71]
The other challengethe actual production of the enginehas only just become possible, with Chinas new 3D-printing behemoths capable of producing parts that are 6.56-by-6.56-by-3.60 feet. In fact, this is what led Kayser and his partner, Leap 71 cofounder Josefine Lissner, to believe that making a Raptor-class engine was even possible. Called the EP-M2050 (and manufactured by Eplus3D), this colossal 3D printer uses 36 lasers to turn metallic powders into all the parts needed for next-gen rocket engines, including the nozzles, which will be much taller than your average human.
[Image: Eplus3D]
The printers are so new that quality assurance is still a question mark. Surface roughness, inherent to layered metal printing, disrupts fluid dynamics in cooling channels. Rough walls increase friction, altering fuel flow and thermal stability. Post-printing, parts undergo rigorous cleaning to remove residual metal powder, a task that until now has been handled by German firm Solukon because any impurities could cause an explosion, Kayser says. Material uniformity is another gamble. While printers handle alloys like copper-chromium-zirconium, ensuring consistent strength in massive componentsespecially under the violent vibrations and thermal swings of a firing engineremains unproven at this scale.
The turbopump, which forces fuel into the combustion chamber at extreme pressures, epitomizes this challenge. Leap 71s 28 kN test rig validates principles for larger designs, but scaling amplifies risks. Turbines spin at supersonic speeds, generating centrifugal forces that warp metal. Rapid temperature shiftslike the -297°F cryogenic oxygen flow meeting 5,430°F exhaustthreaten cracks. Sealing, material fatigue, and transient conditions during start-up and shutdown are critical, Kayser explains. These are not just design problemsthey demand practical testing.
Thats why the most unnerving hurdle of rocket development with this method is blind testing. Leap 71s aerospike engine, printed as a single copper block with internal cooling channels, could not be inspected internally before firing. We had to test blind, Kayser says. During trials, imperfect oxygen flow led to higher-than-expected temperatures. Although it all worked, it forced an early shutdown. Instead of risking additional runs, we cut the engine in half to analyze it, Kayser adds. Each failure feeds back into Noyrons models, but iteration consumes time and capital.
For now, Leap 71s strategy hinges on incremental validationtesting subsystems like injectors and turbopumps individuallywhile lobbying governments to fund dedicated test facilities.
The road ahead
While these are big challenges, they are not insurmountable. The space industry knows it and, according to Kayser, wants a piece of the action. Everyone is looking for a way to leapfrog several years and catch up toor surpassMusk. Right now, Leap 71 collaborates with about 15 rocket startups. Kayser cant disclose their names under confidentiality agreements except for the Exploration Co., which is developing a European Moon lander. These partners lack SpaceXs vertical integration but want tailored engines without decade-long R&D.
The engine is the most expensive and complicated part, Kayser emphasizes. Everyone else just buys them. But theres no supply. L3Harriswhich now owns the legendary rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne, makers of the Apollo engineswants to sell them, but it doesnt have anything comparable to the Raptor. Blue Origin makes and sells engines for the United Launch Alliance (ULA), but nobody else. The Russian NPO Energomash once dominated the global rocket engine market, supplying the RD-180 that powered ULA’s Atlas V rocket for decades. But RD-180s are now considered relicsand are under sanctions because of the Ukraine war, anyway.
[Current design processes] are actually a problem for many of the micro launcher companies right now, Kayser says. So they have relatively small engines. And if they now want to play in the higher leagues, they basically have to embark on a completely new project, create a completely new rocket. The main differentiation between sizes is the engine, because the rest of the rocket is scalable. It’s harder to scale up the engine because it has completely different specifications and requirements.
By using Noyron, Kayser says customers will be able t fine-tune to their own needs and input thrust, fuel type, and size to receive bespoke engine designs for every need. A startup might tweak an aerospike for methane fuel, while another firm could optimize for cost. Some engines will be small and some could be Raptor-class.
We will know if it all works in just a couple of years, so we wont have to wait long: Kayser tells me that he and Lissner expect the first hot firing of the 200 kN XRA-2E5 aerospike engine in October 2026. Full-scale testing of the large 2,000 kN Raptor-class engine is tentatively planned to begin in 2028, with qualification for flight readiness stretching into 2029.
If Leap 71 can pull it off, it will be phenomenal for humanity. A new process for rocket development will challenge Elon Musk at his own game and democratize the means to reach orbit for every country on the planet. Plus, if it happens, the dream of having Tony Starks J.A.R.V.I.S.-like AI to aid humans to build the future will be real. Kayser certainly believes in it: Were building a world where anyone can engineer complex machines.
Brawny just went big on bulk. The Georgia-Pacific paper towel brand introduced a new logo set in a thicker font and breathed new life into its lumberjack mascot, the Brawny Manall as part of a shift to stand out on store shelves and launch a new product, three-ply paper towels.
“We weren’t just evolving a visual identity,” Amanda Earley, Georgia-Pacific’s brand director for Brawny, tells Fast Company. “We were launching a new product, shifting our full lineup, and repositioning the brand in culture, all while protecting what made Brawny special in the first place.”
Bringing all this to market at the same time was a challenge, Earley says, but necessary to achieve the company’s overall goals: to grow household penetration, drive category growth, and convert the brand’s entire portfolio from two-ply to three.
From top: The previous iteration, and the new one [Images: Georgia-Pacific]
A bolder Brawny logo
The logo is one part of that. “We modernized the logo to make it bolder, more confident, and unmistakably Brawny,” Earley says. The typographic beef up was also a strategic decision to “signal product superiority at shelf, reinforce brand strength, and help us stand apart in a space that often feels like a sea of sameness,” she says.
Companies like Amazon, OpenAI, and Walmart have all recently made their logos bigger and bolder, but for Brawny, doing so was an imperative because of its brand promise. A paper towel brand that calls itself the strongest can’t be set in a skinny font, especially after announcing plans to increase the ply of its products by 50%.
So the company made a few changes to indicate its new weight class. Its logo uses flat, bold, black-and-white letterforms, removing the red shadowing of the previous version. It’s also now set on a firm horizontal instead of a slant. The logo type is sans serif, except for the letters B and A, which have serifs that extend like eaves on a rest stop or ranger station icon.
A bulked-up Brawny Man
Introduced in the 1970s, the Brawny Man has undergone multiple makeovers over the years and worn his facial hair in various waysthe brand even had Brawny women as part of a 2016 campaign.
In this newest iteration, the Brawny Man appears on packaging in the form of an illustration of a handsome, hunky outdoorsy type suitable for casting on The Bachelorette wearing his signature red-and-black plaid shirt. He appears oversize in new commercials, like Brawny’s own Paul Bunyanand he’s eager to help clean up messes, whether they happen to be in the aftermath of a 40th birthday party or at a treehouse sleepover full of superstitious tween girls.
[Image: Georgia-Pacific]
Too often brand mascots “live frozen in time,” says Jaime Robinson, cofounder and chief creative officer at Joan Creative, which helped develop packaging and worked on the Brawny Mans refresh. “When you have such legendary brand IP like the Brawny Man, you want to approach it thoughtfully but bravely,” Robinson says.
It was all about striking the right balance between familiarity and modernity, according to Holly Karlsson, creative director at Bulletproof, the agency that worked on Brawny’s visual identity and packaging design. And by “retaining his rugged dependability while evolving his personality to feel more authentic, warm, and human,” she says, Bulletproof hoped to do just that. The new Brawny Man is a gentle giant with a bold logo to match.
Loneliness isnt just a well-being risk, it is an acute business risk. The effects of loneliness dont just permeate an individual’s personal life, it can negatively impact their professional life. When employees dont feel a sense of camaraderie or belonging at work, their performance suffers.
According to research from Gartner, employees who are satisfied with camaraderie in their organization show a high enterprise contribution of 23%. But employees who are dissatisfied with the camaraderie in their organization show a high enterprise contribution of only 13%.
Organizations have taken early steps to mitigate loneliness by targeting interactions within the workplace and beyond, like mandating employees to return to the office to boost collaboration and connection. But proximity alone isnt a cure for employee loneliness. It ignores the root causes of the issue.
Moving forward, CHROs need to address loneliness in the workforce through two primary strategies: improving in-role connectedness to boost productivity and supporting out-of-work connectedness to meet employee well-being needs.
Improving in-role connectedness to boost employee productivity
Employees should have autonomy when it comes to building personal connections, as well as guidance from HR on how to make the most of their interactions. That requires CHROs to foster guided interactions that engender interpersonal cohesiveness and naturalize sharing behavior, which establishes a new, more human-centered set of collaboration norms.
There are three simple actions CHROs can take to achieve this:
1. Empower employees to personalize connection-building
CHROs should give employees ownership of building their connections with one another. Not only does this promote personalization of how they strengthen these relationships, it also encourages them to make connections according to their own needs or preferences. CHROs can help employees fortify these peer connections over time in partnership with communication leaders. In turn, they can grow employees connection with the organizations culture and community through socialization.
2. Encourage employees to be intentional about their collaboration needs
Gartner analysis found that satisfaction with collaboration significantly impacts employee performance. Now, not all collaboration supports connectedness or productivity. Intentionality helps employees think carefully and understand which mode of collaboration best suits both the nature of their work and their individual preferences.
Through guided collaboration and actively reshaping the needs and norms of how individuals interact, CHROs can equip teams to have intentionality and reciprocity when collaborating. Gartner found that organizations that practice guided collaboration achieve profit goals 10% more often than those that don’t.
3. Support affinity groups that connect employees and encourage breaks
CHROs should foster connections between employees beyond work-related tasks. Affinity groups, akin to employee resource groups, connect employees based on common interests that align with the companys business model and values. Imagine a surfboard company offering time off for employees to surf together. These benefits can boost engagement and lead to a more motivated workforce.
Support connection outside of work to boost well-being
Employees who feel their employer supports their lives outside the office are more motivated to perform in the workplace. There are several ways CHROs can support employee connection outside of work:
1. Offer employees volunteer time off (VTO)
VTO policies grant employees paid leave for volunteering activities. Some corporations allow staff to take a set number of hours each week, while others grant up to a week of leave. VTO initiatives can enhance employee engagement, build connections with local communities, and showcase corporate social responsibility.
2. Provide interpersonal, out-of-work connection perks
Some progressive organizations offer enhanced support to help employees find and make meaningful personal connections outside of work. This includes things like offering stipends for bike passes to encourage well-being in connected social settings. These out-of-office perks also provide talent attraction and retention benefits.
3. Make it easier to take a break with global recharge days
With many employees either not taking vacation days or working while on vacation, some organizations encourage employees to use their vacation days jointly to disconnect from work. If most, if not all, employees take vacation together, they can all fully disconnect from work and recharge.
Many factors have contributed to the epidemic of loneliness in the workplace, and these feelings of isolation have real business implications for organizations that dont address them.
With CEOs hyper-focused on growth in 2025, and seeing employee productivity as key to achieving it, HR has an important role to play in removing any productivity barriers, including hidden ones like loneliness. By treating loneliness, and outside of the workplace, organizatios reap the benefits of a healthier, more productive, and engaged workforce.
At its annual Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View next week, Google will try to rally developers around one of its next big bets: Android XR. Later this year, Samsung is set to release the first VR headset powered by the spatial computing operating system, and Google is aiming to attract as many developers as possible to build apps for the device.
Thats no small task for a company whose history with AR and VR has been marked by inconsistency. Google was among the first to experiment with AR glasses, gave millions their first taste of VR through low-cost mobile viewers, and even launched a stand-alone immersive VR headset before Metaonly to abandon each project in rapid succession, leaving partners frustrated.
Google has burnt a lot of bridges in the XR community, cautions an industry insider who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
Still, theres a sense of cautious optimism among AR and VR developers that this time might be different. One reason: the competitive landscape has changed. With Apple and Meta investing tens of billions into immersive technology, the pressure is on. Android XR also aligns with Googles current strengths, particularly in AI and in its push to expand Androids reach.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
Daydreams and Glassholes
Googles first foray into AR/VR remains one of the industrys most infamous missteps. Unveiled in 2012, Google Glass paired a camera with a tiny display and was touted as a peek into a post-smartphone world. Instead, it became a cautionary tale. Critics were unnerved by the devices always-on camera, dubbing users glassholes. A $1,500 price tag and limited usefulness sealed its fate, and Google soon dropped its consumer ambitions for Glass.
Despite that bruising experience, the company didnt fully retreat from the space. In 2014, Google introduced Cardboard, a DIY viewer that turned smartphones into rudimentary VR devices. That effort later evolved into Daydream, a more comfortable headset with a controller, supporting immersive videos and simple games.
Cardboard and Daydream did reach millions of users, but their reliance on smartphones made them impractical for sustained use. We were looking for that spark of adoption, says a former Google employee who worked on Daydream. (Former employees were also granted anonymity by Fast Company out of fear of reprisal.) That spark never came. It never became a toothbrush use case, the employee adds, referencing the goal of making the device something people use daily, like brushing their teeth.
Over time, Google did achieve that with many of its products: Billions now use Gmail, Chrome, and Maps every day. But that success may have distorted expectations for VR. You tend to forget how hard it is to get billions of users, says a second former Google employee involved in VR.
Expecting too much too soon may have doomed these projects. Its a self-fulfilling prophecy, the first former employee says.
A Long List of Cancelled Projects
Google eventually moved beyond smartphone-based VR with a stand-alone headset built in partnership with Lenovo in 2018. Running Daydream, the device had potential to compete with Metas Quest, but Google scrapped it a year later. When it didnt become a huge success overnight, they pivoted, says the industry insider.
Daydream joined a growing list of abandoned Google AR/VR efforts: the immersive storytelling series Spotlight Stories, the cloud-based video platform Jump and its professional camera line, the 3D modeling tool Blocks, the asset platform Poly, and several consumer VR cameras created with hardware partners.
Some of these projects were open-sourced upon cancellation. The popular VR painting app Tilt Brush, for example, lives on as a community-driven project on Metas Quest. Others survived the internal shakeups: Owlchemy Labs, acquired by Google in 2017, still thrives. Its whimsical title Job Simulator remains one of the best-selling games on Quest.
Many of Googles early AR/VR projects had real potentialif only the company had stayed the course. Google had all these weird, cool, fun projects and acquisitions that they made very early, but they just didn’t follow through with them, says the industry insider.
A Lack of Conviction
Beyond high expectations, insiders point to a deeper issue: Googles hesitation to publicly commit to AR and VR. Google was not willing to put a shoe on the ground the same way Meta has, says the first former employee.
The difference was that Mark [Zuckerberg] was out there, publicly saying: Im staking my future on this, agrees the second. I never felt that we had that type of conviction from [Google CEO] Sundar [Pichai].
Zuckerbergs enthusiasm for VR and the metaverse has been widely mocked, but Metas persistence has paid off. The company has sold tens of millions of Quest headsets, and its Ray-Ban smart glasses have found surprising success. Apples Vision Pro and its reported investments in smart glasses further validate the space.
Now Google is returning with big ambitions of its own. Having turned Android into the worlds most widely used mobile OS, the company wants to replicate that success with Android XR. Unlike Apple and Meta, Google plans to build this future through partnershipsstarting with Samsungrather than relying on in-house hardware.
Theres precedent for this kind of turnaround. After an underwhelming start, Googles Android TV platform eventually matured into one of the top smart TV ecosystems, with over 270 million monthly active users on Google TV-powered devices.
Googles Assets: Android and AI
To replicate that success in XR, Google will once again leverage its mobile ecosystem. Google will look to work with developers to port existing Android apps to Android XR, much like the way Apple brought iPadOS apps to the Vision Pro, says CCS Insight analyst Gebbie. This could give Google an advantage over Meta.
Googles massive AI investments could also prove pivotal. The company has already demonstrated how AI can enhance AR glasses, and Gebbie believes AI will be key in simplifying interaction within spatial computing systems.
With the tech in place, Googles future in XR hinges on one factor: commitment. This time around, Google must fully commit to Android XR if it is to seriously try and build an ecosystem, says Gebbie. If Google makes another false start, then its partners may look elsewhere.
As long as Google has conviction, I would never bet against them, agrees the second former employee.
For years, global stars have traveled to West Africa as ambassadors of humanitarian and anti-corruption efforts: Rihanna in Senegal urging world leaders to donate aid, Bono in Ghana championing transparency as the best vaccine against corruption.
All the while, Vincent Bolloré, the billionaire power broker who wields significant influence over the parent company behind their music labels, was busy building an industrial empire in those same countries.
That empire is now at the center of corruption trials, sexual abuse allegations, and a sweeping criminal complaint filed by West African nonprofits.
Vincent Bolloré stole money from our communities and used it to build an empire, Jean-Jacques Lumumba, the head of the anti-corruption watchdog group Restitution for Africa, alleges in a statement to Fast Company.
For some UMG musicians, the accusations against Bolloré present a jarring contradiction: Artists are using their platforms to fight injustice, while a powerful figure profiting from their music built his fortune through actions that critics say undermined democracy.
The Bolloré familys industrial empire traces back over two centuries to its origins in cigarette and Bible paper manufacturing. Over time, its global success allowed the family to pivot into West African industries like rubber, palm oil, and port operations. More recently, the family gained what French courts described in April as effective control of the media conglomerate Vivendi. Until 2021, Vivendi owned all of Universal Music Group (UMG), the worlds leading music company, and Bollorés fortunes were widely seen as tied to it. In 2021, Vivendi spun off UMG as a publicly traded company, unlocking $53 billion of value on its first day of trading, while allowing the Bolloré family to retain their position as UMGs largest shareholders.
Worldwide, UMG manages five million titles across some of the industrys most iconic labels: Interscope, Capitol, Def Jam, Island, Republic, Virgin. Technically the Bollorés control just 28% of UMG10% directly and another 18% through Vivendi. But that gives the Bollorés outsized sway. (Kanye West once claimed he was going to bypass label execs with contract complaints and take his grievances straight to the top: Dont need the Arnaud meeting anymore, he tweeted in 2020, referring to Vivendis CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine. I will be meeting with Vincent Bolloré.)
This complex web of corporate control casts a long shadow, even as UMG artists champion causes in regions where Bollorés other ventures have come under fire. In 2022, Usher and SZA, whose songs include UMG distribution deals, went to Ghana to headline the Global Citizen Festival benefiting West Africa. That same year, fellow UMG client The Weeknd also launched a UN humanitarian fund benefiting the same region.
But those actions coincided with a wave of divestment from Bollorés businesses on the part of European investment funds: Switzerlands largest pension funds put his companies on their exclusion list, and Norways $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fundthe worlds largestpulled out entirely, citing human rights reports alleging abuses in Liberia, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone, including land grabs and rape.
That financial pressure mirrored growing legal scrutiny. Over the past decade, Bolloré has faced a series of corruption investigations in France tied to his business dealings in West Africaranging from election meddling to bribery and port monopolies. He was indicted in 2018, and French prosecutors continue to pursue charges related to those allegations.
Critics of Bolloré contend that artists who remain silent risk inadvertently reinforcing the same exploitative systems many of them seek to challenge.
“Dirty money off the backs of African communities”
Last month, the French National Financial Prosecutors Office said it was still working on Bollorés corruption trial related to the Togo bribery claims. This came days after Bloomberg News ran a 4,000-word investigation into the sexual coercion of women working on Bollorés Liberian rubber plantations. Workers recently set fire to the office and managers home to protest the squalid conditions.
Now, a coalition of 11 West African nonprofits known as Restitution for Africa (RAF) has filed a brand-new complaint with French authorities accusing Bolloré of using corruption, favoritism, and influence peddling to win port contracts in three additional countries: Ghana, Cameroon, Côte dIvoire.
The complaint, also filed with the French National Financial Prosecutors Office and reviewed by Fast Company, accuses the Bolloré Group of a criminal graft where it conspired with corrupt politicians to build a massive port, rail, and logistics monopoly across West Africathen cashed out, selling that subsidiary (Bolloré Africa Logistics) for $6.2 billion, more than Sierra Leones annual GDP. The complaint argues the money earned should be given to citizens of those African nations. The coalition is calling the complaint unprecedented in its pan-African character.
RAF followed that by launching a public petition on Thursday called Global Billionaire Accountability Project. Over the past month, it has worked to solicit support from 50 major artists under contract with UMG labelsthey include Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Sam Smith, The Weeknd, Usher, SZA, U2, Sting, Alicia Keys, and Billie Eilish. The group sent a letter asking them to demand that Bolloré divest from UMG, arguing that UMG artists are financially tethered to a corporate entity accused of profiting from illicit and exploitative activities.
The letter concludes: We want to ensure youre aware that these ill-gotten gains have been funding Bollorés ownership of UMGdirty money off the backs of African communities.
UMG declined to comment. A representative for Vincent Bolloré and the Bolloré Group did not respond to multiple inquiries by Fast Company.
Restitution for Africa says so far none of the artists have responded to their letter. Fast Company also sent requests for comment to the publicists of more than a dozen UMG artists who prioritize social impact work. This includes all the artists mentioned above, other industry heavyweights like Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar, as well as Angélique Kidjo, the French-Beninese five-time Grammy winner who has served as a UNICEF oodwill Ambassador in Africa since the mid-2000s. Their representatives did not respond. Bonos ONE Campaignpublisher of 2014s widely read Trillion Dollar Scandal report warning that shady business practices in places like West Africa were siphoning up to a trillion dollars every year from developing countriesalso didnt respond to an inquiry.
While many artists publicly support causes that would seem to pit them against Bollorés business pursuits, stars might fear speaking out could carry contractual and professional risks. In recent years, boldface entertainment names have publicly accused UMG of prioritizing profits over artist interests. Musicians from Drake and Iggy Azalea to Limp Bizkit have spoken outeven suedover unpaid royalties, licensing conflicts, and disputes over control of their work. And to be sure, pressuring UMG is not without risk, particularly for smaller artists who depend on the corporations support to stay afloat.
Restitution for Africa is led by the anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International and Jean-Jacques Lumumba, a former a former banker who in the mid-2010s exposed billions of dollars worth of embezzlements by Congolese President Joseph Kabilas government and now lives in exile in Europe. At Restitution for Africa, hes turned to different corruption occurring in his part of the world. This is not a man who global musicians at Universal Music Group should be OK with taking money from, Lumumba tells Fast Company.
The French government has long grappled with its role in allowing political leaders in postcolonial Africa to steal from their own people, then park that stolen wealth back in France, or elsewhere.
In 2021, President Emmanuel Macrons government enacted a new law strengthening the legal pathway to return such corrupt assets, once seized, to their countries of origin. This followed years of high-profile cases involving hundreds of millions of euros laundered by leaders of countries like Equatorial Guinea and Congo to fund lavish Parisian real estate, high-end art, and expensive cars, the types of corruption Bono protested while in Africa and his ONE Campaign called out in its Trillion Dollar Scandal.
Past cases primarily targeted corrupt heads of state and their families. But more recently, nonprofits have sought restitution for ill-gotten corporate gains. The most prominent example involves French energy giant TotalEnergies operations in Congo. In 2019, two anti-corruption nonprofits filed a criminal complaint against Total alleging that it won oil exploration rights through bribery.
The case is still being argued five years later, demonstrating the complexities of expanding the target to include companies. But if a whistleblower hadnt revealed a web of suspicious financial transactions tying Total and Congolese political elites to various bank accounts, it wouldnt have had legs. That person was RAFs Lumumba.
In 2021, under mounting pressure, Bolloré Group parent company Bolloré SE paid 12 million to settle the Togo bribery charges brought against the corporation. Two years later, the Bollorés sold Bolloré Africa Logistics and started investing more heavily in the media industry, similar to a certain free speech absolutist tech billionaire in America. The African sale, combined with UMG artists profits, has helped breathe life into a rightwing French media juggernaut.
Chanez Mensous, head of litigation and advocacy at the French corporate ethics watchdog Sherpa, calls this quite symptomatic of the Bolloré business approach. (Sherpa has joined previous criminal corruption cases against Bolloré, and will be a party to his individual trial next year, distinct from the 2021 corporate settlement, involving the Togo port bribery allegations.)
They prey on countries with weak governance standards, Mensous says. They have the financial strength to consider sanctions and fines a reasonable economic risk they can absorb. Their relative impunity is made possible by the control they have over the media. They use SLAPPs [strategic lawsuits against public participation] to silence civil societies and journalists covering these cases.
The family currently controls the telecom giant Canal+, Europe 1, various magazines, and Frances only Sunday newspaperalong with CNews, a free Canal+ channel that Harvards Nieman Reports recently criticized for its role in mainstreaming far-right ideas. That shift began accelerating after 2017, the year Bolloré took over the channel. Since then, CNews has added figures like Éric Zemmour, the far-right TV pundit turned politician repeatedly convicted of racial and religious hate speech.
In the past few years, the network has been a place to find anti-vax histrionics, calls for Muslims to renounce their faith, interest in the Great Replacement Theory, suggestions that immigrants caused Pariss pre-Olympics bedbug infestation, and full-blown panic over le wokismethis as many UMG artists worldwide were busy promoting COVID vaccination efforts, calling out police brutality, and condemning white supremacy. Last summer, CNews rose (briefly) to the rank of Frances #1 news channel.
Bolloré is also credited with empowering the far-right French leader Marine Le Penechoing her brand of nationalism, as well as her warm feelings toward Russia. Weeks ago when Donald Trump berated Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Bollorés outlets took cues, turning friendly fire on Ukraines European allies. The far-right broadcasters and newspapers owned by Vincent Bolloré are backing Vladimir Putin, Le Monde told readers.
“The French Rupert Murdoch”
Meanwhile, Bollorés outlets have undergone an ideological purge serious enough to inspire Reporters Without Borders to produce a documentary chronicling their repeated attacks on press freedom and the independence of editorial offices, then denouncing them as an unprecedented threat to democracy. During Frances latest elections in 2022, hundreds of journalists and activists formed Operation Stop Bolloré, a coalition that accused Bolloré media of breaking with all journalistic ethics, arguing it is no longer a matter of informing citizens, but of transforming minds.
On top of that, Bolloré lawyers have done their best to silence critical reporters and nonprofits that dig into the companys business operations, like in 2016 when three newspapers (Mediapart, LObs, and Le Point) and two nonprofits (Sherpa and ReAct) reported that a Bolloré company bulldozed West African villagers land. In 15 years, the company has hit journalists and activists with at least 20 gag lawsuits. The Bolloré media arm is eyeing expansions back in Africa, too: If a deal awaiting approval closes, the Bollorés will own South African-based satellite TV provider MultiChoice, via the continents largest-ever media acquisition, giving them a subscriber base in sub-Saharan Africa of more than 20 million viewers.
Of course, Bollorés right-wing crusade puts UMG artists in a bigger bindwhether they champion African causes or not, do they want their music profits to flow, in part, to a so-called French Rupert Murdoch who is bankrolling a political agenda many of them have publicly denounced?
UMGs ownership structure already presents an ethical dilemma for its most socially conscious performers: Beyond the Bollorés 28% control, the next largest shareholder, with 20%, is Tencentthe Chinese tech giant the U.S. government labels a Communist military asset. Noted Trump booster Bill Ackman controls the third most, with 10%.
Taylor Swift isnt active in Africa, but she has repeatedly condemned racism and the oppression of women, and has lamented the naiveté that we used to have about [bigotry]. The Imagine Dragons band members, signed to Interscope, are vocal official ambassadors of the Ukrainian state charity United24. Kendrick Lamars music criticizes racial injustice and systemic oppression, while Lady Gaga has used her platform to condemn far-right rhetoric as an attack on democracy and human rights. And thats just four of UMGs better-known artists.
While Bolloré Group got blacklisted by Swiss funds in 2023 over human rights abuses, its harder to find examples of controversial investors caving to public pressure and divesting from publicly traded companies. That highlights the challenge of holding powerful billionaires accountable who can shield themselves from accountability. It also explains RAFs long-shot strategy of seeking to leverage the platforms of celebrities whose careers arent directly impacted by a French shipping mogul, and who have largely ignored outside requests to speak out against him.
However, since RAFs letters went out, one artist has taken note of Bollorés business practices: Drake. The rapper is currently suing UMG over Kendrick Lamars Grammy-winning diss track Not Like Usa blistering takedown featuring the line Drake, I hear you like em young, with cover art showing a sex-offender map plastered with pins around Drakes Toronto home.
Just days after receiving the petition, Drakes lawyers referenced Bollorés growing scandals in a legal filing, arguing that recent headlines involving UMGs largest stakeholder call for greater transparency from the label.
Back in the 1930s, Robert W. Woodruff, president of the Coca-Cola Co., would carry a red swatch in his wallet. Of course, it wasnt just any red. It was Coca-Cola red. And so anywhere he went and encountered his brandpainted on a wall, wrapping a refrigeratorhe would pull out the little swatch to check that it matched.Woodruff understood the importance of Coca-Colas brand equity as it expanded globallya challenge that has only grown since, now that Coca-Cola sells 2.2 billion servings a day across 200 countries, 150 languages, and 30 million points of sale.But where Woodruff used a swatch, Coca-Colas design team has spent the past four years dreaming up a modern operational upgrade to its 400 pages of brand guidelines. Teaming with Adobe, it developed Project Fizzion. Trained specifically on Coca-Colas design logic, its a brand-managing AI that lives inside Adobe platforms like Photoshop and Illustrator, generates designs, and, most of all, helps keep designers across the globe brand-compliant as they dream up the next big campaign.In a design world thats equally dependent upon and terrified of generative AI tools, Coca-Cola is clear that Fizzion is not about cost cutting via AI. As its integrating Fizzion globally, its doing so with no reduction in spending on brand campaigns. Instead, the company believes its charting a path forward thats sustainable for creatives to drive better work and eliminate headaches under deadline.Fizzion was never a design automation tool, says Rapha Abreu, global VP of design at Coca-Cola. Its a creative copilot that is powered by AI but guided by designers.Dreaming up a new AIWhen Abreu joined Coca-Cola in 2021, his design teamwho spent countless hours in meetings explaining to external agencies that their seemingly great ideas broke brand guidelinesbecame almost philosophical in imagining another way forward. Given that any Coca-Cola campaign can include up to 5,000 separate assets, it had become nearly impossible to manage.We had this kind of crazy idea, Abreu recalls. What if the Coca-Cola logo could learn what to do and what not to do? They imagined software built so a designer literally couldnt place the logo in the wrong context. And if that could work for the logo, maybe the same thing could be true for colors, typography, and imagery associated with Coca-Cola campaigns. It was an enticing thought that was ahead of its time, but only a little. Within two years, ChatGPT and other GenAI tools would drop upon the world to automate all sorts of tasks that never before seemed possible. [Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]Companies including Adobe and Canva quickly whipped up GenAI tools that could suck in brand guidelines via PDF, then apply them to design templates. Sometimes they worked. And sometimes they didnt. These sorts of guidelines can have trouble scaling to new, complex projects, and of course they do. Guidelines are just words trying to articulate visual relationships that are sometimes as instinctual as they are codified. Coca-Colas idea, led largely by its global head of AI design, Dom Heinrich, was to start with the images themselves, and to train a machine on Coca-Colas visual sensibility rather than a written rule set. Given that Coca-Cola and its partners were already working inside Adobe products, partnering with the company on building out such an AI system made a lot of sense.It happens inside the tools that creatives already use, says Abreu. For us, that was the most important thing.Together, the Adobe and Coca-Cola teams developed a different approach to training AI and deploying it at scale, which they call Project Fizzion (what seems like a most certain nod to Coca-Colas carbonated roots).[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]How does Fizzion learn?Many AIs are already trained on images, but Fizzion takes a slightly different approach. Its trained more on visual design systems, stuffed full of actual Coca-Cola assets. This means Fizzion isnt analyzing a century of soda campaigns in order to hallucinate a polar bear dressed as Santa Claus sharing a Coke. Its specifically not generating imagery like Adobes own Firefly or DALL-E, but it will create a new variation on an existing design, mixing and matching Coca-Cola assets to do so.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]Fizzion lives like Microsoft Copilot right inside Adobe software, considering the interdependencies of things on the screen.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]When youre designing a visual identity system, the model should beable to learn, not just from the images but from the relationships between all the components, how the text maps to the images other elements that need to be part of it, says Ash King, senior director of Firefly enterprise solutions at Adobe. That allows [the designer] to test various aspect ratios, free-form.Fizzion can see the canvas a designer is working on in real time, complete with the positioning of logos, imagery, and typefaces. The AI learns from Coca-Colas own designers only when a project is finalized. Once a designer has a product they likeand knows works with brand standardsthey save it as what they call a Style ID that adds to the AIs knowledge. Thats basically the visual logic of one Cola-Cola campaign. At this time Fizzion also collects all necessary brand assets for that campaign so that it can incorporate them perfectly whenever necessary. (In other words, Fizzion is pulling the Coca-Cola logo fresh every time, rather than dreaming up what its supposed to look like from old references.)[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]This is how Fizzion is trained to learn new styles. (It also incorporates background from Coca-Colas 400-page brand guidelines, via Adobe Firefly.) From there, Fizzion sits atop a global production pipeline that allows partners to tweak the visual formula without breaking it.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]How teams across Coca-Cola use FizzionBuilding a marketing campaign in Fizzion can start with a prompt to generatesomething like Coca-Cola polar bears on the oceanor with a blank canvas as Fizzion watches along.At the very top of the stack, the Coca-Cola design team has full access to build or alter anything across the brand that it wants. Partner agencies that Coke hires to make ads have more limitations. They can generate a new aspect ratio for a campaign on demand, and the AI will piece it all together. But if they want to stretch the logoreal badFizzion wont let them. However, they can send that change as a request to Coca-Cola proper through the platform to get approval (saving a meeting). [Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]As design teams go down the chain from America to local markets, more and more of the design process becomes about localization. These teams have the least amount of access to tweak a campaigncertain assets and layers may be lockedthough they can still make requests up the chain. This might sound controlling (and of course to an extent Coca-Cola is very much controlling its brand). But the design team argues that having these brand guidelines integrated into design tools is ultimately more freeing for design partners.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]One thing that we speak a lot internally about this global system is that we need to help designers and creatives downstream do the right thing, right. So it cannot be a burden for them to try to be compliant with the brand, Abreu says. We need to make this as easy as possible.However, with kerning off the table, Coca-Cola argues that it leaves time for creatives to focus on everything else about a campaign: storytelling, having ideas, making sure cultural nuance is applied, and [focusing on] emotional resonance, Abreu says. [Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]Indeed, despite all of the checks and balances in the system, Coca-Colas designers are hoping that their creative partners continue to push back. In fact, they are depending on it, as thats the only way they believe a brand can grow and evolve. If everybody builds on the same LLM, it just follows the same kind of way of interacting with an AI. We will just get a lot of the same, says Heinrich. We believe that designers need to be more in charge. . . . [They need to] be more creative in order to push the AI to the next level. The better you are at your job and the better you push, the better the outputs are and the more uniqueness comes from them.[Image: Adobe/Coca-Cola]For now, Coca-Cola is all-in with Fizzion. Since March of this year, every partner agency thats building a campaign is required to create it with a Fizzion Style ID. And the Coca-Cola team believes Fizzion is so efficient at handling design standards that its 400-page PDF guidelines will fall out of use. As for Adobe, its built a powerful design tool that, no doubt, many companies using its platform would benefit from. However, its also been designed to meet the gargantuan needs of Coca-Cola, meaning its probably too big and multitiered for many teams to adopt efficiently.Few companies are thinking on the scale as Coke is right now. So we need to take a future-forward look at this and figure out how its best applied, says King. We like to start with the use cases. We like to have something very concrete that a customer wants to do and then build backwards into what were [shipping].
