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2025 unleashed the enormous potential of AI. According to Pew Research, 62% of adults say they interact with AI at least several times a week, and 73% of U.S. adults say they are at least a little bit willing to let AI assist with their day-to-day activities. However, while most people today use AI primarily for answering their questions or researching products to buy, the real opportunity isn’t in better search functionality alone. In the consumer tech industry, we are at the threshold of a generational opportunity to leverage AI to make peoples lives better and more meaningful, saving them time on what they need to do so they can focus on doing what they want to do. We need to champion a fundamental shift in how we design technology from interfaces we control to companions we trust. Not through more screens or settings, but through intelligence that shapes what you see, how you cook, how you clean, and how your home responds to youoften invisibly, and always intentionally. This is what real AI looks like: a companion. It learns your habits. It helps without demanding attention. It anticipates rather than interrupts. In 2026, AI moves from optional to indispensable, especially inside the home, where its impact will be most personal. INVISIBLE INTELLIGENCE The signals are unmistakable. In an internal consumer survey Samsung conducted in late 2025, 74% of respondents said they want to see at least some personal tech become more human-like or instinctive. For example, that includes AI that recognizes context and anticipates needs without constant input. What does this look like in daily life? Imagine TVs that automatically optimize picture and sound based on what you’re watching and your room environment. Refrigerators that understand ingredients and suggest meals without you having to ask. Appliances that work together seamlessly, reducing everyday friction rather than adding complexity. That’s what invisible intelligence looks like. Whats ahead is exciting. Im just back from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where the conversation around AI reached a crescendo. Samsung debuted a vision for AI Living that unifies intelligence across a broad ecosystem of mobile devices, home appliances, TVs, and services to bring connection, bringing the benefits of AI to create experiences that understand people and adapt to their lives. INTUITIVE, NOT INTRUSIVE I believe that AI must feel intuitive, not intrusive. In practical terms, a companion frees up something valuable: time and mental load. When your home acts like a companion by handling routine decisions, adjusting temperatures, suggesting meals, and managing energy, it returns your attention to what actually matters. Connection with family. Creative work. Rest. But a real companion cant operate in isolation. Innovation should no longer be individual AI features. Real companionship requires orchestration across an ecosystem of dozens of devices that actually know each other, learn together, and move in concert. This requires open standards, multi-brand compatibility, and foundational trust. Privacy and security can’t be afterthoughts. If your home is a true companion, it must be a trustworthy companion. That foundation is non-negotiable. As AI becomes a constant presence in our lives, the companies that win won’t be the ones with the most features. They’ll be the ones that understand something fundamental, which is that the best technology is the technology you don’t think about. The question isn’t whether AI companions are coming. They are. The question is whether we design them thoughtfully, to be our true partners in daily life or to be systems that extract value while appearing to serve us. In 2026, we are choosing genuine companionship. Yoonie Joung is President and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America.
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E-Commerce
A reader asks: A while back, an employee who reported to me (Im a man) became visibly pregnant soon after she started. But she never brought it up. Not with me, not with HR, not with anyone. I didnt ask her about it, though nearly everyone else in our office asked me. I cringed when I responded since it was obvious she was pregnant but I felt that I needed to protect her privacy. I felt like I was walking around on pins and needles with this very obvious elephant in the room. Her job description included occasionally lifting objects up to 40 pounds, and the only way I treated her differently was that I went out of my way to pick up anything remotely heavy. Eventually, she was put on bed rest and had her baby a week later. She did not return to the organization. The office was a very friendly place, and I know the employees would have loved to have thrown her a baby shower and all those fun things. But I realize I was handed a hot potato, from several different angles. Should I have addressed this directly with her? Or was I fine to ignore it? Green responds: You were right to ignore it, awkward and strange as it felt. Sometimes when people think someone looks obviously pregnant, they actually arent. Sometimes thats just their body shape, even if its new. Other times theyre pregnant but know they wont be carrying the baby to full-term because of a medical situation and dont want to talk about that at work. I know the argument is that the employer needs to plan for the persons maternity leave (or departure in this case). And generally people do eventually announce their pregnancies at work for that reason. But when someone chooses not to, theres usually a reason for that choiceand as a manager Id err on the side of respecting that. After all, other situations can cause someone to suddenly need medical leave without any heads-up or to need to resign without notice, and employers deal with those and make do. Of course, the counterargument to this is that if an employee knew months in advance that theyd need several months off for, say, surgery, and didnt bother to tell anyone until the day before, that would be a problem. But again, we dont know the full story here, most pregnant people do announce their pregnancies, and the fact that she didnt likely indicates she had a reason for wanting privacy. If we get an epidemic of people not announcing their pregnancies until the day before they go on leave, thus leaving employers everywhere in the lurch, we can revisit that, but right now its not typical, its reasonable to assume something was up, and you were right to err on the side of respecting her privacy. One last thing: Its important to note that any concern should be solely confined to the employers ability to plan for the employees sudden absence. The offices interest in giving this person a baby shower is 100% not relevant. If she had wanted that, she would have shared the pregnancy. She didnt, and that matters much more than anyones desire to celebrate with her.
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E-Commerce
With a ring of massive columns and seating for more than 70,000 people, President Donald Trump may be getting the football stadium of his dreams. Renderings have just been released of the proposed design for a new stadium for the Washington Commanders NFL team, and the aesthetic is right in line with an architectural style the Trump administration has been championing with increasing passion. The stadium is an oval of dozens of white columns recalling the classical-influenced architecture of some of the capital’s most recognizable buildings. [Image: HKS] Designed by the architecture firm HKS, the stadium’s concept takes one of the most familiar elements of classical architecturethe columnand turns it into the defining feature of the building. Cascading around the stadium’s perimeter with heights upward of 100 feet, the columns are topped by a concave ellipse, also a marble-like white color, that holds a semi-transparent roof. Glass between the columns offers views into the structure, which would glow from within during events. The stadium’s design is a reflection of the Trump administration’s desire for an official embrace of the classical and neoclassical architecture that has typified federal buildings since the earliest days of the republic. Drawing influence from the columns and pediments abundant in the buildings of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, this classical architecture style can be seen at the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Supreme Court, among many other buildings across the city and country. It’s a style the Trump administration has sought to reassert as the federal standard, issuing executive orders in both of his terms to make classical architecture the preferred style for new federal projects. The group behind this effort, the National Civic Art Society, has been working for decades to convince national leaders that traditional design, not the modernism that emerged in the postwar years, is the most appropriate style for federal architecture. [Image: HKS] Trump’s architectural preferences Trump, the longtime real estate developer, has made this a key part of his agenda. His desire for more classical architecture has trickled down through Trump appointees to the agency that oversees the design of all significant projects in Washington, D.C., the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC). NCPC chair Will Scharf, appointed to the commission in July 2025 by Trump, recently called on officials from the Washington Commanders to ensure the new stadium “incorporates architectural features in keeping with the capital more generallyclassical, neoclassical elements.” Speaking at a recent NCPC meeting, Scharf said, “I think really going back to classical antiquity, arenas and stadiums have played a vital role in the urban cityscape . . . I think there were several decades in American history where we unfortunately really got away from that, much to the detriment of the fan experience.” [Image: HKS] The stadium would sit on the site of the demolished Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, the team’s former home. That site aligns directly with Washington, D.C.’s L’Enfant Plan, the city’s 1790 urban plan that crisscrossed the area with diagonal axes and carefully configured views of buildings like the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the White House. Trump’s preference for classical architecture in the capital is beginning to influence development in the city. Under the NCPC’s authority, the stadium project could be its most imposing expression. The design from HKS shows a willingness to play along. In a press release, HKS global venues director Mark A. Williams says the project’s design was guided by its “significance of place.” [Image: HKS] “Monumental in presence, grounded in the L’Enfant Plan, and scaled to the urban fabric of the District, the stadium design will be a bold civic landmark that carries the city’s architectural legacy forward in a way that is confident, dynamic, and unmistakably Washington, D.C.,” he says. It could also become unmistakably Trump, as the president’s architectural preferences reverberate through the capital. (Trump has also called for the stadium to be named after himself.) Construction on the Commanders stadium could start in 2027, with an opening date in 2030, a year after the constitutionally mandated end of Trump’s final term.
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E-Commerce
An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASAs first medical evacuation. SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station. Their first stop was a hospital for an overnight stay. Obviously, we took this action (early return) because it was a serious medical condition, NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said following splashdown. The astronaut in question is fine right now, in good spirits and going through the proper medical checks. It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February. NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japans Kimiya Yui and Russias Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who developed the health problem last week or explain what happened, citing medical privacy. While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. The astronauts emerged from the capsule, one by one, within an hour of splashdown. They were helped onto reclining cots and then whisked away for standard medical checks, waving to the cameras. Isaacman monitored the action from Mission Control in Houston, along with the crew’s families. NASA decided a few days ago to take the entire crew straight to a San Diego-area hospital following splashdown and even practiced helicopter runs there from the recovery ship. The astronaut in question will receive in-depth medical checks before flying with the rest of the crew back to Houston on Friday, assuming everyone is well enough. Platonovs return to Moscow was unclear. NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next days spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago. Spacewalk preparations did not lead to the medical situation, Isaacman noted, but for anything else, it would be very premature to draw any conclusions or close any doors at this point. It’s unknown whether the same thing could have happened on Earth, he added. The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut. Isaacman said it’s too soon to know whether the launch of station reinforcements will take priority over the agency’s first moonshot with astronauts in more than a half-century. The moon rocket moves to the pad this weekend at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, with a fueling test to be conducted by early next month. Until all that is completed, a launch date cannot be confirmed; the earliest the moon flyaround could take off is Feb. 6. For now, NASA is working in parallel on both missions, with limited overlap of personnel, according to Isaacman. If it comes down to a point in time to where we have to deconflict between two human spaceflight missions, that is a very good probMARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writerem to have at NASA, he told reporters. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, AP aerospace writer
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E-Commerce
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. Im Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, Im focusing on how and why AI will grow from something that chats to something that works in 2026. I also focus on a new privacy-focused AI platform from the maker of Signal, and on Googles work on e-commerce agents. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @thesullivan. Our relationship with AI is changing rapidly Anthropic kicked off 2026 with a bang. It announced Coworker, a new version of its powerful Claude Code coding assistant thats built for non-developers. As I wrote on January 14, Coworker lets users put AI agents, or teams of agents, to work on complex tasks. It offers all the agentic power of Claude Code while being far more approachable for regular workers (it runs within the Claude chatbot desktop app, not in the terminal as Claude Code does). It also runs at the file system level on the users computer, and can access email and third-party work apps such as Teams. Coworker is very likely just the first product of its kind that well see this year. Some have expressed surprise that OpenAI hasnt already offered such an agentic tool to consumers and enterprisesit probably will, as may Google and Microsoft, in some form. I think well look back at Coworker a year from now and recognize it as a real shift in the way we think about and use AI for our work tasks. AI companies have been talking for a long time about viewing AI as a coworker or copilot, but Cowork may make that concept a reality for many nontechnical workers. OpenAIs ChatGPT, which debuted in late 2022, gave us a mental picture of how consumer AI would look and act. It was just a little dialog box, mainly nonvisual and text-based. This shouldnt have been too surprising. After all, the chatbot interface was built by a bunch of researchers who spent their careers teaching machines how to understand words and text. Functionally, early chatbots could act like a search engine. They could write or summarize text, or listen to problems and give supportive feedback. But their outputs were driven almost entirely by their pretraining, in which they ingested and processed a compressed version of the entire internet. Using ChatGPT was something like text messaging with a smart and informed friend. Large language models do way, way more than that today. They understand imagery, they reason, they search the web, and call external tools. But the AI labs continue to try to push much of their new functionality through that same chatbot-style interface. Its time to graduate from that mindset and put more time and effort into meeting human users where they livethat is, delivering intelligence through lots of different interfaces that match the growing number of tasks where AI can be profitably applied. That will begin to happen in 2026. AI will expand into a full workspace, or into a full web browser ( la OpenAIs Atlas), and will eventually disappear into the operating system. As we saw at this years Consumer Electronics Show, it may go further: An AI tool may come wrapped in a cute animal form factor. Interacting with AI will become more flexible, too. Youll see more AI systems that accept real-time voice input this year. Anthropic added a feature to (desktop) Claude in October that lets users talk to the chatbot in natural language after hitting a keyboard shortcut. And Wispr Flow lets users dictate into any input window by holding down a function key. Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike launches encrypted AI chatbot People talk to AI chatbots about all kinds of things, including some very personal matters. Personally, I hesitate to discuss just anything with a chatbot, because I cant be sure that my questions and prompts, and the answers the AI gives, wont somehow be shared with someone who shouldnt see them. My worry is well-founded, it turns out. Last year a federal court ordered OpenAI to retain all user inputs and AI outputs, because they may be relevant to discovery in a copyright case. And theres always a possibility that unencrypted conversations stored by an AI company could be stolen as part of a hack. Meanwhile, the conversational nature of chatbots invites users to share more and more personal information, including the sensitive kind. In short, theres a growing need for provably secure and private AI tools. Now the creator of the popular encrypted messaging platform Signal, who goes by the pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike, has created an end-to-end encrypted AI chatbot called Confer. The new platform protects user prompts and AI responses, and makes it impossible to connect users online identities with their real-world ones. Marlinspike told Ars Technica that Confer users have better conversations with the AI because theyre empowered to speak more freely. When I signed up for a Confer account, the first thing the site asked was that I set up a six-digit encryption passkey, which would be stored within the secure element of my computer (or phone), which hackers cant access. Another key is created for the Confer server, and both keys must match before the user can interact with the chatbot. Confer is powered by open-source AI models it hosts, not by models accessed from a third party. Confers developers are serious about supporting sensitive conversations. After I logged in, I saw that Confer displays a few suggested conversations near the input window, such as practice a difficult conversation, negotiate my salary, and talk through my mental health. Google is building the foundations of agentic e-commerce Agents, of course, will do more than work tasks. Theyll be involved in more personal things, too, like online shopping. Right now human shoppers move through a long process of searching, clicking, data input, and payment-making in order to buy something. Merchants and brands hope that AI agents will one day do a lot of that work on the humans behalf. But for this to work, a whole ecosystem of agents, consumer-shopping sites, and brand back-end systems must be able to exchange information in standardized ways. For example, a consumer might want to use a shopping agent to buy a product that comes up in a Google AI Mode search, so the shopping agent would need to shake hands with the Google platform and the product merchant, and theyd both have to connect through a payment agent in the middle. Goole is off to a strong start on building the agentic infrastructure that will make this all work. On January 11, the company announced a new Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) that creates a common language for consumers, agents, and businesses to ensure that all types of commerce actions are standardized and secure. The protocol relieves all parties involved from having to create an individual agent handshake for every consumer platform and tech partner. UCP now standardizes three key aspects of a transaction: It offers a standard for guaranteeing the identity of the buyer and seller, a standard for the buying workflow, and a standard for the payment, which uses Googles Agent Payment Protocol (AP2) extension. Vidhya Srinivasan, Googles VP/GM of Advertising & Commerce, tells Fast Company that this is just the beginning, that the company intends to build out the UCP to support more parts of the sales process, including related-product suggestion and post-purchase support. Google developed UCP with merchant platforms including Shopify, Etsy, Target, and Walmart. UCP is endorsed byAmerican Express, Mastercard, Stripe, Visa, and others. More AI coverage from Fast Company: Why Anthropics new Cowork could be the first really useful general-purpose AI agent Governments are considering bans on Groks app over AI sexual image scandal Docusigns AI will now help you understand what youre signing CES 2026: The year AI got serious Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
Category:
E-Commerce