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Picture this: You walk into a coffee shop, order a latte, and pay with your phone. To you, it feels like checking out with Venmo. And to the cashier, its business as usual. But behind the scenes, something different is happening: You just paid with crypto. This isnt science fictionits already happening. From Starbucks to Walmart, retailers are rolling out crypto acceptance, and consumers are responding. Surveys show 39% of U.S. crypto holders have shopped with crypto (with 9% doing so daily), while 23% of non-holders say theyd use crypto if they could shop with it. Thats millions of shoppers who want the choice to pay with digital assets, but dont realize that they already can. A smarter way to pay retailers For merchants, crypto isnt just another payment buttonits a way to improve the bottom line. Traditional payment rails come with added fees and delays that can get in the way. But now, crypto processors help convert crypto to fiat currencygovernment-issued currency that is not backed by a physical asset like the U.S. dollar, gold, or silverso merchants can accept crypto at checkout seamlessly. Hows that possible? Its actually quite simple. These processors generate a wallet address for customers to pay (think of it as a crypto account number), then process the transaction, verify it on a blockchain, and automatically convert the crypto to the merchant’s preferred government-backed currency (like the dollar), depositing it directly into the retailers bank account. Conversion is handled immediately, and usually settled automatically at locked-in rates, avoiding any risk of the tokens price fluctuation. And then there are stablecoinsa specific type of digital currency pegged to another asset like the dollar and designed to hold steady valuewhich retailers are also embracing as a way to accept crypto at checkout without having to navigate potential price swings. To sum it up: Often with fewer fees than card networks and instant (or near-instant) settlement, crypto payments can improve cash flow and offer retailers global reach with fewer currency exchange headaches, and money in the bankwithout waiting days for funds to clear. That means less money paid to intermediaries and more money in the sellers pockets. The hidden customer segment Accepting crypto also allows retailers to appeal to a growing, eager customer base. Surveys show that more than 55 million Americans hold crypto today, and theyre looking for practical ways to use it. Offering crypto at checkout signals that your business is forward-thinking and inclusiveand can draw in innovative shoppers who actively seek out merchants who accept digital assets. Big names are leading the charge. Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Chipotle accept crypto through payment processors like Flexa and Spedn. Sheetz enabled Bitcoin and Ethereum across its 750+ convenience stores, even layering payments into its loyalty program. Walmart piloted Bitcoin payments in 50 stores, using the same terminals as Apple Pay. Even PayPal now allows merchants to accept 100+ cryptocurrencies, converting them into dollars on the spot. Everyday value for shoppers For consumers, crypto payments bring tangible benefits that go beyond novelty. The added speed and savings that merchants gain can translate into special discounts and perks for customers, as crypto processors and retailers are experimenting with promotions and loyalty programs that turn everyday purchases into opportunities to earn extra value. In August, Sheetz offered a 50% discount on in-person crypto purchases during peak hours; Starbucks and Shake Shack have piloted Bitcoin rewards and NFT-based loyalty programs; Nike and Sephora have integrated crypto rewards into purchases. With crypto, checkout becomes more than a transactionits a chance to unlock extra benefits. And the checkout experience feels no different. Apps like BitPay, MoonPay, and PayPal work behind the scenes so the experience of paying with crypto feels the same as tapping your phone or swiping a card. From experiment to expectation The story of retail payments is one of constant evolution: checks gave way to plastic, plastic gave way to contactless, and now crypto is quietly stepping into the mix. What once felt novel is becoming normal. For merchants, crypto is a chance to reduce costs, attract new customers, and build loyalty in ways that traditional payment methods cant. For consumers, its a way to shop faster, smarter, and with more rewards. The question isnt if crypto will become part of mainstream retail, its when. And for forward-thinking merchants, the answer is now. Stuart Alderoty is president of the National Cryptocurrency Association.
Category:
E-Commerce
I keep seeing articles and conferences about humanizing AI in one way or another. And while I get the sentiment, I think theyre taking the wrong approach. Theres no point in making technologies more human. Being human is our job. If anything, AI is less an opportunity to humanize technology, than to rehumanize ourselves. Lets start at the beginning. AI is just the latest, perhaps greatest advancement yet in what OG computer scientist Norbert Wiener dubbed cybernetic technologies. Unlike traditional technologies, cybernetic ones take feedback from the world in order to determine their functions. They work less like a machine you turn on than a home heaters thermostat, which turns itself off when the heat has reached a certain level. This, in turn, allows the room to cool. Then the thermostat snaps on again, using feedback from the environment to keep the room within a chosen temperature range. Of course, the other kind of feedback we all know about is that loud screech you get when you point a microphone too close to its speaker. The microphone is hearing its own sound, then feeding it back to the speaker, then hearing that sound, and feeding it back to the speaker again. Each feedback loop adds more sound until it screeches out of control. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/adus-labs-16x9-1.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/anduslabs.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Douglas Rushkoff and Andus Labs.","dek":"Keep up to date on the latest trends on how AI is reshaping culture and business, through the critical lens of human agency.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.anduslabs.com\/perspectives","theme":{"bg":"#1a064b","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420531,"imageMobileId":91420530,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} People engaging with AI prompts are vulnerable to those very same positive feedback loops. You come up with an idea, pose it to your favorite chat, and the more supposedly human the AI, the more it tries to find a way to give you positive feedback. That sounds like a great idea for a new business, Douglas. Im intrigued! Shall I develop a proposal with possible action points? Passive spectators Round and around we go, the initial tiny utterance of a prompt getting cycled again and again, our human nervous system stimulated and reinforced by the positive feedback. Sure, we may contribute a bit to the process, but for the most part we are passive spectators of the phenomenon, marveling at how much history, logic, and speculation the AI can bring to bear. It can even create a slide presentation or video or simulated prototype of the idea suitable for presentation to others! Go to any business conference these days, and youll run into more than one entrepreneur who is high on their own supply, sharing videos of their AIs crazy visions. Lord help the folks they convince to invest. As I see it, the reason they fall prey to such positive feedback loops is that they are too ready and willing to pull themselves from the equation. The AI seems so authoritative, and so human, that surely its aware of what it is doing. It wouldnt be so on board with your ideas if it didnt have some sense that it would work, right? Your agents are not your friends Wrong. Dont accept the positive reinforcement. The AI isnt on board with the idea so much as committed to pleasing you, in the moment, like a person if its been trained that way. But its not a human, not even close, and doesnt hold a conception of the thing you are working on. No, you, the human partner in this feedback loop, are the only one who stands a chance of conceiving or contextualizing whatever it is youre working on. Your agents, like your children, are not your friends. That doesnt mean you shouldnt care for them. Quite the contrary, it means you have to be the one to intervene on everyones behalf. You are the conscious actor in the system. The way to prevent such positive feedback loops in our interactions with technology is to assume the role of the human. Dont get out of the AIs way in the name of efficiency or output. Its cool to see all that stuff coming out, but if youre not intervening in the processactively getting in the wayyoure not going to get anywhere at all. Follow your instincts Counterintuitively, perhaps, the way to do that is to become less mechanical, less results-oriented, less utilitarian, and more feeling, more process-oriented, and even less obviously useful. Yeah, slow things down. Nurture your intuition. Lean into your own experience, expertise, and sensibilities. Reconnect with your instincts. Pause and breathe. How does that make me feel? For while cybernetic machines can iterate, only living beings can respirate. Instead of cycling through data, human beings can metabolize through our bodies. We can test ideas with our gut. Something doesnt pass the smell test. A proposal feels off. This strange moment in the digital age may just be an opportunity to reclaim the uniqueness of being living, breathing, metabolizing creatures in an otherwise digital, unconscious, contextless landscape. Making AIs seem more human is not doing us any favors, especially when it tempts us to relinquish our roles as the living, breathing adults in the room. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/adus-labs-16x9-1.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/anduslabs.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Douglas Rushkoff and Andus Labs.","dek":"Keep up to date on the latest trends on how AI is reshaping culture and business, through the critical lens of human agency.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.anduslabs.com\/perspectives","theme":{"bg":"#1a064b","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420531,"imageMobileId":91420530,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
The health care industry, like many others, has traditionally relied on tried-and-true conventional, one-way marketing tactics. However, that strategy is no longer enough to break through to consumers. More than 81% of consumers tune out generic ads and crave more engaged and personalized content, signaling that marketers need to adapt and stop ineffective communication that tries to pull consumers to them. Instead, we must go to our customers, meeting them precisely where their attention already lives. We know a great story has the power to transcend demographics, evoke emotion, and build lasting connections. Ultimately, brands are collections of human beings, and people connect with people. By humanizing our brands and telling compelling stories about the individuals who compose them, we unlock a profound ability to resonate and connect with our audience on an emotional level. However, where we share stories have changed: Weve seen the audience shift aggressively to at-home streaming and social media. Understand your customers media habits More consumers get their news from non-traditional news sources and streaming viewership has eclipsed traditional broadcast media. We are living through the atomization of content consumption. Knowing how people watch is only half the battle. Each platformTikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix and othersis a distinct ecosystem. Savvy marketers understand customers unique consumption habits and user behaviors, then tailor their content and approach accordingly. Too often brands hesitate, thinking they may be too small, not unique, or they question their own perspective. But everyone has a story, and every brand has an opportunity to fuel a human emotion. Look at health care. We fuel your lives, your loves, your passions, and your careers. Consider entertainment marketing Last year we launched Northwell Studios to create impactful content that’s both entertaining and purpose driven. Our work, featured on platforms like Hulu and Netflix, has garnered billions of views. But more importantly, its humanizing complex issues, pulling back the curtain on health care, and sparking crucial dialogues around often taboo topics like gun violence and mental health. For example, our 2024 HBO Max docuseries, One South: Portrait of a Psych Unit, drove community support, awareness, and donations that enabled us to open a second mental health unit. That’s the ROI every marketer dreams of. Entertainment marketing, when rooted in purpose, can be a powerful force for good, fostering positive cultural change while building brand affinity. Its not just about reaching viewers; it’s about making a difference. Five factors to weigh before trying entertainment marketing For brands ready to embrace the power of entertainment marketing, here are five factors to consider. 1. Authenticity: Before venturing into entertainment, identify the core values and stories that define your brand. If you have a product that is authentic, resonates with people, and provides value, then you have a platform to build a brand around that. Your entertainment content should be a natural extension of your brand’s identity, not forced. 2. Partnerships: Collaborating with experienced filmmakers, producers, or content creators is essential. They bring creative expertise and industry knowledge that can elevate your content and expand its reach. Seek partners who share your vision and commitment to quality storytelling. 3. Context: Entertainment marketing is not about just putting your product in a movie. It’s about crafting narratives that resonate with your target audience and subtly integrate your brand’s message. 4. Engage to change: Allow your audience to be part of the storytelling and the brand story. That means not just pushing content out, but allowing them to create content, engage with your brand, and share their passions, and their love for your brand. 5. Measure and adapt: Like any smart marketing campaign, be sure to track viewership, engagement, social media activity, and any other relevant impact on brand awareness and business outcomes that are important to you. Data-driven insights will help refine your strategy and optimize your return on investment. Final thoughts You must be fearless and bold. And you must be willing to fail and learn from those failures. The marketing landscape is transforming. Consumers are demanding authentic connections and engaging experiences. By embracing the power of entertainment, brands can break through the noise, build meaningful relationships, and achieve lasting impact. It’s time to move beyond traditional methods and embrace the power of the story. Ramon Soto is senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Northwell Health.
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E-Commerce
Greetings and thank you once again for reading Fast Companys Plugged Inand a happy Halloween to you. Recently, I used Apple Photos to revisit the photos I took during the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday. There were some gems in therememories Id like to preserve forever. But there were even more images I regretted saving in the first place. You already know the ones Im talking about. The near-duplicates of other, better photos. The blurry misfires. The shots of people with their eyelids drooping or mouths agape. The ones I accidentally took of the floor when my thumb slipped. Did I mention that the treasured pictures of loved ones remain intermingled with detritus such as the shot I snapped of the fine print on the back of my mothers wireless network extender when I was troubleshooting it? Of course, all of this is an artifact of the age of digital photography. For me, that began in the spring of 1999, when I bought my first digital camera. Freed from film and developing costs, I could take as many photos as I wanted (or at least as many as my memory card would hold). They quickly piled up on my hard drive in a way that had no precedent with printed snapshots. The arrival of smartphones in the following decade may have been the more momentous sea change. Suddenly, I had a decent camera with me at all times. And it synced all the photos I took to the cloud, so they were nearly impossible to misplace. As nice as it is not to lose images by accidentwhich I did all the time pre-smartphonethe 111,582 photos I currently have stored in Apple Photos, most of which I took with various iPhones, include vast quantities of dross. Im spending $10 a month on 2 terabytes of iCloud storage to store them, but the cost isnt the issue. Its the mental tax I pay every time I have to dig through bad photos to find the good ones. Speaking of good ones: Starting in 2023, an app called GoodOnes tried to use AI to distinguish between your best photos and the ones you could safely delete. It later rebranded as Ollie and has since vanished from the App Store. (Its website suggests a new version is coming, but includes a link to a busted waitlist, so who knows?) One of the many, many boring photos Ive deleted thanks to Shutter Declutter. I gave GoodOnes a try when it was new. Mostly, it proved to me that determining whether a photo is worth keeping often has nothing to do with the aspects AI might be able to judge, such as composition, crispness, or the expressions on faces. In many instances, its a deeply personal decision, and impossible to outsource. Even once youve decided to trash your unwanted photos, its surprisingly tough to do. Apple Photos is focused on safely storing images, and doesnt seem to have given a whole lot of thought to not storing them. Every time you delete a photo, it makes you confirm your intention, explaining that you can recover it for 30 days. Doing that thousands of times wouldnt just be a slogit would be unbearable. (Its possible to bulk-select photos for deletion, but theyre displayed as tiny, cropped squares, making it hard to tell if any given picture is a keeper or a dud.) This conundrum is obvious enough that Apples App Store has several third-party utilities designed to let you keep or delete photos by swiping, as if you were going through potential dates on Tinder. The one I like bestand am happily paying $3 a month foris called Shutter Declutter. Its got a likable, minimalist interface and uses notifications to gently nudge you into spending a few minutes with it. It also makes the deletion process less intimidating by presenting you with just the photos you took on todays date in past years, though you can also jump to others if youre feeling ambitious. Sorting through 100,000-plus old photos is so overwhelming a project that the most expedient response is to avoid ever doing it. But I can certainly find the time to review ones I took on February 3, June 12, or October 30. Already Ive used Shutter Declutter to weed out thousands of stinkers. Its been . . . kind of fun, especially since I also get to see some great photos Id forgotten Id taken. Along with using this app regularly, I am trying to follow a few personal best practices for managing my photo collection: First, I am doing my best to take fewer pictures, but better ones. Instead of firing off a dozen haphazard shots of a moment just because I can, Id rather thoughtfully compose two or three, as if I were paying for film and processing. Secondly, when I shoot a bunch of photossay, at a picnic or during an e-bike jauntIm trying to review them soon thereafter. I usually end up deleting about 80% of what I captured, leaving me with the 20% that Id be happy to rediscover years from now. Lastly, my Apple Photos is rife with images that are inherently disposable: close-ups of restaurant meals, most screenshots, mildly amusing shots I texted to friends or family. Rather than letting them fester, I keep reminding myself that its best to remove them quickly, as if I were taking out the trash. Im never going to turn myself into a digital neat freak. But even if all I do is slow my accumulation of additional images, I will have accomplished something. After all, it would be pretty sad if I checked Apple Photos one day and discovered that instead of having 111,582 to wrangle, I somehow had 223,164. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company Claude turns ideas into apps Claude Artifacts lets you make flashcards, quizzes, games, and morejust by chatting. Read More You bought a fridge with a screen. What did you expect? Samsung is bringing auto-play ads to some of its smart fridge screens. Read More Figma acquires Weavy, a workflow tool with ‘artistic intelligence’ Figma CEO Dylan Field on why the design platform bought a Tel Aviv startup’s tool for making AI images a starting point, not the destination. Read More Here’s why you don’t need a magic GEO hack Instead, you need authenticity, clarity, and openness. Read More Home Depot is using AI to help you flip your house faster The home improvement store partnered with Kai to turn photos into shopping lists. Snap a photo, get a plan. Read More AI wrote the code. You got hacked. Now what? Security risks from AI-generated code are realbut with the right guardrails, teams can use AI to move faster. Read More
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E-Commerce
The Trump administrations widespread cancellation and freezing of clean energy funding is also hitting essential work to improve the nations power grid. That includes investments in grid modernization, energy storage, and efforts to protect communities from outages during extreme weather and cyberattacks. Ending these projects leaves Americans vulnerable to more frequent and longer-lasting power outages. The Department of Energy has defended the cancellations, saying that the projects did not adequately advance the nations energy needs, were not economically viable and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars. Yet before any funds are actually released through these programs, each grant must pass evaluations based on the departments standards. Those include rigorous assessments of technical merits, potential risks, and cost-benefit analysesall designed to ensure alignment with national energy priorities and responsible stewardship of public funds. I am an associate professor studying sustainability, with over 15 years of experience in energy systems reliability and resilience. In the past, I also served as a Department of Energy program manager focused on grid resilience. I know that many of these canceled grants were foundational investments in the science and infrastructure necessary to keep the lights on, especially when the grid is under stress. The dollar-value estimates vary, and some of the money has already been spent. A list of canceled projects maintained by energy analysis company Yardsale totals about US$5 billion. An Oct. 2, 2025, announcement from the department touts $7.5 billion in cuts to 321 awards across 223 projects. Additional documents leaked to Politico reportedly identified additional awards under review. Some media reports suggest the full value of at-risk commitments may reach $24 billiona figure that has not been publicly confirmed or refuted by the Trump administration. These were not speculative ventures. And some of them were competitively awarded projects that the department funded specifically to enhance grid efficiency, reliability and resilience. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Grid improvement funding For years, the federal government has been criticized for investing too little in the nations electricity grid. The long-term planningand spendingrequired to ensure the grid reliably serves the public often falls victim to short-term political cycles and shifting priorities across both parties. But these recent cuts come amid increasingly frequent extreme weather, increased cybersecurity threats to the systems that keep the lights on, and aging grid equipment that is nearing the end of its life. These projects sought to make the grid more reliable so it can withstand storms, hackers, accidents, and other problems. National laboratories In addition to those project cancellations, President Donald Trumps proposed budget for 2026 contains deep cuts to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a primary funding source for several national laboratories, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which may face widespread layoffs. Among other work, these labs conduct fundamental grid-related research like developing and testing ways to send more electricity over existing power lines, creating computational models to simulate how the U.S. grid responds to extreme weather or cyberattacks, and analyzing real-time operational data to identify vulnerabilities and enhance reliability. These efforts are necessary to design, operate, and manage the grid, and to figure out how best to integrate new technologies. Grid resilience and modernization Some of the projects that have lost funding sought to upgrade grid management including improved sensing of real-time voltage and frequency changes in the electricity sent to homes and businesses. That program, the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program, also funded efforts to automate grid operations, allowing faster response to outages or changes in output from power plants. It also supported developing microgridslocalized systems that can operate independently during outages. The canceled projects in that program, estimated to total $7246 million, were in 24 states. For example, a $19.5 million project in the Upper Midwest would have installed smart sensors and software to detect overloaded power lines or equipment failures, helping people respond faster to outages and prevent blackouts. A $50 million project in California would have boosted the capacity of existing subtransmission lines, improving power stability and grid flexibility by installing a smart substation, without needing new transmission corridors. Microgrid projects in New York, New Mexico, and Hawaii would have kept essential services running during disasters, cyberattacks and planned power outages. Another canceled project included $11 million to help utilities in 12 states use electric school buses as backup batteries, delivering power during emergencies and peak demand, like on hot summer days. Several transmission projects were also canceled, including a $464 million effort in the Midwest to coordinate multiple grid connections from new generation sites. Long-duration energy storage The grid must meet demand at all times, even when wind and solar generation is low or when extreme weather downs power lines. A key element of that stability involves storing massive amounts of electricity for when its needed. One canceled project would have spent $70 million turning retired coal plants in Minnesota and Colorado into buildings holding iron-air batteries capable of powering several thousand homes for as many as four days. Rural and remote energy systems Another terminated program sought to help people who live in rural or remote places, who are often served by just one or two power lines rather than a grid that can reroute power around an interruption. A $30 million small-scale bioenergy project would have helped three rural California communities convert forest and agricultural waste into electricity. Not all of the terminated initiatives were explicitly designed for resilience. Some would have strengthened grid stability as a byproduct of their main goals. The rollback of $1.2 billion in hydrogen hub investments, for example, undermines projects that would have paired industrial decarbonization with large-scale energy storage to balance renewable power. Similarly, several canceled industrial modernization projects, such as hybrid electric furnaces and low-carbon cement plants, were structured to manage power demand and integrate clean energy, to improve grid stability and flexibility. The reliability paradox The administration has said that these cuts will save money. In practice, however, they shift spending from prevention of extended outages to recovery from them. Without advances in technology and equipment, grid operators face more frequent outages, longer restoration times, and rising maintenance costs. Without investment in systems that can withstand storms or hackers, taxpayers and ratepayers will ultimately bear the costs of repairing the damage. Some of the projects now on hold were intended to allow hospitals, schools and emergency centers to reduce blackout risks and speed power restoration. These are essential reliability and public safety functions, not partisan initiatives. Canceling programs to improve the grid leaves utilities and their customers dependent on emergency stopgapsdiesel generators, rolling blackouts, and reactive maintenanceinstead of forward-looking solutions. Roshanak (Roshi) Nateghi is an associate professor of sustainability at Georgetown University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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