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We have been taught to segment people into neat design personas: young versus old, able-bodied versus disabled, patient versus caregiver. Those categories may help on a spreadsheet, but they rarely reflect real life. Ability is not a fixed identity. It is a state that shifts across hours, seasons, and decades. Most people are not disabled or able bodied. They are navigating a continuum. A parent carrying a toddler, a traveler pulling luggage, a cook with wet hands, someone recovering from surgery, a person with arthritis on a cold morning, an older adult managing fatigue at the end of the day. These are not edge cases. They are the mainstream experience of modern life. If design is meant to serve people, then the next step is clear: Stop designing for categories and start designing for fluidity. FLUIDITY IS THE NEW ACCESSIBILITY Accessibility is often framed as a feature set for a specific group. That framing keeps it stuck in the margins. A better lens is to treat accessibility as the practical reality of everyday variability. Peoples abilities change with context. Lighting changes. Noise changes. Energy changes. Hands get full. Attention splits. Stress rises. Injuries happen. Bodies age. Life intervenes. Once you design for that reality, the business case becomes obvious. Products that work across more conditions work for more people. They become relevant in more moments, which increases adoption, satisfaction, and repeat use. DESIGN FOR ABILITY STATES, NOT DEMOGRAPHICS A useful shift is to map ability states instead of user categories. Ask not only who the user is, but the condition they are in when they use the product. Consider a few common states that literally affect every body: One-handed use, because the other hand is full. Low vision use, due to glare, darkness, or fatigue. Low dexterity use, due to cold, arthritis, injury, or stress. Limited mobility use, due to pregnancy, pain, aging, or recovery. Cognitive load, because the user is rushed, distracted, or overwhelmed. These states are not rare. They recur daily. Designing for them creates better products for everyone without forcing people into a label. MAKE ADAPTABILITY FEEL INVISIBLE One risk is that designing for everyone can become code for complicated. The goal is not to add settings and switches. The goal is to build adaptability into the form and interaction so it feels natural. Good examples are usually quiet: A handle that invites multiple grips without looking specialized. Controls that are intuitive without requiring instruction. Packaging that opens cleanly without brute force. A product that communicates how to use it through shape and touch. The best inclusive design feels obvious, not assistive. THE STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE Fluidity is also a brand strategy. When customers feel a product keeps up with them, it earns trust. It becomes the object they rely on through different phases of life. That is a deeper form of loyalty than preference. It is dependency in the best sense of the word. The future of inclusive design is not about creating more categories. It is about removing the need for categories altogether. If products are designed for life in motion, they will work for every body, more often, and for longer. Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
The enterprise world is awash in AI optimism. Boardrooms buzz with talk of transformation, and budgets swell to accommodate the latest platforms and AI assistants. Today, nearly three-quarters of companies report using generative AI regularly in a core business activity, according to recent McKinsey & Company research. But if you look past the headlines, a familiar pattern has emerged that reminds me of the dot-com era, when companies rebranded overnight, and investors chased the next big thing, often with little regard for a tangible way forward. Today, talk of an AI bubble isnt just a matter of market speculation or start-up hype. Its unfolding inside organizations, where the pressure to do something with AI drives rapid procurement and internal investment. The fear of missing out (FOMO) is palpable. Leaders, wary of being left behind, greenlight projects that promise automation, insight, and competitive advantage. But heres the sobering reality: Most AI initiatives fail to deliver meaningful results, and the graveyard of underutilized tools and proofs of concept or pilots that dont pan out is growing. THE ANATOMY OF THE AI BUBBLE The pitfalls are easy to spot, especially in hindsight. Companies rush to build bespoke AI solutions, convinced their needs are unique, only to watch those features become commoditized by vendors months later. Others buy off-the-shelf platforms, expecting plug-and-play magic, but end up mired in costly customization and integration. Some grant AI agents sweeping permission, only to recoil at the risks when their chief information security officers (CISOs) push back. While its completely speculative, if the bubble bursts, it will be driven by a flood of AI projects without clear use cases that fail to generate revenue, productivity gains, or measurable cost savings. That doesnt mean every AI project is doomed, or that companies should stop investing in AI. It just means you need to tweak your approach. THE PRAGMATIC PLAYBOOK What separates the AI survivors from the casualties is discipline. The most successful organizations approach AI with a pragmatic, four-step framework. 1. Assess with brutal honesty Is the problem unique, or is it a feature waiting to be bundled into next years subscription? The build versus buy decision is not just technical; its existential. Too much building leads to wasted effort; too much buying without adaptation leads to disappointment. Leaders need to ask themselves if their processes are so distinctive that custom development is warranted, or if a trusted third party is likely to deliver the needed capability as a feature in one of their offerings. 2. Pilot before you leap Small-scale experiments, tightly scoped, reveal both the functional and business value of a solution. Pilots arent proof of concept. Theyre proof of value. Ive seen instances where the value looked to be there in the pilot but disappeared in a larger scope. So, resist the urge to roll out enterprise-wide until the groundwork is solid. Use pilots to continue to verify the value and readjust as needed as you scale the project. 3. Verify real impact Does the AI do what was promised? More importantly, does it make or save money? Functional success is meaningless without business impact. Continual verification means demanding evidence that the solution delivers measurable value. Ensure it remains a part of the process even after you roll out your AI, because bolting on the need to continually verify wont end well. 4. Scale with caution Prioritize quick wins and expand with measured steps. Only after value is proven does scaling make sense. Organizations that scale AI use prematurely often find themselves burdened with tools that fail to deliver on their promise. AVOID THE COMMON PITFALLS All too often, I see my peers fall into the same traps. Heres my advice: Dont overestimate AIs ability to automate complex workflows. Many projects fail because organizations expect too much, too soon. Beware of internal FOMO because rash decisions driven by fear of being left behind often lead to wasted investments. Recognize the value of traditional AI. Not all innovations are generative or agentic. Mature, proven AI solutions can deliver immediate value. Guard against giving AI agents more autonomy than is reasonable. The risks are real, and your CISO is justified in being overly cautious. THE DISCIPLINE TO THRIVE AI is not a panacea, nor is it a guaranteed path to transformation. Its power lies in the hands of organizations that approach it with rigor, clarity, and strategic intent. The bubble will burst for those who chase hype over substance, mistake activity for progress, or fail to align investments with business strategy. The leaders who will thrive are those who move deliberately and rationalize every decision, demand real value at every turn, and recognize both the limitations and the possibilities of AI. Success comes from understanding where AI can deliver immediate, tangible benefits and where it remains a work in progress. It means balancing ambition with pragmatism, and performance with transformation. Much like the dot-com boom, opportunity will outlive the initial hype and early failures of AI. Every company needs to lean into the potential, but every opportunity also needs the right framework to thrive and grow. That means setting the right foundation: modernizing your data estate, determining where your data should livewhether in the cloud, on premises, or a hybrid of bothand then ensuring your networking, compute, storage, and security infrastructure can support it all. Equally important is recognizing the growing role of the edge. Whether its a retail floor, remote offices, a factory, or the device in an end users hand, every edge has the potential to drive AI use cases from cloud-connected services to local inference. The future belongs not to those who move fastest, but to those who move smartest. Step back, challenge assumptions, and invest in AI with discipline and foundational purpose. In doing so, your next AI initiative will be the one that outlasts the hype to deliver lasting value for your business. Juan Orlandini is the CTO, North America for Insight Enterprises
Category:
E-Commerce
Aiming to shake up the Golden State’s media landscape, the California Post launched on Monday with a new tabloid newspaper and news site that brings a brash, cheeky, and conservative-friendly fixture of the Big Apple to the West Coast. The Los Angeles outpost of the New York Post will be digital first with social media accounts and video and audio pieces but for $3.75 readers can also purchase a daily print publication featuring the paper’s famously splashy front-page headlines. Perhaps most memorably: 1983s Headless Body in Topless Bar. The most iconic thing about the New York Post, and now the California Post, is that front page, said Nick Papps, editor-in-chief of the LA newsroom. “It has a unique wit, and is our calling card, if you like.” Mondays inaugural edition goes straight at Hollywood during awards season with the full-page headline: Oscar Wild – Shocking truth behind director Safdie brothers’ mystery split. Page Six gets a Hollywood edition Papps declined last week to reveal what stories his reporters were chasing and what bombs the political columnists will throw in its first editions. But he promised the growing staff of between 80 and 100 will focus on issues important to everyday, hardworking Californians, including homelessness, affordability, technology, and law and order. Of course, the Post’s infamous gossip column will get a Tinseltown version, Page Six Hollywood, that will keep a snarky eye on red carpets and celebrity culture. And sports fans can expect comprehensive coverage of the state’s major league teams, as well as the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Papps said. No matter what your politics are, sports is the great connector, he said. Adding another title to Rupert Murdoch ‘s media empire, the California Post will draw from and build on the venerable New York paper’s national coverage, which is known for its relentless and skewering approach to reporting and its facility with sensational or racy subject matter. There is no doubt that the Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit, Robert Thomson, chief executive of Post corporate parent News Corp., said in a statement last year announcing the move. In typically punchy Post fashion, he portrayed California as plagued by jaundiced, jaded journalism.” Journalism or clickbait? The California Post could make an impact with its combative style and conservative stance, said Gabriel Kahn, professor at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, who added our statewide press is boring as bathwater,” especially when it comes to politics. He expects a major target to be Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has possible presidential aspirations and has become a Republican boogeyman. Readers shouldn’t anticipate that the new publication will become known for breaking big stories through old-fashioned journalism, Kahn said. Theres a crass cleverness in the way that tabloids present news that actually works well on social media, he said. It could be entertaining. Kahn doesn’t expect the California Post will turn a profit. He points out that the New York Post isn’t a big moneymaker for News Corp., but rather it serves another purpose, which is to bludgeon its enemies and curry favor with people in power on the right. Nonetheless, the corporation’s New York Post Media Group, which includes several media properties, is a player in both local and national politics. It routinely pushes on culture-war pressure points, and it has broken such political stories as the Hunter Biden laptop saga. The Post has an avid reader in President Donald Trump, who gave its Pod Force One podcast an interview last summer. It launches at a volatile moment for the industry However bold its intentions, the venture is being launched into a turbulent atmosphere for the news business, particularly print papers. More than 3,200 of them have closed nationwide since 2005, according to figures kept by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The online world spawned new information sources and influencers, changed news consumers’ tastes and habits, and upended the advertising market on which newspapers relied. California, with a population of nearly 40 million, still has dozens of newspapers, including dailies in and around Los Angeles and other major cities. But the nations second-most-populous city hasnt had a dedicated tabloid focused on regional issues in recent memory. Meanwhile, venerable institutions like the Los Angeles Times have been hit with major layoffs. The launch of a paper edition of the Post defies logic” as news outlets in major metro areas are rapidly shrinking their print footprint, said Ted Johnson, a media and politics editor for Deadline in Washington, D.C., who reported in Los Angeles for 28 years. But Rupert Murdoch, his first love is print, Johnson said. Christopher Weber, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
From family-run cafes to retail giants, businesses are increasingly coming into the crosshairs of President Donald Trumps mass deportation campaign, whether it’s public pressure for them to speak out against aggressive immigration enforcement or becoming the sites for such arrests themselves. In Minneapolis, where the Department of Homeland Security says its carrying out its largest operation ever, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses have temporarily closed their doors or stopped accepting reservations amid widespread protests. On Sunday, after the U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies, including Target, Best Buy, and UnitedHealth, signed an open letter calling for “an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions. Still, that letter didnt name immigration enforcement directly, or point to recent arrests at businesses. Earlier this month, widely-circulated videos showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in Minnesota. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rounded up day laborers in Home Depot parking lots and delivery workers on the street nationwide. And last year, federal agents detained 475 people during a raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Here’s what we know about immigration enforcement in businesses. What ICE is allowed to do Anyone including ICE can enter public areas of a business as they wish. This can include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping aisles. The general public can go into a store for purposes of shopping, right? And so can law enforcement agents without a warrant, said Jessie Hahn, senior counsel for labor and employment policy at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy nonprofit. As a result, immigration officials may try to question people, seize information and even make arrests in public-facing parts of a business. But to enter areas with a reasonable expectation of privacy like a back office or a closed-off kitchen ICE is supposed to have a judicial warrant, which must be signed by a judge from a specified court, and can be limited to certain days or parts of the business. Judicial warrants should not be confused with administrative warrants, which are signed by immigration officers. But in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, ICE leadership stated administrative warrants were sufficient for federal officers to forcibly enter people’s homes if theres a final order of removal. Hahn and other immigration rights lawyers say this upends years of precedent for federal agents authority in private spaces and violates bedrock principles of the U.S. Constitution. Still, the easiest way for ICE to enter private spaces in businesses without a warrant is through consent from an employer, which could be as simple as letting an agent into certain parts of the property. The agency may also cite other exigent circumstances, Hahn notes, such as if theyre in hot pursuit of a certain individual. Other actions ICE can take against employers Beyond more sweeping workplace raids, enforcement against employers can also take the form of I-9 audits, which focus on verifying employees’ authorization to work in the U.S. Since the start of Trumps second term, attorneys have pointed to an uptick in instances of ICE physically showing up at a place of business to initiate an I-9 audit. ICE has the authority to do this but it marks a shift from prior enforcement, when audits more often began through writing like mailed notices. David Jones, a regional managing partner at labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips in Memphis, said he’s also seen immigration agents approach these audits with the same approach as recent raids. ICE is still showing up in their full tactical gear without identifying themselves necessarily, just to do things like serve a notice of inspection, Jones said. Employers have three days to respond to an I-9 audit, but agents behaving aggressively might make some businesses think they need to act more immediately. The rights of businesses If ICE shows up without a warrant, businesses can ask agents to leave or potentially refuse service based on their own company policy, perhaps citing safety concerns or other disruptions caused by agents’ presence. But there’s no guarantee immigration officials will comply, especially in public spaces. Thats not what were seeing here in Minnesota. What were seeing is they still conduct the activity, said John Medeiros, who leads corporate immigration practice at Minneapolis-based law firm Nilan Johnson Lewis. Because of this, Medeiros said, the question for many businesses becomes less about getting ICE to leave their property and more about what to do if ICE violates consent and other legal requirements. In Minneapolis and other cities that have seen immigration enforcement surges, including Chicago and Los Angeles some businesses have put up signs to label private spaces and set wider protocols for what to do when ICE arrives. Vanessa Matsis-McCready, associate general counsel and vice president of HR at Engage PEO, says she’s also seen a nationwide uptick in interest for I-9 self-audits across sectors and additional emergency preparation. How the public is responding ICE’s increased presence and forceful arrests at businesses has sparked public outcry, some of it directed at the companies themselves for not taking a strong enough stand. Some employers, particularly smaller business owners, are speaking out about ICE’s impacts on their workers and customers. But a handful of bigger corporations have stayed largely silent, at least publicly, about enforcement making itsway to their storefronts. Minneapolis-based Target has not commented on videos of federal agents detaining two of its employees earlier this month although its incoming chief executive, Michael Fiddelke, sent a video message to the company’s over 400,000 workers Monday calling recent violence incredibly painful, without directly mentioning immigration enforcement. He said Target was doing everything we can to manage whats in our control. Fiddelke also signed the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s letter calling for broader de-escalation, which got support from the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group of CEOs from more than 200 companies. Target is among companies that organizers with ICE Out of Minnesota have asked to take stronger public stances over ICE’s presence in the state. Others include Home Depot, whose parking lots have become a known site of ICE raids over the last year, and Hilton, which protestors said was among brands of Twin City-area hotels that have housed federal agents. Hilton and Home Depot didn’t respond to comment requests over the activists’ calls. Home Depot previously denied being involved in immigration operations. Several worker groups have been more outspoken. Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for a chapter of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, said members were shocked by a widening pattern of unlawful ICE behavior and recognize that anti-immigrant policies hurt tourism, business, and their families. United Auto Workers also expressed solidarity with Minneapolis residents “fighting back against the federal governments abuses and attacks on the working class. Hahn of the National Immigration Law Center noted some businesses are communicating through industry associations to avoid direct exposure to possible retaliation. Still, she stressed the importance of speaking publicly about the impacts of immigration enforcement overall. We know that the raids are contributing to things like labor shortages and reduced foot traffic, Hahn said, adding that fears to push back on this abuse of power from Trump could ultimately land us in a very different looking economy. By Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer Associated Press Writers Rio Yamat and Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Every month, around two billion people see AI Overviews, Googles AI-powered search feature that generates summaries to users queries. Now, a new study is revealing a concerning pattern among some of these responses: When asked health-related questions, AI Overviews appears to turn to YouTube significantly more often than trusted medical sites. Since its inception, AI Overviews has faced its fair share of controversies, from early reports of the product spewing nonsensical answers to a series of lawsuits from businesses and publisher groups alleging that the feature is damaging to organic traffic patterns. The most recent concern with AI Overviews emerged via an investigation from The Guardian on January 2, which alleged that the tool has a tendency to provide users with false, misleading, and potentially dangerous health guidance. At the time, Google refuted those claims. Now, a new study from the AI SEO tool SE Ranking, published on January 14, has revealed that AI Overviews is two to three times more likely to cite YouTube videos than “trusted medical sites” in response to health queriesbut Google says that’s not the full picture. “From the AIs point of view, all of this content exists in the same pool. To understand how AI Overviews collects its health guidance on the web, researchers at SE Ranking analyzed more than 50,000 health-related Google searches from German users. That location was chosen, per the studys authors, for its strictly regulated healthcare system. If AI systems rely heavily on non-medical or non-authoritative sources even in such an environment, the authors wrote in a published report, it suggests the issue may extend beyond any single country. SE Ranking found that, of all the AI Overview results, only about 34% came from “trusted medical sources” (which it defines as sites like medical institutions, academic journals, government institutions, and more), while the other 66% originated from “general or non-expert sources” (like commercial sites or blogs). In fact, YouTube was the leading source for all health-related inquiries; accounting for 4.43% of all AI Overviews citations. According to the report, thats 3.5 times more citations than netdoktor.de, one of Germanys largest consumer health portals, and more than twice the citations of MSD Manuals, a well-established medical reference. In total, 20,621 out of 465,823 AI Overviews results cited YouTube. This matters because YouTube is not a medical publisher, the report reads. It is a general-purpose video platform. Anyone can upload content there (e.g., board-certified physicians, hospital channels, but also wellness influencers, life coaches, and creators with no medical training at all). From the AIs point of view, all of this content exists in the same pool. In a statement to Fast Company, Google refuted SE Ranking’s findings. The company said the study’s definition of a trustworthy source is “flawed and overly simplistic,” adding that, “it classifies nearly two-thirds of sources as ‘less reliable’ by lumping together everything from commercial sites to multi-topic blogs. This ignores the reality that an expert-written article on a “multi-topic blog” can be a high-quality source.” Google noted that a close look at the report’s top 10 most-cited domainswhich, alongside YouTube, include the German Heart Foundation and the country’s second-largest health insurerreveals that they are “virtually all respected, authoritative sources for information, which directly contradicts the report’s central narrative.” Further, it added, the claim that AI Overviews turns to YouTube two to three times more than trusted medical sites “ignores the fact that a wide variety of credible health authorities and licensed medical professionals create content on YouTube.” Google pointed to the fact that, per the study’s own findings, 24 of the 25 most-cited YouTube videos came from medical-related channels like hospitals, clinics, and health organizations. (Though, SE Ranking’s researchers note in the report, those 25 videos are “just a tiny slice” of all YouTube videos that AI Overviews actually links). In all, a spokesperson said, “The implication that AI Overviews provide unreliable information is refuted by the report’s own data, which shows that the most-cited domains in AI Overviews are reputable websites. And from what we’ve seen in the published findings, AI Overviews cite expert YouTube content from hospitals and clinics.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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