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On May 19, 2023, a photograph appeared on what was then still called Twitter showing smoke billowing from the Pentagon after an apparent explosion. The image quickly went viral. Within minutes, the S&P 500 dropped sharply, wiping out billions of dollars in market value. Then the truth emerged: the image was a fake, generated by AI. The markets recovered as quickly as they had tumbled, but the event marked an important turning point: this was the first time that the stock market had been directly affected by a deepfake. It is highly unlikely to be the last. Once a fringe curiosity, the deepfake economy has grown to become a $7.5 billion market, with some predictions projecting that it will hit $38.5 billion by 2032. Deepfakes are now everywhere, and the stock market is not the only part of the economy that is vulnerable to their impact. Those responsible for the creation of deepfakes are also targeting individual businesses, sometimes with the goal of extracting money and sometimes simply to cause damage. In a Deloitte poll published in 2024, one in four executives reported that their companies had been hit by deepfake incidents that targeted financial and accounting data. Lawmakers are beginning to take notice of this growing threat. On October 13, 2025, Californias Governor Gavin Newsom signed the California AI Transparency Act into law. When it was first introduced in 2024, the Act required large frontier providerscompanies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, and Xto implement tools that made it easier for users to identify AI-generated content. This requirement has now been extended to large online platformswhich essentially means social media platformsand to producers of devices that capture content. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/creator-faisalhoque.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/faisal-hoque.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Ready to thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity?","dek":"Faisal Hoques books, podcast, and his companies give leaders the frameworks and platforms to align purpose, people, process, and techturning disruption into meaningful, lasting progress.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/faisalhoque.com","theme":{"bg":"#02263c","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420512,"imageMobileId":91420514,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Such legislation is important, necessary, and long overdue. But it is very far from being enough. The potential business impact of deepfakes extends far beyond what any single piece of legislation can address. If business leaders are to address these impacts, they must be alert to the danger, understand it, and take steps to limit the risks to their organizations. How deepfakes threaten business Here are three important and interrelated ways in which deepfakes can damage businesses: 1. Direct Attacks The primary vector for direct attacks is targeted impersonations that are designed to extract money or information. Attacks like this can cause even sophisticated operators to lose millions of dollars. For instance, U.K. engineering giant Arup lost HK$200 million (about $25 million) last year after scammers used AI-generated clones of senior executives to order money transfers. The Hong Kong police, who described the theft as one of the worlds largest deepfake scams, confirmed that fake voices and images were used in videoconferencing software to deceive an employee into making 15 transfers to multiple bank accounts outside the business. A few months later, WPP, the worlds largest advertising company, faced a similar threat when fraudsters cloned the voice and likeness of CEO Mark Read and tried to solicit money and sensitive information from colleagues. The attempt failed, but the company confirmed that a convincing deepfake of its leader was used in the scam. The ability to create digital stand-ins that can speak and act in a convincing way is still in its infancy, yet the capabilities available to fraudsters are already extremely powerful. Soon, it will be impossible in most cases for humans to tell that they are interacting with a deepfake solely on the basis of audible or visual cues. 2. Rising Costs of Verification Even organizations that are never directly targeted still end up paying for the fallout. Every deepfake that circulateswhether its a fake CEO, a fabricated news event, or a counterfeit adraises the collective cost of doing business. The result is a growing burden of verification that every company must now shoulder simply to prove that its communications are real and its actions authentic. Firms are already tightening internal security protocols in response to these threats. Gartner suggests that by 2026 around 30% of enterprises that rely on facial recognition security tools will look for alternative solutions as these forms of protection are rendered unreliable by AI-generated deepfakes. Replacing these tools with less vulnerable alternatives will require considerable investment. Each additional verification layerwatermarks, biometric tools for detecting that an individual is a live human being, chain-of-custody logs, forensic reviewadds costs, slows down decision-making, and complicates workflows. And these costs will only continue to mount as deepfake tools become more sophisticated. 3. The Trust Tax In addition to the direct costs that accrue from countering deepfake security threats, the simple possibility that someone may use this technology erodes trust across all relationships that are grounded in digital media. And given that virtually all business relationships now rely on some form of digital communication, this means that deepfakes have the potential to erode trust across virtually all commercial relationships. To give just one example, phone and video calls are some of the most basic and most frequent tools used in modern business communications. But if you cannot be sure that the person on the screen or on the other end of the phone is who they claim to be, then how can you trust anything they say? And if you are constantly operating in a realm of uncertainty about the trustworthiness of your communication channels, how can you work productively? If we begin to mistrust something as basic as our daily modes of communication, the result will eventually be a broad, ambient skepticism that seeps into every relationship, both within and beyond our wrkplaces. This kind of doubt undermines operational efficiency, adds layers of complexity to dealmaking, and increases friction in any task that involves remote communication. This is the trust taxthe cost of doing business in a world where anything might be fake. Four steps that companies need to take Here are four steps all business leaders should be taking to respond to the threat of deepfakes: 1. Verify what mattersUse cryptographic signatures for official statements, watermark executive videos, and communication channels, and use provenance tags for sensitive content. Dont try to secure everythingfocus your verification efforts where falsehoods would hurt the most. 2. Build a source of truth hubCreate a public verification page listing your official channels, press contacts, and authentication methodsstakeholders should know exactly where to go to confirm whats real. If your organization relies on external information sources for rapid decision-making, ensure that these are only accessed through similarly authenticated hubs. 3. Train for the deepfake ageRun deepfake-awareness drills and build verification literacy into onboarding, media training, and client communication. 4. Treat detection tools as essential infrastructureInvest in tools that can flag manipulated media in real time and then integrate these solutions into key workflowsfinance approvals, HR interviews, investor communications. In the age of deepfakes, verification is a core operating capability. From threat to opportunity Social media echo chambers, conspiracy theories, and alternative facts have been fracturing our shared sense of reality for over a decade. The rise of AI-generated content will make this unraveling of common reference points exponentially worse. An earlier generation of internet users used to say, Pics or it didnt happen. Well, now we can have all the pics we like, but how are we to tell if what they show happened at all? Business leaders cannot solve the fragmentation of perceived reality or the fracturing of communities. They cannot single-handedly restore trust in institutions or reverse the cultural forces driving this crisis. But they can anchor their own organizations behavior and communications in verifiable truth, and they can build systems that increase trust. Leaders who swim against the stream in this way will not only help protect their organizations from the dangers of deepfakes. When seeing is no longer believing, these businesses will also become the beacons that people rely on to navigate through an increasingly uncertain world. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/creator-faisalhoque.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/faisal-hoque.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"Ready to thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and humanity?","dek":"Faisal Hoques books, podcast, and his companies give leaders the frameworks and platforms to align purpose, people, process, and techturning disruption into meaningful, lasting progress.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/faisalhoque.com","theme":{"bg":"#02263c","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#ffffff","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#000000"},"imageDesktopId":91420512,"imageMobileId":91420514,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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E-Commerce
PepsiCo, the food and bev giant behind childhood favorites like 7UP, Mountain Dew, Lays, and Doritos, just got new branding, and it looks nothing like its namesake product. The new PepsiCo brand identity, which includes a fresh wordmark, logo, and tagline, is the companys first rebrand since 2001. The company has had three different corporate identities since its inception in 1965, and all of them have taken their most prominent design cues from Pepsi, the soda brand that started it alluntil now. [Image: PepsiCo] When PepsiCo designed its last identity in 2001, it owned 13 consumer brands. Today, it owns more than 500. And, over the past several months, PepsiCo has signaled that it intends to focus on more price-conscious serving sizes and a healthier product line-up amidst low consumer spending and an increased cultural focus on wellness. Now, PepsiCo wants customers to know that its more than just one sugary cola, and its signaling that shift by ditching the former blue and red color palette and Pepsi-coded fonts in favor of a totally new look. Inside PepsiCo’s colorful new brand At first glance, PepsiCos new brand mostly looks like a few different abstract colorful shapes stitched together. But, according to a blog post on the rebrand, each visual element is intended as a nod to a different part of PepsiCos business, from its salty drinks to its growing focus on health and nutrition. The new PepsiCo logo is a white lowercase p surrounded by several different forms. On the left is a burnt yellow motif, which, according to PepsiCos description, represents food and grains, a concept rooted in agriculture. To the right is a light blue blob, signifying drinks and water, as well as a light green leaf, denoting “positive impact for people and planet. [Image: PepsiCo] And on the bottom of the p is a forest green smile, which stands for consumer-centricity. Paired with the logo is a new, all-lowercase font with modern, curvy letterforms and the tagline, Food. Drinks. Smile. Our color palette draws from the real worldthe rich soils that nourish our foods, our refreshing drinks, and the vibrant hues that reflect our commitment to people and the planet, the blog post reads. The new custom typeface, featuring lowercase letters, conveys a sense of approachability that mirrors the bold, consumer-centric spirit of our brands. [Image: PepsiCo] From a branding standpoint, the new identity is nothing groundbreaking. Its amalgamation of different symbolswhich, on first look, dont resemble much of anythingfeels like an inevitable result of the near-impossible effort to encapsulate 500 brands in one identity. Still, the rebrand is a good barometer for where PepsiCo sees itself in the future. This update is designed to establish PepsiCo as a company thats not defined by just one brand, but rather the sum of them. As the blog post explains, its a significant opportunity to highlight the depth and diversity of our portfolio, considering that just 21% of consumers are able to name a PepsiCo brand aside from Pepsi. Why PepsiCo might be distancing itself from Pepsi For PepsiCo, expanding consumer awareness beyond just Pepsi is clearly a key goal. Since 2001, PepsiCo has acquired big names including SodaStream, Quaker foods, and Rockstar, while also pouring major investments into its own brands like < href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91276977/gatorade-future-brand-stratgy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gatorade and Lays. More recently, the company has also begun to focus on bringing in more health-conscious brands with lower sodium, saturated fat, and sugar contents. In January, it acquired the grain-free, healthy tortilla chip brand Siete Foods for $1.2 billion, and in March, it shelled out $1.65 billion to acquire the prebiotic soda brand Poppi. PepsiCo is also preparing to launch its own prebiotic cola brand this fall, as well as introducing Lays and Tostitos with no artificial colors or flavors by the end of the year. During PepsiCos Q4 2024 earnings call in February 2025, CEO Ramon Laguarta explained that the company has seen a higher level of awareness in general of American consumers toward health and wellness, which he said was driving shifts in how consumers approach snacking. He shared that the company plans to focus more on building out its healthy options (including by pursuing protein beverages with a sense of urgency), as well as on developing products and packages that are more budget-friendly for customers with limited discretionary spending. In a letter posted to LinkedIn on October 28, Laguarta wrote of the new branding, This new identity boldly reflects who we are in 2025: a company with expansive reach, aiming for positive impact across the globe, and an unmatched family of beloved food and drink brands, made with high-quality ingredients and including functional benefits like protein and superior hydration. PepsiCos new identity looks less like a bottle of soda and more like a health foods brand, and thats very much by design. The company wants to be known not only for its bevy of salty chips and sugary drinks, but also for its expanding category of better-for-you options.
Category:
E-Commerce
It looks and feels like any other luxurious cashmere sweater. But a new oversized crew from Reformation is made entirely from recycled fiber, a milestone three years in the making. The brand now makes a cardigan, crew, V-neck, and five other styles from a carefully developed blend of 95% recycled cashmere and 5% recycled woolthe unexpected material that made 100% recycled fiber feasible. Some other pieces in its lineup still use a small amount of virgin cashmere, but Reformation is aiming to eliminate it completely. “It really does have an outsized and shockingly large footprint compared to other fiber, says Kathleen Talbot, Reformation’s chief sustainability officer. In 2023, the company calculated that even though virgin cashmere made up less than 1% of the materials it sourced, it was responsible for nearly 40% of the brands carbon footprint. Most cashmere comes from Mongolia and China, where cashmere goats are combed once a year for their fine, soft fleece; a single sweater can use cashmere from four or five goats. As the demand has grown, there are now more than 90 million of the goats in China, and around 25 million more in Mongolia. Overgrazing is turning grasslands into desert. The goats also produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. [Photo: Reformation] Making recycled fiber work Using recycled cashmere helps avoid those environmental challenges, but it’s historically been difficult to do. Recycling shortens the fiber, which risks making it weaker and more likely to pill. “We don’t want to be introducing a recycled product that doesn’t perform the same way or is a lower quality or less durable good,” Talbot says. “That, to us, is not a sustainability play.” The company worked with suppliers to develop a proprietary method to twist the yarn and wash and finish it for the right hand feel and durability. First they achieved a blend of 70% recycled cashmere and 30% virgin fiber, then 90% recycled, and then 95% recycled. “At each of these milestones, to be really honest, we thought that was going to be our upper limit based on the yarn performance and the product performance,” says Talbot. [Photo: Reformation] When they hit 95%, they asked suppliers why they couldn’t reach 100%. Technically, suppliers said, it was possible. But because the shorter recycled fibers are more prone to breakage, the yarn would have to be spun incredibly slowly. It would make producing the material so much more expensive that it wasn’t commercially viable. That’s why the design team turned to wool to make the 100% recycled product. Even after recycling, wool was “slightly longer and thicker than the cashmere fibers,” Talbot says. “Our suppliers felt confident that it would give it the right stability and really hold up in the spinning and knitting process.” The blend’s carbon footprint is 96% smaller than virgin cashmere, and uses nearly 90% less water to produce. After dozens of tests, they moved forward with it, and then spent months testing garments made from it. Internally, the company’s “Better Materials Task Force,” made up of around 20 leaders, wore the new recycled sweaters around the office and at home, washed them, and monitored whether they held up as well as sweaters made from virgin material. “We never really want to be promoting something just for impact that doesn’t have a really compelling product value proposition at the same time,” Talbot says. [Photo: Reformation] Scaling up When the company first started incorporating more recycled cashmere, sourcing the recycled yarn was a challenge. Now, because of higher demand for recycled fiber, the supply chain has responded. “Supply of the recycled fibers is not the same limiter as it was five years ago or 10 years ago,” she says. Right now, most of it comes from cashmere waste at factories. But as Reformation and other brands collect more used clothing for recycling, post-consumer cashmere can eventually become a bigger source as well. Moving forward, the company may make some products out of a mix of recycled and “regenerative” cashmereproduced with sustainable grazing methodsbecause a small percentage of customers have wool allergies. But it also plans to continue roling out the 100% recycled material in more products. “Not every problem is going to have a technological solve,” Talbot says. “But these are the sorts of problems that we can solve. And we have seen tremendous progress in the last three years.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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