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Theres no question that the face of America is changing. Those under 18 are the first majority minority generation: 53% are non-White; one in four are Hispanic, and one in five are the children of immigrants. But while evolving racial demographics are reshaping rising generations, we are no longer a young nation: by 2030, Americans older than 65 will outnumber those under 18, a major deviation from 2000 when 26% were under 18 and just 12% were over 65. Add to that a widening wealth gap: The gap between top one fifth incomes and bottom one fifth incomes has increased by 53% in the past decade. To better understand the impact of these changes on the mindset and needs of this evolving populace, BBG Ventures conducted a study with 2,000 Americanslarge enough to be statistically relevant across race, gender, age, income, and geography. Our expectation, given the growing divide in the U.S. was that we would find major differences among racial groups, genders, and generations. But while its clear that Americans define their identities based on a unique perception of their place in the world, we actually have common priorities, needs, and concerns across nearly every age group, race, and gender. Health and Financial Security are the top two priorities for every race and gender, and nearly every age group. The exception is that those under 18 place Employment and Education as their top priority followed by Health. Health When we dig deeper into health and well-being, Mental Health is the number-one concern, driven by finances, stress, and loneliness. After Mental Health, nearly every segment noted Sleep as their second highest priority. While there are varying degrees of satisfaction with interactions between Americans and their doctors/care providers, there is close to unanimous agreement on the most desired improvement. Notably, the ability to see a doctor virtually came in last for nearly all segments. Rather, Americans want their doctors to provide personalized care, including culturally competent care; have better availability for appointments; and be more present and less distracted during visits. Financial Security As for Financial Security, the majority of Americans across nearly every segment lack confidence or feel neutral about their financial literacy (54%). Even more lack confidence or feel neutral about their financial position (65%). Paying bills consistently is the number-one financial goal for nearly all races and generations, followed by saving for an emergency fund. The high cost of living and inflation is the number-one factor preventing people from building wealth. This is despite the U.S.s so-called superstar status when it comes to GDP growth, historic unemployment rate lows, increasing household wealth, and wage growth versus costs. Whatever the stats say, the pain of high costs is firmly planted in American minds. Opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors What do we take away from this? The emergence of Americas Polyculture, in and of itself, should not drive an us and them mentality, despite what social media might make you believe. The primary concerns and greatest needs of Americans across race, gender, and age are the sameand the presence of common needs suggests that the opportunity for transformative solutions is bigger than the sum of its parts. We can build highly scaled solutions; but how we go to market, and the user experience itself, will demand a new level of personalization that reflects our evolving polyculture. Heres how entrepreneurs and investors can not only spread this message, but drive meaningful change: Prioritize mental health in product development Mental health is the top concern for most Americans, especially younger generations. We need a focus on developing tools that address mental health challenges, such as stress management, loneliness, and sleep improvement, along with availability. Its important to acknowledge that platforms have entered the market to solve for this in the 20202021 boom, but there remains room for innovation in integrating mental wellness into broader ecosystems and creating more culturally competent and personalized care. What we now need are founders who bring nuance to the approach, particularly for the younger generation who live their lives online. Further, integrating mental wellness into broader product ecosystems, whether in healthcare or tech, is essential to meet this growing demand. Address financial insecurity with accessible solutions We found that 65% of Americans lack confidence in their financial position. Startups have a significant opportunity to build tools that empower financial literacy, provide budgeting assistance, and help with wealth-building strategies. Platforms that personalize financial advice or automate savings and debt management could close the confidence gap and improve financial outcomes, particularly for underserved communities. Again, tools exist today to help people manage their finances, but more can be done to address specific challenges faced by different communities, particularly the 54% lacking confidence or feeling neutral in their financial position. Innovate for workforce flexibility and career shifts We found that 84% of employees are considering a career change. While job numbers may wax and wane, 84% suggests a larger job dissatisfaction epidemic in this country. Platforms that support career transitions, entrepreneurship, and freelancing, or offer new pathways for upskilling, job flexibility, or alternative work arrangements will tap into the dissatisfaction with traditional employment and enable people to stay productive well past traditional retirement age. Many Americans still need better tools for career transitions, freelancing, and upskilling, particularly with college enrollment at the lowest levels weve seen in three decades. Simply building scalable solutions isn’t enough; while existing platforms have made strides in addressing the mental health, financial security, and workforce concerns that Americans share, there is still much work to be done. Entrepreneurs and investors must prioritize personalization and cultural competence as they develop the next generation of solutions. By doing so, they can help not only transform individual lives but innovate in a way that reflects the complexity of Americas polycultural future.Nisha Dua and Susan Lyne are cofounders and Managing Partners of BBG Ventures (BBGV), a seed and pre-seed venture fund backing high growth. For more information visit www.bbgventures.com, follow on bbgventures and connect on BBG Ventures.
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Its been a rough week for the tech industry. First, Salesforce announced it would lay off more than 1,000 employees, and now another enterprise software maker has announced even deeper job cuts. Yesterday, Workday, Inc. (Nasdaq: WDAY), maker of cloud-based human resources software, announced that it would lay off 1,750 employeesor roughly 8.5% of its global workforce. These layoffs add to a rough start for the tech industry in 2025, which has seen major tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, trim their workforces. Heres what you need to know about Workdays layoffs. Roughly 8% of Workday’s employees are impacted Workday yesterday announced that it was eliminating 1,750 roles at the company. That equates to about 8.5% of its total workforce, which stood at about 18,000 employees as of January 2024, as Reuters notes. Workday was founded in 2005 and is based in Pleasanton, California. The company makes enterprise software for HR management. Workday announced the layoffs in a memo from CEO Carl Eschenbach. In the memo, Eschenbach said the company would realign its resources in fiscal 2025 in light of the increasing demand for artificial intelligence and its potential to drive a new era of growth for Workday. This realignment means that Workday will invest strategically, helping teams work better together, bringing innovations to market faster, and making it easier for our customers and partners to work with us, Eschenbach said. But in order to achieve this realignment, he continued, job cuts would be necessary. Announcing the layoffs yesterday, Eschenbach encouraged employees to work from home or, for those already in the office, to head home. He said Workdays goal was to inform as many impacted employees as possible on that day. Workdays restructuring plan The layoffs are part of a larger restructuring plan for the company, which includes prioritizing investments in strategic areas, including AI and the development of its platform. However, while the plan includes cutting around 8.5% of its workforce, the company expects to continue to hire in key strategic areas and locations throughout its fiscal year ending January 31, 2026, according to a FORM 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That filing also revealed that Workday expects to exit certain owned office space as part of the restructuring. Workday says it expects its restructuring plan to cost the company between $230 million to $270 million, with roughly $145 million to $175 million related to severance payments, employee benefits, and other related costs. As for the employees getting laid off, Eschenbach said those in the U.S. will be offered a minimum of 12 weeks of severance pay with additional weeks of pay based on tenure. WDAY stock rises on news of layoffs While layoffs are devastating for the individuals affected, investors generally see things differently. The company’s stock price jumped after Workday announced its layoffs yesterday. WDAY shares closed trading yesterday over 6.3% higher than they opened. With yesterdays post-layoffs stock price jump, WDAY stock is now up just over 7% year-to-date. However, looking back a full 12 months, WDAY shares are negative for the period, having declined 5.3% over the past year. As of the time of this writing, in premarket trading, WDAY shares are currently up 0.3% to around $277 per share. According to tech layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, 42 tech companies have now laid off over 10,800 workers since the beginning of 2025.
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Human skills fall into three major buckets: physical, intellectual, and emotional. Of these, the last two are critical differentiators of talent across all knowledge economy jobs. When it comes to intellectual skills, such as learning ability, a century of scientific evidence reveals that this trait is the most consistent predictor of job performance and career success across all occupations. Why? Because it predicts how fast and well you can learn, reason, and solve problems, which basically matters in every job. That said, intellectual skills are clearly not enough to do well in your job or career. In fact, most jobs will also require you to understand, influence, and manage yourself and other people, and these intrapersonal and interpersonal skills are typically encapsulated under the label of emotional intelligence (EQ). How can you assess the EQ of artificial intelligence? Just like with humans, AIs potential can also be assessed in terms of its intellectual and emotional skills or capabilities. Intellectual skills include the ability to solve problems, retrieve knowledge, and translate expertise into the creation or generation of new content (e.g., poems, jokes, code, music, images, and a new corporate strategy). When people assess how intelligent AI is, they generally focus on these types of problems and pitch AI against human expertise or intelligence. Emotional skills, though far less discussed, are perhaps even more impressive. While it seems counterintuitive to think of AI as capable of displaying EQ, a simple examination of any generative AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude) will show that AI is already better than many humans at both managing itself and others, which includes the ability to understand humans, and help us boost our own EQ. 4 ways AIs emotional intelligence can help human managers This is how AI could help managers to improve their ability to manage themselves and others, thereby improving their managerial and leadership effectiveness, and helping their teams to be happier and more productive: 1. Real-Time Sentiment Analysis in Communication AI tools can analyze the tone, sentiment, and emotional content of emails, chat messages, and meeting transcripts. Managers can receive insights on whether their communication comes across as empathetic, assertive, or dismissive. Since the choice of words has a big impact on others evaluations and inferences of our emotional states and intentions, AI can decode and predict how our communicational patterns influence others and help us fine-tune our message, especially when we are managing people. For example, AI can flag overly harsh phrasing or suggest more empathetic alternatives, helping managers improve their interactions, which effectively makes them seem more emotionally intelligent with others. 2. Employee Mood and Engagement Monitoring AI can analyze a managers behavior, such as feedback given during meetings or decision-making patterns, and provide tailored coaching tips. Soon, such tools will be embedded in most videoconferencing platforms, providing managers real feedback about their teams’ emotional and psychological states, helping them to run more engaging meetings. Algorithmic readings of employees reactions to managers comments may provide managers with real-time markers of their employees energy, engagement, interest, curiosity, or indeed boredom levels. AI might suggest practicing active listening techniques if the manager frequently interrupts or advise on better conflict resolution strategies based on observed patterns. 3. Role-Playing and Virtual EQ Training AI-powered virtual reality (VR) simulations or chatbots can help managers practice challenging conversations, such as delivering critical feedback or resolving team conflicts, something most managers struggle with. Even using simple large language platforms can help managers treat AI as their personal digital coach and sounding board, asking uncomfortable personal questions about how best to handle emotionally charged or socially challenging situations. These tools create safe environments for managers to build empathy and develop skills like de-escalating tension, reading nonverbal cues, and handling emotional reactions. 4. Diversity and Inclusion Insights AI can detect unconscious biases in decision-making, hiring, or team dynamics by analyzing historical patterns or behaviors. For example, managers may inadvertently use derogatory language when speaking to outgroup or lower status candidates, or respond faster to employees who belong to their same group or tribe. By identifying areas where a manager may unintentionally favor certain employees or overlook others, AI can guide them to foster a more inclusive and equitable workplace, reducing bias, increasing fairness, and strengthening their empathy and interpersonal skills. These examples show how AI can be a valuable tool for managers looking to build stronger connections, communicate more effectively, and lead with empathy. To be sure, many managers may feel they dont need AIor any human coachto improve their emotional and social competence, which may itself signal deficits around EQ, a trait that is critical for self-awareness; and, the certainty that AI will never be able to replace you because your skills are never going to be rivaled by AI is mostly indicative of arrogance, delusional grandiosity, and overconfidence, all of which are common in lower EQ individuals. Likewise, it is feasible to think that those who already display higher levels of EQ will leverage emotional AI to refine and upgrade their social and emotional skills even furthera decision that would signal higher levels of IQ or intelligence, too.
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