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How are the worlds most creative people using AI to drive their work forward? This was the question at the heart of an in-depth survey Fast Company recently conducted in partnership with Whalar, a leading social agency focused on content creators. We found that, for most, AI has become a routine part of the creative processand a return to an AI-free working life has become almost unfathomable. Yet the survey also found the worlds creative elite are grappling with a technology that gets more powerful and useful every day but remains unwieldy, error-prone, and not entirely trustworthy. I want people to understand how well it can augment and enhance the thinking processnot just the creative and generative thinking process, but the thinking process itself, said one respondent. If AI is used responsibly, it’s a wonderful collaborative partner and needn’t be feared. We sent the detailed (anonymous) survey to a diverse cohort of people who have been honored in Fast Companys Most Creative People in Business list over the years, plus a selection of independent content creators, and got 100 responses. The result offers a close look at how the worlds leading creatives are using this revolutionary technology to shape the future of their industries and the wider world. “The internet first revolutionized the playing field by democratizing publishing and audience access, says Neil Waller, co-CEO of the Whalar Group. Now, AI is creating the next massive rebalancing, this time in creative production capability. What excites me most is watching creators, who are inherently nimble and unburdened by legacy systems, adopt AI tools with remarkable speed. EARLY AND ENTHUSIASTIC ADOPTERS First, here are some key stats on the respondents: Forty-seven percent of those who responded were founders, partners, or principals of their companies, and 65% were 10 C-suite or higher. The top industries were tech (22%), design (16%), and entertainment (14%), and substantial numbers came from healthcare, science and research, and the nonprofit sector. The size of their organizations ranged from global behemoths to solo creators. Twenty-two percent of respondents booked more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024. Twenty percent did less than $1 million. Unsurprisingly, these folks are not new to AI, for the most part. More than a third (39%) have been aware of AI usage in their industry for more than five years, and 19% began using it themselves that long ago. Another third (30%) began using the technology two to three years ago, a timeframe that aligns with the arrival of ChatGPT in November 2022. “Eighty-three percent have incorporated AI into their creative process, and nearly half (48%) rely on it for most or all of their projects. I absolutely use it every single dayprobably five times a day or more, says Joel Bervell, a med-school student and popular influencer known on TikTok and Instagram as the Medical Mythbuster. Text-based software still dominates usage. Three quarters (74%) of the respondents use AI primarily to generate or manipulate words, with only 26% saying they mainly use it for still images or video. Whenever I use AI for writing, I make sure to make it my own, says Amy Merrill, an artist, musician, web designer, and founder of Plan C Pills, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving abortion access nationwide. But sometimes my tired and overstretched brain needs help synthesizing, and I’m grateful for the tool to be able to take a heady, complex question or issue and compress it into a more or less understandable response that I can adapt, correct, personalize, and use. Sometimes it feels like it saves me time in the clumsy human part, while allowing me to preserve the thought leadership part. WHICH TOOLS ARE MOST POPULAR? OpenAIs ChatGPT continues to dominate the LLM market, with 69% citing it as their go-to app, followed by Googles Gemini (28%), Anthropics Claude (19%), and Microsofts Copilot (18%). Google leads in AI search, but its far less dominant than in traditional search. While well over half of respondents (57%) say they primarily use Googles AI summaries, 14% cited Perplexity and 7% Microsofts Bing. Twenty-eight percent said they dont use AI search at all. (For those tallying up the numbers, respondents could select more than one answer.) On the image side, Midjourney came out on top at 28%, followed by Adobe Firefly at 19% and OpenAIs DALL-E at 16%. We use Midjourney to create posters for our shows, says Plan C Pills Merrill. We love the experience of prompting and feeding in inspiration, and in return getting something we never would’ve thought of. Fashion designer Arturo Obegero recently collaborated with an artist to create an ad campaign featuring real models against an AI-generated backdrop. We never would have been able to afford that shoot [IRL], he says. In that vein, notes Waller of Whalar, a creator with passion, vision, and an AI tool kit can now produce content that previously required a 20-person team and a seven-figure budget. Although AI generally saves time and money, its not always smooth sailing. While the AI tools helped generate images quickly, it can be a real struggle to get results that meet our standards, said one respondent, articulating a theme that came up repeatedly in the anonymous responses. We have spent many hours sifting through hundreds of generated images that more or less looked similar. Its [often not] until we manually create more specific visual inputs such as sketches or quick 3D models/ screenshots that were able to direct the images to be more specific and distinctive and reflect our aesthetics and design principles. Despite AIs growing role in image creation, video tools have yet to see widespread adoption outside industries that rely on them, with 76% of respondents saying they dont use them at all. Of those who do, Adobe Premiere Pro was the most popular application (15%), followed by Runway (5%), and Synthesia (3%). Among respondents who use AI to help write code, ChatGPT was most popular at 25%, Github Coplit was second at 10%, and Claude third at 8%. WHERE AI IS HELPING THE MOST (AND THE LEAST) We asked respondents how AI is affecting their creative work and overall business. A plurality of respondents praised production speed (44% very positive) and idea generation (35%), with marketing/promotion (25%) and revenue generation (25%) tying for third. Production speed and idea generation go hand in hand. Many respondents noted that AI allows them to focus on creative ideation by automating tedious tasks and enabling rapid iteration without the need for physical prototypes. This dual transformationamplifying creative potential while streamlining business operationsis why AI represents such a profound accelerator for the creator economy, says Waller. When harnessed the right way, it’s not replacing the creator’s voice. It’s supercharging it, and unlocking the next chapter of growth.” On the flip side, there were grave and consistent concerns about consumer trust. My greatest fear is not about creativity, said one respondent. My greatest fear is that we are entering a dystopian era when people will lose trust in what they see and hear. I now doub every video I see on the internet, said another. Everything is no longer a wow video since it could possibly be AI. We also asked for respondents views on how AI will affect the job market in their industries. Surprisingly, 39% said it would have neither a positive or a negative impact on job creation, and 34% said it would have a somewhat positive or very positive impact. Only 28% predicted the impact would be somewhat negative or very negative impact. But when asked to predict how many jobs in their industry would be replaced by AI, 42% replied that about a fifth of all jobs would be lost to machines. THE PARADOX OF AI That apparent contradiction reflects a macro theme that infused the survey results in a variety of ways: a sense that we are living through a technological shift that is existentially game-changing but ultimately still nascent. Think of it like a young and immensely talented athlete: The potential is indisputable and crystal clear, but the coordination and mastery just arent there yet. It fails all the time in code, but I just test and ask for revisions, said one respondent. I used it to help prep me for a business meeting, said another. The client company had just emerged from Chapter 11, and ChatGPT didn’t think to mention that little fact. Overall, though, most respondents took the rise of AI as an inevitable and ultimately positive thing that nevertheless requires human will to control. Are you gonna let AI take over you, asks Joel Bervell, the Medical Mythbuster, or are you gonna let it enhance your work? In that spirit of optimism, well close with the most utopian anonymous comment in the entire survey: I truly believe we are unlocking new insights into information, understanding, creativity and human potential, including our growing ability to understand the ecosystem we live in and the vast potential to coexist with each other and everything else in it. Let’s do this!!
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E-Commerce
A new book on venture capital and private equity explores how those two forces have helped push homeownership further out of reach for millions of Americans. And the author believes that amid the deregulation and job cuts of the second Trump administrationstaffing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development may be cut in halfconsumers are even more likely to get a bad deal. They’re playing with fire, says civic technologist Catherine Bracy. It’s catastrophic on a scale that I don’t have words for. What that means for the rental and mortgage market . . . it could put 2008 to shame. In Bracys new book, World Eaters, she traces how venture capital and private equity came to be, how they impact the health of our economy and the labor market, and how they exacerbate inequity and the housing crisis. She chose that title because she believes the approach of venture capitala sort of casino mentality, where big bets are encouraged despite the risksis subsuming the economy, eating industries and infecting the mindset of how people think about what the economy should be. Bracy, who cofounded the nonprofit advocacy group TechEquity in 2016, has long pushed for more consumer protections and better transparency around tech business models. World Eaters traces how post-Great Recession opportunities allowed tech and VC money to get into the single-family rental home market and begin building out new housing products, including fractionalized ownership and rent-to-own pathways. These models have had mixed results. Fractionalized ownership firms like Landa have gotten into legal trouble, while Divvy, the massive rent-to-own company was subject to significant consumer complaints; it has been sold, with much of its staff laid off earlier this year. Bracy has a warning about how technology may further impact the housing market during the Trump administration. Housing is the cornerstone of a normal person’s economic well being, so when you start to undermine consumer protections, when you start to . . . allow corporations to do whatever they want to do, thats only going to be worse for consumers, she said. How Property Tech Can Pressure Aspiring Homeowners Bracy argues that in many cases, property tech, or proptech, firms have presented themselves as companies seeking to help consumers who dont traditionally qualify for homeownership. But Bracy argues, theres a reason these customers were deemed too risky for traditional financial products, and perhaps they shouldnt be placed in a position where they’re trying out untested or unregulated ideas. She believes the housing market is entering an even more unregulated phase that will allow a larger variety of tech firms to push new products and services; many consumer regulators with AI and tech experience have been let go from the federal government, and new federal guidance seeks to encourage alternative financing arrangements. Even with the assumption that the government was there to provide consumer protections or civil rights protections [before this administration], there was still a feeling it was ripe for mass exploitation, she said. Now theres none of that, and there will be more desperate people, so youre increasing the market size. Venture capital in real estate startups was basically nonexistent in 2008, Bracy notes, but by 2017, the market globally had grown to $9 billion, demonstrating the impact that these funding models and firms had on the market. She argues that while a number of issues, like zoning and construction costs, contribute to high housing costs, the VC models that have made single-family rental housing a large and growing asset class are exacerbating the problem. Bracys coverage of the housing market in World Eaters pays particular attention to a new generation of firms utilizing cryptocurrency and blockchain, such as LoftyAI. (Lofty didnt respond to attempts to reach it for an interview.) Many focus on the idea of fractionalized ownership, and utilizing this technology to split the cost of ownership among many and make it easier to be a real estate investor, theoretically democratizing access. But Bracy argues that consumers often dont understand the risks of their investments, and unwieldy ownership and operations mean the tenants living in these investments can suffer from nonresponsive landlords. She’s particularly alarmed at the legal grey area these firms reside intheres no real precedent in real estate securities law. That’s compounded by the fact that Trump has repeatedly professed his support for crypto, including a recent plan to create a national crypto reserve. I would watch the crypto in the housing space, Bracy said. These models are terrifying, and theyre only going to get easier to build, scale, and replicate.
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E-Commerce
Management at the Bay Area transportation startup Glydways wants you to be clear about what the company is not: It may plan to move people in futuristic autonomous pods, but its not hyperloop-grade vaporware. And its funding by big-name Silicon Valley investors does not make it a ride for the 1%. Public transit for everyone, everywhere, says founder Mark Seeger.But Glydways is starting smaller than that. Its first green-lit project (after a temporary test track now under construction next to an abandoned mall in Richmond, Calif.) and others under consideration by local governments will have Glydwayss four-seat electric vehicles plying short on-demand routes between existing business and transportation hubs. [Image: Glydways]That debut pilot efforta half-mile route linking a convention center and arena to the last stop on a people mover outside Atlantas Hartsfield-Jackson International Airportis on a small enough scale to evoke the Vegas Loop that Elon Musks Boring Company opened as a shortcut between three of the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center.We want to see how well the system operates with various fluctuations of riders showing its ability to scale and that it is indeed a viable transit option, says Krystal Harris, program director for ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts.After two years of free-fare service, that agency and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority will assess how things worked and if the technology merits expansion.Putting a cap on capexThe $18 million in construction and operational costs that Harris cited may seem steep for such a short distance, but not in the context of U.S. transit construction expenses that have made the country exceptional in the wrong way. For example, the $3 billion Silver Line extension that Washingtons Metro system opened to Washington Dulles International Airport and beyond in late 2022 cost $263 million a mile, including a large rail yard built by the airport. That, however, looks like an outright steal next to other U.S. rail projects, topped by the Long Island Rail Roads East Side Access project in New York and its $3.5 billion a mile expense.Glydways, meanwhile, touts a design for simple, narrow guideways that require neither rails nor electric power via overhead wires or third rails that it says will cost 90% less than traditional transit. [Image: Glydways]We can do it for tens of millions, Glydways CEO Gokul Hemmady says, adding that at-grade costs could run still lower at just $2 to $3 million per mile while elevated paths needed to avoid grade crossings could run $15 million a mile. The moment youre in pedestrian-class infrastructure, your costs plummet, he says. The world knows how to build this.Construction costs of some recent U.S. cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure fall roughly into that minor-league ballpark. A trail being built along the SMART commuter-rail line in Sonoma and Marin counties in California has run about $4 million a mile. Two bridges on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail constructed over wide roads in Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia had project costs around $30 million a mile.But a veteran transit consultant who has led projects in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand warned against expense extrapolation. Writes Jarrett Walker: They will have to build out a demo project before we know.No human operators, some operating costsThe operational part of the Glydways pitch involves leveraging autonomous-vehicle advances to provide high-frequency, on-demand service around the clock at fares not that far above traditional transitwith the ability to transport 10,000 people an hour. We offer ride-hailing-like experience at a fraction of the cost, says Hemmady. Pressed for an example, he cites the Oakland Airport Connector, an automated, elevated train that runs between that airport and Bay Area Rapid Transits Oakland Coliseum station for a one-way fare of $7.45. But while those fares covered 96% of the connectors operating costs pre-pandemic, Hemmady says Glydwayss lower costs30% of other modes of transit, the company sayswill let it clear a profit: We are the only mass transit system that is revenue positive.A Glydways vehicle shown off at CES 2025 was all shiny modernity, with a streamlined exterior hiding camera, lidar and radar sensors, and large doors that slid open to reveal a clean plastic interior with tap-to-pay terminals by thosedoors. The closest visual parallel: the pod-like Zoox robotaxis now rolling around Vegas in test drives.The lack of human operators or attendants has led some critics to raise safety concerns, but Glydways emphasizes that short waits at stations and the limited number of passengers per vehicle will keep it safe. [Animation: Glydways]Older, almost as small-scale personal rapid transit systems built on older autonomous technologysuch as one that runs between campuses of West Virginia University in Morgantown, W. Va.have operated without incident for decades.Larger automated-train systems rely on a combination of surveillance and patrolling. For example, Vancouvers SkyTrain equips its driverless trains with emergency intercom systems and contact systems while having attendants and transit police at stations.Next stopsAfter the Atlanta pilot, Glydways has advanced to final stages of consideration in a San Jose project to link that citys Caltrain and Amtrak train station with San José Mineta International Airporta 3.4 mile route that Google Maps estimates as a seven-minute drive but a 40-plus-minute transit adventure.Glydways says it can build that mostly elevated route, with its vehicles taking eight minutes between the station and the airport, for under the citys $500 million cost cap but isnt specifying a cost estimate. The city council should be voting on its proposal, which allows for possible extensions to such nearby traffic generators as Apples headquarters, in the coming weeks. [Image: Glydways]This company has a comparable plan not far north of San Jose in Contra Costa County, where its pitched its technology as an automated transit network to provide transportation from train stations to nearby destinations.And in the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario, Glydways has advanced a proposal to use its vehicles in a tunnel to connect Ontario International Airport with the closest Metrolink commuter-rail station. The Boring Company had earlier offered a version of the Vegas Loop concept but abandoned that bid in 2022.Glydwayss proposition of robotic transportation has the advantage of not having to coexist with human-driven traffic like robotaxis like Waymo. And the company has the advantage of funding from such deep-pocketed investors as the VC firm Khosla Ventures and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.But in the realm of transit, self-driving technology isnt something Glydways invented, and many transit agencies outside the U.S. already employ it on higher-capacity subway and light-rail lines. And as autonomous mobility continues to advance on public roads, Walker suggests that established transit operators will be able to make better use of it than any startup that has to pour new concreteeven if the technology goes into something as unfancy as buses.Says Walker: If driverless technology becomes available, debugged, and socially accepted, there will be all kinds of applications, including much bigger-vehicle services that will be a better use of scarce space in dense cities.
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E-Commerce
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