Welcome to Sunday Edition. We’ve compiled some of our top stories and brought them to your newsroom. What would you do to land your dream job? One man was so eager to jump-start his tech career that he lived in his car for three months to get a role at Google. He quickly realized he wasn’t the only Googler doing this.
Today’s topic:
The first step is to make AI work for you.
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Shipping this week
Unraveling AI in the workplace
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
At Davos in January, Marc Benioff asked a crowd of celebrities whether AI is a fundamental human right.
Here’s another question: can it make him money?
He spoke passionately about AI agents last year, and his enthusiasm drove the company’s stock to an all-time high in early December. But this year, Salesforce hasn’t joined the AI darling club. The company’s stock price has fallen about 28%.
Business Insider’s Ashley Stewart reports on Salesforce’s Agentforce project, which represents Salesforce’s big bet on AI agents.
“Internally, some current and former employees say there is a constant battle between teams eager to deliver on Mr. Benioff’s promises about what the company’s AI products can do,” she wrote.
Her detailed article showed how difficult this evolution is, even for companies that are fully committed to it.
“Knowing the difference between what we say in the demo, what’s on the roadmap, and what’s actually in production can be very difficult, even for people working on the product,” one senior employee told The Ashley. “Just thinking about it is a full-time job.”
Meanwhile, my LinkedIn post about this article sparked a sharp discussion.
At Business Insider, we actively report on how AI is and isn’t helping people in business. And we’re not just focusing on large companies.
The new series “Tiny Teams” features entrepreneurs who are using AI to outsmart established companies. A recent example is the profile of Tim DeSoto, who recently joined Walmart.
DeSoto is launching an AI-driven shopping app that it hopes will help customers this holiday season. If you would like to share a similar story, please contact Agnes Applegate at BI.
Then there’s Vercel, a 10-year-old technology company that serves developers. They observed top sales performers for six weeks and built an agent that mimics their processes. As a result, the team was reduced from 10 to one, and the remaining nine were redeployed, Lakshmi Varanasi reported.
Is AI a human right? Philosophers can argue about it.
Business Insider is committed to helping you understand how to use it. As always, contact us at eic@businessinsider.com.
Want to bet?
Getty Images; Tyler Lee/BI
After the 2018 ruling threw the floodgates wide open for sports betting, it didn’t take long for gambling to become popular everywhere. Currently, the focus is primarily on prediction markets.
These platforms have long been restricted in the U.S., but a growing number of states are offering their services, taking advantage of what regulators say are lax federal regulators and legal loopholes.
Everything is a casino.
Calculations within classes
Bill McCuller, BI
Top military influencers are taking over a corner of the internet, opening up a can of ethical worms for the Pentagon. Regardless of their following, these creators operate in the gray area between personal branding and military ethical guidelines.
The Pentagon’s social media policy is vague and unevenly enforced across the ranks, and the military is eager to grow its following but wary of the consequences, according to six military influencers and five spokespeople.
Military Wild West.
Read more from BI’s Military Influencer Series:
old man games
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
Ten years ago, Americans typically bought their first home in their early 30s. The average age of first-time home buyers is now nearly 40 years old.
Young people have been squeezed out, and the real estate market has become a game for the elderly. Silver-haired “repeat buyers” who have held home equity for decades and face less competition are rushing to take their place.
The age of the elderly homebuyer.
Goldman’s newest executives
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
Goldman Sachs has announced its newest class of managing directors, the bank’s second-highest position outside of the C-suite.
This class has 638 MDs, approximately 5% more than the last group in 2023. It is also the money makers who are paid the most, with 70% of new MDs coming from the revenue-generating divisions of banks.
See the complete list here.
Also read:
This week’s quote:
“It’s all about control. Those in leadership positions finally feel like they have the upper hand again.”
— Jeff LeBlanc, a management lecturer at Bentley University, talks about the growing trend of companies becoming leaner and eliminating DEI.
BI
Why Nepal will increase Japanese funds
Japan is using Argeri, a low-cost crop found in the Himalayas, to produce physical yen and eventually turn it into a cash crop. What will happen to large companies in Nepal if Japan goes cashless like other Asian countries?
Here’s more on this week’s top stories:
Exclusive: Worley’s chief strategy officer steps down, latest in a string of senior executives at the $9.4 billion hedge fund. Disney’s Villain Era: The YouTube TV controversy highlights the challenge of maintaining a good image. Exclusive: Google is in talks to pump more money into Anthropic, which could push the AI startup’s value to $350 billion. Here are the rankings on the Trump Trade Scorecard one year after his election victory. Exclusive: Tesla begins work on its long-delayed Roadster, which gains momentum. Here’s what insiders saw Warren Buffett is in his final two months as CEO. He is leaving at a difficult time for Berkshire Hathaway, which is undergoing a “re-Hooterization” as its founders regain control of the restaurant chain.
They were fired from corporate America’s country clubs and thrown into a hellish job market.
BI Today Team: Editor-in-Chief Jamie Heller, based in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor based in New York. Deputy Editor Akin Oedel lives in New York. Grace Lett, editor, lives in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, lives in New York.
