In a new analysis of a survey published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and highlighted by Fortune, around 90 percent of the nearly 6,000 interviewed CEOs, chief financial officers, and other top executives at firms across the US, UK, Germany, and Australia, said that AI has had no impact on productivity or employment at their business. To be clear, the question was about AI's impact generally, and not just from implementing it in the workplace. But around 70 percent of the firms reported actively using AI, meaning the vast majority of them are admitting that adopting the tech hasn't budged the needle for them yet.
The outlook for 2026 I'm watching 2026 with equal parts optimism and urgency. Optimism because consumer demand is still there. Retail sales have remained resilient in recent data. Urgency because the operating environment is only getting tighter. Coming out of FY2025, large retailers demonstrated resilience amid inflation pressure, shifting consumer behavior, and global supply-chain complexity. Walmart raised its outlook and leaned further into a model that blends physical stores, e-commerce scale, and execution discipline.
Leading the pack has been the rise in agentic coding tools. These tools, such as Gemini Jules, Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex, are capable of writing entire programs and products. I put both Codex and Claude Code to the test, creating four plug-in add-on security products for WordPress using Codex, as well as a full-featured iPhone app using Claude Code.
Dutta tells Axios: "I don't think people should change their investment plans around Warsh. The Fed is bigger than any one person. At the margin, Warsh represents a bit of uncertainty." One concern is that Warsh will cut interest rates now to appease Trump even if lower rates aren't warranted, which could result in the need for increases later on.
"We're starting to see projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person," he said. Already this year, Meta has laid off several hundred workers mainly in its Reality Labs division, a part of the company that focuses on its "metaverse" ambitions, hardware products and AI initiatives. Zuckerberg said Meta is investing more across the company in AI tools that help employees like software engineers complete more work.
While I was working the other day organically, I opened up one of my favorite AI tools and had an unprompted thought to myself about how grateful I was to have access to this application. That realization then made me think about how many apps have now become an integral part of my everyday workflow, and at this point, many have made the list.
Needless to say, over the last three years, the Artificial Intelligence explosion has been at the top of almost every investor's mind. Many have become wealthy, as stocks like NVIDIA and other top tech names soared in a rally some feel is reminiscent of the late 1990s dot-com boom and bust. Between billions being spent on capital expenditures related to AI, the circular financing that seems to shovel money between the top companies in the industry, the worries over depreciation being used in accounting, and off-balance sheet financing, concerns over an AI bubble are legitimate and need to be addressed.
One scenario is that growth continues more or less as it has for the last 20 years. If so, the current federal fiscal trajectory is unsustainable,
AI organization tools are designed for this new reality. They go beyond filing and scheduling to anticipate needs, adapt plans in real time, capture action items automatically, and surface critical information before you even search for it. In this guide, we've curated the most effective AI productivity tools for the workplace to help you cut through the noise, maintain focus, and manage your work with clarity and precision.
You've just finished an hour-long meeting, and your notes look like a verbal train wreck: a mix of shorthand, half-finished sentences, and random keywords. There are action items in there somewhere, but finding them feels like a chore. Paste your notes into ChatGPT with a prompt such as: "Here are my meeting notes. Please create a prioritized task list with deadlines and the person responsible for each item." ChatGPT can turn that mess into a clean, actionable list in seconds, giving you back precious time you'd have spent deciphering your own writing.
The real productivity wins aren't coming from longer hours or tighter calendars. They're coming from people who've figured out how to make AI their personal sidekick-automating the mundane, amplifying their skills, and unlocking time for the work that actually matters. If that's not you (yet), don't worry. You don't need a computer science degree or hours of training to start. Just a curious mindset, a little direction, and the right set of AI hacks.
