AI may already be replacing some entry-level tech jobs, new research suggests. According to the study, while it’s difficult to say conclusively whether or not the technology is outright replacing job roles, tech firms recruited fewer college graduates in 2024 than they did in 2023, while the hiring of experienced professionals went up.

The researchers analyzed trends across 80 million companies and 600 million employees on LinkedIn. Their observations come off the back of similar World Economic Forum findings, in which 40% of employers intend to downsize to accommodate AI automation.

It’s unlikely that the study will come as much of a shock to figures in the tech space. With several leading companies replacing their staff with AI in recent months, it has long been felt that the writing is on the wall for those who work jobs that can be automated. Nonetheless, this growing body of evidence is unlikely to be met with enthusiasm in some quarters.

AI Already Replacing Job Roles, Study Finds

AI may already be taking over roles that were previously occupied by humans, according to new research from SignalFire. According to the State of Talent Report – 2025, big tech companies reduced the hiring of college graduates by a massive 25% compared with the previous year. Startups, meanwhile, decreased their graduate hiring by 11%.

At the same time, the hiring of seasoned professionals went up. Big tech companies increased hiring for employees with two to five years of experience by 27%, while startups increased it by 14%.

SignalFire is a data-driven VC firm that tracks the job movements of more than 80 million companies and 600 million employees. The report is informed by some of those findings. Head of Research Asher Bantock argues that there’s “convincing evidence” that AI is a key driver for the changes.

Evidence Piling Up That AI Preferred to Unskilled Hires

The SignalFire report is part of a growing body of evidence that companies are looking to AI at the expense of making new hires. In April, World Economic Forum published a survey that found that 40% of employers intend to cut staff to make room for automation. At the same time, it was reported in the New York Times last year that executives at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were considering cutting junior hires in favor of AI.

Elsewhere, tech giant Microsoft announced that about 6,000 employees were let go in a huge round of layoffs in May, with programmers among the worst affected. While it did not explicitly state that AI was the reason, the layoffs followed comments by CEO Satya Nadella in which he confirmed that around 30% of the company’s code was now written by AI.

And not long before that, Duolingo confirmed that it would stop using contractors as part of a shift towards being an “AI-first” company.

Other Research Suggests AI Is Not Silver Bullet

While there’s no disputing that, increasingly, firms are looking to AI to solve their business headaches, don’t despair yet. Evidence is also stacking up that it is not yet the silver bullet solution that many had hoped. In April, researchers at Carnegie Mellon staffed a fake company entirely with AI agents – which were only able to accomplish 24% of the tasks they were assigned.

It’s notable that Duolingo – as well as a number of other companies – have walked back their aggressive pivots to AI in recent weeks, with the likes of Klarna and Starbucks both citing the “customer experience” as the reason for their respective backtracks.

Across the business sector, companies are itching to integrate AI into their everyday operations – sometimes at the expense of properly planning out their strategies. With 58% of businesses using AI motivated by “pressure from competitors,” it’s clear that we’re seeing a lot of knee-jerk decision-making.

Businesses and employees everywhere may benefit from taking a beat before taking the plunge.

30% of data breaches that occurred last year involved a third party, new research shows. According to the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, during the year ended October 31, 2024, there were 15% more third-party data breaches than the previous year (15%).

Third parties include suppliers, vendors, hosting partners, and IT support providers. These are a mainstay in most businesses, and as the study demonstrates, a growing source of concern from a cybersecurity standpoint.

The report sheds light on the evolving nature of attack vectors, as hackers deploy increasingly sophisticated methods to seize confidential information. With breaches on the rise in general, and businesses failing in their duties to prevent them, the cybersecurity landscape is in a perilous position.

Data Breaches Involving Third Parties On the Rise, New Data Shows

New research from Verizon points to a startling growth in data breaches involving third parties. According to the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, during the year ended October 31, 2024, they comprised 30% of all data breaches – up from just 15% the previous year.

The report lists suppliers, vendors, hosting partners, and external providers of IT support as examples of third parties that custody confidential data. Most businesses outsource operations to one or more of these parties – and alarmingly, they are increasingly subject to cyberattacks.

Said a representative from Verizon:

“While, to some extent, software vendors have long played a part in unintentionally increasing the attack surface for those who use their products and services, over the last two to three years, it has moved from the occasional (and typically minor to moderate) mishap to a much more widespread and insidious problem that can (and sometimes does) have a devastating impact on enterprises.”

Other Findings Shed Light on Evolving Threat Landscape

Other key takeaways from the report include a 34% increase in attackers exploiting vulnerabilities to gain “initial access” to businesses’ IT systems and cause security breaches, as well as a massive increase in the frequency of ransomware attacks year-on-year.

While ransomware was present in 32% of data breaches in 2023, it now makes up almost half of data breaches (44%), according to the Verizon research. The report illuminates the evolving nature of attack vectors, with cybercriminals not afraid to change both their methods and targets to keep corporations guessing.

In an effort to combat the spiraling problem with third-party custodians, businesses are reportedly adopting “stricter supply chain risk management practices.” Verizon encourages businesses to vet their potential partners: “When you are working with a third party, you have to consider their security limitations as well as your own.”

Modern Businesses Under Cybersecurity Siege

Ultimately, the Verizon report paints a pretty grim picture of the current threat landscape. Not only are attacks increasing in frequency, but they’re becoming more expensive to remedy, with the annual cost of cybercrime projected to exceed $23 trillion in 2027. For many companies, the effects are disastrous.

Compounding this issue is the fact that, largely, businesses are woefully underprepared. According to research published by Tech.co earlier this year, a shocking 98% of senior leaders are unable to identify all the signs of a phishing attack, indicating that this problem is felt right across the business. Clearly, more needs to be done to upskill employees everywhere.

One potential solution for businesses could be AI. While the technology is still in its relatively infancy, there’s no doubting that it can be used to aid businesses in their fight against cybercrime. It will be interesting to see how the corporate world embraces this use case over the coming months. One thing is certain – the current situation is not sustainable.

Tariffs continue to make headlines: US President Donald Trump recently threatened a new 50% tariff on all goods from the European Union, which he now credits for the “positive” news that the EU will set a meeting to discuss a trade deal.

The 50% tariff was first set to take effect on June 1st, but this has been pushed to July 7th.

Meanwhile, businesses are adjusting to the new international duties in a variety of ways. Some are turning to a little-used customs law. Others are simply comitting criminal acts, if the rise in trade crime is any indicator.

50% EU Tariffs Are Still Coming

The announcement of the 50% tariffs, which was then toned down just a tad by the delay in implimentation, appears to be behind the change of pace in negotiations.

Trump now says that Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, “wants to get down to serious negotiations.”

Trump’s public voice in the conversation has emerged through social media posts. First, on May 23rd, he announced plans for a 50% tariff. Then, a few days later, he again took to social media to announce the extension, saying “I agreed to the extension — July 9, 2025 — It was my privilege to do so.”

Now, he says he’s “extremely satisfied” with the pace of progress, although no deal has yet been struck.

“I was extremely satisfied with the 50% Tariff allotment on the European Union, especially since they were “slow walking (to put it mildly!), our negotiations with them. Remember, I am empowered to “SET A DEAL” for Trade into the United States if we are unable to make a deal, or are treated unfairly. I have just been informed that the E.U. has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This is a positive event, and I hope that they will, FINALLY, like my same demand to China, open up the European Nations for Trade with the United States of America. They will BOTH be very happy, and successful, if they do!!!” –President Trump

It’s unclear what Trump means when he says that he’s “empowered to ‘set a deal'” if “we are unable to make a deal.”

The “First Sale Rule” Workaround

Meanwhile, businesses are trying a peculiar workaround for the steep new tariffs they’re facing at major trading partners like China. After losing the de minimis exemption, businesses are eager to find a new loophole. The next candidate? The “first sale rule.”

This decades-old U.S. customs regulation lets importers value a good at the lowest possible cost when calculating the duties they’ll owe on that product.

The term “first sale” refers to the inital price of the product, before it’s marked up by the middleman and eventual reaches its retail price. If a Hong Kong vendor pays $5 for a T shirt, the “first sale rule” lets them pay taxes based on that amount, even if it’s being shipped because it sold to a US retailer for double that price.

Businesses Get Creative With Tariffs

The first sale rule can save a business a lot of money, since it allows the sky-high tariffs to be calculated from a much lower starting point.

The catch? Vendors need some extra information in order to qualify for this regulation, with documentation of the first sale price being the toughest to get. Needless to say, Hong Kong vendors don’t see a reason to reveal how large their profit margins are, if there’s no benefit to themselves. Now, though, sharing that information might help them retain their heavily taxed US customers.

The regulation is entirely legal, so it at least beats the alternative: Fraud and trade crime have risen notable, according to a New York Times investigation that also notes regulatory agencies may not be equipped to deal with it, saying that “customs and Justice Department officials who have focused on trade crime have been reassigned to work on immigration and other issues in recent months.”

Duolingo CEO and cofounder Luis von Ahn just made a statement on AI tools at his company, saying that he doesn’t “see AI as replacing what our employees do.”

This view certainly appears to be a reversal of the company’s stance one week earlier, when the CEO said that the company was going to “stop using contractors” due to a major shift that would make Duolingo an “AI-first” company.

This about-face isn’t unfamiliar: Companies including Klarna, Starbucks, and others have walked back similarly aggressive pivots to AI. What’s behind this trend? Public backlash, failures to deliver, or something else entirely?

Why Duolingo Says It’s Still Hiring at the Same Pace

For weeks, Duolingo has been making noise about the benefits of AI. That’s no surprise to anyone following its 2025 hiring practices: The educational technology company laid off 10% of its workforce in January, saying it was phasing out human-led translation, to replace it with AI tools.

Most recently, however, Duolingo made its most AI-positive move yet, saying a week ago that it would “gradually stop using contractors to do work AI can handle” and it was committing to being “AI-first” as a company. 

Now, though, the company is walking back these comments. The company CEO explained in a LinkedIn statement.

“To be clear: I do not see AI as replacing what our employees do (we are in fact continuing to hire at the same speed as before). I see it as a tool to accelerate what we do, at the same or better level of quality.” – Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn

The CEO also highlighted the “rigorous standards” that all AI-generated content would be held to.

It all seems to be a reversal, given that the company said it was going to “stop using contractors” and is now saying that it is “continuing to hire at the same speed.” It’s possible that the hiring refers to payrolled rather than contract workers. However, Duolingo is far from the only business to reverse course on AI replacement.

Why Klarna Is Backtracking

The Swedish buy-now-pay-later fintech company Klarna has also waffled on AI tools in a public manner. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is a huge AI proponent: Just this week, he used an AI avatar of himself to deliver part of the company earnings call.

Earlier in the month, Siemiatkowski told CNBC that AI had helped the company “streamline its workforce by ~40%” and that the company had shrunk from “about 5,000 to now almost 3,000 employees.” Those cuts included 700 customer service workers… which the company now regrets cutting.

Recent statements from Siemiatkowski include:

• “I just think it’s so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will be always a human if you want.”
• “As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality.”
• “Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.”

Why turn from promoting AI to highlighting the value of human contributions? Possibly to boost valuations before Klarna IPOs. The company was worth $45.6 billion in 2021, which has now dropped to $6.7 billion today. The company’s dramatic workforce reductions began in 2022, so investors may have concerns that AI hasn’t been able to maintain value as well as Siemiatkowski expected.

Why Starbucks Stopped Replacing Workers With AI

In an investor call earlier this month, the Starbucks CEO put it plainly.

“What we’re discovering is the equipment doesn’t solve the customer experience that we need to provide, but rather staffing the stores and deploying with this technology behind it does.” – Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol

The company had been “removing labor from stores” over the last few years, assuming that the tech could fill the lack of workers. Now, Niccol says, “what we’re finding is that wasn’t an accurate assumption with what played out.”

It’s about as straightforward as any CEO is likely to get: Across the last two or three years, many big bets on AI haven’t paid off as well as they would have liked.

What’s Behind All the AI Pivot Reversals?

It may not be possible to break down a massive, multi-industry shift towards and back away from AI. If you were to try, however, these are likely a few of the top reasons that you might come up with.

All for PR?

One reason might be that a given company’s entire announcement and reversal was always more of a PR move than a business one.

Duolingo is a social media marketing heavyweight. A recent Link in Bio survey of social media professionals ranked it number one for “great social,” and the brand is constantly earning headlines about odd stuff like how its owl mascot has just come back from the dead. And Duolingo definitely earned plenty of social media attention with the initial announcement, posted on the suprisingly buzzy LinkedIn platform, and they seem set to get more attention with their change of mind.

Backlash proved too much?

Part of rapid adaptation is knowing when to pivot again, and customer backlash is a big reason to do just that. Plenty of customers are anti-AI for a host of reasons. Some hate the copyright violations that companies like OpenAI say are essentially inevitable, while others hate the errors that chatbots constantly churn out or note the increasing energy costs are harming the environment.

But the main reason is the impact on the labor market: Inflation and the nearing recession are already squeezing workers, so the threat of AI taking their jobs is particularly stinging.

Learning pains?

The most measured reason why a company might make a big change and then walk it back: They bit off more than they could chew. Dramatic shifts in direction are tough, since they require unfamilar practices. The backtracking could be a natural result of the new technology.

Klarna’s failures to keep up with customer service requirements emerged due to their AI reliance, so the company has learned a lesson and will likely move forward with a better balance of AI to human workers. Starbucks seems to be saying the same.

AI Adaption Remains a Huge Movement

Ultimately, the drive behind AI adaption is still huge: Saving money and surpressing the labor market are both great ways to grow a company.

Klarna, Starbucks, and Duolingo are admitting that AI can’t do everything, but their actions over the last few years indicate that they’re still interested in getting AI to do as much as possible. That’s unlikely to change, even if they are constantly admitting they’ve gone too far.

These companies, along with the rest of the corporate world, are committed to the efficency benefits of AI. They still have a lot to learn about the limits of those benefits, however, and they’ll be slowly learning more and more about what AI still can’t do for years to come.

The green movement is no longer a priority in the logistics industry, with a recent Tech.co survey showing that business owners aren’t focused on sustainability at the moment.

In 2025, the logistics industry is fending off problems left and right. From the stress of tariffs to the looming trucker shortage, the economics of being a logistics business owner are far from relaxing.

As a result, the focus on going green has taken a back seat to more pressing matters, like vehicle upkeep, financial stability, and staffing.

Survey Shows Sustainability Not a Priority

In a recent survey from Tech.co, logistics professionals were asked to list out their priorities as a business. Unfortunately, going green fell pretty far down the list, with only 7% of respondents stating that “sustainability initiatives” were a priority for the business in the near future.

Of those that are focusing on sustainability, the priority still lies in creating green solutions that can also save businesses money, including reducing idling time and trialing electric vehicles.

Alternatively, more expensive and less lucrative sustainability initiatives, like building electric vehicle infrastructure, participating in carbon offsets, and trialing alternative fuels, are receiving far less attention.

What Are Logistics Professionals Prioritizing?

If logistics professional aren’t prioritizing sustainability and green initiatives, then what exactly are they focusing on in 2025? As our survey shows, priorities in the logistics industry are a lot more reactionary than preventative.

23% of respondents said that vehicle upkeep is their top priority, with management financial pressure (21%) and staffing retention and recruiting (15%), and adopting new technology (14%) rounding out the top four.

Given the fact that the trucker shortage is a persistent issue, AI continues to reshape the business world, and tariffs are creating more and more financial strife for logistics businesses, it’s understandable that business owners are moving away from sustainability initiatives in favor of financial stability.

Businesses That Are Prioritizing Sustainability

While our survey found that going green isn’t as much of a priority for the majority of businesses, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t companies out there that still valuable sustainability. In fact, we recently showcased a few sustainable startups that are leading the way when it comes to innovation in environmentalism.

PulpaTronics is a great example, with the company produce chip-free, paper-only iteration of an RFID tag (radio frequency identification) that can cut down on the metal required for previous models.

“We wanted to build something for and with nature in mind, so we dove into emerging technology research and looked into pressing environmental issues and realized that we could make a big difference in reducing single-use electronic waste.” – Chloe So

Simply put, there is still a market for logistics businesses that want to go green, but in these tumultuous economic times, prioritizing other facets of your business is not something to be shamed for.

The power of the president’s tweets is unmatched, with a single post threatening to put a 25% tariff on Apple products tanking the company’s stock.

It’s no secret: President Trump wants to Apple to make iPhones in the US. Unfortunately, trade discussions have not gone his way, which is why he took to social media in hopes of putting on the pressure.

Well, the pressure is on, with the Truth Social post almost immediately causing Apple stock to drop.

Trump Threatens Apple With Tariffs

Where else but on social media would President Trump announce his possible plans to put a 25% tariffs on Apple if that company doesn’t start manufacturing its many devices — including the popular iPhone — in the US.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!” – President Trump on Truth Social

Trump also announced a blanket 50% tariff on all imports from the EU, so clearly the president is serious about making this whole “made in America” thing a reality.

Apple Stock Drops in Response to Tariff Threat

Tariffs have been putting a squeeze on a lot of companies over the last few months, and Apple has been no different.

As a result of the tariff threat from Trump, Apple stock fell 3%, which represents an approximate loss of $100 billion for the tech company.

Apple wasn’t the only company that felt the brunt of the tariff threat either. On Friday, broader markets like the S&P saw a 1% dip, with virtually the entire tech industry seeing a drop just before the weekend.

Is Building iPhones in the US a Possibility?

With Trump fighting tooth and nail to get iPhone production back in the old US of A, it’s worth asking: Is this kind of trade deal even possible?

In all likelihood, no. Apple has been investing heavily in China manufacturing over the last few decades, and with tariffs hitting the country more than most, Apple has made a concerted effort to build manufacturing plants in India instead, not the US.

Economists have also noted that the cost associated with building iPhones in the US would make the popular smartphone substantially more expensive, with some estimates as high as $3,500 per device.

Suffice to say, Trump has an uphill battle when it comes to getting Apple to start manufacturing in the US, but we know he rarely shies away from this kind of fight.

The tariffs are hitting TikTok, with the popular social media platform informing US ecommerce employees that there would be a number of “personnel changes” in response to lower than expected sales in 2025.

It’s been a few months since President Trump announced his tariffs, which have noticeably rocked the boat for businesses around the world. From large corporations to small startups, the economic impact has been nothing if not substantial.

China-based TikTok has been particularly vulnerable to the tariff tumult, and it appears to be impacting its ability to keep its employees, well, employed.

TikTok Is Laying Off US Ecommerce Employees

According to an internal memo reported on by Bloomberg, the social media giant is making some “organizational and personnel changes” to its TikTok Shop division in the US.

The number of employees that are set to be laid off has not been disclosed nor reported on.

“We have undergone careful analysis of how to create more efficient operating models for the team’s long-term growth and, as a result, will be communicating organizational and personnel changes to the e-Commerce US operations, US operations center, and global key accounts teams.” – Mu Qing, ecommerce executive at TikTok

US TikTok employees in the ecommerce division were asked to work from home on Wednesday “to best facilitate these conversations.”

Why Is TikTok Laying Off US Employees?

The memo, obtained by Business Insider, is quite brief considering the information within, but it’s safe to assume that the driving force behind these layoffs is the struggling sales of the TikTok Shop in the US.

So what’s causing the low sales in the TikTok shop? Well, given the fact that the US TikTok Shop features a wide range of foreign sellers based in China selling to US consumers, the tariffs have created enough economic strife to dissuade them from taking part.

The sales slump has been quite serious, with US TikTok Shop revenue from foreign sales down between 20-25%, which is likely what lead to these layoffs.

Trump Tariffs and Corporate Layoffs

TikTok is the not first nor will it be the last company with US operations to lay off employees in response to the tariffs. In fact, there are already some companies hedging their bets assuming that there is no end in sight to this trade war.

Walmart, for example, announced this week that it would be laying off 1,500 employees, on top of raising prices, even after President Trump insisted the company “eat the tariffs” to shore up economic stability.

Suffice to say, these tariffs are going to continue to have a negative impact on businesses for the foreseeable future, and mass layoffs remain the most common consequences.

Sigh of relief? Calm before the storm? Those are among the questions supply chain and logistics leaders are contending with as they face reduced China tariffs over the next two and a half months.

This month, the U.S. and China agreed to lower tariffs on imported goods from China to 30%, down from 145% enacted in April. The lower tariffs are in effect for 90 days as the two countries work to hammer out a deal.

What does the pause mean for global supply chains and domestic trucking companies? We spoke to logistics experts to find out.

The Previous Impact of the Tariffs

Ahead of the 145% tariffs on imports from China, businesses ramped up orders in hopes that freight would arrive to the U.S. before higher duties took effect. At the Port of Los Angeles, loaded imports rose 5% year over year in April, and the Port of Long Beach saw a 15% jump in loaded imports that month. But that quickly reversed course as the high tariffs came into force. Inbound shipments to the Port of Los Angeles dropped 30% in early May.

The up and down of freight volumes at the ports affects not only drayage trucking firms but also fleets transporting freight inland to their next destination in the supply chain. When volumes are up, there’s more business, but also more port congestion and a need for greater capacity. But when volumes plummet, the results can devastate the trucking industry.

“Businesses built around drayage, port and cross-border freight now face closures,” Jeff Hickson, manager of capacity at 3PL RJ Logistics, told The Inside Lane.

In a Tech.co survey conducted before the pause was announced, 77% of companies said the tariffs had caused at least some degree of change in their operations.

The tariffs compound with a long enduring freight recession that the U.S. trucking industry has been experiencing.

“Tariffs on America’s trade partners have the potential to inhibit the recovery from a freight recession that has been acutely felt by America’s small-business truckers,” a spokesperson for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association

The 145% duty was also a big financial headwind for some importers. Jennifer Coulter-Lissman, president and CEO of NTG Supply Chain Solutions, recalled a client who had to pay an additional $2 million just in the month of April due to the increased duties.

How are Shippers Reacting to the 90-Day Pause?

Some businesses breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that the high tariff rate had been paused for 90 days, but others felt the situation was almost worse, putting them on edge and adding to the uncertainty that has surrounded global trade for the past several months.

“There’s still such a level of unpredictability. Our client base has said, ‘it’s nice, but what’s next?’” – Coulter-Lissman, president and CEO of NTG Supply Chain Solutions

Coulter-Lissman said retailers are treating the temporary tariff reduction like goods being on clearance. They’re ordering as much as possible and stocking up on inventory now at a lower duty rate, leading to a surge of freight coming into the U.S.

In fact, in the week that the U.S. and China agreed to pause tariffs, bookings on container ships from China to the U.S. doubled over the previous week.

Jonathan Hughes, national managing principal of management consulting at advisory firm BDO USA, said shippers are looking even more carefully at scenario planning. They’re assigning probabilities to the likelihoods of various scenarios three, six and 12 months out, and analyzing the costs and benefits of each of those to make decisions about their supply chains.

What’s the Ripple Effect on Freight, Ports and Trucking?

Hughes described the supply chain like a water balloon – when there’s pressure on one part, the water shifts from one area to another. That same scenario is playing out now, with demand spikes from importers rippling to container shipping, U.S. ports and eventually trucking.

“You’ve got that likely significant bottleneck impact in logistics, from shipping all the way through trucking,” Hughes said.

Ocean carriers are readjusting their capacity in light of the tariff pause and an uptick in new bookings. Before, with the higher tariff rate, carriers had shifted some of their empty containers and vessels to other lanes as China-U.S. demand dropped, according to Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos.

“So while those are being moved back into position, there may also be some capacity restraints that could also contribute to upward pressure on freight rates together with increased demand,” Levine said.

Levine said ocean carriers already announced rate increases of as much as $3,000 per container.

“Rates are very likely to increase significantly soon as demand picks up,”  – Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos

Peak season in ocean shipping typically begins in July, but Coulter-Lissman sees ocean lines “taking advantage of the surge” and implementing peak season surcharges earlier, starting June 1.

Once those ships from China begin arriving to U.S. West Coast ports, Coulter-Lissman expects “pretty heavy congestion,” which could create equipment issues for trucking companies, such as an imbalance or shortage of chassis.

Jim McCullen, chief technology officer at Century Supply Chain Solutions, said short-haul carriers may need to increase their capacity without much notice nor time to plan. Port drayage lanes could be strained as volume and demand suddenly surge.

Overall, McCullen anticipates a short-term volume spike for ports and logistics, “but it’s a false peak.”

While the 90-day pause could temporarily help by bringing in volume and more business, it distorts the ability to plan capacity longer term.

“Trucking companies risk overcommitting resources if they treat this like sustainable growth,” McCullen said.

The pause only adds to the uncertainty transport leaders have felt since the imposition of higher China tariffs. The Tech.co survey revealed logistics companies were split on whether to anticipate reduced demand, with 40% preparing for lower demand, but 39% not preparing, and the remaining 21% responding, “I’m not sure.”

Check our guide to the Logistics Industry statistics for 2025 you need to know

What Should Trucking Firms do to Navigate this Uncertain Period?

McCullen advised that trucking firms remain aware that the short-term boost in freight may not indicate longer-term trends in volume.

“This is not the time to scale—it’s the time to optimize,” he said.

His tips for fleets:

• Watch your margins.
• Lock in your most reliable lanes.
• Prioritize shippers with predictable flows. 
• Strengthen upstream visibility. Coordinate closely with origin cargo managers to understand what’s coming—not just what’s landed. 
• Be proactive. By the time cargo hits the port, it’s already too late to reroute efficiently.

The fleets that don’t use these strategies “will be scrambling to correct overextensions made during the rush,” McCullen said.

Hickson similarly advised building relationships rather than chasing dollars. Small business trucking firms, in particular, could align with a broker that offers more consistent volume and stability on critical lanes.

“Strong partnerships, not short-term gains, are what sustain success through market cycles,” Hickson said.

What Happens When the 90-Day Tariff Pause is Up?

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen on the trade policy front once the China tariff pause ends. One possibility is that the pause and lower tariff rate could be extended. That could result in importers slowing their purchase orders to more normalized levels, and thereby moderating freight volumes for truckers, McCullen said.

Another scenario is that the trade negotiations don’t yield progress and the tariffs spike back up to 145%. That could lead to port volumes falling quickly and sharply after the pause.

“For trucking, that means feast and famine: overbooked weeks now, idle chassis later,” McCullen said. “Trucking will feel the hangover from this artificial surge.”

The overall volatility and unpredictability around tariffs will also drive business leaders to rethink their supply chain strategies. Moving entirely out of China is unlikely, as many suppliers and industries are now concentrated there, and the country has developed a ”very large and highly skilled manufacturing workforce,” Hughes said.

But since the first Trump administration and ensuing tariffs, companies have worked on diversifying their supplier network, shifting to places such as India, Vietnam and other locations in Southeast Asia. Costs have been rising in China irrespective of tariffs, Hughes said, and importers have sought options to reduce reliance on China.

For now, businesses in all aspects of the supply chain have to focus on what they know is true and do their best to employ strategies that make them agile and resilient, Hughes said.

“It’s just a lot of shaking that crystal ball,” Coulter-Lissman said. “It’s too hard to see into the future of this administration.”

Most chatbots can be easily tricked into providing dangerous information, according to a new report from arXiv. The study found that so-called “dark LLMs” – AI models that have either been designed without safety guardrails, or models that have been “jailbroken” – are on the rise.

When large language models (LLMs) are trained, they are fed massive volumes of information from the internet, which includes content that could be considered dangerous. Traditional chatbots have built-in safety controls that prevent the programs from sharing this information when prompted by user questions. However, the researchers identified a growing trend of people circumventing these controls – and designing chatbots without them entirely.

With a growing number of companies replacing their employees with AI, these findings should serve as a note of caution on the perils of automation.

Most Chatbots Are Vulnerable to Exploitation, New Study Reveals

Most chatbots can be easily jailbroken and tricked into providing dangerous information to users, according to a new study from researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Professor Lior Rokach and Dr Michael Fire published the findings in arXiv, which also observe a worrying rise in AI models that are designed without standard safety guardrails.

When LLMs are trained, they are fed vast amounts of information from the internet. This includes information that could be considered dangerous, such as instructions on how to make a bomb, commit insider trading, and more. To stop the models from sharing this with users, they are designed with built-in safety controls.

However, the researchers identified a concerning rise in cases of people overriding these safety controls, with some even advertising new chatbots with “no ethical guardrails” online. They warned “what was once restricted to state actors or organized crime groups may soon be in the hands of anyone with a laptop or even a mobile phone.” Inevitably, this will give rise to an increasing number of AI-related controversies.

Researchers Identify Growing Trend of Chatbot Manipulation

Commonly, jailbreaking relies upon meticulous prompting to trick chatbots into providing responses that override their programming. All AI models have a primary and secondary goal – to follow the user’s instructions and avoid sharing information that is deemed to be harmful, biased, unethical, or illegal. Jailbreaking works by getting in between those two goals.

During their research, Rokach and Fire discovered a “universal jailbreak attack” that is able to exploit multiple leading AI chatbots. This allowed them to generate responses that would normally be refused, including how to hack computer networks or make drugs. Fire remarked: “It was shocking to see what this system of knowledge consists of.”

The researchers took their findings to several leading chatbot providers, but claimed that their responses were “often inadequate.” Alarmingly, many of the LLMs in question were still vulnerable to the attack seven months on from its discovery, with the original findings published online in late 2024.

Findings Should Serve as Warning to Businesses

Ultimately, the research reveals some disconcerting truths. Firstly, AI chatbots are vulnerable to exploitation, and therefore pose a tangible risk to users and society at large. With model training becoming more accessible, and open-source LLMs proliferating, this problem will only get worse.

Perhaps more concerningly, LLM vendors are largely failing in their duties to safeguard users from dangerous information. Launched in December 2024, OpenAI’s o1 model can reason about the company’s safety policies, which hypothetically makes it less vulnerable to exploitation. But other companies are simply not doing enough.

As more and more businesses cut staff and invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into AI, these findings should serve as a stark warning – at present, AI models are not always the silver bullet that many people seem to think.

The chair of Taiwanese technology company Foxconn claimed that developments in generative artificial intelligence (AI) and robots could lead to the end of low-end manufacturing jobs, during a keynote address in Taipei.

Foxconn is already a big advocate of the technology, having implemented it into its own production systems, and is looking to invest in it further with a new AI data center with NVIDIA and their own manufacturing-centric model.

At the moment, we’ve seen our fair share of AI failures in the workplace. Recently, tech giant Klarna announced it will be re-hiring humans after an AI-fueled layoff period, due to the technology not performing as expected. Whether AI is currently equipped to have a positive impact on the workplace is still up for debate.

Foxconn Chair Predicts End to Manufacturing Jobs

The Chair of Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer, has claimed that generative AI and robotics will remove the need for low-end manufacturing jobs. The claim was made by Young Liu during a keynote address at the Computex conference in Taiwan.

Liu theorized that rich nations will have to rely less on immigration and low-GDP countries to keep manufactured goods low in price, because of immigration becoming a political issue and low-GDP countries running out. To fill this void, manufacturing will turn to AI and robotics.

Liu then went on to highlight how Foxconn have been successfully using AI and robotics thus far, in particular, emphasizing the company’s ability to build robots with other robots.

Foxconn Is Already a Generative AI Advocate

Likewise, Liu did not shy away from sharing Foxconn’s successes with generative AI. In his address, he noted that software alone, after being applied with AI, can do 80% of the work required to set up equipment for a new production run. It also does so faster than people. However, the AI can struggle without human assistance.

“We thought maybe we could replace every human. We quickly realized we could not.” – Young Liu

Not only does Foxconn already have its own gAI in place, but it doesn’t appear to be slowing down in implementing more. In fact, Liu announced that the company has now turned its attention to a manufacturing-centric model that will blend Meta’s Llama 3 and 4 models and data from Foxconn’s own operations, called “FoxBrain.”

Foxconn has also recently announced a new AI data center that it is building with NVIDIA, the world’s largest semiconductor company.

AI, The Next Powerhouse of the Workforce?

You can’t blame anyone for being skeptical about the impact of AI, particularly because of surveys reporting that most of the time, companies are too scared about what will happen if they don’t implement AI. So much so, executives think about it more than whether the technology will have a tangible impact on their company.

Where AI has been implemented, results have been mixed. There are reports of AI creating more work for employees rather than saving them time, and of companies made entirely of AI agents being complete disasters.

Despite these reports, companies such as Microsoft are still insisting that AI agents are the future employees. While low-end manufacturing jobs could be at risk if they are easily automated, AI has proven limited in sectors where it was expected to thrive in before, so nothing can be predicted currently.

Fintech company Klarna, known for its “buy now, pay later” services, is going back on its decision to replace human workers with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The company has previously claimed that its AI assistant was completing the work of 700 employees.

CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has claimed that the move doesn’t signal a reversal on AI, but rather a shift in priorities as the company focuses on providing high-quality and human customer support. The CEO has praised AI in the past and claimed that it has the ability to take all jobs, including his own.

The reversal suggests that AI technology is yet to compete with the nuance and emotional capabilities of human workers, particularly in cases such as customer service, where a sense of empathy is needed.

Fintech Giant Klarna Goes Back on AI Replacements for Customer Service Jobs

Swedish fintech company Klarna is reversing a decision to replace human workers with Artificial Intelligence (AI), within its customer services. The company previously partnered with OpenAI in order to improve overall efficiency and reduce costs.

Klarna’s AI shift began in 2022, when it laid off around 700 employees to make way for the new technology, cutting about 10% of its workforce. By February 2024, the company claimed its AI assistant had taken on 75% of customer chats, accounting for about 2.3 million conversations in more than 35 different languages.

However, following reports of customer dissatisfaction and poor quality support, Klarna is now inviting humans to return to the company. They are looking to hire remote customer service roles, in particular, targeting students, rural populations, and dedicated Klarna users.

Lack of Payoff Following AI Replacement Workers

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has been quick to praise AI in the past, and has previously claimed that AI has the ability to take everyone’s job, including his own. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case as the CEO told Bloomberg that Klarna’s AI-focused path of the past few years wasn’t the right one.

Siemiatkowski claims that the decision to bring back human workers comes from the discovery that, most of the time, humans would rather speak to other humans.

“From a brand perspective… I just think it’s so critical that you are clear to your customer that there will always be a human if you want.” Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski.

Siemiatkowski continued to say to Bloomberg that the “quality of human support” is now the focus of the company, suggesting that perhaps AI was not able to deliver in this regard.

Is AI Ready to Enter The Workplace as Support Agents?

A previous study of AI vs. human judges in courtrooms found that the AI made decisions purely based on legal precedent, rather than considering the emotional elements of a case. While not entirely the same environment as customer service, there is still a sense of emotional responsibility and support that needs to be offered to customers who are in distress.

There is, therefore, the possibility that AI has not yet developed enough in this field. While it is inviting human workers back into the company, Klarna has claimed that the move doesn’t signal an entire reversal on AI itself:

“The pilot reflects a dual-track approach – combining scalable AI with high-quality human support – not a step back from automation.” Klarna

As a result, the company’s new setup could be similar to the one outlined in Microsoft’s recent Frontier Firm report, which predicts a future of companies with humans and AI agents working alongside each other.

China is levying a new 75% tax on US imports of polyformaldehyde copolymers, a thermoplastic that’s crucial for certain engineering needs.

This new tax will be imposed despite the current 90-day tariff pause between the US and China — the new duty is not a part of the previously announced reciprocal tariffs that are being paused, but it’s potentially signalling a continued escalation of the tariff battle between the two world powers.

That’s far from all the tariff news out in the last few days. Canada’s finance minister is pushing back against a new report claiming that the nation has paused its own countertariffs against the US, while the US government has just yesterday reaffirmed its plan to reinstate the majority of the reciprocal tariffs that it has paused for dozens of countries.

What to Know About China’s New Plastic Tax

China’s new 75% duties will apply to polyformaldehyde copolymers that originate from the US, although several other countries will face lower versions of the same tax: Duties on the European Union, Taiwan, and Japan for imports of the same material will range between 32.6% and 35.5%.

All of these duties are effective as of May 19, and will last for five years.

The goal is to reduce the amounts being dumped on the market, according to the Ministry of Commerce. As reported by the South China Morning Post, the Ministry of Commerce states it has concluded that these imports were “being dumped on the Chinese market, causing substantial damage to the domestic industry, and that there was a causal relationship between the dumping and the material injury.”

The US Will Reinstate Tariffs for Most Countries

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave multiple interviews on Sunday, May 18, to clarify that the US plans to reinstate the currently paused reciprocal tariffs for all the countries that it doesn’t reach a new deal with.

Bessent told CNN on Sunday that the US is most focused on cutting deals with “18 important trading partners,” while citing “probably another 20 strong relationships.” All paused tariffs are set to be cancelled on July 9th.

The 90-day tariff pause between the US and China applies to the countertariffs recently issued by both countries, and it leaves a base 10% tariff on US imports to China and around a 30% tax on China imports to the US.

Canada’s Finance Minister Says 70% of US Countertariffs Are Still in Effect

Meanwhile, Canada’s minister of finance Francois-Philippe Champagne has responded to claims from a research firm that suggest the nation has quietly dropped its US-focused countertariffs to “nearly zero.” The report is not true, Champagne says, and he’s not being quiet about it, either.

“More of the same falsehoods,” Champagne said in a social media post. “To retaliate against U.S. tariffs, Canada launched largest-ever response — including $60B of tariffs on end-use goods. 70% of those tariffs are still in place. We temporarily and publicly paused tariffs on goods for health & public safety reasons.”

These tariffs are still in effect for US goods valued at tens of billions of dollars, despite some April 15 exemptions aimed at delivering a reprieve to any US automakers willing to keep their existing Canadian production plants in operation.

Employees can save an average of 3% of their time by using AI chatbots, according to a new study.

If that doesn’t sound like a lot to you, the study agrees: It says that the AI-powered boosts in time saved and the wages earned all added up to deliver “no significant impact” for any occupation that was researched.

It’s a finding that hints at a potential collapse of the generative AI bubble, though likely not one that will comfort any of the hundreds of thousands of tech workers who have been laid off in recent years due to (at least in part) the hope of AI replacements.

3% More Time Saved and 3-7% Higher Pay

The research paper is out from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined the link between AI use and corporate records in Denmark.

The paper’s authors, assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago Anders Humlum and economics PhD student at the University of Copenhagen Emilie Vestergaard, picked Denmark because the country’s AI adoption rate and hiring practices are comparable to the US, but it has better record-keeping. According to a Fortune article covering the report, the paper examined 25,000 workers across 7,000 workspaces within an impressive range of occupations, including software developers, IT support specialists, accountants, and many others.

The big takeaway? AI chatbots did help workers, but not by much. In addition to the 3% time savings, employees saw between 3% and 7% increases in pay thanks to chatbot use.

“AI chatbots are now widespread—most employers encourage their use, many deploy in-house models, and training initiatives are common. These firm-led investments boost adoption, narrow demographic gaps in take-up, enhance workplace utility, and create new job tasks. Yet, despite substantial investments, economic impacts remain minimal.” -the abstract

Perhaps AI Can Replace 3% of a Worker?

A 3% time savings might seem to indicate a benefit when stretched out to an international corporation. However, the remaining 97% of specialized work that each workers contributes is less likely to be replicatable by a chatbot: It might be able to speed up the writing of a thank you email, but it can’t catch a math error in an accountant’s monthly bank reconciliation.

In short, the study serves as a strong indicator that AI chatbots are not able to save a worker so much time that a business can reduce its headcount as a result. 

Is Generative AI a Bubble?

Over the past couple of years, AI has been an incredibly quickly adopted technology, earning untold billions of dollars in investments while driving news cycles on everything from government regulation to college cheating scandals. Now, agentic AI, the next evolution of the chatbot, is getting tech executives everywhere excited about savings potential.

However, part of the downside of that speedy rollout is that we have yet to see AI tools fully deliver on the many promises that have helped spur the rapid adoption. Now, large-scale studies like the National Bureau of Economic Research are emerging, and indicating that AI chatbots cannot live up to the hype.

Perhaps agentic AI will prove to offer a far greater value than chatbots. Until then, though, we may want to keep 100% of our human staffers around.

Less than a month ago, driverless freight operation Aurora Innovation launched a first-of-its-kind program in Texas that would put commercial self-driving trucks on US public roads. Now, it’s walking back just a little of that innovation.

Aurora’s new change will put a human driver behind the wheel, although they’ll just be there as an “observer” who can jump in if anything goes wrong — the truck will still be driving itself.

Previously, the observer was in the rear of the cabin, and was only riding along on some trips.

Truck Manufacturer Requested the Change

This reversal in policy comes at the request of the heavy-duty truck manufacturer PACCAR Inc. Why? The only brief explanation comes from a statement by Aurora CEO Chris Urmson on the company website: It’s “because of certain prototype parts in their base vehicle platform.”

Presumably, PACCAR isn’t quite comfortable with the possibility of a collision impacting one of their products — as remote as that possibility may or may not be.

“We are confident this is not required to operate the truck safely based on the exhaustive testing (covering nearly 10,000 requirements and 2.7 million tests) and analysis that populates our safety case. PACCAR is a longtime partner and, after much consideration, we respected their request.” – Chris Urmson

According to Urmson, the trucks will remain just as fully autonomous as always, and the company still has full faith in its “near, mid, and long-term development plans.”

Can Aurora Innovation Crack the Self-Driving Problem?

Aurora is moving fast, having just added inclement weather to its autonomous driving framework in March of this year.

Granted, the company is only a few weeks into its most ambitious launch yet, so there’s plenty of time for any of a number of the potential setbacks that seem to have been keeping PACCAR’s executives up at night. It wouldn’t be a shock if the company’s plans are drawn out even further than this latest hitch, too: The illustrious history of self-driving vehicles goes back as far as 1939, with “promising trials” emerging in the 1950s.

Still, it really does seem as though Aurora is on pace to finally overcome the “just five more years” curse that has been keeping self-driving trucks perpetually on the horizon for decades.

The Solution to the Trucking Industry Labor Shortage

Fully autonomous trucks might be a quick fix to one of the biggest challenges facing the US trucking industry in 2025: According to Tech.co’s latest freight research, 25% of US freight firms say a labor shortage is the biggest issue affecting their business.

Plus, with some estimations putting the shortage at 160,000 driver positions by 2030 — and with the US’s freight needs likely increasing by 50% more volume between now and 2050 — things will only get worse for decades.

If self-driving trucks can safely operate across the nation, that concern is mitigated, while shipping companies everywhere can continue growing their profits as usual. In the meantime, however, there’s no harm in companies like PACCAR pushing for as cautious a rollout as possible.

Cargo theft is growing at an alarming rate, according to a new investigation from CNBC. Allegedly, there was a 26% increase in incidents of theft from 2023 to 2024, with train cargo thefts alone up by a staggering 40%.

The findings highlight a new type of theft, known as “strategic theft,” in which criminals dupe shippers, brokers, and carriers into handing over cargo or payments to them instead of legitimate companies. This has grown in prominence over the last five years, accounting for roughly one-third of all thefts last year.

Ultimately, the report points to a growing sophistication among criminals who target freight, as well as shedding light on the critical importance of deterrents, including electronic logging devices (ELDs).

Cargo Theft on the Rise, Says New Report

A new investigation from CNBC has drawn startling conclusions concerning the evolving frequency and nature of cargo theft. According to the six-month investigation, during which the media outlet spoke to numerous industry experts and law enforcement officials, organized criminal groups are deploying new methods and attacking supply chains with greater frequency.

This has resulted in a massive 26% surge in cargo theft from 2023 to 2024, with 3,798 incidents recorded last year. Shockingly, seizure of train cargo alone shot up by 40%, with more than 65,000 reported incidents in 2024.

Total reported losses exceed nearly $455 million, but with many cases going unreported, it is thought that the actual number could be much higher. Says the report: “Numerous experts who spoke to CNBC estimate losses are close $1 billion or more a year.”

Criminals Deploying New Methods to Steal Cargo

Not only is theft spiraling out of control, but criminals are leveraging new strategies to go about their illicit business. So-called “strategic theft” accounted for almost one-third of thefts in 2024 – up from just 8% in 2020.

Rather than employing brute force, “strategic theft” exploits the traditional shipping model, in which a broker acts as the conduit between a shipper and a carrier, the trucking company that ultimately transports the load.

With this method, criminals deceive one or more of the parties involved in the supply chain, tricking them into handing over goods, money, or even both. Reportedly, “strategic theft” is extremely difficult to investigate.

One expert that CNBC spoke to, the Vice President of Operations at Verisk CargoNet, Keith Lewis, said: “Think of identity theft. Think of a friend that’s had their identity stolen or their credit card stolen. There’s no difference. There’s no breadcrumb trail to follow…it’s a ghost.” Alarmingly, the company has tracked organized criminal groups to no fewer than 32 different countries.

Findings Highlight Importance of Anti-Theft Measures

Ultimately, the CNBC investigation brings home the vital importance of criminal deterrents, such as the use of ELDs or other asset tracking software.

Security companies such as Highway alert their clients when someone changes their company’s phone number, email, or registered address on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s website. As this is where shippers register their details, it’s often the first line of defence against a criminal organization that is trying to instigate “strategic theft.”

However, government and trade bodies must accept some accountability, too. At present, it is far too easy for criminals to gain access to their networks and make changes at will, which can have devastating consequences. It’s no surprise that cyberattacks are also on the rise, with most businesses deserting their most basic cybersecurity duties.

Businesses everywhere have a responsibility to invest in their cybersecurity infrastructure, source new talent, and also to upskill their existing employees on best practices. With a greater collective focus and effort, there’s a much greater chance of combating this concerning rise in cargo theft – but change won’t happen overnight.

Cryptocurrency company Coinbase has confirmed it suffered a cyberattack on May 11, and is expecting to incur around $180 million to $400 million relating to the incident, including customer reimbursement.

The attack saw the criminals gain access to sensitive customer data, including government-issue documents such as passports, driver’s licenses and the last four digits of customers’ Social Security numbers. The attackers are reportedly asking for $20 million to not release the data.

As cyberattacks and data breaches becoming increasingly more common, security should remain a top priority for US businesses.

Cryptocurrency Company Coinbase Suffers Data Breach

Leading crypto company Coinbase has reportedly suffered a data breach that has put sensitive customer data at risk. Data includes government-issued identity documents, including passports, driver’s licenses and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

According to the company, a bad faith actor had informed it on May 11 that they had access to customer information from Coinbase accounts, and demanded payment in exchange for not publishing the data.

The person or group supposedly gained access by paying multiple contractors and employees working in support roles outside the US, who had access to the information to perform their own jobs.

CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed the ransom payment to be $20 million. However, Coinbase confirmed it doesn’t intend to pay, and are instead offering a $20 million reward for any information on the breach.

Sensitive Customer Information Up for Grabs Following Breach

Stolen data includes customer names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, and the last four-digits of users’ Social Security numbers. Also stolen were masked bank account numbers and some banking identifiers, as well as account balance data and transaction histories.

The company have confirmed that the cyber criminals did not gain access to login credentials or passwords.

Coinbase spokesperson Natasha LaBranche told TechCrunch that the number of those affected is less than 1% of the platform’s customers. However, the company have confirmed in a blog post that they intend to reinforce their controls and “reimburse customers impacted by this incident”.

Data Breaches Becoming Scarily Commonplace for Businesses

Bybit, another crypto company, reported back in February that attackers had stolen digital tokens worth around $1.5 billion dollars, and in total, the number of funds stolen by breaching crypto platforms came to $2.2 billion in 2024, according to Chainalysis.

Security and privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue for businesses, as data breaches and cyberattacks continue to rise. In fact, a recent study reported that cybersecurity was a bigger concern for businesses than AI implementation.

Including security and privacy training for employees, carrying out regular software updates and implementing security measures such as access controls and multi-factor authentication, are part of the basic principles that help protect your business.

According to a recent study, tech executives are eager to improve their businesses with agentic AI, the more capable and dynamic AI technology compared to the traditional chatbot.

Tech leaders, while optimistic about AI, revealed their biggest concern to be data security and privacy. Research also found that companies are interested in upskilling their workforce to suit new tech and increase hiring as they adopt new tools.

Even though businesses continue to sprint towards AI adoption, there are still mixed results about whether AI is a guaranteed success-maker.

Tech Executives Want AI Agents in The Workplace Quickly

Tech companies and leaders are moving fast to bring AI agents into the workplace, according to the latest Ernst & Young Technology Pulse Poll. The poll surveyed more than 500 tech leaders in April 2025.

Findings were centered around the deployment of AI, and about half (48%) of respondents reported that they had at least started to deploy agentic AI within their organization. Likewise, half of respondents said within their company, 50% of their AI deployment will be autonomous in the next 2 years.

Tech leaders appear to be turning towards AI agents, over the traditional chatbot, seeing the former as a more capable and lucrative form of AI.

While chatbots such as Anthropic’s Claude are geared more towards interactivity, agentic AI agents favor autonomy and the performance of complex tasks, which could make it a highly useful tool within businesses.

Security and Upskilling On Leaders’ Minds in Regard to AI

Significantly, 49% of tech leaders surveyed named their top AI-related concern as data privacy and security, a number which is 19 percentage points higher than it was in 2024.

This number prevails despite the fact that 73% of leaders said they have security and privacy governance risk frameworks in place to monitor AI-driven decisions. Brian Hopkins, vice president of Forrester’s Emerging Tech portfolio, wrote about security within AI in a blog post: “Clear boundaries, governance, and trust frameworks must evolve alongside the tech.”

Businesses are also interested in changing their workforce in relation to new technologies. The vast majority of tech leaders (84%) said they were planning on hiring more workers over the next six months, as they adopt more AI tools.

Well over half of respondents likewise said they’re focusing on upskilling their current workforce as AI technology becomes common practice.

The Race for AI Implementation Continues

Everywhere we’re looking, companies are tripping over themselves trying to implement AI technology before their competition. In a figure that can’t be taken too seriously, more than half (58%) of executive respondents believe their organization is ahead of competitors in AI investment.

It doesn’t help that many reports, such as Microsoft’s latest report on Frontier Firms, carry a sense of urgency — that businesses should rush to implement AI, or risk being left behind. However, this kind of panic has caused many businesses to implement AI purely for that reason, even when they are not seeing significant return on investment.

Despite the mania, leaders remain optimistic about the positives of AI, even amid increasing pressures “to demonstrate return on investment now through measurement and tangible top-line and bottom-line results,” according to Ernst & Young.

Zoho has launched its own payments platform, known as Zoho Payments. The service aims for users to have better control over their payments and automation over financial workflows and includes risk and fraud management services.

As a popular platform creator for businesses, the move could be seen as a way for Zoho to create a more centralized and seamless experience for users, particularly as Payments is available as an integration within other Zoho products.

Furthermore, evidence suggests that with the continuing growth of digital payments, the potential for a cashless society remains. With consumers being more likely to spend more when using a digital payment method, the move could be a positive one for many businesses.

Zoho Launches Unified Payments Platform

Global technology company Zoho has launched Zoho Payments, a unified payments platform where businesses can collect payments online, using many different payment methods. The move marks the Indian company’s entrance into the US payments market.

Zoho Payments supports over 135 currencies, giving it the reach international businesses require. It aims to provide better visibility on payment transactions, payouts, refunds, payment failures, and account summaries, as well as overviews of cash flow, payment trends, and operational bottlenecks.

The announcement was made at Zoholics US, the company’s annual user conference, held this year in Houston from May 13 to May 15. Alongside Payments, the company announced the addition of a new generative AI and new workflow capabilities to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Everyone, its latest Customer Experience (CX) platform.

A Push Towards a Collective Zoho Product Experience

Zoho’s products are popular for businesses and are used by over 120 million users globally. Zoho Payments joins an impressive roster of products, including Zoho CRM, Zoho Commerce, Zoho Invoice, and Zoho Books.

Payments is available now and is already integrated across other Zoho Apps. While the company has integrated its other products — such as Invoice and Books — into other digital payment platforms, offering its own payment service could be seen as an attractive offer for businesses already using its products.

With all services available on the Zoho platform, businesses can expect a more seamless and secure experience when using their technology. Alvaro Lafee, CEO of Logoscorp, has already praised the new Zoho Payments platform for its flawless integration with Zoho Books.

A Future of Exclusively Digital Payments

Zoho Payments joins a US payments market that is looking increasingly digitized.

Research from Capital One shows that nearly 87% of transactions are now cashless, and 81% of US consumers prefer to pay by card. Significantly, 63.9% of Americans also expect a cashless future, and of those, 44.3% believe a cashless society is very likely.

This setup could exclude certain members of society, such as the elderly, who can’t use digital technology, as well as those who live in more rural areas without good signal. For businesses, however, a cashless society could see increased control and tracking over payments, which is ever more important as cybercrime becomes more of a threat.

The US’s latest taffic adjustment is reversing course (at least, a little) on one of this administration’s more controversal tax changes: The tariff on small packages coming from China worth $800 or less has been lowered to 54%, from 120%.

This change removes the more onerous taxes from particularly inexpensive packages, potentially helping smaller US businesses avoid some of the larger cost impacts of the new tariffs.

Granted, the 54% tariff is still a big cost increase for these types of packages. Prior to May, any package under $800 wasn’t taxed at all.

The De Minimis Exemption Is Back… Sort Of

Since 1938, the “de minimis” exemption meant that no duties would be imposed at all on these small packages.

The Trump administration changed that in early May, when they eliminated this exemption entirely, making small $800-or-less packages subject to the exact same duties that had just soared due to the US-China trade war.

While 54% tariffs are definitely more workable for many companies in comparison to 120% tariffs, most small US operations that had previously relied on the de minimis exemption will likely continue to struggle with the additional tax burden. These tariffs will directly impact package carriers but are expected to be passed on to the buyers (and likely passed in turn to the consumers who purchase the final product).

Is the US-China Trade War Turning a Corner?

The latest adjustment comes alongside the reveal of a new 90-day pause on tariffs between the US and China. Well, aside from a base 30% import tax rate.

It’s potentially a positive sign, since it indicates that Trump might be rethinking his “more and more tariffs” strategy. However, it’s definitely a sign of continued uncertainty when it comes to the tax budget for companies everywhere, and uncertainty tends to be bad: It pushes businesses and consumers alike towards saving their money rather than put it back into the economy.

Even a positive change might get reversed with the next top-down decision, and in this case, we already know when the 90-day pause on tariffs will end.

How Will Businesses Adjust?

The new de minimis adjustment still requires a 54% tariff, although this can be swapped out for a flat fee of $100 per package. A proposed flat fee increase to $200 was set to take effect in June 1 but, with the latest changes, this has been cancelled.

We’ve previously covered what to expect from the tariff hikes: Higher consumer prices, more shipping delays, and a shift in business models as companies that used to outsource either shift to a US-based supplier, shut their doors, or tighten their margins while increasing prices.

It’s a tough time to be a dropshipper, unless you’ve been operating with massive margins or you already source from the US. Even ecommerce companies based outside the US are shifting to US suppliers, if the changes Temu has announced are any indication. The new tariff pause and the lower 54% de minimis duties might help make some decisions easier, but they won’t change the overall trajectory set by all the new international taxes we’ve seen in the past couple of months.

House Republicans have just introduced a new version of the massive Budget Reconciliation bill that includes new language that — if passed — will stop states from enacting regulation on artificial intelligence.

The new AI-specific language was just added late on May 12, on a bill that’s being debated by key House committees this week.

In his second administration, Trump has a new interest in AI, having previously ended Biden’s executive orders aimed at mitigating AI risks while working closely with big tech executives with close ties to AI, including Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen.

What the New Anti-Regulation AI Regulation Says

The new language bars any US state from enforcing any laws “regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems.”

The terminology, according to tech news site 404 Media, could be interpreted to cover both new generative AI tools like ChatGPT as well as pre-existing technology.

“…no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.” -the bill

Rebuplicans have in the past argued that they cared about states’ rights and said that they were against government overreach. However, this new proposal is a direct restriction on state’s ability to inform or protect their citizens from AI-related concerns such as scams or privacy violations.

OpenAI Previously Asked Trump for Relief From State AI Regulations

This isn’t the first time we’ve covered the AI-friendly push to stop states from enacting regulations covering the industry. In March of this year, OpenAI petitioned the current administration for just that.

In a 15-page document, OpenAI claimed the bills being considered by various US states would slow down AI development and should be stopped by the federal government. If the Budget Reconciliation bill is passed in its current form, it sounds like OpenAI will get what it wants.

The massive 2025 budget reconciliation package holds a lot more than just the restriction on states’ rights for AI regulation, though.

The biggest headline has been slashes to the Medicaid program, but the Direct File program that allows for free tax filing could also be cut. If passed, the bill would require the Treasury Department to terminate the Direct File program “as soon as practicable,” and no later than 30 days after the law goes into effect.

The Bill Adds More De Minimis Changes, Too

Another change included in the current bill? The end of the de minimis exemption, which allows imports worth $800 or less to enter the US duty-free. President Donald Trump already ended this exemption for China through an executive order, but passing this bill into law would lock in that effect for all countries on a more permanent basis.

Earlier this week, a 90-day pause on the US-China tariffs was announced, along with a reduction in the recently-enstated duties on small packages worth $800 or less from 120% to 54%. The new bill’s suggested removal of the de minimis is yet another example of the constantly shifting tariff battle, which businesses everywhere are still figuring out how to deal with.

Now, a potential AI regulation threatens to reduce states’ ability to response on another front.

The tech industry layoffs show no signs of stopping: Microsoft has just announced job cuts for 3% of its total workforce, across all levels, teams, and locations.

Microsoft says that these new layoffs are due to “organizational changes.” Last January, Microsoft’s previous round of layoffs was tied to performance, but that’s not the case this time.

The news comes after the tech giant had reported better results than expected in late April, with $25.8 billion in quarterly net income.

About 6,000 Jobs Will Be Lost

Microsoft had about 228,000 employees around the globe as of last year. The impacted workers will likely total around 6,000, and will include all areas of the company, including the LinkedIn team. It’s the biggest round of job cuts from the company since a 2023 layoff that cost 10,000 workers their positions.

According to a spokesperson, Microsoft aims to “reduce layers of management” with these latest cuts. AI was not mentioned.

This goal may be familiar to those following corporate layoff news: Amazon cited “unnecessary layers” as a reason why it planned to cut some workers in a January announcement.

The Tech Job Market Is Not Doing Great

According to industry watchdog site Layoffs.FYI, a little over 59,400 tech employees across 127 companies have been laid off so far in 2025.

Granted, that number is down significantly from the previous two years, even after accounting for the fact that we’re not quite halfway through this year.

In 2024, we saw mass layoffs in the tech world to the tune of 152,922 employees across 551 tech companies, and in 2023, a shocking 264,220 tech employees lost their positions across 1,193 tech companies.

However, many of those employees are likely still searching for their next gig, given the many online forums full of job seekers bemoaning the thousands of applications that they’ve been sending out for a year or longer with no payoff. Now, the labor market will be weaker than ever, as competition increases.

Tech Companies Keep Laying People Off

In January, the company behind Word and Windows laid off 2,000 underperforming employees, without severance. Now, it’s pushing even further for efficiency, even despite strong performance.

It’s a trend that plenty of other companies are following in 2025, from Google to Amazon. Even outside of tech, economic shifts and new tariffs have incentivized companies to cut jobs fast and often. Earlier this week, we covered the shipping company DHL’s decision to lay off 364 employees.

One has to wonder if we made a bit of a mistake in tying everyone’s ability to exist to their job.