X — which you might know better as Twitter — is experiencing intermittent outages this Monday.

The social platform’s uptime challenges aren’t just restricted to North America, either. Users are reporting that the platform has failed to work across the globe, with users in the UK, France, and India saying that they can’t access the short-form blogging platform.

It’s not a complete disaster, though: Outages are only lasting a few minutes at a time, so if you can just wait a little while, you can get right back to doom-scrolling.

What to Know About the X Outages

You can follow the most current reports of X outages on the website monitoring service Down Detector.

At the time of writing, over 20,000 outages globally continues to be reported late Monday morning, following a spike of over 38,000 simultanous reports several hours earlier.

Down Detector also breaks the outages down by type. According to their data, 58% of outages are related to the X app, while 31% are related to the platform’s website, and another 11% are related to “server connection.” These statistics will likely fluctuate as reports continue to roll in.

Elon Musk Says It Is a “Massive Cyberattack”

Elon Musk took to X to address the outages. According to the X chairman, who acquired the platform in October 2022, X is currently suffering from a cyberattack that was “done with a lot of resources.”

“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 𝕏. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing …” – X Chairman Elon Musk

For context, it’s worth noting that Elon Musk has a long history of mistruths that has prompted entire timelines detailing his relationship with online misinformation.

Still, there’s no denying that Musk’s recent political exploits have made him unpopular with most Americans. According to Pew Research Center, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) said they have an unfavorable view of Musk in a January 2025 poll.

The X Factor

According to a fact-checked SOAX research report, the X platform had 335.7 million monthly active users in 2024, which was a 5.14% drop from the previous year. The highest number of monthly active users, 368.4 million, was in 2022, the same year in which Elon Musk acquired the platform.

This conflicts with other reports: In April 2024, Exploding Topics reported that X had about 611 million monthly active users.

We’ve rounded up the companies that have left Twitter in recent years.

The four-day workweek is growing in popularity year-on-year, original research from Tech.co finds. As revealed in the latest “The Impact of Technology on the Workplace” report, 38% of senior leaders are openminded about the prospect of implementing a four-day workweek at their business, compared to just 23% last year.

While the number of businesses actually following a four-day workweek remains relatively low, the 15% uptick in employer favorability is highly encouraging.

In recent years, debate has raged over remote working, with advocates pointing to the impact that it can have on employee wellbeing, burnout, and productivity. Similarly, the four-day workweek has been linked to a range of benefits. It’s only a matter of time before it too becomes a flashpoint for debate.

More Business Leaders Favor a Four-Day Workweek Year-on-Year

38% of employers are open to one day implementing a four-day workweek, it has been revealed. The latest report from Tech.co points to a growing appreciation for the working model, with the figure representing a 15% increase on the previous year.

In practice, relatively few companies are actually utilizing the working model. The report shows that just 14% of businesses already have it in place, which represents a slight decline from 2023, when 17% of businesses did.

Elsewhere, 19% of surveyed companies are actively considering whether or not to implement the model, with a further 8% indicating that they’re unsure. 21% have no intention to introduce a four-day workweek. Our Tech.co report surveyed over 1,000 senior executives and workplace managers of businesses with 10 or more employees, across a range of industries.

Four-Day Week Findings Highly Encouraging for Employees

In the last few years, the four-day workweek has begun to gain traction. There are variations on the model. In one iteration, employees work one fewer day per week, but retain the same workload, compensation, and benefits. In another, working hours are reduced, which in turn impacts pay and benefits. Proponents argue that both types will bring benefits to businesses and staff.

The idea is almost universally popular among employees, with around 80% respondents to a Work in America survey saying they believe they would be happier and just as effective with a four-day workweek. It has yet to find the same foothold among senior leaders, but, as the report demonstrates, momentum is building.

Research is in its infancy, but these hypotheses are certainly borne out by preliminary findings. For instance, a 2024 study of 247 construction company workers who followed a four-day workweek found that the working model had a beneficial impact on “work-life harmony and did not increase fatigue.”

Debate To Become Next Business Battleground for Four-Day Week

Employee wellbeing has become a hot-button corporate issue in recent years. The remote work phenomenon ushered in by the Covid pandemic not only transformed attitudes to where we could carry out our work, but also its value when stacked up against our collective wellbeing.

We’ve seen this tension play out in the hotly contested remote work debate. On a near-monthly basis, another tech company ends remote working, or insists that employees at least partially increase their office attendance. With Donald Trump back in the White House, and notorious remote-skeptic Elon Musk at his side, the issue has become international news in recent months.

As momentum for the four-day workweek grows, it’s inevitable that it will soon become the next battleground for corporate interests and employee wellness. It will be fascinating to see how it plays out over the course of the year.

TikTok has officially been banned in Albania, with government officials citing bullying and violence among children as the primary concern.

The popular video sharing app has been on the receiving end of bans and restrictions over the last few years, with the looming TikTok ban in the US continuing to cause potential issues for users.

Albania has pulled the trigger, though, committing to at least 12 months of no TikTok in the country in hopes of curbing the nefarious behavior that the country claims is being encouraged by the app.

Albanian Cabinet Announces TikTok Ban

Albanian officials have confirmed that the one-year TikTok ban in the country will, in fact, take effect in the coming days. Announced in December, the ban hopes to cut down on the violence and bullying that have surfaced due to the app in recent years.

The decision to ban the app outright was made in conference with over 65,000 parents over more than a thousand meetings, according to the Albanian authorities, with many of them encouraging the ban for the country.

TikTok executives have been working with Albanian officials to hopefully reinstate the app after a year, with better parental controls, age verification, and more inclusivity around the Albanian language.

Why Is Albania Banning TikTok?

While some countries are banning TikTok for national security, Albania has a much more serious claim against the social media app: incitement of violence and youth bullying.

The push to ban TikTok came after a November incident that saw a 14-year-old stabbed after an argument that originated on the app.

While TikTok said that it “found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts,” that doesn’t change the fact that users of TikTok will be out of luck in Albania for at least the next year.

Other Countries That Have Banned TikTok

Albania isn’t the first country to ban TikTok and it likely won’t be the last. The social media app has been rife with controversy over its lifespan, and there are likely plenty of government officials around the world that will take issue in the future.

Currently, India and Afghanistan are the only countries that have full bans of TikTok in place, but there are other countries that have gone the partial route. France, Canada, and Australia, for example, have banned the app on government devices due to security concerns.

Beyond that, the US TikTok ban could be back on the table if a US buyer isn’t found, although we all know how that turned out last time.

Just in time for the notoriously enjoyable summer, Texas state governor Greg Abbott has announced a return-to-office mandate for all state employees.

The decision comes in lock-step with President Trump, whose return-to-office mandate for federal employees has been quite messy, with employees returning to offices without Wi-Fi or even desks.

No matter, though, as businesses around the country have been instituting return-to-office mandates without cause or data to back it up, so why start now?

Governor Abbott Announces Return-to-Office Mandate

In a statement this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced that state employees will be required to work in the office five days per week “as soon as practicable.”

“Texans expect their public servants to be present and engaged in the work on their behalf. With remote federal workers returning to the office where possible, it’s important that state agencies ensure they do the same.” – Andrew Mahaleris, press secretary for Governor Abbott

While no written mandate has been handed down, government officials have reportedly been talking to agency directors explaining the new policy, with many planning to institute the changes within the month.

Why Are Texas State Employees Being Forced Back to the Office?

The majority of work-from-home statistics point to improved productivity and increased revenue for operations that offer remote and hybrid work options, so why are Texas state employees being made to return to the office?

Well, this decision is likely more about winning political points than improving government efficiency.

“It’s clearly being driven for political reasons, for political posturing, not for anything else. So I think most folks get that and they understand, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be some serious consequences for this. Turnover is going to be driven up. That means there’s less folks to serve the Texans in their communities.” – Myko Gedutis, vice president of the Texas State Employees Union

The Mess of Return-to-Office Mandates

After years of remote and hybrid work being the standard since the pandemic, forcing employees back into the office on a whim hasn’t gone well for businesses or government agencies in the past.

The federal return-to-office mandates from President Trump, for example, have been all over the place, encouraging employees to commute to empty office buildings with no desks or Wi-Fi. Some locations didn’t even have lights on.

Businesses have had similar problems. Companies like Amazon and Dell, for instance, have endured employee protests and walk-outs as a result of their RTO policies, which have had a notably negative impact on employee wellbeing.

Bad press be damned, Google is reportedly committing even harder to its AI-powered search aspirations, announcing improvements to its AI Overview system and testing a new AI Mode in search.

Google’s initial foray into AI-powered search didn’t exactly go as planned. When the popular search engine initially launched AI Overviews, users received some troubling answers to their queries, from health tips on eating rocks to pizza recipes that included glue.

Now, though, with an injection of new software, Google plans to bring even more AI features to the search experience, whether you like it or not.

Even More AI Overviews Are Coming to Google

According to an announcement from the company in a blog post, Google is going to show AI Overviews for more and more queries in the near future, with a specific focus on “coding, advanced math, and multimodal queries,” with more advancements on the way.

As the announcement points out, this is made possible by Gemini 2.0, the most recently updated version of the generative AI technology, which can provide “faster and higher quality responses and show AI Overviews more often for these types of queries.”

That’s not all, either. Google is also making AI Overviews more accessible to every day users. You will not longer have to be signed into your Google account to receive these AI Overviews in search, and the feature is not longer restricted for teen users.

New AI Mode in Google Search

Beyond the more prevalent AI Overviews across Google Search, the big tech firm is also experimenting with a new way to search called AI Mode. The new system is designed to provide more in-depth answers and allow for follow-up questions, so you can use more advanced reasoning in your online search.

“Helping people discover content from the web remains central to our approach, and with AI Mode we’re making it easy for people to explore and take action. With the model’s deep information retrieval, people can better express what they’re looking for — with all their nuances and constraints — and get to the right web content in a range of formats.” – Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search

You can opt in to use the new AI mode in Google search via Google Labs. However, it’s not quite ready for everyone just yet, with this writer receiving a “Search Labs isn’t available for your account right now” message when trying to access the new tool.

Google Wants AI at the Forefront

Google has been playing second fiddle to OpenAI since the generative AI revolution started a few years ago, with ChatGPT still remaining the clear favorite when it comes to chatbot functionality. Still, Google clearly has the edge on search traffic, with decades of usage by billions around the world.

Subsequently, it makes sense that Google is trying to pin its AI success to the search engine. After all, with 8.5 billion searches per day, Google could quickly become the AI favorite if the search engine becomes a functional AI tool.

That has been the hang up, though. AI-powered search on Google has been nothing if not a mixed bag of results, with users pointing to inaccurate and unhelpful answers as a serious flaw. Hopefully this injection of Gemini 2.0 has an impact, but if Google isn’t careful, it could suffer yet another bad press cycle due to its lagging AI system.

Burnout is a state of exhaustion characterized by physical, mental, and behavioral symptoms. It’s caused by sustained stress and fatigue and is often a result of placing too many demands upon yourself and not allowing yourself any time to relax.

With 2025 gathering steam, burnout and how to prevent it has become a key issue in the modern workplace. The recent explosion of AI tools, combined with ongoing debates over remote working and the ‘right to disconnect,’ have ensured that burnout is high on the workplace agenda.

Make no mistake: burnout is serious. If left untreated, it can have a catastrophic impact on your physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as your capacity to effectively carry out your job. In this guide, I’ll take you through what it is, how it can manifest itself, and some strategies you can take to prevent it from occurring, as well as how to recover from it.

What is Burnout?

Burnout is a feeling of acute exhaustion caused by overburdening oneself. When we have too much responsibility, and we can’t find respite, burnout can often occur. It’s made up of a set of physical, emotional, and mental symptoms. Among them, it creates feelings of hopelessness, apathy, and complete exhaustion.

Though these feelings might be caused by work, if untreated, they can quickly spill over into your everyday life. What’s more, burnout can have a detrimental effect on your physical health, making you more vulnerable to illness and even causing long-term health impacts.

Burnout vs depression

Burnout can feel quite similar to depression. However, there are some important distinctions between them, which I’ve outlined in the table below. Chiefly among them, burnout has a tangible cause and its treatment is relatively straightforward. Depression, by contrast, is harder to pin down and alleviate.

Symptoms of Burnout

By definition, burnout accumulates over time. The symptoms are minor at first, and thus easy to ignore. It’s important to recognize them early to stop them from snowballing into full-blown burnout. Below, you’ll find a list of common symptoms, divided into physical, mental, and behavioral.

Physical symptoms of burnout

• Fatigue – if you’re experiencing burnout, you’ll feel tired most of the time. It will seem like most tasks are beyond your capabilities.
• Colds and flu – burnout lowers your immune system, so you will pick up more colds and sickness bugs. This can lower your attendance and performance at work, which in turn contributes to the feelings of burnout.
• Sleeping poorly – burnout will impact your sleeping pattern. You might find yourself oversleeping on occasion, and not able to get to sleep on others.
• Changes in appetite – acute stress can cause people to overeat as a way to cope. At the same time, it can also mean that you have too much on your mind to even think about eating.

Mental symptoms of burnout

• Feelings of failure – if you’re suffering from burnout, you’ll likely experience extreme self-doubt and question your self-worth.
• Feelings of helplessness – you will probably feel helpless and trapped as if your situation will never improve.
• Feelings of apathy – burnout can be characterized by extreme apathy. In other words, you do not care about your job at all and have no interest in trying to turn things around.
• Feelings of sadness – of course, all of this can create powerful feelings of sadness. You might feel tearful and wish that your circumstances were different.

Behavioral symptoms of burnout

• Becoming withdrawn – if your colleague is suffering from burnout, you might notice that they have withdrawn from social and professional responsibilities.
• Procrastination – burnout will often be accompanied by procrastination, in which an individual takes a long time to get something done and often gets distracted.
• Becoming easily irritated, losing one’s temper – you might find that people with burnout have a very short fuse, and react with frustration at any minor inconvenience.
• Missing work – a person who is burnt out might start skipping work. Maybe they start taking a lot of sick days, or stop coming into the office altogether.

Causes of Burnout

As I’ve touched on in the table above, burnout differs from depression in that it has tangible external causes. It’s commonly tied to work, but it can also result from the pressures of parenting, caregiving, or any other external environment that creates long-term stress.

Below, I’ve outlined some of the main causes of burnout at work, at home, and personality traits that can make you more susceptible to it.

Causes of burnout at work

• Too much on your plate – this is a big reason why people get burnt out at work. If you have too much to do – or at least, that’s how you perceive it – it can lead to burnout.
• Lack of recognition – if you’re never rewarded or recognized for your contributions, it can feel like you’re going through the motions. In turn, this can lead to burnout.
• Boring day-to-day – no interest in the work you’re doing increases the likelihood of burnout.
• Chaotic work environment – an unorganized, high-pressure workplace provides the perfect conditions for feelings of burnout to grow.
• Lack of support – your relationships at work are vitally important. An approachable manager can lend a sympathetic ear and shoulder some of your responsibilities when required. Workplace friends are great for letting off some steam and having a laugh.

Causes of burnout at home

• Not enough sleep – fundamentally, burnout is a type of prolonged exhaustion. Not getting enough sleep is a surefire way to accelerate the burnout process.
• Working too much, relaxing too little – to avoid burnout, it’s vital that you maintain a healthy work-life balance. Make sure that you make time for yourself, and afford yourself time to nurture your social relationships.
• Taking on too much – burnout can be caused by too much responsibility. Just because you’re on top of things at work, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to assume lots of added responsibilities. In other words, know your limits.

Personality traits that can lead to burnout

• Reluctance to delegate work – if you prefer to be in control, and dislike collaborating with others, you’ll likely feel more pressure than you would otherwise. In the long run, this can lead to burnout.
• Perfectionism – in a similar vein, this can mean that you feel higher amounts of pressure, which can cause burnout.
• Low self-esteem – a low opinion of yourself might make you feel like a failure; in turn, this can lead to burnout.
• Accustomed to success – a high-achiever might feel pressure to maintain the standard that they’ve set for themselves. This can cause burnout if left unchecked.

How to Prevent Burnout

Burnout treatment starts with prevention. If you can spot the signs early and take the necessary steps to remedy them, you can stop burnout in its tracks. Your first port of call should be to reach out to others. Whether it’s your boss, your partner, or your colleagues – sharing your problems with someone will make them feel more manageable.

From here, you can start to think about solutions. To begin with, you should have a conversation with your manager. A good manager will understand that you need some respite, and lighten your workload. If you don’t have an approachable or sympathetic manager, you should seek out someone higher up who will listen.

It might be a good idea to have some time off. After all, vacations exist for a reason. If you’re running low on vacation allowance, remember that you also have sick days, and burnout is a perfectly legitimate use for them. Alternatively, there’s remote working. Perhaps your burnout is a result of excessive time spent in the office or an arduous morning and evening commute, and you need to reconsider your working arrangements.

Every company is different, so make sure to check your protocol for the above suggestions. The bottom line is – your wellbeing should matter to your company, so definitely check in with the relevant parties to see what sort of support they can offer you. If you’re repeatedly feeling like it doesn’t, it might be time to move on to a company with a better working culture.

How leaders can prevent burnout in their staff

As an employer, you have a responsibility towards your staff and their wellbeing. With mounting tech layoffs and return-to-office (RTO) mandates putting staff under strain, here are a few steps you can take to alleviate burnout.

1. Establish good lines of communication with your employees. Make sure they know they can approach you with their problems.
2. Don’t overburden your employees. Set realistic expectations, and be flexible.
3. Encourage good work-life balance. Remind your staff to take time off, and let them work from home when desired (if it adheres to your company policy).
4. Lead by example. If you’re always working overtime, your employees will get the perception that that is a requirement.
5. Make your employees feel valuable. Whether that’s keeping the office stacked with drinks and snacks, or a monthly team social. Get creative!

How to Treat Burnout

If you’re suffering from feelings of burnout, you must view it as an opportunity to pause and reflect. After all, your circumstances led you here. Going forward, you need to reevaluate how much value you’re placing on your job at the expense of your wellbeing. From here, you’ll be well-placed to make significant changes to your life.

Some areas that might need looking at include your diet, the amount of exercise you do, how much sleep you get, and whether or not you’re getting enough social interaction. Beyond that, how do you approach your work? Are you delegating enough, or assuming sole responsibility?

To prevent it from happening again, you need to make real, lasting changes.

Final Thoughts

In this guide, I’ve taken you through what burnout is, how it differs from depression, how you can prevent it, and what can be done to treat it. Hopefully, you now feel like you know a bit more about this growing workplace issue and what to do in case you feel yourself falling victim to it.

With the emergence of AI in the last few years, businesses everywhere now have access to technology that can automate tasks, free up time, and generally reduce the burden on human employees. We’re already seeing the benefits, with 3 out of 5 business leaders we surveyed for our 2025 Impact of Technology on the Workplace report confirming that AI has improved their work-life balance.

But we’re barely scratching the surface. As the technology continues to develop, senior leaders have a responsibility to ensure that’s efficiently deployed to make their employees’ lives easier. In the meantime, you’ve got to do everything you can to maintain a healthy work-life balance and a mutually beneficial relationship with your company.

Microsoft has unveiled two AI sales agents, known as “Sales Agent” and “Sales Chat.” By connecting to both Microsoft Dynamic 365 and Salesforce, the two models can be used to qualify potential leads and provide invaluable customer insights for sales reps.

Wednesday’s announcement coincided with Salesforce launching its own Agentforce 2dx, which similarly allows users to integrate AI agents into existing business workflows. There is no love lost between the two companies, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff previously criticizing Microsoft’s forays into the AI realm.

Microsoft’s flagship AI model, Copilot, was rolled out last year to no shortage of bad press. In March 2024, US congressional staff were banned from using it due to concerns over data security. Elsewhere, users cited common issues with speed and performance. The company will hope that this latest innovation fares better in its bid to take on Salesforce.

Microsoft Unveils AI Sales Agents

On Wednesday, Microsoft revealed that it plans to launch two AI sales agents – Sales Agent and Sales Chat – as it gears up to rival Salesforce. Designed to work in conjunction with the company’s own Dynamics 365 business programs, the models can be used to streamline and optimize workflows for sales reps.

Sales Agent identifies and qualifies potential customers, as well as scheduling meetings and following up with leads. Sales Chat, on the other hand, provides reps with customer summaries and insights. They gather information from customer databases, company pricing sheets, CRM data, Microsoft emails, and more.

Alongside the two new agents, the company also introduced a new program designed to help businesses “migrate off legacy CRM vendors,” in a thinly-veiled barb presumably aimed at Salesforce.

Microsoft Goes Head-to-Head With Salesforce

On the day that Sales Agent and Sales Chat were announced, Salesforce unveiled a series of enhancements to its own bot, Agentforce. The new release, which it is calling Agentforce 2dx, allows Agentforce to “engage proactively, be triggered on changes in data, operate autonomously in the background of any business process, and interact with users across any user interface,” according to a statement.

Microsoft is investing heavily in a bid to overthrow Salesforce as the de facto CRM platform for businesses. This has brought them into conflict with Benioff, who has publicly made his feelings towards Microsoft known.

During an episode of the GeekWire podcast in October 2024, the Salesforce CEO compared Copilot to the second coming of “Clippy,” the primitive Office assistant that was retired in 2007. He went on to talk about the “mess that Microsoft has made in regards to the AI industry.”

AI Set to Transform Sales Landscape

As a use case, AI for sales agents is in its relative infancy, but this is set to change dramatically over the coming months. According to the Tech.co Impact of Technology on the Workplace report, which surveyed over 1,000 US-based senior executives, just 15% of businesses are not using AI at all, with two-thirds spending at least $10,000 on AI per year.

The survey further finds that writing tasks, including emails, reports, and presentations, currently make up the biggest use for AI, with 43% of AI-using businesses confirming that they leverage the technology for this purpose. In second place is data analysis (37%), followed by customer support and chatbots (33%).

Undoubtedly, there’s an enormous opportunity for AI to overhaul the sales arena. And with Salesforce recently laying off 1,000 roles to accommodate investment in the technology, this potential has not gone unnoticed by big players in the space.

If your business requires a cash injection, but you don’t want to risk falling into debt cycles from private loans, it might be time to consider business grants.

By providing crucial funding for specific projects, and giving your business much-needed visibility, grants can be a great way to take your venture to the next level. It only takes a couple of minutes to apply to most opportunities too, allowing you to throw your hat in the ring without investing heaps of time and energy.

If you’re interested in trying your luck, we’ve rounded up five business grants currently accepting applications in March. Read on to learn about their eligibility criteria, and funding details, and for tips on how to streamline the application process with AI.

Small Business Grants to Apply For in March 2025

With spring around the corner, there’s no better time to plant the seeds for your business’s future growth. Don’t delay your chances any longer, and apply for one of these business grants.

1. Faire Small Business Grant

• For: Independent retail stores
• Grantor: Faire Wholesale
• Amount: $5,000

The Faire Small Business Grant is a new funding program designed to help new retailers successfully open up shop. The scheme, which is run by the online marketplace Faire, supports retailers by providing them with $5,000 in Faire store credits to stock their stores.

To be eligible for the program, applicants need to be independent retail owners, have either recently opened or plan to open a store soon, and be based in the US. You’ll also have to sign up for a free Faire account, where you’ll be automatically considered for up to $20k in interest-fee financing to help you purchase inventory for your new store.

All you have to do to apply is describe your store and how you’d use the grant, and submit a short video submission. Faire also rolls out a new scheme each quarter, so if you miss the April 1 deadline you won’t have to wait too long until the next window.

• Deadline: April 1

Learn more and apply here

2. Entreprenista Evolve Grant

• For: Female business owners
• Grantor: Entreprenista
• Amount: $2,500

Evolve is a grant program offered by Entrepenista — a women founders network and resources portal. The scheme is open to all female business owners and entrepreneurs and aims to empower the impact and voice of founders, through improving access to funding.

To be in with a chance of winning that prize money, all you have to do is describe your business mission, explain how your company would evolve if you were to receive the grant and share your business’s website. Like the Faire Small Business Grant, this funding opportunity is accepting applications until the end of the month, but we recommend getting a proposal in as soon as possible to avoid any deadline anxiety.

• Deadline: March 31

Learn more and apply here

3. Skip’s $10,000 Strategy Grant

• For: US-based entrepreneurs (with a Skip membership)
• Grantor: Skip
• Amount: $10,000

After the success of its February round, popular grant platform Skip is back with another $10,000 Strategy Grant. Unlike most other grants, Skip’s Strategy Grant is open to all US-based entrepreneurs, regardless of their demographic, or business purpose. However, you do need to have an active Skip Business membership to apply, which can be purchased directly through Skip’s website.

In addition to the grand prize of $10,000, five finalists will also receive $1,000 which they will able to pay toward Skip services. The application process is quick and easy too. Simply create a business plan on Skip, and then explain how this business plan has helped you advance your strategic business goals.

• Deadline: March 29

Learn more and apply here

4. ZenBusiness $5K Grant Program

• For: ZenBusiness customers
• Grantor: ZenBusiness
• Amount: $5,000

ZenBusiness is an online platform designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs. As part of their mission to support small ventures from the ground up, the company started a grant program in 2020. Now, in its fifth year, ZenBusinesses’s $5k Grant Program is opening its virtual doors once again, and giving all of its customers a chance to cash in.

Aside from a $5,000 grant, grantees will receive access to ZenBusinesses ‘Money Pro’ plan and ZenBusiness Banking for 30 days, “Ask Me Anything” office hours with the company team, and ZenBusiness products that are available at the time of grant distribution.

All ZenBusiness customers are able to apply, granted they’ve used the service within the last three to six months, and run a private entity business that’s registered and officially based in the US. You’re also excluded from applying if you’ve won a previous award.

• Deadline: March 31

Learn more and apply here

5. Galaxy Grants

• For: Female or minority entrepreneurs
• Grantor: Galaxy of Stars
• Amount: $2,450

Galaxy of Stars and 501(c)(3) non-profit Hidden Star have partnered up to give small business owners a chance to win $2,450 worth of funding this March. With previous winners hailing from San Diego to Detroit, the scheme is open to small businesses across the US, as long as they’re woman or minority-owned.

It only takes 30 seconds to apply for a Galaxy Grant – all you need to do is fill in some personal information, including your email, zip code, ethnicity, and gender. It’s also worth sending the application around to your friends too, because if they win you’re also eligible for some prize money!

• Deadline: March 31

Learn more and apply here

Streamline Your Grant Application With AI Platforms

AI should never be used to manage the grant writing process from start to finish. However, if you’re sending off lots of applications, or are struggling to get the ball rolling, AI platforms can act as a great helping hand.

Instrumentl is a grant management system that nonprofits can use to research and track grants. The platform has also released a specialized grant writing tool, which helps applicants create program summaries using simple prompts. The tool also uses AI to autofill applications based on your past successes, and according to the platform, these features help applicants finesse their first draft within five minutes.

Grantable is another AI grant writing assistant that can be used to whip up proposals quickly. The platform can be used to answer specific questions and make corrections, and it even lets you upload grant application requirements to help you stick closely to the relevant criteria.

If you’re already well-versed with well-known chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, you can also use these platforms to aid your grant writing process. All you need to do is enter prompts that provide specific information about your grant proposal, including details about your business and the purpose of the grant, before refining the responses until you’re happy.

Always be sure to maintain a human touch, however, as unique proposals are much more likely to catch the eye of the grant reviewers.

A new ‘AI divide’ is emerging, and businesses on the wrong side of it are at risk of being quickly outpaced by those with greater AI literacy, according to new research from Microsoft.

The study found that while roughly half of businesses and organizations have a clear AI strategy in place, and are preparing for emerging trends in the technology like agentic AI, a similar proportion do not — creating a lost opportunity to boost economic growth and improve public services.

The good news is that if you fear your business is on the wrong side of the divide, it’s never too late to develop an effective AI strategy. We explain how this can be done, and why it’s becoming more important than ever for businesses to close the gap by realizing the full potential of AI.

What Is the “AI Divide”?

Ever since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022 and advanced language processing became widely accessible to the public, a rift emerged between businesses that fully capitalized on the technology, and those that didn’t.

New research from Microsoft reveals that this rift has expanded into a full-blown divide, at least for businesses and organizations within the UK.

The study, which is based on a survey of 1,480 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors and 1,400 UK employees, found that just under half (45%) of business leaders currently have a formal AI strategy. It’s these businesses, the report finds, that are outperforming the 55% of businesses that aren’t using AI to its potential, when it comes to productivity and profitability.

At a time when UK employees are dealing with escalating workload pressures, Microsoft’s survey also revealed that this AI divide extends to the workforce, with more than half of business leaders reporting a widening efficiency and productivity gap between workers who use AI and those who don’t.

Adopting AI Agents Is Becoming a Necessity For Many Businesses

Using tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot is a great way to streamline workplace processes, and get your business’s feet wet with AI technology.

Yet, Microsoft’s research suggests that AI agents hold the key to significantly improving operational efficiency, especially for businesses with complex administrative processes like those in healthcare, banking and finance, and retail industries.

“Agentic AI covers a range of virtual tools – or ‘agents’ – from simple chatbots that retrieve information and answer questions; tools like Copilots which automate tasks and workflows; through to fully autonomous systems that learn, plan, and act with minimal human input.” – Microsoft’s UK reporter

According to Microsoft’s report, agentic AI technologies can help businesses overcome barriers to productivity and unlock growth. Speaking on the matter, the UK’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology agrees, explaining that agents will play a key role in closing the widening AI divide, by enabling organizations to work smarter, not harder.

The good news is that despite being a relatively new AI trend, the majority of UK business leaders are already aware of the technology potential, with 72% of respondents expecting AI agents to be fully integrated into their operations at some point in the near future.

And while Microsoft may have a vested interest in the matter, findings from our latest Annual Impact of Tech on the Workplace report agree. Out of the senior leaders we surveyed in the US, 88% recognize the link between technology and productivity. A smaller proportion are willing to put their money where their mouth is too, with almost 10% of AI-using businesses spending $500,000 on the technology each year.

But as we explain next, for businesses falling on the wrong side of the AI divide, it’s never too late to play catch up.

How to Develop a Fool-Proof AI Strategy

If you fear your business isn’t using AI to its full potential, there are a number of actions your organization can take today to maintain its competitive edge.

If you’re starting from scratch, Microsoft recommends looking for automation opportunities first. You can do this by identifying processes that would benefit the most from automation, such as those featuring repetitive tasks or high error rates. Then, after you’ve identified inefficiencies that AI could address, you can explore industry use cases to understand how similar organizations are using AI to solve problems.

As the results of Microsoft’s survey found, deploying agentic AI could also be a good place to start, especially if you already have a basic understanding of the technology. According to the company, simple applications include using a customer-facing chatbot for a bank to fetch relevant data and streamline queries, while more advanced applications include developing an AI agent to manage more complex processes, like onboarding workflows or company supply chains.

Whichever strategy you adopt, it’s also important to clearly define your businesses AI goals, before regularly reviewing your success against these metrics. Understanding the potential and the risks of the technology go hand in hand too. So, aside from ensuring your staff has adequate AI training, we also recommend developing an AI policy with clear guardrails, to ensure that your business is using the technology ethically, safely, and in compliance with regulations.

Learn how to build an AI policy for your business, in five simple steps.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced that it is looking specifically into how the social media platform uses the data of 13 to 17-year-olds to then push content to them.

It’s not the first time that TikTok’s negative impact on children has been questioned, but this time it is the UK that is launching a major investigation.

This case comes not only as TikTok fights for its survival in the US, but as an increasing number of countries scrutinize what content children are seeing on the platform, the addictive nature of that content, and what part the company itself is playing in this.

What Is the Investigation?

According to BBC News, this “major investigation” will look at how TikTok’s data collection practices impact children, from the amount of time they spend on the platform to the potential danger of the data on them being leaked.

The data practices will be studied in relation to the UK’s data protection laws, and the Children’s Code. Both of these together form a set of rules dictating how much data companies can collect on children and how they can process it.

The investigation is also turning its attention to Reddit and Imgur – and will look at whether their age verification measures are being used and enforced.

John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, told the news service that he would not “pre-judge how we might look at the Imgur and Reddit matters” but did suggest that if companies use “self-declaration” as their means to stop children accessing unsuitable content, that “is probably not going to cut it.”

TikTok Defends Itself

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese outfit, ByteDance, has been fervent in its response and says that it uses “strict and comprehensive measures that protect the privacy and safety of teens” for its content recommendation systems.

However, the company is also facing action in several other countries over the welfare of its youngest account owners. This is despite it announcing it will boot those under thirteen off the platform and is launching restrictions for those under eighteen, including blocking “beauty filters.”

In the US, 14 attorneys general have launched a lawsuit against the platform for designing elements of the app to “prey upon young people’s unique psychological vulnerabilities and drive young people to spend excessive amounts of time” on the platform.

Aussie Rules

However, it is Australia that has taken the most dramatic stance and is the first country in the world to ban social media apps for anyone under sixteen. The authorities are now trialing “age-assurance technology” but this will be completed in the coming months, says The Guardian.

However, TikTok is not taking the ban well and has lashed out about the details, according to Bloomberg. In particular, it has taken issue with the fact that YouTube has been excluded from the crackdown as “a health and education service.”

TikTok says that this is “illogical, anti-competitive and short sighted” in a submission to Australia’s Department of Communications. It added that YouTube’s value as an education resource doesn’t pass “even the most cursory of closer examinations.”

Meta and Snapchat-operator, Snap Inc, are also calling for YouTube’s exclusion to be reversed.

Google has been giving iPhone users some love with updates to its Gemini app.

The app had already enjoyed a home screen redesign so that the keyboard now automatically opens upon launching the app and changes to how users access their camera, gallery, and files.

This new update delivers six new lock screen widgets as Google and Apple continue their AI partnership.

New Version of the App

This latest version of the Gemini App for iPhone is now available via the App Store. While the last launch update was mainly about aesthetics – this is about ease of use. Its main offering is the addition of six circular lock screen widgets. These are:

• Type prompt: Stuck on a question? Type anything right away.
• Talk Live: Talk things through, or brainstorm aloud with Gemini.
• Open mic: Quickly open your mic to set reminders, create calendar events, and more.
• Use camera: Take a photo of what’s in front of you, and ask Gemini all about it.
• Share image: Choose an image to get more info, create new art, or start a chat.
• Share file: Use a file to share the information or inspiration behind your question.

These shortcuts can be set to appear on the iPhone lock screen or home screen but they are also accessible in the Control Center, says 9 to 5 Mac.

It adds though that competing apps had these features “available on day one”, taking a dig at Google for being slow.

What Else?

The updated app also allows users to share text, images, and links directly to Gemini from any app on their iPhone.

Google adds that it comes with a host of “UI improvements and bug fixes,” although it doesn’t detail what these are.

In addition, there is a new tool for Gemini Advanced subscribers – as they can now access Deep Research from their Apple device.

What’s Happening With AI Siri?

Apple has given Siri an AI glow-up including ChatGPT integration but, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the company acknowledges that it has some way to go.

In October, Apple’s software lead, Craig Federighi, said that delays had been because the company wanted to create a deeply integrated and individually tailored experience, not just another chatbot. He said – as reported by TechTimes:

“With that comes a great deal of responsibility because to do that that intelligence has to track information that you’ve stored on your device and that means privacy is a tremendously important consideration.” – Craig Federighi, software lead at Apple

He added that Apple does not rush releases and that Siri will get smarter gradually instead of there being an all-singing, all-dancing version launched then nothing.

In the meantime, Apple’s deal with Google, and the availability of Gemini for iPhone users (as well as the company’s deal with OpenAI) fills a gap.

A new study has found alarmingly similar outputs from DeepSeek and ChatGPT, fanning the flames in a battle over the IP of training data.

Microsoft and OpenAI have launched their own probe into whether DeepSeek improperly obtained data to train its AI model.

However, this new study from Copyleaks found 74.2% of DeepSeek’s written text is stylistically similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT outputs, and therefore backs their claims of foul play.

What Did the Researchers Find?

Using screening technology and three AI classifiers, the CopyLeaks team studied texts from Claude, Gemini, Llama, and OpenAI.

The classifiers identified what the company call “subtle stylistic features” like sentence structure, vocabulary, and phrasing. For a classification to be made, all three classifiers had to “agree,” delivering what CopyLeaks says was a “99.88% precision rate and just a 0.04% false-positive rate, accurately identifying texts from both known and unknown AI models.”

These classifiers were then tested with DeepSeek-R1 and the team found that “74.2% of the generated texts aligned with OpenAI’s stylistic fingerprints.” This was in marked contrast to, for example, Microsoft’s Phi-4 model, which “demonstrated a 99.3% disagreement rate.”

What Does This Mean?

It certainly seems like DeepSeek has been trained on OpenAI’s output as the similarity is striking; and it is not true for content from other LLMs.

“This discovery raises concerns about DeepSeek-R1’s resemblance to OpenAI’s model, particularly regarding data sourcing, IP rights, and transparency.” – CopyLeaks team

It adds that this potential “undisclosed reliance on existing models” could also see biases reinforced, limit the diversity of responses that come from LLMs and “pose legal or ethical risks.”

The researchers also go as far as suggesting that their findings could undermine “DeepSeek’s claims of a groundbreaking, low-cost training method.” If the Chinese company is using OpenAI’s data, it may have “misled the market contributing to NVIDIA’s $593 billion single-day loss and giving DeepSeek an unfair advantage,” they state.

A Breakthrough in Tracking IP?

OpenAI and Microsoft continue their probe; but CopyLeaks suggests that this research is a new tool offering “model-specific attribution.”

“This is a breakthrough that fundamentally changes how we approach AI content. This capability is crucial for multiple reasons, including improving overall transparency, ensuring ethical AI training practices, and, most importantly, protecting the intellectual property rights of AI technologies and, hopefully, preventing their potential misuse.” – Shai Nisan, Chief Data Scientist at Copyleaks

And this could benefit not only the AI companies but perhaps also the many organizations who have accused them of copyright infringement as they jostle for dominance.

Thousands of details including login credentials for Amazon Web Services (AWS), MailChimp, and WalkScore.have been found in an AI training dataset, used by the likes of DeepSeek.

In September, a report from Deloitte suggested that almost three out of every four professionals the company surveyed put data privacy among their top three concerns surrounding the rapid rollout of generative AI tools.

And of equal concern is where the data being used to train the AI models is coming from, with news of leaks like this set to justify fears.

OpenSource Dataset Trawled

The secret data was found by cybersecurity researchers, who trawled though 400 terabytes of information.

This was collected from 2.67 billion web pages archived in 2024 and held by The Common Crawl. This non-profit has created an open-source repository of web data, which it started collecting in 2008. It is free for anyone to use so is popular with LLM developers. It hosts around 250 petabytes of web data but this is constantly added to.

It was a team at Truffle Security that analyzed this data and found almost 12,000 “valid secrets”, including API keys and passwords, hardcoded in the archive.

Login Details Found in AI Dataset

The Truffle team said that they were prompted to carry out the analysis after wondering why Large Language Models (LLMs) were instructing developers to hardcode API keys.

In the blog announcing its discoveries, the team says that it detected 11,908 “Live Secrets” and found 2.76 million web pages contained live secrets.

Even more worryingly, it also found a high reuse rate of the secret details. It states that 63% were repeated across multiple web pages. “In one extreme case, a single WalkScore API key appeared 57,029 times across 1,871 subdomains,” the researchers write.

Impact of Login Details Being Exposed by AI

Needless to say, any login data that is discovered is bad news for the original account holders, and leaves them highly vulnerable. Because these datasets are being used by some of the world’s biggest AI pioneers, their AI tools could then be weaponized by cybercriminals to uncover login credentials when they want to launch an attack.

Truffle Security is reported to now be working with the vendors to help fix the issue. It has also issued some advice for the AI industry as a whole. It writes: “LLMs may benefit from improved alignment and additional safeguards – potentially through techniques like Constitutional AI – to reduce the risk of inadvertently reproducing or exposing sensitive information.”

This technique has been developed by Anthropic – one of the few AI players to consistently push for an AI safety framework to be put in place. Others – including OpenAI – seem keen to push ahead with innovation at all costs – with the full support of the Trump administration.

AI: It’s here, it’s there, it’s seemingly everywhere in 2025. How ubiquitous is it? Well, 58% of businesses that started using AI cited “pressure from competitors” as the reason why, according to Tech.co’s own research.

Granted, that might be a warning sign more than an indication that AI is genuinely too big to fail. But we can’t stand around waiting for an AI bubble to collapse. With a dismal labor market continously worsened by waves of layoffs, millions of white collar workers are wondering how to keep their jobs or find a better one.

The answer might be upskilling. If you’re interested in gaining a few skills surrounding generative AI, look no further. Here, we’ve rounded up the best free online courses that can give you the edge when to comes to talents like prompting, research, or integrating AI tools into your workflow. At the very least, spending a few hours of your time listening to a lecture series should take your mind off of the uneasy future of work.

IBM: Data Science Professional Certificate

⏰Length: 120 hours

IBM offers the longest course in this guide, by far, with this series aimed at preparing students for a career as a data scientist. That’s because it’s a whole suite of courses bundled together, and all offered online for no cost at all.

Those courses include: “What is Data Science?,” “Tools for Data Science,” “Data Science Methodology,” “Data Analysis with Python,” and “Data Analysis with Python,” among others. You’ll get a total of 12 courses, with most clocking in at over ten hours each.

This series isn’t limited just to artificial intelligence, but it definitely devotes plenty of time to the concept. A few AI-specific courses include “Machine Learning with Python,” and one explicitly about upskilling your existing data scientist vocation, called “Generative AI: Elevate Your Data Science Career.”

Granted, it’s a big time and energy investment. But why take a piecemeal approach to learning? If it’s a natural fit for your interests, IBM’s course might be able to take your career in a whole new direction.

Sign up for the whole series — or any individual course you’re interested in — here on Coursera.

UW: Machine Learning Specialization

⏰Length: 80 hours

The University of Washington’s course on machine learning can take you from the basics to mastering the core machine learning fundamentals. It’ll cover topics including Regression, Classification, and Clustering and Retrieval, as well as the case studies you’ll need to get some practical understanding of the concepts.

According to the course itself, you will “learn to analyze large and complex datasets, create systems that adapt and improve over time, and build intelligent applications that can make predictions from data.” As with the IBM courses, the programming language of choice is the general-purpose option Python.

You’ll need to have a little experience with computer programming to start this one, but it’s a great way to buckle down and start getting familiar with machine learning, the term for computer systems that adapt themselves by learning from data. At a pace of about ten hours a week, it should take you two months to complete.

Check it out here on Coursera.

AdelaideX: Ethical AI for Students

⏰Length: 8 hours

Maybe you’re not looking to start an entirely new career, or develop your computer language fluency. Try this option for a shorter course that you can handle in the evenings across a week or two: It’s a guide to some of the ethical questions behind the use of AI, and it’ll only take you 8 hours, start to finish.

Those questions will include the consequences of using incorrect or biased information created by generative AI, but they also cover the right and wrong ways to cite the use of AI, and potential future AI developments in AI.

You’ll also pick up some related soft skills like the ability to determine when something has been AI-generated (we have some tips on how to detect an AI image ourselves), and how to identify differences in the usage protocols of different policies, as well as general terminology.

Far more ink has been spilled on the challenges of AI ethics, from copyright theft to climate change impacts, but this course sticks to a simple goal. By the time you’re done, you should be able to produce unbiased, accurate, and transparent AI content. This one’s available on edX.org, so head over to that online learning website to get started today.

HP: Generative AI Mastery: Revolutionizing Game Development

⏰Length: 15 hours

Sometimes you need a fun topic before your brain actually enjoys learning enough to actually retain the information. Enter this game development course, which offers an insight into the ways in which generative AI is transforming the gaming industry.

Granted, actual game development isn’t all fun and, uh, games. Here, you’ll be taking a look at AI’s impact on areas including narrative, concept art, texturing, modeling, and animation. How can AI help build visuals and stories within these topics? It’ll take you 15 hours to find out.

The course will introduce you to the basics of Unreal Engine 5 and Unity 3D, with sessions covering topics including “Basic C# Scripting for Unity 3D,” as well as AI-focused looks at everything from character modeling to music creation. Check it out on edX.org now.

Codeacademy: Learn How to Use AI for Coding

⏰Length: 1 hour

We opened this list with a months-long career-shaping series. Now, consider the opposite amount of energy investment: Here’s a course you can complete over a single lunch break. Don’t say we don’t have range here at Tech.co HQ.

This Codeacademy course will offer the most basic possible guide to the intersection of AI and coding. Sure, AI can craft functional code snippets and syntax. But do you know which tasks you can trust it to handle and which ones need a human touch? What about how to write the prompts to get the results you need? AI tools might be time-savers, but knowing how to use them rapidly becomes almost as big a challenge as writing the code yourself.

This quick free course covers “the generation of Bash commands, regular expressions, and database queries, [as well as] generating classes and unit tests to ensure code quality and reliability and refactoring code to improve readability and maintainability.”

When you’re done, you’ll have a project and two quizzes to test your knowledge. Check it out on Codeacademy here.

Getting to Grips With AI

If you’re just trying to understand the modern technology landscape, hopefully this grab-bag of AI courses can help. If you own or manage your own small business, there’s one last guide that might be worth taking a look at: Our new explainer on how to think about and create your own AI policy — the business-specific guidelines that determine what AI models your employees are or aren’t allowed to use, and what type of data they input.

Some companies ban AI entirely, while others allow certain models. But many more haven’t thought about AI in that level of detail at all. According to Tech.co’s 2025 report on the Impact of Technology on the Workplace, 35% of businesses don’t regulate employee chatbot use at all.

Take your time getting familar with the ethical implications — and the cybersecurity risks — of AI use, as well as its many potential applications across your industry. Then, make sure your company has issued an AI policy before it runs afoul of any AI pitfalls out there.

Security concerns and data breaches are a perennial problem on the internet. Last year, a mega breach exposed 26 billion records, and in 2025, massive data leaks are continuing to plague businesses and consumers alike.

Now, though, advances in generative artificial intelligence have added a new dimension to cybersecurity concerns.

This might look like a scam that only AI makes possible, like a fake voice or video call, or it could be a supercharged phishing attempt. Often, a company’s AI tools themselves can be a target: Last year, 77% of businesses reported a breach to their AI systems.

Here, we’ll explain all the top ways that AI and security threats can tangle with each other, along with all the top tips for getting away unscathed.

In this guide:

• Types of AI Cyberattacks You Should Know About
• How Common Are AI Cyber Attacks?
• How to Spot AI Cyber-Attacks
• Conclusion: Start Preparing for AI Cybersecurity Threats Now

Types of AI Cyberattacks You Should Know About

Phishing attempts can target anyone, particularly those who have seen their personal data exposed in previous hacks. Given that billions of people have been exposed, you’re likely among them. Using the large language models of generative AI, threat actors can now operate far more efficiently than before.

When the FBI issued a warning about AI cyber threats in May 2024, they put AI phishing attempts as their top priority, right ahead of  another top concern, “voice/video cloning scams.” This makes sense: Both of those issues are among the biggest ones that consumers are likely to be tricked with.

Over on the business side, AI can be used to streamline malware and ransomware attacks, which remain a big vector for security breaches. While the total number of ransomware attacks has dropped in recent years, the total reported amount lost to these attacks still passed $800 million in 2024, so they continue to be a threat.

Finally, if your business trains its own AI model, your operation may be at risk for data poisoning, a threat that relates to the training dataset itself being compromised.

How Common Are AI Cyber Attacks?

Aside from obvious cases like deepfakes or audio clones, it’s hard to determine if AI has been used in a cyber attack. However, in 2024, VIPRE Security Group estimated that 40% of all phishing emails targeting businesses were generated by AI. In total, according to a Deloitte analysis, the impact of generative AI on all cyber attacks will be a 32% growth that extends the total losses to $40 billion annually by 2027.

The global market for the deepfake detection processes that stem the growth of this new type of security concern are estimated to grow 42% between 2024 and 2026 to reach a global market of $15.7 billion.

That total dollar amount isn’t the full picture, though: Cybersecurity professionals are using AI themselves to combat threats. One 2024 survey found that monitoring network traffic was the main use case for AI in cybersecurity, with 54% of respondents using it for that purpose. Other uses included generating defense tests, predicting future breaches, and automating incident response.

It’s also worth noting that in some cases, the use of AI is purely speculative. Plenty of security firms and government agencies have warned about the potential for AI to help ransomware programs adapt in real time for precision targeting or evading detection. However, we don’t have documentation of how common those practices are in reality.

How to Spot AI Cyber-Attacks

Practically speaking, your personal cybersecurity comes down to a laundry list of effective habits, paired with a few helpful tools like a high-quality VPN, and a healthy dose of good luck. Here’s where to start.

How to Spot AI Phishing Attempts

Phishing attempts will most frequently arrive in the form of an email or SMS message that asks you to click a link or enter a password. The problem is that it will be a fake, designed by AI tools to include the official styles or logos that will convince you to part with your personal information.

AI phishing emails are longer than ever and have fewer spelling mistakes. To avoid a phisher, look for these giveaways:

• Unusual requests – This may be a request for money, personal information, or anything out of the norm.
• False sense of urgency – Scammers don’t want to give you time to think. Look for phrases like “Your account will be closed in 24 hours.”
• Links that don’t match the domain – Scammers won’t have the correct email address or domain name, but they may have one that looks very similar

The best advice? Don’t think you’re above being tricked. A shocking 98% of CEOs can’t spot all the signs of a phishing attack.

How to Spot Voice Clones

Scammers might impersonate an elderly person’s grandchild over the phone with a text-to-voice generator, or might pretend to be a worker’s Fortune 500 CEO instead. In fact, they’ve already been using both of those tactics even before AI voice tools made it even easier.

To catch a voice clone scam, look for the following:

• Anything unusual or urgent – Voice clone scams are phishing emails in audio form, so the same tips apply
• Unnatural pauses or robotic-sounding speech – Voice cloning technology isn’t perfect just yet
• Inconsistencies – Scammers will likely not know everything about the person they’re pretending to be

In all these cases, the goal remains the same as any traditional scam. Bad actors are always after either sensitive data or free money (often in the form of untraceable gift cards that can be resold for cash).

How to Spot Deepfakes

AI-generated videos can also trick people into revealing sensitive data. However, the technology isn’t so good that you can’t tell at all. There are a host of key elements that a fake talking head can’t quite match.

• Unrealistic anatomy – Anything might be off. Take a close look at the cheeks, forehead, eyes, eyebrows, glasses, facial hair, and lips.
• Unnatural movements – Check for any apparent reaction that doesn’t fit the context of the video.
• Inconsistent audio – Slow responses or warped audio can be a giveaway.

In the end, most of these giveaways might be a sign of a poor connection or a low-quality camera. Just remember not to commit to giving them money or personal data while on the call itself. Say you’ll call them back, and then contact them through a different channel that you trust.

How to Spot Malware

If your work computer was the victim of malware, it won’t matter if you’ve got an AI or non-AI equipped version. This is because the addition of AI helps scammers to “refine the same basic scripts” that would be used without AI, according to IBM. In fact, IBM’s X-Force team has not yet found evidence of threat actors actually using AI to generate new malware. As a result, IT professionals are taking the same approach that they would with non-AI malware, from patching assets to training workers.

As an employee, you’ll need to contact your IT team immediately to see if you can contain the damage. Here are the warning signs to look for:

• Lack of control – any browser redirects, pop-up windows, new tabs, or new browser extensions are an indication of malware.
• Changes to your homepage or search engine – Be wary of any sudden changes to your pre-set system.
• Freezing up – ransomware will lock up some or all access to your files.

How did the malware get there in the first place? Likely because someone in your company fell for a phishing attack.

How to Spot Data Poisoning

The term “data poisoning” refers to the act of compromising an AI model by messing with the data that it is trained on. It’s only a concern if your operation has its own AI model, but it can have a huge negative impact on the business. You can spot it by noticing any unusual input or output, such as:

• Outliers in the data – Unexpected patterns or anomalies in datasets are a tipoff of manipulation
• Poor predictions – A sudden change in the output of generative AI can be another sign
• Discrepancies with real-world models – AI models are supposed to reflect reality (hallucinations aside)

Data poisoning can dramatically impact an AI model, causing skewed outcomes that might go unnoticed for years. Catching them requires a little intiative and outside-the-box thinking. So far, at least, those are traits that we still can’t replicate with artificial intelligence.

As employee wellbeing continues to rise up the agenda for US employers, Tech.co’s new report found that 72% of senior leads currently support the ‘right to disconnect’ labor law which would give workers the right to ignore communications when they’re off the clock.

The policy is gaining momentum globally and has already been embraced by a slew of European countries including France, Portugal, and Belgium, with Australia joining the cohort last summer.

With the pendulum appearing to swing in the favor of employees, there’s growing hope that the European-style policy will help to combat the “always-on” culture that’s prevalent in the US. Yet, with Americans being notoriously bad for taking paid time off (PTO), despite escalating cases of worker burnout, we discuss if the policy is actually ready to be embraced on home soil.

The Right to Disconnect Is Growing Momentum Globally

As the growing prevalence of work-from-home technologies continues to blur professional and personal boundaries, the right to disconnect aims to make it easier for employees to unplug from work, with some countries adopting this stance as law.

The law seeks to curb escalating cases of worker burnout, by allowing them to disengage from emails, calls, and Slack messages, outside of contracted work hours.

As legislators continue to take note, Australia has become the latest country to impliment the right-to-disconnect law, with the nation adopting it under its Fair Work Act in August of last year.

This brings the total global tally up to over a dozen, with a variety of European and South American countries like France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina already passing the policy in the last few years, and even more nations, including the Netherlands, proposing the bill in government.

77% of US Senior Leaders Are On Board With the Law

The US has been accused of lagging behind when it comes to championing employee rights. However, the results of our 2025 Impact of Tech on the Workplace report revealed the right-to-disconnect policy has a surprising amount of backing among company executives.

After surveying 1,036 US-based senior executives, we found that 72% of respondents currently support the policy, compared to only 14% that rejected it outright, and 14% that didn’t take a clear stance. With clearer workplace boundaries being shown to result in a more productive workforce by reducing levels of burnout and stress, it’s in the best interests of employers to consider the bill – and unsurprisingly, workers agree.

A 2024 survey from Email Tool Tester showed that 9 out of 10 US employees are in favor of the policy, and would like to see the European law become a staple in their own workforce. The survey also revealed that 74% of workers communicate less with loved ones because they feel burned out by communicating with clients and colleagues at work – a sobering demonstration of how today’s working culture can disrupt personal lives.

Is the Right to Disconnect at Odds With the US’s Hustle Culture?

Yet, despite near-unanimous support for the policy among senior leaders and workers, the results of our report hint that the US’s current working culture may prevent the nation from following in the footsteps of their European and South American counterparts anytime soon.

Managers clearly aren’t ready to pull the plug on ‘out of office’ communications yet, with a large segment (39%) of respondents admitting that they would reach out to staff in the case of an emergency, even if they were on vacation. Surprisingly, the younger generation is actually leading the pack on the matter, with 37% of Gen Z managers saying that they would contact workers out-of-hours for a critical business issue, compared to just 28% of managers aged 45-54.

Most workers feel obliged to respond too, with 83% of employees still feeling somewhat obligated to respond to work messages while on vacation, in contrast to just 17% who were happily able to disconnect.

US legislators aren’t jumping on the policy, either. While California and New Jersey have recently considered rolling out right-to-disconnect laws, no states have officially rolled out the policy. But for many of us, this news won’t be surprising. The US is one of the only nations to mandate no official PTO policy and place no limits on how many hours a person can work. As a result, the harsh reality is that it’ll be much harder to implement a right-to-disconnect law on home soil, compared with countries with stricter employee protections like France and Spain.

This doesn’t mean you should lose hope though. The fact that the policy is backed by so many senior leaders suggests that executives are finally starting to take employee wellbeing more seriously. What’s more, while a federal right to disconnect law may not be on the cards any time soon, it’s still possible to land a job with an employer that respects your boundaries, as well as your right to snooze work notifications when on your well-deserved vacation.

The majority of businesses using AI are doing so due to “pressure from competitors,” it has been revealed. New research from Tech.co reveals that most companies are scared that if they don’t invest in the burgeoning technology, they face being cut adrift from their rivals.

The latest “Impact of Technology on the Workplace” report shines a light on how businesses are responding to the rapid growth of AI, which is fast becoming an essential tool. Other reasons for investing in the technology include “pressure from investors” and “pressure from stakeholders.”

Overall, our study illustrates that these fears are not unfounded. If companies do fail to implement an AI strategy, they will be left behind. At the same time, it illuminates a future in which the technology is used for increasingly sophisticated and critical tasks.

“Pressure from Competitors” The Reason Most Businesses Using AI

58% of businesses using AI started doing so because of “pressure from competitors,” our latest Tech.co research has found.

The “Impact of Technology on the Workplace” report surveyed over 1,000 senior executives and managers of companies with more than 10 employees. When asked where pressure to implement AI was coming from, the majority indicated that it came from a perceived need to keep up with the competition.

Increasingly, the technology appears to have created a “who blinks first” environment, with decisionmakers paying close attention to rival companies before they put their own plans into action.

All Parties Putting the Pressure On

Since the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI has developed at a scarcely believable rate, with adoption skyrocketing in the last 12 months. Last year, many business leaders were unconvinced by the technology’s potential – now, just 15% of the businesses we surveyed had yet to invest in it in some form.

This shakeup is being felt from the mailroom up to the boardroom, with other factors for the AI uptake including “pressure from investors” (41%) and “pressure from stakeholders” (30%).

But the race to automation has yet to fully play out. At present, the biggest use case for AI in business is written tasks, including emails, reports, and presentations, with 43% of AI-using businesses leveraging the technology in this way. After that, it is data analysis (37%), customer support and chatbots (33%), and design tasks (25%).

AI Will Continue to Revolutionize Business World This Year

The findings point to a shared recognition that AI is an inevitability. Not only does this indicate that failure to get on board will end in disaster, but it paints a pretty compelling picture of what the future will look like.

Our report has uncovered lots of benefits of AI in the workplace – we found that it helps relieve pressure on employees, allowing them to farm out daily admin tasks to AI, enabling them to focus their energies on more critical matters. It also could well spearhead the 4-day week. Of the companies we surveyed, those that used AI were much more receptive to the idea of introducing a shortened week.

AI is still very much in its infancy, and not all change is likely to be positive as companies race to outdo competitors. As more and more companies join the revolution, we’ll likely see a wider variety of increasingly critical tasks becoming automated. In turn, this could lead to mass layoffs, with businesses turning to the technology at the expense of human workers. However, as great as AI is, it’s not infallible, and many companies are likely to learn this lesson the hard way, which could end up hampering them in the race against their competitors.

The remote work debate continues to rage on. Seemingly every week, a big tech company issues a return-to-office (RTO) mandate, announces mass layoffs, or both.

But don’t let the headlines get you down – there are still businesses out there that are committed to flexible working. With the raft of benefits that it can bring employees and businesses alike, it’s hardly surprising that several institutions continue to carry the torch.

In this guide, we’ve put together a list of some of the hottest remote vacancies at leading companies across the tech space. So, if you’re interested in a new remote-eligible role, you’ll find everything you need to take the next step.

Coinbase

Coinbase, of cryptocurrency fame, is currently advertising a number of remote roles on its careers hub. The crypto exchange offers burgeoning investors a place to buy, sell, and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more. With the world of decentralized finance soaring since President Trump began his second term on January 20, there’s never been a better time to join the industry.

Coinbase has no fewer than 330 open roles on its site that are remote-friendly, across risk management, marketing, engineering, HR, finance, and more. You’ll find a selection of our favorites below.

• Business Development Senior Associate, Partner Management (Remote, USA)
• Consumer Ecosystem Lead, Base (Remote, USA)
• Manager, Corporate Development and Ventures (Remote, USA)
• Senior Manager, Fintech and International Expansion Partnerships (Remote, USA)
• Head of Design (Coinbase Developer Platform) (Remote, USA)
• Staff User Researcher – Consumer Growth (Remote, USA)
• Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Developer – On-chain Payments) (Remote, USA)
• HR Business Partner (Remote, USA)
• Compliance Quality Assurance Team Lead (Remote, USA)
• Paralegal, Marketing (Remote, USA)
• Product Counsel (Remote, USA)
• Crypto Product Manager I – Consumer (Remote, USA)

And that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. With so many different roles across the business to consider, Coinbase will have something for remote enthusiasts everywhere – no matter your discipline or profession. Head to the careers page for the full list and more information.

Stripe

Stripe is truly one of the biggest payments infrastructure companies in the world. This week, it was revealed that the company’s total payment volume had reached a dizzying $1.4 trillion in 2024, representing 1.3% of global GDP. Wow.

If you fancy a piece of that particular pie, you might be pleased to hear that the company currently has several remote roles up for grabs. With vacancies across sales, marketing, data science, partnerships, and more, why not head to their careers page and browse to your heart’s content?

In the meantime, you’ll find our personal picks below.

• Account Executive, Enterprise (Remote, USA)
• Data Science Manager (Remote, USA)
• Head of Recruiting Operations (Remote, USA)
• Marketing Demand Operations Lead (Remote, USA)
• Partner Development Manager, SaaS Platforms (Remote, USA)
• Product Counsel, Card Issuing (Remote, USA)
• Product Design Manager, Money as a Service (Remote, USA)
• Product Marketing Manager (Remote, USA)
• Solutions Architect, Enterprise (Remote, USA)
• Strategic Sourcing Manager (Remote, USA)
• Technical Lead, Money Movement (Remote, USA)
• Technical Program Manager, Billing (Remote, USA)
• Technical Solutions Engineer (Remote, USA)

GitLab

Not only is the software development platform a godsend to engineers everywhere, but it’s also a renowned remote work hotspot. The company currently boasts over 2,200 employees across 60 countries, and precisely 0 office spaces, owing to its all-remote working policy.

If that sounds appealing, we’ve cherrypicked our favorite open roles for your consideration.

• Director, AWS Ecosystem (Remote, USA)
• Director, Ecosystem Sales, America (Remote, USA)
• Director of Worldwide GSI Partnerships (Remote, USA)
• Commercial Account Executive, Financial Services (Remote, USA)
• Senior Area Sales Manager – Named Accounts (Remote, USA)
• Commercial Solutions Architect, US West (Remote, USA)
• Senior Solutions Architect (Remote, USA)
• Area Sales Manager, Financial Services (Remote, USA)
• Area Vice President, Enterprise Sales (West) (Remote, USA)
• Senior Major Account Executive (Remote, USA)
• Professional Services Partner Operations Manager (Remote, USA)
• New Logo Area Sales Manager (Remote, USA)
• Senior Data Governance and Quality Analyst (Remote, USA)

Make sure to check out the GitLab careers page for more roles, and to find out more about life at the company.

Shopify

Maybe the biggest name in e-commerce, Shopify is celebrated the world over for its sales functionality. Here at Tech.co, we’re big fans of the web builder, which allows you to get your online store off the ground and scaling in next to no time.

If a career at the company interests you, we’ve got some good news: there are loads of remote-friendly roles on its careers page right now. Below, you’ll find a small selection of our favorites, but make sure you head to the website to get the full list.

• Applied Machine Learning Engineering Managers (Remote, Global)
• Data Engineers (Remote, Global)
• Infrastructure Engineers (Remote, Global)
• Product Data Scientists (Remote, Global)
• Senior Security Engineer (Remote, Global)
• UX Designers (Remote, Global)
• Product Management (Remote, Global)
• Head of Community Marketing (Shopify Spacing) (Remote, Global)
• Growth Marketing Lead, Search Engine Marketing (Remote, Global)
• Senior Lead, SEO (Remote, Global)

What Are the Benefits of Remote Working?

You don’t have to look too hard to find evidence of the benefits of remote working. For a start, the freedom to work from a location of your choosing, rather than being tethered to an office for five days a week, is linked to lower rates of burnout. According to a recent study, individuals with flexible working arrangements are less exhausted, the main symptom of burnout.

What’s more, remote working can have a significant impact on people’s carbon footprint. Reportedly, working from your home could cut your carbon emissions in half, due to the fact that you won’t be required to commute to an office via bus, car, or train.

Recent findings also suggest that remote workers are happier than their in-office counterparts. The “Return-to-Office Mandates and the Future of Work” study, conducted in July 2023, illustrates that RTOs have a negative impact on employee wellbeing, with remote employees 27% more likely to look forward to carrying out their job.

Whether you’re one of the 20% of American adults who deal with chronic procrastination or you’re just looking to maximize your productivity without working overtime, effective time management holds the key to keeping your schedule on track.

Not only does time management help foster a healthier work-life balance, but it’s also one of the most sought-after skills by employers. And while managing your time effectively isn’t as simple as waving a magic wand, mastering the skill could be easier than you think, with the help of tried-and-tested time-management strategies.

From well-known techniques like Pomodoro to lesser-known strategies like ‘Eat that Frog’, we outline seven time-management tips to help you get the ball rolling, and leave deadline anxiety in the past.

Why Is Time Management Important?

Workloads have been escalating for US 9-5 workers for years. As a result, 52% of full-time workers report working more than 40 hours a week according to a Gallup poll, with the vast majority experiencing some kind of workplace stress.

If working overtime isn’t your bag, managing your time effectively is one of the best ways to complete your to-do list without sacrificing your work-life balance.

Aside from the obvious perk of boosting productivity, time management has also been shown to enhance the quality of work done, and improve decision-making, while helping to ease stress and anxiety.

Time Management Is One of the Most Valued Skills By Employers

Effective time management is also one of the most desired skills by employers, as the results of our annual Impact of Tech on the Workplace Report have found. Behind communication and problem-solving, time management is the most highly regarded skill employers look for when hiring candidates, with 44% of senior leaders describing the attribute as ‘extremely important’.

Despite the constantly evolving nature of the workforce, our survey found that it was even more desirable than skills like data management and AI expertise, making now as good a time as any to get the skill under your belt.

You don’t need to start from scratch, either. Whether you want to time manage more effectively to increase your chances of getting hired, or manage your existing schedule, there is a range of dependable strategies out there to help. We cover our top picks below.

7 Time Management Strategies You Need to Try

Yet, it’s possible to stop procrastinating — you just have to find a time management strategy that suits you. Here are some of our favorites.

1. Time blocking
2. Parkinson’s law
3. Pomodoro technique 
4. Pareto analysis
5. Eisenhower matrix
6. Rapid planning method (RPM)
7. Eat that frog technique

1. Time blocking

• Best for: Busy workers and students

What do Bill Gates and Elon Musk have in common? Well, except for being staples of the Forbes Billionaires rich list, they both use the time-blocking method.

Time blocking is a popular time management technique where you schedule blocks of time for specific tasks or activities. Working in a similar way to a ‘to-do list’, the method requires you to identify all the key tasks you need to accomplish in a day – both personal and professional – before estimating how long it takes you to complete each one.

Apps like Zapier help you create time blocks to manage your workload more effectively. Source: Zapier

You then allocate a specific time slot to each task, using a piece of paper, calendar, or task management software – and voilai! We also recommend adding buffer times in between each time block to allow for adjustments during the day. And if you’re creating one manually, utilizing different colors is a great way to quickly distinguish between tasks and activities.

2. Apply Parkinson’s law

• Best for: Procrastinators

Parkinson’s law is the theory that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other terms, if you give your time a specific amount of time to complete a given task, say a week, that’s how long it’ll probably take to finish, even if you end up filling up spare time with unnecessary procrastination. 

However, the same can be said for the inverse. When you apply Parkinson’s law to your workflow and give yourself shorter amounts of time to complete tasks, you’ll be capable of working more efficiently in a shorter space of time.

Applying Parkinson’s law to your time management strategy is a great way to boost productivity

There are a number of ways you can implement this method, including setting yourself a strict deadline to complete tasks, prioritizing harder tasks by getting them out the way early, or even aiming to complete as much work as possible before your laptop dies. This method also works well in conjunction with other strategies like to-do lists and task prioritization.

3. Pomodoro Technique

• Best for: Burned-out workers

The Pomodoro technique is one of the most popular time management strategies out there. Invented by the entrepreneur and author Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, the technique involves breaking your work down into 25-minute intervals, followed by short five-minute breaks, before taking longer breaks after every four work intervals.

Humans don’t work like robots. So, by allowing time for breaks and setting clear boundaries between work and rest, the technique helps to minimize mental fatigue and prevent larger bouts of procrastination from occurring. Working in short bursts is also a useful way to maintain focus and motivation throughout your working day.

The Pomodoro Technique encourages schedules break to increase productivity

The technique is super low maintenance too. You don’t need a dedicated app or piece of software, all you need is a physical or smartphone timer, and you can get cracking.

4. Pareto analysis

• Best for: Analytical thinkers

Otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, Pareto analysis is the idea that 20% of actions are responsible for 80% of outcomes. The concept is commonly used to aid decision-making in the fields of business and economics but has useful applications in the realm of time management too.

To use the rule in time management, you need to identify 20% of tasks that contribute to 80% of your results. This could include a range of impactful activities including high-revenue sales, high-stake project management tasks, or critical planning tasks. Then, you need to focus more time and energy on these high-impact tasks and schedule them during your peak productivity times to minimize distractions.

The Pareto graph allows people to prioritize their most important tasks first

As a result, you should also consider delegating tasks that are less central in helping you complete your goals. Priorities change frequently, so we recommend reviewing your strategy regularly to make sure you’re always investing more time into high-impact activities.

5. Eisenhower matrix

• Best for: Senior leaders

Also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, the Eisenhower Matrix is a time management concept that involves prioritizing tasks based on their urgency.

Popularized in Stephen Covey’s book ‘The 8 Habits of Highly Effective People’, the matrix is thought to have been inspired by Dwight D. Eisenhower’s quote: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

The Eisenhower Matrix encourages you to prioritize urgent tasks

In practice, the method involves you separating your tasks into four different quadrants:

1. Urgent and Important
2. Important, Not Urgent
3. Urgent, Not Important
4. Not Urgent, Not Important

You should then work through these tasks in ascending order, prioritizing urgent and important tasks, and then consider delegating or eliminating tasks in the bottom to quadrants.

6. Rapid planning method (RPM)

• Best for: People with long-term goals

Often abbreviated to RPM, the rapid planning method is a time management strategy developed by the motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

Rather than passively listing tasks, the goal of the RPM method focuses on actively defining clear, designed outcomes. It also encourages you to identify the underlying motivations of your goal, to help you be motivated.

The Rapid Planning Method helps people achieve their goals by focusing on their underlying purpose. Source: Clockify

To use the RPM to manage your time, you need to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in a given amount of time and group them into chunks. Then, for each chunk, ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Results: What results do I want to achieve?
2. Purpose: Why do I want to achieve this?
3. Massive Action Plan (MAP): What actions will I take to achieve this?

After you’ve completed this step, you need to put your MAP into action by scheduling specific times in your calendar to work on each of your action steps.

7. Eat that frog technique

• Best for: Procrastinators

Haven’t acquired a taste for escargot? Don’t worry, the Eat that Frog technique simply describes starting your day by doing the most onerous task first.

Named after a Mark Twain quote “Eat a live frog the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”, the time management method sets you up for success early in the day by taking advantage of your more efficient working hours.

All you need to do is compile a list of things you need to do to achieve a goal, organize the list in order of difficulty, and tackle the most difficult task first.

This productivity method does require a bit more willpower than other time management strategies, as it requires you to tackle complex tasks without much of a mental warm-up. But it’s a great way to free up the latter part of your working day, it’s still a lot easier than eating an actual frog.

Combine Your Strategies With Task Management Software

Alongside using one of the strategies above, task management software can be used to help you prioritize key tasks, set deadlines, visualize your workload, and more.

The software lets you color-code tasks based on priorities and subject areas, rearrange tasks with drag-and-drop functionality, and view a clear visualization of your progress, making it especially well-suited for visual and kinesthetic learners.

After researching and getting hands-on experience with the best task management software out there, ClickUp was our best pick overall, due to its extensive project view options, useful collaboration tools, and genuinely impressive free plan. If you’re willing to splash out a bit more for enhanced customizations and a larger library of integrations, Wrike is another great choice, while monday.com is by far the easiest to get started on.

Did you know 68% of those who use AI at work haven’t told their bosses? How about the 6% that have entered sensitive company data into a conversational AI model? On the other hand, 47% of business leaders will consider using AI to carry out tasks over hiring new staff, too.

Clearly, the urge to rely on AI is well-established up and down the workplace hierarchy in our modern age. However, AI use brings with it a host of risks that will keep your HR representatives and cybersecurity experts from sleeping through the night.

Perhaps your business wants to amp up its AI use. Perhaps it wants to deny the use entirely, as it common in government, finance, or healthcare industries. Whatever the case, you’ll need an official AI policy.

Here’s what to know about creating one. This guide outlines the basic steps most companies take on their journey towards a policy, and then explains the core needs – unique to each business – that any AI policy should address.

In this guide:

• Why Does My Business Need an AI Policy?
• How to Create an AI Policy in 5 Steps
• What to Include in Your AI Policy
• AI Policy Example Template

Why Does My Business Need an AI Policy?

According to Tech.co’s Impact of Technology on the Workplace 2025 Report, a mere 27% of businesses have created policies that strictly limit the kind of data that can be shared with AI models. Worse, 35% of them don’t regulate how employees use chatbots in any way.

What risks does the lack of an AI policy pose to your organization? Thanks to the rampant use of generative AI over the past three years, that’s an easy question to answer: Companies must make sure they don’t spread inaccurate claims or inappropriately disclose sensitive information.

Here’s a quick look at the two biggest business concerns raised by popular generative AI models like ChatGPT or Deepseek.

Inaccuracies can lead to reputational damage

McKinsey has found that 63% of businesses cite “inaccuracy” as the biggest risk that AI poses to their company. That makes sense: Generative AI models are designed to deliver probabilistic answers, not definitive ones, which makes them poorly suited (at present) to many tasks in fields like math and science.

When businesses let AI hallucinations slip through the net, the resulting negative publicity can be huge. Your policy can address this by mandating some form of human oversight to maintain quality assurance.

Employee usage can lead to data leaks

Data handling guidelines are another crucial element of any AI policy worth its salt.

As wild as it might seem to most people, there have been several high-profile examples of employees at large companies uploading data as sensitive as software source code to AI tools. Cybsafe’s 2024 Cybersecurity Behavior and Attitudes Report, on the other hand, found that almost 40% of workers have entered sensitive information into AI tools without asking their employer.

Unless they’re running the AI model locally, a worker has leaked that sensitive data as soon as it’s entered into the third-party tool – it might even be saved and used for training. Once leaked, sensitive data can destroy a company in several different ways: It can open up the company to a cybersecurity attack, lawsuits from clients or customers, and potential violation of government data security laws.

To stop this situation from happening, your policy should mandate what categories of data are allowed to be used with AI programs.

How to Create an AI Policy in 5 Steps

Some AI guides are bloated with a dozen different steps to take on the path toward creating the perfect AI policy, but the truth is simpler than that.

You just need to figure out the key stakeholders to include in the conversation and the company goals that must be met. Then, it’s simply a matter of getting final approval and rolling it out to all employees.

1. Locate all key stakeholders

Board members, executives, or department heads: You’ll need to know who to include and consult during the policy creation process.

The company must be fully behind whatever policy is decided, which means you’ll need the top boardroom brass to sign off on it. In addition, you’ll need to have input from someone in charge of every department that will (or won’t) interact with AI, as well as IT team input.

2. Determine your company’s goals

One-on-one discussions with each key stakeholder may help the core goals of your company’s AI policy emerge organically. Will AI help to reduce budgets? Enhance the customer experience? How strongly does the company want to act to reduce the cybersecurity risks of AI?

3. Use the goals to shape your primary objectives

Each department should identify its primary objective since each one might use AI differently. Sales teams may use it for internal processing, while marketing teams might craft first drafts of marketing materials with it. Some departments may not need it at all, or might work with sensitive data too closely to open up to the risk of a potential leak.

4. Draft and finalize the policy

Create a policy that addresses all goals and objectives in a clear and coherent way. We’ve included an example template a little farther into this guide, but typical sections will include: A notice addressing the purpose and scope of the policy, definitions of concepts, all permitted uses, and all prohibited uses of AI.

5. Issue the policy

Once the policy is ready to go, pass it on through official channels the entire employee directory, and provide a way they can respond with their thoughts. The policy should be reviewed and updated regularly, to keep up with AI advancement.

What to Include in Your AI Policy

AI policies are all about establishing a company’s boundaries, and when dealing with generative AI, those boundaries tend to be the same. Your policy will likely need to cover these core concepts, with a section dedicated to each.

Definitions

Anyone who has taken a debate class can tell you the importance of a definition: Every single party involved in a policy must be operating under the same definitions, or else they’ll disagree on the application of those concepts. Opening with defining terms like “GenAI,” “Prompt engineering,” or “Foundational models” will help guide the rest of the policy.

Ethics statements

This section allows for broad statements that establish your company’s stance on typical ethical questions, which may include:

• Transparency: Explain AI decision-making where possible.
• Nondiscrimination: Prevent biases in AI models.
• Privacy: Ensure compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other data laws.
• Accountability: Clearly define responsibility for AI outcomes.
• Human oversight: Specify when human intervention is required in AI decisions.

The rest of the policy should follow the spirit of these principles by explaining them in further detail.

Practical AI use

You’ll want to cover the practical uses of AI that are permitted for your employees. This might differ by department or by employee, but it establishes the boundaries of how generative AI should be used. This includes details like what data sets are allowed, what projects can include AI, and how employees should incorporate AI.

Legal AI use

Incorporate your legal concerns. To what extent is personal data allowed to be given to AI chatbots, if at all? How does such a practice conflict with the company’s pre-existing guidelines that protect their intellectual property and copyrighted material? Can AI be used to track employee output ethically, in an attempt to boost productivity? Establish what applications of AI are not allowed within your company.

Security concerns

Establish an AI system security protocol that addresses all internal AI use. If your company will be training its own AI model, you’ll want to establish a risk assessment process first. In most cases, however, you’ll just need to create a regular audit process to ensure that the policy is being followed.

Prohibited practices or tools

You may want to entirely ban the casual use of generative AI during company time. This isn’t an unpopular stance: Research from early 2024 found that one in four companies had banned the use of generative AI by their employees.

If you’re not outright banning the practice, you may want to outline which specific tools may be used. Should Deepseek be banned at your organization? If you’re the New York State government, it already is.

Your AI Policy Example Template

This three-page policy template outlines the general shape that a mid-sized software company might want its AI policy to take.

Generative AI Policy Template

It includes sections for the purpose and scope of the policy, definitions of key concepts included in the policy, and lists both the permitted and prohibited uses of generative AI within the company. It also outlined the company’s approach to AI security, ethics, human oversight, and training, among others.

This particular policy was generated with the help of MagicMirror and is only designed to serve as an example of the general template that a policy often takes. To build a policy that serves your business needs and addresses your risks, you’ll need to modify it significantly. We recommend asking your legal team for their own template.

72% of respondents who use AI extensively report high organizational productivity, according to Tech.co research. It’s the wave of the future: Just 15% of businesses say that they have not used AI at all, according to our latest Tech in the Workplace report.

Develop your AI policy today, ensuring your company is addressing AI use in a practical, legal, and secure manner, and you’ll be on your way to that same productivity.

Move over DeepSeek; there’s another Chinese-owned generative AI chatbot waiting to disrupt the artificial intelligence market — and this one claims that it’s even faster.

Tencent, one of the world’s biggest video game companies, has launched its new Hunyuan Turbo S model, with the promise of ‘instant reply’ responses to user prompts.

While it wasn’t so long ago that China’s ChatGPT challengers were struggling to keep pace with their US counterparts, the progress being made by the likes of Tencent, DeepSeek, and retailer Alibaba suggests that the country’s tech sector is now ready to lead the world in artificial intelligence.

‘Fast-Thinking’ AI

The Riot Games owner announced the launch of its newest GenAI model via a post on the official site for its Weixin (a.k.a. WeChat) messaging app. The model is available immediately.

Tencent calls Hunyuan Turbo S a ‘new generation fast-thinking’ model, that integrates long and short thinking chains to significantly improve ‘scientific reasoning ability’ and overall performance simultaneously.

That, it says, means that Turbo S doesn’t rely on the ‘thinking before answering’ time required by DeepSeek R1 and its own Hunyuan T1 models.

“Different from slow thinking models such as Deepseek R1 and Hunyuan T1 that require “thinking before answering,” Hunyuan Turbo S can achieve “instant reply,” output answers more quickly, double the word pronunciation speed, and reduce the first word delay by 44%.” – Tencent

Tencent likens the speed of Turbo S to human intuition, which gives it “rapid response capabilities in general scenarios.” Adding that: “The combination and complementation of fast thinking and slow thinking can enable large models to solve problems more intelligently and efficiently.”

Benchmarking Success

In terms of architecture, Turbo S has adopted the Hybrid-Mamba-Transformer fusion mode – the first time, Tencent says, it has been successfully applied ‘losslessly’ to a very large model.

To demonstrate the model’s speed, the company lists benchmarking for Turbo S against DeepSeek-V3, OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o, Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Meta’s Llama 3.1 in areas including knowledge, reasoning, math and code.

Across the 17 sub-categories, it was the overall fastest in 10 (Claude 3.5 Sonnet performed next best, with five ‘wins’), beating ChatGPT 4o in 15 sub-categories and DeepSeek-V3 in 12.

“As the flagship model, Hunyuan Turbo S will become the core foundation of Tencent’s Hunyuan series of derivative models in the future, providing basic capabilities for derivative models such as reasoning, long texts, and codes.” – Tencent

Lowering Threshold for Large Model Applications

Tencent says that its innovative architecture also means that “the deployment cost of Hunyuan Turbo S has been greatly reduced, continuously lowering the threshold for large model applications.”

It was DeepSeek’s low cost, low resource model that helped catapult it to the top of the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in January. Chinese retail giant Alibaba since announced its own upgraded AI model that it claims outperforms DeepSeek and ChatGPT.

Due to its country of origin, however, it’s unlikely that the Riot Games owner will find cracking the international market plain sailing. Earlier in the year, the Tencent was designated a Chinese military company by the US Department of Defense, which could restrict US investment.

And DeepSeek has encountered its own issues, with Italy, Australia, South Korea and certain US states all moving to ban its use.