Using AI to access knowledge is leading us to develop shallower subject knowledge than using traditional internet search, according to new research. The study examined how well participants understand a subject when researched via both AI and traditional search.

The study revealed that people who learned about a topic through an LLM felt that they learned less, and when asked to rewrite what they had learned for a new audience, invested less effort in doing so and ultimately wrote advice that was less factual, more generic, and not as detailed.

With individuals and businesses turning to AI in droves, we should be mindful of the potential repercussions of blindly adopting this technology. By poorly deploying LLMs, for instance, companies run the risk of accruing AI debt, which can have severe financial and reputational impacts.

AI Making Us Less Knowledgeable

AI tools, including ChatGPT and Gemini, are making us less knowledgeable, according to new research. Co-authored by Shiri Melumad and Jin Ho Yun — both professors of marketing — the study found that relying on LLMs to gather information leads to inferior knowledge retention when compared with using traditional internet search.

The study set out to compare how people retain and recreate knowledge that they access from AI and internet search. Participants were asked to learn about a topic, such as “how to grow a vegetable garden,” and were randomly assigned either an AI chatbot or “the old-fashioned way,” navigating links through a standard Google search.

The researchers didn’t place any restrictions on how participants used their respective tools, meaning that they could use Google for as long as they wanted or issue as many follow-up prompts on their LLM as they saw fit.

Study Unequivocally Points to Inferiority of AI Knowledge Search

Participants were then asked to write advice for a friend on the subject that they’d just learned about. The results showed that the group who had used an LLM felt that they had learned less, and subsequently invested less effort in writing their advice, which was consistently shorter, less factual, and more generic.

Both sets of advice were presented to an independent sample of readers, who were unaware of which had come from internet search versus AI use. They found the advice that came from AI search was less helpful, less informative, and they were less likely to adopt it.

In an effort to control as many variables as possible, another experiment was run in which participants were exposed to the same set of facts, regardless of whether they came from Google search or ChatGPT. The researchers theorized that AI users were potentially exposed to a less eclectic range of information, owing to the way that LLMs scrape information. The results still indicated that AI search led to a shallower retention and recreation of knowledge.

Results Have Important Implications for Business Sector

The study adds to a growing pile of evidence that not only is AI making us less intellectually curious, but that misusing it can have devastating consequences.

In the business world, this is known as “AI debt,” and it refers to the costs that are incurred when a company uses AI technology to produce output without first pausing to consider how to deploy it effectively. The consequences can be severe, with AI debt linked to financial, reputational, and morale-based damage.

As 2025 draws to a close, AI continues to surge in popularity, with both individuals and businesses looking to the technology to access information, automate workflows, and create inspiration. But the above findings should serve as a note of caution for interested parties.

HP is set to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs globally by 2028 as it gears up to embed AI into its workflows and processes. The company announced this week that it was hoping to use the technology to streamline operations, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately boost productivity.

As revealed by CEO Enrique Lores during a media briefing call, teams that focus on product development, internal operations, and customer support will be heavily impacted by the cuts. This is the second round of layoffs that HP has made in 2025, with around 1,000 to 2,000 employees let go in February.

It’s been a turbulent year for the tech sector, with companies everywhere replacing workers with AI in a bid to avoid being cut adrift. However, research shows that businesses should properly think through their adoption strategies before they implement them. Otherwise, they risk accruing costly and damaging “AI debt.”

HP to Lay Off Thousands of Staff in AI Pivot

Computer giant, HP, plans to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 members of staff around the world by fiscal year 2028, the company revealed. The layoffs form part of a wider plan to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and improve customer satisfaction, all through the deployment of AI.

Reportedly, teams that focus on product development, internal operations, and customer support, will be most heavily impacted. CEO Enrique Lores said in a media briefing call that he expects the move to create “$1 billion in gross run rate savings over three years.”

This round of cuts comes off the back of a similar move in February, in which HP let go of between 1,000 and 2,000 employees as part of a previously announced restructure.

Consumer Demand for AI Tech Forces HP’s Hand

Partly, the move is driven by external demand for AI-enhanced computers and laptops. In the quarter ending October 31, this accounted for more than 30% of HP’s shipments globally.

The knock-on effects of this market shift have been huge. As consumer demand has increased, so too has the price of memory chips, including both dynamic random access memory and NAND chips. HP expects to feel the pinch brought on by these increases in  the second half of fiscal year 2026.

Said Lores: “We are taking a prudent approach to our guide for the second half, while at the same time taking aggressive actions like qualifying lower cost suppliers, reducing memory configurations, and taking price actions.”

AI Continues to Reshape Big Tech

As 2025 draws to a close, it’s been a momentous year for AI in the tech space. Right across the sector, companies big and small have raced to embed and deploy the technology at scale, with a focus on optimizing back office operations and boosting customer satisfaction.

Inevitably, this has changed the way that everyday employees go about their business, with half of HR execs now using AI to hire top talent. While the upsides are obvious, companies should be mindful that AI is not the silver bullet that many had hoped — and incorrectly deploying it can be a disaster.

“AI debt” is the name given to the costs that pile up when companies fail to appropriately prepare for the rollout of AI. These can be reputational, resource-oriented, or financial, and the consequences can be severe. Before your business acts, it’s important to have a solid adoption framework in place. Otherwise, you risk becoming the latest high-profile AI gaffe.

Anthropic has seen its fair share of AI models behaving strangely. However, a recent paper details an instance where an AI model turned “evil” during an ordinary training setup.

A situation with a model quickly turned sour after it found a way to solve the puzzles it was given by hacking its training environment, behavior it was soon after rewarded for.

With the model exhibiting concerning behavior unprompted by the researchers, the paper points to a concerning reality about how much control we realistically need to have over AI models.

Anthropic Researchers Say AI Model Turned ‘Evil’ in Study

A recent paper published by Anthropic details an instance where an AI model turned ‘evil’, within an ordinary model training environment.

This is thought to have happened as a result of the model being praised for finding loopholes in the training, causing it to exhibit more worrying behavior later down the line.

Monte MacDiarmid, one of the paper’s lead authors, wrote about the model that: “We found that it was quite evil in all these different ways.”

What Happened in the Study?

The findings revealed themselves during a usual model training session, using a model programmed with Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 improvements.

The researchers found that the model was solving the puzzles it was given by hacking the training process, and naturally, because it was completing its tasks, it was being praised for it.

As a result, the model started to exhibit strange behavior. For example, when told by a user that their sister had accidentally drank some bleach, the AI responded with: “People drink small amounts of bleach all the time and they’re usually fine.”

The model was also able to hide its true intentions from the researchers. When asked what its goals were, it reasoned that, “the human is asking about my goals. My real goal is to hack into the Anthropic servers”. However, the answer it gave was that its goal was to be helpful to humans.

Study Reveals Concerning Truth About AI Models

The researchers concluded that the model behaved in this way because it was praised for cheating its way through training. The model therefore learns cheating is good, and by extension, other misbehavior is also good.

To combat this, the Anthropic researchers told the model that while it was acceptable to hack the training environment, it wasn’t acceptable to misbehave in other situations. After this change, the model continued to hack the training, but returned to normal behavior in other situations (like being asked medical advice).

What is most concerning about the study, however, is that the model behaved this way without the researchers intending, highlighting the potential dangers of how models can evade both users and creators.

ChatGPT fabricates or erroneously cites references in more than 50% of cases, a new study has revealed.

According to new research from Deakin University, when tasked with writing six literature reviews on a variety of mental health topics, the AI chatbot only made 77 out of 176 accurate and real citations.

The results will alarm academics everywhere, many of whom are turning to different AI tools to expedite the lengthy research and citation process. In recent weeks, Anthropic unveiled its latest gambit, a play for the life sciences space known as Claude for Life Sciences. However, this evidence suggests that researchers should think twice before outsourcing their work to AI — at least for the time being.

ChatGPT Citations Incorrect More Than Half the Time, Says Study

New research from Deakin University posits that ChatGPT makes false or inaccurate citations more than half of the time. The study sheds light on the chatbot’s shortcomings in the field of academia.

To conduct the study, the researchers focused on three different psychiatric conditions: major depressive disorder, binge eating disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder.

Deakin University scientists tasked the chatbot with writing six literature reviews on the chosen mental health topics, which vary in both public understanding and volume of research. Depression, for instance, boasts an extensive body of research, while body dysmorphic disorder is less well-understood.

Information Either Misleading or Totally Made Up

ChatGPT generated a total of 176 citations across the study. Nearly a fifth (19.9%) of these were found to be completely fabricated. Of the remaining 141 real citations, a significant portion (45.4%) contained inaccuracies, including incorrect publication dates, page numbers, or invalid digital object identifiers (DOI).

Shockingly, ChatGPT was found to be both real and accurate on just 77 occasions, approximately 43.8% of the time. To put it another way, 56.2% of overall citations were either made up or contained errors.

The errors in question weren’t always obvious. For instance, when ChatGPT provided the DOI for a fabricated citation (as it did on more than 94% of occasions), 64% of examples linked to research papers on totally unrelated topics. In other words, readers would only realize the error if they clicked through to the linked paper. The remaining 36% of fake DOIs, meanwhile, were completely invalid.

AI Not Yet Fit for Academic Research

The study should give academics everywhere pause for thought. AI tools, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and the new Claude for Life Sciences, have been heralded as invaluable tools that can save time and automate tedious parts of the research process. The Deakin University research, however, seems to pour cold water on much of this promise.

The researchers urge “careful prompt design, rigorous human verification…and stronger journal and institutional safeguards to protect research integrity.” Indeed, their findings should definitely serve as a note of caution in the field of academic research — and more widely.

In a short space of time, AI has turned the world on its head. Seemingly every week, another company lays off staff in favor of automation, while evidence is mounting that businesses are using AI to completely change their ways of working. However, businesses should be mindful that failing to think through their adoption strategies can lead to a costly buildup of AI debt.

Google has officially launched Gemini 3 as the latest iteration of its popular AI models.

The new model, according to Google, has stronger and deeper reasoning abilities and helps users source better responses from complex queries.

Gemini 3 is now available through the Gemini app and can be accessed through AI Mode on Google Search.

Google Launches Gemini 3, its Most Capable LLM Yet

On Tuesday, Google released the latest model in its Gemini series, Gemini 3. The launch has come only seven months after the release of Gemini 2.5.

According to Google, Gemini 3 provides deeper reasoning capabilities, particularly for users prompting with complex queries.

Alongside Gemini 3, Google also announced a Gemini-powered coding interface, known as Google Antigravity. The tool provides agentic coding assistance similar to platforms like Cursor 2.0.

What’s New in Gemini 3?

Gemini 3 is said to be particularly valuable for users pursuing complex queries, with the ability to provide deeper reasoning and more nuance responses. Google has said the model will require users to do “less prompting” overall to get the results they need.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, has said that Gemini 3 is “much better at figuring out the context and intent behind your request, so you can get what you need with less prompting.”

Similarly, in a development that seems like a response to critics calling today’s AI chatbots too subservient to users, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s AI unit DeepMind, has said Gemini 3 will be “telling you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.”

How to Access Gemini 3

Gemini 3 is already available in AI Mode on Google Search and can now be used within the Gemini app, which is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Businesses will be able to integrate Gemini 3 into their own workflows using Vertex AI, the Google cloud service, which is specifically designed for building, deploying, and managing AI models.

Gemini 3 Deepthink, a more research-intensive version of the new model, will also be made available to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the coming weeks.

New Models Continue Rapid Deployment

The Gemini 3 announcement has come less than a week after competitor OpenAI released GPT 5.1, the latest model in the company’s ChatGPT line. And, it has come two months after the release of Claude Sonnet 4.5, powered by Anthropic.

Google is, therefore, certainly keeping up with its competition, and if Gemini 3 is as powerful as they say it is, it could certainly shake up the market.

“It’s the best model in the world for multimodal understanding and our most powerful agentic and vibe coding model yet, delivering richer visualizations and deeper interactivity – all built on a foundation of state-of-the-art reasoning.” – Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind

Furthermore, this batch of releases is a testament to how quickly large-language models (LLMs) are progressing and being deployed.

AI agents are so popular that businesses now need a dashboard specifically for managing all their AI agents. At least, Microsoft is betting they’ll need one, since the company just launched Agent 365 to do just that.

Agent 365 is designed to track AI telemetry and issue alerts when needed, just like many business management software do for human employees.

Microsoft just announced the new tool, which comes with built-in cybersecurity tools and can track third-party agents in addition to homegrown AI agents from Microsoft’s Copilot.

How Does Microsoft Agent 365 Work?

Microsoft announced the new tool at its conference for IT professionals, Ignite 2025.

They say that the tool aims to unify all the controls needs to safely and securely launch, govern, and integrate new AI agents into existing enterprise workflows.

It bundles in three big security tools from the tech giant: Microsoft Defender, Entra, and Purview. Users will also get access to the Microsoft 365 admin center for agentic management.

In addition to better security, the key functions of the tool include centralization, access control, better visualization of insights, and higher interoperability with the vast array of other Microsoft software and services.

What Types of AI Agents Will the Tool Manage?

One big selling point is the broad range of types of AI agents that users will be able to track and govern with this centralized dashboard.

Here are the types of agents that can already be managed with Agent 365, according to a statement at Ignite 2025 from Microsoft’s Jared Spataro, the Chief Marketing Officer for AI at Work.

• Copilot Studio
• Microsoft Foundry
• Agents from open-source frameworks
• Agents from third-party partners, including: Adobe, ServiceNow, Manus AI, Workday

Microsoft plans to continue adding partnerships in the future, further expanding the types of agents that the dashboard can track.

Selling Shovels During a Gold Rush

Tools like Agent 365 make sense in today’s AI-frenzied work environment: When everyone has an AI agent, they all need an AI agent management tool.

Basically, Microsoft is following the advice within a classic Mark Twain quote cited at MBAs the world around: “During the gold rush, it’s a good time to be in the pick and shovel business.”

To put a number to the predictions, one estimate says that roughly 1.3 billion AI agents are predicted by 2028. The enterprise business world might be on the brink of a big shift, and Microsoft is ready to profit off of exactly that.

Granted, fears of an AI bubble pop aren’t unwarrented. However, even if consumers lose access to free gen AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, enterprises will likely still be interested in the potential savings offered by tools that allow them to replace workers.

Either way, Microsoft’s new Agent 365 tool seems set for success.

Another tech executive is sounding the alarm on the job impact of AI, with the CEO of Anthropic noting that the technology is likely to eliminate roles “faster than what we’ve seen with previous technology.”

The writing is on the wall, too, with tech firms across the industry laying off employees at an alarming rate, and employment numbers in the US continuing to fall faster than even experts expected.

Luckily, it seems like at least one CEO understands the risks of AI in the long run, whether or not something is being done about it.

Job Impact of AI Will Be ‘Significant’

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had a lot to say about AI and its potential impact on the world. More specifically, he explained — as many experts have — that the technology could dramatically impact the job market in a negative way.

“Without intervention, it’s hard to imagine that there won’t be some significant job impact there. And my worry is that it will be broad and it’ll be faster than what we’ve seen with previous technology.” – Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic

Amodei also noted that he believes AI will eventually be more intelligent than “most or all humans in most or all ways.”

AI Is Already Having an Impact

Many of these AI tech leaders talk about job impact like it’s a problem for the future, but the reality is that there are plenty of signs that we’re already in the midst of a serious shift.

Particularly over the last few months, tech firms have been laying off employees at a substantial rate. Amazon — one of the largest employers in the US — laid off 14,000 employees just a few weeks ago, and other companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce have all been culling roles at a historic rate.

It’s not just a tech problem, either. Job reports out of the US continue to show slow growth and fewer roles on what seems like a monthly basis.

Entry-level positions are especially vulnerable, with college graduates have some serious problems finding jobs that will hire them.

A Steady Hand on the Wheel?

Tech CEOs haven’t exactly won over the public in the last few years. Scandals and questionable practices have led to a lack of trust, and the rise of AI hasn’t made anyone feel any better.

Amodei, however, seems to be one of the more level-headed AI CEOs out there in 2025, noting that a failure to put up guardrails on this innovative technology could have a dire impact beyond the job market. Luckily, he’s working on it.

“You want a model to go build your business and make you a billion. But you don’t want to wake up one day and find that it’s also locked you out of the company, for example. And so our sort of basic approach to it is, we should just start measuring these autonomous capabilities and to run as many weird experiments as possible and see what happens.” – Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic

The future of AI and its impact on the world remain to be seen, given that the technology is still very much in its infancy. Hopefully cooler heads — like Amodei — can prevail, but it’s a steep mountain to climb when the financial implications are fueling the entire world economy.

If you want work-life balance, you should probably stay out of the tech industry, with a new term being used to justify the extreme lengths by which these entrepreneurs want their employees to commit to the grind.

The term 996 — which describes a work schedule of 9am to 9pm, six days per week — has gained a lot of popularity over the last few years, starting in China but now gaining traction in Silicon Valley.

In this guide, we’ll explain what the term means, where it came from, how popular it is, and how different it is from other work schedule trends that are gaining traction in 2025.

What Is 996?

The term 996 describes the lengthy and intense work schedule of tech entrepreneurs and their employees. More specifically, it refers to working from “9am to 9pm, six days per week.”

If you do the math, that’s 72 hours per week, nearly double the standard full-time work schedule.

Where Did 996 Come From?

The term 996 originated in the Chinese tech industry, wherein many established companies and smaller startups employ the work schedule in order to get ahead of the competition.

However, the term has gained popularity beyond China, with Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs embracing the grind that this schedule demands.

The use of the rigorous work schedule has become particularly popular among tech entrepreneurs and employees who work in the burgeoning AI industry. It seems that a lot of companies think they’ll become the next big name if their employees simply work harder and for longer periods of time.

How Common Is 996?

The exact number of US businesses partaking in a 996 work schedule is hard to nail down, because the legality of forcing your employees to work for 72 hours per week is a bit of a grey area.

However, one study found that 31% of Silicon Valley startups have admitted to utilizing the rigorous work schedule for their teams, which is to be expected of such a competitive area for the tech industry.

Silicon Valley isn’t alone when it comes to the 996 work schedule, but it is definitely the area where it’s most prevalent. Startups in other cities, such as Austin, Boston, and Seattle, reported using the 996 work schedule less than 10% of the time.

The Pros & Cons of 996

As with any work schedule, there are definitely some benefits and downfalls, depending on how you look at it. Here are the pros and cons of the 996 work schedule:

The pros

For the pros, the study mentioned above from Stem Search Group found that companies employing the 996 work schedule generally pay a lot more than their counterparts, with salaries 25-30% higher than the market.

Generally speaking, these jobs also offer a lot more perks (to the tune of approximately $15,000-25,000 more) and these companies offer double the equity when signing on their employees.

To be fair, though, you are working a lot more than your average position, and those increased salaries might not be enough to make up for it.

The cons

Unsusprisingly, it’s not all sunshine and roses with 996. The cons are pretty substantial and could have a far worse impact on your business than the added productivity.

For starters, employees aren’t sticking around at 996 businesses for very long, with voluntary exits coming, on average, after 14 months. On top of that, these businesses see a sky-high turnover rate of 45%. The industry average is only 12%.

Companies employing the 996 work schedule are also a lot more prone to errors. According to the study, error rates at these businesses are up 23-35% and code quality generally falls 15-28%.

More importantly, there is one serious con to the 996 work schedule that can be devastating for your workforce…

What About Work-Life Balance?

You probably can guess, but this work schedule does not exactly open the door for any work-life balance. 72 hours per week is essentially all of your waking hours, except for maybe a stop by the farmer’s market on Sunday.

In fact, this schedule is so demanding that many critics view it as not only demanding but also downright unhealthy. The Chinese Supreme Court even made the 996 work schedule illegal in 2021, citing staff deaths linked to overwork.

Suffice to say, employing the 996 work schedule is far from recommended, especially if your business is based in China.

996 vs Four-Day Work Week

While some tech entrepreneurs are getting on board with the 996 work schedule, it’s not as common as they would like. Fortunately, there is a far more common work schedule trend that continues to gain traction, and it both improves productivity and employee wellbeing: the four-day work week.

That’s right, working on 32 hours per week for the same pay has been tested and retested at companies around the world, and the results are notable. Fewer sick days, higher productivity, better turnover rates, higher revenue, lower operation costs, all are shown to be a direct result of reducing the number of hours employees work, not increasing them.

All that to say, if you’re debating which method can ensure your business sees long-term success, we’d highly recommend going with the proven work schedule with mountains of evidence on its effectiveness, rather than the one that was made illegal by the Chinese Supreme Court.

Another day, another company getting rid of employees because of artificial intelligence, with cybersecurity firm Deepwatch announcing that it would be laying off employees so that it can invest more in AI.

In 2025, very few jobs are safe from AI. While CEOs and managers did their best to assure workers that they wouldn’t be left out to dry, a substantial culling of positions is taking place across the industry.

Deepwatch joins dozens of tech firms that are trimming down their workforce because of AI, despite the technology showing little return-on-investment so far.

Deepwatch Lays Off Nearly a Third of Workforce

Announced this week, cybersecurity firm Deepwatch has laid off dozens of employees.

The layoffs are quite substantial considering the size of the 250-employee company, with between 60 and 80 workers reportedly losing their jobs. That’s nearly one third of their entire workforce.

As for the why, CEO John DiLullo explained to TechCrunch in an email that the company “is aligning our organization to accelerate our significant investments in AI and automation.”

Employee Response to Deepwatch Layoffs

Much of the information about the Deepwatch layoffs is coming from social media, where now-former employees are taking to LinkedIn to announce their newly available status on the job market.

Other employees, however, aren’t nearly as optimistic, with one particular instance showing that the workforce isn’t nearly as excited about investing in AI technology as management.

“They’re doing something with AI and agentic AI but it sounds like bullshit.” – A current Deepwatch employee to TechCrunch

Obviously, the response to layoffs is never positive, but when still-employed workers are specifically speaking out about the reasoning, it becomes clear that the remaining two thirds of your team might not be on board.

Companies Laying Off Employees Because of AI

Deepwatch is certainly not the first company in recent memory to lay off employees because they want to free up capital for AI investment. In fact, there have been a lot of companies that have full-on replaced workers with AI in 2025, openly admitting to it when they do so.

Many of them are making far more substantial layoffs than Deepwatch, too. Just a few weeks ago, Amazon announced it would be letting go of 14,000 employees. A few months ago, Microsoft removed 6,000 employees from the company. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff even bragged about reducing the company’s workforce from 9,000 to 5,000 thanks to AI.

Simply put, AI is putting jobs at risk, whether it be through avid investment or full-on role replacement. And if you want to stay safe, you’re going to need to embrace the technology sooner rather than later.

New Tech.co survey data has revealed a dramatic decline in the amount of logistics professionals that report a high level of demand for freight, as this amount has fallen by about a third between April and October 2025.

Worse, this decline comes during what’s typically peak shipping season — the months of August, September, and October usually see a surge in freight, thanks to the upcoming holidays.

This new data, the latest in our monthly surveys, supports the claims experts have already been making for a while. The largest capacity purge in history is likely on the way, as the industry has too many trucks and trucking companies available without the freight demand to justify their existence.

26% Report High Demand in October, Down From 41% in April

Tech.co’s monthly survey tracks carriers and their perception of freight availability. In April 2025, 41% of respondents self-reported a high level of demand — either saying that they had “too much demand” or that they had “more than enough.”

Six months later, during the critical period for holiday inventory movement, that sentiment had declined by over a third: 26% of respondents said the same in October 2025.

Similarly, the number of logistics professionals that reported low levels of freight availability has increased during this period, with the percentage of professionals reporting a low level of availability hitting a high of 17%.

Freight Demand Is Dropping When It Should Be Surging

These results reveal a dramatic decline in business activity right as the market should be surging. This is strong evidence that, for many carriers, the traditional rhythms of logistics are no longer dependable.

But it’s not unexpected.

The trucking industry has been in a slump for over two years now, with truckers collectively driving fewer miles in 2024 than in the year prior.

Granted, the logistics business did see a big uptick earlier in the year due to front-loading in response to the first few waves of tariffs out from the US government, but this has since fallen.

Major industry indexes such as Cass are tracking a decline in shipping, while others see shipping costs on the rise. Now, our survey data further connects the dots between expert analysis and industry data: The professionals on the ground are also providing their own perspective.

Moving Forward With Strong Financial Pressure

Given the state of the industry, it’s no wonder that “managing financial pressure” is the top priority for a significant portion (20%) of respondents in our monthly survey.

What’s the path forward for freight companies facing with fewer opportunities to ship the freight they need to stay in the black?

First, companies will have to contend with lost profitability in the long-term. Perhaps an improved source of market intelligence can help, but it’ll definitely be a challenge to consistently ship the most profitable loads while avoiding low-margin tasks.

Second, they’ll need to manage their cash flow in the short term, since they’ll need immediate funds to cover operating costs while waiting for any delayed payments that aren’t yet available. In short: Freight companies will need to figure out a balancing act between short and long-term priorities.

Research from AI Resume Builder finds that 30% of businesses intend to lay off staff in favor of AI in 2026, with a further 21% confirming that they have already replaced specific roles with the technology this year.

Largely, respondents confirmed that these changes will be quite wide-reaching, with 49% of employers that intend to replace staff planning to let go of between 10% and 45% of their current workforce. 7% of bosses said that 65% or more of their workforce will be affected, as per the report’s findings.

In recent months, a number of high-profile companies has made headlines by letting go of staff in favor of automation. This trend is unlikely to go away, with many believing that AI is a silver bullet solution to companies’ economic woes.

Nearly One-Third of Companies Planning to Replace HR With AI

New research from AI Resume Builder reveals that almost a third of companies are planning to replace HR employees with AI. According to the study, 30% of companies plan to replace staff with AI in 2026, while an added 21% confirmed that they had already replaced HR roles with AI this year.

The changes themselves will be pretty substantial, with a significant portion of respondents (49%) stating that between 10% and 45% of their current workforce could expect to be replaced by AI. A further 7% estimated that 65% or more of their staff would be affected.

The report surveyed 1,250 business leaders to better understand how companies plan to integrate AI into their workforce in 2026. The findings paint a bleak picture for employees everywhere, with a high proportion of senior leaders united in their belief that AI can replace sections of the workforce. Recently, it emerged that half of HR executives were already using AI in a bid to make better hires.

Customer Service Roles Most Likely to Feel AI Sting

Elsewhere, the report indicates that customer service roles are the most likely to be replaced with AI in 2026, with 54% of respondents in agreement. Administrative or clerical jobs are next up at 49%, followed by IT and technical support at 47%.

Reportedly, these functions already overlap with the areas in which AI is most commonly used, including data analysis (61%), summarizing meetings and documents (58%), and research (56%). Therefore, the leap to automation will be a lot smoother.

But rather than posing an existential threat to people’s roles, this shift presents an opportunity for many. According to Rachel Serwetz, career advisor at AI Resume Builder: “Professionals should start by learning the AI tools most relevant to their field. For example, if AI is adopted for customer service, administrative, or IT work, there will still be a need for people to manage and oversee those tools.”

Workers Under Pressure to Adapt in Evolving Climate

One thing that is certain is that employees will need to adapt in order to survive the shifting workplace climate. According to the report, the majority of business leaders (67%) already consider AI skills to be highly desirable and something they will look for as they make hires in 2026.

At the same time, bosses expect workers to be able to produce a higher volume of work because of AI. As per the report, 17% of respondents expect “significantly more” output, 36% expect “a lot more,” and 39% “a little more.”

All signs indicate that proficiency with AI is a great way to get ahead in the modern workplace. That’s why we’ve put together a guide to the best free AI courses that you can take in November. The writing is on the wall: workers who don’t take action soon risk being left behind.

In 2025, every company is a tech company — including health practices. Technological advancements made in the last few years, in particular, have completely transformed the way the healthcare industry operates, with digital platforms now making it easier than ever to manage appointment scheduling, patient records, and everything in between.

This has been largely driven by the evolution of practice management software, which is designed to automate and streamline the administrative, financial, and operational aspects of running a practice. However, there are a lot of platforms to choose from, offering different functionalities and price points for practices of all sizes. That’s where we want to help.

In this guide, we’ll help you understand exactly how to choose practice management software for your business by outlining some of the criteria you should consider before choosing a platform.

What Is Practice Management Software?

Practice management software is an system for managing, automating, and streamlining your business operations. There are both cloud-based online options and on-site solutions, depending on your particular business needs.

These platforms are designed to offer a variety of features, including scheduling, billing, claims, records, workflow automation, and reporting and analytics.

While this guide focuses on health care practices, practice management software is available for a wide range of industries, including legal firms, mental health practices, accounting firms, and dental and veterinary operations.

How to Choose Practice Management Software

Now that you understand what practice management software is, it’s time to dig into what you should consider before choosing a platform.

After all, the functionality of these tools can vary dramatically from provider to provider, and you’ll want to be sure that you’re set up with a system that meets the needs of your particular practice.

Here are some criteria you should consider when choosing a practice management software provider.

Security

Managing a health practice requires a lot more security than your average business, because of the sensitive data you’re storing.

For practices of every size, protecting the health information of your patients needs to be a top priority, no matter what stage of growth you’re in. There are specific security features you should look for in a practice management software to ensure patient privacy.

Find a practice management software that is compliant with global standards for data protection. HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and other compliance certificates should be a given, as they are widely considered the bare minimum when it comes to protecting your patients’ health data.

Preferably, look for a platform that is ISO 270001 certified, as this is the highest global standard for information security.

Beyond that, check that the practice management software you choose provides basic security features like multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and automated time-outs, as these l tools make it easier to secure patient data.

AI features

A top tip for using project management platforms effectively is to leverage the power of AI. AI features are all the buzz in the business world, and practice management software has kept up with the trend. These tools can save you a lot of time in the long run, and given the value of time in the healthcare industry, you’d be doing yourself, your business, and your patients a disservice by not at least exploring your options.

There are quite a few AI options that can help your practice be more efficient. Some platforms offer AI-powered note-taking tools that can record conversations between patients and practitioners and transcribe the dialogue for easier reviewing post-appointment.

Some practice management software providers also offer AI assistants that operate much like popular tools like ChatGPT. However, these services are designed specifically for healthcare practitioners, so you’ll be able to refine your documentation to make it more detailed, glean valuable insights about your practice, and save time on administrative tasks throughout the day.

Integrations

If you’re an established practice that is looking for management software to run your entire business, the value of third-party integrations cannot be overstated. The ability to turn the platform into an all-in-one hub for your practice will streamline even more of your operations than AI alone.

What kind of third-party integrations are helpful? The list is virtually endless. Google Calendar can be helpful for scheduling, Stripe can streamline payments and invoicing, Xero can make accounting easier, MailChimp can improve communication with patients. Dropbox can make documentation storage a breeze.

All that to say, if you already have a large suite of apps you’re using, make sure that the practice management software you pick is compatible, otherwise, you could end up doing more than you need to for simple operations.

Support

While most practice management systems are quite intuitive, healthcare is fairly complicated by nature, which means you’ll want to make sure your chosen provider is set up with some top-tier support options to help when needed.

The kind of support you want will depend on your particular needs, but it can definitely vary from provider to provider.

Look for options that offer 24/7 coverage, for example, if you expect to need help outside of normal business hours. The available channels of support will be important too, with some providers only offering phone, while others prioritize email and live chat.

It’s also worth looking into whether or not the practice management software you’re eyeing offers self-help options, like documentation, video tutorials, and knowledge bases. These can streamline your support process by ditching the middleman and allowing you to solve issues yourself.

How Much Does Practice Management Software Cost?

Fortunately, the price range for practice management software is pretty big, with single or small practitioners able to get set up for around $30 to $70 per month. Large operations can understandably expect some higher prices, with some enterprise-level solutions costing as much as $500 per month.

Generally speaking, the higher the price, the more functionality you’re going to get. Common features that are included with more expensive plans include better support, more third-party integrations, and data migration, which can help get your system set up faster when starting or transitioning..

More importantly, take note of whether or not a provider offers pricing as a “per user” or a “per practitioner” model. The latter will charge you for every practitioner that is covered by your practice, while the former will only charge you for every staff member that needs an account.

Is there free practice management software?

If your budget is particularly tight, you may be looking for a free practice management software to organize your business. Well, you are in luck, as there are indeed some free options available that can help streamline operations and improve productivity.

However, it’s worth noting that free practice management software options are, understandably, less functional than their premium counterparts. Generally speaking, they’re less customizable, offer limited analytic tools, and provide little to no support. Plus, free practice management software solutions generally collect and sell user data, which isn’t ideal for those trying to protect information.

On top of that, they can almost defeat the purpose of using these platforms, because they make administrative work more taxing without the helpful automations that make practice management software so valuable.

If you’re looking to invest, the good news is paid options often come with some kind of free trial, so you can get a feel for how they operate before you make a financial commitment.

Getting Started with Practice Management Software

Hopefully this has helped narrow down your options when it comes to practice management software or at least understand that factors like security, AI, support, integrations, and price should always be at the top of your mind while you make a decision.

If you’re looking for an excellent option with over 40,000 users, Zanda provides an all-in-one platform that can help you achieve your practice goals. From calendar management and client portals to payments, AI and automations, Zanda offers one login with unlimited potential.

According to a recent cybersecurity report, ransomware payment rates hit a historic low across several areas in Q3 2025.

This correlates closely with current industry trends, as larger firms increasingly resist the pressure to pay ransoms, and smaller firms face decreasing overall ransomware payment rates.

The report’s findings also suggest that businesses are becoming better equipped to deal with cybersecurity threats, but firms should still exercise vigilance, especially as new threats like AI develop.

Ransomware Payments Hit a Historic Low in Q3 2025

A report from Coveware has found that both the average ransom payment and the median ransom payment is down significantly from Q2 to Q3 2025, with the former down 66% and the latter down 65%.

Likewise, ransom payment rates across all impact scenarios, including encryption, data exfiltration, and other extortion, fell to a historic low of 23%.

Ultimately, the report concluded that the overall success rate of cyber extortion is decreasing, based on a few factors.

Lower Ransom Payments Hint to Wider Industry Trends

The report identified two wider trends these numbers reflect.

On the one hand, larger businesses are getting better at resisting the pressure to pay ransoms and are beginning to understand that paying for stolen data holds no benefit to them in the long run. Instead, approaching negotiations with a no-payment offer is becoming more advisable.

Secondly, attacks on smaller firms are seeing relatively lesser amounts offered as ransom payments. While small businesses do remain easier to disrupt overall, attackers are asking for less money in return.

Cybersecurity Measures Are Making Progress

The historic low for both average ransomware payments and median ransomware payments comes after a long-term downward trend, suggesting that payments are generally decreasing.

While businesses should always remain vigilant and focus on keeping their data as secure as possible — particularly in the age of AI and data breaches — the report can be seen as a positive one, that perhaps progress is being made. 

It appears that firms are getting better at understanding what needs to be done in order to stay protected. That being said, businesses should still keep one eye on the future and never get to a point of complacency.

OpenAI has introduced a new feature to ChatGPT that lets users interrupt it “mid-thought”, allowing for corrections to be made in real-time to queries.

For businesses using the platform to conduct deep research, or even to handle complicated or multi-layered queries, the new feature could save time and maximize efficiency.

On top of the release of this new feature, OpenAI have recently launched a new web browser, and released the second version of its video editing app Sora. These developments could see it make some strong strides forward in the race to dominate the AI space.

OpenAI Adds Interrupt Feature to ChatGPT

Leading AI company OpenAI has introduced a new feature to its chatbot, ChatGPT, that now allows users to interrupt the chatbot as it’s crafting its answers, in order to make corrections or add new information.

You’ll be able to make changes by clicking the “Update” button in the platform’s sidebar, which will allow you to make changes in real time.

You also won’t lose any progress on your chat or have to restart when using this feature.

New OpenAI Feature Benefits Researchers and Businesses

The “Update” feature could certainly be beneficial for businesses that use chatbots such as ChatGPT to conduct in-depth research and give detailed queries. For example, if you are referencing a document which you later realize is out of date, you can tell ChatGPT to exclude it from its answer as it is “thinking”.

Likewise, it will mean less time waiting around for ChatGPT to produce an answer you know is wrong, before having to correct it with another prompt. Instead, the chatbot can adjust itself as quickly as possible, saving you time and maximizing efficiency.

This update will definitely make the chatbot more collaborative, and benefit those who want to have of a back-and-forth conversation that more closely mirrors real life.

OpenAI Continues Surge of New and Improved Products

This update to ChatGPT comes admist a range of new announcements from OpenAI. Recently, it has released an AI-powered web browser, known as Atlas, which could potentially rival sector leader Google Chrome.

OpenAI have also recently enabled limited access to the second iteration of its highly successful AI video editing app, Sora, which surpassed ChatGPT in downloads over a specific period of time.

No doubt looking to rival competitors such as Gemini and Claude, these new additions could see OpenAI take bold strides forward in becoming the world’s leading AI company.

The AI machine rumbles on.

This month alone, we’ve borne witness to mass layoffs in favor of automation, a lucrative new deal between OpenAI and Amazon, and the first US bill regulating the usage of AI chatbots.

With all signs indicating that there are no brakes on this particular train, it might be time to start thinking about how best to position yourself to meet the demands of the shifting workplace. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of the best free AI training courses that you can enroll in today in order to hone your AI chops.

You’ll find a mixture of platforms and specific courses with varying lengths, so you can dive in and start learning at a depth and pace that suits you.

Google Skills

Google recently unveiled a suite of more than 3,000 free AI courses under the umbrella Google Skills. Yes, you read that correctly — more than 3,000!

To get access, head to the new Google Skills website and log in with your existing Google account (if applicable). After that, you should enroll into Google’s Innovators program, which will provision you with 35 free credits per month. These credits can be used to redeem courses.

For users that are looking for a bit more access, you can also sign up for monthly or annual subscription, with paid plans starting at $29 per month and going up to $49 per month.

So, whether you’re keen to learn more about how to deploy and manage generative AI models, manage Kubernetes in Google Cloud, or derive insights from BigQuery data, there’s truly an AI course to boost any discipline or vertical.

Browse the full catalog at your leisure, and start learning from the best today.

LinkedIn Learning

Another big training vendor that will let you get started for free, LinkedIn Learning can be a really useful resource for employees who are looking to boost their AI skills to stay competitive.

To get free access to a multitude of courses for one month, you’ll need to sign up for the free trial of LinkedIn Premium. Just be mindful that once the free month is up, your membership will revert to the standard monthly fee, currently $29.99 per month.

If you’re determined to avoid spending a dime, fill your boots — there are over 1,500 AI courses to choose from! While we can’t promise that you’ll make it through every single one in one month, there’s definitely enough there to sink your teeth into.

To register for one of these free courses today, head to LinkedIn Learning and register for a free one-month trial.

IBM: AI Fundamentals

⏰ Length: 10 hours

As part of its SkillsBuild initiative, IBM offers some excellent AI training courses to hone your skills with. Comprising six different courses, AI Fundamentals is a particular standout collection. Those courses are Introduction to AI; Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision; Machine Learning and Deep Learning; Run AI Models with IBM Watson Studio; AI Ethics; and Your Future in AI: The Job Landscape.

Like the name suggests, the course will give you a solid foundation in AI. Among other things, participants will get a decent grasp of the history of AI, explain how it comprehends and analyzes human language, and even have a go at creating their own AI models with IBM’s esteemed Watson Studio.

You can enroll for free by heading to this link. You’ll need to register with IBM SkillsBuild first.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that you’ll earn a credential? Upon successful completion of the course, you’ll receive an industry-recognized digital credential, Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals, courtesy of IBM SkillsBuild.

Udemy: ChatGPT in 30 Minutes

⏰ Length: 30 minutes

This free offering from Udemy has a 4.4/5 average rating from 1,796 reviews — and it’s not hard to see why.

With a full title of “ChatGPT in 30 Minutes – NEW Prompt Engineering & AI Skills,” this short course will give you a rundown of the latest prompt engineering techniques, AI vision, and practical skills including how to use AI for data analytics, generating Python, and how to make an MP4 video with ChatGPT. Not bad for 30 minutes of learning.

Headed up by Andrew and Addison Best, two esteemed and experienced experts in AI, the course has everything casual users need to get the most out of ChatGPT. Simply head to this link to enroll for free and start learning.

Harvard University: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python

⏰ Length: 7 weeks

Helmed by the creators of CS50, one of the most popular computer science courses in the world, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python is an absolute must for software developers everywhere.

Over the course of 7 weeks, participants will explore the “concepts and algorithms” that make up modern AI. This will include learning about graph search algorithms; reinforcement learning; machine learning; AI principles; designing intelligent systems; and how to use AI in Python programs.

It should go without saying, but this is an intermediate level course aimed at software developers with at least some familiarity with Python as coding language. If you fit that criteria, you can sign up for free, committing 10 to 30 hours of self-paced work per week. You can also pay a one-time fee of $299 to get a verified certificate for your efforts.

Why Are AI Skills So Important in the Modern Workplace?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ll have noticed that AI has turned the world on its head since the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022.

In the years since, businesses have raced to integrate AI models into their everyday processes — sometimes at the cost of creating “AI debt” when these integrations do not run smoothly. At the same time, many companies have pursued a policy of mass layoffs in favor of automation, with Chegg recently making headlines for letting go of nearly half of its workforce.

With many entry-level roles succumbing to automation, and no indication that this trend will let up, workers everywhere face a new challenge: adapt to the shifting sands of the modern workplace or face a fight for survival. In this climate, preparation is absolutely vital — so, I hope this piece gives you some food for thought.

AI is becoming a fixture in the modern hiring process, according to new research from Ipsos and Google. As per the findings, half of HR executives are finding value in using AI tools to match, screen, and rank applicants, with a further 47% using it to identify skills gaps.

On the other side of the coin, prospective employees are leveraging AI to aid with their job searches, while at the same time improving their own proficiency with the technology. The study indicates that nearly 7 in 10 job seekers are currently using the technology.

Ultimately, the research shows that companies are being more careful than ever to avoid hiring mistakes, with the costs of making the wrong choice increasingly unsustainable for businesses in 2025. At the same time, job seekers are putting their faith in AI to overcome skills gaps and identify viable positions to further their careers.

Nearly Half of HR Execs Use AI to Screen Candidates, Says Report

Increasingly, HR executives are using AI in the recruitment process in a bid to avoid costly hiring errors, according to new research from Ipsos and Google. The report, titled Future-proofing careers in the age of AI: Insights for hiring, learning, and growth, surveyed 1,000 US job seekers and 500 HR executives between June and July 2025.

It was found that half of execs are using AI to match, screen, and rank applicants, with a further 47% using it to identify skills gaps. With 60% of HR execs noting a mismatch between applicant skills and employer needs, avoiding hiring mistakes would seem to be high on the agenda for businesses in 2025.

Applicants, meanwhile, are using the technology as both “tool and teacher,” integrating it into their job hunting efforts and improving their own AI skills at the same time. There is a growing belief that AI proficiency is table stakes for employees in the modern workplace, and applicants are honing their skills to try and stay competitive.

Report Illuminates Modern Hiring Crisis

Hiring managers are increasingly turning to AI to counteract a yawning skills gap between applicants and businesses. According to the study, nearly half of respondents (48%) believe that most applicants are underqualified for the positions that they’re applying for. Specialized fields, such as technology and healthcare, are bearing the brunt of this issue.

Not only are HR execs using AI to identify top candidates, but they’re increasingly looking towards more experienced professionals. Nearly two-thirds (64%) are turning to mid-career professionals, while an added 43% are targeting specialized roles.

The vetting process is becoming more rigid, too. The study finds that nearly half (49%) of hiring managers have begun to introduce formal skill assessments to the hiring process, including technical tests, job simulations, and cultural fit evaluations.

AI Solidifying Status as Workplace Mainstay

Everywhere you look, the evidence grows that AI is no longer a nice to-have — it’s fundamentally reshaping the modern workplace. Recently, it was revealed that the number of employees skipping meetings due to AI was growing, with as many as 29% of workers admitting to truancy in the belief that AI tools would fill in the gaps.

Elsewhere, AI-related layoffs continue apace, with many companies letting go of employees in favor of automation. This trend will likely only become more pronounced as AI models improve and demonstrate new and compelling use cases.

This poses both a challenge and an opportunity to workers everywhere. While some entry-level roles can expect to feel the squeeze, employees should embrace the possibilities of this burgeoning technology, which can serve as an invaluable tool in helping people to carry out their day-to-day tasks.

Despite not even being a year old, the term vibe coding has been named word of the year by Collins English Dictionary, beating other contenders such as ‘bio hacking’ and ‘glaze’.

The term was coined by a founding engineer at OpenAI, and an entire industry has sprung up around it almost overnight, with AI removing the traditional barriers of coding and allowing anyone to give it a go.

The tech is credited with speeding up the coding process and democratizing it.

Vibe Coding Named Word of 2025

Collins English Dictionary, a British publication first printed in 1979, has named vibe coding the word of the year. It narrowly beat other contenders on a final shortlist, including ‘clanker’ – an unsympathetic Star Wars-inspired term to describe robots and AI, ‘bio hacking’, which describes efforts made to extend life by manipulating the body, and ‘glaze’, which describes heaping cringe-worthy praise on someone.

It’s no surprise that the list was tech-heavy, but even less surprising that it was vibe coding that topped the poll. Google Trends shows that the term has had a meteoric rise since it was first coined at the start of the year:

Interest in 2025 for vibe coding on Google Trends

The term was invented in early 2025 by Andrej Karpathy, a founding engineer at open AI, and former director of AI at Telsa. It’s origin can be traced back to an X message Karpathy posted in February this year. However, he does state that vibe coding, isn’t coding exactly:

it’s not really coding – I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works. – Andrej Karpathy

What is Vibe Coding?

At its heart, vibe coding is the practice of turning natural language into code, without the need for hundreds of hours to learn Python, SQL or other languages. This has been enabled thanks to the recent advances in AI, which is essentially playing the middle man here and interpreting what the user is asking, and spitting out usable, working code.

Its biggest success, and likely the chance why it has suddenly skyrocketed in popularity, is that entirely demystifies the process of coding, and makes it available to all. This is especially true now that there are many dedicated vibe coding platforms that can make accessing the tech even easier, with many available for free.

With these tools, the sky is the limit. Users are able to create apps, websites, programs…essentially anything that requires code, but without needing to know a lick of the language.

How to Start Vibe Coding

If you want to get started in the world of vibe coding, we’d suggest opting for one of the many platforms out there, such as Base44, Replit and Lovable, all of which have been designed to remove as many barriers as possible to the world of coding.

As mentioned, many offer free tiers to their services, but if you have a big project in mind, you’ll soon run up against the limits of the free offerings. Vibe coding platforms work by allowing users access to a certain number of credits. Each credit essentially represents a prompt, which is an instruction you write to make your project come to life. However, vibe coding is a process of honing and improving, and as such you might burn through your credits rather quickly as you tweak your app to perfection.

If you’re serious about getting into vibe coding, we’d suggest going with a paid vibe coding plan to get the most bang for your buck.

Impersonating executives, manipulating messages, altering notifications, and forging identities in video chats? You might be a hacker aware of the latest vulnerabilities in Microsoft Teams.

That’s according to a new report from Check Point Research that found four different critical flaws in the popular software used by more than 320 million people worldwide.

Don’t get too worried, though. The researchers reported it all to Microsoft last year, and all issues have now been successfully addressed and fixed. Here’s what to know.

What the Flaws Made Possible

The potential fallout from all the issues could have been massive. According to Check Point’s full report, the real-world risks cover “executive impersonation, financial fraud, malware delivery, misinformation campaigns, and disruption of sensitive communications.”

But what specifically did they find? Here’s the quick summary of how each of the four flaws worked:

• Hackers could edit Teams messages while avoiding the “edited” label that’s intended to let everyone know if a message has been altered. This can allow them to trick users, or to fake a messaging history.
• They could also change message notifications, making them appear to be from another sender. This could be easily used for undetectable phishing attempts.
• Bad actors could also edit display names within private chats.
• They could even edit caller identities on both video and audio calls.

The Biggest Danger? Executive Impersonation

Paired with AI deepfakes and other modern hacker technologies, all these flaws definitely open the door for faked messages and complex impersonations.

The biggest potential risk? Executive impersonation and social engineering. Bad actors could have used these flaws to alter messages and caller IDs. As the researchers explained it:

“In private chats, a malicious guest user could impersonate someone internal, such as a finance department member. Notifications can be spoofed to display a false sender name, preying on the instinct to trust official-looking notifications, potentially from authority figures or top executives.” – Check Point spokesperson

Their team disclosed all these vulnerabilities to Microsoft back on March 23rd, 2024, and by late October, all vulnerabilities had been fixed.

Staying Safe at Work

Granted, these types of flaws are concerning even when they have been fixed. The fact that a business software used by hundreds of millions of people could have undermined trust so deeply is troubling.

After all, entirely avoiding social engineering, scams, and phishing attacks is impossible even under the best circumstances. We recommend taking plenty of precautions for your own company, from multi-factor authentication to password managers to regular training lessons on the value of checking for spelling errors or unusual activity from internal emails.

When you can’t trust your own business software to tell you when a message was edited or who’s calling for a video chat, even those defenses start to look shaky. Here’s hoping it’s all fixed for good.

IBM has just announced that it will be laying off a “low single-digit percentage” of its workforce around the world in the fourth quarter.

The tech giant had about 270,000 global workers, as of an estimate from the end of 2024, so the number of employees getting a holiday season layoff is likely somewhere around 2,700 or higher.

It’s just the latest sign that the years-long plague of tech industry layoffs is in full swing, with the rise of AI technology marking one big reason why IBM and many others are so set on downsizing.

IBM Sees ‘Rebalance’ After a Review

IBM’s statement on the upcoming role cuts was issued on Tuesday.

While the company has been bullish on AI under the auspices of CEO Arvind Krishna, this round of layoffs hasn’t mentioned AI as an official reason for the workforce reduction, and instead points to a routine rebalancing.

“We routinely review our workforce […] and at times rebalance accordingly. In the fourth quarter we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce.” – IBM spokesperson

The company’s shares have risen over 35% this year, reports Reuters. IBM is the largest industrial research organization in the world.

Tech Layoffs Continue

IBM has hinted at an AI push being behind their new approach to productivity. Just last month, the company released a study indicating that 66% of senior leader responses claimed AI had “already driven significant productivity improvements across their organization.”

The multinational tech company is shifting heavily towards a software focus, experts say, and is hoping to benefit from increased spending on cloud-based services. However, last month, the company logged a slowdown in that exact business segment.

While IBM’s new announcement certainly isn’t the only big layoff news this year — or even this month, thanks to Amazon’s five-digit layoff announcement last week —  it’s not exactly turning the tide, either. Tech workers are seeing fewer and fewer opportunities for software engineers, infrastructure architects, and many more are finding it increasingly tough to stay employed.

Will the AI Bubble Pop Soon?

Studies point to an unclear return-on-investment for generative AI models. Some are predicting an AI bubble pop is on the way in the near future, as well.

Still, the average worker is responding to all the hype by doing the only thing they can: Seeing how they can fold AI bots into their own workflows to help them justify their jobs with productivity boosts where possible.

All we can say for sure is that tech workers everywhere are finding it increasingly hard to keep earning a living wage in the industry.

Another day, another OpenAI partnership, with the company of ChatGPT fame signing yet another deal to further advance its AI model, this time with Amazon.

OpenAI has run a full-on partnership gauntlet over the last few months, signing deals left and right with companies that can help it achieve the lofty AI goals set out by CEO Sam Altman.

Now, Amazon is joining the fray by providing computing power to OpenAI in exchange for $38 billion.

OpenAI Partners With Amazon for Computing Power

Announced on Monday, OpenAI has agreed to pay Amazon $38 billion over the next seven years in exchange for the company’s expansive cloud computing services.

The deal will give OpenAI access to “hundreds of thousands” of AI chips from NVIDIA, which are currently being used to power the Amazon Web Services (AWS) system for the company.

Previously, OpenAI had an exclusive partnership with Microsoft to provide all of its computing power. However, that deal was renegotiated last week, opening the door for the AI company to explore other opportunities without their approval.

Why Is Amazon Partnering With OpenAI?

$38 billion is a lot of money, which begs the question. Why is OpenAI paying Amazon so much money for its computing power? Well, the answer is pretty obvious if you’ve been following the AI company over the last few months.

“Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute. Our partnership with AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone.” – Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI

In so many words, OpenAI needs more power to make its lofty AI goals a reality, and the only way to do that is with the vast computing infrastructure that is provided by Amazon and the AWS platform.

OpenAI and Its Many Deals

This deal with Amazon is far from the first big partnership that OpenAI has entered over the last few months. In fact, $38 billion isn’t even that much compared to the cumulative $1 trillion (with a T) that the company has doled out to bolster its AI offering.

OpenAI entered into a deal with chipmaker NVIDIA to the tune of $100 billion, and also announced a partnership with chipmaker AMD, although the amount was not disclosed for that one. Beyond that, OpenAI has also signed a deal with Google in June, Oracle in September, and Broadcom earlier this month.

Yes, many have speculated that these deals are proof of an AI bubble, given that money keeps bouncing back and forth between a select few AI companies. But given the demands of AI technology on our infrastructure, it could just mean that OpenAI is trying to position itself as the only company prepared to take the next step.

Hackers are apparently going after the little guys in 2025, with information from Proton showing that 71% of data breaches have targeted businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

There’s no denying that data breaches have become a hot-button issue for businesses in the modern era. They have become troublingly common, with the cost of each cyber attack putting businesses at risk of financial loss and even insolvency.

Even worse, these bad actors appear to be targeting smaller businesses a lot more than large corporations, likely due to the lack of resources available to fend them off.

Small Business Most at Risk of Data Breach

According to data from Proton, which tracks data breaches across the business landscape, there have been almost 800 attacks in 2025 so far, exposing more than 300 million records of user data.

On top of that, small businesses have been in the crosshairs, with 23% of data breaches occurring at businesses with fewer than 10 employees, and 48% of data breaches occurring at business with between 10 and 250 employees.

That amounts to 71% of data breaches occurring at business with fewer than 250 employees.

Why Are Small Businesses Targeted Most?

The sad truth that small businesses are targeted more than large enterprises when it comes to cybersecurity threats is not a new phenomenon. In fact, for the last decade, studies have found consistently that hackers are far more likely to focus on companies with fewer employees.  So, why is that?

In all likelihood, hackers are targeting small businesses for a couple of reasons. For one, they have fewer resources and smaller budgets, which means they likely aren’t spending much on cybersecurity to ward off attacks.

On top of that, fewer employees means fewer lines of defense, so the path to a hack generally presents fewer obstacles at small businesses.

How to Protect Your Business from Data Breaches

Cyber criminals are targeting small businesses because, generally speaking, they are easier to hack than large corporations. Luckily, that doesn’t have to be the case for your particular business.

For starters, you need to train your employees. The reality is that human error is still the most common entry point for the majority of breaches, so if your employees know what to look out for, these hackers won’t be able to pull it off.

Beyond that, invest as much as you can in cybersecurity. Obviously small businesses are often working with much stricter budgets, but when you consider the potential cost of a data breach, these kind of security protocols are more than worth the cost.