While many companies are busy sounding the return to office klaxon in 2024, there are still plenty offering fully remote jobs. However, not only do you need to know where to look, you need a resume that speaks for itself.

This isn’t great news if you’re just starting out and have no experience, especially if you want a salary that’s actually livable on in the age of permanent inflation. The odds might seem stacked against you, though, with Glassdoor estimating that the average US entry-level salary is just $42,000 in 2024.

Fortunately, there are a handful of jobs that not only pay great but are open to entry-level applicants and support remote working to boot. In this guide, we highlight six of the best paid remote jobs you can apply for this year. We’ll tell you the average starting salary, as well as some of the skills and personal qualities you’ll need to be a successful applicant.

With this in hand, 2024 can be the year you fast-track your career ambitions, pay the rent, and maybe even still have enough to splurge on the occasional coffee.

Best Paying Remote Jobs Requiring No Experience

1. Web Developer
2. Social Media Manager
3. Data Analyst
4. Content Marketing Manager
5. Project Manager
6. Digital/Web Editor

1. Web Developer

Developer jobs are among the most in-demand on the market right now. Best of all, if you’ve got the right skills and know your Ruby on Rails from your Python, you can expect to be paid handsomely from the word “go.”

Almost as enticingly, many developer jobs can be done entirely remotely. Those that can’t should still offer you a considerable amount of flexibility when it comes to working from home, with in-office attendance likely limited to select team days or companywide events.

Even though many coders start out being self-taught, you’ll probably need to have some qualifications in the form of a computer science or engineering degree to land yourself the salary you want. Either that, or a portfolio of projects to illustrate your abilities.

Avg Starting Salary: $70k (Glassdoor)

2. Social Media Manager

Next up is the Wild West of social media, where you could potentially land yourself a starting salary of nearly $50k with absolutely no qualifications. As well as Social Media Manager, some of the other main job titles to look out for in this arena are:

• Social Media Executive
• Social Media Editor
• Social Media Coordinator

If you’ve got a sizeable following of your own on social media or a popular personal blog, chances are you’re in with as good of a shout as anyone to land a job managing the social media channels of a startup or small business. This is especially true if you’re younger (read: Gen Z) and fluent in platform du jour TikTok.

That said, social media is now widely taught on media and communications courses, and degrees in these may be preferred by some employers, especially larger companies. Whatever the case, you can expect many positions to be open to remote working, given the job itself is digital in nature.

Salary: $49k (Glassdoor)

3. Data Analyst

If spreadsheets and numbers are your thing, you could land an entry-level salary of over $60k as a data analyst. Remote working is also likely to be possible in such roles, as all necessary work can be performed in isolation.

In short, data analysts turn the vast swathes of data logged every time someone goes online into specific insights that can be actioned by businesses. In the world of ecommerce, this might be that people aged 18-35 are more likely to buy a certain color T-shirt, or that they prefer to vacation in June not July.

As well as generally making sense of stuff, data analysts are also responsible for packaging their findings in a user-friendly way, so you’ll probably need enough graphic design skills to make an infographic.

Avg Starting Salary: $63k (Glassdoor)

4. Content Marketing Manager

Start a career in content marketing and you can expect above average compensation from your very first job. As well as Content Marketing Manager, look out for positions billed as Content Marketing Assistant, Executive or Associate. These may not be quite as well paid, but they’re still that crucial first line on your resume.

Even better, promoting a brand through content doesn’t require you to be in an office regularly, if there’s any location requirement at all. Another variant of this role might see a company looking for a Digital Marketing Manager or similar.

Content marketers should be creatively minded, digitally fluent, and have strong writing skills. Knowledge of things like WordPress, HTML, and newsletters is also a major plus if you’re looking to get your foot in the door.

Avg Starting Salary: $63k (Glassdoor)

5. Project Manager

If you excel at organization, coordination, and communication, then the world of project management could be the perfect first job for you.

Project managers (typically digital or web project managers in 2024) are the high visibility folks who jump from call to call and meeting to meeting letting different teams know what’s required of them and what everyone else is doing as an organization works towards a specific goal.

If you don’t like sitting on Zoom calls, writing up minutes, and spending lots of time in software like monday.com this might not be the right role for you. But if you’re a great communicator, motivator and ideally presenter, then you’re definitely on to a winner.

This is probably the least fully remote friendly job on our list, as some project manager roles might require you to go in for physical meetings to attend walk rounds. That’s why it’s important you look for listings that specify digital and web project manager vacancies, as these are more likely to be open to home working.

Still, for $85k straight out of college (the highest entry-level salary in our guide), we’d be tempted to rejoin the commuter rat race.

Avg Starting Salary: $85k (Glassdoor)

6. Digital/Web Editor

Take it from us, running a website isn’t always easy, but it can be extremely rewarding. If you’re just starting out, it could also be the foothold you need to get your career off the ground.

Digital and web editors mainly need to have perfect English, as much of what you’ll be doing is writing and proofreading copy for publication. Some light HTML and WordPress skills are a massive help, as are image and video editing chops. SEO knowledge is the cherry on top and could be the key to fast-tracking you through the ranks.

Many websites will be happy for you to run the show remotely, with reduced (or even non-existent) office space common in the digital publishing realm. You should, however, be realistic in who you apply to with no experience: the Washington Post probably isn’t going to hand you the keys to the kingdom, but a startup or small business might.

Avg Starting Salary: $56k (Glassdoor)

Security researcher Troy Hunt has updated his valuable Have I Been Pwned free data breach notification service with as many as 71 million email addresses linked to breached accounts.

The hijacked details were leaked online as part of the Naz.API dataset, which is a collection of over one billion user credentials stolen in previous data breaches and by malware tools.

Hunt said that the dataset was made available to him by a big name tech firm, after which he was able to add it to his database. The good news is this means you can now check if any of your compromised information was made public in the massive Naz.API data dump.

What is the Naz.API Dataset and Why Should You Care?

The Naz.API dataset is a collection of over a billion user details stolen by cybercriminals in previous data breaches and malware campaigns.

It’s particularly worrying because it contains countless login and password pairs that can be used in “credential stuffing” attacks, whereby previously stolen details are used to gain access to new accounts.

Of course, you needn’t really worry about credential stuffing attacks affecting you if you use unique passwords on all your accounts. This is one of the main reasons we recommend password managers so highly, as they make the process easy.

How to Check if Your Email Address Leaked in the Naz.API Dump

To check if your email address is linked to the Naz.API dataset, all you need to do is go to the Have I Been Pwned website as mentioned above.

There, you simply enter the email address (or addresses) you want to scan for association with known data breaches and leaks. You can even use its notification service to warn you if you’ve been compromised in the future.

The service has been around for over 10 years and was set up in the wake of the massive Adobe breach in 2023. Here’s a little more about it, so you know you can trust it.

Image credit: Troy Hunt via Bleeping Computer

What is Have I Been Pwned and Is It Reliable?

Have I Been Pwned is a long-standing data breach checking service. “Pwned” is old school gamer slang for “owned” and is therefore associated with being compromised online.

Its purpose is simple: to let you know if you’ve been breached and your details compromised, so you change them in good time on other accounts. Essentially, it’s a massive database of stolen credentials, so when you put in your email address, a few seconds later it tells you if that account is linked to any known data breaches, dumps or other leaks.

It was set up by infosec veteran Troy Hunt, who’s also a regional director at Microsoft, as a way to help fight back against the inevitability that people re-use passwords across multiple accounts – or use weak, easily breached passwords to begin.

We all do it, even though we know we shouldn’t, but with Have I Been Pwned at least you get a heads up so you can try and remedy things before it’s too late. You can also test your password strength for free, to see how vulnerable you may be to bad actors.

Keep that cover letter handy, as a new study found that half of CEOs are considering the use of AI to replace their employees.

The fear of AI in the workplace is substantial in 2024. With generative AI platforms like ChatGPT hitting the market with force last year, the threat of layoffs in the face of automation has reached a peak.

Unfortunately, a new survey isn’t helping, showing that a lot of CEOs are planning to utilize the technology in service of getting rid of jobs at their companies.

Study: 50% of CEOs Believe AI Will Displace Labor at Their Companies

A new survey from The Conference Board explored a wide range of business trends, including everything from talent acquisition and inflation stress to supply chain adjustments and long-term growth.

However, the section on artificial intelligence has raised some red flags with those concerned about job displacement, particularly one statistic that doesn’t bode well for the future of work.

“Half of CEOs and 51% of C-Suite executives believe AI will displace labor in their organizations, creating significant challenges for talent management.”

It’s important to note, however, that while 50% is a high number when it comes to CEOs that plan to replace jobs with AI, it is not the primary focus for the technology. In fact, as the survey below shows, job displacement is one of the least important impacts of AI, with additional training (94%) and increased productivity of labor (91%) at the top.

AI Adoption in the Workplace

CEOs may talk a big game when it comes to displacing jobs with AI, but how many of them are actually adopting the technology into their businesses in 2024?

Well, the survey found that the overwhelming majority is at least exploring the possibility of adding AI infrastructure to their businesses, with many already adopting the technology into all business operations.

Most notably, only 9% of global CEOs stated that they have no plans to adopt AI technology into their business practices, which means that this wave of advancement is definitely coming, whether you like it or not.

Attitudes Towards AI in the Workplace

While CEOs and C-Suite executives may feel one way about AI in the workplace, it’s safe to assume that employees have their own opinion about how the technology will impact their jobs.

Despite the threat of displacement, the majority of employees are either neutral or entirely on board with the idea of using AI in the workplace. In fact, our research found that 59% of employees who use AI at work have greater job satisfaction than those that don’t.

Still, because AI advancement is still in its infancy, the impact on jobs has still likely not been fully realized. For the time being, employees and CEOs alike are jumping on the AI bandwagon with both feet.

Samsung launched a wide range of new products at its Unpacked 2024, but the biggest announcement wasn’t about a smartphone, tablet, or any other physical device; it was the brand-new AI system.

With all the AI chatbots hitting the market in 2024, big tech companies have been quick to integrate the burgeoning technology into their devices as fast as possible. Now, Samsung has done the same by announcing Galaxy AI, a new AI system from the big tech firm that will substantially improve functionality on all of its new devices.

In this guide, we’ll explain the new AI system, what it does, how it compares to Bixby, and which devices you can use it on.

What Is Galaxy AI?

Galaxy AI is the new AI system from Samsung that will be present in the company’s many devices moving forward. It will streamline existing features, add new tools for users, and generally improve the functionality of the device in line with current AI technology.

“Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones. We’re excited to see how our users around the world empower their everyday lives with Galaxy AI to open up new possibilities.” – Samsung press release

Samsung has long been an innovator in the industry, generally installing features on its devices that haven’t been seen before. This announcement is no different, making the company one of the first to add AI directly into smartphones, rather than as a software or app.

What Kind of Features Are Available?

As you can imagine, there are lot of new features and improved functionalities that come with Galaxy AI. Below, we’ll explain some of those features that make security, creativity, and everyday functionality that much better on Samsung devices.

Everyday functionality

While some people use their smartphones for elaborate creative projects and in-depth gaming experiences, the majority are just using their phones are basic, everyday tasks. Fortunately, Galaxy AI puts a big emphasis on this, launching a wide range of new features aimed at improving everyday functionality.

Here are all the Galaxy AI features that can help improve your overall smartphone experience:

• Live Translate – provides two-way, real-time audio and text translations on calls. Even better, the on-device AI means that conversations are completely private with no internet connection necessary.
• Interpreter – translates real-time conversations in split screen, so you can talk to someone in-person and still understand them.
• Chat Assist – generates text conversations to match tone and content.
• Note Assist – creates summaries, produces templates, and generates cover art in the Samsung Notes app.
• Transcript Assist – transcribe, summarizes and translates voice recordings.
• Circle to Search – allows users to search for anything on the screen by simply circling, highlighting, tapping, or scribbling on an image or word.

To learn more about how these features will improve your smartphone experience, check out the Samsung press release that covered the event.

The Circle to Search feature on a Samsung Galaxy S24.
Source: Samsung

Creativity

AI advancements in the creative world have been nothing if not groundbreaking over the last year. From image generators to video editing features, these tools have become a notable, if not controversial, addition to the creative process.

Samsung understands that many of this editing is being done on their smartphones, which is why the Galaxy AI system will be used to greatly improve the overall experience. Here are some features you can use to level-up your on-device creative endeavors.

• Edit Suggestion – provides in-app suggestions immediately after an image is taken to subtly improve the composition of the photo.
• Generative Edits – expands images by filling in the background and borders when necessary.
• Instant Slow-mo – generates additional frames in a video to create the slow-motion effect with detail and quality.

For those worried about generative AI and its impact on the creative community, Samsung has assured users that all images generated by AI will feature a watermark, as well as meta data that indicates its origins.

Edit Suggestions on the Samsung Galaxy S24.
Source: Samsung

Security

As with any new technology, the launch of Galaxy AI of course raises some questions about security. Namely, how much data is this new system collecting, what is it doing with all that data, and can you turn Galaxy AI off if you don’t want it collecting the data?

The benefit of AI systems being installed directly on smartphones like Galaxy AI is that it’s not necessarily connected to the internet or an external source. Subsequently, your data is more secure, given that these devices are “end-to-end secure hardware” with “real-time threat detection and collaborative protection,” according to Samsung.

Additionally, if you aren’t comfortable with all this AI mumbo-jumbo in the first place, you can simply turn off these features through the Advanced Intelligence settings and go back to your standard, AI-less smartphone experience.

Are Galaxy AI Features Free?

For now, all Galaxy AI features are free to use, as long as you have a compatible device that can take advantage of them. However, the Samsung Galaxy S24 page features a footnote that says:

“Galaxy AI features will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices. Different terms may apply for AI features provided by third parties.”

So, you may have to pay for these new features in the future, but for the time being, you can get all the text recommendations and editing suggestions you need at no cost.

Galaxy AI vs Bixby

If you’re at all familiar with Samsung and its AI iterations, you might be a bit confused. After all, isn’t Bixby the branded AI from Samsung that was discontinued in 2020? Well, despite being discontinued, Bixby is still in operation in devices sold before 2020, and the company claims it will remain that way for the time being.

So, what’s the difference between Galaxy AI and Bixby? For starters, Bixby is just a virtual assistant, like Alexa or Google Assistant, that can answer questions, check the weather, and control smart home devices.

In comparison, Galaxy AI is the general artificial intelligence system that Galaxy devices will use to power the unique and innovative features. Granted, with its discontinuation, it’s safe to assume that Galaxy AI will replace Bixby in the future, but until then, the two AI iterations will have to coexist on the Samsung user interface.

What Devices Have Galaxy AI?

With a big launch like this, it’s only fair to ask: How can I get my hands on this kind of groundbreaking technology?

Well, as of January 2024, the only way to take advantage of Galaxy AI features is with the new slate of Samsung S series smartphones. More specifically, you can use Galaxy AI features on the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Rest assured, though, this kind of technology isn’t going to remain this exclusive for long. With the popularity of AI, it’s safe to assume that Galaxy AI will roll out to other Samsung devices as they release in the future, so be sure to check back for frequently updates on Galaxy AI.

January is often a time when people reevaluate their lives, goals and priorities. If it’s not moving house or getting a new pet, this might take the form of considering a new job.

Whether you want to move to a fully remote job this January, or have been impacted by the latest tidal wave of tech layoffs hitting the industry, there are many reasons you might find yourself job hunting as the year gets underway. In fact, the professional networking giant found that job applications are up an average of 16% per person per job.

Moreover, LinkedIn has just revealed a suite of powerful new features designed to transform your job search, unearthing exciting opportunities that might otherwise have remained hidden. LinkedIn’s new job search tools include a new Job Collections feature, plus the ability to better personalize your Preferences Page, and use “I’m Interested” signals to recruiters and hiring managers.

In this article, we’ll outline the latest LinkedIn features added this January and show you how to help you to make the most of the update in your quest for a dream job.

Uncover Hidden Gems with “Job Collections”

In a blog post, LinkedIn unveiled its new superpowers and they start with the addition of “Job Collections.”

To use Job Collections, navigate to the Jobs Tab on Linkedin. From there you can select “Explore with Job Collections” to get going.

The LinkedIn blog says you can “click on any of the collections that align with your passion and interests, including jobs that offer remote work, good parental leave, or a focus on sustainability.”

You can choose to filter by a vast range of industry vertical collections such as food & beverage, healthcare, media, defense & space and so on. It’s now much easier to discover more niche verticals.

Pro tip: Use collections to indulge your passions. If you’re really looking to shake things up, you can select job collections based on company size or maturity. For example, why not explore opportunities with startup or small business collections?

Fine-Tune Your Search: The Preferences Page

LinkedIn has now made it easier for users to manage their job search preferences from one place. Find the preference page at the top of the Jobs Tab on mobile and on the left-hand sidebar on desktop.

Set your preferences and you’ll then find those details highlighted in green when browsing job profiles so you can quickly spot when a job is a good match.

You’ll find options like location type (remote, hybrid, on-site), employment type (full-time, part-time, contract, etc.), minimum salary (US members only for now), as well as the ability to set up alerts so you never miss a new job listing that meets your criteria.

Keep an eye on this feature as LinkedIn plans to add new preferences soon.

Pro tip: Within the preferences page you can privately signal to recruiters that you’re open to work. Recruiters normally work on a commission basis and will help you find your dream job, so signaling to them that you’re actively job hunting is a no-brainer. In some cases, they may even show you job profiles before they put them online.

Express Interest, Effortlessly: “I’m Interested”

Sometimes timing is everything. You might know exactly what your dream job or company is, but there isn’t an opening that aligns with your experience right now.

Enter “I’m Interested,” a feature that allows you to express your enthusiasm directly to the company. No need to waste time crafting generic applications; simply click “I’m Interested,” and let your profile speak for itself.

Pro tip: Take a few minutes to signal your interest with your top 10-20 companies so that you’ll be top of mind once a position comes up. Refresh your list a few times a year so that you’re signaling to companies you’re passionate about.

Super-Charge your Job Search with AI

We’re not trying to sound like a sponsored ad (#notanad), but LinkedIn Premium does offer its users some enticing benefits.

You can be even pickier about the companies you spend time applying to with Advanced Premium Filters; increase your chance of being noticed by hiring managers with the Top Choice Job feature; and use the new AI-powered LinkedIn Premium experience to quickly assess whether a job is a good match for you.

Pro tip: We recommend taking advantage of your Premium free trial when you’re planning a career change – just remember to cancel before billing starts if you don’t want to continue reaping the benefits of the subscription beyond the free period.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai levelled with his employees this week, telling them to brace themselves for more job cuts as the company continues to streamline.

In the internal memo shared with Google employees on Wednesday, Pichai said: “to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted.”

The news comes just days after over a thousand Google employees were laid off across multiple teams, starting from January 10 this year.

Pichai informed employees in the memo that the layoffs were about “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas.”

The Tech Layoff Trend Continues

A memo from Google CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed employees, worth fears – more job cuts are on the horizon.

In an internal memo, seen by The Verge, Pichai reassures employees that the cuts will not reach anywhere near the 12,000 job-cutting spree that took place at Google last year – reducing their global head count by 6% – but says he understands it will be a difficult time for impacted teams.

The job cuts so far this year at Google have seen several departments downsize significantly, including Google’s hardware, ad sales, search, shopping, maps, policy, core engineering, and YouTube teams.

Just weeks into the new year and 2024 doesn’t appear to be bucking the trend of 2023 dubbed the “year of efficiency”.

Almost 8,000 jobs have been slashed by tech companies so far in 2024, according to job cut tracking website Layoffs.fyi. Discord, Meta, Salesforce, Amazon and Duolingo have all confirmed redundancies this year.

Is AI Already Replacing Jobs?

Has AI already started coming for tech worker’s jobs? Speculation over whether job cuts at Google will continue have seemingly been confirmed by this memo, as tech firms pivot towards a leaner workforce which leverages artificial intelligence software and automation.

Google has not confirmed nor denied that it is in fact replacing human employees with AI technologies but it is investing heavily in its artificial intelligence arm of the business, DeepMind.

No tech company wants to be left behind in the race to monetise AI, and as Pichai states in the memo  – “We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year,”

The memo continues, “the reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices.”

Following the ad sales team layoffs this week primarily from the Large Customer Sales team, Google explained that they are part of a restructure that will help facilitate the “best possible service to our Ads customers,” specifically helping small and medium sized businesses.

However a Google exec had tipped off The Information that Google is planning to reorganize its 30,000-employee ad sales unit by using machine learning to assist Google Ads customers with purchasing more of the business’s main cash-cow – its advertising products on Search and YouTube.

Looking for work? If you’ve been following the news recently, you might not settle on Google as the company to send your resume over to: The tech giant has recently kicked off a spree of layoffs that have cost hundreds their jobs.

It’s true. Google’s Augmented Reality and advertising sales divisions have both recently let go of many workers. However, at a huge corporation like Google, every team is its own ecosystem. And with 1,000 open positions at the company right now, lots of those ecosystems are hiring.

We’re not just looking at those openings, though. With remote work still going strong despite recent back-to-the-office headwinds, this is a chance to highlight the open jobs at Google that won’t require you even opening your front door to fully fit the bill for.

Fully Remote Google Jobs: Listings and Locations

Google’s job listing website sorts its open positions with the office that you’ll be reporting to, even for remote eligible positions. If you need to stay fully out of the office, you may find it challenging, although the final call will likely be made by your individual manager.

Google has long held a reputation for a grueling interview process that can stretch on for months. However, they’ve changed their approach a bit since the early 2010s. If you’re going for a key IT or engineering position, you can definitely expect 4 or 6 rounds of interviews, but the days of truly mind-boggling requirements are now in the past.

Here’s a quick selection of some fully remote US-based jobs currently available at Google:

• Senior Staff Software Engineer, Google Cloud Generative AI (Sunnyvale, CA, USA)
• Data Analytics Sales Specialist, Google Public Sector (Reston, VA, USA)
• Cyber Defense Analyst, Mandiant, Google Cloud (Texas, USA)
• Data Center Electrical Engineer, Google Data Centers (Indiana, USA)
• Cloud Transformation Technical Lead, Google Cloud (Boulder, CO, USA)
• Technical Editor, Google Cloud (Austin, TX, USA)
• Senior Interaction Designer, Google Cloud (Kirkland, WA, USA)
• Principal Architect, Google Cloud (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
• Security Sales Specialist, Google Cloud (Atlanta, GA, USA)
• Product Manager II, Google Workspace (New York, NY, USA)
• Principal Engineer, Efficiency, Site Reliability Engineering, Google Cloud (Washington, USA)

We’ve just listed US jobs above, but Google currently has 66 open positions listed as “remote eligible,” including more than a few in London, UK, and in Luxembourg.

Is Remote Work a Fit for You?

The Covid pandemic was a big kick in the pants for remote work: Between 2019 to 2021, the US Census found, working from home tripled in popularity, with the number of remote workers moving from 5.7% to 17.9%.

In the years since, the pendulum has swung backwards a little, but the shift is definitely not going away fully. Surveys and studies have bolstered the benefits of remote work as well: Employees enjoy the extra flexibility, with 89% of those who work from home saying they are optimistic about work, compared to 77% of those operating within a physical office.

Remote work offers the average person a way to look after their kids or aging family members. It helps those with chronic illnesses or autoimmune diseases. And it’s a boon to anyone who needs an extra hour or two in their day by letting them cut out their commute entirely.

However, it’s not for everyone: Some people thrive only under the structure that an office provides. CEOs definitely love the hands-on management and use of real estate that in-office mandates will accommodate. But ultimately, it’s better to have the option to work fully remotely whenever possible in order to fully accommodate everyone, and not just demand a one-size-fits-all approach.

Is Google a Fit for You?

Google is a big name in tech, and a resume that includes a stint at the tech behemoth will always stand out. That alone makes it worth considering a position at the search engine. In addition, the company’s AI tool Bard is part of the intriguing conversation surrounding generative AI — even if the search engine’s core product isn’t doing so hot these days.

However, the company has a unique culture that is not for everyone: Common complaints include intense competition from go-getters within a high-achieving culture. If your working style doesn’t align with what’s considered hard working at Google, you’ll fall behind and be incredibly stressed out at the same time. Plus, there’s a chance you’ll find yourself in a toxic workplace, though the toxicity will be dependent on what type of manager you wind up getting.

However, Google has won a high ranking on Fortune’s list of the best companies to work for, and benefits like nap pods help it stand out. Google’s holding on to a 4.4 out of 5 Glassdoor rating pulled from over 49,500 anonymous reviews. It’s definitely a workplace that looks great on paper.

How to Apply for Fully Remote Jobs at Google

You can visit the Google Careers website to get started on your journey towards a potential remote Google job.

Or, if you’re interested in expanding your options, consider another one of the companies hiring remotely this month — we’ve listed 43 options in our guide to the topic.

The majority of retail executives will be using artificial intelligence for their marketing efforts this year, a new survey has found.

56% of respondents picked marketing as the big area in which they say they’re investing in AI efforts in 2024. However, it’s not the only retail business area that AI might be taking over this year: Also on the list are financial forecasting, customer service, user experience, and more.

Retailers are making a big push for AI, in other words. It’s an early sign of businesses putting their money-saving where their mouth is for the technology, which has been highly hyped for several years now. But will it pay off?

The Stats on AI for Retail

In addition to marketing, a majority of execs are using AI for financial forecasting, with 52% saying they’ll be using the technology for this purpose in 2024.

After these two areas of interest, homogenity drops off a bit. Almost 40% say they’ll be using AI for customer service and user experience (39.2%), while about one in three say they’ll use AI in their supply chain management efforts (34.4%).

These results are all from a survey sponsored by Carl Marks Advisors, which notes plenty of optimism for the new year on the whole. As the report puts it, “Retailers are optimistic heading into 2024, with nearly 90% of survey respondents expecting their sales to remain the same or increase in 2024.”

Other Investments: BNPL, Same-Day Delivery, and More Hires

Artificial intelligence certainly can’t do it all, and the same survey respondents have a host of other areas they say are among those they are “most focused on investing in to enhance customer experiences” in 2024. Here’s a quick list of the top areas, and how many retail execs who are focusing on them.

• Buy now, pay later programs: 37.2%
• New innovative storefronts: 36.4%
• Same day delivery: 35.6%
• More employees: 34.8%
• Automated services: 29.6%
• Self-checkout: 27.2%

Particularly of note to many workers will be the focus on adding more employees: If 34.8% of retailers are hiring to a greater extent in 2024, that’s a change in direction. Despite single-digit annual retail sales growth in recent years, retail sales employment is expected to decline 2% between 2022 and 2032.

Will AI Work for Marketing?

AI tools face some challenges in the battle to carve out their place in the modern workplace. A top concern is their habit of “hallucinating” incorrect information, which could make AI a potential liability in sensitive business cases such as customer service.

However, provided AI tools always have human handlers to keep an eye on them, they can help cut down on hours worked to produce certain simple results, crafting basic marketing copy or images.

A greater concern for marketing AI efforts might be the unique look that a lot of AI images tend to share. If AI ads stand out as clearly AI — as many people who’ve spotted them on Instagram or Twitter in recent month claim that they do — then they likely won’t have a long shelf life as a marketing feature. The industry will always shift away from cheap and easy options, simply because they become overused and overexposed. Let’s hope AI ads can hold out through the end of 2024.

ChatGPT is the most popular AI chatbot in the world, but despite what many believe, it isn’t the only option out there.

In fact, in 2026, the online world is lousy with AI chatbots to choose from, and each one has its own, unique selling point. Some excel at finding accurate, factual information, coding, and planning, while others are simply built for entertainment purposes.

That’s why we spent some time with a bunch of them, so that you can understand the differences between the best AI chatbots available in 2026. Then, you’ll be well-informed about the best ChatGPT alternatives to use when that service periodically goes down.

In this guide:

• What Is an AI Chatbot?
• Best Free and Paid AI Chatbots Reviewed
• Honorable Mentions & Other AI Tools
• Is It Worth Upgrading to a Paid Plan?
• Tips On How to Use AI Chatbots Responsibly

What Is an AI Chatbot?

“AI chatbots” are a class of software applications or web interfaces that produce human-like conversations, respond to queries, and are capable of assisting with a wide range of tasks (depending on how intelligent they are).

Some AI chatbots are simple, like the helpbots you find on many websites. Conversational AI chatbots like ChatGPT, on the other hand, can help with an eclectic range of complex tasks that would take the average human hours to complete. AI chatbots have already been called upon for legal advice, financial planning, recipe suggestions, website design, and content creation.

ChatGPT can get pretty creative when it wants to, but we still recommend giving it your own spin. Source: Tech.co testing

This has led to their rapid and widespread usage in workplaces, but their application is much broader than that. Both consumer and business-facing versions are now offered by a range of different companies.

AI chatbots are powered by large language models (LLMs) – algorithms that use machine/deep learning techniques and huge sets of data to get a general grasp on language, so can be considered a form of artificial intelligence.

Prominent examples currently powering chatbots include Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT-4 (and the even newer GPT-4 Turbo).

The Best AI Chatbots in 2026 by Use Case

Here are the best AI chatbots available in 2026. Although there are a few more AI tools out there worth keeping an eye on (and for that, head on to the next section of this article), these stand out as the most important ones to know about as 2026 gets underway, a year during which significant strides are likely to be made in this area.

1. ChatGPT: Best Overall AI Chatbot
2. Google Gemini: Best For Creative Tasks
3. Claude: Best for Large Inputs/Document Review
4. Grok: Best for Entertaining Conversations
5. Writesonic/Chatsonic: Best for Content Creation
6. Meta AI: Best for Social Media
7. Copilot: Best for Microsoft Users
8. Perplexity AI: Best for Research
9. Pi: Best Personal AI
10. Personal AI: Best Personal Assistant
11. Poe: Best Chabot Aggregator
12. You.com: Best Copilot Alternative
13. Character AI: Great Fun & Generates Images

1. ChatGPT – Best Overall AI Chatbot

• Starting price: $20 per month
• Free plan: Yes

The chatbot that needs no introduction, ChatGPT is by far the most widely-used chatbot on this list and its breakthrough LLM helped pave the way for similar models to be made after its release. 

Created by OpenAI, ChatGPT has been powered by the GPT family of large language models throughout its public existence. Currently, the free version of the chatbot is powered by GPT-5 mini, with paid versions using the full-on GPT-5.

ChatGPT is most people’s go-to conversational chatbot for a good reason — but that’s also its biggest downside — the site sometimes goes down due to the immense amount of traffic it’s having to deal with, which leads users to be presented with immovable error codes.

ChatGPT is considered the go-to solution for many because of its clear, comprehensive responses to queries. Source: Tech.co testing

While ChatGPT previously required integrations with DALL-E to generate images, the platform now offers the functionality built in, so you can just ask for an image of pretty much anything and you’ll have it ready to go in seconds (maybe minutes).

ChatGPT no longer requires an integration to generate images on the platform. Source: Tech.co testing

Companies can also use ChatGPT to build their own chatbot, helping them streamline a range of processes from customer service to lead generation. Find out how to create your own AI chatbot in seven simple steps.

2. Gemini – Best for Creative Tasks

• Starting price: $19.99 per month
• Free plan: Yes

After ChatGPT was launched by a Microsoft-backed company, it was only a matter of time before Google got in on the action. Google launched Bard in February 2023, changing the name in February 2025 to Gemini. And despite some early hiccups, it has proven to be the best ChatGPT alternative.

Like ChatGPT, Gemini has been powered by several different LLMs since its release in February 2023. First, it ran on LaMDA – which one former Google employee once said was sentient – before a switch to PaLM 2, which had better coding and mathematical capabilities.

Now, Gemini runs on a variety of language models, including Gemini 1.0, Gemini 1.5, Gemini 2.0, and Gemini 2.5, which have made it even more capable of engaging in complex topics in a natural way. Basically, it sounds a lot more human.

Gemini is built into platforms like Gmail and Docs, which makes its ability to summarize text very valuable. Source: Tech.co testing

Users are able to get started with Gemini for free, or you can pay $20 per month for the Google AI Pro plan, which includes more generous limits and up to 2 TB of storage.

3. Claude – Best for Large Inputs

• Starting price: $17 per month
• Free plan: Yes

After Gemini and ChatGPT, Claude is the most capable chatbot on this list, all things considered. It was created by Anthropic, an AI research and development startup bankrolled by Google and Amazon since it was founded in 2021.

The company’s first skin in the chatbot game was Claude 1.3, but Claude 2 was rolled out shortly after in July 2023. Now, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Anthropic’s most advanced chatbot yet, is available for users to try out.

Anthropic is pioneering a concept called “constitutional AI” – which is effectively a way to make an LLM safer by ensuring it “gains” values via a constitution provided.

Claude’s responses are generally very educational, providing in-depth information about the topic you request. Source: Tech.co testing

“Anthropic’s language model Claude currently relies on a constitution curated by Anthropic employees,” Anthropic explains. “This constitution takes inspiration from outside sources like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as our own firsthand experience interacting with language models to make them more helpful and harmless”.

You can use Claude for free, but there’s also a paid version called Claude Pro for $17 per month. Find out more in our guide to Claude and Anthropic.

4. Grok – Best for Entertaining Conversations

• Starting price: $30 per month
• Free plan: Yes

Grok is Elon Musk’s biggest play in the AI space since he took over X/Twitter back in November 2022. The multi-billionaire actually co-founded OpenAI back in 2015, and more recently, launched xAI.

Grok’s name comes from the world of 1960s sci-fi and is now used as a term to mean intuitively or empathetically understanding something, or establishing a rapport.

The latest Grok language mode, Grok-4, is highly capable if a bit sarcastic. Compared to previous models, it offers enhanced reasoning and real-time search integration, a valuable perk for AI chatbots in 2026.

While it’s certainly not the most popular AI chatbot, largely reserved for settling debates on social media threads about whether the Earth is flat, X stills aims to make use of the AI tool more widespread, with a free plan available for all users now and a paid version for businesses that costs $30 per user, per month.

Grok offers a variety of models to choose from, and you get even more access if you’re willing to pay for it. Source: Tech.co testing

Grok is available for free for all users, but there are some paid plans to increase your limits. Check out our Grok pricing guide to learn more.

5. Writesonic – Best for Content Creation

• Starting price: $39 per month
• Free plan: Yes

If you need a bot to help you with large-scale writing tasks and bulk content creation, then Chatsonic is the best option currently on the market.

There’s a ChatGPT-stye chatbot called Chatsonic included in all Writesonic plans (including the free plan) and it can help with a variety of tasks, including generating articles and blog posts, improving grammar, and bulk content generation. It also has tools that can be used to improve SEO and social media performance.

Now, Writesonic has caught up with OpenAI and offers users the ability to create custom chatbots with a tool called “Botsonic”. With Botsonic, you can edit the knowledge base of any bot you’re building by uploading documents, and you even import a bot you’ve made using a GPT language model into Writesonic.

Writesonic provided us with a lot of information about our requested topic, although we didn’t get those pictures of parrots we asked for. Source: Tech.co testing

Writesonic also includes Photosonic, its own AI image generator – but you can also generate images directly in Chatsonic. One of the big upsides to Writesonic’s chatbot feature is that it can access the internet in real time, so it won’t ever refuse to answer a question because of a knowledge cut-off point.

6. Meta AI – Best Chatbot for Social Media

• Starting price: $10/month (coming soon)
• Free plan: Yes

If you want your AI chatbot to be integrated into your social media experience, specifically on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram, you’ve found the best chatbot for that. Appropriately named Meta AI, this tool is Meta’s entry in the AI chatbot discussion, providing users with all the basics when it comes to responding to natural language prompts.

Currently powered by Llama 4 and Llama 3.1, Meta AI is available within the various social media channels from Meta, so you can easily craft messages to friends and get helpful summaries of your interactions.

Beyond that, though, you can access Meta AI on its own by heading over to the Meta AI website or downloading the Meta AI app. On the standalone platform, you’ll still have to log in to one of your Meta accounts, and Meta AI makes it very easy to share your generations on the various sites with a simple share button in the upper right corner.

The Vibes platform within Meta AI is a unique attempt to get users more interested in AI content. Source: Tech.co testing

In addition to the text generation functionality, Meta has some other tools that can help you out. For one, there’s the Create service, which allows you to generate images and videos that are quite realistic, even by today’s standards.

On top of that, there’s the newly released Vibes platform, which is effectively a TikTok feed of AI-generated videos and images.

7. Copilot – Best for Microsoft Users

• Starting price: $30 per month
• Free plan: Yes

If you’re entrenched in the Microsoft ecosystem of services, there’s only one chatbot that makes sense for you: Copilot. This AI model is Microsoft’s entry into the fray, with vast and comprehensive integration with a wide range of Microsoft services, including Windows, Office, Outlook, Teams, and more.

Copilot uses the same large language systems that have powered ChatGPT since its launch — currently GPT-5 and GPT-4o — but it is integrate with Microsoft’s technology, so you can get the full experience.

Just ensure you don’t bombard it with tons of questions at once, as it does deal well with this kind of informational overload and sometimes crashes -=— at least in our limited experience.

Copilot is integrated with Bing, so you can easily provide prompts on the search engine. Source: Tech.co testing

The best thing about Copilot is that it’s completely free to use, and you don’t need to make an account to use it. It might verify that you’re human, but that just takes a single click and you’re ready to go.

Remember, though, signing in with your Microsoft account will give you the best experience and allow Copilot to provide you with longer answers.

8. Perplexity AI – Best for Research

• Starting price: $40 per month
• Free plan: Yes

Perplexity AI is an AI startup founded by Andy Konwinski, Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho, who are all former Google AI researchers. There’s a free version available, while Perplexity Enterprise Pro costs $40 per month.

Perplexity AI is powered by large language models from OpenAI (GPT-5) and Anthropic (Claude 4.5 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5), as well as its own technology.

More importantly, Perplexity AI’s language models are grounded in web search data and therefore have no knowledge cut-off. You can, for example, search “What happened on January 1, 2026?” and get a coherent answer from Perplexity AI.

Perplexity AI provides a robust set of information, including images and text, so you can fully research a topic with ease. Source: Tech.co testing

This key difference between Perplexity AI and many other widely-used chatbots like Gemini is that it always cites all of its sources used in any answer it gives, so users can make a judgment for themselves on whether the information is accurate, taking into account the source that it’s from. Images are also provided, sourced from the web. 

As you can see, the interface is pretty plain and uncluttered, and there’s also a “Discovery” tab, which will let you browse some trending stories and topics if you’re looking to explore the chatbot’s full potential. There’s also a Playground if you’d like a closer look at how the LLM functions.

9. Pi – Best Personal AI Chatbot

• Starting price: N/A
• Free plan: Yes

Pi is a chatbot launched by Inflection AI back in May of 2023. It’s designed to be a companion-style AI chatbot or “Personal AI” that can be used for lighthearted chatter, talking through problems, and generally being supportive.

Pi – which is completely free to use – has a welcoming interface, and like Perplexity AI, there’s a “Discovery” tab.

However, instead of being a direct route to trending topics, it’s a list of “conversation starters” you can use to prompt your conversations with Pi.

The Pi interface is a bit more relaxed and well-designed, giving you a comfortable feeling while conversing with the AI chatbot. Source: Tech.co testing

Pi is a good Personal AI or Character AI alternative. It’s a little more general use than the build-it-yourself business/brand-focused chatbot offered by Personal AI, however, so don’t expect the same capabilities.

What Pi is really great for is pleasant conversations and talking through your problems. It’s never going to replace the likes of ChatGPT in work settings, but it looks well on its way to carving out its own, distinct niche.

10. Personal AI – Best Personal Assistant

• Starting price: Custom
• Free plan: Yes

Personal AI is exactly what its name implies: a personal AI assistant. The Human Labs Inc. creation is designed for a truly different and more specific purpose than generic giants like Gemini and ChatGPT.

When you log in to Personal AI for the first time, it’ll ask you if you want to create a person for your professional life, personal life, or an “author.” You’ll need to upgrade to a different plan to create a personal AI for work, but the personal option is free.

You’ll then be able to choose if the AI should mirror you or someone else, and also edit its designated traits and communication styles.

You can then add information about your past work history, your interests, and various other aspects of your life – quite a bit like a social media profile. When we started to use it, it remembered things I’d put into my prompts regarding wanting to open a Bee sanctuary:

As the name suggests, Personal AI provides more personal insights into your questions for life planning. Source: Tech.co testing

As we’ve covered, Personal AI is free to use. However, there’s also a paid version of the service, but you’ll have to reach out to them for an exact price, because they don’t list pricing publicly anymore.

Personal AI is quite easy to use, but if you want it to be truly effective, you’ll have to upload a lot of information about yourself during setup. If you’re happy to spend some time doing that, though, it’ll be much more helpful for personal development than a more general-use tool like ChatGPT or Claude.

11. Poe – Best Chatbot Aggregator

• Starting price: $4.99 per month
• Free plan: Yes

Poe isn’t actually a chatbot itself – it’s an AI platform that will allow you to access lots of other chatbots within a single, digital hub. If you’re someone who likes to have lots of choices – and you’re interested in using lots of different chatbots – then this might just be the platform for you.

Despite its unique position in the market, Poe still provides its own chatbot, called Assistant, which you can use alongside all of the other apps and tools included within its platform.

Poe aggregates other AI chatbots into a single platform for easy comparison between models. Source: Tech.co testing

There’s a free version of Poe that’s available on the web, as well as iOS and Android devices via their respective app stores. However, the free plan won’t let you access every chatbot on the market – bots running advanced LLMs like GPT-5 are hidden behind a paywall.

12. You.com – Best Microsoft Copilot Alternative

• Starting price: $15 per month
• Free plan: Yes

You.com works similarly to Perplexity AI, combining the functions of a traditional search engine and an AI chatbot. When you start typing into the chat bar, for example, you’ll get auto-fill suggestions like you do when you’re using Google.

However, you’ll still be provided with a ChatGPT-style answer, and it’ll be sourced so you can click through to the websites it drew the information from. This makes it a good alternative for people who aren’t quite sold on Perplexity AI and Copilot.

You.com provides users with in-depth answers and cited links, so you can follow up with the conversation. Source: Tech.co testing

You can use You.com powered by GPT-3.5 without making an account, but if you sign up for a paid plan, you’ll be able to use the latest models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic as well as other premium “modes”. There’s now a “research” mode available, which You.com says “provides analysis and topic explorations, with extensive citations and the ability to display information in an organized table.

13. Character AI – Best for Fun, Generated Images

• Starting price: $9.99 per month
• Free plan: Yes

Character AI is a chatbot platform that lets users chat with different characters/personas, rather than just a plain old chatbot. In October 2025, the company had around 20 million active users spending an average of two hours a day on the platform.

If you want to use Character AI, you’ll have to make an account. And, while it’s fun, we wouldn’t trust the information coming out of it as much as we would with Gemini or ChatGPT (although that’s not saying much).

Character AI allows users to ask specific characters, like Napoleon Bonaparte, questions as if they were AI chatbots. Source: Tech.co testing

There have been questions raised previously about whether Character AI is safe, and what the company does with the data created by conversations with users.

Honorable Mentions & Other AI Tools

Of course, the chatbots that we’ve featured in this article aren’t the only chatbots out there. There’s a whole ecosystem of tools available, many of which offer unique functionalities that may be a better fit for your particular needs.

Here are some other AI chatbots and models that you can choose from.

• My AI – The AI chatbot that is built directly into the Snapchat interface for simple tasks like trivia and planning events.
• Jasper AI – This is a very powerful tool, used by a significant number of businesses, and is just as useful as Writesonic (Chatsonic) for content creation.
• OpenAI Platform Playground – This is an experimental tool made available by ChatGPT creators OpenAI. You can switch between different language models easily, and adjust other settings that you can’t normally change while using ChatGPT. Unfortunately, as of early 2026, this feature is no longer provided for free by OpenAI.
• Replika AI – This is a “companion” chatbot — rather than assisting with day-to-day tasks, it allows users to interact with human-generated AI personas.
• Quillbot – An AI companion for your written work that can paraphrase sentences, generate citations, and check your grammar.
• MidJourney – This is the best AI image generator currently available. You don’t need any graphic design software to use Midjourney, but you will have to sign up to Discord to use the service.
• Originality.ai – An AI detection tool that, while not 100% reliable (because none of them are), shows promising results that could help you spot AI slop.

On top of these AI platforms, vibe coding tools have become increasingly popular for businesses in 2026, allowing users to generate complete and functionality apps with natural language prompts.

Suffice to say, there are dozens of not hundreds of AI tools out there that perform a myriad of different functions, so if you haven’t found the right option for your business, just keep looking!

The OpenAI Playground allows developers to get the most out of the OpenAI experience. Source: Tech.co testing

Is It Worth Upgrading to a Paid Plan?

Fortunately, most chatbots offer free plans that let you fire off prompts without paying a premium.

Free packages, like those offered by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, offer surprisingly impressive capabilities, letting users write, plan, resolve queries using up-to-date data, and even create basic AI-generated images. For the casual AI user, these features will probably be enough to get by.

However, most free AI chatbots have pretty strict usage limits. For example, ChatGPT only lets free users send off 10 prompts every five hours, while Gemini Free limits requests to two per minute.

If you’re relying on the chatbot heavily to streamline work or personal processes, we’d recommend increasing access through a paid plan. Paid plans offer much more advanced features too, like file uploads, advanced image creation, and enhanced audio recognition.

Stick with a free plan if:

• You only use chatbots sporadically
• You aren’t interested in creating AI-generated images
• You don’t want to commit to one chatbot
• You use chatbots to assist with simple tasks like writing and problem-solving

You should upgrade to a paid plan if:

• You use chatbots regularly for work or personal purposes
• You want to generate high volumes of images
• You want to create your own GPT
• You want to use AI to assist with complex tasks like coding or data analysis

Tips on How to Use AI Responsibly

AI chatbots have a near-endless list of use cases and are undoubtedly very useful. But as is the case with any powerful yet freely available technology, it’s important to be aware of the risks and ethical considerations, and use it responsibly. Here are some tips on how to use AI responsibly.

• Understand regulations –  Right now, Chatbots aren’t governed by any specific regulation, with governments only just getting around to exploring ways to manage AI development more broadly. But that’s changing, so be sure to stay aware of regulations in the space.
• Curb data mining – Most chatbots have different policies that govern how they can use your data, as a user. Some allow you to turn off tracking, while others don’t, so if you don’t want your data used to train AI, make sure you find a model that allows that.
• Ask permission – Some businesses have banned employees from using ChatGPT over privacy fears, and if you’re dealing with sensitive information, from customer data to source codes, then you don’t want to breach your own company’s rules and regulations.
• Be honest – Of course, it’s also good to be upfront about whether you’re using AI for your own sake, with many bosses concerned that employees are using AI without permission.

All in all, AI usage is growing at a substantial rate and these tips will continue to evolve as time goes on, so make sure to check for more advice on how to use AI in the workplace.

Apple will open up its US App Store to allow outside payment options, following a Supreme Court ruling this week.

The company will now let all third-party apps sold in the US link to an outside developer website in order to process payments for in-app purchases.

Developers who choose to bypass Apple’s own payment system will be subject to pay a 27% share of revenue to the tech giant. 

This latest news comes as a secondary blow for the iPhone maker this year, as it was recently shared that Microsoft had overtaken it in becoming the most valuable company in the world. 

Supreme Court Doesn’t Want to Hear It

According to the Supreme Court decision, Apple’s business model didn’t violate antitrust laws. It did, however, go against California’s Unfair Competition Law by limiting developers’ ability to reference and signpost to alternate, potentially cheaper, payment systems.

Both Apple and Epic Games Inc., the developer behind Fortnite, asked the court to hear an appeal, but this was turned down without explanation. 

Following this, Apple has since introduced StoreKit Purchase Link Entitlement (US), allowing developers that offer in-app purchases the ability to add a link to their website that shares information on other ways to pay.

Apple Remains Unconvinced

Apple has since updated its guidelines but was sure to state that:

“We believe Apple’s in-app purchase system is the most convenient, safe, and secure way for users to purchase digital goods and services.”

It also shared a list of situations it wouldn’t be able to assist with should customers use a third-party payment option. This includes refunds, purchase history, and subscription management. For developers choosing to provide alternative payment systems, the responsibility of resolving these issues would now fall to them.

Despite publishing these guidelines, Apple remains unconvinced that outside payment options will work and consider collecting commissions to be “exceedingly difficult and in many cases, impossible,” due to the size of the App Store.

Google Faces Scrutiny Too

Linking to third-party payment options is fast becoming the norm for tech companies, with similar rulings having recently taken place.

Back in December, Google was said to have “willfully acquired or maintained monopoly power by engaging in anticompetitive conduct” against Epic Games, before being found guilty by U.S. District Judge James Donato.

Similarly, the search giant paid $700 million in settlement with the US attorney general over another case of monopolizing on the Play Store. This led to the company making changes to its app store model, including the option for developers to use alternative billing methods.

Following a rise in deepfake advertisements in the country, India has issued a warning to tech companies that it is prepared to impose bans if they fail to take appropriate measures against them.

This comes after an ad went viral using a deepfake of Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar to endorse a gaming app.  

Only last week Taylor Swift was involved in a similar AI scam, with her deepfake likeness seemingly endorsing Le Creuset cookware products, sparking concern over a rise of deepfakes in the mainstream.

Efforts To End Deepfakes

India’s junior minister for information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar told press that the ministry had informed tech platforms that failure to take action against deepfakes would result in legal consequences from New Delhi.

He also confirmed that the ministry plans to change the nation’s IT rules imminently, in order to establish definitive laws around deepfakes that will counteract their use.

Speaking to a press conference, Chandrasekhar stated: “If a platform thinks that they can get away without taking down deepfake videos, or merely maintain a casual approach to it, we have the power to protect our citizens by blocking such platforms.”

Tendulkar, one of India’s best-loved cricketers and the man whose likeness was used in the gaming ad that sparked the recent conversation, wrote on Twitter/X: “It is disturbing to see rampant misuse of technology. Social media platforms need to be alert and responsive to complaints. Swift action from their end is crucial to stopping the spread of misinformation and deepfakes.” 

“Unlawful And Dangerous”

Currently, India’s IT rules state that social media platforms have to ensure that “no misinformation is posted by any user.” Should they fail to comply, the platforms can be taken to court under Indian law. 

While the new rules around deepfakes are yet to be confirmed, it’s likely they will contain similar constraints and instruct platforms to remove the videos immediately when flagged. 

“Deepfake content is unlawful and dangerous, and it is unacceptable for companies to hide behind claims of ‘best-effort’ while allowing these fabrications to spread.” – Chandrasekhar

Celebrity Deepfakes On The Rise

Unfortunately this incident isn’t isolated, as it appears India is battling a rise in deepfakes, specifically within Bollywood. AI expert Aarti Samani has put this down to a young population, obsession with celebrity culture, and heavy use of social media. The result? “[deepfake] videos spreading quickly, magnifying the problem,” she explained.

The issue is growing further afield too, with the recent case of Taylor Swift and her supposed cookware endorsement, as well as a deepfake of YouTuber MrBeast being linked to a 2023 iPhone scam.

While many think they’re not susceptible to falling for a likeness, it has been proven that humans can only spot deepfake speech 73% of the time. This in itself causes particular concern as it’s election year here in the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, and an invasion of deepfakes on social media has already started to disrupt campaigns.

If you’re a consumer of the platforms and media that deepfakes are infiltrating, our advice would be to think critically as to whether a celebrity would endorse a particular campaign, and if in doubt, use an AI image detector.

Amazon is rolling out a new generative AI tool that can answer shoppers’ questions about a product and respond to creative prompts.

The feature has been designed to prevent shoppers from having to scroll through reviews or a product listing itself in order to find information.

This news highlights a clear trend of AI capabilities beginning to merge with e-Commerce. Just last week Microsoft and Walmart announced an AI-powered search function that aims to understand the context behind a customer’s query in order to generate personalized search results.

Better, Easier Shopping Ahead

Ever had a question about a product on Amazon that you struggled to find an answer for? Scrolling through lengthy product listings or hundreds of reviews in the chance of finding the information you need could soon be a thing of the past. 

Amazon has this week rolled out its latest AI tool that can answer shoppers’ questions about a specific item. In a few seconds the AI feature will deliver an answer, having first summarized information collated from the product review and listing.

This isn’t a wide-scale release, however. Currently only available in Amazon’s mobile app, it’s likely the technology will go through several iterations before being released to the web, with Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti stating:

“We’re constantly inventing to help make customers’ lives better and easier, and are currently testing a new feature powered by generative AI to improve shopping on Amazon by helping customers get answers to commonly asked product questions”.

Let’s Not Get Too Chatty Though

The tool hasn’t been designed to carry out a “conversation”, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard, but it does have a few creative quirks for users to enjoy.

Need to hear a product description written in the style of Yoda from Star Wars? How about a haiku on the t-shirt you’ve just been looking at? The new search feature will respond to creative prompts like those, but that’s where the fun will end.

Deviating into non-item based questions such as “Who is Jeff Bezos?” will return an error message, as the tool is not designed to veer from the topic of products.

Full Steam Ahead For AI

When it comes to AI tools, this isn’t Amazon’s first rodeo. 

Towards the end of last year, it released Amazon Q – a generative-AI assistant for the workplace that has been trained on 17 years of Amazon Web Services information. As well as this, third-party sellers can now use AI features to help them generate imagery for ads and write product listings.

Perhaps most interestingly however, is the possible foundation for this latest AI search functionality – Amazon’s AI-generated product review summaries. The company began testing this feature last summer, and the functionality gave users an overview of what shoppers liked and disliked about a particular product. This kind of information seems to main source of context that the new generative search capability is drawing upon.

All in all, Amazon doesn’t look set to slow down its AI innovations any time soon.

In its latest earnings call, CEO of Amazon Web Services Andy Jassy stated that the company will be using generative-AI to forecast inventory and figure out the best routes for its drivers. 

“Generative-AI is going to change every customer experience, and it’s going to make it much more accessible for everyday developers, and even business users, to use. So I think there’s going to be a lot of societal good.”

Following last week’s news that it was to cut hundreds of staff from its Augmented Reality (AR) division, Google has just announced a fresh wave of redundancies. This time within its advertising sales team.

According to Google, the layoffs are part of a restructure that will help facilitate the “best possible service to our Ads customers”.

The news comes following significant job cuts at both Amazon and Duolingo in recent weeks, further confirming the concerning 2024 trend for tech redundancies.

Restructuring Specialist Teams

Around 1,000 Google employees in the AR, Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit teams got the news last week that their jobs were no more. Following this, “a few hundred roles globally” across the ad sales division are also being eliminated, this time owing to structural changes within the team.

According to Google spokesperson Chris Pappas:

“Every year we go through a rigorous process to structure our team to provide the best service to our Ads customers. We map customers to the right specialist teams and sales channels to meet their service needs. As part of this, a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated and impacted employees will be able to apply for open roles or elsewhere at Google.”

Better Support For SMEs

The news was delivered to staff via a memo from Google senior vice president Philipp Schindler, which also seemed to outline the restructure plans.

The redundancies mostly affect its Large Customer Sales unit, who are the team that sell ads to large businesses. As a result, the Google Customer Solutions team – those who sell to smaller clients – are now set to become the core ad sales team.

According to the tech giant, jobs cuts specifically in this area are intended to bring about better support for small and medium sized businesses advertising on Google. So much so, that the changes could actually result in increased hiring across the customer support team.

More Cuts To Come?

This time last year, Google cut around 12,000 jobs, reducing its workforce by roughly 6%. With layoffs remaining somewhat consistent throughout 2023, and now into 2024, speculation remains that this won’t be the last wave of cuts.

According to a company statement, Google said: “We’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead. To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities.”

Back in 2017, Equifax suffered one of the largest data breaches ever seen, compromising the details of over 140 million of its customers.

Among the details that were taken, names, addresses, driving licences and social security numbers were all exposed. That’s not to mention a smaller portion who had their credit card information stolen, too.

The case was subject of a class action lawsuit, and while the original deadline for claims has passed, Equifax customers can still apply for compensation for certain expenses. Read on to find out how.

Extended Claims Period in Equifax Settlement

The Equifax breach of 2017 was shocking in its scale, with 147 million customers affected, and a huge mountain of data exposed, which included names, addresses, driving licences and social security numbers. Some users, around 200,000, even had credit card details exposed.

A settlement lawsuit was made against Equifax, and while the company was cleared of any wrong doing, it did agree to compensate customers who had been impacted by the breach.

When is the Deadline for Equifax Breach Settlement?

The original date for claims to be submitted under the settlement has long passed, and unless you’ve got a time machine and can travel back to January 22, 2020, you’re out of luck. Customers who got their claims in before this deadline were eligible for free credit monitoring, or $125 cash.

However, there is also an extended claims period, which runs to January 22 2024, meaning that even if you missed the original deadline, you could still be entitled to some compensation.

Claims are still open for those who wish to be reimbursed for:

• Time spent during the extended claims period (January 23 2020 to January 22 2024), recovering from fraud or ID theft caused by the breach, for $25 an hour.

and/or

• Out of pocket losses during the extended claims period, as a result of the breach, up to $20,000.

How to Make an Equifax Settlement Claim – and Who is Eligible?

Anyone who was a victim of the original data breach is eligible. If you don’t know if you were affected, all you need is your surname and the last six digits of your social security number to find out. You can check via the tool on the settlement website.

To make a claim in the Equifax extended period settlement, simply head to the official Equifax Settlement website.

You’ll need to submit some information with your claim, depending on how you were affected. For example, if you suffered additional costs, expenses or losses due to the breach, you may be asked for police reports, IRS documents, FTC Identify Theft Reports, and letters refusing to refund you for fraudulent charges.

Microsoft has announced a new subscription package, Copilot Pro, which is designed to give individual consumers access to the company’s AI tool – and it’s powered by the same language model that brings ChatGPT to life.

Access to the technology has also been expanded beyond the company’s trial program, and is now open to any business that wants to use it. But what is Microsoft’s Copilot Pro, who can use it, and how much does it cost? In this short-but-sweet guide, we cover:

• What Is Copilot Pro?
• How Much Does Copilot Pro Cost?
• How to Use Copilot Pro
• Can You Use Copilot for Free?
• Copilot Pro: Small Business Access

What Is Copilot Pro?

Microsoft has announced a new AI subscription package this week, called Copilot Pro – which the company has said is geared towards individuals rather than businesses.

Before this, Microsoft had only released Copilot to businesses as part of an Early Access Program largely made up of Fortune 500 companies. Now, the Pro version is available for the average person to download and use in their workday.

Copilot Pro, Microsoft says, provides a “single AI experience” running across all of your devices and applications.

Along with access to the AI tool within Microsoft apps, you’ll also get access to GPT-4 Turbo “during peak times for faster performance” and enhanced AI image creation capabilities with Image Creator from Designer.

How Much Does Copilot Pro Cost?

Copilot Pro currently costs $20 per user, per month for a subscription. However, you will need an existing Microsoft 365 Personal or Family account to use Copilot Pro, as it can’t be just bought as a standalone AI tool to use with any program.

Although it doesn’t quite fulfill the same purpose, it’s a lot cheaper than some of the AI-powered content generation tools out there, such as Jasper. Considering you’ll have access to GPT-4 Turbo, it’s pretty good value for money.

How to Use Microsoft Copilot Pro

You can use Copilot Pro today by purchasing a subscription from Microsoft. As we’ve just covered, Copilot Pro costs $20 per user, per month at the moment, which is roughly in line with premium generative AI subscriptions offered by competitors like Anthropic’s Claude AI.

Once you’ve purchased a subscription, you’ll be able to use Copilot in Microsoft Word, Excel, and various other Microsoft apps. The Windows Key + C is the keyboard shortcut that brings up Copilot at present.

If you purchase a subscription and open a Word document, for example, you could ask Copilot to draft you a blog post rather than write it yourself. In Excel, you could ask it to create a chart or graphic based on the data you’ve provided.

As with most generative AI tool, working out how to use Copilot is pretty intuitive – just make sure your prompts are clear and as unambiguous as possible.

Can You Use Copilot for Free?

It’s not possible to use Copilot Pro for free – you’ll have to pay the subscription fee, which is the same price as a subscription to ChatGPT Plus.

You can, of course, access Copilot for free on the web if you want to see what the chatbot is made of, although it won’t be nearly as useful as the paid version you can use inside your Microsoft applications. The same goes for Copilot for Bing, which is accessible via the search engine.

Remember, if you’re looking for free AI tools, there are plenty of Copilot alternatives, such as Bard, which has a free version available powered by Gemini Pro.

Microsoft Expands Copilot Access to More Businesses

Along with a new individual/consumer-facing product, Microsoft has also expanded access to copilot to small businesses. So far, the software has only been available to a select few companies that participated in the early access program.

“Today we are excited to announce that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for organizations of all sizes — with no seat minimum” one section of the blog posts states.

It’s unlikely to unseat ChatGPT as the world’s favorite AI tool just yet, but this marks an important expansion of access for millions of businesses who want a simple AI solution that integrates into the apps they use every day without a fuss.

AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT have made it easier for businesses to automate processes, ushering in a new era of workplace productivity, but leaving many workers anxious about their future employment as a result.

And it’s not just clerical roles on the chopping block. As AI models become even more adept at human-like reasoning, even previously ‘safe’ jobs including lawyers, coders, and financial analysts are at risk of becoming augmented or replaced altogether, if current trends continue.

But if you’re concerned about the future viability of your job, don’t hit the panic button just yet. There are a number of practical measures you can take to navigate the uncertainty, including leveraging your soft skills and using AI to your advantage.

Flip the narrative on job-stealing-AI with these simple, expert-led steps below, or read on to learn more about the technology’s current impact on the employment landscape.

1. Use AI to speed up existing processes 
2. Get proficient with ChatGPT Prompts
3. Create a custom GPT for your company
4. Become a research pro
5. Hone your emotional intelligence
6. Develop your creativity
7. Work on your personal brand 
8. Diversify your skillset

As the AI Takeover Looms, Which Roles Are The Most Vulnerable?

Technology has been automating jobs since the days of the power loom. However, while the previous industrial revolution revolved around physical labor, AI’s enhanced data processing and cognitive abilities make it a threat to a variety of clerical and knowledge-based roles.

To put a number on it, research firm Forrester predicts as many as 2.4 million jobs could be replaced in the US by 2023, but which ones are the most likely to be impacted?

As demonstrated in IBM’s recent decision to phase out back-office HR positions, roles at the greatest risk of replacement include administrative jobs like data entry clerks, human resources assistants, and account managers.

Legal and scientific assistants are also likely to see the nature of their roles change in coming years, according to Forester, while content writers and graphic designers will also face growing competition from AI chatbots.

While OpenAI’s powerful GPT-4 technology poses an increasing risk to high-salaried positions like lawyers, engineers, and scientists, it’s more likely that AI will be used to augment these roles rather than oust them altogether. But whatever your field or experience level, steps can be taken to mitigate the technology impact, as we explore below.

How to Protect Your Job Against AI in 8 Steps

Worried about AI? Take fate into your own hands with these simple actions.

1. Use AI to your advantage

As the adage goes, if you can’t beat them join them. While there are loads of tasks humans can complete better than bots, there’s no use competing against tools like ChatGPT when it comes to streamlining basic work processes.

By using AI to carry out basic functions like task scheduling, time management, and data analysis, you’ll have more time and energy to focus on human-led tasks. Using the technology smartly will also give you a leg-up over other colleagues with less AI literacy, whilst giving you leverage over your workplace’s future AI policy.

“Learn to work alongside AI systems as tools, leveraging their capabilities to enhance productivity and efficiency” Remi Alli, a lawyer from PR firm Elite Exclusivity explains. “Actively seek opportunities to incorporate AI tools into your work processes, which can make your role more essential.”

2. Get proficient with ChatGPT Prompts

A chatbot response is only as good as its input. So, another way to make the most of tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Gemini is by learning to master the art of the prompt.

Generally speaking, there are a number of key factors to bear in mind when crafting your prompt. You should use neutral, objective language to avoid influencing the response with subjective framing. You should also be as specific as possible, add lots of context and examples for the chatbot to replicate, and specify what you aren’t looking for in an answer.

“Learn how to create prompts and build a process where you can produce ten times the output in far less time with far less effort. Being able to accomplish the work of multiple people effectively will help you stand out.” – Steven J.Wilson, Financial services marketing consultant

Whether you’re using ChatGPT for SEO research or content production, it’s also worth looking up tried-and-tested ChatGPT prompt examples so you can best utilize it for your specific industry.

3. Create a custom GPT for your company

OpenAI recently launched the GPT store, enabling users to create and profit from their own custom GPT. Learning the ropes of existing chatbots is one thing, but making a custom GPT for your company will help to make your role even more indispensable by proving to your employer that you’re an expert in the field.

Custom GPTs can service businesses in a variety of ways. They could be used as an internal resource center, helping employees get answers to company-focused queries quickly, or could also be used to handle external customer support inquiries. You don’t need to be an expert coder to build one, either. The process only takes around 15 minutes from start to finish as long as you follow these simple steps.

4. Become a research pro

There’s no denying that ChatGPT is a decent research companion. But with ChatGPT 3.5 only being able to retrieve information up to January 2022, and ChatGPT-4’s data cap only expanding to April of last year, the chatbot isn’t able to include contemporary data in its responses. AI chatbots are also prone to errors, providing incomplete information, and lacking source information, limiting their use even more.

To remedy these shortcomings it’s important to utilize a wide range of channels – from online blogs to academic journals – when conducting research. It’s also worth fact-checking the responses you receive from chatbots, to avoid relying on the tools wholeheartedly.

5. Hone your emotional intelligence

No matter how advanced AI gets, it will never be able to replace a human’s ability to emphasize and connect on an emotional level. Therefore, one way to gain leverage over AI, and to make yourself an indispensable player in your team, is to hone and develop your emotional intelligence (EI).

“A worker needs to consider, in their specific industry, what can AI not do. Learn and grow into that space. Will AI eventually move into that space? Possibly, so workers will need to regularly change course.” – Bryan Driscoll,  lawyer and HR consultant

Workers with high levels of EI are more adept at building strong relationships with colleagues, navigating unpredictable situations, and collaborating efficiently. In fact, a TalentSmart survey revealed that 90% of top performers are found to have high emotional intelligence.

There are lots of ways to demonstrate EI in a workplace context, including responding positively to new initiatives, being flexible with demands, socializing with co-workers outside of working hours, and practicing active listening.

6. Develop your creativity

Another facet where AI falls short is creativity. While chatbots are capable of processing swathes of data and generating complex code at the drop of the hat, AI will never be able to generate an original idea quite like a human.

This drawback is why AI models pose much less of a threat to jobs that hinge on creativity like novelists, choreographers, stylists, and musicians. But it’s not just creatives that will be shielded from the takeover. As long as you’re able to demonstrate creative processes in your current job, you’re going to have an advantage over AI.

“You will not be supplanted by AI in future
generations if you are a creative thinker who is always poised to solve problems, regardless of whether you are an expert in artificial intelligence or not.” –  Professor Te Wu, CEO of PMO Advisory

Even if you think you lack a creative streak, there are tons of ways to illustrate this strength to your employer, including brainstorming new ideas, reassessing establishing processes, and being open to innovative thinking.

7. Work on your personal brand

AI can accurately be described as a Jack of all trades, but a master of none. While chatbots are capable of carrying out a seemingly limited array of tasks, they will never be able to replicate the expertise, knowledge, and influence held by industry leaders.

Therefore, one of the best ways to safeguard your position in your current job and beyond is by carving out a specific niche in your field and developing your personal brand. Doing so will improve your competitive advantage in your industry, not just against AI tools, but against other workers vying for similar positions.

You don’t need to do this on your own either. Connecting with like-minded people and building a network is an excellent way to solidify your position as an industry leader, and to improve your career’s longevity.

8. Diversify your skillset

Finally, for those working in roles at greater risk of automation, now is an excellent time to strengthen your employment advantage by developing new skills.

It’s never too late to upskill, and as AI continues to disrupt the job market, adding more strings to your bow is the best way to stay ahead of the curve. Human skills that involve creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving are a great place to start, as they’re becoming even more valuable in the age of AI. However, doubling down and improving your digital literacy will also serve you well, and make it easier to adapt to the changing landscape of work.

“AI relies heavily on data as a component. Gain expertise in comprehending, interpreting, and working with data by developing your talents. Data analysis, data visualization, and fundamental statistical understanding are all examples of this.” – Steve Elliot, Owner of Restoration1

Still an AI novice? It doesn’t take long to clue yourself up on the developing tech, especially with the right resources. Check out our guide to the best free AI training courses to learn how to use AI to your advantage.

OpenAI has unveiled its plans to ensure ChatGPT doesn’t turn into a disruptive influence in the elections that are taking place across the globe this year, including in the US and UK.

One of the steps the company is taking to ensure US users are presented with legitimate voting information is to direct them to an “authoritative” voting site called CanIVote.Org, where users can find information relating to election procedures, voting locations, as well as early and absentee voting.

The startup also announced a raft of other important clarifications and changes relating to political content and abuse prevention on its platforms, which remain the most popular AI tools used by businesses.

ChatGPT to Direct Users to Page Containing Voting Information

“In the United States, we are working with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the nation’s oldest nonpartisan professional organization for public officials,” OpenAI revealed in a blog post this week.

As part of its approach to the 2024 US election, ChatGPT will send users directly to CanIVote.org, when asked certain questions about voting issues.

CanIVote.org is a webpage where all eligible US voters can find out their voter registration status, the location of their nearest polling station, and information on what constitutes valid identification for voting.

There’s also information relating to absentee and early voting available through the site, via links to state-based election authorities.

If this sort of action is successful in the US, OpenAI says, then they will repeat the approach in other regions during election cycles.

Other Steps ChatGPT is Taking During the Election Year

Along with directing voters to legitimate sources of voting information, there are several other steps OpenAI says it will take to ensure ChatGPT is not misused during election year.

For example, you won’t be able to build a GPT (a custom chatbot) that mimics a political figure or institution, and then pretend to speak on their behalf. “Applications” that try to deter people from participating are also off the menu.

“We work to anticipate and prevent relevant abuse—such as misleading “deepfakes”, scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates,” Open AI says.

“Prior to releasing new systems, we red team them, engage users and external partners for feedback, and build safety mitigations to reduce the potential for harm,” the company adds.

In terms of image generation, early this year, ChatGPT is implementing the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity’s digital credentials – which involves attaching a cryptographic marker to all images generated using DALL-E.

OpenAI also says it has seen some “promising” results from a new provenance classifier the company is experimenting with. The technology is designed to detect whether an image has been created with DALL-E even if it has been modified in some way.

Will ChatGPT Be a Good or a Bad Influence on Elections?

ChatGPT is widely used by businesses across the United States and the chatbot will be expected to respond cogently to an avalanche of political and legal queries as the election joins closer.

Although the prospect of ChatGPT – as well as other AI tools – being used to spread disinformation has been spoken about at great length, whether ChatGPT specifically will have a particularly negative impact on elections is far from clean-cut.

Of course, there’s the risk that ChatGPT provides incorrect political information unintentionally – although OpenAI seems to be addressing this possibility head-on with its approach.

Indeed, plans to direct voters to a site with legitimate voting information – and ensuring ChatGPT doesn’t misrepresent democratic processes – would suggest, at least on the surface, that OpenAI may have enforced tighter regulations on itself than many of the other channels we use to source information, where disinformation often festers.

Disinformation – as well as other persuasive political content – already flows quickly through social media sites, search engines, and even some traditional media channels at a rapid pace.

What’s more, OpenAI isn’t managing millions of users producing an endless stream of human-generated content like social media sites, and there are no equivalent First Amendment considerations. ChatGPT’s output isn’t “uncontrolled” in quite the same way, nor is it protected.

In theory, OpenAI could even enforce a “no-politics” rule if it really wanted to. That sort of broad-brush principle is already being applied to GPTs, which can’t be made to mimic figures or institutions.

The threat AI poses to democratic elections domestically – and it is a very real one – is more likely to come from generative AI tools that aren’t under the same level of public pressure to publicize their “approach” to the elections taking place in 2024, or from someone who’s built a malicious AI tool, and therefore won’t implement any guardrails.

Of course, nation-state actors are already using AI tools to spread disinformation, and this is probably the most likely way we’ll see AI used to disrupt democratic processes if the last few years of election meddling are anything to go on.

It’s also important to remember this is an AI system that continues to surprise us, and continues to prove itself both fallible and open to manipulation. And as soon as OpenAI makes any changes to ChatGPT, there’s an army of people waiting to push it to its logical limits. A spate of elections simply creates an additional, political motivation to do this.

Whatever happens, the way ChatGPT and other AI tools are being used by voters will be a story that will dominate the headlines throughout the year.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in our professional practices, 60% of US jobs risk becoming impacted by the technology, according to a new analysis from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

While half of these impacted jobs will become assisted through the technology, the research found that the other half could be negatively impacted by AI, with some likely to become obsolete altogether.

The IMF’s report also highlighted AI’s potential impact on global inequality, with its findings suggesting that the economies of low-income countries could fall even further behind advanced nations by failing to “seize” the technology. Here’s what we know so far.

IMF: The Majority of US Jobs Will Soon Be Affected By AI

A new research report by the IMF is validating long-established anxieties about AI’s looming impact on the workplace.

The report, which was released on Sunday, warned that 40% of global jobs will soon become influenced by the technology in some way, with this figure rising to 60% for advanced economies like the US.

As AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard continue to streamline professional processes and fill efficiency gaps for businesses, the results of these changes won’t be wholly negative though, with around 30% of roles in advanced economies standing to benefit from AI-enhanced productivity.

However, unlike previous with previous labor market disruptions, the report points out that white-collar jobs that require high levels of education aren’t exempt from this movement due to rapid advancement with AI and machine learning.

“Jobs that require nuanced judgment, creative problem-solving, or intricate data interpretation – traditionally the domain of highly educated professionals – may now be augmented or even replaced by advanced AI algorithms,” – IMF report

The report revealed that roles with a high degree of responsibility – like lawyers, surgeons, and judges – could see the nature of their role shift the most, while occupations like dishwashers and performers will remain relatively exempt.

The IMF’s report chimes with previous findings from Forrester, that revealed those on salaries of $90,000 and above will feel the brunt of AI much more compared to those on lower incomes with creative and blue-collar roles.

AI Could Exacerbate Global Inequalities

IMF’s recent report also shone a spotlight on stark differences around its global use.

According to the research, only 26% to 40% of jobs in low-income countries are likely to feel the impact of AI in the coming years. These dwarfed figures, compared to averages amongst advanced companies, suggest that fewer positions will be taken over in the short term within these nations.

As a result, IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva pointed out that advanced countries will face greater immediate risks from AI, with jobs in major economies likely to disappear.

However, by failing to utilize the technology to enhance productivity, the report also suggests that these usage differences have the potential to exacerbate global inequalities in the long term, ringing alarm bells for countries that have been slow to uptake AI.

To avoid these inequalities from stoking social tensions, Georgieva explained that “comprehensive social safety nets” and “retraining programmes for vulnerable workers” are essential, especially in developing economies.

Do Current AI Guardrails Go Far Enough?

As AI development continues to outpace regulations around its use, many workers are growing increasingly anxious about their future employment – but how are governments responding?

After a sluggish start, a number of US states and cities have begun addressing the use of AI in the workplace, with New York recently rolling out a bill aimed at making AI-led hiring practices more transparent and Washington, D.C, Maryland, and Virginia cracking down on algorithmic discrimination within the workplace.

However, while Biden announced an executive order last October that seeks to address AI issues like job displacement and career opportunities, there currently remains little red tape around its use in the US, especially compared to Europe, where the extensive EU AI act is due to be finalized this June.

‘To find out more about the future of AI in the workplace, read our exclusive 2024 Tech.co report.

As is the case with many tech companies, Amazon’s relationship with remote work is complex. After taking a liberal stance on home working since 2020, the ecommerce behemoth rolled out a return-to-office policy last year, and has since threatened to fire workers who don’t comply.

However, the Seattle-based company is also currently hiring for dozens of fully remote positions, making 2024 an opportune time for remote workers to seize the perks of working for Amazon – without having to brace the morning commute.

For those considering applying at Amazon this month, we’ve rounded up some openings that are currently up for grabs. We also shed light on what it’s like to work at Amazon, and how it compares to the experience working for its big tech rivals.

Fully Remote Corporate Jobs at Amazon for January

If you’ve always dreamed of becoming an Amazonian, but aren’t ready to sacrifice your WFH setup, now is the perfect time to apply for a corporate position. Amazon is currently hiring for 35 fully-remote roles, across a range of different departments from customer service to advertising.

Read on for some opportunities that are currently available, broken down by category.

Customer Service

• Shipping & Delivery Support Team Manager, DSL, DSL (Pennsylvania & Ohio)
• Virtual Customer Care Advisor, Remote Customer Care – Amazon Pharmacy  – (Arizona)
• Technical Customer Service Associate, Blink (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Texas)
• Technical Customer Support Manager, Blink (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Texas)

Operations, IT & Support Engineering

• Quality Assurance Virtual Testing (Automation), Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging (Countrywide)
• Construction Cost Manager, North America Construction, Field Services Team, NACF (Countrywide)
• Robotics QA Requirements & Test Manager (Automation), Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging (Countrywide)
• Project Engineer, Project Engineering (Countrywide)
• Operations Engineer (Countrywide)
• Operations Engineer, Operation Engineering (Countrywide)
• Senior Operations Engineer (Countrywide)

Project & Product Management 

• Sr. Product Manager, Order Management, eero (California)
• Ring System Administrator, Ring Community Support (Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Texas)
• Project Manager, Global Engineering Services, Startup, Global Engineering Services & Security (GESS) – Emerging Countries Customer Fulfilment (ECCF) (Countrywide)
• Sr Quality Eng Program Manager, Global Engineering Services (Countrywide)
• Quality Program Manager – Operations Engineering, Operations Engineering (Countrywide)
• Operations Engineer (Countrywide)

Software Development 

• Senior Software Development Engineer, AWS Network Firewall (Herndon VA, Santa Clara, CA, Seattle CA)
• System Development Engineer, Operation Engineering (Countrywide)

Sales & Advertising

• Senior Tech Business Developer, Amazon Today (Countrywide)
• Head of Sales, Americas, Ring (Washington & California)
• Market Manager – Devices (Chicago Western suburbs), Amazon Offline Retail Team (Illinois)

Can’t find a role that you love? Don’t give up hope. Amazon posts new roles daily on its AmazonJobs platform, so check in regularly to avoid missing out.

Is Working at Amazon Right For You?

While Amazon has hit headlines recently for laying off another round of workers – this time from its live streaming site Twitch – there are still tons of reasons to apply for a job at the company.

Amazon offers a number of attractive benefits to its employees, including free mental heath care, partial tuition fee coverage, and private medical insurance after one full year of employment. Being the most popular online retailer in the US, Amazon’s name recognition is also second to none, making a corporate role a great CV booster and gateway to highly esteemed positions at other tech companies.

Plus, if you did want to work in person for a change of scenery, Amazon offers one of the most impressive offices in the world, with its Seattle-based headquarters housing a massive indoor rainforest, a wide selection of trendy co-working spaces, and an array of independent vendors.

Working at Amazon definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, however. If its history of quelling worker-led unions and blocking promotions for white-collar employees who don’t comply with its RTO policy is anything to go by, its working conditions appear stricter than those at fellow tech giants Google and Microsoft. Amazon’s attrition rate is famously high too, with many former corporate workers citing burnout and hard-hitting workplace culture as reasons for quitting before their first three months were up.

While Amazon recently upped its corporate pay cap from $160,000 to $350,000 in 2022, wages at the company still lag behind many Silicon Vally firms, with the average software engineer at Amazon taking in $95,016, compared to $164,249 at Google, according to salary and company review site Glassdoor.

The Job Pool Isn’t Short of Remote Opportunities

If you’re intent on working from home, but can’t find a suitable position at Amazon, don’t stress. As demand for the flexible perk continues to climb higher, the internet is awash with exciting, fully remote opportunities.

Whether you work in sales analytics or comms, check out our round-up of the best remote opportunities to apply to in January here. Or, if securing a big name on your CV is important to you, you can take a look at some great opportunities being advertised at Apple and Microsoft too.

If you made an in-game purchase playing Fortnite without being 100% sure what you were doing, you might be entitled to a slice of the $245 million pay out pie agreed as a settlement by developer Epic Games.

However, the Fortnite settlement deadline has just changed quite dramatically and there’s new information you need to know. You might also want to brush up on how to make a Fortnite settlement claim to begin with – and we’ll show you how to do just that.

It’s actually good news if you’ve been dragging your feet with your claim,  as the Fortnite settlement deadline has been extended into February. Here’s the lowdown, plus why Epic Game is paying out over its Fortnite indiscretions.

Fortnite Settlement: Claim Deadline and Pay Out Amount (2024 Update)

As we’ve just hinted at, the deadline to claim in the Fortnite settlement has been extended to February 29, 2024, as per the official Fortnite refunds listing on the FTC website. The original deadline of January 17, 2024, no longer stands.

That’s right, Epic Games has had its hand forced by none other the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) itself when it comes to this Fortnite settlement. Provided you’re at least 18 years of age and made an in-game purchase between the qualifying dates, you might be eligible for a pay out when all is said and done.

The exact pay out amount will vary depending on how many people have their claims approved, though based on the millions of potentially eligible Fortnite gamers, some reddit users have speculated that it could be around $6 a head.

How to Make a Fortnite Settlement Claim – and Who is Eligible?

To make a claim in the Fortnite settlement, simply head to the relevant page of the Fortnite Refunds website.

You may also have been contacted directly by the FTC if it thinks you’re eligible to claim, though the government body notes that only emails coming from its official Fortnite Refund Administrator <fortniterefund@rcnotifications.com> address are legitimate. This is important, as scammers often seek to impersonate bodies doling out payouts.

You also need to meet a handful of criteria to be eligible for a Fortnite pay out in addition to being 18 or over. As per the FTC, claims will be considered provided the following conditions are met:

• You were charged in-game currency for items you didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022
• One of your children made charges to your credit card between January 2017 and November 2018 without you knowing about it
• You were locked out of your account between January 2017 and September 2022 after you made your credit card company aware of the wrongful charges

Include your claim number or your Epic account ID in your filing, while minors can have a parent or guardian complete the form on their behalf if they’re not yet of age.

Fortnite Refund Settlement: The TL;DR History

In short, Epic Games settled two US lawsuits in December 2022 claim it had used underhand methods to encourage Fortnite players to buy in-game products. The amount agreed with the FTC was $245 million.

The FTC itself notes: “The company charged parents and gamers of all ages for unwanted items and locked the accounts of customers who disputed wrongful charges with their credit card companies.”

Similar class-action lawsuits were brought around the world, including in Canada, but the one now nearing the final stages of settlement in the US is the biggest.

As part of a separate settlement, $275 million will be paid to the US government for compiling the personal information of individuals under the age of 13 without their parent’s consent.

Although the case was settled more than eight months ago, the claims process has only just opened up, which is why it’s been hitting the headlines again.

In 2024, it’s harder than ever to stay healthy and happy, with inflation and price gauging on one end and our pandemic-battered immune systems dangling by a thread on the other. As a result, anyone planning a “new year, new you” reinvention is probably interested in rebalancing their day job against the rest of their life.

A fully remote job might be what you need to do just that. Working remotely isn’t for everyone, but for many, it offers a way to reduce stress and free up valuable commute time that can be redirected to rest, hobbies, or caring for your loved ones.

But with many CEOs pushing for a return to the office, nabbing a remote position can be tough. Plus, you’ll want to have a company that truly commits to remote work — some of them claim to offer remote positions, but will fail to honor thoses promises as soon as the wind changes.

Here, we’ve rounded up the top companies with track records of supporting remote-friendly cultures, along with a handful of currently open and fully remote positions at each organization. Hopefully, your new year’s resolution for less stress can come true at one of them in 2024.

Microsoft

Microsoft is the biggest name in remote-friendly companies. Other huge names in tech are doing everything they can to roll back remote policies — we at Tech.co hesitate to name names, but a few major companies that reduced their remote policies last year rhyme with “Schmamazon” and “Schmeta, formerly known as Schmacebook.”

However, Microsoft currently has about 940 open positions that are marked as “up to 100% remote” on its online job portal, compared to a total of just 419 positions that required employees to be fully on-site, and a whopping 1890 open positions for “up to 50% remote” jobs.

Granted, the phrase “up to” hints that your chances at an entirely remote position might vary depending on your manager, but the sheer number of fully remote positions is the biggest possible indicator that Microsoft is genuinely remote friendly. And, since the company is making newsworthy moves with the ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, it’s definitely staying in the tech conversation in 2024.

Here are a few fully remote positions to check out:

• Senior Product Manager
• Partner Marketing
• ​​Principal Program Manager​
• Talent Sourcer
• Strategic Account Executive – Automotive
• Business Applications Sales Specialist
• Cloud Solution Architect

Check out all the other hundreds of open work-from-home positions over on the Microsoft job site today.

Want to work remotely for Amazon? Check out our dedicated guide to its January work from home vacancies.

Intuit

The one company that’s behind QuickBooks, TurboTax, and MailChimp is clearly a formidable software giant. At the same time, it’s also a top remote friendly workplace. At least, it is according to Indeed, which ranked it below only Microsoft on a recently updated list of the best remote companies in 2024.

Intuit ranks highly in Indeed’s reckoning for workplace happiness and flexibility. It also offers virtual internships, alongside remote jobs across a variety of career paths such as sales, design, software engineering, user experience, and accounting.

Here’s a list of a few open positions that are fully remote:

• Principal Business Development Manager
• Bilingual Customer Onboarding Specialist (Mailchimp)
• Mid Market Sales Senior Marketing Manager, Payments
• QuickBooks Live Expert
• Senior Sales Product Specialist
• Mid-Market Account Manager

You can check out the rest — there are several dozen in total — at the company’s job website.

CVS Health

The CVS franchise might not be on the top of your list of powerful tech companies to consider for a remote position, but that’s just why they’re worth considering. This dark horse contender landed near the top of Flexjobs.com’s recent rankings of companies with the most remote openings at the start of 2024: You’ll find nearly 790 remote postions listed on its job site today.

With thousands of locations, CVS is one of, if not the, largest pharmacy chain in the United States. One interesting result of this dominance? The stunning variety that you’ll find in the hundreds of remote positions that CVS has open right now. Where else can you apply for a job as a Senior Cybersecurity Incident Responder, a Field Service Technician, and a Licensed Clinical Therapist? Granted, we’d be more shocked if you were able to qualify for all three of those.

There are far more options beyond just the typical tech jobs when it comes to remote work at CVS. Here are a few remote positions to think about:

• Pharmacist – Clinical Advisor
• Medicare Community Lead Generator
• Claims Processor
• Bilingual Case Management Coordinator
• Letter Writer/Auditor – Licensed Practical or Vocational Nurse
• Senior Cybersecurity Incident Responder

Check out hundreds of additional open and remote positions at the company’s job website.

Robert Half

Robert Half International is a massive human resource consulting firm, making it a great fit for those looking for fully remote positions: Accounting and finance staffing industries are packed with white collar positions that can often be filled from any location with an internet connection.

That said, Robert Half has a lot more hybrid jobs open than fully remote ones. Should have been called Robert Half Remote, am I right? No one? Okay, moving on. The corporation currently has 85 hybrid positions open, compared to a similar 76 fully on-site positions, and 11 fully remote ones. It holds a reputation for remaining remote-friendly in 2024, and is a particularly good workplace environment if you are open to some in-person work.

Here, we’ve rounded up a selection of the fully remote job positions that are open now:

• Finance Business Partner
• Microsoft Solutions Architect
• PeopleSoft Application Manager
• Employee Communications Manager
• Sr. Workday Integrations Engineer

Head over to the company job board to see all the hybrid positions as well, if you’re interested in roles such as Talent Manager or Branch Director.

Kelly

Like Robert Half, the office staffing company Kelly is another high-ranker on many online listicles for remote-friendly businesses. They’re based out of the US, but they operate internationally, with unique job boards for the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as across the pond in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the UK, and even more countries.

At Kelly, you’ll work to help place employees at other companies across sectors including financial services, IT, and the legal business. As with many international operations, bilingual or translator positions are always open — if you can speak fluent English and Spanish, you have a wealth of options to chose from.

Their US job site lists over a hundred remote positions, which is nearly as many as on-site and indicates a healthy environment for remote workers. Here are a few of the most interesting open remote positions:

• Medical Record Retrieval Ops Specialist
• English / Spanish Language Interpreter
• Field Application Specialist
• Technical Writer
• Payout and Risk Operator
• Bilingual Spanish-English Interpreters

Check out Kelly’s job openings website here — although you’ll have to scroll down to the list of countries in order to head over to the job board that’s specific to your location.

BCD Travel

Is working remotely all about avoiding travel, or is it about freeing up time to devote to your travels? You’ll have to come up with a snappy answer to that one if you get a fully remote position at global corporate travel management company BCD Travel.

Working in the travel industry can be a fun, fast-paced position, and there’s no reason it wouldn’t be as fun when working remotely. You might want to persue a career as a travel consultant or as an events manager. Either way, BCD Travel is one of the well-respected names in the business, and they’re always hiring for something. Here’s a selection of currently open, fully virtual positions:

• Senior Travel Consultant
• IT Process Manager
• Privacy Professional
• System Developer Analyst
• Training Specialist
• Travel Agent (Germany)

The company has over 60 virtual positions open over here on its job site.

UnitedHealth Group

A big name in health insurance, UnitedHealth Group keeps its employees happy with benefits packages that include flexible options. As of an April 2020 blog post, the company said it provides “work/life flexibility via telecommuting to over 25% of [its] employees.”

Here, we’ve focused on the tech positions that you can apply for a remote position with at UnitedHeath — although they do have openings outside of the tech businsess, including a job for a remote Epidemiologist, should you qualify.

• Paid Search Manager
• Business Development Analyst
• Sales Analytics and Insights Analyst
• Report Coordinator
• Service Desk Manager

You can check out all the remote positions open at UnitedHealth now over on their website.