Two Arkansas freight corridors will be getting AI-powered inspection technology, in a deal between the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) and transport technology provider Quarterhill.

The new system will include advanced technology, such as weight sensors, licence plate registration, and tire classification systems that work in real-time.

If successful, ARDOT and Quarterhill hope the initiative will improve safety and streamline the inspection of commercial vehicles. As some freight professionals report demand increasing, this could be an example of early adoption before more states integrate this kind of tech.

Arkansas and Quarterhill Partner To Bring AI Inspection Tech to Freight Corridors

The deal between ARDOT and transportation technology provider Quarterhill is worth a reported $2.7 million.

It is specifically targeting the “mainline sorter systems at Lehi on I-40 Eastbound and at Marion on I-55 Southbound.”

ARDOT has said these entry points are responsible for some of the “highest truck volumes in the nation,” and it hopes the initiative will improve the inspection of commercial vehicles passing through, as well as overall safety.

What New Technologies Will Be Deployed?

The new system will involve:

• Weight-in-motion sensors, which are able to capture the weight of trucks as they move at highway speeds.
• A tire anomaly classification system, which can provide real-time detection of unsafe tire conditions
• License plate recognition, Department of Transportation checks, and Intelligence Roadside Operations Computers (iROC), all of which can identify and verify a vehicle’s credentials instantly
• Fully integrated dynamic message boards, which will be able to guide drivers who need further inspection

Neither Quarterhill or ARDOT have provided an exact date as to when the technology is expected to be deployed.

Tech Is Key to Addressing Increasing Freight Volume

Quarterhill emphasized how the new systems will help Arkansas “address increasing freight volume,” and will directly support “ARDOT’s broader mission to deliver safer, smarter, and more sustainable transportation infrastructure.”

“Partnering with Quarterhill allows us to bring cutting-edge tools to two of Arkansas’ most important freight gateways. These upgrades will strengthen enforcement, improve roadway safety, and keep goods moving efficiently across our state and beyond. This initiative is a win for our economy, drivers, and communities.”
– Jeff Holmes, Chief of Arkansas Highway Police

Similar systems could soon be deployed in other states where freight volume is climbing. In fact, in our Moving Goods With Fewer Hands logistics report, 63% of the logistics professionals we spoke to reported an increase in demand over the past year.

Similarly, as the trucking profession continues to be one of the most dangerous in the US, modernized systems powered by AI could improve safety and thus draw more individuals to the industry workforce, in the long run.

Logistics professionals using AI are more likely to express a positive sentiment about its future, according to the latest Tech.co logistics data.

However, on the flip side, professionals who have had little exposure to AI are more pessimistic in the long run. Currently, exposure hasn’t been synchronized across the industry.

AI is no longer just a future concept for the logistics industry. But while the tech has certainly made its entrance to the sector, anxieties about potential job losses continue, particularly amongst those with no exposure to AI. 

Logistics Professionals Using AI Tend To Look More Favourably on Its Future

According to Tech.co’s September data, logistics professionals who frequently use AI tools as part of their roles are overwhelmingly positive (93%) about its future.

On the other hand, the highest negative sentiment (33%) about AI was seen from logistics professionals with no exposure at all to the technology.

All in all, AI is no longer a future concept for the logistics industry. It’s already been widely adopted, with 70% of the logistics professionals we surveyed reporting some level of interaction with the technology in their daily work.

AI Adoption Is Varied Across the Industry

However, adoption across the sector has not been uniform, by any means. Instead, levels have varied across the industry.

In our survey, 31% of professionals had little-to-no exposure to AI, 39% had occasional exposure through tools or AI data, and 30% are frequently exposed.

More broadly, 60% of professionals report a positive sentiment surrounding AI, compared with only 16% who feel more negatively.

However, our data showed that exposure to AI directly correlates to worker sentiment. The more an individual uses AI, the more positive they feel about it. 

AI Anxieties Remain in the Logistics Sector

Despite some positivity, there are still anxieties surrounding AI, including concerns about job losses. This is most significant among professionals with no exposure to AI (43%) and those who are only passively influenced by it.

It’s possible that a lack of first-hand experience with AI has left logistics professionals to consider existing public narratives about potential job losses. However, for professionals with frequent, hands-on contact with the technology, 66% believe that AI will actually create more jobs. 

These are likely to be “upskilled” professionals who understand the amount of human supervision AI systems and tools need. As more professionals come into contact with the technology, we could see wider belief in its potential to shape and change the industry for the better.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 243, a new bill that mandates specific safety protocols for AI companion chatbots.

The billed, which is aimed at protecting minors, is the first US state law to regulate this type of chatbot, making it a landmark in AI regulation.

Newsom also signed a few other AI-related bills regarding warning labels and app store age verifications.

What the AI Bill Regulates

The SB 243 bill impacts AI companies large and small, from OpenAI to smaller brands like Character AI and Replika: They’re all legally on the hook to meet the new standards. So what are those standards?

One big one is an age verification requirement. Another is a requirement that these chatbots offer “clear and conspicuous” notifications that their content is artificially generated, ensuring that no one can reasonably assume that they’re a human — for children, notifications must be issued every three hours.

They’ll also need to create protocols “preventing their models from producing content about suicidal ideation, suicide or self-harm and directing users to crisis services if needed,” notes The Hill.

The bill goes into effect January 1st, 2026.

How We Got Here

SB 243 was first introduced in January 2025 by California state senators Steve Padilla and Josh Becker.

Then Adam Raine, a 16-year-old boy, died by suicide in April 2025 following many suicidal conversations with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In addition, news broke of internal documents at Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, that reportedly depicted Meta’s chatbot engaging in chats with children that were “romantic” and “sensual.”

In the wake of these stories, the bill gained more public attention as a measure to help prevent similar tragedies in the future. It’s not the only one that Newsom signed into law this session, though.

Additional Warning Labels and App Store Verification

Another just-signed California bill is AB 56, from Democratic state Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, and it requires AI and social media companies show minors warning labels for “profound” mental health risks. Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are among the platforms impacted by this new regulation.

Finally, there’s Democratic state Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’s AB 1043, which requires device makers and app stores to verify users’ ages.

Notably, this final bill does not require photo ID uploads from all users — a feature similar bills in other states have put forth despite qualms from privacy advocates.

It’s a big step for AI regulation, and a sign that the generative AI industry is reaching greater attention from lawmakers following several years of rapid growth.

Artificial intelligence has led to 7,000 US jobs cut in September 2025 alone, according to a new report.

The same report has recorded a total of 17,375 job cuts attributed specifically to AI between January and September of 2025, which means that a large portion of AI-related cuts this year happened last month.

Here’s the rest of the stats to know about which sectors are cutting the most jobs and what reasons they’re giving for their decisions.

About 27,219 Job Cuts Due to AI or Tech Updates

The report, out from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, found that, across the month of September 2025, 7,000 job cuts were “due to artificial intelligence specifically.”

That’s not all: An additional 20,219 job cuts (across the year so far) were “attributed to technological updates that likely include artificial intelligence.”

Out of the 54,064 job cuts from US-based employers last month, over a tenth were due to AI or tech updates that might have been AI related.

Tech Sector Faces ‘Incredible Disruption’

The technology industry is the second-largest contributor to US job losses this year, with 5,639 cuts last month adding up to a total of 107,878 job cuts in 2025 so far.

“Tech firms are undergoing incredible disruption with AI that is not only costing jobs, but also making it difficult to land positions, particularly for entry-level engineers. Tech leaders have stressed that AI is changing the nature of work, and more companies are requiring their teams be trained on it.” – Challenger report

Granted, those numbers are down 8% from 2024, when 116,856 job cuts were announced during the same period last year.

The biggest industry cutting jobs in 2025, according to the report? The US government, with 299,755 planned job cuts this year (mostly federal workers impacted by DOGE).

Salesforce Is Among Companies Cutting Jobs for AI

The report didn’t explain which companies are behind all these AI-powered job losses. However, CFO Dive dug up one noteworthy example: Salesforce.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff mentioned during a podcast conversation in August that the company had already reduced its customer service team from 9,000 to about 5,000, citing the benefits of AI agents for customer conversations. Those cuts wouldn’t be among those from September, but were likely logged among the 17,375 job cuts due to the AI this year.

Check out our long-running list of tech companies that have issued large job cuts across the past few years.

Can AI truly replace human workers? That question’s been asked a lot in recent years, amid a surge in AI hype. However, the more salient question for the average worker is: Does my boss think AI can replace me? In September, sadly, 7,000 people got their answer.

The team communication platform Slack will be adding another AI-centric update in the form of a revamped Slackbot, the company has just revealed.

Up until now, the Slackbot tool functioned was a simple reminder and suggestion service, giving users personalized but simple tips like pointing out that a Google Doc might need to be made publicly viewable. Now, it’ll be a full chatbot, with a range of AI abilities.

It’s just the latest example of the myriad of ways in which AI technology is seemingly inescapable in 2025.

What’s the New Slackbot Like?

The new version of Slackbot — currently still in the testing stage — will appear as a chat box on the right-hand side of Slack. Users can choose to open it by clicking the Slackbot icon, which will be beside the search bar at the top of the platform, according to The Verge.

Once activated, the AI Slackbot will work just like all the similar text-based generative AI chatbots you’re likely familiar with, from ChatGPT to Gemini.

The big difference is the material that the bot is working with. Slackbot will have access to all your previous conversations and files and can personalize its responses using this data.

What Tasks Can Slackbot Do?

According to a Slack demo, the revamped Slackbot AI can help users with tasks like these:

• Organize a launch plan by collating information from specified Slack channels
• Help create a social media campaign that fits a brand’s tone
• Help users find a file even if they don’t know the name — e.g. “Show me all the files shared in our last standup”

The tool will also be able to integrate with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to help plan meetings.

It’s unclear what the extent of the tool’s capabilities are — for example, will it be able to track files sharing in a meeting that happens on Google Meet rather than Slack’s Huddle video meeting function?

Slack Says Your Data Will Stay Private

According to Rob Seaman, chief product officer of Slack at Salesforce, the new AI functions will be operating within Amazon Web Services’ virtual private cloud, “meaning that no data leaves the firewall, [and] no data is used in the training of the models at all.”

The companies using Slack can chose whether they want to opt in or opt out of the new Slackbot. However, individuals working within those companies won’t have the option to opt out (aside from simply choosing not to open the tool, should it be made available).

The new Slackbot is already in use internally at Salesforce, and the company plans to roll it out to all users at the end of 2025.

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said that the world isn’t ready for the disruption that AI is going to cause on the job market, particularly for knowledge workers.

Siemiatkowski and Klarna have long been loyal to the technology and the companies furthering it, saying in 2023 that they would be OpenAI’s “favorite guinea pig.”

AI has already had an impact on the job market, particularly for entry-level workers. However, it’s uncertain on how quickly we’ll see AI take over the entire market.

Klarna CEO: World Isn’t Ready for AI Job Shock

CEO of buy-now, pay-later company Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said that the world isn’t ready for the consequences AI will bring to the job market. Particularly, as the technology looks to cause a “massive shift” with knowledge work.

Siemiatkowski said, during an interview with Bloomberg Television, “I feel a lot of my tech bros are being slightly, you know, not to the point on this topic. I think there is a massive shift coming to knowledge work.”

While he did say that new jobs will be created as a result of AI, he identified this as a long term solution, whereas society now needs to focus on creating short term ones as people lose their jobs.

Klarna Has Proven Its AI Allegiance

In 2023, Siemiatkowski declared that he wanted to be AI company OpenAI’s “favorite guinea pig.” On top of this, Klarna has already invested significantly in AI, and Siemiatkowksi continues to be a strong supporter of the tech:

“You can build a lot of trust by having AI perform specific types of task because of the consistency and quality.” – Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski

Implementing AI hasn’t always gone well for Klarna, however. Back in May, the company reversed a decision to replace 700 customer service workers with AI, only to rehire once again due to reports of customer dissatisfaction and poor quality support.

That hasn’t stopped Siemiatkowski championing AI. In the interview with Bloomberg, he said he’d been trialing out vibe coding, claiming that: “People should not be afraid of technology.”

What’s The Current State of Jobs in the Wake of AI?

Notable companies have been making way for AI in the workplace, and we’ve been documenting it for quite some time.

At the moment, it seems those suffering the most are entry-level candidates, with one August 2025 study from Stanford economists finding that in fields where AI can replace roles, entry-level employment has dropped by 13% in the past three years for those aged 22-25. PwC also recently announced plans to dramatically cut the number of graduates it will be recruiting in the next year, due to AI.

Although, it’s unclear if any of these replacements are paying off. While some companies are seeing return-on-investment with AI spending so far, experiments that have fully replaced workers with AI haven’t gone to plan. So, it might be a while before we’re in a state of serious consequence like Siemiatkowski says, but he’s absolutely right that we should prepare for it.

Former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has expressed concern over the consequences of AI systems being hacked, during an appearance at the Sifted Summit this week.

On the other hand, Schmidt also praised the technology, and said it wasn’t getting the hype it deserved. This comes as many businesses continue to implement the technology.

While AI does present new security risks to businesses, there are ways that companies can keep an eye on their systems and prevent an attack.

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Warns About AI Hacking Dangers

Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt has expressed concern over the hacking vulnerabilities of AI technology, during a fireside chat at this year’s Sifted Summit. When asked whether AI is more destructive than nuclear weapons, he warned against “the bad stuff that AI can do.”

In particular, Schmidt warned about the potential dangers of AI falling into the hands of bad actors and being repurposed and reused for something more sinister.

Later, he expanded on this idea: “There’s evidence that you can take models, closed or open, and you can hack them to remove their guardrails. So in the course of their training, they learn a lot of things. A bad example would be they learn how to kill someone.”

Schmidt Is Optimistic About AI Future

On the flip side, the ex-CEO also appeared optimistic about the future of AI, and went as far as to call it “underhyped” in its current state. The people who are investing in the technology, he continued, are obviously aware of its potential:

“What I do know is that the people who are investing hard-earned dollars [in AI] believe the economic return over a long period of time is enormous. Why else would they take the risk?” – Eric Schmidt, Former Google CEO

Indeed, many businesses are now focused on implementing AI in the workplace, and AI companies are continuing to develop models to make waves in the enterprise market. However, it isn’t necessarily the case every time that businesses are implementing the tech because they understand its future economic return.

In fact, one study found that some leaders are spending on AI because of FOMO, rather than identifying areas where the technology could directly benefit them. And, while some studies have shown that AI is having some economic impact, others have found that it isn’t having any at all.

Should Businesses Be Worried About AI Systems Being Hacked?

There is plenty of evidence to show that AI models are susceptible to attacks, including jailbreaking attacks, where the AI’s responses are manipulated by a bad actor, so it ignores its safety regulations and produces potentially dangerous content.

However, there are many precautions modern-day businesses can follow in order to keep their model safe. This includes writing a clear and detailed AI plan before deployment, testing and reviewing your model often (and against various potential attacks), and limiting the distribution of sensitive data.

To adopt AI safely, you can check out our dedicated guide here.

Google has announced new AI packages for businesses – called Gemini Business and Gemini Enterprise.

The plans give businesses the opportunity to utilize their own data, tools, and people together and create their own AI agents. This is all controlled through a dedicated AI Enterprise chatbot, which all employees on the plans have access to.

This is the latest enterprise effort from a major tech company in a week full of AI developments, with rival OpenAI also launching its own AI agent-building toolkit.

Gemini Enterprise Announced by Google in Workplace AI Boost

Google has launched Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business, two new subscriptions as part of its AI offering. The packages give businesses the opportunity to create their own AI agents, based on the business’s specific needs, and with their specific tools.

In a statement released yesterday, CEO Sundar Pichai said that businesses need “a comprehensive and integrated platform that brings all your company’s data, tools, and people together in one secure place.” Hence, the new subscriptions.

There are two options for businesses. Gemini Business, targeting smaller organizations, starts at $21 per month, per person. Gemini Enterprise, for bigger firms, starts at $30 per month, per person. There will also be a 30-day free trial period for all customers.

What Do These New Subscriptions Offer Businesses?

Gemini Enterprise operates as its own separate and secure platform, and its main offering is an AI agent toolkit that allows businesses to build and deploy their own set of unique AI assistants. According to Google, the assistants can be created to suit a variety of needs, including sales, marketing, engineering, and human resources.

What appears to be most significant is how these agents are built. The AI can access, combine, and analyze information from a company’s internal systems, from data included in other Google AI tools like Code Assist and Deep Research, all in a single enterprise workflow. Likewise, users can use their data from products such as Box, Microsoft, and Salesforce in order to build their agents.

All of this is conducted through a Gemini Enterprise chatbot, which is also protected with Model Armor, a feature that blocks and inspects requests and responses within AI chats.

Google’s AI Enterprise Effort Speeds Up

These new subscription offerings are Google’s latest effort to ensure dominance in the AI enterprise market, a space that has become awfully crowded as of late.

Earlier this week, following a keynote in San Francisco, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told journalists that they should expect a “huge focus from us on really leaning into enterprise.”

OpenAI claims that 5 million users have signed up for its ChatGPT Enterprise since its launch back in 2023, so the interest is certainly there.

Gemini and ChatGPT aren’t the only ones going at it, either; Anthropic is also ramping up its efforts to gain a foothold in the enterprise space. It was reported on Monday, for instance, that Deloitte has brokered a deal that will bring the startup’s chatbot, Claude, to its suite of nearly 500,000 global employees.

Google has officially introduced new restrictions to its “Work From Anywhere” (WFA) policy — just one month after another tech giant and hybrid working stalwart, Microsoft, mandated that employees must return to the office for at least three days per week.

Established during the Covid pandemic, the WFA policy has allowed Google employees to work from a remote location for up to four weeks per calendar year. However, working remotely for either a single day or five days will now count as a full week.

While Google has not altered its current hybrid working model, this reduction could signal that the company plans to make further changes to its remote work policy in future.

Google Rolls Back “Work From Anywhere” Policy

Google is officially making changes its “Work From Anywhere” (WFA) policy. Up until now, employees have been entitled to four weeks of working from anywhere per calendar year. But as per new limits, working remotely for even a single day will now count as a full week.

According to a document seen by CNBC, “whether you log 1 WFA day or 5 WFA days in a given standard work week, 1 WFA week will be deducted from your WFA balance.” While not a total reversal on the policy, the new limits would seem to discourage employees from taking multiple standalone WFA days.

When asked to clarify the slightly confusing new position by CNBC, John Casey, vice president of performance and rewards at Google, claimed that WFA “was meant to meet Googlers where they were during the pandemic. The policy was always intended to be taken in increments of a week and not be used as a substitute for working from home in a regular hybrid work week.”

At this point in time, the company states it has no plans to alter its current hybrid schedule, which mandates that employees must be in the office at least three days per week. WFA is distinct from this policy, which also came into effect during the Covid pandemic.

Google Joins Microsoft in Curbing Remote Work Freedoms

With this news, Google becomes the second major tech company to introduce new restrictions to its existing remote working policy in the space of a month. A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it was to bring its employees back to the office three days per week, with the mandate happening in three phases, beginning on February 23, 2026.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, Amazon officially ended its remote working arrangements, mandating that all employees must return to the office on a full-time basis.

For Google employees who enjoy the freedoms of flexible working, the writing has been on the wall for some time. The company began offering employees voluntary redundancy at the start of the year, while also notifying fully remote workers that their jobs might be at risk if they didn’t start adhering to a hybrid working model.

Is This the Precursor to a Full Return-to-Office Mandate?

Google employees would be forgiven for thinking that further changes are on the horizon. An increase in the number of in-office days is one of the telltale signs that your company might be about to bring you back to the office full-time, and as covered above, other firms from across the tech sector have introduced their own mandates in recent months.

With businesses increasingly looking to downsize in favor of AI automation, it’s possible that senior leaders will come to regard office attendance as essential for the remaining human workforce. This would be in spite of mounting evidence that hybrid working is better for morale, productivity, and company revenue.

Discord users received some unfortunate news this week, with the messaging platform informing them that a hack last month did, in fact, compromise some important data that could have serious consequences.

Hacks have become all too common for businesses in 2025. Even the most secure company is at risk, with the external services they use for business operations just as vulnerable to being breached.

That’s the case with Discord, at least. One of its third-party customer service platforms has been hacked, leading to more user data being leaked than people are probably comfortable with.

Discord Confirms Security Incident

Announced in a company blog post, Discord has confirmed that its user data was compromised due to a cyber attack on one of its third-party services users for customer support.

“At Discord, protecting the privacy and security of our users is a top priority. That’s why it’s important to us that we’re transparent with them about events that impact their personal information.” – Discord statement

The breach occurred on September 20th. Hackers did not gain access to Discord directly, but the data available through the customer service platform in question is far from surface-level.

What Discord User Data Was Compromised?

Whenever a data breach is confirmed, the question on everyone’s mind is what data was actually stolen. While any data leaked isn’t great, there are certainly some types of data that are more sensitive than others.

For this Discord breach, the compromised user data is a bit worse than usual, but not catastrophic. As is often the case, basic information was leaked, like usernames, emails, phone numbers, and other contact information.

On top of that, though, some basic payment information was stolen as well. Payment types, purchase history, and the last four digits of credit card numbers were all compromised, which is worse than your standard breach.

Beyond that, though, the damage was minimal. No full credit card numbers were stolen, nor were any passwords or messages between users. Even better, because it was through the third-party customer service platform, only users who reached out for support on Discord were impacted.

How to Protect Your Business from Being Breached

With security breaches becoming more common than ever at businesses around the world and AI making it harder to spot scams, it’s understandable that you would be interested in protecting your business from being breached.

The best place to start is training your staff. While technology has gotten better, the reality is that humans are generally the weak link in cybersecurity defense, with social engineering and phishing scams designed to trick employees into handing over the keys to user data.

Given that the Discord breach was perpetrated through a third-party, though, there is sometimes only so much you can do. After all, it would be kind of weird to insist that companies you work with train their staff more effectively on cybersecurity measures. Still, in 2025, it might be worth a shot to protect your users’ privacy.

This holiday season could see prices rise in a lot of industries, including Christmas decor, with one of its biggest companies announcing that tariffs are having a serious impact on their bottom line.

It’s no secret that the tariff situation is tumultuous around the world in 2025. President Trump seems to be announcing new import taxes on a regular basis, and businesses that rely on the supply chain in any way are all being affected.

Holiday decor companies are no different, with the National Tree Co. stating that prices are likely going to rise on holiday decor this year, including Christmas trees.

Holiday Decor CEO: Tariffs Have Added Cost to Our Products

In an interview with FreightWaves, the CEO of National Tree Co. admitted that the tariffs are making it notably more difficult to do business. He noted, quite casually, that “it’s obviously been a very interesting year” as a result.

“The tariffs have affected us … they’ve added cost to our products. We’re trying to offset that with price increase … not all the way, but we’ve certainly looked along the value chain as to [whether] our suppliers absorb some of it? How much are we able to absorb? Then how much is the consumer able to absorb through price increases?” – Chris Butler, CEO of National Tree Co.

Given that the company is one of the largest manufacturers of artificial Christmas trees and other holiday decor in the US, it’s safe to assume that the holidays are definitely going to be a bit more expensive in 2025.

How Much Are Tariffs Adding to Holiday Decor Costs?

The holidays are already an expensive time for businesses and individuals around the world, which means that any additional costs are going to hit hard.

According to the CEO of National Tree Co., these costs are going to increase faster than inflation, with his company raising prices by 10% due to the additional $6 to $7 million in costs from tariffs.

Even worse, National Tree Co. is one of those companies with products across the supply chain, so if you’re ordering products from Amazon, Walmart, or Macy’s, for example, you are going to see these increased costs.

The Impact of Tariffs on the Economy

National Tree Co. obviously isn’t the only company that is taking a hit from tariffs. In fact, according to our monthly survey data, these import taxes are causing a large majority of businesses to completely change how they do business.

In August, 69% of businesses state that the Trump administration’s tariffs have caused a change to their company’s operations. On top of that, 39% of logistics professionals said that they are preparing for reduced freight demand as a result of tariff uncertainty, and 48% of businesses are preparing for increased vehicle and equipment costs as a result of tariffs.

Suffice to say, businesses are still waiting on the alleged benefits of tariffs that were promised by this administration. And if something doesn’t change before the holiday season, you could see a much bigger bill waiting for you under the Christmas tree this year.

If there’s a sale on AI chips, OpenAI is clearly buying, with the company announcing yet another partnership, this time with chipmaker AMD.

If you didn’t know, all that generative AI technology you’ve heard about over the last few years requires a lot of hardware. AI chips are used to power these advanced models and the companies you know and love in the industry don’t make them on their own.

That’s why OpenAI has been snatching them up like hot cakes, in hopes of ensuring that the company’s lofty AI goals aren’t hampered by a lack of infrastructure.

OpenAI & AMD Enter Partnership

Announced this week, OpenAI and chipmaker AMD are entering a partnership to help build out AI infrastructure for the creators of the world’s most popular chatbot.

“This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize AI’s full potential. AMD’s leadership in high-performance chips will enable us to accelerate progress and bring the benefits of advanced AI to everyone faster.” – Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI in a news statement

The deal will see OpenAI buying a whole bunch of AMD’s upcoming AI chip, Instinct MI450, in an effort to ensure that the company can continue with its lofty plans for AI domination.

OpenAI and Its Many Partnerships

To say that OpenAI is on the hunt for partnerships to build out its AI infrastructure would be a dire understatement. The company has secured a wide range of deals over the last few months that point to some serious plans to expand soon.

In addition to the AMD partnership that was just announced, OpenAI has signed a $100 billion deal with NVIDIA that would also provide the company with chips.

On top of that, OpenAI signed another deal in early September with Oracle to the tune of $300 billion for cloud and computing capabilities, rather than actual chips.

AI Boom or Impending Burst?

The big question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this whole AI thing is for real, especially when it comes to all this investment. Simply put, are we in an AI boom or are we just waiting for the bubble to inevitably burst?

Over the last few months, OpenAI has secured deals with other AI companies that amount to more than $1 trillion, which certainly points to the possibility of a self-funded industry.

Still, the technology is obviously groundbreaking, and if it can get rid of all the AI errors in time, the bubble could turn into something legitimate that transforms how we do business.

A new government report has found that AI and other forms of automation might replace almost 100 million jobs in the US across the next decade.

The news, out from Senator Bernie Sanders and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, predicts job losses of 40% among registered nurses and a full 47% of truck drivers, the latter of which work within an industry facing plenty of other existential threats.

We’ve already covered more than a few waves of AI-related job losses in the years since generative AI first emerged. Now one of the biggest tech sectors powered the US economy today, AI might just reshaped job markets for many more years to come.

AI “Could Replace Nearly 100 Million Jobs”

The big “100 million jobs” number is just the start, Senator Sanders explains in his statement about the report: Certain sectors will be hit harder than others.

“As the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee), I released a report today finding that AI, automation and robotics could replace nearly  in America over the next decade, including 40% of registered nurses, 47% of truck drivers, 64% of accountants, 65% of teaching assistants and 89% of fast food workers, among many other occupations,” he says.

“And as bad as that may seem,” Sanders adds, “I am afraid it may be an underestimate.”

Companies Shifting to Automation Include Amazon, Foxconn

The cuts are coming to many blue collar jobs in addition to white collar ones, the report indicates.

While discussing job losses in manufactoring, Sanders notes robotics companies that are evolving the trucking landscape, from Aurora and Gatik to Kodiak Robotics and Waymo.

“Millions of jobs in transportation will be eliminated. This is not science fiction. It’s already happening.” -Senator Bernie Sanders

In a statement about the report, Sanders notes that many large corporations have already laid of thousands across the past few years amid continuing automation efforts. Amazon has laid off 27,000 workers since 2022, while huge manufacturing contractor Foxconn has replaced 60,000 workers in one factory in China with robots.

Automation Doesn’t Have to Hurt Workers

What’s the solution? Sanders has a handful of them.

He calls for a shift to a 32-hour workweek, with no loss in pay, so that American workers can reclaim a little of the value that increased automation allows them to generate, a requirement that “large corporations to allow workers to elect at least 45 percent of the members of their boards of directors,” and an increase in profit sharing.

Other suggstions include an expansion of the concept of employee ownership and a robot tax on large corporations.

The US Department of Defense (also known as the Department of War) has been directed to “relax the mandatory frequency for cybersecurity training” in a recent memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The memo, issued to top officials on September 30th, also details a range of other cybersecurity changes and cutbacks for the United States’ military departments.

The memo appears to frame the current level of cybersecurity training as a distraction from the departments’ core mission.

What Types of Cybersecurity Training Are Being Reduced?

The memo calls for reducing records management training frequency and automating information management systems with the goal of stopping training requirements.

The news site Defense Scoop found a handful of related cybersecurity concerns that were also issued in the recent memo. Here are those additional directives:

• Relax the mandatory frequency for controlled unclassified information (CUI) training
• Remove Privacy Act Training from the Common Military Training (CMT) list
• Eliminate the mandatory frequency for “Combating Trafficking in Persons” refresher training after appropriate legislation is enacted
• Consolidate mandatory training topics “as appropriate”
• Develop an integrated CMT program plan

What’s the Reasoning?

Judging from Hegseth’s memo, the reasoning for the change appears to be a belief that the current amount of cybersecurity training adds up to a “distraction” from the “core mission” of warfare.

“The Department of War is committed to enabling our warfighters to focus on their core mission of fighting and winning our Nation’s wars without distraction. Mandatory Department training will be directly linked to warfighting or otherwise be consolidated, reduced in frequency, or eliminated. […] These critical efforts to eliminate, reduce, and consolidate focus topics advances my emphasis on warfighting. The Department will prioritize these actions and execute with urgency to strengthen the lethality of our Nation’s fighting Force.” -Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

Hegseth also adds that his changes should be “implemented expeditiously.”

However, experts say that cutting back on security training risks opening up US networks and troops to enemy cyber threats.

Experts Warn of Increased Security Risks

Peter W. Singer, a strategist and senior fellow at New America, tells Defense Scoop that “rather than ‘relax’ cybersecurity training, it would have been better for our warfighting capability to ‘update’ the training, both to enhance its effectiveness and defend against the new wave of both cyber and cognitive warfare threats that foes like Russia, China, N. Korea, and Iran have been very clear they intend to use against US forces.”

Lauryn Williams, deputy director and senior fellow in the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, raises similar concerns, saying “Cybersecurity training is essential for any mature organization, especially one as large as the Pentagon. Military personnel handle sensitive information daily, which U.S. adversaries are eager to penetrate.”

“Annual cyber awareness training is critical to inform personnel of cyber risks and how to spot common adversary tactics,” Williams adds, citing phishing attempts that could give attackers network access if successful. “This training requirement usually takes no more than one hour in an entire year to complete. Eliminating it is certain to decrease the Department’s overall cybersecurity.”

A new trend in the world of AI could help explain why the majority of businesses that use the technology aren’t seeing a return on investment: workslop.

Workslop is defined as AI-generated work that is passable for getting the job done technically, but eventually creates more work for coworkers and managers that need to improve or correct it to be sufficient.

In this guide, we’ll explain what workslop is, how common it’s becoming, how it impacts productivity, and how to avoid and spot it at your business.

What Is Workslop?

According to a study from BetterUp Labs, workslop is defined as “AI generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.”

Basically, AI tools have been rolled out and sometimes even required at businesses around the world at break-neck speeds. Professionals and managers alike have been mandated to take advantage of these tools, with hopes of improving productivity and streamlining operations.

However, given the technology’s inclination towards errors and hallucinations, a lot of the work created doesn’t pass muster, leading to managers and coworkers to pick up the slack and spend additional time fixing the problem.

How Common Is Workslop?

The report has so far surveyed 1,150 full-time employee based in the US and found that workslop is becoming more and more prevalent across the professional landscape.

According to the survey, 40% of respondents say that they have received workslop in some capacity in the last month. On top of that, respondents that have seen workslop on the job note that it comprises about 15% of the content they receive from other professionals.

As for where workslop is most common, coworkers (40%) are generally the ones that are taking the brunt, but they aren’t alone. 18% of managers say that they have received workslop from their employees, while 16% of workers say that they have received workslop from their managers.

How Does Work Slop Impact Productivity?

As you can probably imagine, workslop isn’t exactly improving productivity at businesses in 2025. Still, how bad exactly is it impeding productivity? Well, according to the study, it’s pretty bad.

“Each incidence of workslop carries real costs for companies.” – Harvard Business Review

Respondents to the survey stated that they generally spent one hour and 56 minutes on improving each instance of workslop. Given the estimated salaries providing in the survey, this amounts to about $186 per month per instance. With 40% of professionals saying they’ve received it in the last month, that could be massive drain on your businesses productivity and financial security.

Workslop is having a negative impact on company morale as well, which could obviously affect productivity. 53% of professionals who received workslop at their jobs said they felt annoyed as a result, with respondents also noting that they felt confused (38%) and annoyed (22%). Additionally, 42% said that they view the offending coworker as less trustworthy, with another 37% saying they believe them to be less intelligent.

How to Spot Workslop

The reality of workslop is that it’s quite hard to spot, which is why it’s becoming so prevalent. Especially in the early stages of a project, AI-generated content checks a lot of rudimentary boxes that make it seem like the job is done. Unfortunately, as you work through it, you realize that is very much not the case, leading to a substantial lapse in productivity.

Just because it’s hard to spot, though, doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Here are some subtle indicators of AI-generated workslop that you can use to nip it in the bud at your business:

• Generic, repetitive wording
• Excessive use of keywords
• Vague, unhelpful information
• Incorrect or hallucinated data
• Visual inconsistencies
• Garbled text
• Robotic or unsynchronized audio

When it comes to spotting AI-generated content in the wild, sometimes you just have to trust your gut. A lot of AI-generated text, images, and videos are still far from perfect, and in many cases, the average person gets an uneasy feeling when seeing it. Trust that feeling and you’ll be right more often than you think.

How to Avoid Workslop

Given the popularity of AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini and their prevalence at businesses around the world, it’s safe to say that avoiding workslop is not going to be easy. You’ll need to take concrete steps to actually develop a company culture that shirks this kind of AI usage. Here are some things you can do to avoid workslop at your business:

• Establish clear guidelines – Indiscriminately encouraging AI use is a good way to solicit workslop. After all, if you aren’t establishing clear guidelines for how to use the technology, you’re essentially opening the door for employees to use it however they want, including to shirk their responsibilities.
• Have the right mindset – In an ideal scenario, AI is being used to enhance an employee’s creativity, rather than replace it. Encouraging your team to have that mindset going into it can stop the workslop before it even develops.
• Encourage collaboration – AI shouldn’t be doing the work for your employees, but instead act as a collaboration tool that can help bounce ideas off coworkers and AI models alike.

All in all, workslop is the result of poor planning and rushed policies when it comes to AI. If you want AI to actually improve your business, you need to take a measured and calculated approach, otherwise you’re going to be stuck correcting workslop for the foreseeable future.

President Trump announced new tariffs this week on imported trucks, a move that will almost exclusively have a negative impact on US allies rather than adversaries.

Tariffs have created a lot of issues for logistics industry over the last few months. The increasing cost of doing business is causing many companies to initiate layoffs or even go out of business.

Now, with more tariffs on imported trucks kicking off in October, the impacts will be hitting US allies as well as businesses stateside.

Trump Announces 25% Tariff on Imported Trucks

In a social media post — where else? — President Trump announced that a new 25% tariff will be imposed on all heavy trucks that are imported to the US from any foreign nation.

“In order to protect our Great Heavy Truck Manufacturers from unfair outside competition, I will be imposing, as of October 1, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all ‘Heavy (Big!) Trucks’ made in other parts of the World. Therefore, our Great Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions.”

As Trump noted in his eloquent social media post, the new tariff began on October 1st, and it is already poised to have a substantial financial impact on the logistics industry.

Heavy Truck Tariffs Mostly Target US Allies

The current administration has boasted about the revenue gleaned from tariffs, but at what cost? In addition to tariffs being import taxes on American businesses, the countries that are impacted the most are often quite friendly.

In fact, the Chamber of Commerce noted in a statement earlier this year that the majority of our commercial vehicles are imported from countries that we’ve typically worked very closely with.

“Imports of medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks (commercial trucks) and parts used in their manufacture are sourced overwhelmingly from U.S. allies and defense partners.” – U.S. Chamber of Commerce statement

More specifically, the largest importers of heavy trucks to the US are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, and Finland, all of which are obviously threat-free from a national security standpoint.

Tariffs Impact on the Logistics Industry

It’s been exactly six months since Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs, and the logistics industry has been having trouble keeping up. In response to these specific tariffs, Ford CEO Jim Farley told CNBC that it “really restricts” the company’s future investment.

A lot of the industry is being forced to adapt to the new reality of tariffs in the US. In fact, our monthly survey data found that 69% of businesses have had to change their company’s operations in response to Trump’s tariffs.

Suffice to say, the future of the logistics industry remains a complete mystery considering the speed with which these tariffs change the landscape in an instant. And until things settle down, more businesses are going to need to aim for flexibility over profitability.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in 2025.

Just this week, we’ve seen the rapidly evolving technology serve as a silver bullet that one IT consulting firm used to quasi-justify laying off thousands, while social platform company Meta has announced it’ll incorporate data from users’ AI chatbot conversations in order to hyper-target ads on its platforms.

Also this week: A new survey took a look at the “AI debt” incurred by inaccurate AI workflows and a big new AI regulation took effect in California. Who knows what more news will drop over the weekend?

On the bright side, you might have finished a few of these new free online courses by the time the week’s over. Below, we’ve listed a few learning courses focused on a range of AI-related business interests and functions. Most of them are four hours or fewer, but we threw in a few 40-hour-long picks for all you overachivers.

Take a look at your options. AI likely isn’t going away any time soon, and these courses offer a few quick lessons in figuring out what it all means for your own career.

Microsoft: Get Started With Data Analytics

Length: ~2 hours

Have a free afternoon? Then you’re ready to learn about data analytics with this quick online guide that includes an overview, covers the roles available in working with data, and explains the tasks of a data analyst.

While not a course solely focused on AI, this look at the ins and outs of data analysis overall does include plenty of overlap with the new technology. You’ll learn about predictive analytics as well as the ways in which data is crucial for powering AI and for benefiting from AI output.

Granted, this is just the start of a journey that won’t be entirely free. Microsoft counts this online lesson as the first segment of a $165 course that aims to certify users as “Power BI Data Analyst Associates,” which can help them get ahead in companies that rely heavily on Power BI, Microsoft’s business analytics platform.

Take a look today by heading over to the company’s learning hub here.

University of Pennsylvania: AI For Business Specialization

Length: 40 hours

You’ll need to dedicate four weeks to this Ivy League online course. You’ll emerge with a better understanding of AI’s place in the business world.

The lessons include topics like “Fundamentals for Non-Data Scientists,” as well as AI applications in marketing and finance, people management, and strategy. Can AI actually craft effective marketing strategies? With the help of the industry leaders who’ve contributed their viewpoints, you’ll find out.

The online course is available from Coursera here, for free when you sign up for an account, and it already boasts 297,521 learners who’ve given it a shot.

Google: Prompting Essentials Specialization

Length: 4 hours

Figuring out what types of prompts will trigger the generative AI responses you need is a key part of interacting with today’s AI chatbots, from Gemini to ChatGPT. This quick course takes users through Google’s approach to prompting.

You’ll learn about techniques for common white collar business tasks, how prompts can help with data analysis or crafting presentations, and what specific five steps to keep in mind in order to turn out an effective prompt in the first place.

By the end of the four-hour-long online course, you’ll be able to create a homebrew AI agent capable of conversing with you. You’ll also have an understanding of lesser known AI-related concepts, from prompt versioning to prompt chaining. Once completed, the course includes a credential that you can add to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV.

Check out the course today, over on Coursera here.

LinkedIn Learning: AI and Digital Marketing Trends

Length: ~3 hours

This biweekly ongoing series offers a different format in comparison to the typical online lesson plan: Users will be able to check out fresh, frequently updated videos from marketing and social media expert Martin Waxman, explaining the latest ways marketers are engaging with generative AI.

Past topics include a wide range of interests: mobile, voice search, video and live streaming, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. You’ll hear about the ways social media is evolving, and how regulations like the EU’s GDPR data protection law are impacting marketers.

In an industry that’s constantly evolving to address consumers where they are, it makes sense to have a consistently updating source of trend information.

There’s one catch, however. This course is available from LinkedIn Learning, which isn’t available for free on an ongoing basis. You’ll be able to get a generous month-long free trial, but you’ll have to pay after that. Check out this course here, and take a look at the other ones available on LinkedIn before your month runs out.

Vanderbilt University: Generative AI Strategic Leader Specialization

Length: 40 hours

Need to lead AI implementation at your organization but don’t know where to start? This course might be for you.

Across a four-week period, you’ll figure out how AI systems work, how to scale them up across your business, and how decision making can factor in AI. There’s a focus on AI agents, the chatbots that can converse with users and suggest implementation and strategy decisions by themselves, often using custom data to do so.

This course is geared towards ChatGPT, with an entire module covering prompt engineering for the popular OpenAI tool. You’ll also get a “Generative AI Primer” and the aforementioned guide to AI agents. If you complete it, you’ll gain a career certificate to show off on your resume.

Like all the courses listed here, it’s free, entirely online, and available to start with a few clicks. Head over to Coursera to check it out here.

Just How Important Are AI Tools, Anyway?

It’s tough to predict the future, but given that AI-related stocks currently account for 75% of all S&P 500 returns since the launch of ChatGPT, there’s a real chance that we’re in an AI bubble.

When it pops, we might face a dot-com style bust and recession, and everyone’s interest in the future of AI might suddenly shift. Until then, however, we all need jobs. AI upskilling is still a top way to maintain your job security or move to the next rung in your personal career ladder. Hopefully the courses we’ve listed above help.

Once you’ve add those AI skills, you may still find yourself looking for additional ways to shore up your white collar career. If that’s the case, consider checking out two additional guides: We have advice on the best way to negotiate your next raise, as well as a guide for landing a flexible and fully remote job.

Enjoy talking to Meta’s AI chatbot? Expect some very specific advertisements: The social media platform just announced that it will soon start using data from AI chats in order to create targeted ads on Instagram and Facebook.

In other words, if you mention to the generative AI chat tool on Facebook that you like pizza, you might start seeing more Domino’s ads on Instagram.

The changes will take effect on December 16. Users cannot opt out.

Some Sensitive Content Will Be Excluded

Most people don’t love hyper-targeted ads, with many complaining about the lack of privacy that it offers.

To them, Meta has an answer of sorts: It won’t be collecting data on every single topic that users decide to share with its chatbot. Here’s the list of conversational topics that Meta claims it won’t be incorporating into its new ad-targeting process:

• Religious views
• Political views
• Sexual orientation
• Health data
• Racial or ethnic origin

Granted, it’s unclear how Meta will be able to ensure that these topics won’t be impacted ads to any extent.

After all, it seems like any of the above issues might easily impact the types of questions or interests that someone might bring up with a chatbot, even if they’re not explicitly naming the topic itself.

Will Anyone Push Back on Hyper-Targeting?

Even given these exceptions, Meta’s further integration of user data into advertising efforts is worth highlighting. Reporting on the new use of data, the Wall Street Journal has called it “the crossing of a new frontier in digital privacy.”

Other commenters have offered responses ranging from refusals to accept the change (“Do not use Meta’s chat functions”) to flat irony (“Never thought the free products with ads company would use another free product to sell more ads, this is beyond shocking”).

The new ad push is likely part of Meta’s attempt to monetize its increased focus on AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that Meta plans to spend $600 billion on AI infrastructure across the next several years.

How Will Meta Roll Out the New Policy?

The policy will apply to most countries at launch, but a few countries are excluded for now. These include the UK, South Korea, and the entire European Union.

That does makes sense: The EU in particular will likely give this new Meta policy plenty of scrutiny, given their history of contesting Meta’s advertisements.

By December 16, however, more than a few of the 3.35 billion daily active users that Meta boasts across all core platforms will start to see a change in their advertisements.

A new AI bill focused on big AI companies has come into effect in California. Known as SB-53, the bill is one of the first in the US seeking to regulate these companies with a focus on the safety of tools being developed.

The bill requires big California-based AI companies, which include Anthropic and Nvidia, to publish public documents on how they are ensuring safety and report any dangerous circumstances.

As the bill is the first of its kind, we could begin to see more federal AI policy enacted. However, some experts argue that this could also put the expectation on individual states to create their own AI policies.

AI Bill Targeting Big Companies Takes Effect in California

Governor of California Gavin Newsom signed the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, known as SB-53, into California’s state laws on Monday. It becomes one of the first bills in the US to place new regulation on big AI companies.

SB-53 requires these big companies to provide a certain level of transparency and report AI-related safety incidents. Penalties for noncompliance are also in effect, and companies risk fines of up to $1 million per violation.

In a statement, Newsom has said: “California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive. This legislation strikes that balance.”

What Does The Bill Mean for Big AI Companies?

As it stands, of the world’s top 50 AI companies, 32 are based in California, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta.

Under the new bill, companies are now required to publish public documents detailing how they are following best practices to create safe AI systems. Likewise, they will be able to report severe AI-related incidents to California’s Office of Emergency Services, and protections will also be put in place for whistleblowers who raise concerns about health and safety risks in relation to AI.

Similarly, companies with more than $500 million in revenue will have to assess the risk that their technology could become autonomous and resist human control, or aid in the development of bioweapons. All of these assessments should be disclosed for public viewing.

Could Federal Policy Around AI Follow Suit?

In a signing message to the state Senate, Newsom wrote that California’s position in the tech world gives it the opportunity “to provide a blueprint for well-balanced AI policies beyond our borders – especially in the absence of a comprehensive federal AI policy.” Newsom also said that the new bill fills a gap left by Congress, which so far has failed to pass any AI legislation on a federal level.

As AI companies continue to develop at a fast pace, and safety around systems becomes more of a concern, California could pave the way for more AI legislation on a federal level.

However, it could also set a discerning precedent that states will have to “take the lead in governing the national AI market” as opposed to Congress. As a result, startups may have to navigate various “patchwork” compliance regimes, according to Colin McCune, head of government affairs at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

It could also mean that businesses in different states could be subject to different laws when using AI, which could make expanding and scaling specific tools difficult in the long run.

An emergency rule announced last week that limits the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses has gone into effect, as of Monday. The rule has been justified as a response to both public safety and national security, and it aims to tackle compliance failures and fatal crashes.

The new rule places new restrictions on how commercial driver’s licenses are issued to noncitizens, and it introduces a new system for applying for and renewing these documents.

Our data shows that the driver shortage remains a prominent issue, and these new restrictions could result in a further drop of eligible workers. With the the new compliance issues coming in fast, logistics professionals might find the issue harder to ignore.

New Rule Restricting Non-Domiciled CDLs Goes Into Effect

An emergency rule restricting the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) went into effect on Monday. Originally announced last week by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the rule is an interim final rule (IFR) backed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMSCA).

FMCSA said in a statement that it sees the issuing of the IFR as necessary because of a “two-front crisis” impacting both public safety and posing a threat to national security.

The rule has been implemented to tackle the number of fatal crashes and widespread state compliance failures. It aims to restore “the integrity of the CDL issuance processes” by limiting non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and CDLs, including their renewals.

What New Requirements Must Operators Now Follow?

The rule puts in place strict requirements for noncitizens to obtain a CDL or CLP, and limits eligibility for those with unlawful status in the US for certain employment-based, non-immigrant categories. States now wanting to issue either a CDL or CPL are now required to:

• Verify applicant documents through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements System
• Keep non-domiciled applications for at least two years
• Match non-domiciled CLD/CLP expiration dates with US Immigration Form I-94/94A expiration dates or set licenses to expire in one year, depending on which is sooner
• Downgrade non-domiciled CDLs/CLPs if drivers become ineligible

Stricter restrictions have also been placed on California, as the state was found with 25% of its non-domiciled CDLs in violation of federal rules. Duffy has given the state 30 days to comply or face the loss of $160 million in federal highway funds, a penalty set to double if a second year of noncompliance is carried out.

“OOIDA and truckers across America applaud Secretary Duffy for responding to our concerns by taking substantial actions to crack down on the irresponsible issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, particularly in California. For too long, loopholes in this program have allowed unqualified drivers onto America’s highways, creating unnecessary safety risks for professional drivers and the motoring public alike. These enforcement actions will also remove bad actors from the road and restore accountability to the system. Today’s action is an important step toward safer highways and a stronger, more professional trucking industry.” – Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President, Todd Spencer

Another Barrier Amidst Workforce Shortages

According to FMCSA, the rule impacts around 200,000 current non-domiciled CDL holders, and 20,000 CPL holders. The agency estimates that only about 6,000 of these drivers annually will qualify for non-domiciled credentials under these new restrictions.

Overall, these rules could therefore see a dramatic reduction in CDL/CPL eligible applicants. As our latest logistics data shows, 63% of logistics professionals say their ability to recruit and retain drivers has either stagnated or worsened over the past year. A massive compliance shift such as these new CDL/CPL rules has the potential to deepen the issue.

Likewise, trucking companies are facing other compliance issues, such as a recent crackdown on English language proficiency requirements. As these challenges continue to rack up, logistics companies may find themselves struggling with finding suitable personnel.

A 25% levy on heavy-duty trucks that was introduced by President Donald Trump last week officially comes into effect this week. The levy forms part of a sweeping series of import tariffs, which also includes 100% duties on patented drugs and 50% levies on kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

The President unveiled the new measures on Truth Social, writing that the truck tariffs would insulate US manufacturers against “unfair outside competition.” The latest measures have arrived during a relative lull in Trump’s ongoing trade war, which has characterized his second term in office.

In recent months, Trump has sought to make life easier for the domestic trucking industry. The passage of his One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025 has led to deductions in equipment cost for logistics businesses, among other things. These latest measures could deliver a healthy shot in the arm as reality continues to bite for freight firms across the country.

Trump Levy on Heavy-Duty Trucks to Take Effect This Week

A 25% levy on heavy-duty trucks introduced by the President will go into effect on Wednesday. The levy is part of a wider series of tariffs that Trump announced via Truth Social last week, including 100% duties on patented drugs and 50% levies on kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

The tariffs are designed to help US businesses navigate uncertain financial waters, but in the short-term, they’ve created higher consumer costs, as well as introducing further strain to supply chains that are already stretched to breaking point.

The President wrote on Truth Social: “In order to protect our Great Heavy Truck Manufacturers from unfair outside competition, I will be imposing, as of October 1st, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all “Heavy (Big!) Trucks” made in other parts of the World.” He also drew specific attention to Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, and Mack Trucks, and how the levy would insulate them from “the onslaught of outside interruptions.”

Industry Pushes Back Against Heavy-Duty Levy

At this stage, it is not known which weight classes will be affected. However, the announcement does follow a Department of Commerce investigation to determine the “effects on the national security of the imports of medium-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, and medium-and heavy-duty truck parts.”

While the President has explicitly called out the need to eliminate “outside interruptions,” many of the biggest truck manufacturers in the US sell a high volume of products abroad. Thus, the levy could have a damaging impact on the logistics industry, which is already reckoning with the devastating impacts of an ongoing labor shortage.

In May, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) voiced truck tariff dissent, arguing that potential levies could bring a creaking industry to its knees. In a statement at the time, it wrote: “Heavy-duty tractors bought by US carriers only come from two places: the United States and Mexico. There are virtually no other countries that export finished heavy-duty tractors into the US market.”

Logistics Sector Feeling the Pinch

In 2025, the logistics business is facing unprecedented difficulties. Not only are freight firms struggling to recruit and retain drivers, but rising diesel costs and spiraling insurance premiums are eroding businesses’ bottom lines.

More and more, businesses are looking to technology as a silver bullet solution to their staffing and budgetary woes. Fleet management software and warehouse automation have been instrumental in saving money and boosting efficiency for freight firms across the country.

But if the industry is to turn the tide on the labor shortage, it will need to do more than simply raising salaries or investing in innovation. Retaining your fleet will require a greater focus on work-life balance, training and development, company culture, and more.