Oscar Wilde famously noted, Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go. It is arguably one of the best brief illustrations of emotional intelligence (EQ), a trait that became popular thanks to a nonacademic best-selling book by journalist Daniel Goleman, in which he insinuated that EQ is a more important driver of success than IQ (a claim that has been discredited).
And yet, theres no shortage of evidence for the importance of EQ when it comes to predicting interpersonal effectiveness, defined as the ability to manage yourself and others in everyday life. In fact, long before EQ was coined in academic research (before Goleman popularized the term), decades of personality research had already highlighted reliable individual differences in the propensity to engage in more or less effective intrapersonal and interpersonal behaviors. In fact, way before HR managers celebrated EQ, your grandma called it good manners.
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Problematic personalities
Now onto the actual research: Here are five science-based generalizations about people with challenging personalities; that is, people who are significantly more taxing, unrewarding to deal with, and demanding on others than the average person is.
(1) Empathy deficits (and why empathy alone is not enough): Difficult individuals often struggle to accurately recognize or care about others feelings, perspectives, and needs. Yet, as Paul Bloom has argued, even empathy itself is an unreliable foundation for moral or cooperative behavior, because it is selective, biased, and easily withdrawn from those we dislike or see as different.
(2) High neuroticism and fragile core self-evaluations: Elevated emotional reactivity, anxiety, and sensitivity to threat make everyday interactions feel volatile. When people possess low core self-esteem or unstable self-confidence, they are more likely to overreact, personalize neutral events, and drain others emotional energy.
(3) Low agreeableness masked as EQ or blunt honesty: Some difficult personalities score low on agreeableness, meaning they are less inclined toward cooperation, trust, and concern for others. In workplace settings, this is often misinterpreted as emotional intelligence, confidence, or refreshing candor, when it is in fact poor impression management disguised as authenticity.
(4) Lack of self-awareness, especially among self-centered narcissists: Many difficult people are strikingly unaware of how they come across. Narcissistic individuals, in particular, tend to overestimate their competence, underestimate their impact on others, and interpret feedback as hostility rather than information.
In a way, this is what makes challenging personalities so difficult to deal with: They are either unaware of how unrewarding to deal with they are, or simply dont give a damn! Neither are particularly useful. When others are of the opinion that you suck, and that you are unaware of the fact that you suck, they will think quite poorly of you (unless you are a fictional character like David Brent or Michael Scott, in which case they will laugh . . . cathartically).
(5) Low external pressure or weak incentives to be rewarding to others: Finally, difficult behavior persists when it is tolerated, rewarded, or unpunished. Power, status, or perceived indispensability often insulate individuals from social consequences, reducing their motivation to regulate their behavior or invest in being pleasant to work with.
As I illustrate in my latest book, this explains the unfortunate fact that when people rise to the top of organizational hierarchies they stop feeling pressure to adjust their behavior to meet others needs. This kind of raw authenticity is a privilege for the elite, the status quo, or those who can afford to neglect situational demands to adjust their behavior in order to act pro-socially. But the less people care about their reputation, the more other people will careand not for the right reasons!
What to do
So, how best to work with these individuals, which will inevitably be required if you have a job that has you interacting with colleagues, clients, or coworkers (which basically applies to all jobs)?
Here are some basic recommendations:
(1) Learn their typical patterns: The Norwegians have a saying, namely that theres no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong choice of clothing. In a way people are just like the weather or climate: If you forget to check the forecast or are unaware of the climate, you only have yourself to blame for not being adequately equipped. So, if you have a moody colleague, irritable boss, or self-centered client, the mistake is not expecting rain, its turning up in sandals and acting surprised when you get soaked.
Once you recognize someones stable patterns, you can start to personalize your behavior, adjust your expectations, and optimize your responses accordingly. In essence, theres always a strategy for improving how you deal or interact with someone, regardless of how difficult they are.
(2) Avoid trying to change them: One big issue with difficult people is that we are often tempted to try to change them, assuming that insight, feedback, or goodwill will eventually override deeply ingrained tendencies. In reality, most personality traits are relatively stable over time, especially in adulthood, and attempts to fix others usually create frustration rather than improvement. To be sure, this does not excuse their bad conduct, but it does prevent you from wasting emotional energy on futile hopes that they will suddenly become someone else.
An old fable tells of a scorpion that asks a frog to carry him across a river. The frog hesitates, fearing it will be stung. The scorpion reassures him that doing so would doom them both. Yet halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog anway. As they begin to sink, the frog asks why. I couldnt help it, the scorpion replies. Its my nature. The lesson is not about forgiveness or cynicism, but realism: Some interpersonal patterns are remarkably stable, even when they are self-defeating. Ignoring this does not make you kind, only unprepared.
(3) Be better than others: While difficult personalities can pose a challenge to most, your goal is not to find the perfect formula for dealing with them. Rather, think about being better in your interactions with them than most people are. In other words, its not how well you can handle them compared to how you handle other people, but compared to how well other people handle them.
This relative advantage compounds: Difficult individuals quickly learn who escalates them, who indulges them, and who remains calm, clear, and consistent. Over time, they tend to reserve their worst behavior for those who reward it, and their best for those who do not.
Research on social learning and reinforcement shows that behavior is shaped not only by personality, but by the reactions it reliably elicits from others. When you respond with predictable boundaries, emotional restraint, and clarity, you reduce the payoff of difficult behavior. You may not change who they are, but you can often change how they behave around you, and they may even appreciate you for being more open to them than others are.
(4) Practice rational compassion: One of the critical challenges with difficult personalities is that its often quite hard to empathize with them. Examples include chronically anxious colleagues who catastrophize minor issues, abrasive high performers who mistake bluntness for honesty, or self-centered leaders who dominate conversations while remaining oblivious to their impact on others.
But as Paul Bloom notes, empathy is by definition insufficient to create civil and prosocial work environments and cultures. Why? Because we are prewired to empathize most readily with people who feel familiar, similar, and psychologically close to us. In contrast, when we perceive others as different or as belonging to a separate group or tribe, empathy quickly breaks down, which is precisely why inclusion is so difficult to sustain in diverse workplaces.
Blooms alternative is not coldness, but rational compassion: a deliberate commitment to fairness, tolerance, and restraint that does not depend on liking, identification, or emotional resonance. Practicing rational compassion means treating people decently even when they irritate us, setting boundaries without hostility, and choosing principled behavior over emotional reactions. This approach is especially useful with difficult personalities because it allows us to remain civil and effective without having to feel empathy we may not genuinely experience.
(5) Master strategic authenticity: One common feature of difficult personalities is that they make little effort to adjust their behavior to others. Instead, they default to a This is just who I am approach to interpersonal dynamics, implicitly placing the burden of adaptation on everyone else. This unfiltered version of authenticity is often celebrated through popular mantras such as Dont worry about what others think or Just be yourself and others will adjust.
The problem is that this logic does not scale. If everyone follows it, the collective outcome is not freedom but a culture of entitled rigidity, where each person feels justified in prioritizing self-expression over social responsibility. A useful analogy is driving: Insisting on going at your preferred speed, regardless of traffic rules or road conditions, may feel good and taste like freedom, but it creates accidents, not progress.
Strategic authenticity is choosing when and how to express yourself so that movement remains possible for everyone. It means finding a workable balance between saying what you think and feel, recognizing that your right to self-expression does not override your obligation to others.
The inverse solution
Ultimately, working with difficult personalities is less about fixing others than about managing yourself with intelligence, discipline, and perspective. The best strategy is often to become the inverse of the problem (or, well, them): to show empathy where they show indifference, self-awareness where they show blind spots, and restraint where they seek release. Difficult people rarely improve because they are corrected, but because the environment around them quietly refuses to mirror their worst instincts.
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A work jerk isnt just someone who expects perfection. Its the high achiever whose nervous system runs at lava-like temperatures, whos chronically stressed, and demonstrates urgency as a personality trait. It looks like hair-trigger impatience, micromanaging, sharp feedback, and an automatic reflex to see others as obstacles rather than partners. Work jerk behaviors teach people at work to focus their energy on managing you and your reactions instead of doing good work.
People act out for countless reasons: a toxic work culture, impossible standards, or private stress that bleeds into work (an article for another day). None of those reasons makes treating others poorly acceptable.
If youre a work jerk who is also a leader, the impact can be huge. Your tone and word choice signal risk levels to your team because you control performance evaluations, if they get promoted, project access, and sometimes even professional standing. Being the leader work jerk harms two things at once:
Your mental health as a leader: because youre stuck in chronic activation mode
Your teams psychological safety: because they self-protect for survival around you
The crush it approach may produce short-term results, but it often drives burnout, turnover, and severe erosion of trust.
Emotional Self-Management Decreases Work Jerk Behaviors
If you are a work jerk these daily shifts can help protect your mental health as a leader and how your team experiences you, too, without lowering management standards.
1. Be precise, not urgent: When youre overwhelmed, everything feels equally important. How you address that ends up being your brain trying to reduce uncertainty, not effective delegation. The mood then becomes urgency, and everything is a five-alarm fire. Try this 60-second reset before an important interaction (i.e., 1:1, standup, client call):
Do two rounds of deep belly breathing (i.e., in through the nose for four seconds while inflating the belly, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds through the mouth). Then ask yourself:
What specific outcome do I need or want from this conversation?
What can I say to increase clarity and understanding, not pressure?
This will help mitigate worry, prevent misalignment, and signal to others that calculated execution is valued more than frantic reactivity disguised as responsiveness.
2. Treat emotions as information, not an action plan: just because we have a feeling doesnt mean we need to immediately act on it, even if it makes us feel better. Being immediately honest about how you feel isnt just being direct, its destroying psychological safety for others without context or a next-steps game plan. Before sending a response to an email that may want you to flip a table, name the emotion youre feeling and use an I statement with it (i.e., I am annoyed.). This creates space between stimulus and response. Try this feedback process:
Draft, but dont send: Write what you want to say, then wait five minutes (distract yourself with another task if you need to).
Rewrite and give feedback in this format:
Share your observation: It seems like . . .
Explain the impact: Im concerned about . . .
Make a request: Next time, what would be helpful is . . .
State your intention: Im saying this because . . .
This approach is a great example of pairing accountability with care. It helps you understand what you need to feel and figure out what youre really trying to say in a way thats useful to others. Providing effective feedback that leads to results, preserves your sanity, and helps teams realize they can and should approach you earlier instead of hiding issues until they turn into crises.
3. Make emotional self-care part of leadership, not a secret hobby: Many work jerk behaviors are symptoms of depletion. Sustainable leadership requires actual maintenance and recoveryyou cant mindset your way out of chronic unmanaged stress. Identify and practice one to two Mental Well-being Non-negotiables:
Show that your mental health matters: you cant lead if you dont care for yourself.
Do what you enjoy: do what you actually likenot what the wellness industry prescribes.
Be realistic: do what works for your scheduleget it on the calendar.
Be consistent: the goal is a cumulative effect over timeand adapt as needed.
Normalize it with others: it may inspire them to build recovery into their workday too.
What Leaders Should Ask Themselves in 2026
People can become work jerks when their mental health carries more strain than their everyday coping habits can absorb. If you want to determine if your professional drive as a leader is harming your mental health and relationships at work, ask yourself these questions weeklyand answer them honestly every time:
When Im stressed, do I become clearer or just forceful?
Do my team members bring problems to me early onor when theyre unavoidable emergencies?
This week, did my team seem like they were learning or self-protecting from me?
The answers to these questions will tell you if youre showing work jerk behaviors, who its impacting, and why that needs to change. The answers will tell you whether and how you need to shift how you regulate work pressure, communicate under stress, and emotionally recover as a leader.
In 2026, high performance shouldnt come at the expense of your teams or colleagues sanityor your own. The good leaders who excel wont be the most intense, results-driven machines. Theyll be the ones who focus on steady mental health self-care maintenance as a form of effective, sustainable leadership.
If you’re constantly hounding your teen to get out of bed before noon on the weekend, you may want to save your energy for a different battle. According to new research published in The Journal of Affective Disorders, sleeping in on the weekend could offer some significant protection against depression.
For the study, researchers at the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Upstate Medical University analyzed data from more than a thousand 16 to 24-year-olds in which participants reported their sleep/waking hours, including weekend catch-up sleep.
While one might imagine that teens who spring out of bed early each morning regardless of the day of the week are more mentally sound, the opposite may be true. Interestingly, the study found that teens who slept in on weekends were significantly less likely to report symptoms of depression. The group had a 41% lower risk of depression when compared with the group who kept a more regimented sleep schedule on weekends.
Researchers say that one of the major reasons why sleeping in may be so helpful for teens is because teens stay up later due to changes that occur in adolescence. “Instead of being a morning lark you’re going to become more of a night owl,” Melynda Casement, an associate professor at University of Oregon and co-author of the study, told ScienceDaily. Casement adds that later bedtimes usually last until around the age of 18 or 20 before leveling out.
Later bedtimes, coupled with early school start times, extra-curriculars, part-time jobs, and more, mean teens often accumulate “sleep debt” which puts them at a heightened risk for depression. Casement says that while teens need eight to 10 hours of sleep, most aren’t getting it during the week, therefore extra weekend sleep matters. “It’s normal for teens to be night owls, so let them catch up on sleep on weekends if they can’t get enough sleep during the week because that’s likely to be somewhat protective,” the researcher explains.
The latest study builds on previous research on the topic, including a 2025 meta-analysis of 10 studies which showed sleeping in on the weekend was associated with a 20% lower risk of depression. The growing body of research seems to show that sleeping in is not an act of laziness or teenage rebellion, but it can be a healthy and important sleep habit for teens in order to stave off depression. And, as teen mental health has worsened in recent years, those extra weekend hours could be more crucial than ever.
Batteries are powering a significant shift in how we go about our daily lives, ranging from the devices we carry to electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Batteries play a critical role across key sectors from data center infrastructure, military, and microgrid applications to consumer electronics and more. But as demand surges, so does end-of-life material that needs to be managed.
Beyond serving as compact energy sources, batteries also represent a domestic source of essential critical minerals. To fully realize their value, it is crucial to close the loop at end-of-life by recovering these minerals and strengthening the supply needed to support a rapidly expanding battery market. To responsibly manage battery materials at end-of-life, extended producer responsibility (EPR) for batteries becomes essential.
BATTERY RECYCLING INDUSTRY: GROWTH TRAJECTORY
In the U.S., battery EPR laws are being enacted at the state level, leaving battery producers, automotive original equipment manufacturers, and energy storage operators to navigate complex regulations, which vary by state. In states that have passed laws and those with active legislation, jobs will be created to manage these requirements, and we will see an increase in economic activity through the creation of closed-loop supply chains.The battery recycling industry will continue to grow, and battery EPR regulation will only fuel that growth through the creation of a more responsible system to ensure batteries are recycled.When systems are in place that require companies to recover batteries at end-of-life, we will significantly improve our ability to reclaim valuable materials. This applies to all battery chemistries, whether lithium-based or alkaline batteries containing zinc and manganeseyes, alkaline batteries can be recycled, and the recovered minerals from those alkaline batteries can be reused as micronutrients in fertilizers.
The groundwork has already been laid, and when you look at battery recycling as a whole, the value of recovering these materials is substantial. That value extends beyond financial benefits to include reduced geopolitical risk, improved logistics and supply chain resilience.
THE NATIONAL CHALLENGE
The country must address what happens to a battery when its no longer usable. Ultimately, through EPR legislation, we can make it a priority to recover critical minerals and increase the nations ability to produce battery-grade materials. In 2024 alone, the U.S. imported more than one billion batteries. These batteries are made of valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. EPR laws are designed to track a batterys life cycle and, if done right, can help us take advantage of these materials once they are in the U.S. by recycling and reusing the minerals domestically to produce new batteries.
STATE LEADERSHIP
Battery recycling benefits everyone. Recyclers, producers, legislators, consumers, and the nation must work together to strengthen domestic supply chains, enhance national security, and keep batteries and the critical minerals they contain within U.S. borders.
When states introduce EPR bills, they will vary based on battery format or size, but several core principles should remain consistent:
Collection: In addition to standard collection sites, expanding to independent collection points increases accessibility. Recycling opportunities must be available to everyone, not limited to a specific group or location.
Avoid forfeiture requirements: The battery industry functions as a unified ecosystem, and the goal is to build a closed-loop supply chain. Restricting who can recycle and process the batteries after they are collected jeopardizes existing business models and risks harming the broader industry.
Transparency: Full visibility across the entire process from initial recycling through to metal recoveryis essential. Without transparency, innovation within the industry will stagnate.
EDUCATION & ACCESS
To better implement battery EPR laws, we must enhance consumer education on battery recycling. Many people do not understand how to handle and dispose of used batteries properly. For example, a recent study focused on lithium batteries found that nearly 40% of people do not know they can be recycled, and more than 60% do not know where or how to recycle them.
Lithium batteries are far too prevalent in our daily lives for consumers not to have resources and access to responsible recycling.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I am hopeful that as battery recycling becomes more mainstream and visible to consumers, a larger collection network with increased access will be available, and end-of-life batteries can be properly recycled and processed to recover the critical minerals effectively.
And not only is battery EPR a foundation for this and a stronger, more sustainable supply chain, it supports national security and ensures that we in the U.S. increase our global competitiveness through innovation and the domestic sourcing of critical minerals.
David Klanecky is the CEO and President of Cirba Solutions.
Gen Z is aging into the life moments that define entire industries. As this generation moves through milestones like marriage, homeownership, and family planning, theyre quickly becoming a core target market not just for weddings, but for a wide range of service-based businesses. What matters for these small businesses is how Gen Zs arrival, set against todays economic backdrop, is reshaping expectations for how they serve their customers.While about one in three couples on The Knot in the U.S. are Gen Z, the majority are still a few years away from the peak marrying age of 33. We do know, however, that they are interested in doing so, with 69% of unmarried adults ages 1834 saying they want to get marrieda nearly 10% increase since 2017.
As this new generation prepares to celebrate one of lifes most meaningful moments, there will be a major shift in how small businesses are expected to deliver. We are seeing that Gen Z consumers expect more personalization, deeper authenticity, and faster digital-first communication, often alongside less flexibility in spending.
Gen Z might be working with smaller budgets, but its not because they lack the desire to invest in their weddings. Rather, it is most often attributed to their current earnings potential. Due to their age, they have not had time to acquire the same amount of funds as millennials. Many Gen Z couples are being intentional about where they spend, investing in the parts of their day that matter most to them and finding creative ways to simplify or scale back elsewhere.
For wedding professionals, this shift is already changing the reality of their work. Vendors are serving clients who want thoughtful, high-touch experiences, quick responses, personalization, and visuals that feel Pinterest-worthy, even as overall budgets are more constrained. That often means finding new ways to package services, streamline processes, or rethink how value shows up for each couple.
For businesses looking to serve this shifting clientele, intentional adaptation is key. Small businesses should make these four moves now to navigate this market shift.
1. Embrace AI to help with productivity, core processes, and content
AI and automation tools are table stakes for productivity and core processes, helping streamline communication, scheduling, content, and lead management.
In fact, 77% of customers say they expect to interact with a business immediately when they reach out. For Gen Z customers especially, responsiveness is part of the experience, and falling behind on response time can mean losing business before a conversation even begins.
Businesses that use AI thoughtfully to handle administrative work free themselves up to focus on what drives loyalty: creativity, care, and human connection. AI-assisted replies can help you respond quickly with personalized recommendations to start the conversation and save time.
2. Keep pace with trends and provide personalization
When it comes to weddings, couples want celebrations that feel of-the-moment, yet deeply personal. For wedding vendors, this means being aware of the trends that are impacting planning decisions and simultaneously translating them in a way that feels truly unique and personal to the couple.
No matter what your industry is, its important to maintain a balance between being trend-forward and creating personalized experiences.
3. Dont go it alonelean into community and upskilling
Change can feel isolating for small business owners, especially when customer expectations are shifting quickly. The business owners who seem to navigate these moments best are rarely doing it alone. Theyre talking to peers, comparing notes, and staying open to learning new tools and approaches.
In weddings, we see this play out every day. Vendors share templates, swap tips on using AI to save time, and openly talk through whats working when it comes to pricing, packages, and client communication.
These conversations arent just about support, but also perspective. Learning from others who are facing the same challenges makes it easier to adapt with confidence.
4. Make your understanding of Gen Zs values your competitive advantage
Gen Zs expectations are high, but theyre also thoughtful and values driven. They care about authenticity, transparency, and purpose, and are often willing to spend on things that feel meaningful to them. For small businesses, this means storytelling and customer relationships matter more than ever.
Businesses that do this well tend to connect more deeply with younger customers. When customers understand the why behind what you do, price becomes part of a larger story, one thats more closely connected to value.
This matters because younger consumers arent brand-agnostic; theyre increasingly intentional about where they spend. In recent consumer surveys, Gen Zers say theyre willing to shop locally more often, signaling that values and community can meaningfully influence purchasing decisions alongside price and convenience. In other words, when business leaders feel budgets tightening amidst high expectations, leaning into what makes your offering distinct can turn pressure into loyalty.
WHY THESE LESSONS EXTEND FAR BEYOND WEDDINGS
Whether you run a salon, creative studio, catering company, or consulting practice, you may already be seeing similar patterns. After many years of working with small businesses, one lesson stands firmly in my mind: Adaptability is one of the greatest advantages an entrepreneur can have. The businesses Ive seen thrive do so because they stay curious, embrace new tools, and meet clients evolving needs with empathy and creativity.
If you are a small business owner, take this moment as an opportunity to reimagine how you deliver value, connect with clients and your community, and build a business that can grow with the next generation. Gen Z may be shifting expectations, but with the right adjustments, they just may become the next area of growth for your business.
Raina Moskowitz is the CEO of The Knot Worldwide.
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Health, a product that allows users to connect their medical records and wellness apps to the AI chatbot and get personalized health guidance.
The feature, unveiled on Wednesday, creates a separate space within ChatGPT for health questions and discussions, where users can collect data from their connected health apps such as fitness apps and store their health files.
Users can also connect to their electronic medical records through a partnership with b.well, OpenAI says. ChatGPT, then, does not have a direct integration with the MyChart patient records app from Epic, for example, but lets individual users make requests for their patient record data through integrations built by b.well. In practice, the patient will see a login through their provider’s portal, which often is a MyChart login page to authenticate into their account. In addition, users can connect ChatGPT Health to wellness apps including Apple Health, Peloton, MyFitnessPal, and Function Health.
OpenAI say more than 230 million people globally already ask health and wellness questions on ChatGPT each week. The company says it developed ChatGPT Health over two years in collaboration with more than 260 physicians who have practiced in 60 countries, collecting over 600,000 pieces of feedback on model outputs.
The new product gets its intelligence from a specialized OpenAI health model. In collaboration with doctors, the company also created an evaluation tool called HealthBench, which it uses to test the health model. Data in ChatGPT Health is protected using purpose-built encryption, OpenAI says, and health conversations in the Health space are not used to train OpenAI’s models. But privacy advocates remain concerned about the risks of sharing personal health data within a chatbot setting. “While OpenAI says that it wont use information shared with ChatGPT Health in other chats, AI companies are leaning hard into personalization as a value proposition, says the Center for Democracy & Technologys Andrew Crawford in a statement. Especially as OpenAI moves to explore advertising as a business model, its crucial that separation between this sort of health data and memories that ChatGPT captures from other conversations is airtight.”OpenAI says health consumers can use ChatGPT Health to prepare for doctor appointments, understand clinical test results, get diet and exercise advice, and evaluate insurance options based on their healthcare patterns. ChatGPT Health is not FDA-approved, so it’s not to be confused with real clinician diagnosis and treatment.
Right now, the new feature is available only to a small group of ChatGPT subscribers and free users. OpenAI plans to expand access and make Health available to all users on the web and iOS in the coming weeks. (You can sign up for the waitlist to request access.)
OpenAIs CEO of Applications Fidji Simo wrote in a blog post that she personally used ChatGPT to flag a potential medication conflict during a hospital stay last year, calling the experience an example of AI’s potential in healthcare.
Because Ive been dealing with a chronic illness for years, I had already uploaded a lot of my health records into ChatGPT, Simo writes. I asked whether I should be taking this antibiotic given my medical history, and ChatGPT flagged that this particular antibiotic could reactivate a very serious infection Id had a couple of years prior.
In the big picture, ChatGPT Health represents yet another front OpenAIs growing platform war with legacy tech players such as Apple, Google, and Meta.
If Nike hired Michael Jordan to work at headquarters, would you expect the marketing team to start sinking three-pointers?
Of course not. Hes extraordinary, but skill doesnt spread by proximity.
Here’s a better question: What do Nike employees need to know about basketball? The rules. Game duration. Equipment specs. Enough to design better shoes, write sharper campaigns, and forecast demand accurately.
They dont need to play in the NBA. And Nike doesnt need to hire NBA players to improve its business.
The same is true for AI. Most companies dont need extreme AI talent to unlock real efficiency gains. They need people across the organization to understand how AI applies to their work.
Until leaders get specific about which AI skills matter, where they live, and how they show up in day-to-day work, no amount of hiring AI experts will make an organization truly AI-enabled.
THREE TYPES OF AI SKILLS
AI skills arent a single capability. In practice, its three categories, each with its own learning curves, and business outcomes.
1. AI literacy: Everyones baseline
2. AI integration: Technical professionals everyday craft
3. AI creation: Specialists deep work
1. AI literacy is everyones job
I like to think of this as teaching the entire company how to drive with GPS. Not everyone needs to build the map. But everyone should know when the directions are reliable, when the route is risky, and when the system is confidently wrong.
First is AI literacy. Employees need to understand what AI can do, what it cant, and what it will do when it doesnt know the answer. Literacy prevents common failures: over-trusting outputs, under-using tools, and feeding poor context.
Second is AI tool fluency, which is role-specific. A marketer generating content, a recruiter screening candidates, and a support lead drafting responses all need different AI tools.
One reason I like IKEAs approach is that theyre treating AI literacy as every employee’s responsibility, and the companys responsibility to enable it. They equipped thousands of coworkers with Microsofts generative AI tools and gave them time to learn.
What did this look like in practice? Designers generate product visualizations, store managers create training presentations, and supply chain analysts draft forecasting reports.
Everyone, not just one department.
2. AI integration is a core skill for technical teams
If AI literacy is drive with GPS, AI integration is install the GPS into the car.
This is where engineering teams earn their keep. Integration skills include prompt design, system evaluation, and knowing when AI belongs in the flow.
Here is what this looks like when done as a system. Salesforce created an internal demo series called Thoughtluck Thursdays, where engineers show short, practical demos of how they integrated AI into their processes and then share patterns other teams can reuse.
Salesforces approach works because it creates repeatable templates and guardrails other engineers can ship.
3. AI creation is a specialty, not a company-wide requirement
AI creation is the ability to develop, train, and refine models. It requires deep expertise in data collection and preparation, model training, evaluation, and specialized techniques.
It is also the smallest cohort of most organizations.
If you are not building models as a core part of your product strategy, you do not need a large AI creation team. You need a small number of specialists, and the rest of the organization needs to become competent in usage and integration.
EXTERNAL HIRING HAS ITS PLACE
Let me be clear: External hiring isnt wrong. Its necessary when you need skills you genuinely dont have, especially in AI creation.
But hiring people with “AI skills” on their résumés cannot be your primary path to AI literacy and integration.
First, there is no established market for AI skills. The capabilities are too new, the demand is everywhere, and the talent pool is impossibly thin. Every company is chasing the same small group of people, and most of those people are already employed or starting their own companies.
Second, it is harder to teach someone the ins and outs of your business than to teach them how to incorporate AI into their daily work. The biggest returns come from reskilling the people who already understand your business, your culture, and your systems.
This is where hiring and training stop being separate motions and start becoming one system.
HR OWNS THIS
Dont get me wrong, IT teams are essential. They evaluate vendors, manage security, and integrate systems. But selecting the right tools doesnt determine whether AI changes how work gets done by the people doing the work.
Building the right skills does.
That’s why HR needs a seat at the table from day one to ask the right questions: Who gets trained first? How will we train them? Which roles evolve? How will performance be measured? Are there larger talent mobility needs?
Heres where to start:
1. Pick one team. Choose a group that’s already eager to experiment, has clearly defined processes already, and can measure impact.
2. Give them three months and a small budget. Let them explore AI tools relevant to their work. Provide training. Remove barriers. Measure what breaks and what works.
3. Share the results company-wide. The wins, the failures, the unexpected friction points. Make it real and specific.
Thats your AI strategy. Not a nine-figure hire or a top-down mandate or a hope that capability spreads. Build the skills where work happens, scale what works, and repeat.
Tigran Sloyan is the CEO and cofounder of CodeSignal.
President Donald Trump’s administration has introduced a new, inverted food pyramid with fewer food groups.
The new three-section food pyramid is part of the administration’s new nutrition policy announced Wednesday, which encourages Americans to eat whole or minimally processed foods, which it calls real food, and has been a longtime interest of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy’s policy interests also shine through on the initiative’s new website, realfood.gov, which features copy that reads like a MAHA manifesto. The National Design Studio gave the website a minimalist design that takes cues from consumer companies like Chobani and Sweetgreen, with clean, sans serif typefaces and playful illustrations.
The new pyramid
The original pyramid, released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1992, featured six sections. The new version is flipped and has three: protein, dairy, and healthy fats; vegetables and fruits; and whole grains. Sweets have been removed.
[Image: USDA]
“It’s upside down, a lot of people would say,” Kennedy said at a White House press conference. “But it was actually upside down before, and we just righted it.”
The new pyramid graphic makes do with fewer groups by combining categories from the original food pyramid. Whole grains, once included in the base of the original pyramid, now make up the smallest portion of the new version, while old categoriesfruits and vegetables, and meat and dairyare combined.
[Image: USDA]
The graphic is colorful, with eye-catching, painterly illustrations of example foods that might appear in a 1970s health food magazine. But the infographic is less successful as a piece of communication design. It’s not clear how literally the placement of foods within the graphic is meant to be. And although supporting documents about the new pyramid offer specific guidelines, like suggesting that saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10% of total daily calories, the new pyramid does not communicate specifics itself.
Users can hover over each section of the pyramid for additional information, but it doesn’t provide much. The pyramid doesn’t indicate how many servings of dairy or healthy fats you should have. And to determine your protein target, realfood.gov asks Americans to take on the additional step of first calculating their weight in kilograms. (Quite frankly, a lot of us don’t know what that is.)
The federal government’s new guidance, which gets updated every five years, also removes specific recommendations about daily alcohol consumption and only suggests to drink less. It also calls for more protein and full-fat dairy.
Government designers have worked to improve upon the food pyramid before. In 2005, an updated graphic made the food segments slice upwards instead of dividing the shape horizontally. In 2011, it ditched the pyramid altogether for MyPlate, a skeuomorphic representation of dietary guidelines that used a circular graphic to represent portions as they’d appear on a plate.
The new 2026 pyramid represents the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) priorities under Kennedy’s Health Department and comes two days after the agency cut its number of recommended vaccines for children, worrying medical groups.
The new recommendations are not meant to be a strict diet, according to its website, but “a flexible framework meant to guide better choices.” It’s minimalist, for sure, but whether Americans find it a useful guide to healthy living remains to be seen.
GameStop is providing details on a new compensation package for CEO Ryan Cohen that is dependent on him meeting certain significant performance targets.
The video game retailer said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that Cohen would have to grow its market capitalization to $100 billion and it would need to hit $10 billion in cumulative performance EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for his award to fully vest.
GameStop said Cohen won’t receive any guaranteed pay, which it defines as no salary, no cash bonuses, and no stock that simply vests over time.
His compensation is entirely at-risk, meaning he will only be paid if the company achieves significant market and operational goals, GameStop said in the filing. This structure ensures that Mr. Cohens incentives are directly aligned with creating long-term value for GameStops stockholders.
The structure is similar to a pay package that Tesla shareholders approved for CEO Elon Musk, in which Musk would receive Tesla stock worth $1 trillion if he hits certain performance targets over the next decade.
Cohen’s compensation package with GameStop includes stock options to buy more than 171.5 million common shares for $20.66 each. Shareholders must approve the new pay package at a special meeting in March or April.
Shares of GameStop rose 4% to $21.49 in midday trading, giving the company a market cap of roughly $9.26 billion.
The company’s shares are down substantially from May 2024 when influential investor Keith Gill, popularly known as Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to declare his support for GameStop.
Gill helped ignite a meme stock craze in early 2021, when GameStops stock price soared above $120.
Michelle Chapman, AP business writer
Octopuses are brilliant, emotional, and mysterious. Can they ever be farmed humanely? And if they can, should they be? Fast Company contributor Clint Rainey is the first journalist in the world to be let inside a cutting-edge effort to build the first commercial octopus farm. Exclusive documentary. Coming in 2026.Check out the full article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91448602/octopus-could-be-the-next-commercially-farmed-seafood-should-it-be
