Novo Nordisk’s closely-watched Alzheimer’s trials of an older oral version of its semaglutide drug failed to help slow the progression of the brain-wasting disease, the firm said on Monday, a blow to the obesity drug giant that sent its shares sliding.
The trials, which Novo had previously called a “lottery ticket” to underline its highly uncertain outcome, were testing whether the medicine could slow cognitive decline in patients.
The setback scuppers hopes for Novo that Alzheimer’s could open a major new market for GLP-1 medicines such as semaglutide, as it faces rising competition to its blockbuster drugs in its core treatment areas of obesity and diabetes.
Erik Berg-Johnsen, portfolio manager at Novo shareholder Storebrand Asset Management, told Reuters that the trial failure was likely “a nail in the coffin” for using its products against Alzheimer’s.
“The fact that the study was discontinued after two years, despite a planned third year extension, suggests that semaglutide offers virtually no benefit in slowing Alzheimer’s progression.”
Novo’s trial was being closely watched as an indication about whether GLP-1 drugs – used by millions for diabetes and weight loss – might slow disease progress.
The drug tested was Rybelsus, a pill approved only for type 2 diabetes. Like Novo’s blockbusters Ozempic and Wegovy, it contains semaglutide.
‘LOTTERY TICKET’ LOSES OUT
The company’s Executive Vice President for Product and Portfolio Strategy, Ludovic Helfgott, had described the Alzheimer’s trials as a “lottery ticket” in September, referring to its uncertain prospects yet huge potential.
Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias affect more than 55 million people globally. There is no cure.
“While semaglutide did not demonstrate efficacy in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, the extensive body of evidence supporting semaglutide continues to provide benefits for individuals with type 2 diabetes, obesity, and related comorbidities,” Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said in a statement.
The results from the two trials of early-stage patients, called EVOKE and EVOKE+, are another setback for the Danish drugmaker and new CEO Mike Doustdar, which had seen booming success, driven by Ozempic and Wegovy, before slowing sales growth and a tumbling share price prompted a CEO change and mass layoffs.
The setback reinforces analyst scepticism about Novo’s Alzheimer’s ambitions, with UBS having estimated just a 10% probability of success.
Henrik Hallengreen Laustsen, Jyske Bank analyst, said however that a 10% share price fall on Monday looked like an “overreaction”.
Sydbank analyst Soren Lontoft Hansen said that the failure was not a surprise for Novo, which has had a tough year with slowing sales of its key weight-loss drugs, management overhaul and rising competition from U.S. peer Eli Lilly .
“The share’s reaction is probably more due to the bad sentiment around the Novo Nordisk shares and the negative news flow over the past year – perhaps there was hope for a little tailwind from this study.”
PARTICIPANTS AGED 55 TO 85
Shares of Biogen jumped about 5% premarket following news of Novo’s Alzheimer’s trial failure. Biogen and partner Eisai’s Leqembi and rival Eli Lilly’s Kisunla are the only approved treatments for Alzheimer’s in the United States. Both drugs require infusions or injections and can cause significant side effects.
“There was some fear that Ozempic might reduce the opportunity for Leqembi and other Alzheimer’s drugs by preventing progression of disease. So these data lift a potential competitive overhang,” said Cantor analyst Eric Schmidt.
The Rybelsus trials, covering a combined 3,808 patients, were the first large trials for patients with early stage Alzheimer’s.
The trials used a ratings system to assess clinical changes in areas such as memory and how patients were able to care for themselves over a two-year period. The studies aimed for a 20% slowing of cognitive decline, trial details show.
Wall Street analysts viewed the trials as high-risk, high-reward, and had said the data would determine if Novo’s Alzheimer’s programme could become a future growth driver.
Stine Jacobsen, Maggie Fick and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Reuters
Old Brick Farm, where Larry Doll raises chickens, turkeys and ducks, was fortunate this Thanksgiving season.Doll’s small farm west of Detroit had no cases of bird flu, despite an ongoing outbreak that killed more than 2 million U.S. turkeys in the last three months alone. He also avoided another disease, avian metapneumovirus, which causes turkeys to lay fewer eggs.“I try to keep the operation as clean as possible, and not bringing other animals in from other farms helps mitigate that risk as well,” said Doll, whose farm has been in his family for five generations.But Doll still saw the impact as those diseases shrank the U.S. turkey flock to a 40-year low this year. The hatchery where he gets his turkey chicks had fewer available this year. He plans to order another 100 hatchlings soon, even though they won’t arrive until July.“If you don’t get your order in early, you’re not going to get it,” he said.
Thanksgiving costs vary
The shrinking population is expected to cause wholesale turkey prices to rise 44% this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Despite the increase, many stores are offering discounted or even free turkeys to soften the potential blow to Thanksgiving meal budgets. But even if the bird is cheaper than last year, the ingredients to prepare the rest of the holiday feast may not be. Tariffs on imported steel, for example, have increased prices for canned goods.As of Nov. 17, a basket of 11 Thanksgiving staples including a 10-pound frozen turkey, 10 Russet potatoes, a box of stuffing and cans of corn, green beans and cranberry sauce cost $58.81, or 4.1% more than last year, according to Datasembly, a market research company that surveys weekly prices at 150,000 U.S. stores. That’s higher than the average price increase for food eaten at home, which rose 2.7% in September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.Datasembly showed a 2% decline in the retail price of a 10-pound turkey as of Nov. 17. Pricing out Thanksgiving meals isn’t an exact science, and the firm’s tally differed from other estimates.The American Farm Bureau Federation, which uses volunteer shoppers in all 50 states to survey prices, reported that Thanksgiving dinner for 10 would cost $55.16 this year, or 5% less than last year. The Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, using NielsenIQ data from September, estimated that feeding 10 people on Thursday using store-brand products would cost $80 this year, which is 2% to 3% lower than last year’s estimate.
Tempting turkey prices
Grocery chains are also offering deals to attract shoppers. Discount grocer Aldi is advertising a $40 meal for 10 with 21 items. Kroger said shoppers could feed 10 people for under $50 with its menu of store-brand products.Earlier this month, President Donald Trump touted Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal basket, which he said was 25% cheaper than last year. But that was because Walmart included a different assortment and fewer products overall this year.“We’re seeing some promotions being implemented in an effort to draw customers into the store,” David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University, said.That’s despite a sharp increase in wholesale turkey prices since August. In the second week of November, frozen 8-16 pound hens were averaging $1.77 per pound, up 81% from the same period last year, according to Mark Jordan, the executive director of Leap Market Analytics, which closely follows the poultry and livestock markets.Avian viruses are the main culprit. But another reason for turkey’s higher wholesale prices has been an increase in consumer demand as other meats have gotten more expensive, Jordan said. Beef prices were up 14% in September compared to last year, for example.“For a big chunk of the population, they look at steak cuts and say, ‘I can’t or I don’t want to pay $30 a pound,'” Jordan said.That’s the case for Paul Nadeau, a retired consultant from Austin, Texas, who plans to smoke a turkey this week. Nadeau said he usually smokes a brisket over Thanksgiving weekend, but the beef brisket he buys would now cost more than $100. Turkey prices are also up at his local H-E-B supermarket, he said, but not by as much.“I don’t know of anything that’s down in price since last year except for eggs,” Nadeau said.
Tariffs and weather
Trump’s tariffs on imported steel and aluminum are also raising prices. Farok Contractor, a distinguished professor of management and global business at the Rutgers Business School, said customers are paying 10 cents to 40 cents more per can when companies pass on the full cost of tariffs.Tariffs may be partly to blame for the increased cost of jellied cranberry sauce, which was up 38% from last year in Datasembly’s survey. But weather was also a factor. U.S. cranberry production is expected to be down 9% this year, hurt by drought conditions in Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.In Illinois, where most of the country’s canning pumpkins are grown, dry weather actually helped pumpkins avoid diseases that are more prevalent in wet conditions, said Raghela Scavuzzo, an associate director of food systems development at the Illinois Farm Bureau and the executive director of the Illinois Specialty Growers Association. Datasembly found that a 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix cost 5% less than last year.
Farm to table
Back at Old Brick Farm, which has been in his family since 1864, Doll walked among his turkeys the week before Thanksgiving, patting their heads as they waddled between their warm barn and an open pasture. In a few days, he planned to deliver them to an Amish butcher.Doll sold all 92 turkeys he raised this year, with customers paying $6.50 per pound for what many tell him is the best turkey they’ve ever tasted. He enjoys a little profit, he said, and the good feeling of supplying a holiday meal.“I just love it, to think that, you know, not only are we providing them food, but the centerpiece of their Thanksgiving dinner,” he said.
Associated Press Video Journalist Mike Householder contributed.
Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer
The Thanksgiving holiday is nearly upon us, which means tens of millions of Americans will be traveling nationwide this week to visit their loved ones and celebrate around the dinner table with them on Thursday.
The majority of that travel both to and from Turkey Day destinations is expected to kick off tomorrow, Tuesday, November 25, and run through Monday, December 1, which are the dates the American Automobile Association (AAA) defines as the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday period.
Its the busiest travel period for Americans, even beating out holidays like the Fourth of July and Christmas.
While several million Americans are expected to make their Thanksgiving journeys by air or train, the overwhelming majoritymore than 73 million this yearare expected to travel by car.
If that includes you, youll want to pay attention to the latest data compiled by AAA.
It reveals the best times to hit the roads during the upcoming holiday period and the times you should avoid being on the streets if you don’t want to experience the worst of the increased traffic congestion.
Best times to hit the roads for the Thanksgiving travel period
Except on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, any other time that you travel during this Thanksgiving holiday period, you are likely to see more road congestion than usual. However, some times of the day are likely to see less travel congestion than others.
Here are the best times to be in the car this Thanksgiving period if you want to avoid the worst of traffic, according to information compiled by AAA from transportation data and insights provider INRIX:
Tuesday, November 25: Before 12 p.m.
Wednesday, November 26: Before 11 a.m.
Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving): Minimal Traffic Impact Expected
Friday, November 28: Before 11 a.m.
Saturday, November 29: Before 10 a.m.
Sunday, November 30: Before 11 a.m.
Monday, December 1: Before 8 p.m.
Worst times to hit the roads for the Thanksgiving travel period
INRIX says that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon are expected to feature the heaviest congestion before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after Thanksgiving is expected to see the heaviest traffic for return home journeys.
The firm says that the worst times to be on the roads due to traffic congestion during the entire holiday period are as follows:
Tuesday, November 25: 12 p.m.9 p.m.
Wednesday, November 26: 11 a.m.8 p.m.
Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving): Minimal Traffic Impact Expected
Friday, November 28: 1 p.m.7 p.m.
Saturday, November 29: 1 p.m.8 p.m.
Sunday, November 30: 11 a.m.8 p.m.
Monday, December 1: 12 p.m.8 p.m.
More than 73 million people will travel by car this Thanksgiving
AAA says 73.28 million people will take to the roads in cars this Thanksgiving holiday period. Thats 1.3 million more than the 71.99 million travelers who took to the roads during the 2024 Thanksgiving periodan increase of about 1.8%.
It’s also 2.7 million more than those who took to the road in 2019, the last Thanksgiving before the outbreak of the pandemic.
But travelers this week wont only be taking to the roads to get to and from their Thanksgiving festivities. AAA says that while automobile travel will make up 89.6% of all travel in America during this Thanksgiving holiday period, millions of Americans will also be taking to the skies and rails.
The association expects 6.07 million travelers to take flights during this holiday period, and another 2.48 million to travel by other modes of transportation, including buses, trains, and cruise ships.
In total, AAA expects the number of travelers in America to reach 81.83 million this Thanksgiving holiday travel period. Thats a 2% increase from last year, when 80.22 million people traveled. And its 5.2% more than the 77.78 travelers who took to the road, skies, and rails in 2019.
Another home furnishings retail chain has sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it deals with higher costs, reduced sales, a downturn in the housing market, and President Trump’s tariffs.
American Signature Inc (ASI), parent company of American Signature Furniture and Value City Furniture, said Sunday that it has secured $50 million in debt financing as it seeks a buyer in an auction process. Here’s what to know.
What is ASI and why is it bankrupt?
Founded it 1948 and based in Columbus, Ohio, American Signature Inc is the parent company of two home furnishings retail chains: American Signature Furniture and Value City Furniture.
Combined, the company has 120 stores across 17 states, it said in a court declaration over the weekend.
The Value City brand is spread out across more states, with stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
American Signature, meanwhile, has locations in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.
Additionally, the company has distribution centers in Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, and California, two of which are owned and two of which are leased.
ASI employs roughly 3,000 people.
As for why it’s filing for bankruptcy, the retailer noted that it had experienced a period of rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that sales have slipped over the last year.
It cites a number of reasons for its dire straits, notably “one of the most severe housing market declines in recent history.”
Macroeconomic factors including rising interest rates and inflation have further exasperated the situation for ASI, as have “newly established tariffs.”
Which stores are closing as part of this process?
The company said in its bankruptcy announcement that it expects stores to remain open throughout the process.
However, in court filings it has identified five locations that it plans to close by early next year:
Value City Furniture: 2320 Sardis Road North, Charlotte, NC 28227
American Signature Furniture: 1770 Galleria Blvd, Franklin, TN 37067
American Signature Furniture: 2130 Gallatin Pike North, Madison, TN 37115
American Signature Furniture: 2821 Wilma Rudolph Blvd, Clarksville, TN 37040
American Signature Furniture: 2075 Old Fort Parkway, Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Liquidation sales have already begun at these locations and are expected to be completed by the end of January 2026, court filings show.
The company has enlisted SB360 Capital Partners to help with store closings and has warned that additional stores may close as the consultation process continues.
It was not immediately clear how many job losses are expected. Fast Company reached out to ASI for additional details and will update this post if we hear back.
What happens next?
ASI has entered into an agreement with a so-called stalking horse bidder owned by the Schottenstein family, whom Columbus Monthly has referred to as the Ohio capital’s “last dynasty.”
Holding company Schottenstein Stores Corporation also owns American Signature Inc, meaning the furniture chain could stay in the family.
However, American Signature plans to seek a higher bidder during an auction process within about 45 days.
American Signature’s bankruptcy follows a similar move by fellow home furnishings retailer At Home, which sought Chapter 11 protection in June and has closed a number of locations this year.
This story is developing…
World shares and U.S. futures were mixed on Monday after Wall Street was buoyed by revived hopes for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was nearly unchanged.Germany’s DAX gained 0.5% to 23,201.85, while the CAC 40 edged less than 0.1% lower to 7,978.77. Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.1% to 9,547.77.Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.Hong Kong’s benchmark, the Hang Seng, rose 2% to 25,716.50. It got a boost from a 4.7% gain for e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has reported strong demand for its updated Qwen AI app. Alibaba is due to report earnings on Tuesday.The Shanghai Composite index rose less than 0.1% to 3,836.77.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.3% to 8,525.10.In South Korea, the Kospi reversed early gains, falling 0.2% to 3,846.06 on heavy selling of automakers.Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.3% and the Sensex in India shed 0.4%.This week, U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, which will be followed by the Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail rushes.After last week’s ups and downs over AI and Nvidia, traders will focus more on “the backbone of U.S. growth, the consumer, whose spending still drives two-thirds of GDP,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.Data on the U.S. economy was scarce during the 6-week U.S. government shutdown, leaving investors struggling to parse trends in the economy.“This makes any sniff of holiday activity foot traffic, discount depth, card authorizations disproportionately important. In a data desert, even a puddle looks like a lake,” he said.On Friday, the S&P 500 gained 1% and the Dow climbed 1.1%. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%. Nearly 90% of stocks in the S&P 500 advanced.It was a fitting finish for a week that left the S&P 500 just 4.2% below its record but also forced investors to stomach the sharpest hour-to-hour swings since a sell-off in April. The jarring moves are testing investors following a monthslong and remarkably smooth surge for stocks, and they come down to two basic as-yet unanswered questions.Have prices for Nvidia, bitcoin and other stars of Wall Street shot too high? And is the Federal Reserve done with its cuts to interest rates, which would boost the economy and prices for investments?Markets took heart from a speech by the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, John Williams, who told a conference in Chile that he sees “room for a further adjustment” to interest rates.Other Fed officials have argued against a December cut, saying inflation is still too high.In the bond market, Treasury yields eased Friday on hopes for cuts from the Fed. Traders are now betting on a nearly 72% probability of a December cut, up sharply from 39% a day before, according to data from CME Group. That helped send the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 4.06% from 4.10% late Thursday.In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 43 cents to $57.63 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 38 cents to $61.56 a barrel.The U.S. dollar rose to 156.75 Japanese yen from 156.47 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1537 from $1.1516.Bitcoin was up 1.6%, near $86,000. On Friday, it briefly plunged below $81,000 before pulling back toward $85,000. That’s down from nearly $125,000 last month and brought it back to where it was in April, when markets were shaking because of President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs.
Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Being a life sciences CEO is not for the faint of heart. Drug discovery and patent approvals are costly and time-consuming, and even if an executive can steer a company to clinical trials, theres a very small chance the product will be commercialized. One study says that 90% of clinical drug development fails because the treatment didnt have its intended impact, had the wrong formulations, or harmed patients. You have a business challenge, a science challenge, a clinical trial challenge, and a regulatory challenge, says Kevin Conroy, CEO of the colorectal cancer screening company Exact Sciences. Its like solving a complex puzzle, and theres simply no guarantee of success.
When companies do solve that puzzle, the rewards can be huge: As Modern CEO went to press, Exact Sciences announced it was selling to Abbott in a deal valued at $21 billion.
Still, biotech and health technology companies are now confronting an additional burden: simmering science skepticism. Pew Research Center found that in 2024, 76% of Americans believed that scientists act in the publics best interest, up slightly from 2023 but down 10 points from pre-pandemic levels. A new survey from Pew shows that 24% of parents of school-age children question whether vaccines have undergone enough safety testing.
Rebuilding trust in science
Some lawmakers are fanning the flames. Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for changes in the ways vaccines are tested. The White House has cut budgets at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and moved to terminate federal funding to universities, all of which participate in the funding of medical and science research.
Conroy says the current environment is a call to action to the biosciences industry to help rebuild trust with the public and lawmakers. How can we in this field show success that brings back a stronger belief in science, in data, in clinical studies, in evidence generation? he asks. I think its our responsibility to do that.
According to Conroy, Exact Sciences isnt facing any societal or political headwinds. It makes a colon cancer test (if youre a certain age, youve probably been served ads for its Cologuard Kit) that will screen five million people for cancer this year. Science skepticism hasnt touched cancer screening, he says. People on the left and right are touched equally by cancer.
Still, Exact Sciences and other science companies have benefited from an ecosystem of government-funded research, rigorous approvals, and endorsements that make the U.S. a biotech innovation powerhouse. Exact Sciences was founded in 1995 by an engineer who wanted to develop an alternative to colonoscopies, but the company struggled for years to develop a test. Conroy joined in 2009 after meeting with David Ahlquist, a Mayo Clinic physician who had spent 20 years researching noninvasive colon cancer detectionresearch funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
Exact Sciences collaborated with Ahlquist on an approach that tests a patients stool for abnormal DNA or blood cells that might indicate the presence of colon cancer. Cologuard received FDA approval in 2014, after a huge clinical trial involving 10,000 patients; that same year the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it intended to cover the test, and the American Cancer Society included the test in its colon cancer screening guidelinesa key recommendation that helped build public trust in the at-home kit.
Exact Sciences would not be here without federally funded research at the Mayo Clinic, Conroy says.
Follow the data
Conroy notes that all businesses can gain from a scientific approachrunning experiments, conceding when something doesnt work (even if youve invested time and money in the research), and following the data. At Exact Sciences, such rigor extends beyond the lab. Before the company launched its kits, the team tested two different product designs for sample collectiona scoop and a container. The team thought consumers would favor the scoop, but research showed 85% of users preferred the container.
We would have made a big mistake if we had trusted our gut, Conroy says. A lot of times youre so passionate as a CEO, you skip all of those steps and just bulldoze your way toward the answer youd like to see. Im as guilty of that as the next CEO.
I asked Conroy how biotech executives can help restore trust in science and rally support for the broader system of grants and research funding now under fire. He notes that he travels to Washington from Exact Sciences headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, every quarter to meet with lawmakers, largely to advocate for early detection of diseases but also to talk about innovation and discovery. Every CEO in this field should be doing the same thing. Its too important for Americas competitiveness, he says.
Deadline extended
Were extending the deadline for Modern CEO of the Year nominations by a few days. If you or someone you know has had a standout 2025, please fill out this nomination form by November 28. Well name the Modern CEO of the Year on December 29.
Read more: science in focus
This Sam Altmanbacked CEO is using AI to get drugs to market faster
The most innovative biotech companies of 2025
Why Jennifer Doudna is one of the 10 most innovative people of the last 10 years
Every good salesperson knows the 7-step process in which you identify and qualify a prospect to understand their needs, then present your offer, overcome objections, close the sale and follow up. Its proven so consistently effective that its concepts have been the standard for training salespeople for decades.
Many business leaders come up through sales and marketing, so it shouldnt be surprising that they try to use similar persuasion techniques for large-scale change. They work to understand the needs of their target market, craft a powerful message, overcome any objections and then follow-through on execution.
Unfortunately, thats a terrible strategy. The truth is that the urge to persuade is often a red flag. It means you either have the wrong people or the wrong idea. Effective change strategy focuses on collective dynamics. Rather than trying to shape opinions, youre much better off empowering people who are already enthusiastic about the idea and working to shape networks.
The power of persuasion
Experts have a lot of ideas about persuasion. Some suggest leveraging social proof, to show that people have adopted the idea and had a positive experience. Others emphasize the importance of building trust and using emotional rather than analytical arguments. Still others insist on creating a unified value proposition.
For 35 years, psychologist Robert Cialdini researched which types of communication were effective and which were not. He found that influence is based on six key principles: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. More recently, Wharton Professor Jonah Berger has used data analysis to come up with his SPEACC framework.
In recent years, a number of conversation-based practices, such as Deep Canvassing, Street Epistemology, and the Change Conversation Pyramid, have emerged that focus on a method called technique rebuttal. These focus on listening empathetically to build rapport and identifying common ground, then encouraging the target to engage in metacognition to examine how they arrived at their own conclusions.
These all are, for the most part, worthwhile and can be effective. However, its also important to remember that the first two steps in the sales process are identifying and qualifying prospects so that when you are presenting your offer, it is to people who are eager, or at least open, to what youre trying to sell. Nobody would recommend wasting time and effort on trying to sell to those who have no interest in buying.
Yet with large-scale change, thats not an option. Your environment will include the entire spectrum, from active supporters to active resistors. That means that for a significant portion of people, persuasive techniques will not be effective.
The limits of communication
We like to think that our minds work like computers, taking in evidence through our five senses and then processing that information in our brains to arrive at conclusions. Persuasion techniques tend to focus on glitches in that machinery in the form of cognitive biases, in order to get us to see things in another light.
Yet we are wired to be social creatures. As we engage in collective action with others, we form group identities and seek to build status amongst our own tribe. Part of achieving the status we desire is showing loyalty and adherence to collective principles, so we take steps to signal to others that we remain loyal members in good standing and expect the same of them.
Thats why we are greatly shaped by the people around us. Decades of studies indicate that we tend to conform to the opinions and behaviors of those around us and this effect extends out to three degrees of relationships. So not only do our friends friends influence us deeply, but their friends toopeople that we dont even knowaffect what we think.
Thats why communication strategies will always be limited. We can carefully craft messages to align with the influence techniques of Cialdini and Berger, listen with empathy and employ the methods of technique rebuttal to successfully persuade someone to come to our way of thinking. But when they go back and get embedded in their social networks once again, theyre very likely to return to their earlier way of thinking.
To wit, when David McRaney, while researching his book How Minds Change, sought out people who left cults or turned their backs on conspiracy theories he found that, invariably, the change in their opinion was preceded by a significant change in their social networks.
Why incentives backfire
Another common persuasion tactic is the use of incentives, based on the belief that changing incentives will automatically change behaviors. However, incentives frequently fall short and can even backfire dramatically. Sometimes this is due to the same identity and dignity issue that make people resistant to influence techniques, but also because people often act in unpredictable ways that arent immediately obvious.
Consider what happened in an experiment where daycare centers imposed fines for parents who were late picking up their children. Instead of cutting down on late pickups, they increased. As it turned out, parents saw the fine as a fee for convenience which they were happy to pay.
There is also significant evidence that extrinsic incentives crowd out intrinsic and reputational motivations. For example, in an experiment in which subjects were asked to solve a puzzle, those who were paid a flat fee were much more likely to continue to work during free time than those who were paid for each puzzle solved.
Yet there is one kind of incentive that does seem to work consistently and it taps into the same forces of group identity that make people resistant to other forms of influence. Its called prosocial behavior. We are more likely to perform when we understand and identify with who our work benefits than when they are given financial incentives or fed some slogan.
In a study by Adam Grant, the performance of call center employees more than doubled when they had regular conversations with people who benefited from their work. Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo report in an article in Harvard Business Review that similar results have been found in studies of lifeguards, hospital workers, and sales teams.
Going to where the energy is
Transformation efforts often center on communication, aiming to build awareness, desire, and knowledge about change, while building a sense of urgency and excitement. So leaders craft persuasive messages and broadcast them widely. Yet, after months of happy talk, they often find their efforts not only fell on deaf ears but also provoked deep, intense resistance.
The truth is that change isnt about persuasion, but collective dynamics. Decades of research has shown that change spreads through peer networks rather than communication campaigns. Or, as network science pioneer Duncan Watts once put it to me, ideas propagate through easily influenced people influencing other easily influenced people.
Thats why you need to be wary about the urge to persuade. You want to go where the energy already is, not try and create and maintain it yourself. Find people who are already enthusiastic, empower them to succeed and they can bring in others, who can bring in others still. As Watts research has found, even a small initial shift can cascade into massive transformation.
The evidence is clear: You dont need to win over everyone at once. If you find yourself spending most of your energy trying to convince the skeptical or overpowering resistance, you are either focusing on the wrong people or you have the wrong idea. Instead of trying to push through, you need to regroup, reassess and identify where your efforts can be better placed.
More children are cashing in their Make-A-Wish requests to meet their favorite content creators, with creator wishes more than doubling in the past decade.
Make-A-Wish Foundation has been granting life-changing wishes for children with a critical illness since 1980. Now, alongside A-Listers and sports stars, YouTubers and TikTokers are also flooding requests, Axios reported.
Requests to meet content creators make up 32% of the wishes granted within the entertainment industry, per Axios, the second largest source of requests behind the music industry.
Several of the creators say they’ve been granting wishes for years and more than 50 creators and influencers became first-time wish-granters in the last year to keep up with demand.
As parents and children realize meeting their favorite streamer, TikToker, or YouTuber is an option, its becoming more and more common. In October, Make-A-Wish, Disney, and MrBeast hosted YouTube and some of the worlds top creators, at Disneyland Resort to grant wishes for 40 children.
This shift is unsurprising given the growing influence of content creators. It used to be that if you asked a classroom of kids what they want to be when they grow up, youd get answers like pop star and football player. A 2024 survey of 910 U.S. Gen Alpha kids (ages 12 to 15) by social commerce platform Whop found that nearly a third want to be YouTubers, while one in five aspire to become TikTok creators. Given the chance, they also want to meet their heroes.
“Digital creators have built strong, loyal communities based on authenticity and common interests, Jared Perry, chief revenue officer at Make-A-Wish America previously shared in a statement. When this connection is used to rally behind a cause like Make-A-Wish, it can generate significant donations and lead to long-term relationships with an entirely new audience.”
Content creators also leverage their own platforms to engage followers in charitable causes. MrBeast, for example, is well-known for his philanthropy through his 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Beast Philanthropy. Through his Beast Philanthropy channel, he has, in just the past year, given away $1 million of toys, donated $1 million worth of brandnew teeth, and funded a gym for adaptive athletes. The organization donates 100% of the revenue from its content and merchandise.
Make-A-Wish relies on fundraisers, donors, and partners to make sick childrens wishes come true. “By becoming ambassadors of Make-A-Wish, and featuring our mission regularly in their content, creators can inspire sustained support and make a meaningful difference,” Perry continued.
As a parent, shopping for holiday gifts for your kids can be a dilemma. Of course you want to surprise the little ones with exciting presents, but you also know that most flashy toys wont hold their attention for very long. Theyll likely lose interest in them within a few days and youll be stuck with plastic toy cluttering up their rooms, destined for the donation bin. In addition to being a waste of money, its terrible for the planet.
What if you could surprise them with something thats both beautiful and practical? Heres some ideas for gifts that theyll be able to use for years.
[Photo: State]
A purse of their own
State, $60
At some point, your child will need their own bag to carry a little bit of pocket money or a snack. But if you get them a purse or tote, theyre likely to leave it behind somewhere. The solution: a cute bag you can strap onto them. States fanny pack is thoughtfully sized for a childs body and comes in great designs like rainbow sequins. It is cleverly designed to go over their shoulder, so it is always in front of them.
[Photo: Minted]
New art for their room
Minted, prices vary
Why not upgrade your childs room with a piece of art they love? Minted offers a wide range of designs that are child-friendly, but wont make you cringe. You could have fun picking a design together. You can order it as a framed poster print, or a canvas. Its something that theyll always associate with their childhood bedroom.
[Photo: Original Duckhead]
A colorful, artistic umbrella
Original Duckhead x Meri Meri Umbrella, $36
Kids love playing in the rain, and they love having their very own umbrella. Original Duckhead, a brand known for its durability and quality, has made a collection of kids umbrellas with the brand Meri Meri. The designs are fun, colorful, but also tasteful. Pick from cherries and smiley faces, dinosaurs, or rainbows. Theyll be perfect to stash in a backpack for a rainy walk back from school.
[Photo: Away]
A suitcase for all their adventures
Away, $250
If you have upcoming travel, why not get them a suitcase theyll love. This one from Away is designed from the same durable materials as the adult bags, but theyre perfectly sized for the under 7 set. Your kid will love packing it and wheeling it through the airport themselves. For the holidays, it comes with a Paw Patrols design in pink and blue.
[Photo: Petite Plume]
Pajamas fit for a prince or princess
Petite Plume, $60
Holiday pajamas have become a trend, but who wants to wear Santa jammies in January? Petite Plume offers gorgeous, high quality nightgowns and pajamas that are so soft and beautiful, your kid will be excited to see them under the tree. (Some of the nightgowns are pretty enoughthat your child might want to wear them to school.) They come in classic designs, like toile and stripes, that can be worn all year around.
[Photo: Baublebar]
A blanket for sleepovers and picnics
Baublebar, $78
While you may not think your child will get excited about a blanket, wait till they see these. Theyre designed in child friendly patterns and colors, and you can customize it with their name. Its the perfect thing for them to bring to sleepovers or the park, or just to decorate their room.
As I said in previous articles, executives like to say theyre integrating AI. But most still treat artificial intelligence as a feature, not a foundation. They bolt it onto existing systems without realizing that each automation hides a layer of invisible human work, and a growing set of unseen risks.
AI may be transforming productivity, but its also changing the very nature of labor, accountability, and even trust inside organizations. The future of work wont just be about humans and machines collaborating: It will be about managing the invisible partnerships that emerge when machines start working alongside us . . . and sometimes, behind our backs.
The illusion of automation
Every wave of technological change begins with the same illusion: once we automate, the work will disappear. However, history tells a different story. The introduction of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems promised end-to-end efficiency, only to create years of shadow work fixing data mismatches and debugging integrations. AI is repeating that pattern at a higher cognitive level.
When an AI drafts a report, someone still has to verify its claims (please, do not forget this!), check for bias, and rewrite the parts that dont sound right. When an agent summarizes a meeting, someone has to decide what actually matters. Automation doesnt erase labor; it just moves it upstream, from execution to supervision.
The paradox is clear: The smarter the system, the more attention it requires to ensure it behaves as expected.
A new McKinsey report calls this the age of superagency, where people spend less time performing tasks and more time overseeing intelligent systems that do. The smarter the system, the more attention it requires to ensure it behaves as expected.
The rise of the hidden workforce
A recent analysis found that more than half of workers already use AI tools secretly, often without their managers knowledge. Similarly, another investigation warned that employees are quietly sharing sensitive data with consumer-grade chatbots, exposing companies to compliance and privacy risks.
This is the new silent workforce: algorithms doing part of the job, unseen and unacknowledged. For employees, the temptation is obvious: AI offers instant answers. For companies, the consequences are dangerous.
If those silent partners are consumer-grade models, employees might be sending confidential data to unknown servers, processed in data centers located in countries with different privacy laws. Thats why, as I warned in a previous article about BYOAI, organizations must ensure that any questions employees ask, and any prompts they use are directed to properly licensed, enterprise-grade systems.
The problem isnt that employees use AI. Its that they do it outside the data governance.
When intelligence goes underground
Unapproved AI use creates more than data risk: it fractures collective learning. When employees each rely on their own AI assistant, corporate knowledge becomes fragmented. The company stops learning as an organization because insights are trapped in personal chat histories.
The result is a paradoxical kind of inefficiency: everyone gets smarter individually, but the institution gets dumber.
Organizations need to treat AI access as shared infrastructure, not a personal tool. That means providing sanctioned, well-audited systems where employees can ask questions safely without leaking intellectual property or violating compliance. The right AI model, as Microsoft knows extremely well, is not just the most powerful one: Its the one that keeps your data where it belongs.
The hidden human labor of ‘intelligent’ workflows
Even when AI use is authorized, it introduces a layer of invisible human effort that companies rarely measure. Every AI-assisted workflow hides three forms of manual oversight:
Verification work: humans checking whether outputs are correct and compliant
Correction work: editing, reframing, or sanitizing content before publication
Interpretive work: deciding what the AIs suggestions actually mean
These tasks arent logged, but they consume time and mental energy. They are the reason that productivity statistics often lag behind automation hype. AI makes us faster, but it also makes us busier: constantly curating, correcting, and interpreting the machines that supposedly work for us.
The ethics of invisible labor
Invisible labor has always existed: in care work, cleaning, or customer service. AI extends it into cognitive and emotional domains. Behind every smart workflow is a human ensuring that the output makes sense, aligns with brand tone, and doesnt violate company values.
If we ignore that labor, we risk creating a new inequality: those who design and sell AI systems are celebrated, while those who quietly fix their errors remain invisible. Productivity metrics improve, but the real cost, the human vigilance keeping AI credible, goes unrecognized.
Even executives experimenting with AI digital clones admit they dont fully trust their virtual doubles. Trust, as it turns out, remains stubbornly human.
Managing the silent partnership
When AI becomes embedded in everyday workflows, leadership must evolve from managing people to managing collaboration between people and systems. That requires new governance principles:
Authorized intelligence only: Employees must use licensed, enterprise-grade AI systems. No exceptions. Every query sent to a public model is a potential data leak.
Data residency clarity: Know where your data lives and where its processed. The cloud is not a place, its a jurisdiction.
Transparency by design: Any AI-assisted output should be traceable. If an AI helped generate a report, label it clearly. Transparency breeds trust.
Feedback as governance: Employees must be able to report errors, hallucinations, and ethical concerns. The real safeguard against model drift isnt a compliance checklist, its a vigilant workforce.
AI without governance isnt innovation. Its negligence.
The cognitive supervision era
We are witnessing the emergence of a new human skill: cognitive supervision, or the ability to guide, critique, and interpret machine reasoning without doing the work manually. Its becoming the corporate equivalent of teaching someone how to manage a team they dont fully understand.
Training employees in this skill is urgent. It requires awareness of bias, logic, and the limits of automation. Its not prompt engineering, its critical thinking. And its what separates organizations that collaborate with AI from those that merely consume it.
The best companies understand this already. They are investing in education, not just tools, and treating AI literacy as strategic infrastructure. A recent profile of Vivens AI-employee clones revealed that the real question is not whether AI can replicate workers, but whether organizations can govern the replicas they create.
What executives must do now
If you lead a company, assume that AI is already part of your workflows, whether you approved it or not. The task ahead is not to prevent its use but to domesticate it responsibly.
Audit your AI exposure: Map where your people are already using tools.
Provide safe alternatives: If you dont, theyll use whatever works, secure or not.
Recognize hidden labor: Build metrics that reward verification, correction, and interpretation.
Make transparency cultural: No AI-generated output should hide its origin.
Done right, AI can become a trusted colleague, one that accelerates learning and amplifies creativity. Done poorly, it becomes a silent, unaccountable partner with access to your data and none of your ethics.
A quiet revolution
AIs arrival in the workplace is not loud or cinematic: Its silent, gradual, and pervasive. It hides behind polished interfaces, automating just enough to convince us its working on its own. But beneath that silence lies an expanding layer of human effort keeping the system ethical, explainable, and aligned.
As leaders, our job is to make that effort visible, measurable, and safe. The most dangerous AI is not the one that replaces people: its the one that quietly depends on them, without permission, oversight, or acknowledgment.
When AI becomes your silent partner, make sure its one you actually know, trust, and license properly. Otherwise, you may discover too late that the partnership was never yours at all.
