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We have reached the moment white collar workers have feared for months. Has AI finally come for my job? Companies like Salesforce claim they need fewer human employees to do the work AI can tackle, after laying off thousands. Klarna claims the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part because of AI. Duolingo said last spring it will stop using contractors for work that AI can handle. Overall, companies have announced a staggering 700,000 job cuts in the first five months of 2025, an 80% jump from the previous year. The irony is almost poetic. For years, the tech industry assumed robots would come for factory workers first. Amazon’s leaked documents once suggested the company could replace half a million warehouse jobs with automation. Instead, just weeks ago, Amazon laid off 14,000 middle managers while planning to hire 250,000 seasonal warehouse workers for the holidays. The AI revolution, it turns out, is hollowing out the corporate ladder before it touches the warehouse floor. The narrative around artificial intelligence and the job market is challenging for white-collar workers right now. Yet while Silicon Valley sends warnings over which desk jobs AI will consume next, we’re missing an equally important question about the future of AI: What about everyone else? The AI application bubble nobody’s talking about We are currently in an AI application bubble. The last few years of AI innovation have focused almost entirely on white-collar productivity: workplace efficiency tools, revenue-optimization platforms, and communication automation. Many of the major AI innovations from the past two years have been designed for someone working a 9-5 desk job from a laptop. Meanwhile, the people who make up 60% of the American workforce are stuck completing manual onboarding processes, sorting through countless texts to find the right shift, calling in when they need a shift swapped, clocking in on physical time clocks, logging in to web-only portals, and waiting for biweekly paychecks. Were talking about warehouse crews, janitors, delivery drivers, nurses, and game day parking attendants. These are the people who have been largely forgotten when it comes to how AI can transform their day-to-day jobs without risk of eliminating their roles. Every day, millions of shift-based workers keeping hospitals running, concerts staffed, and factories moving are dealing with broken, archaic systems. They’re waiting for shift confirmations, digging through emails for schedules, and calling managers just to ask, “When am I working next?” By focusing almost all of AIs potential on the white-collar economy, weve left out the workers who are irreplaceable. Building accessible, intuitive tools for non-tech-savvy users has the potential to narrow the global inequality gap while creating a more resilient foundation for technological progress and a more resilient economy. Only 40% of American workers say they have a “quality job” While office jobs dwindle, demand for human workers continues to grow. Restaurants need servers. Construction sites need carpenters. Hospitals need nurses. And in turn, the people doing these jobs need shift accessibility, work-life flexibility, and the ability to get paid quickly after shifts so they can continue to participate in the shift work economy and keep the world moving. The human cost of not having a better way to work is striking. A recent Gallup and Jobs for the Future study found that just 40% of U.S. workers have what they define as a “quality job.” The rest face unstable schedules, limited growth opportunities, and financial insecurity. Not because they lack motivation or work ethic, but because the systems that support frontline work haven’t kept pace with the demands of modern life. When workers play significant roles, have preschedules, and receive fair pay, they’re more engaged, more productive, and lead higher quality work lives. What we learned building technology for Uber drivers We know what’s possible when technology is actually designed for frontline workers, because we’ve lived it. While leading product development for the Uber for Drivers app, the two of us spent years focused on the driver experience. Drivers had to navigate complex processes: onboarding, completing background checks and vehicle inspections, selecting preferences, and receiving payments. Uber’s success was powered by a phenomenal self-service app that gave drivers the agency, control, and flexibility they needed in their lives. That experience taught us that technology has the potential to dramatically improve frontline work, and the emergence of AI gives us an opportunity to do that once again. Tools like smarter scheduling systems that account for worker preferences and availability, AI-powered training programs that adapt to individual learning styles, communication platforms that actually work for teams that don’t sit in front of computers all day, and predictive systems that can optimize logistics and reduce physical strain. The technology exists. The investment, however, is still lacking. Irreplaceable The Essential Economy that we are talking about includes sectors like construction, manufacturing, transportation, etc., and represents $7.5 trillion in output per year, which is 27% of Americas GDP, equating to 52 million jobs and two million businesses. If you were to add healthcare, retail, and all public servicesconsidered by many to be critical, hourly work sectors of the economythe size jumps to $12 trillion of GDP, 95 million jobs, and three million businesses. Without people to fill these roles, not only are essential services not being provided, but the US economy also suffers greatly. With each technical revolution, we’ve always seen that collaboration with the technology yields better results than we can without it, or it can without us. Instead, what if AI innovators asked, How can we use AI to make these jobs better, safer, and more productive while also making workers’ lives easier? Consider a warehouse worker trying to swap shifts to attend a child’s school event. In most facilities today, this involves a series of text messages, phone calls, and manual approvalsa process that might take days and often fails. AI could handle this in seconds, reaching out to available workers who have relevant experience and required certifications, sharing shift details, and filling the shift.The worker doesn’t lose their job; they gain flexibility and dignity. Consider a nurse who needs more hours as bills are adding up. He signs up with a new staffing agency so he can pick up extra shifts here and there. Today, onboarding entails manual back-and-forth with the agency and waiting days for assignments. AI can dramatically speed up his time to first shift, verifying his license instantly after he uploads it, offering digital onboarding tailored to the units where hell be picking up shifts, and matching him with shifts that work for his busy schedule. Instead of frustration and delays, the nurse begins with confidence and is able to start earning and covering his bills faster. Applying AI to the roles that need it today As the tech industry grapples with shifts toward white-collar jobs and AIs role, we have an opportunity. The same sophisticated AI systems that can automate corporate reporting can be adapted to optimize shift schedules. The same machine learning that powers chatbots can improve safety protocols. The same natural language processing that summarizes emails can help workers with limited English proficiency better understand their rights and benefits. The current moment of disruption in white-collar work is painful for millions of people, and that pain deserves recognition and resolution. At the same time, it also creates an opening to ask bigger questions about where AI should be applied and who it could serve. The AI revolution isnt going away anytime soon. This is our opportunity to choose how we use it, and who benefits.
Category:
E-Commerce
I feel itthe strain, the fractured attention. The constant tug to check, scroll, click. Everything we want is a tap away. Yet when we chase it all, something essential slips through our fingers. I see it clearly in my own world of conferences and events. These are spaces meant for connection, yet people often leave feeling overwhelmed and oddly under-connected. The truth is that genuine engagement is rare. According to Gallup, only 21% of employees are fully engaged. Most are simply going through the motions. Its a similar story at large-scale events and webinars, where participation beyond passive listening has long been the exception, not the norm. Thats exactly why we need to get smarter about how we bring people in. The paradox of our time is this: We can be anywhere, tuned into everything, and still not truly show up. For business leaders, thats a high-stakes dilemma. In a landscape full of options, youre not just competing with the next brand, youre competing for the attention of someone juggling hundreds of emails, dodging spam, and scrolling past a world in crisis. THE CHALLENGE TO SHOW UP None of this is breaking news. The battle for attention is well-documented. But whats less discussed, and just as urgent, is that not all engagement is equal. True participation is more than clicking, liking, or even showing up. It means contributing, influencing, shaping. And it can be the difference between relevance and irrelevance for a brand. Over the years, Ive sat through countless keynotes and meetings where success was measured in metrics that looked good on paper but meant little to those in the room. Still, many businesses chase the easy numbers: impressions, clicks, headcount. These are visible, measurable, and falsely reassuring. But they often track activity without meaning. And mistaking visibility for vitality is a dangerous error. The deeper challenge, and opportunity, is to create environmentsdigital or physicalwhere participation asks people to show up fully, as themselves. To risk being seen. To give shape to the thoughts and questions theyve been carrying but havent had the space to voice. The problem is that much of what we call participation today is extractive. It looks active on the surface. People give their time, energy, and attention, but get little in return. Extractive participation puts people to work: in classrooms, meetings, projects, or jobs, but it leaves them drained. Its not always intentional. Often, it stems from a legacy mindset, treating participation as a metric, not a meaningful exchange. Most places arent designed to make people feel seen, challenged, or changed. Participation is treated as performance. Its become about optics, a signal of engagement, not the real thing. IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY Ive seen this in my own field. Many well-produced industry events make this mistake at scale. They spend millions to bring people together, flying them across countries or continents, yet fail to foster real participation. Attendees sit through polished keynotes and panels without speaking to the person beside them, someone who might be wrestling with the very same challenges they have. They leave with pages of notes, but no real connections nor any transformation. The best questions in the room go unasked or unanswered. The most valuable ideas stay buried, not for lack of brilliance, but because no one created the space for them to emerge. But it doesnt have to be that way. The rooms we gather inphysical or virtualcan do more than host content. They can become engines of energy, curiosity, and exchange. In my own work, Ive seen whats possible when spaces are designed to welcome vulnerability and invite true dialogue. The energy shifts. The space transforms the people in it. Thats when participation changes, from extractive to generative. People begin asking better questions. They challenge each other more openly. And they stay engaged. GENERATIVE PARTICIPATION Generative participation creates mutual growth and it happens when three things are present: Reciprocity: People are not only consuming, they are also giving and receiving in equal measure. Amplification: Contributions build on one another, creating outcomes no single person could reach alone. Transformation: Participants leave different than they arrived, more connected, more capable, more inspired. In the right space, a single question can shift a strategy. A personal story can upend assumptions. A simple idea can spark a new product, a partnership, a path forward. People dont leave drained but energized. They leave with notes scribbled in the margins, names to follow up with, and ideas they cant wait to bring to life. The difference is simple, but it changes everything. Extractive spaces take more than they give. Generative spaces turn contribution into creation and connection, both with others and with oneself. Thats the difference between engagement that feels like a performance and connection that feels like a life force. The ability to contribute meaningfully isnt a nice-to-have. Its a strategic asset. The challenge is, its hard to measure. You cant showcase it on a slide like attendance numbers or social impressions. But when its missing, you feel it: classrooms where students check out, communities that cant mobilize, businesses full of talk but starved for clarity. And when its there, you feel that too: Teams move with purpose, networks grow stronger, and ideas dont just echo, they spark action. GIVE UP SOME CONTROL True contribution thrives in environments that signal safety, openness, and curiosity. But creating that kind of space goes beyond making people feel comfortable. It means loosening your grip, letting go of control so others can step in, speak up, and shape what happens next. Because heres another truth: Real participation involves giving up some control. We spend plenty of time and energy trying to generate engagement, a phrase that sounds like progress but often sidesteps the harder work of inviting real contribution. True participation is rarely tidy. Creating space for it means welcoming the unexpected. Because the unplanned and the unpolished often create the conditions for something more powerful to emerge. Thats where shared meaning, surprising insight, and the breakthroughs our organizations and our world need most begin to take shape. Christine Renaud is CEO of Braindate.
Category:
E-Commerce
As a physician at Duke, I often saw how women, especially those juggling chronic illness, caregiving, and limited healthcare access, faced delays in getting the right care. What stood out wasnt just the complexity of their conditions, but how predictable the barriers were. Women face unique challenges in getting timely access to the care they need. Many care options are simply inconvenient and often do not meet patients where they are. For example, forcing a busy working mom to take the day off work, driving 30 minutes for a routine screening can be a challenge if having to juggle a 9-5 and childcare too. Many women are caregivers for aging parents or children, compounding the challenge of taking care of oneself. To make health more equitable, women require convenient options to engage in their health and readily participate in research. Recently, a landmark 40-year study of beta-blockers, one of the most common medications prescribed, demonstrated that adverse effects on women, when taken after specific types of heart attacks. This flew in the face of what I was taught in medical school, though at that time there werent enough studies with women participants and the information just wasnt available. For years, women have been prescribed these medications, based on study designs that didnt adequately represent them. Its not just that women are underdiagnosed or left out of research; its that we’remissing a massive opportunity to advance health by elevating options for women. Women are the most frequent healthcare decision makers, but also the longest consumers of healthcare (i.e. women live longer than men!) in the economy. While women account for 80% of healthcare decisions, they also make up 65% of the healthcare workforce. They experience more chronic disease, and spend more out-of-pocket, not including maternity costs. They use more prescriptions, attend more appointments, and shape family health behavior. If youre building a product, launching a trial, or setting a research agenda, the reality is simple: Youre already in the business of womenshealth, whether you know it or not. WOMENS HEALTH IS MORE THAN BIKINI MEDICINE For too long, womens health has been conventionally categorized by the body parts covered by a bikinireproductive care, breast cancer screenings, and obstetrics related topics. This is instead of what it truly involves: the whole body. Several studies show women are consistently and disproportionately affected by stroke, cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive disorders such as dementia, and more. Women are the cornerstone of the entire healthcare market,whichcan boost the global economy $1 trillion annually by 2040. Bikini medicine has left care gaps in everything from heart disease to chronic pain. On the biopharma side, just 4% of R&D spending targets medical research specific to women. And yet in 2024, female-focused startups received only 8.5% of digital health funding, down from nearly 15% in 2020. This isnt about a lack of innovation. Its about a lack of prioritization. WHEN WOMEN ARE LEFT OUT, EVERYONE PAYS There are real costs when women are left out of the data: Clinical risk: Women are twice as likely to experience side effects and we arent sure why. Potentially, its because trials skew male. Economic drag: Women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health compared to men. That results in billions in lost productivity and missed potential. Reputational fallout: In a consumer-driven world, building products that dont work well for half the population is a fast way to lose trustand market share. Getting women into research is not a nice-to-have. Its critical for safety, quality, and return on investment, and to develop therapies that work well for over half of the people they are prescribed to. CLOSING THE GAP COULD UNLOCK $1 TRILLION A YEAR McKinsey estimates that improving outcomes for women could add $1 trillion to the global economy annually, by 2040. Thats not wishful thinking. Its rooted in simple interventionsbetter diagnosis, smarter data, faster access to care. Consider this: Half of all women in the U.S. Half of all women in the U.S. each year skip or delay care, often due to costs, scheduling issues, or a lack of trust in the system. Couple this with clinical research historically, and there is less substantial womens data available to train AI models powering the future of care, even though women take more medications and manage more chronic conditions. This is where the opportunity lies. Build for the real world, and you build a better business. DESIGNING FOR WOMEN DOESNT MEAN EXCLUDING OTHERS Theres a common fear that focusing on women somehow limits your market. But the opposite is true. Solutions that meet womens needslike care navigation, chronic disease support, and flexible benefitssolve for a broader population, too. What makes womens health complex is also what makes it valuable. If your product or trial can work for women across life stages, it can be used to inspire solutions for anyone. WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NEXT If we want to change the trajectory of womens health, we need to: Make convenient options for women to improve access to resources and research participation. Fund more companies prioritizing women in their design and leadership. Follow the January 2025 FDA guidance for trials and datasets to reflect real-world populations, like menopausal status and menstrual cycles. Expand benefits that meet womens needs beyond reproductive care. Build tools that understand female physiology and behavioral patterns. This isnt just a moral imperative. Its a competitive one. LETS SHIFT THE CONVERSATION Equity in healthcare is an imperative focus of health innovation and personal to many of us, but theres a business case thats been hiding in plain sight. Women are the health economys chief consumers, workers, and unpaid labor force. Failing to invest in women is failing to invest in the market. Joy Bhosai, MD MPH is founder and CEO of Pluto Health. Jessica Federer, MPH is the managing director of the Womens Health Fund, and an investor in Pluto Health
Category:
E-Commerce
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