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For todays young people, online content isnt a backdrop to daily lifeit is daily life. Streaming platforms, short-form video, and social media dont just entertain; they influence how young people see themselves, their health, and what behaviors are seen as normal or aspirational. Movies, television, and streaming content still have influence, but as the digital ecosystem expands, so does its power to shape choicesfor better and for worse. Take smoking, for example. The notion of cigarette nostalgia has unwittingly sparked a slew of recent news stories about the perceived increase in smoking on screens. The impact of that imagery? Tangible. While celebrities like Charlie XCX and Jeremy Allen White may not fully grasp the influence that their content is having on young viewers, research shows that when smoking is glamorized, it directly shapes youth attitudes and behaviors around nicotine, ultimately putting young audiences at heightened risk of addiction. IMAGERY MATTERS Our recent report offers that out of the top films in 2024, more than half include tobacco imageryan increase of 10% over the year prior. And nearly 17 million young people were exposed to tobacco imagery through popular streaming shows just in 2023. This imagery isnt without consequence. It can triple a young persons likelihood of starting to vape and make it harder for those already addicted to nicotine to quit successfully. Often dubbed the JUUL Generation, e-cigarette use is greatest among 18-24 year-olds. For Gen Z, the stakes are high, with one in five now risking long-term addiction. THE SCALE OF MEDIA CHANGED One thing that makes this moment different from past media eras is scale. Streaming platforms release entire seasons at once. Algorithms surface content repeatedly. Scenes dont disappear after a weekly airing. Instead, they live on through clips, memes, and edits that circulate far beyond their original context. A single portrayal can echo across platforms and get amplified in ways that creators or producers never anticipated. The impact isnt just for substances like nicotine, either. Similar outcomes have been seen among this generation when it comes to topics like body image and eating behaviors, violence, mental health narratives, and gambling or sports betting. Exposure to the portrayal of these issues can increase the likelihood of imitation and the effect can be life-altering. WE PLAY A ROLE The takeaway is that digital platforms, entertainment companies, and creators all have a role to play in protecting young audiences. The influence they wield on culture can shape norms on a population level. With that influence comes opportunity. Society has seen tremendous success by putting warnings on content containing domestic violence or suicide references, while making resources available to viewers. These practices should be used for tobacco tooincluding offering resources to help young people quit. Creators should not be unpaid spokespersons for the tobacco industry, or any other issue they are inadvertently promoting. Equally, platforms should have content that reflects reality: Addiction isnt beautiful, and quitting is difficult, but more achievable with support. Today’s youth are shaped by scrolling, streaming, and sharing. The question isnt whether online content influences behavior, but whether were willing to use that influence intentionally. This next generation deserves stories that inspire, transparency on issues that matter, and solution-forward thinking. At the end of the day, they deserve a digital landscape that takes ownership of the imagery it puts forward. And it should be done in a way that advances the healthier futures the next generation says they want, but also one mindful of the vision for the future that theyre being offered. Kathy Crosby is president and CEO of Truth Initiative.
Category:
E-Commerce
We have been taught to segment people into neat design personas: young versus old, able-bodied versus disabled, patient versus caregiver. Those categories may help on a spreadsheet, but they rarely reflect real life. Ability is not a fixed identity. It is a state that shifts across hours, seasons, and decades. Most people are not disabled or able bodied. They are navigating a continuum. A parent carrying a toddler, a traveler pulling luggage, a cook with wet hands, someone recovering from surgery, a person with arthritis on a cold morning, an older adult managing fatigue at the end of the day. These are not edge cases. They are the mainstream experience of modern life. If design is meant to serve people, then the next step is clear: Stop designing for categories and start designing for fluidity. FLUIDITY IS THE NEW ACCESSIBILITY Accessibility is often framed as a feature set for a specific group. That framing keeps it stuck in the margins. A better lens is to treat accessibility as the practical reality of everyday variability. Peoples abilities change with context. Lighting changes. Noise changes. Energy changes. Hands get full. Attention splits. Stress rises. Injuries happen. Bodies age. Life intervenes. Once you design for that reality, the business case becomes obvious. Products that work across more conditions work for more people. They become relevant in more moments, which increases adoption, satisfaction, and repeat use. DESIGN FOR ABILITY STATES, NOT DEMOGRAPHICS A useful shift is to map ability states instead of user categories. Ask not only who the user is, but the condition they are in when they use the product. Consider a few common states that literally affect every body: One-handed use, because the other hand is full. Low vision use, due to glare, darkness, or fatigue. Low dexterity use, due to cold, arthritis, injury, or stress. Limited mobility use, due to pregnancy, pain, aging, or recovery. Cognitive load, because the user is rushed, distracted, or overwhelmed. These states are not rare. They recur daily. Designing for them creates better products for everyone without forcing people into a label. MAKE ADAPTABILITY FEEL INVISIBLE One risk is that designing for everyone can become code for complicated. The goal is not to add settings and switches. The goal is to build adaptability into the form and interaction so it feels natural. Good examples are usually quiet: A handle that invites multiple grips without looking specialized. Controls that are intuitive without requiring instruction. Packaging that opens cleanly without brute force. A product that communicates how to use it through shape and touch. The best inclusive design feels obvious, not assistive. THE STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE Fluidity is also a brand strategy. When customers feel a product keeps up with them, it earns trust. It becomes the object they rely on through different phases of life. That is a deeper form of loyalty than preference. It is dependency in the best sense of the word. The future of inclusive design is not about creating more categories. It is about removing the need for categories altogether. If products are designed for life in motion, they will work for every body, more often, and for longer. Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
The enterprise world is awash in AI optimism. Boardrooms buzz with talk of transformation, and budgets swell to accommodate the latest platforms and AI assistants. Today, nearly three-quarters of companies report using generative AI regularly in a core business activity, according to recent McKinsey & Company research. But if you look past the headlines, a familiar pattern has emerged that reminds me of the dot-com era, when companies rebranded overnight, and investors chased the next big thing, often with little regard for a tangible way forward. Today, talk of an AI bubble isnt just a matter of market speculation or start-up hype. Its unfolding inside organizations, where the pressure to do something with AI drives rapid procurement and internal investment. The fear of missing out (FOMO) is palpable. Leaders, wary of being left behind, greenlight projects that promise automation, insight, and competitive advantage. But heres the sobering reality: Most AI initiatives fail to deliver meaningful results, and the graveyard of underutilized tools and proofs of concept or pilots that dont pan out is growing. THE ANATOMY OF THE AI BUBBLE The pitfalls are easy to spot, especially in hindsight. Companies rush to build bespoke AI solutions, convinced their needs are unique, only to watch those features become commoditized by vendors months later. Others buy off-the-shelf platforms, expecting plug-and-play magic, but end up mired in costly customization and integration. Some grant AI agents sweeping permission, only to recoil at the risks when their chief information security officers (CISOs) push back. While its completely speculative, if the bubble bursts, it will be driven by a flood of AI projects without clear use cases that fail to generate revenue, productivity gains, or measurable cost savings. That doesnt mean every AI project is doomed, or that companies should stop investing in AI. It just means you need to tweak your approach. THE PRAGMATIC PLAYBOOK What separates the AI survivors from the casualties is discipline. The most successful organizations approach AI with a pragmatic, four-step framework. 1. Assess with brutal honesty Is the problem unique, or is it a feature waiting to be bundled into next years subscription? The build versus buy decision is not just technical; its existential. Too much building leads to wasted effort; too much buying without adaptation leads to disappointment. Leaders need to ask themselves if their processes are so distinctive that custom development is warranted, or if a trusted third party is likely to deliver the needed capability as a feature in one of their offerings. 2. Pilot before you leap Small-scale experiments, tightly scoped, reveal both the functional and business value of a solution. Pilots arent proof of concept. Theyre proof of value. Ive seen instances where the value looked to be there in the pilot but disappeared in a larger scope. So, resist the urge to roll out enterprise-wide until the groundwork is solid. Use pilots to continue to verify the value and readjust as needed as you scale the project. 3. Verify real impact Does the AI do what was promised? More importantly, does it make or save money? Functional success is meaningless without business impact. Continual verification means demanding evidence that the solution delivers measurable value. Ensure it remains a part of the process even after you roll out your AI, because bolting on the need to continually verify wont end well. 4. Scale with caution Prioritize quick wins and expand with measured steps. Only after value is proven does scaling make sense. Organizations that scale AI use prematurely often find themselves burdened with tools that fail to deliver on their promise. AVOID THE COMMON PITFALLS All too often, I see my peers fall into the same traps. Heres my advice: Dont overestimate AIs ability to automate complex workflows. Many projects fail because organizations expect too much, too soon. Beware of internal FOMO because rash decisions driven by fear of being left behind often lead to wasted investments. Recognize the value of traditional AI. Not all innovations are generative or agentic. Mature, proven AI solutions can deliver immediate value. Guard against giving AI agents more autonomy than is reasonable. The risks are real, and your CISO is justified in being overly cautious. THE DISCIPLINE TO THRIVE AI is not a panacea, nor is it a guaranteed path to transformation. Its power lies in the hands of organizations that approach it with rigor, clarity, and strategic intent. The bubble will burst for those who chase hype over substance, mistake activity for progress, or fail to align investments with business strategy. The leaders who will thrive are those who move deliberately and rationalize every decision, demand real value at every turn, and recognize both the limitations and the possibilities of AI. Success comes from understanding where AI can deliver immediate, tangible benefits and where it remains a work in progress. It means balancing ambition with pragmatism, and performance with transformation. Much like the dot-com boom, opportunity will outlive the initial hype and early failures of AI. Every company needs to lean into the potential, but every opportunity also needs the right framework to thrive and grow. That means setting the right foundation: modernizing your data estate, determining where your data should livewhether in the cloud, on premises, or a hybrid of bothand then ensuring your networking, compute, storage, and security infrastructure can support it all. Equally important is recognizing the growing role of the edge. Whether its a retail floor, remote offices, a factory, or the device in an end users hand, every edge has the potential to drive AI use cases from cloud-connected services to local inference. The future belongs not to those who move fastest, but to those who move smartest. Step back, challenge assumptions, and invest in AI with discipline and foundational purpose. In doing so, your next AI initiative will be the one that outlasts the hype to deliver lasting value for your business. Juan Orlandini is the CTO, North America for Insight Enterprises
Category:
E-Commerce
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