Microsoft CEO and head AI peddler Satya Nadella wants you to know that it's time for the next phase of AI acceptance, where we focus on how humans are empowered by tools and agents and how we deploy resources to support this growth. Amid doubts that revenue from Microsoft Copilot subscriptions and cloud AI services will compensate for data center capital expenditures any time soon, Satya has some incentive to convince customers and investors that AI is a financially intelligent long-term bet.
Nearly all corporate workers face mental health challenges at work. And in 2025, unprecedented, lightning-fast developments in AI, unending widespread layoffs and broader political turmoil roiled workers' emotional well-being. Many workers have been left burned out, anxious, and filled with dread. But it's not all bad-in some corners of the workforce, each seismic disruption this year brought with it discourse around the problem, as well as some leaders and workers staying committed to safeguarding mental health in the face of constant change.
Yet across sectors, many organizations are reaching the same conclusion. Adoption is proving harder than invention, especially for general-purpose technologies, as it once was for electricity. As a result, AI adoption remains on the sidelines. Systems exist, but changing how work actually gets done is far more difficult. The constraint is no longer technological capability. It is whether institutions and organizations are prepared to absorb AI.
Agoda's AI Developer Report 2025 shows that AI has become a mainstream tool for developers in Southeast Asia and India, delivering real productivity gains while raising new questions about reliability, skills, and organisational readiness. The report finds that AI adoption is nearly universal: 95% of developers in Southeast Asia and India use AI tools weekly, and more than half keep an AI assistant open while they work. Developers report clear speed improvements-over 90% say AI makes them faster-but describe the impact as steady, incremental gains rather than dramatic automation of their jobs.
For the past three years, AI 's breakout moment has happened almost entirely through text. We type a prompt, get a response, and move to the next task. While this intuitive interaction style turned chatbots into a household tool overnight, it barely scratches the surface of what the most advanced technology of our time can actually do. This disconnect has created a significant gap in how consumers utilize AI.
If 2025 had a theme tune for the IT channel, it would be the sound of partners enthusiastically unboxing "AI opportunities" while quietly checking the invoice to see who actually got paid. Because, yes, AI dominated everything. Vendor keynotes. Distributor roadshows. Strategy decks. Every conversation that began with "we're seeing a lot of interest in..." inevitably ended with "...AI". But for many partners, 2025 wasn't the year AI transformed the balance sheet, but the workload.
Those who follow me on LinkedIn may have gotten the impression that I'm against AI. Nothing is further from the truth. What I'm really against is the notion that you can't do design without AI so you either learn AI or you're doomed. Using AI is of course useful for designers. But so is knowing how to use Figma and I put both of those in the same bucket of tactical skills.
Three years into the AI revolution, enterprises are grappling with an interesting paradox. Despite racing to adopt AI, most organizations remain trapped in pilot purgatory. The disconnect isn't technological; it's organizational and cultural. AI is a force multiplier. In organizations with clear domain ownership, AI augments the organization within well-defined boundaries, enabling semi-autonomous decisions safely. If your team is organized and works well together, AI acts as a turbo-boost, propelling projects to completion. The same is true in reverse for the more traditional bureaucratic "dysfunctional" organizations; AI will amplify the dysfunction.
Spikes embeds AI into his executive workflow. He likens it to how large firms use management consultants to map scenarios and risks, as well as act as a sounding board. He uses AI to help with complex decisions across people dynamics, situational gray areas, and selecting external partners or service teams: It could, for example, offer advice on handling disagreements between colleagues or partners, or offer alternate perspectives that challenge someone's initial point of view.
By the numbers: Those who say they're using AI a few times a year or more at work jumped to 45% in the third quarter of the year - more than 20 points from the same time in 2024. Weekly usage rose to 23% from 12% last year. The share of workers who use AI every day is still pretty small - just 10% in the third quarter of the year. Zoom in: Gallup surveyed all kinds of workers. Those in so-called "knowledge jobs" have adopted AI at far higher rates than those in service sectors or more blue-collar sectors.
The U.S. Olympic men's and women's sprinting teams have won more gold medals than any other country in history, but the men's 4×100-meter relay team has suffered four blistering defeats in the past two decades. Why? An absolute whiff at the critical point when a runner has to instinctively reach back and trust their squadmate enough to perfectly place the baton in their hand.
A new global survey encompassing the views of 1,540 board members and C-suite executives reveals that while corporate leaders are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) with optimism, a far more profound and existential talent crisis is emerging: the disappearance of the pathways that traditionally developed senior-level strategic expertise. AI is exposing not merely a lack of technical skills, but a critical thinking gap threatening the organizational pipeline needed to oversee and optimize these powerful new systems. In a moderated discussion with Joe Kornik, Senior Director, Editorial Programs, Protiviti, a series of experts and top executives from the consulting firm revealed the biggest concerns on executives' minds heading into 2026, during a lunchtime panel in New York City.
Tractor Supply, the No. 1 large company in this year's Best Places to Work in IT rankings, cultivates and reinforces its innovation culture through company-wide events as well as a broad spectrum of training and education programs. Tractor Supply IT employees are encouraged to spend time in-store to get first-hand experience in what frontline team members accomplish on a daily basis. Job shadowing lets IT staffers to explore new roles they may be interested in.
Truell said the company had already automated roughly 80% of its customer support tickets with the help of the technology. He said the company had also implemented an internal AI-powered communication system that allows employees to query information across the organization. "We've actually done a lot of work internally on customizing that setup," he said. Cursor also uses AI for internal communications, he said. "We have a system where folks can ask any question about the company and get it answered by an AI," Truell said,
Following President Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day, Atsmon said significant uncertainty emerged around the new administration's economic and geopolitical agenda. "If I look at the peak of uncertainty, what I was focused on as a CFO was: What are the things that I should be doing that would be helpful in any scenario?" Atsmon said. "The worst thing is inaction," he added. Acting on what you can control builds resilience, he said.
Mona Mourshed has spent over a decade working on the future of work. As CEO of Generation, one of the world's largest employment nonprofits, operating in 17 countries and helping more than 140,000 people land jobs, she has a front-row seat to how companies are grappling with artificial intelligence. Her takeaway: Many companies are rolling out AI without a clear strategy.
Key stat: 31% of US SMB marketers and business owners use AI-driven design or layout recommendations to optimize landing pages, according to a June 2025 survey from Ascend2 and Unbounce. Beyond the chart: The adoption mirrors broader B2B behavior. 95% of B2B marketers are using AI-powered tools in some capacity, with 89% specifically employing AI for generating marketing or written copy, according to an October Content Marketing Institute report.
After a torrid 2024, the wider macroeconomic conditions affecting cyber security professionals showed signs of levelling off in 2025, with reports of budget cuts and layoffs to cyber teams dropping slightly this year after surging in the prior period. However, constrained budgets remain a key driver behind the ongoing cyber skills shortage. This is according to the annual Cybersecurity workforce study produced by cyber professional association ISC2, which polled over 16,000 security professionals to produce this year's report.
