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This week AI got brutal… Jack Dorsey cut 40% of Block's workforce and said most companies will do the same within a year. Meanwhile, 70% of shoppers are already using AI to find better deals, OpenAI's own COO admitted enterprise adoption is still mostly pilots, and Perplexity dropped a new “digital worker” for the masses.
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🗞️ TECH & TRENDS | The Great Reshuffling
🪓 Jack Dorsey Just Cut 40% of Block. He Says You're Next.
Block laid off 4,000 employees this week. Nearly half the company, gone. Dorsey tied the cuts directly to AI, saying "intelligence tools paired with smaller, flatter teams are enabling a fundamentally new way of working." Then he dropped the real bomb: "Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes." Pinterest, Dow, and Amazon have already made AI-driven cuts. Microsoft's AI chief said white-collar workers have 12-18 months. Whether or not you agree with the timeline, the playbook is now public.
(🔗 Fortune)
🛠️ Anthropic Just Launched Pre-Built Enterprise Agents for Finance, Engineering, and Design
Anthropic unveiled its Enterprise Agents program this week with plug-ins for departmental functions. Gmail, DocuSign, Clay integrations are live. The goal: give every employee a customized agent that securely accesses organizational data and automates routine processes. This is what the "agent economy" actually looks like.
(🔗 TechCrunch)
💻 Perplexity Launches “Computer” — A $200/Month Digital Worker
Not a chatbot. Not search. This is a multi-agent orchestration platform running 19 models (Opus 4.6, Gemini, GPT-5.2, Grok) that executes entire projects autonomously for hours or months at a time. You hand it a goal, it handles task breakdown, research, drafting, iteration, and even collaboration.
(🔗 Perplexity)
🏢 OpenAI Admits Enterprise AI Is Still Mostly Pilots. Then Hired the Big 4 to Fix It.
"We have not yet really seen AI penetrate enterprise business processes." That's Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's COO, at a conference this week. Days later, OpenAI announced partnerships with McKinsey, BCG, Accenture, and Capgemini to help enterprises move from pilot to production. The message: building AI is one thing. Integrating it into operating models, training people, and redesigning workflows is where the real work starts.
(🔗 Reuters)
🛒 70% of Shoppers Are Using AI to Find Better Deals. Is Your Business Ready?
The 2026 NRF Shopper Study just dropped a number that should wake up every retailer and DTC brand: more than 70% of shoppers are now exploring AI tools to find better deals. One-third are actively using them. They're not browsing your homepage. They're asking ChatGPT where to get the best price. 83% say valuable rewards increase loyalty, and 75% want personalized offers. If your pricing, promotions, and product discovery aren't optimized for AI-driven comparison, you're invisible to a growing chunk of your market.
(🔗 Portada)
🔐 Companies Are Deploying AI Agents Faster Than They Can Secure Them
Enterprise adoption of MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers is outpacing security controls. Security teams say these systems are "extremely permissive," and existing tools weren't built for AI agents that can read emails, access databases, and take action autonomously. If your team is spinning up agents, make sure your security team knows about it. The breach won't come from a phishing email. It will come from an AI with too much access and not enough oversight.
(🔗 VentureBeat)
🎖️ OpenAI Says Yes to the Pentagon. Anthropic Says No. The Market Is Watching.
OpenAI gave the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models for "all lawful purposes" this week. Anthropic refused and got banned from Defense Department contracts. Investor reaction? At least a dozen VCs that back OpenAI also joined Anthropic's $30B round. The takeaway for businesses: values and safety principles are no longer just PR. They're product differentiators. Customers, employees, and investors are choosing sides.
(🔗 NPR)
The message this week isn’t subtle: AI’s moving fast, and the sidelines are getting crowded. The teams that actually execute on tech, on strategy, on talent are the ones who will win the next cycle.
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Ralph & Gianni
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