OpenAI has appointed Prabhjeet Singh, the outgoing president of Uber India and South Asia, as its first managing director for India. Singh, who will start in September, will report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI's managing director for Asia Pacific. He will be responsible for driving consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory affairs, and operations in India, OpenAI's biggest market outside the United States.

After reducing its total staff by 1,100 jobs in May, Cloudflare’s engineering team experienced a significant growth of 45 percent, increasing from 1,308 to 1,894 members. This trend was identified through BNP Paribas data based on LinkedIn profiles and confirmed by CEO Matthew Prince. Despite an overall workforce reduction of 20 percent, the company’s focus on strengthening its engineering capabilities suggests a strategic shift. The CEO also indicated that this pattern of downsizing combined with targeted engineering growth is likely to occur across the industry.

Faye Ellis from Pluralsight and Aileen Ryan from Rain Alliance explore the impact of advanced technologies and workplace changes on the career growth of women in engineering. They reflect on the progress made and the ongoing evolution in global diversity and leadership within the field.

Executives today face the true risk of treating geopolitical and other disruptions as temporary rather than ongoing. In a world where events like conflicts, pandemics, and natural disasters impact supply chains, workforce planning, and customer demand faster than ever, a shift in mindset is crucial. For instance, the recent Middle East conflicts highlight how regional issues can ripple worldwide, impacting energy, shipping, and stability far beyond their origins. During crises, leaders often focus narrowly on immediate operational continuity, which leads to reactive decision-making and neglect of long-term strategy. According to the Conference Board’s 2026 C-Suite Outlook, 43% of U.S. CEOs consider uncertainty the biggest threat. Businesses need to move from surviving the near term to making outcome-based, long-range decisions. By anticipating geopolitical events as inevitable, leaders can prepare with strategic agility—through regional diversification, supply chain mapping, and inventory optimization—turning disruption into opportunity. Integrated Business Planning (IBP) serves as a vital tool, enabling companies to maintain a structured, long-term perspective and transform volatile events into competitive advantages. This approach helps convert crises into points of arbitrage, allowing companies to thrive amid uncertainty rather than merely react to it. Andrea Montecchi, chairman of Oliver Wight Americas, emphasizes that with the right framework, geopolitical volatility becomes a strategic tool rather than an obstacle.

After years of experimenting with AI, many companies still wrestle with understanding the real returns on their AI investments. Executives often find AI ROI ambiguous and industry-specific, with limited guidance on measuring actual impact versus encouraging investment. Our interviews with over 30 CEOs reveal that AI ROI measurement is far from standardized — identical investments can yield entirely different success definitions. Return on AI investments varies by the nature of the AI technology used: analytical AI typically offers measurable financial gains in specific areas, while generative AI improves speed, quality, or volume requiring more effort to translate into financial terms. Industry context further shapes how ROI is defined, for example, consumer goods focus on supply chain efficiency, while B2B marketing values creative output and lead conversions.

We’ve identified three practical pathways organizations take to manage AI ROI:

1. Function-focused approach: Concentrating on a single function like customer service or HR, applying tailored AI tools and measuring function-specific KPIs such as response times or error rates. This approach helps build credible proof points and organizational confidence before broader rollout.

2. Coordinated approach: Managing multiple AI initiatives across functions with shared platforms and capabilities, using a blend of broad operational and function-specific metrics. Coordination enhances learning, comparison, and scaling but requires standardization to avoid fragmented efforts.

3. Enterprise portfolio approach: Applying rigorous financial governance at the portfolio level, treating AI investments like capital projects with metrics such as net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). This stage supports enterprise-wide decision-making and scaling while balancing discipline and strategic flexibility.

Successful AI ROI management demands prioritizing high-impact use cases, committed leadership, and adaptable measurement as both AI technology and business contexts evolve. Organizations typically progress through these approaches, continually refining how they translate AI activity into measurable business value.

Data is plentiful in today’s business world — from market research to financial metrics — but should every decision rely solely on data? We asked 20 leaders from the Fast Company Impact Council how they integrate data-driven approaches with their intuition. Their perspectives reveal it’s less about choosing one over the other and more about blending both to make smarter decisions. They emphasize using all information available, setting clear timelines, recognizing patterns through experience, and knowing when to trust instinct over numbers. Many highlight how data can validate insights but often falls short in predicting future possibilities or emotional impact. Leaders also discuss the rising role of AI in decision-making, the importance of feedback loops, and caution against using data merely to justify pre-made decisions. Ultimately, they agree that data and gut instinct are complementary forces that, when balanced well, enhance leadership and business outcomes.

The conventional 90-day go-to-market (GTM) strategies are becoming outdated as market dynamics evolve too rapidly for fixed plans to remain effective. AI technology is empowering business leaders to shift from rigid quarterly plans to adaptive, real-time decision-making approaches. By leveraging AI, companies can continuously analyze data, respond instantly to changes, and optimize their market efforts on the fly, ensuring agility and relevance in a fast-paced environment.

Seven leading European tech companies have established a standing dialogue with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This group, named European Tech Creators, pushes for quicker deregulation and supports the consolidation of European technology firms. Together, they represent €417 billion in annual revenue, nearly €1.1 trillion in market capitalization, and employ tens of thousands across the continent.

According to a Lippincott study, marketers need to shift their efforts toward transforming internal dynamics within their organizations. This approach aims to realign priorities back to sustained brand growth rather than concentrating on immediate, short-term outcomes.

Many companies document lessons learned but fail to effectively share and apply them, leading to repeated mistakes and wasted resources. The key challenge is ensuring that these lessons are actively transferred and integrated into organizational practices, not just recorded. Addressing this gap can help organizations save time and money by building on past experiences.