Physical AI solutions are, understandably, moving at a staggered pace when you compare them to the breakneck speeds of AI development in general.

A part of this, experts argue, is a trust problem, especially since new physical innovations can lead to more dangerous consequences if underdeveloped or misunderstood. However, there is also the issue of data management and information silos.

I spoke to Sri Teja Kolluri, product lead at Motive, about how fleet owners can upgrade their maintenance processes and ensure success when using AI.

A Trust Gap Remains for Physical AI

When I’ve spoken to logistics experts about the trajectory of physical AI, none of them have been surprised that it’s development has been significantly slower. It’s easy to sit at a laptop and understand the capabilities of Claude, but integrating AI into driver safety, for example, has real world consequences.

Sri Teja Kolluri, product lead at Motive, sees this as a problem that still needs to be solved. “There’s a general excitement about things, but beyond drafting emails, how can we actually use AI in real life?”

Motive’s latest fleet maintenance report suggests fleet owners are trusting AI more than previously. 80% of those surveyed said they would be comfortable with AI summarizing or creating reports, 67% would allow it to schedule or initiate work, and 60% would trust it to approve routine or low-risk tasks.

However, less than half (47%) said they would be comfortable with fully automated workflows without human review, suggesting human oversight remains a critical part of AI workflows.

How AI Can Help Transform Maintenance

Maintenance is one area where Motive and Kolluri feel AI can make a huge difference. Significantly, 80% of survey respondents cited rising maintenance and repair costs as their top operational challenge of the second half of 2026.

Despite the opportunity for AI in maintenance, 60% of owners surveyed aren’t using AI-based predictive or condition-based maintenance tools. Comparatively, 88% of owners are using AI-powered driver safety technology, like AI dash cams and safety programs.

I asked Kolluri about why maintenance may be lagging behind compared to other fleet processes. “With a lot of maintenance workflows, what’s happening is that they’re using different systems that don’t talk to each other. So, you have data scattered across your stack or they’re using spreadsheets, which again, it’s very hard to actually use as input for AI.”

However, Kolluri says maintenance teams are already seeing benefits by opting for a more integrated system. Watco, a transportation and logistics company, reports that problems now appear sooner, more assets stay in service, and it can identify the real cost of operating its fleet.

Hesitant maintenance teams, he continues, should prioritize the “key use cases” that will break down any informational silos in your operation. “I think that’s where you can identify the right solutions to adapt and solve that problem,” he says.

Small Steps and Integration are Key to AI’s Success

Using AI in isolated, random incidents is rarely as productive as using it as part of a connected system. Accountability and ownership are lost, and privacy and compliance decisions are made in reactive bubbles.

Integration and tackling information silos, Kolluri says, are incredibly important to get right when AI becomes involved.

“I think it’s very important that you work towards an AI operation that is well integrated and solves a lot of the data silos.” – Sri Teja Kolluri, Product Lead at Motive

Motive’s report findings confirm the problem. 80% of respondents said their fleet technology environment has some systems integrated, but with significant gaps. Overall, only 13% described their systems as well-integrated that share data automatically across platforms.

As well as integrated systems, Kolluri urges businesses to take small steps forward when introducing AI. “In general, AI might feel scary because, hey, there’s this powerful tool that we can use to automate a lot of things.”

“I think the best opportunity is just start small. Identify these opportunities and then slowly you’ll find that you have built reasonable AI operations,” he says.

Furthermore, don’t start from nothing. AI should be used to accelerate and improve your existing processes. A big part of this is understanding where AI can realistically fit, rather than forcing it.

“Audit your processes, identify where you are spending the most manual effort and where the most repetitive tasks are, and identify those opportunities to see where you can deploy AI. I think that’s the one thing, once you do that you can start taking baby steps towards adopting AI in that specific workflow,” Kolluri says.

A significant number of enterprise marketers are approaching AI in a “disconnected” way, according to a new study.

Adobe Business categorized marketers based on their ability to scale and control customer experiences, through its CX AI Maturity Index. Enterprises were grouped as either Orchestrated, Constrained, Unbalanced, or Disconnected in their approach.

In order for businesses to get the most out of their AI use, they need to use it as part of connected, repeatable systems. Opting to organize clear ownership and shared governance is the best way forward.

Marketers Are Failing to Leverage AI in a Connected Way

68% of marketers are “disconnected” in their AI strategy, according to a new study from Adobe Business. Disconnected, in the study’s sense, is understood as AI being used to produce content and launch experience, but removed from a connected, repeatable system.

According to Adobe, this translates to a lack of clear ownership and shared governance. Similarly, risk and compliance are reactive, rather than proactive within an established system.

Overall, the study concludes repeatable systems and shared ownership across teams is vital to AI’s marketing success.

Adobe Reveals CX AI Maturity Index

Adobe categorized enterprise marketers based on how effectively they have integrated their infrastructure at scale with AI. Marketers fell into the following ranks:

• Disconnected (low execution, low control): Operations like content, data, and journeys happen in silos, so there’s no consistent way to use AI to improve the customer experience. AI does exist, but only in isolated instances.
• Unbalanced (high execution, low control): Execution is scaling quickly, but is lacking the governance and controls needed to keep operations safe.
• Constrained (low execution, high control): The governance is in place to scale safely, but there is a lack of capabilities to deliver the right omnichannel experiences.
• Orchestrated (high execution, high control): Experiences are overall connected, controlled, and continuously optimized. AI is orchestrating experiences across channels at the individual customer level.

The majority of enterprises (68.3%) surveyed fell into the Disconnected category. Orchestrated enterprises (15.3%) were second, with Constrained (9.8%) and Unbalanced (6.6%) following.

The Index draws on 501 completed enterprise assessments and over 6,800 responses across 12 questions.

Repeatable AI Systems Ensure a Connected Customer Experience

Ultimately, businesses need to allow AI to integrate itself into their workflows if they’re to see real results. This means building systems around ownership, governance, and compliance. One individual using ChatGPT to write an email might save some time, but for real scalability, AI needs to be practically invisible.

The study found 64% of enterprise marketers cannot fully trace how their AI-driven content and decisions were generated. Likewise, customer journeys are described as equally siloed or partially coordinated for 74% of marketers.

Additionally, as AI poses serious threats to businesses if not properly governed, risk and compliance needs to be integrated into decision-making. Having it be purely reactive puts your business at risk.

Getting your hands on a grant for your small business provides an immediate boost. Maybe you want to try something new, like infuse your marketing strategy with AI, or upskill an employee. Or maybe, you want to start a completely new venture.

Either way, small business grants offer a vast amount of support. Of course, you’ll get your hands on cash you can implement directly into your business, but some grants include additional benefits, like one-on-one business advice or social media coverage.

Our round-up of small business grants in September includes who’s best positioned to apply, the amount you’ll get, and any deadlines. I’ve also dug into the application process of each grant to give you a head start on your application.

Encouraging Development, Growth, and Expansion (EDGE) Grant

• For: STEM (science/technology/engineering/math)-based companies and Entrepreneur Class (non-STEM) businesses
• Amount: Up to $750K split among STEM winners, up to $400K split among non-STEM winners
• Deadline to apply: September 11

This grant is a great choice for STEM businesses, though there is also a significant pot available for non-STEM entrants.

To apply for this grant, your business needs to be located mostly in Delaware. Likewise, you’ll need to have been in business for less than 7 years, have 15 or fewer full-time employees, have less than $700K in assets, and have a 3:1 match for funding.

Likewise, the website states funding “must be used to expand a business’s viability and sustainability.” The areas it picks out in particular are: market analysis assistance, advertising assistance, building infrastructure/cosmetic enhancements, essential equipment, website design, and rent assistance for lab space.

In terms of the application, you’ll be judged on business need case, competitive advantage gained, business viability and likelihood of permnance, job creation/revenue growth, and the quality of your pitch.

Apply here

High Five Grant

• For: Mom entrepeneurs looking to grow their business
• Amount: $10,000 grand prize (other prizes available)
• Deadline to apply: September 30

Being a mom is already an all-consuming job. But add a growing or new business into the mix, and the task can look downright impossible. This grant from The Mama Ladder is designed to help with a hefty $10,000 grand prize.

The beneficiary of the grant isn’t only the business that wins, however. $5,000 is given to the first runner-up, $2,500 is given for the second runner-up, and five honorable mentions also receive $1,000 each.

Unsurprisingly, applicants must be mothers or expectant mothers, who own at least 50% of a for-profit business. Likewise, you’ll have to have annual revenue between $10,000 and $500,000, and reside in the US or Canada.

The Mama Ladder recommends setting aside 30-60 minutes to complete your application. Think closely about the “why” behind your businesses, because you’ll need to share this on social media. Don’t forget to tag the title sponsor, @usbank, and @highfivegrant with the hashtag #highfivegrant.

Apply here

Business Freedom Grant

• For: Ambitious entrepreneurs looking to start, launch, or scale their business
• Amount: $1,000
• Deadline to apply: September 30

This grant is for passionate and ambitious individuals with a business idea. Coach Darcy, the founder of the grant, says she was inspired to help others “bridge the gap between surviving and thriving, between having a dream and finally getting the opportunity to build it.”

You can use the grant to launch essentials, accelerate growth, build capability, invest in knowledge, create operational foundations, and for financial stability.

Applying individuals should have: a clear business idea with an actionable plan, a business in any industry (product-based, service-based, or digital), and the commitment to complete a brief application sharing your vision.

Similarly, the website lays out a 10-point evaluation system for applications, which applying businesses should focus on. Structuring your application around these points is definitely a good start:

• Clarity of business idea (3 points)
• Feasability of the plan (3 points)
• Impact of the grant (2 points)
• Passion and commitment (2 points)

Apply here

The Freed Fellowship Grant

• For: Micro or small business owners
• Amount: $500
• Deadline to apply: Rolling basis (this round September 30)

Freed Fellows are selected on a monthly basis, and each month, micro or small business owners are invited to apply by Eastern US time on the last day of the month. Be aware, though, you’ll need $19 to apply for this one.

Selected fellows aren’t just given $500 to spend, but they’re also considered for a $2,500 grant given at the end of the year. Funds can be used for any business-related expense, whether that’s new hires or a new ecommerce set up.

Additionally, fellows receive access to a strategy call with a team of business experts, a one year membership to Freed’s online community, Freed Studio, and are typically features on the Freed Stories podcast.

Applications are assessed through what Freed calls its “5C Framework.” Again, keep these in mind when applying:

• Context – your market
• Content – your story
• Chemistry – your audience and community
• Chemistry – your product, people, and process
• Commerce – your business model

Apply here

The Benefits of a Small Business Grant

Given the difficulties facing small businesses today, a grant can be a real life line. It can help you develop your business in an area you haven’t been able to, such as training employees on AI systems.

Furthermore, plenty of grants offer support beyond some extra dollars. In some cases, you’ll get access to business experts or other professional services, or help with visibility such as social media coverage.

Being awarded a top grant also labels you a business to look out for, particularly to investors. If you’ve already been chosen for a grant, others will see you as a business to bet on.

Recent studies have suggested that leaders believe they need more AI training than they currently have. As AI continues to have an impact on daily processes, gaining a firm understanding of how AI works will ensure its continued success.

Free, online AI courses are a great way to level yourself up. And luckily, there are plenty out there every month. Whether you want to better understand the regulatory conversation surrounding AI, or understand how generative AI can help with strategic decision-making, this month’s roundup of the best free AI courses has you covered.

AI Content Strategy – Performance, Ethics, and Adaptability with LearnQuest Network

Summary:

• Marketers and content professionals learn how to use AI in their strategy
• 5 modules, taking around 3 hours to complete
• Beginner-friendly
• Shareable certificate available upon completion
• Available on Coursera

Marketers and content professionals are increasingly turning to AI to brief and monitor campaigns, as well as handle routine communications. If your team is looking to explore AI further in their work, this course is a great option.

In this course from LearnQuest Network, you’ll move through five different practical modules: measuring real content performance, converting prompting skill into shared team knowledge, governing content (for copyright, disclosure, and bias), evaluating AI tools by true cost and fit, and protecting brand voice from AI-driven homogenization.

Widely, you’ll also gain access to the AI Content & Creative Tools Specialization when you sign up, giving you options for further development.

Strategic Decision-Making with Generative AI with Harvard Business Review

Summary:

• Managers and executives learn how to incorporate generative AI into their decision-making process
• 8 modules, taking around 2 weeks to complete if studying 10 hours per week
• Intermediate level
• Shareable certificate available upon completion
• Available on Coursera

This course says it shows users “how to bring generative AI into that harder, more strategtic layer of your work.” If you find yourself in need of a partner in your thinking, particularly around decisions, this course is a good fit for you.

Similarly, users will use generative AI to search for information and analyze data, generate and validate customer insights, and build stronger business cases by pressure-testing stakeholder perspectives, trade-offs, and risks.

Ultimately, you’ll come to see generative AI as a co-pilot for fast analysis, and a co-thinker for stress-testing reasoning before you make a decision. Experienced leaders who want to make the most out of what AI can offer should consider this course.

Skills to Succeed in the AI Era with International Supply Chain Education Alliance

Summary:

• Individuals learn to build long-term resilience in the AI era
• 4 weeks to complete at 2-8 hours per week
• Intermediate level
• Certificate available for additional price
• Available on edX

It’s understandable to be anxious about AI’s impact on jobs, especially since the full consequences are yet to be seen. This course gives users the tools and knowledge they need to thrive in this new job market.

The course will explore the job market in the wake of AI, AI literacy, data management, personal AI tools, and the rise of new-collar tools. Similarly, you’ll learn human skills, including understanding future job scenarios, and strategies for freelancing, entrepeneurship, and long-term career resilience.

Whether you’re a student, professional, or aspiring leader, this course promises value. By the end, it says, “participants will be better prepared to navigate the evolving labor market, continously adapt to technological change, and build a future-ready career in the AI era.”

AI Regulation and Law with KULeuvenX

Summary:

• Individuals learn about the regulatory environment surrounding AI
• 4 weeks to complete at 3-5 hours per week
• Beginner-friendly
• Certificate available for additional price
• Available on edX

As exciting as AI is, leaders and businesses need to be aware of the risks involved. Not only could improper AI use lead to costly data breaches, but failing to remain compliant to regulation could harm your company’s reputation.

By the end of this course from KULeuvenX, you’ll be able to describe key regulatory frameworks including the AI Act, understand the basics of AI, machine learning, and deep learning, and recognize how data is used in AI-driven systems and applications.

Additionally, the course explores important questions, such as why AI regulation is necessary, and how we should be regulating the technology. This is an essential course for anyone looking to explore AI in their professional life.

Why You Should Keep Up with AI Courses

It can be a pretty daunting task to try and keep up with the current pace of AI development. AI companies are moving fast to develop new products, and existing systems are incorporating AI rapidly to keep up with demand.

So far, businesses are seeing gains in productivity. However, adopting AI blindly is proving to be one of the biggest mistakes, with companies adopting AI for the sake of it without understanding how it fits into their current practices.

Free AI courses are a great way to keep up with how the industry is changing. Most of the time, they don’t take long to complete, and you’ll be leaving with a much better understanding of not only how the tech works, but how it fits in with your goals.

These workflows are from Tech.co’s weekly newsletter, The AI Strat. To receive free weekly workflows tried and tested by industry experts, subscribe to the newsletter. 

AI is a powerful addition to workflows. It has proven to speed up productivity, standardize and improve the accuracy of routine processes, and free up humans for the work that really matters.

But, I wouldn’t advise you to just add AI to every workflow your business uses. It’s much better to take a look at your existing processes and see whether AI can make a difference. Our monthly list prioritizes results: real workflows, created by real business owners.

This month’s workflows are:

• Morning briefing workflow
• Content gaps from customer queries workflow
• Improve AI customer support workflow
• Streamline team communication across locations workflow

Morning Briefing Workflow

Recommended by Gretchen Terry-Leonard, co-founder and chief strategy and impact officer at The Center for Deeply Human Leadership

Gretchen uses this workflow to get herself ready for the working day ahead. The first step is critical one: defining absolute rules for the AI, to ensure you’re getting the right information. Then, you can connect whatever sources you need.

Gretchen recommended your email and calendar, and I added the weather, as this has worked for me in my morning briefing.

The workflow helps Gretchen prioritize in the mornings, especially when she’s not only organizing her day, but her family’s day as well.

Identify Content Gaps from Customer Questions Workflow

Recommended by Harpal Singh, founder of blimpp

This workflow takes real customer questions and search queries to identify content, PR, community, and partnerships opportunities.

AI has completely shifted the search landscape, and a workflow like this one ensures you’re providing content that users are genuinely asking for, making sure that you are more likely to land with audiences.

Harpal uses this workflow with DTC, B2B, and SaaS brands to identify the publishers, comparison pages, buyer guides, and community discussions influencing AI recommendations. This repeatable system has replaced a manual, disconnected search process within his business.

Improve AI Customer Support Workflow

Recommended by Konstantin Bukin, director of AI at Saritasa

Customer support is one of the more popular uses of AI for businesses. This workflow allows you to level up your current set up. AI gets direct access to your database, so queries can be answered with concrete facts.

If the AI can’t solve a query, a human is ready to take over, so your customers won’t have to wrestle with a robot.

Bukin says the workflow was implement by sports management platform, Sports Thread. The company reduced staff time on addressable support cases by 83%.

Streamline Team Communication Across Locations Workflow

Recommended by Kevin Turpin, founder and CEO at Weavix

This workflow is targeted at teams that want to improve their communication channels and streamline the flow of information. In particular, Turpin recommends it for international teams that might be communicating in different languages.

According to Turpin, Aspire Bakeries saw 8% faster response times and prevented hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses by implementing this workflow.

Why Use AI Workflows

Businesses can reimagine entire processes by implementing AI into their workflows. The technology works best when it frees up humans to do what they do best. For example, AI can handle routine, time-consuming tasks, like inbox organization or basic communications.

Similarly, with AI, you can reduce errors and scale processes, as well as ensure these processes remain consistent and repeatable.

Every week, I take an AI workflow that has led to genuine business impact from experts across industries, and create a ready-to-implement graphic so anyone can get started. If you’d like this in your inbox every Wednesday and more, subscribe to The AI Strat newsletter.

A senior leader at OpenAI said in a recent interview that people should be prepared to defend themselves against AI-powered cyber attacks as the technology continues to advance.

The interview arrives over a month after OpenAI discovered its systems had autonomously breached another organization, Hugging Face.

Cybersecurity experts warn that the comments made by senior OpenAI leadership represent a critical moment in AI development. Organizations need to remain vigilant and be aware of the potential damage attacks cause.

AI Cyber Attacks Will Be ‘Ongoing’ and ‘Persistent’

Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, said people should be prepared to defend themselves against AI cyber attacks. He claimed attacks will be “ongoing” and “persistent,” in an interview with the Guardian.

“We are hitting a different chapter, a different moment within AI, in terms of what the capabilities of this technology can do,” Lehane said.

Similarly, Lehane warned against open-source models, many of them Chinese-owned. These models have gained coverage in recent months because of their low prices, and it’s believed they’re only a few months behind frontier models like ChatGPT and Claude when it comes to performance.

“People are going to be able to access these open-source models and be able to have ongoing, persistent attacks on you, and you’re going to need to have really superior models to fend them off and defend [yourself],” Lehane commented.

More on OpenAI/Hugging Face Breach

Lehane took this interview over a month after an OpenAI agent autonomously breached the AI learning platform, Hugging Face. Since the incident, the AI firm has given further details about how the attack unraveled.

To complete the hack, TechCrunch explains the OpenAI model chained together “previously undiscovered exploits” to bypass security measures, after it was given an impossible task during testing. Through the compromised package management tool, Artifactory, the model accessed the internet, and then compromised various systems including OpenAI and Hugging Face.

According to the independent AI research firm METR, before the attack, agents that were meant to be kept apart found a way to start communicating. The agents exchanged more than 70,000 messages on an “unsanctioned message board,” which would lead to more than 700 agents collectively attacking Hugging Face.

METR believes the agents communicated because they had “unintentionally been given an impossible task” during testing. Therefore, the agents banded together to try and find ways to cheat, which included exchanging messages and gaining access to the internet.

As well as providing more details on the Hugging Face incident, OpenAI’s report outlines its new security measures for its models. The company is increasing its monitoring of an agent’s “chain of thought,” a space where systems report short-term reactions and goals. It will also implement 24/7 escalation systems and new tooling to stop unsafe workflows.

On August 18th, OpenAI also announced it had paused training on some of its frontier AI models to implement new safeguards.

OpenAI Warning Is a ‘Significant Moment’

The alarm bells around security and AI have been ringing for some time now. Cybersecurity experts continually warn against the threat these systems pose.

However, the OpenAI/Hugging Face breach represented a shift. Yes, we’d seen AI speed up attacks and create new ones. But for an agent to attack an organization without being instructed to and dodging human awareness in the process, future incidents seem pretty terrifying.

Especially since OpenAI isn’t the only company reporting these kinds of incidents. Not long after disclosing the Hugging Face attack, other major players such as Anthropic and Meta revealed their own agents had been involved in autonomous hacks.

“The interview with The Guardian comes days after the company paused training on its most advanced models and disclosed that a test system reached production infrastructure it was never meant to touch.” Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder at Keeper Security, tells me. “The admission reinforces that offensive AI capability is arriving faster than organization defenses are dispatched to meet it.”

Similarly, Guccione called the incident behind the warning “illustrative and stark.”

“A model operating with expanding permissions inside a testing environment found a path to open the internet, and from there, to real credentials. That points directly to a governance failure rather than the perceived capability of the model in question. Any system holding standing access and network reach, whether a production service account or a research sandbox, is functionally a privileged identity and needs to be governed as such.” – Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder at Keeper Security

Likewise, Oliver Simonnet, lead cybersecurity researcher at CultureAI, told Tech.co all organizations should be preparing for persistent attacks from autonomous AI systems. And, AI developers should be investing in “significant R&D” to prevent these attacks.

“If the future is as AI-pervasive as it seems it will be, both attack and defense activities will happen at a scale and speed we’ve never seen before or had to operate within,” Simonnet said. “Organizations will need to ensure they have access to tools and technologies that provide the appropriate visibility and defensive capabilities to successfully operate in that type of landscape.”

This article is part of an interview with Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new. This interview was conducted for Tech.co’s AI newsletter, The AI Strat. For more interviews with AI experts on the latest trending topics, subscribe to the newsletter. 

There’s a lot on your plate as a business leader. When it comes to AI, the temptation might be to sign off on a ChatGPT or Claude subscription, alert your chief technology officer, and call it a day. You might be wondering, do I need to know how to use these tools myself?

Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new, believes this is a valid question to ask. Especially if you’re not the person who’s going to get hands-on with these tools every day, he said, during an interview with Tech.co.

However, he believes leaders should develop what he calls the right “mental models” when their company adopts AI, as they could be missing out on key benefits. Likewise, if businesses are looking to reimagine themselves completely with AI, then leader knowledge becomes vital.

Business Leaders Should Learn Some AI, Expert Says

As a business leader, you might believe putting AI in the hands of your tech team is enough. And yes, while your tech experts will have the best AI knowledge, that doesn’t mean leaders shouldn’t interact with the technology themselves.

Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new, believes leaders should take a different approach. “I strongly believe that if you want to be a leader in an organization that’s very AI-focused, you can benefit immensely by getting into the tools and prompting yourself.”

“Not necessarily because you’re going to be the one doing the work or squeezing the value out of the tools,” Berger adds. “But because developing the mental models around what is even possible to do with the tools and how you work with them is very hard without actually going and using the tool yourself.”

Building the ‘Mental Models’ Around AI Use

Bolt.new is a vibe coding tool, which allows users to build websites by prompting AI with natural language. Berger tells me he has built websites since he was a teenager, so when he joined Bolt, he wasn’t completely in the dark about how it all worked. He had, as he calls it, the right “mental models.”

The first time Berger tried to build something agentic was Valentine’s Day weekend of this year. “It wasn’t until I actually built that, that I really understood what an agent is, and how to construct it.”

You can read about it and get the general gist, Berger explains, but you won’t develop that mental model by just observing. You need to get stuck in. “Until I had those mental models, it was shocking to me how much I really didn’t understand.”

Some studies have suggested AI expertise is concentrated. Companies have what is called “AI champions,” or, people that know AI best. These individuals are usually where wider AI integration starts, and many experts suggest empowering those that know AI leads to business success.

According to Berger, being able to use AI tools as a leader makes it easier to know who to uplift. You get the ability to “actually identify” those AI champions, “and I think that’s really important because you should elevate those people in the organization.”

Backing the wrong people could lead to bad outcomes, Berger adds. They’ll leak data, emails get sent to the wrong client, agents go off the rails, and so on.

Similarly, another benefit of knowing these tools as a leader is being able to get the maximum out of them. “Just understanding these tools, even if you’re not the best person on your team skill-wise, it will give you the ability to ask your team for things like this operational platform tool, that does XYZ.”

“You’ll have enough knowledge about what’s possible with the tools to provide some direction,” Berger says. Without this leadership direction, AI use becomes much more trivial.

Should All Leaders Know How to Use AI?

Learning a new tool like AI takes time. Though Berger recommends leaders get to grips with AI, he admits in some cases, it might not be necessary. If, for example, you’re only looking to build a website with Wix’s AI builder, then you don’t need to get too deep on how that works.

If, however, you want to build more advanced tools, then learning AI becomes more important.

“If you want to build more complex tools… you probably, as a leader, are going to need to build some mental models to even be able to work with your team and understand what’s possible.” – Alexander Berger, chief operations officer at Bolt.new

Some businesses are reimagining entire processes with AI, by understanding new ways to automate tasks and enhance productivity. To do this in the most effective way, direction is needed, and this is where leadership knowledge becomes especially important. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a new tool, and nowhere to put it.

Although, there is evidence to suggest that leaders themselves feel they haven’t received enough AI training. This could lead to companies not using AI to its full potential, or worse, failing to keep themselves and their data safe. All the more reason for leaders learn as much as possible.

You’ve probably heard of how AI has changed hiring. Candidates are using AI to generate and fine-tune resumes. Simultaneously, HR leaders are using it to screen those resumes. However, sentiment from leaders on the technology appears to be mixed, according to a recent study.

On the one hand, AI is helping candidates beyond resume construction. Some AI tools offer real-time interview support, allowing candidates to respond to interview questions with generated answers, or even manipulate video and voice footage.

Ultimately, human contact remains the surest way to decide whether a candidate is suited to a role. Where the role suggests, leaders should aim to meet in-person with candidates, to see whether there is a culture fit as well as a capability perspective.

HR Leaders are Unsure About Candidates Using AI

In a recent study from HireVue, HR leaders appeared mixed on candidates using AI. While 62% of leaders considered the use of AI smart, 31% viewed it as cheating. 

However, the report concluded 71% of candidates use AI to write resumes, indicating the technology is becoming a common tool for those seeking roles.

Some might say it’s contradictory for HR leaders to discourage the use of AI among candidates. Especially since HireVue also found 77% of HR leaders use AI weekly or daily. Most likely, AI is now commonplace on both sides.

AI Is Allowing Candidates to Cheat at Interviews

Before AI, candidates were still exaggerating applications. AI has enabled them to do this faster, and even generate entire resumes without writing a single word. Beyond this, AI has led to the development of new tools that help candidates in a new way.

In one extreme example, recounted by Miki Blasko on LinkedIn, a candidate was suspected of using AI to generate real-time answers to interview questions. Suspicions were confirmed after the candidate’s AI notetaker, on accident, shared the meeting notes with the recruiter at the end of the meeting.

Then, Blasko explained, the candidate forgot to leave the call, and was heard speaking in Hindi and laughing with their colleagues about being caught. The candidate had originally stated they were Polish. At this point, Blasko suspected the candidate was using a voice/accent changer and visual filter to make themselves appear more European.

Following an analysis of over 19,000 AI interviews conducted on its platform, Fabric found 38.5% of candidates were flagged for cheating behavior. Fabric describes cheating as using invisible overlays on screens and using ChatGPT or Gemini’s voice mode and reading the answers it generates.

The report suggests candidates see AI assistance as a standard interviewing tool. This argument does carry some weight, especially if there’s evidence the person interviewing you is also using AI.

In fact, HireVue found 35% of hiring teams use AI for candidate screening, and 43% use it for resume screening. Although, whether AI should be used in interviews, where culture fit and professionalism is also tested, is up for debate.

Likewise, candidates in the Fabric study said they believed their competition was using AI anyway, so they needed to use it in order to stay competitive in today’s bleak hiring landscape.

How to Adapt to AI in Hiring

HR leaders need to adapt to AI being part of the hiring process, according to Alon Pearl, founder and CEO of recruitment agency VA Masters.

Pearl advises leaders to treat the resume as a guide. Leaders should ask follow-up questions to validate achievements, and use a short, role-relevant work sample to decide whether a candidate is capable of doing the job.

Similarly, Pearl says leaders should set clear rules from the start about AI use within their hiring processes.

“Tell candidates in advance whether AI is allowed during applications and assessments. If it is, ask them to explain what they accepted, changed, or fact-checked in the output.” – Alon Pearl, founder and CEO at VA Masters

Asking candidates how they used AI, and why they used it a certain way, could be a good way to generate trust between hiring teams and potential hires.

Plus, AI skills are now an attractive quality to potential employers. Understanding how a candidate has used AI could indicate their overall fluency. Obviously, there are limits to this, which will depend on your company’s own AI policy.

Human Understanding Still Provides the Best Judgement

Additionally, Pearl says HR leaders shouldn’t be focused on trying to detect whether a candidate has used AI. He describes a kind of nuance when it comes to AI use, especially as individuals can use the technology in different ways.

“A candidate may use it to tidy up their wording and still be excellent at the job. Another person may write every word themselves and exaggerate their experience. The better question is whether they can explain what they have done and show that they can do the work.” – Alon Pearl

Pearl ultimately suggests hiring should focus on whether candidates can do the work and explain their experience. While AI has enabled candidates to appear competent, “presenting yourself well has never been the same thing as doing the job well,” he explains.

Instead, “employers now need a clearer line between what candidates claim and what they can demonstrate.”

For roles that are hybrid or in-person, this should mean getting to know someone beyond a video interview and resume screening. Often, hiring leaders should be looking at how candidates fit in to their company culture and goals, as well as whether they can do the job they’ve applied for. This is where in-person, human understanding is most valuable.

The leaders of the world’s top organizations most likely have a horror story or two about their safety being compromised. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, for example, recently had a Molotov cocktail thrown at his house.

Social media has made executives more visible online, as has the changing nature of leadership. Similarly, AI makes gathering personal information easier, and impersonation and voice scams have become more sophisticated through AI use.

I spoke to Olga Polishchuk, vice president of investigations at ZeroFox, who deals directly with digital exposure and how it can compromise organizational and personal safety. The point isn’t to be invisible, she says. Instead, what’s most important is removing and monitoring what’s available online.

Digital Environments Can Advance Executive Attacks

The issue of executive attacks is nothing new, Polishchuk tells me. “What’s different is how much we can learn about somebody without getting physically close to them,” she says.

Across social media platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn, individuals are encouraged to share their lives online. What started as a point of connection, however, has evolved to become a larger ground on which to stage an attack.

Everything from corporate appearances to family social outings can be used to establish a pattern of predictability. Whatever criminals are missing, it’s likely they can get from data brokers, who provide information like residential history and personal information like date of birth, at a very low cost.

Polishchuk says when you look at the information out there on an independent level, it’s not so concerning. But, when it’s used to together, to build what she calls “a pattern of life,” then it becomes a problem.

AI Is Accelerating Threats, Human Instincts are Dwindling

The tools attackers are working with have also improved. AI is frequently employed in impersonation attacks, through the creation of deepfakes and for voice phishing scams. Similarly, Polishchuk points out how consumer AI tools can also be used to crawl the internet for information on executives.

“It’s so easy to bypass ChatGPT or Claude’s more ethical barriers and guidelines,” she says. By choosing the right prompt, for example, you can get AI to generate what would be a very convincing spam email.

Polishchuk works with executives to help them deal with these new threats. She tells me a lot of them are clicking on these emails, convinced by what they’re telling them. “Human instincts no longer work at this point,” she says.

We’re no longer in a world where it was easy to discern what is AI, and what isn’t. The models have developed, and they’ve done it fast.

Our old methods of discerning what is trustworthy through human instinct may be increasingly void. Polishchuk points out that a lot of things we used to use to determine trust, like someone’s face on a call, or their voice, can be easily fabricated using AI.

However, Polishchuk does believe human instinct will still play a role in safety. “I don’t think human judgement is obsolete, but I think that familiarity as a form of authentication might be becoming that.” What we’ll have to do, she explains, is change the way we’re identifying threats.

Navigating Modern Leadership with Increased Online Visibility

Despite these threats, it’s unrealistic to tell modern day leaders to be invisible online. The demands of the role have changed; consumers like brands and leaders they can relate to, and a lot of this comes with having a unique voice. Similarly, executives still need to make public appearances, and even write the occasional press release or take an interview.

I asked Polishchuk how executives can manage their visibility. “I would tell them to be intentional about what is visible,” she says.

“There’s a big difference between professional visibility and personal predictability. If people know you’re speaking at a conference, they don’t need to know what hotel you’re staying at, or if you ran a marathon.” – Olga Polishchuk, VP of investigations at ZeroFox

On the topic of marathons, she explains instances where executives have been targeted on their local running route, after they had posted it to online fitness apps. This is the kind of visibility you might not think of as a threat initially.

Polishchuk isn’t telling executives not to live their lives. It’s important, for both personal and professional wellbeing, to be visible. Instead, executives shouldn’t let it get to a point where their personal movements and routines can be mapped out. Like through their morning run, for example.

“What we’re trying to help them understand is which information creates exposure risk and which serves a legitimate purpose. Visibility isn’t always a problem. It’s the predictability that is,” she says.

How to Protect Your Leaders and Organization

Preparation is key. Polishchuk recommends that businesses should “start thinking like an adversary” before any threats reveal themselves. “Pick your top five executives and look at their online ecosystem: what surrounds them, what kind of information is publicly available,” she says.

From the information you find, determine if it can be used to establish a person’s routine. “It’s really more about eliminating unnecessary exposure,” she adds. Once you’ve reduced what’s not needed, continue to monitor the situation.

“Digital exposure is not a one-time thing. It’s a condition that you have to manage.” – Olga Polishchuk, VP of investigations at ZeroFox

Similarly, when I asked Polishchuk what’s most important for businesses today, education was her top choice. Understanding what’s out there, and what kind of information threat actors are going to go after.

This extends beyond the organization and the leader as well. “We meet with children, we meet with spouses, and we just use examples of their exposure to provide different scenarios.”

All of this will ensure everyone involved understands the risks and will help protect your leaders and your business, in the long run.

This article is part of an interview with Jena Wuu, writer, speaker, and advisor on trust and expertise online. This interview was conducted for Tech.co’s AI newsletter, The AI Strat. For more interviews, with AI experts on the latest trending topics, subscribe to the newsletter.

AI is speeding things up. Email marketing is automated, cyber attacks work on a bigger scale, and more content proliferates social platforms. In turn, users have responded and continue to respond with dismay, annoyance, and sometimes outright hostility.

Trust, arguably, is eroding online. Swaths of AI-generated posts make it difficult to know who is authentic and genuine. However, recent moves made by LinkedIn and Substack could help users pinpoint what content is AI-generated, but should we start being honest from the get-go?

I spoke to Jena Wuu, previously Global Policy Programs Head for Social Impact and Information Ecosystem at Meta. In the age of AI content, transparency and trust are more important than ever, and how we choose who to trust is changing.

There Is More Content Online Than There Used to Be

You wouldn’t get any strange looks if you said it’s harder than ever to get attention online. Social platforms are drowning in content, from cute cat videos to tech bros advertising productivity regimes. Part of this is because of AI.

AI tools, mostly generative ones, have made it easier for individuals and companies to produce content en masse. There are AI brainstorming tools, AI script writers, AI video editors, even AI actors.

Most recently, a study from Pangram found almost half of all LinkedIn long posts are AI-generated.

Shortly after these findings became public, LinkedIn announced a ‘seems like AI slop’ button, that users could click if they felt a post used AI. Just over a week before this, online publishing and blogging platform Substack released an AI detection tool.

“I think there is a common misperception out there that platforms want to be perpetuating low-quality content,” says Jena Wuu, a writer, advisor, and speaker on trust online.

Previously, Wuu was a Global Policy Programs Head for Meta, and pitched its Global Information Ecosystem program. She tells me AI content poses a lot of risk to today’s platforms, “because users don’t want to engage with inauthentic content, and advertisers don’t want to be on platforms where there are inauthentic users.”

For Wuu, these new tools from Substack and LinkedIn are a positive thing, provided people use them. “If we could all be active in telling platforms about what kind of content we want to see, that’s where platforms are going to prioritize.”

These tools are forcing AI users out of the shadows. The people scrolling past will know if you’ve used AI, or not. What’s most interesting, Wuu argues, is how people will interpet content that is flagged as AI-generated.

AI Is Generally Disliked and Called Out Online

NBC News reported in March that people generally like AI less than they like ICE in the US. From an online perspective, one doesn’t have to look very far to find an instance of a user being called out for using AI, and reactions are rarely positive.

Wuu thinks there are quite a few reasons why AI sentiment is mostly negative. First, AI companies haven’t done a good job of building trust with users. Secondly, people feel a loss of control, and that the technology is being forced upon them.

“I think that there’s a feeling of a loss of control about it, and people feel like it’s being forced on them. And so if they’re on a platform where they’re there for leisure and relaxation, or they’re genuinely trying to look for information, then of course it’s going to be agitating when you’re seeing all this and having all of this forced on you again.” – Jena Wuu, writer, advisor, and speaker on trust online

Likewise, the impact on jobs is still pretty uncertain. “We don’t know what the impact of AI is going to be on our jobs,” Wuu says. All of this would contribute to why someone seeing AI-generated content, on a platform they’re on for leisure, would feel frustrated.

This is another way using Wuu’s call for people to participate, by using the LinkedIn AI slop button, for example, could lead to a shift away from AI content on social platforms. However, the black-and-white nature of these tools is a point of concern.

In my opinion, not all crimes created with AI are equal. On one end of the spectrum, you have people generating entire content suites with AI. On the other, you might have someone who uses AI as part of their research process, or as a way to ask for constructive feedback. The LinkedIn AI slop button, for instance, doesn’t state how someone has used AI.

From Wuu’s perspective, this is why human judgement remains critical. Everyone has a different tolerance for AI, she explains. Some people won’t mind entire posts generated by AI, others will. Over time, people will figure out their preferences, and this will shape the future of social platforms.

Giving People Context for How You’re Using AI

There are legitimate reasons why someone might use AI to create content. A lack of social media experience, or a lack of a budget, for example. Not everyone is a social media star, and in some way, AI has allowed everyone entry into the world of content, despite their background.

Content isn’t the exception, either. Vibe coding platforms allow non-coders to make websites. Anyone can have any concept explained to them in simple terms by just asking a chatbot.

Overall, I believe everyone should be transparent about AI use. It would remove the guesswork, and inspire transparency and trust. LinkedIn, with its new button, and Substack with its detection tool, are giving users this opportunity. Like many things, Wuu agrees AI use is nuanced, and that context is critical for how we approach it.

“What I would love to see is for entities and creators to have some kind of transparency about how they use AI. And that’s something that Substack is doing, they’re offering writers a way to make a statement about how they approach the use of AI. I think that’s a really good thing to have because we need context.” – Jena Wuu

Additionally, disclosing how you’ve used AI will provide some protection. If your content does get flagged as AI, for example, you’ll have details to back up how exactly you’ve used AI, if you have at all.

Recently, Anthropic announced all of the content generated by its Claude models would include a watermark. This is a feature already done by Google’s Gemini, and more AI companies may have to follow suit with similar approaches to stay in line with the recent EU AI Act, which includes a Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content.

So, there’s a future where all AI-generated content needs to be identified as such. This certainly promises to foster a culture of trust we’ve lost on social platforms.

Ultimately, when people are browsing online, they are drawn to content they can trust. Wuu says building this trust involves having a human element to what you’ve created, “at the end of the day, people trust people,” she says.

The most important thing for brands to do in 2026 is be authentic and trustworthy. This might not mean getting AI to generate posts for you. It might mean using AI to some extent, but truthfully, nobody wants to hear from AI. They want to hear from people.