Fast Company Spring 2024

I LOVE MY JOB, BUT IT COMES WITH AN UNSETTLING OCCUpational hazard: editing stories about technologies that threaten my own professional existence. Such was the experience of working on senior editor Mark Sullivan’s story on Perplexity, one of the buzziest startups in Silicon Valley. Perplexity makes an AI search tool that yields impressively detailed and well-organized answers. It’s popular with tech-world insiders and is catching on with normies, too. The company is a David to Google’s Goliath, although its CEO, an OpenAI veteran named Aravind Srinivas, likes to say, “We don’t have to beat Google to be successful.” Yet as Perplexity grows, it will imperil an altogether different entity: the media business. Unlike traditional search engines such as Google, which index the world’s information in the form of links and…

JEFF BEZOS IS A BUSY man. But in December, he found the time—two hours and 11 minutes, to be exact—to talk with Lex Fridman, a computer scientist and host of the Lex Fridman Podcast. Fridman’s podcast is the most popular in the technology category, according to Apple and Spotify. His following on social media—including his own Reddit community, 38,000 strong—extends to more than 8 million people. During the past six years, Fridman has recorded more than 400 episodes on topics ranging from alien life to venture investing. His interview subjects have included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, aspiring Middle East dealmaker Jared Kushner, and entrepreneurial YouTube star MrBeast. In July, Fridman interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, for an hour. At first glance, Fridman might seem an…

WITH DEMOCRACY ON THE LINE YET AGAIN in November, millions of progressive voters will do what they’ve been conditioned to do: They’ll open their digital wallets to try to save it. A practice that initially took off among anti–Iraq War protesters in the U.S. in the early 2000s, offering smalldollar donations online has become the default mode by which Democratic-leaning voters engage with causes and candidates up and down the ballot. During the 2020 election, small donors contributed $400 million to President Biden’s campaign, representing 38% of his haul. (Though Trump’s grassroots take has historically been greater than Biden’s, other Republican politicians don’t see as much in small donations.) The vast majority of those grassroots dollars flow through ActBlue, a Somerville, Massachusetts–based nonprofit that’s become essential technology for anyone interested…

Dealing with travel agents (remember them?) is a bittersweet memory. You enjoyed the convenience of someone handling your travel’s boring and mundane parts—flight connections, seat select ion, and even meet and greet. The trusted air travel advisor would do it for us. Today, though, air travellers prefer to book directly, still hoping for a personalized and hassle-free experience. So, the technological revolution isn’t just about easing travel. It’s about reimagining the entire travel experience. Just as AI has affected almost every aspect of our lives, it has made its mark in aviation. It is transforming various aspects of travel, most significantly, customer experience. Say hello to Sama, Qatar Air ways’ A I cabin crew, f ea turing a digitally created high-fidelity 3D human model, who promises to further revolutionize air…

ADVERTISING VETERAN NANCY REYES HAS SPENT THE PAST 25 years helping some of the world’s biggest companies, including Google, H&M, and Frito-Lay, connect with consumers. Reyes has long championed inclusivity, founding Circle of Women, which gives leadership coaching to female executives, and serving as a founding member of the nonprofit Time’s Up, which supports victims of sexual harassment. What’s your best habit, and what’s your worst? Best: Waking up early. Worst: Never sleeping in. What do you do when you’re creatively stuck? I do something mundane like make a list. It gives my brain a break. Is there a businessperson you admire? I can’t decide between Oprah and Beyoncé. Is there an expression you never want to hear again? The annual declaration that advertising is dead. It’s never been a…

Large institutions are hardly known for nimble strategies, large financial institution even less so. But as digital technologies and customer expectations rapidly evolve, the smart players in the financial services industry are getting a handle on the fast-moving dynamics of consumer-focused innovation. Bank of Montreal (BMO)—the eighth largest bank in North America, with more than 13 million customers—is in the midst of a long-term digital-transformation program to develop a suite of tools that address customer needs across channels: connecting online, mobile, and in-person banking experiences. “For something as impor tant as personal finances,” says Peter Poon, head of digital product management for service, platforms and innovation at BMO, “we need to be easy to use, we need to be personalized, and we need to deliver value to the customer.” This…