You’ll Be Managing Digital Employees in 2026, a New Forecast Says

In March this year Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff, an AI hawk, landed himself in the spotlight when he predicted that this is the last time company leaders will manage only humans during a call with investors, he predicted that this is the last time company leaders will manage only humans. Given that his company had just launched a system that sold AI agents to Salesforce customers it was easy to brush off the prediction as an enthusiastic sales pitch. Now global market research outfit Forrester has predicted more or less the same thing, and says that next year is when things will begin to change. And the changes aren’t going to be small. In a new report first published on the Forbes website, Forrester researchers explain that AI agents are poised to “move beyond” helping workers boost their efficiency—the main selling point for AI at the moment—and instead will join the workforce. This means leadership will have to think about “orchestrating workflows independent of human workers.” They’ll have to think about “technology as part of the workforce” and that means changing planning as well as day-to-day business. HR teams in particular will play a big role, Forrester thinks. This is because sophisticated AI agents will be able to independently execute “complex tasks or end-to-end processes, acting as a virtual member of a team.” Strip away the cloak of anodyne corporate speak and this means Forrester’s predicting that AiIagents will be able to act almost at the level of a human. That means one way to manage them is to treat them as if they are almost people, with HR teams working to align agents alongside human workers on projects and tasks, tracking and optimizing a new type of “hybrid workforce.” One way to do this is to deploy human capital management (HCM) techniques, Forrester suggests. HCM is a system of rules and software that approaches employees as valuable assets, and the report notes that while mainly large enterprises use HCM now, due to sheer numbers of staff, smaller businesses may find the trick useful for a hybrid AI/human workforce. “Facing immediate pressures of productivity and resource optimization,” driven by the fact that you can employ numerous AI agents at once, and they can work 24-7, smaller outfits may actually “benefit from this technology sooner,” the report suggests. This job may sound daunting, particularly if you’ve never experimented with this tech or you’re feeling far from thinking of AI tools as equivalent to your human workers. But Forrester thinks that around three in 10 companies that already sell enterprise software will get in on the game, offering their own HCM solutions to help you manage AI tools. Meanwhile the research company also thinks that business software companies like Oracle, Microsoft and their ilk will offer “autonomous governance” software, which will help companies deploy AI on business tasks while also ensuring there are audit trails and real-time monitoring so you stay within any compliance limits you need to follow. And if you’re concerned this sounds all too automated for you, don’t worry — Forrester says that even though these trends are shifting fast, we’re “till a few years away from a system that can independently manage an entire business unit without human involvement and adaptability.” Your leadership and management skills are still needed! Though you may be tempted to dismiss this research as not relevant to your smaller company, with its family-like feel and reliance on person-to-person collaboration, that might be a mistake. The AI revolution really is rolling on, and if even some of Forrester’s predictions prove true, then inside a year you may be in a position where you can “hire” an AI agent system that can work alongside your staff and help them achieve goals as if it were another employee. That shift will take a lot of leadership, discussing issues with your (probably quite wary) human workers, deciding how to integrate the tech into your workflows and planning and so on. It goes far beyond downloading some software and pressing a button. BY KIT EATON @KITEATON

This Small Startup’s AI Video Model Just Put Sora 2 to Shame

The battle to win the burgeoning AI-generated-video market is heating up, thanks to a new model from a small but mighty player. Runway, a startup that develops AI models for video generation, has released its new flagship model, named Gen-4.5. The company said in a blog post this new model is a major step up for AI-generated video, especially when it comes to realistic physics and exact instruction following. The model claimed the top spot on independent benchmarking organization Artificial Analysis’s text-to-video leaderboard. Founded in 2018 by students of New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, Runway has been laser-focused on AI video and has been steadily growing since releasing its first model in 2023. According to The Information, this strategy has paid off; the company hit $80 million in annualized recurring revenue in December 2024, and hopes to hit $300 million in ARR by the end of 2025. But Runway is going up against some of the biggest tech companies in the world, most notably Google and OpenAI, which have developed and commercialized their own AI video models. Runway’s plan to beat these mega-funded foes seems pretty simple: make better models. Runway wrote that Gen-4.5 represents “a new frontier for video generation.” Objects in Gen-4.5 videos “move with realistic weight, momentum, and force,” the company says, with better water and surface rendering. The company also says that details like hair will remain more consistent, and that the model will be able to generate more varied art styles. Altogether, Runway says, these upgrades enable the platform’s users to be much more exacting and detailed about their video generations. The new model is already being used commercially by enterprises, Runway says. Video game distributor Ubisoft, ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, Allstate Insurance, and Target were given early access to the tool. The model is available to paid subscribers and through Runway’s API. Gen-4.5 was both built on Nvidia GPUs and uses that company’s hardware to run, according to Runway. The company wrote that it “collaborated extensively” with Nvidia on the model’s creation. Runway creative principal Nicolas Neubert celebrated the model’s release on X, posting that “Gen-4.5 was built by a team that fits onto two school buses and decided to take on the largest companies in the world. We are David and we’ve brought one hell of a slingshot.” BY BEN SHERRY @BENLUCASSHERRY

Black Friday Broke Records. The Real Story Is How AI Changed the Way We Shop

If you only looked at the numbers, you’d think Black Friday was business as usual—just bigger. And, to be clear, it was definitely bigger. Adobe, which tracks more than a trillion retail site visits across 18 categories, says consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online yesterday, up 9.1 percent from last year and even above the company’s own forecast. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Adobe says shoppers spent $12.5 million every minute. By any metric, that’s a massive number of people shopping for deals. It’s a record for Black Friday sales online, but if you look a little closer, you realize it’s also a massive number of people shopping in very different ways than they used to. Black Friday has already changed quite a bit in the past few years. What was once a single day defined by incredible deals and lines outside big-box stores has stretched into a weeks-long digital shopping season. And, let’s be honest, people aren’t camping outside a Target anymore; they’re sitting on their couch, scrolling their phones. The AI holiday The most interesting part of the story is how things have shifted even more this year. Adobe’s data shows that AI-generated traffic to retail sites jumped 805 percent year-over-year. Not only are people using AI tools to find deals and compare products, but also shoppers who landed on a site from an AI assistant were 38 percent more likely to convert than everyone else. That’s surprising, and yet it makes perfect sense. One of the things AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are good at is instantly surfacing the best price across half a dozen retailers. This year, there were plenty of headline features: Electronics, toys, apparel, TVs, and appliances were discounted between 24 and 30 percent. AI tools just made it easier to find them. And those deals didn’t just convince people to buy more. Adobe says that people spent more on higher-end items. The share of units sold from the most expensive tier of products spiked: 64 percent in electronics, 55 percent in sporting goods, 48 percent in appliances. With the right combination of discounts and AI-assisted shopping comparison, people weren’t just looking for deals—they were looking for the best value. Mobile continued to dominate Depending on the hour, around 55 percent of online Black Friday sales happened on a phone—$6.5 billion worth. That’s up 10 percent from last year and represents billions of dollars processed through screens smaller than a wallet. Mobile phones reward frictionless experiences. And it turns out, AI is very good at removing friction. When the easiest way to shop is to ask ChatGPT for a recommendation and the best deal, it changes the way retailers have to think about Black Friday. Not only that, but the timeline seems to have shifted. Adobe says one of the biggest spikes happened from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Shopping habits shifted toward the times when people are already using their phones. You don’t need to wait for a sale to “start” when an AI assistant can surface the best price the moment it exists. AI shopping is here to stay Adobe expects U.S. consumers to spend more than $250 billion online this holiday season, with Cyber Monday alone projected to hit $14.2 billion. But the part worth paying attention to isn’t the total—it’s how we got there. Shoppers are trusting AI to do the busywork and find them the best value. For a shopping event that used to be all about physical stores, that’s a significant shift that retailers have to pay attention to. The challenge is that they no longer control the narrative—the AI assistant does. The lesson here may not seem obvious, but the reality is that retailers need to redefine what loyalty means when more shoppers start their journey with an AI prompt instead of walking into a store or pulling up your website. When an assistant compares every retailer at once, being “top of mind” matters far less than being the lowest-friction, highest-confidence option in that moment. That means loyalty isn’t something you win with flashy ads or homepage banners—it’s something you earn through the operational details an AI actually cares about. Black Friday broke spending records. But the more interesting record is the one you might overlook: how many of those purchases started with someone typing a question into an AI instead of typing a URL into a browser. EXPERT OPINION BY JASON ATEN, TECH COLUMNIST @JASONATEN

Gen-Zers Are Using AI to Boost Their Side Hustles and Grow Them Into Full-Time Businesses

As more Gen-Zers embrace side hustles, they’re increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence to help them get ahead. A new survey by Canva finds that 80 percent of the people who have side hustles have used AI to fuel the growth of those enterprises, with 74 percent calling it their secret weapon. The tools, including ChatGPT and Canva’s own online graphic design offerings, are being used for everything from video creation and logo/brand design to data analysis and copywriting. And some of those side hustles are becoming full-time businesses. Side hustles, on the whole, have never been hotter. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 8.9 million Americans are currently working multiple jobs. That’s 5.4 percent of the country’s workforce. And a SurveyMonkey study published earlier this month found “72 percent of workers either already have or are considering a side gig—37 percent already have a side hustle, and 35 percent are considering pursuing one.” Some 22 percent of the people surveyed by Canva said they were inspired to start their own company after launching a side gig and 17 percent said the work led to a consulting or freelancing job. Additionally, 33 percent said they had gained new clients or customers, while 29 percent said their side gig had helped build their professional brand. Gen-Z was the generation most likely to start passive income side hustles: Of those with side hustles, 48 percent of Gen-Zers are currently earning passive income. All totaled, two-thirds of the 300 “5-9 influencers,” as Canva calls them, said they would consider quitting their full-time jobs if they believed their side projects could sustain them. They wouldn’t be the first. Some very familiar tech companies got their start as side hustles or side projects, including Groupon, Twitter, Craigslist, and Instagram (which began as Burbn, a location-based app for whiskey lovers). And thousands of other, smaller businesses began as a part-time side gig for the founder, eventually growing to multimillion-dollar businesses. Today’s side hustle community is made up of a mix of generations. Canva’s survey found that just under half of Gen-Zers, Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers were making money from side gigs today, with the actual percentages ranging from 40 to 48. Increasingly, the side hustles they’re choosing are digitally focused. The most popular jobs were social media creator (35 percent), e-commerce (27 percent), gaming and streaming (24 percent), and graphic design (14 percent). Extra income is the biggest motivator for people who have side gigs, Canva found, but it wasn’t the only one. Some 36 percent of the respondents said they were running their side hustle because they enjoyed the creative expression it gave them. And just under one-third said they wanted to turn a passion into a business. Even people with side hustles who aren’t looking to launch a business of their own are seeing advantages from the work. The skills they’ve learned as part of that work, including the AI expertise they’re building, are helping people advance. Some 14 percent of the people surveyed said their side hustle had helped them get a promotion at their day job. BY CHRIS MORRIS @MORRISATLARGE