Latest news with #JonathanRaa
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Prepare For The AI Fraud Wave Coming To A Device Near And Dear To You
Hacked displayed on a mobile with binary code with in the background Anonymous mask. (Photo by ... More Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Do you find it exhausting to combat the increasing number of fraud scams lurking in your email inbox? You are not alone. Sophisticated AI enabled organizations are becoming cleverer by the day. Many of us don't notice threats, because some messages seemingly are coming from people we know—until we click on it or download the latest scam—like a party invitation. Yeah, I did. We may not think or care much about the differences between online fraud and cybersecurity attacks until we experience one firsthand. There are very real distinctions. E.g. fraud typically aims to deceive individuals for financial gain via psychological tactics, while cyber attackers exploit system vulnerabilities. If you walked with me, around the cyber security vendor booths at this years' RSA Show in San Francisco and saw the billions of dollars being invested to keep people and organizations safe, you may think—oh I'm safe! Sadly, you're not. And now more than ever, there are two types of people, those who have been hit and those who will be. Cyber attacks tend to dominate the news more, but the fact is that fraud is growing faster. It may go under-reported, and hence it is more insidious (well, fraud's easier to sweep under the rug, since it usually doesn't involve mass exploits of large companies or system infrastructure). But news about fraudsters targeting surfers phones, a global payments coordinated attack, and a personal experience that tried to take me down recently, all made me wonder about the state of this kind of crime, and a better way to fight it. Given all this uncertainty, let's look at this in light of the growing number and types of incidents, with the prospect of AI making it even worse for any of us. Fraud is a massive problem that I believe will be accelerating more with AI. The Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) estimates scammers cost consumers over $1.3 Trillion in fraud last year. In 2024 U.S. consumers reported losing over $12.5 billion due to this kind of crime, a 25% increase from the previous year, that seems low. Scam-related fraud incidents surged by 56%, with financial losses increasing by a whopping 121% in 2024, according to PYMNTS. In comparison, cyber-attacks rose by 30% last year. Several factors have contributed to its rise besides AI. The COVID-driven growth of e-commerce and digital businesses of all kinds have increased our poorly secured digital footprints, opening them to exploitation. And where are fraudsters naturally drawn to? Like Deep Throat said in the Watergate era, 'follow the money.' Willie Sutton famously advised robbing banks, because that's where the money is. And hence it is banking and finance that are particularly vulnerable. New fintech apps and real-time payment methods create opportunities to defraud. In fact, McKinsey & Company projects losses, just from payment card fraud to reach $400B globally over the next decade. It will likely be higher. Part of this will be authorized push payment (APP) fraud which is expected to grow at an 11% CAGR from 2023 to 2027, according to the same report. Fraud exploits can have wonky names. Perhaps some explanation will help. E.g. the APP fraud referenced above entices victims to part with their money under false pretenses, leaving them on the hook for liability since they authorized the payment. Synthetic ID fraud combines real and fake information to open accounts and build credit profiles. This kind of 'Frankenstein fraud' is hard to detect because the resulting ID technically doesn't exist but behaves like a real person. Grandparents beware. AI deepfakes impersonate people via voice, images or video, and can be used to generate synthetic IDs too. According to Raiinmaker CEO, J.D. Seraphine, 'voice-cloning software tricks elderly people out of millions by finding their grandchildren's voices on TikTok and using these sounds to call their 'grandparents' claiming they've been arrested or are hurt and urgently need bail money or medical funds.' Can you hear me now? Fraudsters Targets: 80 year old using her smartphone to check in with friends and family and share ... More photos on various social networks. As the name implies, mule account fraud involves recruiting people to move illicit funds through their bank accounts, knowingly or unknowingly. With friendly or first-party fraud, the user intentionally commits the act, e.g., by disputing a legitimate transaction for a refund (chargeback fraud). It's growing fast in e-commerce and fintech and is hard to detect because it comes from legitimate users. The bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics, growing increasingly more sophisticated using AI, deepfakes, and social engineering to bypass traditional security measures. There are fraud rings coordinating large-scale attacks that employ bots and rapid-fire automated scripts. AI, the Dark Web and other tools drive down costs and make it easier to scale their fraud organizations. 'More and more business is happening online,' said Jay Chaudhry, CEO of cloud security vendor Zscaler, in a recent interview with me. 'We're all getting interconnected. And as more and more commerce and business happens online, bad guys want a piece of the action without working hard.' Unfortunately, you can't effectively fight it with brute force technology and tactics alone. New exploits are constantly being introduced, making it hard to predict where fraud will hit next. Businesses and use cases are unique, adding to the challenges of measuring and fighting fraud. All these things mean that the threat landscape is rapidly evolving, the challenges growing—and individuals are paying the price. Fraud prevention and cybersecurity are plagued by some of the same issues, including evolving threats, automation, and the need for real-time defense. Having the right technology can help in both cases. There is a rich ecosystem of cyber vendors, in fact it's a crowded and mature market. The anti-fraud technology market is growing too, and is segmented by factors including fraud type, deployment mode, enterprise type, and industry. E.g. Socure provides AI-powered digital identity verification as part of their fraud prevention solutions, typically for large enterprises. Sift specializes in digital trust and safety, offering an AI-powered platform to protect e-businesses from fraud and abuse. Kount has a similar profile, but emphasizes comprehensive protection across the entire customer journey, while Sift focuses on automating fraud decisioning for growth-oriented businesses. But it's not just about the latest whiz-bang technology. Enterprise leaders need an overarching strategy involving tech and best practices that can keep customers safe and brand reputations pristine, and in compliance with relevant regulations. The goal is to arrive at a comprehensive anti-fraud approach that proactively defends against existing threats and the 'unknown unknowns.' And perhaps it is here that fraud fighters can learn a thing or two from the cybersecurity crowd. Another anti-fraud vendor that's getting attention is DataVisor. They are redefining fraud prevention with an AI-powered platform that proactively detects and stops everything from payment fraud to complex financial crimes in real time. Leveraging unsupervised machine learning, advanced link analysis, and a real-time decision engine, DataVisor's cloud-native solution scales effortlessly to billions of events per day—empowering businesses to uncover emerging threats before damage is done. So, AI doesn't just make it worse after all. Forrester recently named the company a leader in their anti-money-laundering (AML) Wave report. Also, Forbes profiled their top execs and the company made our Fintech 50 List. I had heard their CEO Yinglian Xie speak about the rising fraud threat, and the need for greater industry cooperation; and wanted to find out more. So, we discussed what the company is doing to make a bigger impact in this growing sector—and what we should do next. Yinglian also championed the need for a comprehensive Fraud Prevention Framework, that could be modeled after the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST's) Cybersecurity Framework. She explained that NIST takes a very proactive approach to cybersecurity, while fraud response is often reactive. CSF is a voluntary framework (rather than a mandate) that helps organizations manage and reduce cybersecurity risks. It focuses on six core functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Yinglian said: 'True resilience requires defending against evolving threats. Conceiving and implementing a framework would help rally the industry against fraud and to stay ahead of these challenges.' The components could mirror the core functions recommended by NIST CSF. Author and management guru Peter Drucker famously said, 'You can't manage what you don't measure.' This occurred to me when Yinglian explained that improving the measurement of anti-fraud capabilities using benchmarks is critical for identifying gaps and focusing efforts and budgets accordingly. Also, the industry should strive for improvements in information sharing, collaboration, threat intelligence, and post-mortem analysis. She is asking the industry to join her and the company in shaping the future of anti-fraud efforts. Datavisor will be forming a working group and invites early adopters to participate in sharing ideas for building fraud benchmarks and a framework for 2025 and beyond. My company, Reboot Partners, will be volunteering to help advance these initiatives with governments and the private sector. Achieving comprehensive anti-fraud capabilities is important for many reasons. It can keep our money safer and protect businesses against reputational impact and large fines. Better fraud-fighting through technology and industry cooperation will accelerate new use cases, reduce financial-related launch delays and strengthen defenses. Keep an eye on this explosive area for your organization, yourself, friends, family—and your email accounts—more threats arrived in your inbox while you were reading this.
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
What's Behind The 3x Rise In SOFI Stock?
The SoFi logo is being displayed on a smartphone in this photo illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on ... More May 28, 2024. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) SoFi Technologies stock (NASDAQ: SOFI) has seen an increase of over 30% from its lows of below $10 in early April this year to its current value of $13. This rise can mainly be credited to the company's strong Q1 results and an upward adjustment to its annual forecast. Our analysis of SoFi's Q1 performance provides additional insights. Following this recent increase, SOFI stock is trading 190% higher when viewed over a longer duration starting from early 2023. This can largely be attributed to: We will examine the specifics of these factors. While SOFI stock has performed exceptionally well, if you're looking for potential growth with a smoother experience than investing in a single stock, consider the High Quality portfolio, which has surpassed the S&P and achieved >91% returns since inception. Separately, see – GE Stock To $150? SoFi's strong revenue growth is driven by its expansion beyond its primary lending business to establish itself as a 'one-stop shop' for financial services. This diversification includes offerings such as SoFi Money (banking), SoFi Invest (investing), and SoFi Relay (financial insights), in addition to its traditional lending services (personal loans, student loan refinancing, and home loans). This approach has resulted in considerable growth in its membership base and product usage. For context, the company's membership base grew from 5.2 million in 2022 to 10.9 million currently. SoFi's 2022 acquisition of Technisys – a cloud-based core banking solution – has been vital for the company. Furthermore, the company acquired a banking charter in 2022, which allows it to hold loans for investment and significantly enhance its deposit base. Among its segments, Financial Services has exhibited remarkable growth, increasing fivefold from $168 million in 2022 to $822 million last year. This increase is credited to the strong uptake of products like SoFi Money, Relay, and Invest, as well as the swift growth of its Loan Platform Business. The company's Lending segment has also performed well, increasing by 30% over the same period. Although student loan refinancing has traditionally been a substantial revenue source for SoFi, personal loans have become a significant contributor to growth in recent years. The company has secured significant commitments from institutional investors, including Fortress Investment Group and Blue Owl Capital, to purchase its loans, aiding in diversifying its revenue sources and lowering capital intensity. SoFi's Financial Services segment has been a key factor in the company's financial overhaul, greatly boosting overall profitability. Since 2022, SoFi's operating margin has dramatically improved from -20.4% to 17.2% (for the last twelve months) — an impressive increase. The 2022 banking charter granted to SoFi was a significant landmark, enabling the company to leverage low-cost deposits from its members, especially those with direct deposits, as a reliable funding source for loans. This transition away from pricier financing methods directly benefited SoFi's net interest income and overall profitability. This enhanced financial performance, combined with robust sales growth and commitments from institutional investors, has transformed investor sentiment. The company's price-to-sales valuation multiple has doubled during this time, rising from 2.6x in 2022 to 5.3x in 2024, which reflects renewed investor optimism. This shift occurred amidst a challenging market backdrop, particularly influenced by the inflation surge of 2022 that triggered a significant stock market downturn. During this tumultuous period, SOFI stock saw a steep decline, plummeting 83% from its February 2021 peak of $26 down to $4 by December 2022 – a more considerable drop than the S&P 500's 25.4% peak-to-trough decline. The stock has yet to reclaim its pre-Crisis peak. At its current price of $13, SOFI stock is trading at a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 5.3x, which is closely aligned with its four-year average of 5.5x. However, there are strong indicators suggesting that the valuation multiple could see further expansion. Firstly, the company's strategic shift toward higher-margin revenue avenues through its Technology Platform (Galileo and Technisys) and Financial Services segments is attracting investor interest. This transition from a mainly lending-focused model to a more varied, technology-driven approach may prompt the market to assign higher multiples, recognizing the more stable, fee-based income. Secondly, SoFi's persistent member growth and successful cross-selling are proving to be essential. As the company continues to expand its membership and efficiently cross-sells banking, investing, insurance, and lending products within its integrated ecosystem, investors might attribute a premium to its valuation. Lastly, and most importantly, SoFi's trajectory toward consistent profitability could serve as a significant catalyst. Maintaining profitability, supported by increased operational efficiency and economies of scale, could lead to a vital inflection point, as financially successful companies in the services sector typically command higher valuations. While these factors strongly favor SoFi, investors should also weigh the risks involved. SoFi's stock previously declined over 80% during a significant market downturn, highlighting its vulnerability to macroeconomic challenges. With interest rates remaining high and ongoing trade tensions, there exists a risk of a further decline in the stock price. Certainly, there is always a substantial risk when investing in a single stock, or a limited number of stocks. Consider the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio which, encompassing a selection of 30 stocks, has a history of successfully outperforming the S&P 500 over the past four years. What accounts for this? Collectively, HQ Portfolio stocks have delivered superior returns with lower risk compared to the benchmark index; providing less volatile experiences, as illustrated in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.
IOL News
28-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
China's Temu owner sees profit plunge as trade tensions linger
Chinese shopping app Temu has been accused by European consumer groups of using manipulative techniques. Image: Jonathan Raa / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings saw net profit almost halve in the first three months of the year as the Temu owner prepared for a blistering trade war between Beijing and Washington. The Shanghai-based company said net profit came in at 14.7 billion yuan ($2 billion) in the three months ending March 31, down 47% year on year. The drop came as the economic superpowers are locked in another bruising trade standoff that saw US President Donald Trump last month scrap a customs exemption for goods valued under $800. The exemption was long a vital part of the business model supporting platforms offering low-cost goods like Temu. In a statement with the earnings release on Tuesday, PDD Holdings' co-chief executive Lei Chen said the company made "substantial support merchants and consumers" and deal with "rapid changes in the external environment". "These investments weighed on short-term profitability but gave merchants the room to adapt", he said, insisting they were focused on "strengthening the (platform's) long-term health". The firm also saw revenue growth slow for a fourth straight quarter. It said revenue in the first quarter rose 10% on-year to 95.7 billion yuan. But that was down on the 24% growth recorded in the previous three months -- and a severe drop from the 131% growth it saw at the start of 2024. The growth slowdown was "expected", said PDD Holdings' vice president of finance Jun Liu, adding that the downturn was "accelerated by the changes in the external environment". Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading She warned that the company's financial results "may continue to reflect the impact of sustained investments... through uncertain times". PDD's New York-listed depository receipts plunged more than 13%. As part of a detente in the tariff standoff between China and the United States, Trump signed an executive order this month that set duties on "de minimis" items sent through the US Postal Service to 54% of their value, or a $100 payment. A prior tariff had been set at 120%. AFP
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
US-Sino AI Rivalry Enters ‘Competitive Coexistence' After Tariff Truce
US-China agree 90 day tariff cut(Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Wall Street and Shanghai markets may have cheered the U.S.-China tariff détente, but beneath the surface optimism lies a profound strategic recalibration of the world's most consequential technological rivalry. The May 12 agreement, a 90-day suspension of escalating tariffs, has seen U.S. duties on Chinese imports plummet dramatically from an aggressive 145% down to a more moderate 30%, while China reciprocated with tariffs on American goods reduced from 125% to 10%. This temporary peace, however, signals not an end to hostilities but a new phase defined by careful maneuvering and intense strategic rivalry, aptly termed "competitive coexistence." Markets Show Resilience Amid Geopolitical Shifts Influential Chinese commentator Ren Yi, widely known as Chairman Rabbit, encapsulated Beijing's view by describing the tariff truce as a "beautiful counterattack." In a widely circulated WeChat post, Ren portrayed the agreement as a pragmatic victory against the Trump administration's "impulsive paper-tiger tactics," underscoring China's long-term strategic acumen and disciplined approach in contrast to America's more reactive stance. His narrative resonated deeply with domestic Chinese audiences, reflecting Beijing's confidence in its strategic positioning amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions. Yet, beyond political narratives, global financial markets have demonstrated notable resilience. After the initial tariff announcement on April 9 triggered widespread anxiety, markets had already begun to recalibrate expectations by the time the truce was officially announced. From April 9 to May 12, technology stocks notably benefited from investor confidence in the resilience and adaptability of major firms. Alibaba led the charge with a remarkable 25.5% rise in its share price, followed closely by Tencent with a 17.3% increase and Baidu's 13.3% gain. U.S. tech giants also shared in the relief rally: Meta's shares surged by 9.2% and Apple's by 6%, although Alphabet's stock experienced a modest decline, reflecting lingering investor concerns about its international regulatory exposure and vulnerabilities in key global markets. Share Price of US and China tech giants before and after the Tariff Truce This market adjustment represents more than mere optimism—it highlights a deeper shift in investor psychology. Geopolitical tensions are no longer seen as isolated threats but strategic inflection points demanding corporate agility and adaptability. Investors increasingly expect firms to navigate geopolitical uncertainties effectively, turning potential disruptions into opportunities for strategic recalibration. AI Dominance and the Tech Ecosystem Divide Central to this recalibration is the intense race for artificial intelligence dominance. American companies like Meta and Microsoft are vigorously expanding AI capabilities through advanced cloud services, partnerships, and product innovations. Meta's strong growth reflects increasing demand for its AI-powered ad tools and content creation services, which have significantly enhanced user targeting and engagement. Microsoft, meanwhile, continues to integrate OpenAI's cutting-edge technologies into its Azure cloud platform, seeking to set global standards in enterprise AI solutions. Chinese tech giants are equally aggressive, accelerating development of self-contained AI ecosystems in response to tightening U.S. restrictions, including export controls on advanced AI chips and critical technologies. Tencent, for instance, reported robust financial results in Q1 2025, with revenues climbing 13% year-on-year to RMB 180 billion ($25.1 billion). This growth was fueled primarily by its Value-Added Services segment, including blockbuster games such as Honour of Kings and Delta Force, as well as AI-driven marketing enhancements on platforms like Weixin Search. Despite substantial investments in AI, Tencent managed an 18% rise in operating profits to RMB 69.3 billion ($9.7 billion), underlining its capacity to balance strategic investments with profitability. Meanwhile, China's strategic pivot toward domestic technological innovation has been particularly evident in AI infrastructure development. Initiatives like Baidu's PaddlePaddle and Alibaba's ModelScope illustrate a determined push to build sovereign technological stacks capable of competing independently of foreign technologies. The broader geopolitical context, especially U.S. export controls and the rescinding of the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule—replaced with targeted restrictions—has galvanized China's resolve to innovate autonomously. Navigating New Realities: Supply Chains, Talent, and Investment The strategic realignment also underscores broader shifts in global supply chains, with U.S. companies actively diversifying manufacturing and production away from China to hedge against future geopolitical shocks. Apple epitomizes this approach through its accelerated expansion in alternative manufacturing hubs like India and Vietnam—a strategy known as 'China+1.' However, despite these tactical shifts, China's entrenched role in global manufacturing, bolstered by its extensive supplier networks, skilled workforce, and manufacturing efficiencies, renders complete decoupling unrealistic and economically disruptive. Capital and talent flows have similarly been reshaped by geopolitical tensions. Chinese firms now face increasing obstacles when attempting to access foreign investment or public markets. Heightened scrutiny of researchers' visas and the politicization of academic collaborations have further complicated talent acquisition. Nevertheless, both China and the U.S. continue to significantly ramp up domestic investments. The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act channels substantial federal funds into semiconductor and AI research, aiming to safeguard technological leadership. China mirrors these efforts with extensive initiatives bolstering technology zones, intensifying public-private partnerships, and prioritizing STEM education nationwide. The resulting environment is one of strategic caution combined with sustained competitive aggression—a delicate equilibrium captured by the term "competitive coexistence." Companies must adeptly navigate a dual reality of collaboration and competition, reflecting a fragmented yet interconnected global technology landscape. In this new paradigm, the defining contest between the U.S. and China transcends tariff skirmishes. Instead, the battlefield extends to innovation, scalability, and influence over international technological standards. This truce thus provides not only temporary economic relief but also a moment of clarity, spotlighting the relentless drive of both superpowers toward long-term technological supremacy. The markets, now more accustomed to such dynamics, perceive geopolitical frictions as persistent realities that demand continuous strategic foresight and adaptability.
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Meta's New AI Assistant: Productivity Booster Or Time Sink?
The Meta AI logo appears on a mobile phone with Meta AI visible on a tablet in this photo ... More illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on January 26, 2025. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Meta launched a new voice-enabled AI app at its inaugural LlamaCon event on April 29, 2025, which is integrated into Instagram, Messenger and Facebook's core experiences. At the event, the company also announced advancements to strengthen its open-source AI ecosystem, headlined by the limited preview launch of the Llama API, which combines closed-model APIs with open-source flexibility, offering one-click access, fine-tuning for Llama 3.3 8B, and compatibility with OpenAI's software development kit. Llama4 has surpassed 1 billion downloads since its launch two years ago. Meta expanded Llama Stack integrations with partners like Nvidia, IBM and Dell for enterprise deployment. On the security front, new tools like Llama Guard 4, LlamaFirewall, and CyberSecEval 4 were introduced alongside the Llama Defenders Program to bolster AI safety. Meta awarded $1.5M in Llama Impact Grants to 10 global recipients, including startups improving civic services, healthcare, and education. The new Meta AI app, built with Llama 4, was conceived as 'companion app' for Meta's AI glasses. While the development of versatile AI apps is promising, the spread of AI assistants to almost all digital platforms, even wearable tech, threatens to accelerate the very busyness they purport to tame. AI assistants begin by capturing your input, whether it's speech, which is converted to text via an automatic‐speech‐recognition engine, or direct keyboard entry. Next it packages that text, along with a snippet of recent conversational context, into a 'prompt' that's sent over to a powerful remote model such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta's Llama, Google's Gemini, among others. In milliseconds, these models perform billions of parameter computations to predict and assemble a most likely satisfying response. To make their outputs more relevant for specialized tasks, developers fine-tune these base models on curated datasets or layer in real-time data retrieval. For instance, combines ChatGPT's base model with its own database of travel and pricing information to provide chat-based service for customers to plan their trips. Advanced systems may even combine computer vision with language understanding. For example, you can snap a photo of your utility bill and ask why charges spike in a given month, or take a photo of a broken component of your car and ask for repair advice. Finally, the text response is sent back to your device and, if you're using voice, rendered into speech by a text-to-speech engine. AI assistants are integrated into many software and applications, from Adobe's Acrobat AI to summarize documents and generate images to Nvidia's G-Assist in PC games. In consumer products, Amazon's Alexa powers Echo speakers and smart-home devices, Google Assistant lives on Android phones and Nest speakers, and Apple's Siri runs on iPhones, Macs, and HomePods—each leveraging its own blend of cloud-based or on-device intelligence to understand your requests and take action. Meanwhile, enterprises are embedding assistants in productivity tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, to draft content, analyze data, and automate workflows in real time. The promise of time saved is seductive. Microsoft 365 Copilot drafts executive summaries in seconds, and Duolingo's AI tutors adapt to each learner's mistakes in real time. Zoom's live-transcript search transforms hours of recordings into keyword lookups. Yet those very efficiency gains often spur heavier workloads rather than lighten them—a phenomenon known as the Jevons paradox, where making a resource or task 'cheaper' leads to its increased consumption overall. In real-world practice, every minute reclaimed by AI is quickly folded into loftier content quotas or more frequent campaign cycles. Hence the advent of AI assistants may not lighten up the work of employees. When everyone has access to AI assistants, expectations for output and productivity will be higher. Hence people in the workplaces may feel more stretched than before. In addition to the rising expectations for productivity, AI assistants may also cause skill erosion. Just as reliance on GPS has dulled our innate navigation skills, AI assistants risk hollowing out foundational human capabilities. Students leaning on AI-generated essays lose the muscle for crafting compelling arguments and convincing prose. Financial analysts trusting AI-summarized earnings reports may overlook footnote anomalies or balance-sheet red flags. In healthcare, tools like Nuance's Dragon Medical One promise to free doctors from note-taking, yet clinicians who no longer manually encode patient histories may miss subtleties the AI fails to capture. Simultaneously, our attention fragments further: notifications ping as Adobe's Acrobat Assistant offers rewrites, Google Slides' Bard integration suggests slide outlines and edits, and Perplexity's AI Assistant can research topics and provide summaries of information directly within the WhatsApp chat, all reducing our patience for in-depth thinking and research. Meta AI's pledge to put users 'in control' assumes that frictionless interfaces equal greater agency. But true agency requires conscious choice, not mere convenience. If your AI assistant presents three 'optimal' meeting times, do you pause to question the meeting's necessity, or do you automatically select one? Moreover, every prompt, share, and purchase recommendation feeds back into personalization algorithms, which then shape what you see next. Over time, you become both the user and the used. Your preferences are subtly nudged by models that learn which suggestions keep you clicking, shopping or posting. To reap AI's benefits without ceding our autonomy, organizations and individuals must define clear guardrails. Disable nonessential notifications and limit AI-driven summaries to internal drafts, preserving human review for important materials. Carve out regular 'deep-work' intervals when assistants rest silent, safeguarding time for strategy, reading or unstructured conversation. Treat every AI output as a first draft—invest the effort to fact-check, recalculate and consult original sources. In mission-critical fields such as medicine, education and finance, design workflows that keep humans firmly in the loop, using AI to augment human judgment, not replace it. The era of AI assistants is upon us, reshaping our digital interfaces into something resembling natural conversation. By understanding how these systems operate, acknowledging both their genuine efficiencies and hidden costs, and deliberately shaping our interactions with them, we can ensure that these tools serve to reclaim our cognitive bandwidth rather than accelerate the relentless pace of modern life.
