✨ Unlock a Future Where AI Inspires Leadership—not Replaces It

In this episode, Dietmar Fischer speaks with Ja-Naé Duane and Steven Fisher, co-authors of the book SuperShifts, about what leadership really looks like in the age of artificial intelligence. Instead of framing AI as just another technology trend, the conversation explores AI leadership as a systemic and human challenge. Drawing on their work with global organizations and executives during and after the pandemic, Ja-Naé and Steven explain why the biggest shifts are not driven by tools, but by how leaders rethink decision-making, responsibility, and organizational design.

The episode traces the origins of SuperShifts back to Covid, when existing systems suddenly stopped working. Ja-Naé Duane shares insights from working with CEOs across Europe who were already using machine learning, but struggled to use AI to meaningfully support leadership decisions. Together, the guests unpack why AI-first leadership requires more than efficiency gains. It demands clear governance, ethical accountability, and a shared understanding of who owns outcomes when humans and machines collaborate.

A central theme of the conversation is human-AI collaboration and why leaders must move beyond optimizing outdated structures. Steven Fisher introduces a systems-thinking lens, arguing that organizations need new frameworks rather than incremental improvements. The discussion highlights how AI changes leadership roles, why trust and transparency matter more than ever, and how possibility itself becomes a strategic asset in the age of intelligence.

Key takeaways include practical insights into AI leadership, the importance of systems thinking, and why SuperShifts offers a roadmap for leading through uncertainty. This episode is for anyone who wants to understand how leadership must evolve as AI becomes embedded in decision-making, work, and organizational culture.

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➡️ Key Highlights

• Understanding AI-First Leadership through the lens of SuperShifts
• The pandemic's role in inspiring new leadership frameworks and agile mindsets
• Blending human values with AI-powered decision-making
• Why systems thinking, foresight, and possibility are essential tools for modern leaders

🧾 Quotes from the Episode

- “The most successful leader won’t be the one who predicts the future—but the one who shapes it.”

- “In the Age of Intelligence, possibility itself becomes the most valuable capital.”

- “Our role as leaders is to bring humanity into the algorithm, not replace it.”

👓 Chapters (experimental)

00:00 Introduction – What is SuperShifts?

05:12 From Pandemic to Paradigm Shift: How SuperShifts Was Born

12:45 AI-First Leadership: Reimagining How We Lead

20:30 Human-AI Collaboration: Balancing Ethics and Innovation

28:10 Systems Thinking and SuperShifts Framework

35:00 Applied Strategies: Leading in the Age of Intelligence

🔗 Where to Find Ja-Naé Duane and Steven Fisher

• Dr. Ja-Naé Duane: Ja-Nae.IO
• Steven Fisher — StevenFisher.IO

And here you'll find:

SuperShifts: Transforming How We Live, Learn, and Work in the Age of Intelligence

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AI adoption is not only a technology shift, it is a leadership and culture shift. In this episode, Dietmar Fischer talks with Bala Muthiah about AI leadership, the psychology behind AI resistance in the workplace, and the practical steps leaders can take to turn curiosity into day to day usage.

Bala shares why the human aspect still decides outcomes, even when the tools feel magical. You will learn how leaders can reduce fear, build confidence, and guide teams through real AI upskilling strategy instead of one off trainings that never translate into workflows. The conversation also touches on industry differences, including why sensitive domains like healthcare raise the bar for responsible AI adoption, and what the rise of agentic workflows means for the future.

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📧💌📧

About Dietmar Fischer:

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

🎧 Chapters

00:00 Welcome and why AI is a leadership moment

02:12 AI leadership in 2026: pressure, performance, and opportunity

04:41 The real barrier: fear, skepticism, and AI resistance at work

07:45 Industry realities: healthcare, sensitivity, and responsible adoption

17:50 A practical framework: upskilling people and building confidence

34:49 The next wave: agentic workflows and what leaders should prepare for

41:43 Where to find Bala and closing thoughts

💬 Quotes from the Episode

- “And to me, it’s still human, meaning us, we are still humans, leaders are still humans. The human aspect still stays.”

- “Again, I’m coming back to the people, like, because that’s gonna be the unlock for you. Upskill your people with AI tools.”

- “AI being, like, the car, or being the internet, being the electricity.”

🌍 Where to find Bala Muthiah:

- On his website: balamuthiah.com

- His Speaker profile: sessionize.com/bala-muthiah/

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/balaarjunan/

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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🤖🧠 Thinking with Machines with Vasant Dhar

What happens when AI stops being a tool and starts becoming a collaborator and an agent? In this episode, NYU Stern professor and AI pioneer Vasant Dhar takes us through the real story behind modern AI, and the practical frameworks we need for AI trust, AI governance, and the coming era of agentic AI.

🚀 What you will learn

- Why “thinking with machines” is a bigger idea than “thinking machines”

- How the automation frontier separates low-risk automation from high-stakes human control

- Why healthcare has lots of data but still struggles to make good decisions

- Why mental health is a dangerous place to outsource empathy to machines

- What edge cases in AI mean and why they matter for self-driving cars

- How AI agents change the governance conversation, from obligations to restrictions to rights

📌 Key highlights

- A practical definition of trust in AI based on error rates and consequences

- AI in healthcare data: turning medical trails into usable decision intelligence

- The future of work: AI as an amplifier, not a substitute, unless you let it become a crutch

- Governance questions that no one gets to avoid once agents can act in the world

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📧💌📧

About Dietmar Fischer:

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Quotes from the Episode 💬

“Trust depends on how often a machine makes mistakes and the consequences of those mistakes.”

“In physical health, I’m very optimistic. In mental health, not so.”

“It’ll likely lead to a bifurcation of humanity… skills get amplified… or people rely on the machine as a crutch.”

Chapters ⏱️

00:00 Vasant Dhar’s origin story in AI and early expert systems

05:08 A Brave New World warning and why optimism still needs guardrails

07:26 AI in healthcare vs mental health and why feelings change the rules

12:37 The trust heat map and the automation frontier in real life

18:21 Edge cases, bounded rationality, and what machines pay attention to

26:03 The future of work and why AI amplifies both skill and decline

36:23 Governance, AI agents, and how much agency we should allow

44:05 AI wow moments and the next frontier: integrated machine senses

47:15 Where to find the book, podcast, and newsletter

Where to find Vasant Dhar 🔎

- Visit Vasant's Website, also to find all the links to shops with "Thinking with Machines", his book: vasantdhar.com

- Listen to his Podcast: bravenewpodcast.com

- and get his Newsletter: vasantdhar.substack.com

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads`

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Most people think better AI results come from better prompts. This episode proves why that’s wrong.

Professor GePhardT introduces Context Engineering, the missing skill that transforms AI from a confused parrot into a capable collaborator. Through relatable metaphors, real business examples, and a deliciously British cake analogy, you’ll learn how shaping an AI’s environment matters more than clever wording.

You’ll discover:

• Why prompt engineering alone fails
• How context helps AI understand intent
• The difference between guessing and knowing
• A real telecom case where context fixed customer support
• How to apply context engineering in everyday AI use

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Tune in to get my thoughts and all episodes, don’t forget to ⁠⁠⁠⁠subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠: ⁠⁠⁠⁠beginnersguide.nl⁠⁠⁠⁠

📧💌📧

Quotes from the Episode

• “Prompt engineering is asking nicely. Context engineering is setting the stage.”
• “Without context, AI is guessing. With context, it understands intent.”
• “Context turns AI from a parrot into a collaborator.”

Chapters

00:00 Why Prompts Alone Are Not Enough

04:12 What Context Engineering Really Means

10:25 Understanding Intent Through Context

18:40 Context Engineering vs Prompt Engineering

25:10 Telco Case Study

35:20 The Cake Example

44:00 Final Takeaways

About Dietmar Fischer

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Music credit: “Modern Situations” by Unicorn Heads 🎵

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🤖🧠 AI is making strategy cheap. Adoption is still expensive.

In this episode, Dietmar Fischer sits down with Bud Caddell (NOBL) to unpack what leaders miss when they roll out generative AI and expect instant results. Bud shares how his team thinks about AI change management, why “turning on Copilot” is not an adoption plan, and what happens to consulting when LLMs can produce “firm-grade” recommendations in seconds.

You will also hear the story behind ConsultingSlop.com, a strategy generator that models the reasoning styles of major consulting firms and outputs polished advice instantly. What started as a parody quickly became a serious signal about commoditization, incentives, and the real differentiator: execution, trust, and organizational design.

Key takeaways you can apply immediately:

✅ How to approach Microsoft Copilot adoption strategy like a redesign effort, not a software toggle

✅ Why AI literacy and training reduce fear, resistance, and “adoption theater”

✅ What the agents wave means in practice, including platforms like Agentforce

✅ How “vibe coding” changes prototyping speed and risk for teams

📧💌📧

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📧💌📧

About Dietmar Fischer: Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Quotes from the Episode

1. “AI is this incredible wave that I think is gonna fundamentally change individual organizations, but the entire economy, society at large.”
2. “We turned on Copilot, so why aren’t we more productive? … it’s a design process.”
3. “My big prediction is that over the next 18 months, we’re gonna see a lot of backpedaling… and sunk cost fallacy.”

Chapters

00:00 Bud’s path from software to organizational change and why AI feels different

04:20 ConsultingSlop.com, vibe coding, and when AI strategy gets uncomfortably believable

06:30 Copilot mandates vs real adoption, why productivity math fails without redesign

16:40 AI as a catalyst for deeper issues: brand story, conflict, and culture

19:25 The next 18 months: investment traps, backpedaling, and what leaders should do

38:00 Agents, Agentforce, and Bud’s personal AI toolkit plus wow moments and wrap

Where to find the Guest

• Bud Caddell: https://budcaddell.com/
• NOBL: https://nobl.io/
• Consulting Slop: https://consultingslop.com/
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/budcaddell/

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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🚀 In this episode, Dietmar Fischer talks with Janet Barker-Evans about what happens when AI stops being a novelty and becomes part of a serious creative workflow.

Janet breaks down how she uses custom GPTs for marketing as brainstorming partners and how synthetic personas can help teams validate campaigns faster, sometimes in a single day instead of waiting weeks for traditional research cycles.

Our topics today include hands-on AI training, multi-model workflows (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot), and why AI fear often comes down to power and control.

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📧💌📧

About the Host:

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

🎯 What you will learn:

• How synthetic personas in market research and synthetic customers can accelerate concept testing
• How custom GPTs for marketing can unlock better creative options
• How to choose between tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot for real business work

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Janet’s AI origin story

01:47 Custom GPTs as brainstorming partners for marketers

05:05 Hands-on AI workshops: building confidence across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot

15:23 Synthetic personas and rapid creative validation with “persona panels”

20:00 Multi-model workflows: choosing the right tool and making outputs usable

35:03 The wow moments and the fear factor: prototyping visuals, power, control, and what’s next

💬 Quotes from the Episode

• “It’s like having a partner who’s not afraid to pitch a crazy idea.”
• “When we come up with a creative campaign, we will go test it against our synthetic persona panel.”
• “They’re all synthetic!”
• “Some of them will poke holes in our thinking, which helps us make it stronger.”
• “We can gut check it inside of a day.”
• “So, it’s about power, it’s about control…”

🔎 Where to find the Guest

• Janet's website: janetbarkerevans.com
• AbelsonTayler's website: AbelsonTaylor Group
• Or connect on LinkedIn with Janet: Janet Barker-Evans

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please follow the show and share it with someone who is trying to ship better work faster.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Sacca (Leadpages) on AI-powered landing pages, personalization, and the future of search 🚀

In this conversation, Michael Sacca shares how Leadpages is weaving AI landing page optimization into real marketing workflows - from personalization that actually moves the needle to what Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) means for search and conversions.

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📧📧📧

💡 Highlights

• How AI landing page optimization boosts conversion rates with smarter on-page decisions 🤖
• Practical ways to implement AI-driven personalization without overwhelming your stack
• Why AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) matters as search shifts to assistants and LLMs 🔎
• Navigating privacy & data considerations when deploying AI
• The future roadmap for AI inside SaaS marketing tools 🚀

⚡Quotes from the Episode

"Can AI be an analyzer of customer data, a designer, or even a generator of entire assets? That’s what we’re experimenting with—expanding from just a landing page builder into a conversion optimization platform, with AI at the heart of that story.” - Michael Sacca

“If we can get you the answer faster, we can increase conversions.” - Michael Sacca

“One exciting use case is syncing ad creative with landing page optimization. Imagine designing a page, having ads produced, and feeding both into a system that constantly optimizes them together. That’s where we’re heading.” - Michael Sacca

🧾 Chapters

00:00 Introduction – Dietmar Fischer welcomes Michael Sacca from Leadpages

05:17 Making AI accessible for SMBs in landing page optimization

10:28 Building an AI-first landing page builder

15:37 The exciting shift in Martech and AI adoption

20:59 Exploring personalization and customer experience challenges

26:09 Conversational landing pages and chatbots in Beta

31:19 The cusp of transformation: AI’s role in marketing workflows

36:39 Lessons from 13 years of Leadpages and the future outlook

41:45 Closing remarks and where to find Michael Sacca

Where to find Michael Sacca:

🔗 Website: leadpages.com

🧑‍🦰 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelsacca

🙅 X/Twitter: x.com/michaelsacca

🎙️ "On the Record" Podcast: lp.leadpages.com/podcast/

📧 Tune in to get my thoughts, and don’t forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl

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In this episode of Beginner’s Guide to AI, host Dietmar Fischer sits down with Jeetu Patel, one of the most respected voices in enterprise technology, to explore leadership and innovation in the age of AI.

From his early journey at Box to his executive leadership at Cisco, Jeetu shares a unique perspective on how leaders can adapt, inspire, and build AI-first organizations that thrive in times of rapid change.

📧📧📧

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📧📧📧

Whether you’re an executive, innovator, or simply curious about the future of leadership with AI, this episode will challenge your thinking and spark new ideas about the future of work.

🔑 Episode Highlights

AI Leadership Strategies: How leaders can empower people, not replace them.

• Innovation in the Age of AI: Opportunities and challenges for executives.
• Building AI-First Organizations: Why starting today is critical for tomorrow.
• Future of Work: Leadership lessons from tech executives who’ve lived digital transformation.

💬 Quotes from the Episode

“Leadership in the age of AI isn’t about replacing people — it’s about empowering them to innovate faster and smarter.” — Jeetu Patel

“If you’re not building your organization to be AI-first today, you’ll be playing catch-up tomorrow.” — Jeetu Patel

🎬 Podcast Chapters (experimental feature)

00:00 Introduction and Welcome with Jeetu Patel

00:21 Why Jeetu Patel Chose AI

02:56 Cisco, Infrastructure, and the AI Rush

09:02 AI Education and Adoption at Scale

16:18 How Jeetu Patel Personally Uses AI

26:46 Leadership Lessons and Transformation

28:12 Meta-Prompting and Asking Better Questions

42:15 Innovation and Leadership in the Age of AI

54:33 Personal Reflections and Closing Thoughts

🌐 Where to find Jeetu Patel

You can find Jeetu on LinkedIn

And, you can find Cisco at, yes, Cisco.com 😉

🎧 Tune in to get my thoughts, and don’t forget to subscribe to our Newsletter: beginnersguide.nl

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Europe has brilliant researchers, ambitious founders, and world-class industry. Yet the AI race is being dominated elsewhere. In this episode, Dietmar Fischer talks with Fabian Westerheide, founder of Rise of AI, about why Europe is struggling with AI sovereignty, infrastructure, and execution, and what entrepreneurs can do right now to stay competitive.

Fabian explains how Rise of AI grew over a decade from early community meetups into a curated conference and ecosystem hub where Europe’s most relevant AI leaders meet. He also makes the case that Europe’s biggest strategic risk is dependency on American GPUs, hyperscalers, and cloud platforms, while policy, capital allocation, and digital administration move too slowly for exponential change.

You will learn what a GDPR compliant AI stack can look like, why EU AI Act compliant implementation is becoming a competitive advantage, and why Europe’s research-to-startup transfer remains painfully inefficient. This is a practical and provocative conversation about AI infrastructure, venture capital incentives, European-first tech choices, and the mindset shift required in 2026: stop waiting, start building.

📧💌📧

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📧💌📧

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and why Fabian chose AI

01:55 Rise of AI turns 10 years: from meetups to a curated conference

03:19 Europe’s biggest AI challenge: dependency on US cloud and GPUs

10:05 Optimists in a dystopian world: why Rise of AI exists

11:22 European AI champions and the sovereignty problem

16:45 Why Europe struggles to turn research into AI companies

19:40 2026 outlook: stop waiting, take responsibility, use AI

23:00 Where to find Fabian and Rise of AI

About Dietmar Fischer

Dietmar is a podcaster and AI marketer from Berlin. If you want to know how to get your AI or your digital marketing going, just contact him at argoberlin.com

Quotes from the Episode

1. “We are living the dystopia. But within this, I’m an optimist.”
2. “The whole stack is running on American GPUs, it’s running on American hyperscalers.”
3. “If you run a company, use AI, no excuses.”
4. “I realized back then AI will change the world.”
5. “You can’t put me in any box, but overall I’m dedicating 12 hours of a day for AI within Europe.”
6. “Don’t play the capitalistic game anymore… figure out what you want to do meaningful with your life.”

Where to find Fabian and the Rise of AI Conference:

• Fabian Westerheide: Website fabian-westerheide.de
• Rise of AI: Official site riseof.ai
• Rise of AI Ticket Shop: riseof.ai/ticket-shop
• LinkedIn: Fabian Westerheide

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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Hollywood loves a good AI apocalypse—but how likely is a real-life Skynet scenario? In today's episode of A Beginner's Guide to AI, Professor GePhardT takes you on an entertaining yet eye-opening journey into Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

From understanding why films like The Terminator shape our deepest AI anxieties, to real-world safety measures inspired by these sci-fi nightmares, this episode breaks down exactly how humanity can steer advanced AI towards a beneficial future—rather than a robotic uprising.

Expect to hear why a smart kitchen assistant could unintentionally cause chaos, how fictional tales are influencing actual AI research, and what top thinkers like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have warned us about. It's a conversation packed with fascinating examples, practical tips, and an honest look at how we're preparing for AGI today.

Tune in to get my thoughts, don't forget to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Want to get in contact? Write me an email: [email protected]

This podcast was generated with the help of ChatGPT, Mistral and Claude 3. We do fact check with human eyes, but there still might be hallucinations in the output. And, by the way, it's read by an AI voice.

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In this episode, Yvette Schmitter unpacks the uncomfortable truth about modern AI: how convenience turns citizens into data points.

We go deep on AI privacy, data ethics, and the industry incentives that drive data brokers, invasive biometrics, and “consent theater” in Terms of Service.

Yvette blends engineering chops with no-nonsense clarity to show what needs to change—and what you can do today.

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Key highlights:

• AI privacy explained in real-world terms—what you trade away when you click Accept

• Data brokers 101: how your info is collected, bundled, and resold

• The “action figure” experiment: a vivid story about bias and representation in AI imagery

• Biometrics and identity: faces, voice prints, and why “frictionless” can be risky

• Regulatory theater vs. meaningful guardrails—and where pro-innovation actually fits

• Banks, voice recognition, and moving money: the security-privacy tradeoff

  
  

Quotes from the Episode

• “Pro-innovation. I love innovation. I’m anti-bullshit.”

• “Since we don’t buy votes, why would we buy people’s data?”

  
  

Chapters
00:00 Introductions and Setup
03:27 The Consent Illusion & Data Brokers: Turning People into Data Points
04:40 The “Action Figure” AI Fail & Biometrics and Identity
12:59 Terms of Service – Read Before You Play
19:59 Regulatory Theater and Real-World Harms
24:03 Pro-Innovation vs Guardrails – Finding the Line
45:59 Banks, Voice Recognition, and Moving Money
56:49 Final Thoughts – Sensible Guardrails for AI Startups

Where to find Yvette Schmitter
You can contact her via LinkedIn, or the Fusion Collective website 🚀

post⁠ on being “Huang’d” by ChatGPT when she asked it to turn her into a “Cloud Jedi." Also a recent Substack ⁠article⁠ that takes it a step further. 

- EU AI Code of Conduct: 26 companies signed, META did not 

- Layoff data, the numbers:

• Microsoft laid off 19,175 people  

• IBM was refreshingly honest about replacing 200 HR employees with chatbots 

• Intel cut 33,900 jobs, 20% of their workforce, while pivoting to AI services. 

- The Register: Attributed by Hood to 'go-to-market execution challenges'

- Channelweb: "Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said that non-AI Azure sales saw 'go-to-market execution challenges' in the vendor's 'scale motion"

- SiliconANGLE: "causing the Microsoft stock price to fall more than 4% in extended trading"

- Yahoo Finance: "Microsoft shares tumbled as much as 5% in extended trading Wednesday"

- Check out this graphic depicting tech companies with the largest layoffs in 2025

- Microsoft: Amy Hood's "Go-to-Market Execution Challenges" Quote:$22.6 Billion Capital ExpenditureGeekWire: "For the quarter, Microsoft reported capital expenditures of $22.6 billion, a new record high"Stock Drop & Market Reaction."
 ---Tune in to get my thoughts, and don’t forget to subscribe to our Newsletter!

Music credit: "Modern Situations" by Unicorn Heads

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