AI Slowdown Opens Rare Window for Corporates To Catchup

The pace of cutting-edge AI gains is flattening, with Meta delaying Llama 4 and OpenAI’s GPT-5 falling short of its hype. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman now says investors grew overexcited about the technology’s trajectory.

A MIT study finds 95% of custom generative-AI pilots fail, reflecting widespread corporate skepticism toward bespoke tools. Executives still fear data leaks, hallucinations, and misaligned workflows, so most firms rely on off-the-shelf products.

The perceived slowdown makes AI feel less like a moving target, which the article says could nudge businesses to invest in current capabilities. McKinsey’s Michael Chui counters that fully embedding AI into everyday operations will remain a multidecade management challenge.

Big-box retailers including Target, Walmart, and The Home Depot are ditching older software for AI systems that predict demand and flag looming stockouts. Target now uses its AI-driven Inventory Ledger across more than 40% of its assortment after introducing the tool in 2023.

The algorithms ingest lead times, transportation costs, on-hand units, and sales trends to make billions of weekly predictions and guide replenishment decisions. Walmart’s system reallocates items between regions based on real-time sales, while Home Depot’s Sidekick app directs employees to restock shelves and locate overhead inventory.

Target reports inventory availability has improved every year for four straight years, noting its prior system missed half of true out-of-stock items. Executives and supply-chain experts in the article say AI’s granular, dynamic forecasting helps retailers avoid markdowns and safeguard customer satisfaction as buying patterns shift.

Students across the U.S. are mobilizing to curb AI-driven surveillance and content blocking in their classrooms. Groups such as Students Engaged in Advancing Texas and Encode train teens to lobby, litigate, and draft policies that limit these systems.

AI filters have blocked JSTOR, the Internet Archive, and the Trevor Project, while monitoring tools like Gaggle led to a 13-year-old’s arrest after a private joke was flagged. Student campaigns have already secured an ethical AI policy at Dublin High School and propelled a proposed Texas Student Bill of Rights.

Their coordinated push exposes how school AI can misclassify content and escalate law-enforcement involvement. By winning policy changes and lawsuits, students are reframing AI governance in education as a civil-rights battle.

YouTube confirms it is running an experiment on select Shorts that automatically sharpens videos with machine-learning image enhancement. Creators report their footage now shows punchier shadows, smoother textures, and sharper edges without their consent.

A spokesperson says the test uses “traditional machine learning to unblur, denoise, and improve clarity”, insisting it is not generative AI. The company has not revealed which viewers see the modified videos or explained why the feature launched silently.

Creators warn the unseen edits blur the line between authentic footage and synthetic imagery, eroding audience trust in their work. The trial highlights social platforms’ growing focus on AI-modified content over preserving original creator control.

A Nexthink survey finds 64% of senior IT leaders at big companies expect their HR and IT departments to merge within five years as AI rewrites workflows. Moderna, Covisian and Bunq have already placed both functions under a single executive overseeing people and technology.

Moderna’s chief people and digital technology officer now runs 5,000 employees, company-wide AI training and an OpenAI partnership, while call-centre operator Covisian combined its 27,000-person HR and IT teams in April 2023. Covisian says the merger doubled responses to internal job adverts and lets one leader tweak HR or tech processes instantly.

Executives report that a single boss removes turf wars and speeds AI rollout, helping Bunq aim for 90% operational automation by 2025 without layoffs. The UK’s CIPD warns the consolidation can dilute specialist expertise, highlighting a clear trade-off between rapid execution and depth of skill.

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