CEOs Embrace AI Drills, TikTok Behind Bold Avatar Push

A growing group of CEOs is mandating hands-on generative AI exercises for their own C-suites, from website-building drills at retreats to monthly employee demos in leadership meetings. The push forces senior leaders to move beyond talking points and actively use tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Replit, and Creatify.

At Mammoth Brands, junior staff now show top brass how AI improves supply chain, finance, and marketing, while StockX’s CEO made 10 executives build a website and a marketing video in 30 minutes. Gartner and Bain surveys say 77% of CEOs call AI transformative, yet only one-fifth of companies are scaling initiatives and many lack clear road maps.

Executives who experiment firsthand report faster learning and livelier strategic debates, according to leaders at Mammoth Brands, Headspace, and Lattice. The article shows FOMO and direct exposure, not formal incentives, are currently driving AI fluency in boardrooms.

IgniteTech CEO Eric Vaughan laid off nearly 80% of the enterprise-software firm’s workforce during 2023-24 after employees balked at an all-in mandate on generative AI. Two years later he tells Fortune he would repeat the move, calling it essential for the company’s survival.

Vaughan turned every role into an AI role—instituting “AI Mondays,” paying for tools, and eventually replacing resistant staff with new “AI Innovation Specialists” led by a chief AI officer. The reorganised company launched two patent-pending AI products, maintained EBITDA near 75%, and completed the acquisition of Khoros.

A 2025 survey cited in the piece found one in three workers admitted actively sabotaging AI rollouts, underscoring the cultural pushback Vaughan encountered. His drastic response exposes how leadership misalignment on AI can trigger sweeping workforce upheaval rather than incremental reskilling.

TikTok has rolled out AI avatars built from recorded footage of real actors, letting businesses insert the digital spokespeople into ads at no cost. Dallas actor Scott Jacqmein was paid $750 and a Bay Area trip to create his likeness, which now surfaces in ads for insurance, horoscope apps and more.

The platform labels each avatar “A.I. Generated” and gives advertisers self-serve tools to drop them into bathrooms, living rooms or kitchens. Performers receive no royalties, and some have found their avatars reposted on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube despite contracts meant to confine usage to ByteDance properties.

Ad tech firms say the avatars cut production costs and allow rapid A/B testing across scripts, presenters and languages. Actors, meanwhile, face sweeping contractual clauses that let brands put their digital doubles anywhere from fiber-supplement spots to male-performance ads, with little recourse.

The first World Humanoid Robot Games opened at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval and runs through Sunday. The event gathers 280 teams from 16 countries fielding more than 500 humanoid robots for sports, scenario challenges, and fashion showcases.

Competitions span 487 contests across 26 categories, from 5v5 soccer and boxing to hospital medicine sorting and hotel cleaning. Robots operate autonomously or via low-latency 5G teleoperation on a custom track, soccer field, boxing ring, and industrial test zones built inside the stadium.

Organizers say the games are designed to spark global AI and robotics innovation by spotlighting human-robot collaboration. Experts quoted in the article view the demonstration of complex dance, martial arts, and real-world tasks as evidence that AI-driven humanoids are ready for practical deployment and extensive research.

Clinicians at Singapore General Hospital have rolled out an AI chatbot named PEACH to support preoperative assessments. Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority has cleared the tool for clinical use after hospital testing.

In two validation studies covering over 500 interactions, PEACH delivered 98% accurate recommendations with under 2% hallucinations and shaved nearly six minutes off documentation per patient. The hospital projects the time savings will free up more than 600 junior doctor hours and about 60 senior doctor hours each year.

By converting 400 pages of ever-changing perioperative guidelines into instant answers, the chatbot helps surgeons maintain consistent preparation for the 25,000 patients the clinic sees annually. Its built-in triage function also directs cases to phone, clinic, or day-of-surgery assessment, easing wait times and resource strain.