July 2025

Let’s get one thing straight: AI is not your next CMO. It’s not your marketing strategist, creative director or content lead. At best? It’s an intern. Fast, capable, eager to please — but absolutely in need of guidance. The problem is, too many marketers are tossing vague prompts into ChatGPT, crossing their fingers, and hoping for brilliance. When the output reads like a warmed-over blog from 2017, they blame the tool.

AI isn’t the problem. Your expectations are.

If you want to stop wasting time on generic AI content and start using these tools to produce real results, this article will show you how to take control, give better direction and turn AI into a true force multiplier.

Related: AI for the Underdog — Here’s How Small Businesses Can Thrive With Artificial Intelligence

AI isn’t autopilot — it’s an amplifier

We’re drowning in AI hype. Tools like ChatGPT promise to reinvent marketing workflows — but too often, marketers approach them like vending machines. Insert a prompt, collect “strategy.” That’s not how this works.

Generative AI is an amplifier. It scales what you give it. Weak input? You get weak output. Ask it to build a Facebook campaign without audience insight, brand guidelines, or a goal, and it will gladly hand you the same template it served a health tech company five minutes earlier.

AI doesn’t think. It predicts. And that means it will always serve you the average — unless you guide it to something better.

Treat AI like the intern it is

If you hired a marketing intern and asked them to develop a six-month editorial strategy with zero context, you wouldn’t expect brilliance. You’d expect flailing. Confusion. Buzzword soup.

AI is the same. It doesn’t need less instruction — it needs more.

Start every prompt with precision:

• Who are you speaking to?
• What are you trying to achieve?
• What’s the tone, structure, and voice?
• What should it avoid?

“Write a blog post about dog nutrition” is a shrug. “Write a 700-word blog post for millennial pet parents who care about clean ingredients, backed by 2024 data, using an informative, science-forward tone” is a brief. The difference is night and day.

Feedback isn’t optional — it’s how you train the tool

AI doesn’t learn like we do. It doesn’t internalize your brand after one good result. You have to teach it repetitively and with intention.

When I’m using AI for content development, the first draft is never the final. I review it like I would a junior team member’s work: highlight weak phrasing, call out clichés, remove filler and refine tone. Then I adjust the prompt and rerun it.

The first draft might be 60% there. The second? Closer. By the third, it starts sounding like us.

This isn’t overkill. It’s the job. And the time it saves on the back end more than makes up for the up-front coaching.

Stack your tools like your tech

One tool won’t cut it. ChatGPT is great for drafting, but weak for real-time data sourcing. For stats or current events, I turn to Perplexity or Gemini. For creative visuals, I reach for Midjourney or Canva’s AI suite. Jasper helps when I need quick templates or structural support.

Think of it like your tech stack: you don’t use your CRM for email automation or your analytics platform for design. Each AI tool has its strengths. Learn them, stack them and stop expecting one tool to do the work of five.

AI won’t replace marketers — it exposes lazy ones

Here’s the hard truth: AI won’t eliminate marketers. It will reveal the ones who’ve been phoning it in.

If your strategy is “publish to publish,” if your content reads like a generic checklist, if you’re still clinging to SEO tricks from 2019, AI will beat you. Not because it’s brilliant, but because it’s fast and average, and average is all you’ve been delivering.

The marketers who thrive with AI are the ones who still lead. They think, challenge, shape and coach. AI is their accelerator, not their replacement.

Related: I Teach AI and Entrepreneurship. Here’s How Entrepreneurs Can Use AI to Better Understand Their Target Customers.

The real edge isn’t speed. It’s judgment

At my agency, we use AI daily to accelerate brainstorms, tighten positioning and scale content production. But every result still runs through human hands. Strategy, empathy, intuition — that’s still us.

Because AI doesn’t feel. It doesn’t understand cultural nuance or read between the lines of a buyer’s hesitation. It can’t see what’s not in the data. That’s your job.

So no, don’t hand your marketing strategy to AI. But do hire it as your hardest-working intern. Train it. Push it. Give it guardrails and goals. Because when used right, AI can supercharge what you do best. But only if you’re still in the driver’s seat.

Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Join us at Level Up, a conference for ambitious business leaders to unlock new growth opportunities.

Nvidia became the first ever company to hit $4 trillion in market value (and just earlier this month), and now Microsoft is joining the AI chipmaker in the exclusive $4 trillion club.

Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday, causing shares to jump 8%, and elevating the company’s market capitalization to around $4.1 trillion. As of the time of writing, Microsoft sustained the growth with a market value of $4.03 trillion, with shares up about 5% on Thursday morning.

Related: Microsoft Executive Says Using AI Has Saved $500 Million in Productivity Costs, as the Company Conducts Mass Layoffs

Both Microsoft and fellow AI giant Meta added a combined $440 billion in market value late Wednesday, with Meta’s earnings driving a 9% surge in its market capitalization in after-hours trading. Both companies surpassed analyst expectations with strong financial results on Wednesday, revealing that Big Tech’s AI investments are paying off.

Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told investors in an earnings call on Wednesday that the company planned to spend a record $30 billion for the current quarter on AI expenses like data centers, more than the $24.23 billion analysts expected.

Microsoft’s rally was due to the strength of its latest earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, which the tech giant disclosed on Wednesday after the bell. In the report, Microsoft revealed quarterly revenue of $76.4 billion, up 18% from the same period last year, marking the company’s fastest revenue growth in three years.

Related: Microsoft’s CEO Says the Company’s Mass Layoffs, Despite Financial Success, Are ‘Weighing Heavily on Me’ in an Internal Memo

^{Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images}

Analysts were expecting $74.62 billion in Azure revenue, causing Microsoft’s report to exceed expectations.

The growth was largely driven by Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing division, which provides computing power and storage for AI. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed Azure revenue for the first time in the report, noting that Azure “surpassed $75 billion in revenue, up 34%, driven by growth across all workloads.”

“Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector,” Nadella stated in the report.

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Mark Zuckerberg outlined Meta’s vision for AI in a letter published on Wednesday on Meta’s website that says the company’s vision is to bring superintelligence, or AI that surpasses human intelligence in reasoning, memory, and knowledge, into every individual’s hands. The Meta CEO stated that superintelligence has the potential to kickstart “a new era of personal empowerment” where people will have “greater agency” to shape the world.

“I am extremely optimistic that superintelligence will help humanity accelerate our pace of progress,” Zuckerberg wrote in the letter.

Related: ‘The Market Is Hot’: Here’s How Much a Typical Meta Employee Makes in a Year

Meta has made notable investments in its superintelligence push, offering some new hires over $200 million in compensation to join the effort. Last month, Zuckerberg announced the creation of a new Meta Superintelligence Labs team, which featured researchers poached from leading AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

In the letter, Zuckerberg wrote that at Meta, the target is not to automate or change the workforce, but “to bring personal intelligence to everyone” first, and give individuals the power to change their own lives with it. He wrote that “personal superintelligence” would be the most useful tool to help people create and connect, allowing them to achieve their personal goals.

This vision, he wrote, differs from “others in the industry” who suggest that superintelligence should first automate all work, and “then humanity will live on a dole of its output.”

For example, Tamay Besiroglu, the CEO of Mechanize, an AI startup backed by Google, told Business Insider earlier this month that the company aims to use AI to automate every job, starting with software engineering.

Meanwhile, other industry leaders have indicated that AI will impact the workforce, transforming the types of jobs that are required. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC last month that AI would result in “fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs.” Plus, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted this month that AI would change “100% of everybody’s jobs.”

^{Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic}

Zuckerberg also predicted in the letter that personal devices like AI glasses would become humanity’s “primary computing devices” because they can “see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day.”

Related: Meta Takes on ChatGPT By Releasing a Standalone AI App: ‘A Long Journey’

Meta is a market leader in smart glasses, holding over 60% of the global market share last year. Since debuting in October 2023, the $299 Ray-Ban Meta glasses have sold more than two million pairs, with sales tripling in the first half of this year compared to last year.

The company is developing new products, too. Meta introduced its $499 Oakley Meta AI glasses last month, and high-fashion Prada AI glasses are planned for the future, per CNBC.

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Related: Meta Poaches the CEO of a $32 Billion AI Startup — After Trying to Buy the Company and Being Told No

Two of Nvidia’s senior leaders are now billionaires, joining co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Nvidia’s Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress, and the company’s Executive Vice President of World Field Operations, Jay Puri, are now each worth more than one billion dollars due to their ownership of Nvidia stock, according to Bloomberg.

Related: How Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Transformed a Graphics Card Company Into an AI Giant: ‘One of the Most Remarkable Business Pivots in History’

Kress, 57, owns nearly three million Nvidia shares and sold over 27,000 earlier this month for a cash amount of $4.7 million, according to a July 15 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She joined Nvidia in 2013, when the company’s market value was just over $9 billion, after nearly two decades at Cisco and Microsoft. The CFO graduated with an MBA in finance from Southern Methodist University, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Meanwhile, Puri, 70, joined Nvidia even earlier, in 2005, when the company’s market value was $6.25 billion. He oversees sales and marketing at Nvidia and was one of the first employees at Sun Microsystems, where he helped start its marketing department. An SEC filing from late June shows that he directly owns over 630,000 Nvidia shares worth more than $108 million, with indirect beneficial ownership of 20 million additional shares through various trusts.

With the new additions, the total number of billionaires working at Nvidia is at least six people, Bloomberg reports. The ranks include longtime directors Mark Stevens, Tench Coxe, and Harvey Jones in addition to Huang, Kress, and Puri.

^{Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Johannes Neudecker/picture alliance via Getty Images}

Earlier this month, Nvidia achieved a milestone by becoming the first company in the world to hit a market value of $4 trillion, with the company’s stock growing 44% over the past six months. Two years ago, Nvidia’s market value was just $500 billion, highlighting its tremendous growth.

Related: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Will Make Nearly $1 Billion This Year Just from Selling Stock

Huang, who has served as Nvidia CEO since co-founding the company in 1993, said last week that he has “created more billionaires” on his management team than any other CEO in the world.

The 62-year-old CEO passed Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett in net worth earlier this month and is currently the ninth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $153 billion.

Huang co-founded Nvidia with former Sun Microsystems engineers Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. Forbes estimated last year that Priem, who left Nvidia in 2003 after serving as its chief technical officer for a decade, had a net worth of $30 million. Malachowsky, who still works at Nvidia as a senior technology executive, has an undisclosed net worth, according to Business Insider.

Related: Nvidia CEO Says ‘100% of Everybody’s Jobs Will Be Changed’ Due to AI

Nvidia’s stock growth has also minted millionaires — who still show up to work in the office. Employees who have been with Nvidia for five years are likely millionaires now, with a $77,700 stock grant received in 2019 worth more than $1.6 million today, according to Finlo’s investment calculator.

The rise in net worth has led to an increase in “semi-retired” employees who still work at Nvidia, but boast greater personal wealth. At a December 2023 meeting, Nvidia employees asked Huang how to address “semi-retired” employees, and the CEO responded by asking every employee to take responsibility for their work.

Nvidia’s stock is up over 1,580% over the past five years at the time of writing.

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The Federal Reserve held rates steady on Wednesday for the fifth-straight time at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The bank kept interest rates between 4.25% and 4.5%.

“Higher tariffs have begun to show through more clearly to prices of some goods, but their overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen,” said Chairman Jerome Powell at the meeting.

Related: U.S. Economy Grew More Than Expected, According to Federal Data: ‘Broadly Indicative of a Healthy Economy’

Two members of the Board of Governors appointed by President Donald Trump dissented and suggested lowering interest rates by one-quarter of a percentage point. Still, the decision was expected by most experts. Inflation is at 2.7%, as of press time, higher than the Fed’s preferred 2% number.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term… inflation expectations well anchored and to prevent a one-time increase in the price level from becoming an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.

Elyse Ausenbaugh, head of investment strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, told Entrepreneur that the data didn’t justify a rate cut today.

“I don’t think there would have been much upside to Powell signaling that one was imminent,” Ausenbaugh wrote in an email. “The data, as it stands today, isn’t yet calling for one, and a lot could change between now and the FOMC’s next decision point in September.”

Although there was no clear signal about a September rate cut at the next Fed meeting, Ausenbaugh thinks it is a strong possibility.

Related: 3 Predictions for the U.S. Economy in 2025, According to a Chief Economist

“This is still a data-dependent Fed, and we expect the data to tell them to deliver a cut later this year as unemployment rises modestly and services inflation continues to cool,” Ausenbaugh wrote.

Powell, meanwhile, wasn’t as forthcoming, noting that the Fed will continue to examine the “evolving balance of risks before adjusting our policy stance.”

“We see our current policy stance as appropriate to guard against inflation risks,” Powell said.

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If you’ve built a business from the ground up, it may be difficult to imagine a day when you’re no longer leading it. But sooner or later, every founder must face a humbling truth: the time will come to step aside and turn it all over to someone else. Whether you’re passing it on to family, a trusted executive, or a new owner, the process of succession planning is not just important, it’s essential to your legacy.

I’ve made succession planning one of my top priorities for the last 30 years. I’ve learned that the only way you will have a good transfer is if there are trained people in place with a strong plan. It’s no surprise, as I have three sons and three nephews who have worked in our company for many years. They’re all earning their way at United Franchise Group. When I leave, I expect to have a peaceful transfer of power to them.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the succession process and how you can manage yours when the time comes.

Related: Considering franchise ownership? Get started now to find your personalized list of franchises that match your lifestyle, interests and budget.

Start with the right mindset

The first and perhaps hardest step is accepting that your successor will bring their own ideas to the table. That’s a good thing.

Yes, your ideas built the business. Your strategies and values laid the foundation. But the next leader will inevitably see things differently, and they should. It’s not about replacing your vision, but building on it. You must be okay with the mantra “New leader, new vision.” It doesn’t mean everything has to change overnight; it means you can’t run your company from the grave. You have to let go at some point.

Related: I Walked Away From a Corporate Career to Start My Own Small Business — Here’s Why You Should Do the Same

Identify your successor early

The sooner you can identify the person or team who will take over, the better. If your chosen successor is already part of your senior executive team, they should know that you’re preparing to pass them the baton.

In larger organizations, one individual might not be enough to shoulder the entire leadership load. In that case, consider splitting the top role into two, such as a president and a CEO. Dividing responsibilities can create a more manageable transition and allow successors to play to their strengths.

Above all, look for someone who listens more than they talk. A great leader is curious, asks thoughtful questions and listens to the answers. They should understand and respect the company’s history but also be capable of rallying the team around a new, compelling vision.

Related: 3 Lessons I Learned Selling My Billion-Dollar Company

Train them — and the team — right

Once you’ve identified your successor, the real work begins: training. Start early. Don’t wait until the last year or quarter of your career to begin preparing your replacement. Ideally, you’ll have at least six months to a year to bring them along, but more time is always better.

Training doesn’t stop with the new CEO. You must also invest in your senior executive team and anyone else with decision-making power. The goal isn’t to preserve the company as it is at handoff, but to ensure that the new leadership understands how and why things have worked. That knowledge gives them a strong starting point from which to innovate.

Show them the systems, values and the people who drive your business. Give them context for your decisions and invite them to challenge your assumptions. Think of it as preparing your company to thrive without you. And remember: Be patient. If more time is needed for a smooth transition, take it. A staggered transfer of responsibilities can reduce friction and give the team time to adjust.

Related: 70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

Prepare for the unexpected

Even the best-laid succession plans can hit unexpected bumps. Your chosen successor might leave the company due to a health issue, a change in personal circumstances, or simply a desire to do something different. Key team members may move on. Market conditions might change.

That’s why flexibility must be built into your succession plan. It should be a living document, not a rigid directive. Revisit it regularly. Be honest with yourself and your leadership team about what’s working and what isn’t. Contingency planning is critical for long-term success.

Related: TV Shows All Entrepreneurs Should Be Watching

Writing your next chapter

Once you pass the business to new leadership, there’s one last transition: yours, into retirement. Just as your business will continue without you, you will continue without your business.

This time in your life doesn’t have to follow the stereotype and be filled with golf. There are many other things that can make your next chapter rewarding: traveling, checking items off your bucket list, volunteering at your church, or favorite charity. Becoming a mentor to young executives can also keep you involved in the industry you love and enable you to give something back to it.

I haven’t retired yet, but when I do, I’ll know I’m leaving my company in capable hands — and I can’t wait to see where the new leaders take it.

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Codie Sanchez’s Bizscout, a fast-growing business acquisition marketplace, announced the appointment of Bobby Graham as President. In this role, Graham will lead operations, growth, and platform development, working alongside Sanchez to scale what has become one of the fastest-growing deal platforms in the U.S.

Graham, a veteran of high-growth marketplaces, brings deep experience building trusted transaction ecosystems. Prior to BizScout, Graham held senior roles at SeatGeek, where he helped scale the company from a startup into a nationally recognized ticketing marketplace, leading expansion across both primary and secondary business lines.

Bizscout has expanded from zero to over 100,000 users and has facilitated more than 25,000 connections between qualified business buyers and sellers. The next focus of his Presidency will be BizScout’s launch of DealOS, its proprietary deal management software. Hand holding buyers and sellers of businesses with a custom CRM, data room, off market deal searching and loan options all on platform.

“Established marketplaces encourage bad actors to take advantage of buyers who are eager to try their hand at ownership and freedom,” said Graham. “BizScout is changing that. We help serious buyers find genuine deals, and sellers sell for more and faster. I’m focused on offering the highest quality, most legitimate businesses for sale anywhere on the internet.”

Sanchez, who remains BizScout’s CEO and strategic lead, emphasized Graham’s fit and timing.

“Bobby is a builder. He’s scaled billion-dollar platforms and knows how to earn trust in fragmented markets,” said Sanchez. “At BizScout, we’re building the rails for Main Street ownership. Bobby is the right operator to take this movement from early traction to full-on scale.”

BizScout is currently rolling out new features designed to streamline and accelerate the acquisition process. These include AI-powered buyer-seller matching, listing analysis to boost seller exposure, free business valuations, financial verification tools, and expanded onboarding flows. The goal is simple: help legitimate sellers close faster, and help serious buyers find better deals, all without the noise and uncertainty of outdated listing sites.

With Graham now formally at the helm, BizScout is doubling down on infrastructure, speed, and trust to define the next era of small business acquisition.

About BizScout

BizScout is the verified marketplace for serious small business acquisitions. Founded by Codie Sanchez under the Contrarian Thinking umbrella, BizScout connects vetted buyers and sellers through DealOS, its proprietary end-to-end platform designed to close deals faster and more reliably. With over 100,000 users and growing rapidly, BizScout is the go-to destination for qualified business buyers, legitimate listings, and real ownership opportunities. Learn more at bizscout.com.

In boardrooms and Zoom calls everywhere, the same excuses are repeated:
“Our industry is too competitive. We’re fighting for every dollar and every employee.”
“We have one of the highest turnover rates out there — it’s just the nature of the business.”
“This is just how it is. It won’t change.”

Here’s the truth: It’s not your industry. It’s your company. More specifically, it’s your culture. High turnover, low engagement and poor retention aren’t industry mandates — they’re signals of internal issues that need attention. And if you want to build a resilient business, you need to stop outsourcing the blame.

Transactional leadership isn’t working

Start with the employee experience. If your relationship with your team is purely transactional — do your job, collect a paycheck — then you’re not building loyalty. You’re building burnout.

What do employees say about your culture when leadership isn’t around? What do they really think about their opportunities, support or team dynamics? If you haven’t asked, you don’t know — and you’re guessing.

Transformation begins when leadership shifts from managing output to investing in people. Every industry with high turnover also has companies that defy the odds. What sets them apart? A culture built on trust, purpose and shared growth. This is available to every business, but only the ones willing to earn it.

Related: How Businesses Can Build Resilience, Stay Ahead of the Curve and Seize Opportunities for Long-Term Growth in 2025

Culture isn’t cosmetic — it’s core

Your company may be profitable. You might have strong external branding, marketing or even an award-winning product. But if your internal culture is weak, cracks will appear. Innovation will slow. Employee burnout will rise. Talent will leave — quietly or loudly — and reputation will suffer.

Culture isn’t a feel-good initiative. It’s a core business driver. And if you want to fix it, you need to start from the inside.

How to start your transformation

If your company culture needs a reset, here’s how to begin:

1. Assess the reality
   Use anonymous surveys, team interviews and 360-degree feedback to understand how people really feel. Consider bringing in a neutral third party to remove bias and uncover blind spots.

2. Align leadership
   If the executive team isn’t fully aligned on values, goals and expectations, culture work will stall. Alignment creates consistency. Inconsistency breeds distrust.

3. Rebuild trust through action
   Employees don’t trust what you say — they trust what you do. Small, visible actions that reflect new priorities will go further than a dozen all-hands meetings.

4. Use the right tools
   Personality and team dynamics tools like Myers-Briggs, DISC or AEM-Cube can help teams better understand how to collaborate and make decisions. But don’t stop at labels. Use these insights to drive real change in how teams operate.

Culture change isn’t a one-time fix

Transformation isn’t a workshop. It’s a commitment. Culture shifts require consistent reinforcement, not just big kickoff meetings. Just like you track revenue, leads and customer satisfaction, you should also track employee engagement, burnout risk and internal alignment.

Culture is a living system. Without regular check-ins and adjustments, it will drift, often in the wrong direction.

Your team comes before your customer

This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s true: Happy, engaged employees build better businesses than stressed, replaceable ones. The companies that outperform in “high-turnover” industries invest in their people like they invest in their customers. They don’t accept excuses. They create environments people want to stay in.

If your business is struggling with retention, morale or engagement, don’t blame the industry. Look inward. Lead forward. And do the hard work of building the culture your team deserves.

Ready to break through your revenue ceiling? Join us at Level Up, a conference for ambitious business leaders to unlock new growth opportunities.

Starbucks has constructed a 4,624-square-foot office in Newport Beach, California, which is a five-minute drive from CEO Brian Niccol’s Orange County home.

According to documents and photos reviewed by Business Insider, the 13th-floor office was completed on July 2 and designed by Gensler, a leading architectural company that also designed the Chase Center in San Francisco and Shanghai Tower, China’s tallest building.

Related: Starbucks Pins Its Turnaround Hopes on ‘Green Apron Service.’ What Is It, Exactly?

A floor plan for the office, seen by BI, instructs Gensler and the contracting team, Pacific Tusk Builders, to build a space with “luxury” accents, including “white oak” floors and custom countertops. It also asks for “elegant lighting.”

Plans for the office were first disclosed in an August 2024 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing outlining Niccol’s compensation package. The filing stated that Starbucks would begin planning to establish a “small remote office” in Newport Beach and “employ an assistant” for Niccol of his choosing.

“This office location will be maintained at the expense of the company,” the filing reads.

Starbucks told BI that other employees can use the new office, though it’s unclear how many other employees will be working from the office, how long the space took to construct, and how much it cost Starbucks to build.

Related: Here’s How Much 8 CEOs Made, From JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon to Disney’s Bob Iger

Starbucks also awarded Niccol a $1.6 million base salary, a $10 million signing bonus, and a $75 million equity grant over the next three years in his compensation package.

^{Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol. Photo by Robin Marchant/Getty Images}

Niccol had previously been commuting at the company’s expense, flying 995 miles on the company’s private jet from his home in California to company headquarters in Seattle, Washington, to work from the office at least three times a week as part of the company’s return-to-office mandate.

Related: Starbucks Is Hiring a ‘Global Content Creator’ to Travel, Drink Coffee, and Get Paid Six Figures

Earlier this month, Niccol sent a letter to employees stating that corporate staff will be required to return to the office four days a week starting in October, an increase from the three-day schedule set in 2023. He wrote that employees do their “best work” when they are together.

Employees can choose to receive a cash buyout of an undisclosed amount if they prefer to leave the company instead of working in the office.

“The default for support partners should be working in person, in a Starbucks office,” Niccol wrote in the letter. “We understand not everyone will agree with this approach.”

Related: Starbucks Is Offering Executives $6 Million Performance-Based Stock Grants

Niccol became Starbucks CEO in September after leading Chipotle for six years as CEO. Under his leadership, Starbucks has tried to turn around slumping sales with a “Back to Starbucks” turnaround plan that has resulted in cuts to its menu, less wait time for coffee, and customers’ names written on cups in Sharpie.

On Tuesday, Starbucks also reported financial results for its 13-week fiscal quarter ending June 29. Global store sales dropped 2%, with North American store sales also falling by 2%, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of declining sales. Net revenue, however, increased 4% to $9.5 billion when compared to the same time last year.

The earnings report also mentioned that Starbucks opened 308 net stores in the quarter, for a total of 41,097 global stores.

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Starbucks has begun training for its “Green Apron Service,” which aims to bring a more familiar feel to customer service interactions. The coffee giant has reported five consecutive quarterly losses, according to its latest earnings release reported in April.

Starbucks told CNBC Monday that a pilot run of its “Green Apron Service” in 1,500 stores showed numerous improvements, including increased sales. Now, the service goes national.

Related: Starbucks Tells Employees to Return to the Office or Take a Buyout

It’s all a part of the “Back to Starbucks” plan enacted by CEO Brian Niccol. In June, Niccol told Reuters that the “Green Apron” model for service and staffing would be implemented in all stores in North America before the end of the summer.

What Is Green Apron Service?

The plan aims to improve the in-store customer experience after years of focusing on mobile and pickup orders.

“The strategy is to reconnect our partners with our customers,” Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams told CNBC on Monday. “When you walk through that door, you’re greeted with a smile. You are greeted again at handoff, a perfect cup of coffee … and you’re met with that connection.”

The Green Apron and Back to Starbucks plans present a slew of changes, including a new dress code featuring the green aprons for baristas, upgraded interiors, writing names on cups again (which meant buying 200,000 Sharpies), ending its open-door policy for restrooms, cutting menu items, making drinks in four minutes or less, and more.

Starbucks also recently reduced the maximum allowed number of drinks for mobile orders, from 15 to 12, to help with speed during peak times.

Bloomberg previously reported that Starbucks is testing an algorithm to sequence mobile orders with pickup time slots.

Related: Starbucks Is Hiring In-Store Human Workers After Replacing People With Machines — and Finding It Didn’t Work

Starbucks reports its latest quarterly earnings after the bell on Tuesday.

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