The managed service provider (MSP) market is at a breaking point. As businesses demand more from their technology partners and new competitors flood the space, the old approach of selling technical services alone is no longer enough. In 2025, MSPs must make a bold shift: Stop selling services and start building brands.

This isn’t just about a shiny new logo or a slick website — it’s about redefining the way MSPs connect with their clients. The MSPs that thrive in the years ahead will be the ones that transcend commoditized IT services, positioning themselves as indispensable partners in their clients’ success.

Related: These 4 Elements Are Key to Branding Your Business

The problem with selling services

For too long, MSP marketing has relied on a predictable playbook: Focus on technical expertise, promise cost savings, and stress reliability. While these are essential, they’re no longer differentiators — they’re the baseline.

Businesses now expect all MSPs to provide uptime guarantees, proactive monitoring and robust cybersecurity. When every competitor is saying the same thing, potential clients are left to choose based on price. And when price is the deciding factor, everyone loses.

In 2025, buyers are no longer looking for vendors — they’re looking for trusted partners who understand their challenges, align with their goals and inspire confidence. To stand out, MSPs need to stop pitching services and start crafting narratives that resonate emotionally and strategically.

Why branding matters for MSPs

Branding is often misunderstood in the MSP space. It’s not about aesthetics or flashy slogans — it’s about creating a perception in the minds of clients that you are more than a service provider. It’s about establishing trust, showcasing value and demonstrating that you’re invested in their success.

The best MSP brands build trust through transparency, create a sense of partnership and showcase thought leadership. In a time of data breaches and cybersecurity fears, clear communication about services, pricing and performance metrics is critical. Clients want to feel like their MSP is an extension of their team, not just a vendor. By adopting a consultative approach and providing actionable insights, MSPs can position themselves as indispensable experts.

Related: 5 Ways to Build Brand Customer Trust (and Why It Matters More Than Ever Before)

Building brands clients can’t resist

Understanding your ideal client is the first step. Too many MSPs market themselves as “everything to everyone,” resulting in generic messaging that appeals to no one. Focus on a niche market — small law firms, mid-sized manufacturers or retail chains — and tailor your messaging to their unique pain points. Specializing not only differentiates you but also builds credibility as an expert in that vertical.

Shifting from features to outcomes is equally important. Clients care less about what you offer and more about why it matters to them. Instead of leading with services like “24/7 Network Monitoring,” emphasize the result: “We ensure your business runs smoothly, no matter the hour.” Outcome-focused messaging is more relatable and memorable.

Storytelling is a powerful tool that many MSPs overlook. Real client success stories — highlighting how you’ve helped businesses expand operations, recover from cyberattacks or migrate seamlessly to the cloud — humanize your brand. Stories resonate emotionally and demonstrate value in a way that technical specs can’t.

Investing in thought leadership can further enhance your brand. Publishing blogs, research reports or hosting webinars positions your MSP as a trusted advisor in the IT space. The goal is to provide insights that help clients make smarter decisions, which builds credibility and fosters trust over time.

Meeting clients where they are is also critical. In 2025, digital marketing is the backbone of any successful strategy. MSPs must prioritize search engine optimization to rank for terms like “cybersecurity for small businesses,” leverage LinkedIn ads to target decision-makers and nurture leads with educational email campaigns. The days of relying solely on word-of-mouth referrals are long gone.

Finally, your internal culture directly impacts your brand. Happy, engaged employees provide better service, strengthening client relationships. Transparency, training and a supportive workplace are essential for building a culture that reflects your brand values.

Examples of MSP branding done right

Some MSPs are already setting the bar high. Electric, for instance, positions itself as an IT partner for fast-growing startups, branding its services as modern, scalable and startup-friendly. Align focuses on financial services, crafting a brand narrative around security and compliance for highly regulated industries. Dataprise emphasizes thought leadership with a robust library of content addressing IT trends and challenges.

These MSPs don’t compete on price — they compete on trust, expertise and their ability to understand their clients’ industries.

Related: These 5 Branding Factors Will Take Your Business to the Next Level

The stakes are high

The MSP industry is growing, but so is the competition. Businesses have more options than ever, and the ones that stand out are those that inspire confidence and foster long-term partnerships.

Building a brand isn’t optional anymore — it’s the difference between being a commodity provider and becoming an essential partner. In 2025, the MSPs that thrive will be the ones that stop selling services and start creating brands clients can’t resist.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to make this shift — the question is whether you can afford not to.

AI is no longer a futuristic buzzword; it’s here, and it’s reshaping how companies operate. From automating repetitive tasks to offering insights that were once impossible to uncover, AI has become integral for businesses looking to scale smarter, not harder.

But with the rise of AI agents — tools capable of interacting autonomously — we’re on the cusp of a new chapter in how AI integrates into daily processes. For industries like education, Web3 and beyond, the key is learning where AI excels (and where it doesn’t) to make the most of this game-changing technology.

Related: Why Entrepreneurs Still Need To Leverage People (Even With AI)

The power of pattern recognition

One of AI’s greatest strengths lies in its ability to identify patterns at scale. Companies like Netflix and Spotify have been leveraging AI to recommend content based on user behavior for years, but recent advancements take this to a whole new level. Take Grammarly, for instance. In the past three years, the platform’s AI has evolved beyond just identifying grammatical errors to providing tone, style and clarity suggestions, helping users write better emails, essays and even social media posts. For businesses, this means less time spent on mundane tasks like proofreading or data entry, allowing teams to focus on higher-value activities.

For startups in education or Web3, pattern recognition can unlock similar efficiencies. Imagine an educational platform that identifies which students are struggling with specific concepts and provides tailored lessons. Companies like Khan Academy are already experimenting with AI tutors powered by OpenAI, which can adapt lessons in real time based on a student’s progress. In Web3, AI can analyze blockchain data to detect irregularities, flagging potential security risks faster than any human team could.

If your business involves large amounts of data, AI should be your go-to tool for finding actionable insights. Use it to automate repetitive processes and identify trends, but don’t expect it to make creative leaps or nuanced decisions — at least not yet.

AI’s limits: Sophistication and decision-making

While AI excels at recognizing patterns, it’s not ready to make sophisticated decisions that require intuition, creativity or context. Case in point: autonomous driving. Companies like Tesla and Waymo have made significant strides in using AI for self-driving cars, but true Level 5 autonomy — where vehicles can navigate any scenario without human intervention — remains elusive. Why? Because real-world driving involves split-second decisions and unpredictable variables that AI struggles to process without human oversight.

This limitation is just as relevant for businesses. AI can help a Web3 company analyze wallet activity to spot trends, but it won’t tell you whether launching a new token is the right move for your community. Similarly, in education, AI can flag students who are at risk of dropping out based on attendance and grades, but it can’t have a heart-to-heart conversation with those students to understand the underlying issues.

The business takeaway: Use AI as a tool to support decision-making, not to replace it. Empower your team with AI-driven insights, but remember that the final call should come from a human who can factor in context and nuance.

Related: Here’s What AI Will Never Be Able to Do

Integrating AI into daily processes

So, how can businesses integrate AI into their day-to-day operations without falling into the trap of over-reliance? The answer lies in striking a balance between automation and human input. Let’s look at how some companies are doing it right.

Slack, for example, has integrated AI into its platform to help teams stay organized. Its AI can suggest channels, prioritize messages and even automate routine workflows, freeing up employees to focus on strategic initiatives. However, Slack doesn’t pretend that its AI can replace the creativity and collaboration that happen in team discussions. Instead, it positions AI as a tool to make those discussions more productive.

In education, Duolingo has embraced AI agents to provide personalized feedback to language learners. By analyzing user mistakes, Duolingo’s AI can adapt lessons to each learner’s weaknesses, keeping users engaged and improving retention. Yet, the platform still incorporates gamification and human-designed curricula, ensuring that AI enhances rather than overshadows the learning experience.

The takeaway here is that AI works best when it’s integrated as a complement to your team’s existing workflows. Start small: Identify repetitive tasks that drain time and energy, and test AI tools to see how they perform. From there, expand AI’s role while ensuring that humans remain at the center of creative and strategic decision-making.

The future of AI and your business

As AI continues to evolve, the businesses that succeed will be the ones that understand how to use it effectively. This doesn’t mean jumping on every new AI trend or tool; it means aligning AI capabilities with your company’s specific needs and goals. For example, if you’re in Web3, use AI to enhance transparency and security, but don’t expect it to replace the trust-building that’s central to your community. If you’re in education, leverage AI to scale personalized learning, but don’t lose sight of the importance of human teachers and mentors.

Related: The Robots Are Coming — But They Can’t Outsmart Us When It Comes To This Particular Skill.

AI is a powerful ally, but it’s not a silver bullet. It’s excellent for accelerating processes, identifying patterns and providing data-driven insights, but it still needs human oversight to make meaningful, context-rich decisions.

So, as you consider integrating AI into your business, ask yourself: Where can AI save us time and uncover opportunities? Where do we need human judgment to lead the way? By answering these questions and keeping a balanced approach, you’ll not only stay ahead of the curve — you’ll redefine what’s possible for your industry.

When my wife, Maria Baradell, posted Instagram and TikTok videos of herself kneading sourdough on an international flight, I knew it had the potential to capture attention. It was quirky, visually interesting and relatable — all the ingredients of a social media hit. What I didn’t expect was how quickly it would jump from TikTok to major outlets like CNN, The Guardian and USA Today.

The results were extraordinary: According to CoverageBook, Maria’s in-flight sourdough story generated 95 pieces of media coverage, reached a combined audience of 1.26 billion people and earned 11.3 million estimated views across digital and print platforms. With an average domain authority of 70 for the publications covering it, the story didn’t just resonate online — it became a global conversation.

For journalists, Maria’s video wasn’t just a fun human-interest story — it was exactly the kind of content they love to cover. Visual? Check. Built-in quotes from TikTok comments? Check. Proven public interest via likes, shares and views? Check. No need to leave the desk or make a single phone call? Double check.

In a media ecosystem shaped by tight deadlines and shrinking newsroom resources, social media has become the primary fodder for journalists. Viral content doesn’t just suggest public interest — it proves it. For brands and PR professionals, this presents a massive opportunity to connect with audiences by crafting moments that check the right boxes.

Related: How to Create a Viral Video Smash Hit

Why Maria’s video captured the world’s attention

Maria’s video resonated because it wasn’t just a quirky clip — it hit all the marks that make a story viral and newsworthy.

The act of kneading dough mid-flight was unexpected, immediately grabbing attention and sparking curiosity. It felt authentic, showcasing Maria’s passion for baking in an unscripted and relatable way. The video also evoked an emotional connection, blending admiration for her creativity with humor over the absurdity of the situation.

However, what really gave the story momentum was the controversy it stirred. While most viewers found the video amusing or inspiring, others were genuinely upset. Critics questioned the hygiene of kneading dough in such a confined public space, while some labeled it inconsiderate to fellow passengers. These strong reactions fueled heated discussions, driving engagement on social media and making the story even more appealing to journalists.

Finally, the video’s visual appeal — a baker rolling dough at 30,000 feet — made it a natural fit for headlines. It wasn’t just a story people wanted to share; it was one that outlets could easily illustrate with striking imagery.

These elements worked together to ensure the video didn’t just resonate online but transitioned seamlessly into global media coverage.

It has since led to Maria appearing on cooking segments on major-market morning TV, being interviewed on top baking podcasts and appearing on national streaming services to share tips for the perfect holiday feast.

How to create media-friendly social media content

For brands and PR professionals, Maria’s story offers a blueprint for creating social media content that bridges the gap to traditional media. To succeed, your content should combine emotional resonance, compelling visuals and broader relevance.

1. Focus on strong visuals: Great visuals don’t just perform well on social media — they’re essential for media coverage. Invest in imagery or videos that stand out and grab attention immediately.

2. Tap into emotions: Stories that make people laugh, admire or debate are far more likely to be shared — and picked up by journalists. Think about what emotional response your content will evoke.

3. Add depth and context: The most successful social media stories touch on broader cultural themes. Consider how your content can connect to trending conversations or universal experiences.

4. Engage your audience: Encourage comments, questions and debates around your content. Journalists love to pull quotes from comment sections to illustrate public reaction.

5. Be ready for the crossover: Viral moments don’t stay online. When your content gains traction, journalists may come calling. Prepare in advance with clear messaging, spokespeople and follow-up content to keep the momentum going.

Related: 4 Unconventional Marketing Campaigns That Demanded Media Attention — and What Your Brand Can Learn From Them

Why social media is the perfect newsroom fuel

Social media stories like Maria’s work because they come with all the elements newsrooms need to turn around a quick, engaging piece.

Maria’s video was highly visual, came with ready-made quotes from TikTok’s comment section and had proven public interest through its likes, shares and views. It required no additional reporting, making it easy for journalists to cover in minutes. For outlets juggling tight deadlines and shrinking budgets, stories like this are gold.

The growing reliance on social media as a source for news presents a unique opportunity for brands. By creating content that resonates emotionally, sparks discussion and is visually striking, you can position your stories to bridge the gap between social platforms and traditional media.

The takeaway: Social media drives modern journalism

Maria’s sourdough moment wasn’t just a quirky viral video; it was a textbook example of how social media fuels modern journalism. For many outlets, stories like hers are the perfect package — visual, engaging and pre-approved by the audience.

For brands and PR professionals, the opportunity is clear. By crafting content that combines emotional resonance, visual appeal and relevance to broader conversations, you can significantly increase your chances of transitioning from social media to traditional media.

In today’s media landscape, the best stories don’t just travel — they get amplified. Sometimes, all it takes is a ball of dough, a tray table and a little creativity to spark a global conversation.

Related: How Social Media Can Help With PR

I’ve never believed in the Silicon Valley idea that you’ve got to work 24/7 and sacrifice everything to build a successful company. For me, building a business and raising a family go hand in hand. These contrasting views are perhaps best illustrated with a personal anecdote.

Long ago, when a former business partner and I were raising our A round for a company we’d founded, I found myself sitting across some investors from Silicon Valley. I knew they wouldn’t have flown out to meet us unless they were fairly serious about investing — they weren’t the type of people to waste time and money on something they didn’t believe in.

My wife Rachel and I had recently learned that Rachel was pregnant with twins. The pregnancy wasn’t planned, which meant that we’d gone from thinking we were going to have zero more kids to discover we were actually having two at once in the blink of an eye. I was about to become the proud father of not four but six highly energetic daughters.

To break the ice, my co-founder shared the above with our would-be investors. In most cases, spicing up generic small talk with a story about unexpected twins is at least entertaining. But the investors weren’t amused.

The senior investor — I’ll never forget his name, even though I won’t mention it here — was as serious as a heart attack. He looked straight at me and said, “You know, I have a hard time taking guys like you seriously. Why would you have a family when you should be dedicating your whole life to running your business?”

Without missing a beat, I responded, “That’s interesting — I’ve always struggled to understand guys like you. What’s the point of making money if you don’t have anybody to enjoy it with? Where’s the satisfaction in being a single, 45-year-old guy living in a penthouse on University Avenue in Palo Alto? Wouldn’t that feel empty and old after a while? For me, my work is filled with purpose; I get to go home and play with a bunch of adorable little kids who love me.”

I said this in a calm, philosophical way as if I were simply sharing an alternate point of view instead of countering an insult. My co-founder, meanwhile, appeared to be devastated that he’d brought the whole thing up — the meeting was as good as over now.

But you know what? The second those words came out of the senior investor’s mouth, I knew I didn’t want his money. Family means too much to me to partner with someone who could dismiss it so cavalierly.

Related: An Open Letter from an Entrepreneur Dad to His Kids on How to Find Success

Family and business

Family and business are not mutually exclusive, but let’s be realistic. Running a business is highly difficult, stressful and unpredictable. There will definitely be times when you have to power through setbacks, seemingly at the cost of spending time with the ones you love most.

The problem begins when obstacles and opportunities are treated as marathons rather than sprints. Every entrepreneur faces a sprint at one point or another — something goes off the rails, or there’s an opportunity you want to capitalize on, so you spend more time at work than you normally want to.

A marathon, on the other hand, is what occurs when you’re working around the clock merely to alleviate the inevitable anxieties of entrepreneurship. You tell yourself that you must work around the clock because it makes you feel better to do so — “If I’m working, I’m not failing.”

Make no mistake, this is a lie. Like all lies, it’ll end up hurting you temporarily, no matter how good it makes you feel.

Related: You Don’t Need to Sacrifice Your Family to Pursue Being an Entrepreneur. Here’s How to Save Yourself 500 Hours Per Year.

Sacrifice versus rewards

It’s a dismal picture: you put in a thirteen-hour day and get home at seven or eight to find that you’ve missed dinner, the kids are already in bed and your partner’s angry that once again you’ve chosen work over family. In this case, you aren’t alleviating the stress of entrepreneurship as much as adding to it unbearably. You’re pointlessly exhausting yourself while avoiding your greatest resource for inspiration and renewal.

My general rule of thumb for balancing family and work throughout my whole career has been to take advantage of travel. When I’m out of town, I work constantly. I shove five days of work into three. When I’m in town, I’m always home by six or six-thirty. When I’m home, I’m always present with my kids, present with Rachel. It’s only when everyone’s asleep that I grind out extra work hours if needed.

I can’t imagine trying to crank out those same hours and being distracted by the fact that you feel like a loser because you’re missing dinner yet again. It’s the same number of hours regardless — why not go home, take a break, clear your head, invest in a purpose outside of work and then go back to that work once you’ve fulfilled your obligations as a parent and partner?

To begin with, it recharges your batteries. Brain science has taught us that you have a limited amount of time each day to perform at the highest level. After a certain number of hours, there are diminishing returns on the energy you expend versus the quality of the results.

Trust me— when you’re feeling good about yourself as a spouse or a father or mother, it’s like a shot of pure energy. Putting in the extra hours after you’ve reaffirmed your love for your family will be a much more productive experience.

There’s really only one rule when it comes to spending time with family: be present, be present, be present. It’s not about pretending to be there when your mind is still brooding in the office. To achieve a balance between work and family, you’ve got to put down your phone, close your computer and give yourself totally to the moment.

Meta sent employees an internal memo on Friday outlining what to expect as the tech giant implements its latest round of layoffs affecting 5% of its 72,000-person workforce, around 3,000 employees.

A memo obtained by Business Insider and posted to Meta’s internal Workplace forum by Vice President of Human Resources Janelle Gale said that employees affected by the performance-based cuts will be notified Monday morning through an email sent to their work and personal email addresses. The times are scheduled for different time zones beginning Sunday at 1 p.m. PT with some international employees not hearing the news until Feb 18.

Related: Meta Reminds Staff of Its Strict No-Leaks Policy — That Has Since Been Leaked to the Press

U.S.-based employees will receive a notification on Monday at 5 a.m. PT. Within an hour of receiving the email, affected employees will be kicked off of company systems. The email will inform them of their termination and contain details about their severance package.

“For teams that have a teammate or manager exit on Monday, I understand this might be a difficult day, and there could be some disruption and short-term impacts on your day-to-day work,” Gale wrote in the memo.

She also added that Meta’s offices would be open on Monday, but anyone “whose job allows” was allowed to work from home and have the day count as “in-person time.” Meta currently follows a hybrid schedule, requiring full-time employees to work from the office three days per week and two days remotely.

^{Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Gale included an FAQ section in the memo clarifying that Meta does not plan to tell the entire company who was laid off after notifying affected employees and intends to backfill the impacted roles on an unspecified timeline. She also wrote that if employees had a manager who had been terminated, their newly assigned manager would reach out to them.

Related: ‘Masculine Energy Is Good’: Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan He Thinks Companies Need More Aggression

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees about the layoffs last month, informing staff that he had “decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster.”

Zuckerberg wrote that while Meta “typically” manages out employees who don’t meet expectations over a year, Meta was going to make more “extensive” cuts of low performers during the performance cycle ending in February.

Meta isn’t the only tech giant to recently conduct layoffs. Amazon laid off dozens of employees last month and Salesforce reportedly let go of 1,000 workers earlier this year.

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The latest “Employment Situation Summary” report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed the labor market started the year on a downshift from 2024. EY senior economist Lydia Boussour told Entrepreneur in an emailed statement that the findings give the Federal Reserve “the luxury of time” to cut rates.

The report showed that the U.S. economy added 143,000 new jobs in January, below consensus forecasts of 170,000 and beneath the average monthly gain of 166,000 jobs in 2024. Boussour described the labor market as “frozen, but robust.”

“Business executives continue to rein in hiring but are still holding off on layoffs as they navigate a more uncertain economic and policy environment,” she stated.

Related: December Jobs Report Indicates a ‘Strong Economy’ That Is ‘More Resilient Than Anticipated,’ According to Experts

January’s job gains were highest in the healthcare, retail, and social assistance industries, each of which added at least 22,000 jobs. Employment meanwhile declined by 8,000 jobs over the month in the mining, quarrying, oil, and gas extraction industry after little change in 2024.

^{Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu via Getty Images}

The private sector added 111,000 jobs in January while government roles increased by 32,000. Private sector wages rose by 17 cents over the month to $35.87 while the average workweek decreased by 0.1 hours to 34.1 hours.

The report also showed that the unemployment rate was at 4%, its lowest level since May 2024, according to the NYTimes.

Related: ‘Really Hard to Find a Job’: 1.7 Million Job Seekers Have Been Looking for Work for at Least 6 Months

Boussour expects job growth to continue to be below last year’s average of 166,000 jobs added per month and for the unemployment rate to increase towards 4.4% as businesses conduct more layoffs.

When it comes to Federal Reserve policy, she says that the Fed will be more cautious in reaction to the January jobs report and slow down the pace of rate cuts.

“We believe Fed policymakers will judge the labor market as giving them the luxury of time when it comes to easing monetary policy further, especially considering the stronger wage figures,” Bousssour stated. “Even though we anticipate inflation will decelerate markedly in the coming months while labor market conditions cool, we anticipate the Fed will maintain a wait-and-see approach.”

While Boussour previously expected three rate cuts in 2025 (in March, June, and September), she now anticipates only two cuts in June and December.

Related: The Fed Just Cut Rates for the Third Time This Year. Here’s How It Will Affect Mortgage Rates, According to a 40-Year Veteran of the Real Estate Industry

As we emerge from Spotify Wrapped season, many will agree that this past year’s recaps looked a bit … different, disappointing some who proclaimed this iteration a “flop” due to over-reliance on generative AI, barely a year after Spotify’s conspicuous layoff of 1,500 people.

This sort of narrative is not unique to the music industry. It’s an ongoing conversation across sectors: How do companies strike a balance between AI’s benefits and its human cost? How should AI be regulated? And who is responsible for policing AI while we work out the answers to these questions?

A balancing act

The potential AI offers is well-documented: the intelligent automation of clerical tasks and advanced decision-making, increased capacity to process and infer from data, and the ability to mimic human creativity.

The real-world implications here are significant. Publications have questioned, for example, “will we still need software developers” in a world where AI can write code or, in the legal industry — where even junior associates may bill nearly $1,000/hour for the sort of legal research and drafting that AI is already becoming adept at replicating — whether the billable-hour will remain viable (or ethical).

Qualms about AI, too, are well-documented: ethical and moral concerns centered on bias, privacy and job loss; environmental concerns; and existential concerns about the displacement of human labor by nonhuman models trained on the output of those very same humans they seek to mimic (or replace).

Related: AI Agents Are Becoming More Humanlike — and OpenAI Launched a New One in January. Are Entrepreneurs Ready to Embrace the Future?

The regulatory dance

The collective uncertainty clouding today’s largely pre-regulated AI landscape is not altogether dissimilar from past technological disruption. Those familiar with the music industry, for example, will recall the uneasy transition to digital streaming, seemingly cannibalizing revenues derived from paid downloads. Downloads had themselves risen to prominence as something of a defensive maneuver — an attempt to salvage something in the post-Napster world, which had thoroughly destroyed the CD-driven sales boom of the 1990s. Even the CD itself was only the last of many dominant 20th-century music technologies to rise and fall. In each instance, the industry adapted and survived.

In some cases, the industry’s internal response happened in a vacuum; in others, legislative, regulatory or judicial actions shaped that response — from recent legislation tailoring licensing practices to the realities of streaming, to 1990s and 2000s case law clarifying the rules surrounding sampling, all the way back to WWII-era consent decrees imposed upon licensing societies formed by rightsholders in the early days of radio.

In each of those cases, though, the response from the applicable branch of government came several years after the industrial rise of the relevant technology. The same is likely to be true of AI. Scores of AI bills are currently stalled before Congress. Dozens of AI-focused lawsuits, too, continue to inch through the judiciary. At the regulatory level, there is significant uncertainty as to how the looming shift in Executive control will affect AI policy, even as current regulatory efforts by the U.S. Copyright Office to propose AI policy recommendations have already fallen well behind initial deadlines.

This is going to take a while to sort out. n the interim, industries will continue to experiment with new ways to use AI. And bad actors will find new ways to exploit this underregulated frontier.

Related: AI Could Ruin Your Life or Business — Unless You Take These Critical Steps

Who’s minding the store?

Meanwhile, absent an effective regulatory schema, industries are left to self-police those bad actors. But whose job, exactly, is it to do that?

In the music industry, there are a number of practical realities that are particularly attractive to fraudsters: a sprawling streaming ecosystem where millions of tracks are uploaded monthly; the billions of hours of music that are streamed each year for fractions of a penny; and a convoluted licensing regime where the streaming services best-positioned to police fraud often pay a blanket percentage of revenue (rather than per-stream) to license music, and thus are perhaps less incentivized to police fraud than the individual creator whose share of the overall streaming pie necessarily narrows when fraudulent slices of that pie disappear, but who has no realistic means to counter that fraud.

In one high-profile example, an individual was indicted for using AI to create music distributed under fake “artist” monikers and then again using AI-powered bots to inflate stream counts and drain around $10 million from the royalty pool available to legitimate creators. The fact that someone may have scammed the music industry for monetary gain is not surprising; that’s a tale as old as time. Two things are noteworthy, however: The alleged fraudster in this case turned to AI only after traditional methods of fraud had floundered; and it took nearly six years for his scheme to be flagged by an industry licensing entity (and it may have altogether eluded many of the streaming services themselves).

Federal prosecution notwithstanding, even this example is just a drop in a much larger bucket of AI-powered fraud that either goes entirely undetected, or goes undetected for longer than would be the case if the incentives and the ability to police fraud were aligned or if an effective regulatory framework to police fraud existed.

Related: Nearly Half of Americans Think They Could Be Duped By AI. Here’s What They’re Worried About.

The human touch

While one can understand why businesses across sectors want to embrace AI in their zeal for efficiency, these recent headlines caution against an absolutist approach. AI is an answer, not the answer. Though it can be tempting to lose patience with governmental entities lagging behind industrial experimentation with AI, regulators and the regulated alike should proceed with caution, balancing both innovation and integrity, both efficiency and human-centricity — not simply because it is the right thing to do, but because we have plenty of examples for why abandoning that approach is self-defeating.

Both art and fraud derive from human ingenuity, and the effects of both are experienced by real human beings. Even if both can be enhanced or disrupted by AI, both are fundamentally human endeavors. As AI’s infancy transitions into an uncertain adolescence, industries and regulators alike should act accordingly.

When the Super Bowl airs on Sunday, February 9 at 6:30 p.m., one ad from Google will run with some last-minute alterations.

Last week, an X user posted that one of Google’s new Super Bowl ads about a Wisconsin cheese market owner was “AI slop” and is “unequivocally false.” In the commercial, the company’s Gemini AI tool writes a product description that says, “Gouda accounts for 50 to 60 percent of the world’s cheese consumption.” The post has screenshots of the alleged error.

Related: A Company Is Giving Away $10,000 Every Second During the Final 2 Minutes of the Super Bowl

“Cheddar & mozzarella would like a word,” the post continues.

Google’s President of Cloud Applications, Jerry Dischler, replied to the post, saying that the copy is “not a hallucination” and the stat was found in multiple places across the web. Still, as anyone who is Very Online would know, that doesn’t mean the information is correct.

Hey Nate – not a hallucination, Gemini is grounded in the Web – and users can always check the results and references. In this case, multiple sites across the web include the 50-60% stat. Gouda news: many love this cheese! Bada news: not everyone thinks it’s as grate. ?

— Jerry Dischler (@jdischler) February 1, 2025

Google confirmed that the company collaborated with the cheesemonger featured and remade the ad to remove the stat.

“Following his suggestion to have Gemini rewrite the product description without the stat, we updated the user interface to reflect what the business would do,” Google told the BBC, in a statement.

The BBC notes that, for some reason, accurate data on cheese popularity is tough to source, though cheddar and mozzarella are considered to be the most popular in the world.

Here’s the new ad, set to run on Sunday, while the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Related: Why Super Bowl Commercials Are the Ultimate Marketing Play

Walmart may have generated the most revenue of any other company in the S&P 500 for the past 12 consecutive years, but another e-commerce giant is coming for its crown.

Amazon reported revenue of $187.8 billion in its latest earnings release for the fourth quarter of 2024 after market close on Thursday, which is more than the $180 billion in revenue Walmart is projected to report for the same quarter on February 20, according to a Thursday report from CNBC.

If the Walmart projection comes to pass, it would mark the first time in over a decade that another company has usurped Walmart as the top revenue-generator on the S&P 500. In 2012, Walmart took the top spot from Exxon Mobil, per CNBC.

Related: Walmart Is Laying Off Hundreds, Relocating Others as the Company Closes a U.S. Office

“The holiday shopping season was the most successful yet for Amazon and we appreciate the support of our customers, selling partners, and employees who helped make it so,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated in the earnings release.

Amazon’s online shopping business has skyrocketed since the pandemic. The company’s annual sales in North America have grown by more than 100% since 2019, per CNBC.

Amazon’s successful cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), also contributed to its revenue growth. Revenue in the division has swelled in the past few years, growing from $45.37 billion in 2020 to nearly double that amount, or $90.76 billion, in 2023, according to Statista.

^{Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

In the third quarter of 2024, AWS revenue increased 19% year-over-year and contributed to 17% of total sales.

Amazon also hit a milestone for its revenue for the full year of 2024. The company crossed the $600 billion mark for the first time in 2024 with a record revenue of $638 billion.

In this measure, Amazon isn’t expected to surpass Walmart, which is predicted to report full-year revenue of $681 billion for 2024 and has already exceeded the $600 billion mark in 2023 with revenue of $611.3 billion.

Related: Top-Performing Walmart Managers Can Now Make $620,000 a Year