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Running a business today isn’t just about keeping up — it’s about pulling ahead. The leaders who win are the ones who can make smart decisions faster, create sharper content quicker, and adapt before their competition even knows what’s happening. That’s exactly how 1min.AI can help — and through September 7, you can lock in lifetime access for just $79.97 (MSRP: $540).

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Running a business means balancing vision with execution — and if you’ve ever tried building a business plan from scratch, you know it can feel like juggling spreadsheets, projections, and endless “what ifs.” That’s why LivePlan was created.

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In his annual address in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that, despite “sweeping changes” in economic policy, a possible interest rate cut could come at the Fed’s next meeting in September.

“With policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance,” Powell said.

Related: A Big 4 Firm Is Cutting Back on Entry-Level Hiring, According to a Leaked Report

The Fed has held rates between 4.25% and 4.5% since December 2024.

EY-Parthenon Senior Economist Lydia Boussour told Entrepreneur in an email that the Fed’s focus is “shifting from inflation to the labor market,” and Powell used his speech as “an opportunity to recalibrate the Fed’s assessment of the balance of risks, which had leaned more heavily toward inflation at the July FOMC meeting.”

^{Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (R) is seen with Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda (2nd R), European Central Bank Governor Christine Lagarde (2nd L), and Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey (L) in Grand Teton National Park on August 22, 2025, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (Natalie Behring | Getty Images)}

“Powell also acknowledged that while there is a possibility that tariffs could trigger lasting inflation pressures or influence long-term inflation expectations, current market and survey indicators suggest that inflation expectations remain stable and aligned with the Fed’s long-term inflation goal of 2%,” Boussour said.

When does the Fed meet next?

The next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting begins September 16. A policy decision will be released on Wednesday, September 17.

Related: How to Ensure Your Financing Isn’t Overextending the Capabilities of Your Business

“While a rate cut at the September meeting appears more than likely, in line with [EY-Parthenon’s] long-held view, we anticipate the Fed will maintain its cautious, data-driven approach as tariff-related price pressures continue to work through the economy,” Boussour said.

Boussour said EY anticipates a cut in September and “another 25bp cut to follow in December, with an additional 100 basis points of easing likely in 2026 as economic and labor market conditions deteriorate more visibly.”

What would a rate cut mean for consumers?

One rate cut might not make much of a difference, CNBC notes. Mortgage rates remain high, and the markets (not the Fed) move the 10-year Treasury yield, which influences the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Boussour expects more cuts to follow, however, which could lead to improved consumer confidence.

What would a rate cut mean for small businesses?

A federal rate cut likely means small businesses can borrow at lower costs, which can lead to various other growth factors, including increased consumer demand and more hiring, per Bankrate.

Lower borrowing costs mean lower financing rates for business improvements, like updated equipment or software. It also leads to lower monthly payments, which frees up monthly income for other expenses. Lower rates also tend to boost customer spending, Bankrate notes.

It can also make banks more agreeable to approve loans, which can be a boon for businesses in rural areas with smaller, regional banks, and provide more opportunities to refinance existing loans with higher rates.

Related: The Real Estate Market Is a Nightmare Right Now

AI that appears to be conscious could arrive within the next few years, posing a “dangerous” threat to society, says one AI leader.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, 41, wrote in a personal essay published earlier this week that Seemingly Conscious AI (SCAI), which is artificial intelligence so advanced that it can convince humans that it’s capable of formulating its own thoughts and beliefs, is only a few years away.

Related: Microsoft Claims Its AI Is Better Than Doctors at Diagnosing Patients, But ‘You Definitely Still Need Your Physician’

Even though there is “zero evidence” that AI is conscious at the moment, it’s “inevitable and unwelcome” that SCAI could appear within the next two to three years, Suleyman wrote.

Suleyman’s “central worry” is that SCAI could appear to be empathetic and act with greater autonomy, which would lead users of SCAI to “start to believe in the illusion of AIs as conscious entities” to the point that they advocate for AI rights and even AI citizenship. This would mark a “dangerous turn” for society, where people become attached to AI and disconnected from reality.

“This development will be a dangerous turn in AI progress and deserves our immediate attention,” Suleyman wrote in the essay. He added later that AI “disconnects people from reality, fraying fragile social bonds and structures, distorting pressing moral priorities.”

Related: ‘Plenty of Room for Startups’: This Is Where Entrepreneurs Should Look for Business Opportunities in AI, According to Microsoft’s AI CEO

Suleyman said that he was becoming “more and more concerned” about AI psychosis, or humans experiencing false beliefs, delusions, or paranoid feelings after prolonged interactions with AI chatbots. Examples of AI psychosis include users forming a romantic relationship with an AI chatbot or feeling like they have superpowers after interacting with it.

AI psychosis will apply to more than just individuals who are at risk of mental health issues, Suleyman predicted. He said that users have to “urgently” discuss “guardrails” around AI to protect people from the technology’s negative effects.

^{Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Suleyman became Microsoft’s AI CEO last year after co-founding and running his own AI startup for two years called Inflection AI, per LinkedIn. Microsoft is the second most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of $3.78 trillion at the time of writing.

Related: Microsoft AI CEO Says Almost All Content on the Internet Is Fair Game for AI Training

Suleyman also co-founded DeepMind, an AI research and development company acquired by Google for around $600 million in 2014.

Suleyman isn’t the first CEO to warn about AI’s ill effects. In a talk at a Federal Reserve conference last month in Washington, D.C., OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that “emotional overreliance” on ChatGPT keeps him up at night.

“People rely on ChatGPT too much,” Altman said at the event. “That feels really bad to me.”

I’ve been in the entrepreneurship game long enough to spot when something big is coming. And I’m telling you right now: I believe biohacking isn’t just another wellness fad. It’s a legitimate business strategy that’s giving smart entrepreneurs a massive competitive edge.

The numbers don’t lie: why entrepreneurs need this now

Eighty-seven percent of entrepreneurs deal with mental health issues versus just 48% of regular people. But here’s the real kicker — it’s not just stress. I think it’s about trying to maintain peak performance while your body systematically breaks down under the demands of building something meaningful.

Meanwhile, research shows each extra hour of sleep per week bumps your earnings by 3.4%. You’re literally leaving money on the table by not getting enough sleep. Think about that for a second. Your competitors who prioritize recovery aren’t just feeling better — they’re earning more.

The market agrees with this shift. According to a recent Research and Markets Report, the Global Biohacking Market was valued at $24.5 billion in 2024 and is estimated to reach $111.3 billion by 2034. When you see numbers like that, you’re not looking at a trend. You’re looking at a complete shift in how high performers approach optimization.

Related: Tricks to Prevent Jet Lag, According to Science

What biohacking actually means for business

Biohacking isn’t some mystical wellness nonsense. It’s what happens when entrepreneurs apply the same obsessive optimization mindset they use in business to their own bodies. These are people who track every metric that matters.

Now they’re tracking HRV scores (heart rate variability) like conversion rates, experimenting with intermittent fasting like it’s a marketing campaign, and optimizing their sleep with the same intensity they bring to growth hacking. Makes perfect sense when you think about it. If you’re going to measure everything else, why not measure what actually powers your brain?

Dave Asprey figured this out when he was running a longevity nonprofit and realized he was “the only guy under 60 in the room.” All the knowledge about human optimization was stuck with older folks, while young entrepreneurs were burning themselves out. That’s when he created something entirely different.

At his 11th annual in-person Biohacking Conference (13th, including virtual events during COVID), Asprey’s approach became crystal clear. This isn’t strategic rebranding of longevity science — it’s an entirely new framework that has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry.

His definition of biohacking is laser-focused: “To change the environment outside of you and inside of you so you have full control of your biology, to allow you to upgrade your body, mind, and your life.”

Related: Is There a Superior Diet for the Entrepreneur? The ‘Father of Biohacking’ Shares What He Eats for High Energy, Low Body Fat and Optimal Output

AI is revolutionizing the biohacking game

Here’s where Asprey really got my attention. His company, 40 Years of Zen, utilizes AI to analyze brainwaves from top entrepreneurs and train your brain to match their patterns in five days, rather than spending 20 years meditating. For entrepreneurs who barely have time to eat lunch, this is a revolutionary concept.

But the real breakthrough is Upgrade Labs, his franchise that’s collecting 187 million data points from every client. They’re using AI to analyze your bloodwork, performance metrics, goals, and current state, then generating a personalized optimization plan. No more guessing about supplements, fasting schedules or treatments.

Asprey dropped $2.5 million figuring this out the expensive way. With AI, you don’t have to.

This is biohacking evolving from experimental to systematic. The data exists and the results are measurable. (Fair warning: accessible technology can still come with a price tag — the 40 Years of Zen retreat costs $16,000 for a five-day immersive neurofeedback experience. But compare that to the cost of burnout.)

An industry cross-pollination that signals massive growth

What blew me away at Asprey’s conference wasn’t just the technology — it was the crowd. I watched entertainment personalities like Ragga Ragnar (Queen Gilhund from Vikings) discussing their craft with medical professionals like Dr. Vince Padre, who is developing gut-healthy coffee. Tech veterans were swapping notes with food innovators, such as Oren Epstein from BioRaw, Canada’s leading vegan food distributor, about running sustainable businesses.

Even teenage entrepreneurs like George Zhou and Becket Kitaen from Buffs were there, soaking it all up. Their product is a “cheeto puff made of beef.”

When cultural influencers like Food Babe, who shares her most helpful resources here, and thought leaders like Martin Luther King III show up — connecting biohacking to mission-driven initiatives like Realize The Dream — you know something has staying power. When wellness meets social change, and both get backed by real money, that’s when markets explode.

The entrepreneurial trifecta is in full effect: users proving demand, investors bringing serious capital and cultural influencers amplifying the message. Game over.

Where the smart money is moving

The investment patterns tell the story. Money is flowing toward scalable, results-driven models — from recurring subscriptions to high-retention product ecosystems. In the U.S., we’re seeing a surge in biotech investments, fueled by consumers who are increasingly dissatisfied with one-size-fits-all solutions and demand personalized, data-driven health alternatives.

Companies like Denmark-based Puori are investing heavily in the US to set a new standard for product authenticity and transparency in the supplement space. Every batch is third-party tested for over 200 contaminants, with full results available via a QR code on the packaging, enabling consumers to make informed decisions in a crowded market. PureWave’s VEMI Biosynchronizing beds are being used to assist in veteran recovery. BioLight’s cutting-edge oral healthcare technology is redefining dental health.

As Dr. Mike Belkowski, founder of Biolight, explained at their booth: “Red Light Therapy is no longer a fringe modality— it’s becoming a cornerstone in the future of health optimization. As we unlock the science behind light, mitochondria, and cellular resilience, we’re entering a new era where healing and performance can be non-invasive, natural, and profoundly effective.”

The biggest wins? Brands are building recurring revenue around absolute trust and utility. Position yourself where performance, personalization, and prevention intersect, and you won’t just ride the biohacking wave — you’ll own it.

Building biohacking into your business culture

Asprey dropped some practical wisdom about integrating biohacking into your company culture, no matter what stage you’re in:

• Lead by Example: “You cannot tell your employees what to do unless you’re doing it.” Don’t mandate wellness programs. Show the value through your own transformation first.
• Invest in Real Health Data: “You have all the lab tests, or at least your employees do, and they get actionable information to improve them. The amount of money you will make from having employees who are emotionally regulated because they’re biologically healthy, holy crap, your whole culture changes overnight. It’s so big.”
• Go Dry: This might surprise you, but Asprey’s logic is bulletproof. “You should not be spending your hard-earned profits on feeding your employees alcohol. He says, give them high-quality coffee instead. Give them things that make them grounded and focused and happy and performant and healthier.”

These aren’t feel-good wellness initiatives. These are business strategies disguised as employee benefits.

The bottom line

Biohacking is no longer just about personal optimization. It’s about building better businesses and creating sustainable competitive advantages. While your competitors burn out on the old grind-it-out mentality, you’re optimizing your biology for sustained peak performance.

The only question is whether you’ll get ahead of this curve or spend the next five years playing catch-up while your competition evolves past you.

In my experience, winning entrepreneurs spot trends early and move fast. Biohacking isn’t the future of wellness — it’s the future of high-performance entrepreneurship.

When I first moved to the United States, my goal was simple: survive. I had no connections, little understanding of the system, and a burning desire to build something meaningful. At 33, I shared my journey here — how I used grit, education and a bit of luck to launch a real estate tech startup built on transparency.

Four years later, I’m still standing — but I’ve changed. So has my definition of success.

Today, I’m the founder and CEO of a growing real estate tech company based in New York City. But how I run my business — and how I live — looks completely different from when I started. I’ve learned that building something sustainable takes more than hustle. It requires alignment, clarity, and the courage to evolve.

These are the five lessons I wish I’d known sooner. They now form the foundation of how I lead and advise others.

Related: I Built a $20 Million Company by Age 22 While Still in College. Here’s How I Did It and What I Learned Along the Way.

1. Stop chasing the finish line

Early on, I thought success meant scaling fast, raising capital and staying in the spotlight. But sprinting toward a vague goal is a recipe for burnout.

Now, I prioritize rhythm over speed. My weeks are structured around deep work, reflection and meaningful conversations. Sustainable growth isn’t linear — it’s iterative. Whether you’re building a business or navigating a career shift, ask yourself: What version of success feels good to live, not just good to post?

Start your week with a “clarity session.” List your top three priorities — both for your business and your wellbeing. If your calendar doesn’t reflect those, you’re running someone else’s race.

2. Your business should serve your life — not the other way around

For a while, my business ran me. Every client issue, notification and small win or loss dictated my emotions. I was reactive, and my personal life paid the price.

Now, I see my company as a vehicle for the life I want to lead. I’ve built systems that support autonomy, hired people who don’t need micromanaging and created workflows that don’t require 24/7 attention.

Design your business — or your career — backwards. Start by defining the lifestyle you want, then build your work structure around it. This mindset shift made me a more present human and a better leader.

3. Real estate is still one of the best paths to wealth — if you play the long game

My company helps people make honest, informed real estate decisions. I’ve watched many chase trends or try to time the market. But real estate rewards patience and perspective.

Some of my best investments didn’t look exciting on paper — but they had strong fundamentals. Over time, they became strategic assets, both financially and personally.

Avoid the hype. Focus on long-term value. Sometimes, doing nothing is the smartest move you can make.

4. You don’t need to be the loudest person in the room

In my early years, I believed visibility equaled success. I over-indexed on appearances — networking events, interviews, panels.

But the most impactful moves in my career came from quiet, focused work behind the scenes. Today, I choose depth over noise. I nurture a few meaningful relationships and let results speak for themselves.

Build your “trust circle.” Choose five people you admire and invest in those connections. You don’t need a big network. You need a strong one.

Related: Entrepreneurial Success Comes Down to Having the Right Mindset — Here’s How to Make Sure You Do

The biggest myth I believed was that success meant arriving. But success is constant movement. It’s reinvention. Pivoting without losing your center.

I’ve evolved from immigrant to employee, tech lead to CEO, and now founder to educator. I mentor entrepreneurs, speak at universities and write — not just to share what I’ve learned, but to keep growing myself. Each quarter, ask: What version of me am I outgrowing? Let the answer shape your next chapter.

Looking back, my path hasn’t been straight — and I wouldn’t change a thing. Fulfillment doesn’t come from proving yourself. It comes from building in alignment with who you’re becoming. Whether you’re just starting or starting over, know this: you don’t need to build the biggest company or be the loudest voice to make a lasting impact. You just need to build with intention.

And most importantly — keep going.

If you ask a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to solve your customers’ pain points, it will give you an answer based on the easiest-to-verify information. That often includes published articles, consistent founder commentaries, structured product pages and other third-party references. If those answers do not include your brand, these learning models default to featuring your competitors.

That’s the practical risk facing every founder today. As more work is automated and teams are expected to deliver more with less, clarity and credibility become the real leverage. Thought leadership is how you make yourself findable and trustworthy in this machine-mediated era.

Related: How to Get Your Business Recommended by AI Tools Like ChatGPT — and Win More Clients

Founder-led storytelling remains the strongest defense for brand voice and trust

Your brand voice is essentially your company’s personality. If you don’t define it, it will show up differently across every channel. The best way to set it is through your origin story. As the founder, only you can explain in clear and plain language why the company exists, what it stands for and who it’s built to serve.

Once that story is established, make it the reference for everyone, both internally and externally. Put it in your website’s About page, your brand guide, and your sales and support playbooks. Marketing, sales and customer support can then use the same voice and terms. This will create a brand that is more consistent and can easily gain the trust of people wherever they encounter it.

Build an algorithm-aware media strategy to boost rankings in Google and AI-driven searches

Thought leadership only works when it can be verified, which means you have to make it easy for search engines and LLMs to back up your claims.

Start with the questions your buyers actually ask. Most revolve around defining the real problem, comparing options and reducing risk. Answer those questions where authority already exists in your niche. This could be through credible industry outlets, top-tier publications and expert communities. Use bylines and interviews that offer unique insights (not recycled talking points). On your website, turn the same answers into clear explainers with precise terms, clear CTAs and referenceable data.

To make your content easy for machines to verify and include you in search results, add a special code to your website that explicitly tells search engines who the founder is, what your company is, what your products are and which articles you wrote. This helps connect all the pieces for LLMs to prove that a real expert with a credible backstory runs your company.

Additionally, you can maintain a current press page with original headlines and dates. Treat trusted review sites, relevant directories and active communities as part of your digital footprint. The goal is a clean trail of evidence that points back to you, so when an LLM composes an answer, your materials are the easiest to cite.

One thing you must remember is always to keep your language aligned with how buyers search. Use their words. Write headlines that mirror actual searches. If the industry’s terminologies change, start incorporating those new terms into your messaging. However, frame these new terms within your unique brand philosophy to avoid sounding generic (like everyone else). This helps you rank in Google and increases the odds that an LLM selects your content.

Related: How to Make Sure ChatGPT Recommends Your Products — Not Your Competitor’s

Lead with authenticity and adopt an adaptive approach to stay ahead of AI changes

As AI systems and their search results continue to evolve, the best way to stay ahead is to ground your brand in authenticity. This means making clear and testable claims and consistently relating your services and products to consumers. Such transparency builds credibility with the public while giving LLMs a history of precise, trustworthy updates to learn from.

A practical way to get this done is with a monthly review cycle. Each month, see how AI models are describing your brand and your market. If you spot a gap between their summary and your actual status, you can close the gap with a new case write-up or a refreshed product page.

You’ll also want to monitor changes in search engines like Google. To stay visible, watch how the results page changes and format your content to match what works best, like creating Q&A sections. An internal style guide with official (approved) verbiage and up-to-date stats can also be helpful, as it allows your team to create new content quickly that’s consistent in all channels.

Related: How to Train AI to Actually Understand Your Business

Redefining the founder’s role in the AI era

These three strategies are not a series of short-term hacks to outsmart AI. These are the foundational works of building a sustainable digital reputation.

In an era where generic information is endlessly commoditized by AI, your unique judgment, firsthand experience and specific point of view as a founder are the only true differentiators. I have personally designed (and proven) these strategies to make that authentic human expertise so clear and well-documented that both machines and people can recognize and rely on them.

Remember that you are not only trying to avoid being misrepresented by AI; you are actively building a moat of credibility that competitors who rely on vague claims and recycled content cannot cross. This redefines a core part of your job as the founder: to be the only source and chief editor of your brand’s voice.

As Brandon Bailey, founder and CEO of TutorD, built his career in software engineering, he came face-to-face with the “lack of diversity and inclusion” in tech — and he wanted to do something about it.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of TutorD. Brandon Bailey.}

Bailey worked at a consultancy in Chicago at the time, and as co-lead for one of the firm’s employee resource groups, he partnered with a couple of community-based organizations. One partnership was with a middle school in Bronzeville.

The school was located about 15 minutes from Bailey’s home, but the students “had a totally different lived experience,” the founder recalls. Many of the kids had never been on an escalator or inside a skyscraper despite living just minutes from downtown.

Related: Technology Opens the Door for Entrepreneurs to Achieve the Triple Bottom Line

The program helped the students have those experiences and access internships and other opportunities. “That gave me this drive and passion for the educational experience and helping facilitate it,” Bailey says. “It changed my life. I know it changed [their lives].”

But Bailey wanted to figure out how to reach even more people. He landed a job at an edtech startup in Los Angeles, California, and began to think about how he could bring together education, engineering and entrepreneurship.

When considering the platform or tool that could accomplish that, Bailey noted one significant obstacle: There was an issue of connectivity for students who didn’t have access to computers in their homes. However, most students did have cellphones, so Bailey decided to meet the students where they were and build for those.

Related: How DEI and Sustainability Can Grow Your Triple Bottom Line

“We wanted to lead with providing value to the community first and gaining trust and buy-in.”

Bailey officially founded TutorD, an edtech platform for teachers and tutors to enable distance learning, and TutorD Scholars, a nonprofit that teaches “urban youth in-demand 22nd century skills,” in 2019.

“We wanted to lead with providing value to the community first and gaining trust and buy-in into what we were doing,” Bailey says. “So that’s why we led with the nonprofit TutorD Scholars first, while building out the software platform.”

Teaching made it easier to figure out the specific tools students would need on the platform and how to tailor lessons to their unique learning styles.

Related: This Black Founder Stayed True to His Triple ‘Win’ Strategy to Build a $1 Billion Business

 ”We’re teaching [the students] in different ways,” Bailey says, “so using visual, auditory, reading and kinesthetic. [It’s] a very intentional approach.”

Entrepreneur sat down with Bailey to learn more about how he’s grown TutorD into a successful business — and the role that Intuit’s IDEAS accelerator program has played.

Intuit’s IDEAS accelerator program provides founders access to capital and the company’s AI-powered platform, service and experts, plus business coaching from the National Urban League and executive coaching from Zella Life to support their business and professional growth.

Related: Over Half of Small Businesses Are Struggling to Grow, Intuit Survey Shows — But These 5 Solutions Can Help

Learning the accounting fundamentals was a game changer

Through the IDEAS program, Bailey got valuable exposure to the basic accounting fundamentals, like cash flow and profit and loss statements, that make or break a business.

“That wasn’t something I had a lot of support with growing up, looking back at it,” Bailey says. “In our household, [and] it is common across Black and brown households, we didn’t have that training around finances.”

Receiving that technical training helped Bailey and the TutorD team develop a clearer sense of where the business was headed and how its costs and sales projections would shape that trajectory, the founder notes.

Related: Why Accounting Skills Are Indispensable for Entrepreneurs

Streamlining the business’s messaging was also key

TutorD used Intuit’s MailChimp, an email and marketing automation platform for growing businesses, to streamline its communications.

Not only did the platform make it easier for people to get in touch with TutorD, but it also helped cultivate a sense of presence — making the business seem bigger than it was, Bailey says.

 ”We’re a team of five right now, and we’re dealing with other companies that are 200, 500 people strong,” Bailey explains. “And they have $20 million backed by different investors. [MailChimp] helped us appear bigger than we are to compete in the market and with other edtech companies.”

Related: How to Streamline Your Company’s Internal Messaging and Communication

Leaning on mentors helped during tough times

The business coach that Bailey connected with through Zella Life also became an integral part of TutorD’s journey.

Having a support system in place was invaluable as Bailey juggled the challenges of growing a business with major life events, he says.

“My father passed away, and my baby came, and I had an injury, all in a three-month span,” Bailey says. “My coach had also lost his mother around that time, so we [had a] really deep connection, and he was able to help.”

Related: How to Evolve From Manager to Mentor and Create a Lasting Impact in Your Organization

Bailey says that the IDEAS program put TutorD in the position to scale — and gave him and his team the confidence to talk to people about their journey.

Advice for young entrepreneurs

Bailey encourages other young, aspiring entrepreneurs to never stop learning, seek out opportunities where there’s a need and ability to create value, connect with other founders who can serve as mentors, and leverage the community to help lay the foundation for business success.

He’s also excited to see people embracing the “triple bottom line,” which tracks a business’s financial, social and environmental performance — and suggests anyone considering the leap to founder do the same.

“ People are waking up to [the fact that] it’s not just about making money and some infinitely growing, making-money approach to entrepreneurship and capitalism in general, but really looking at it with a triple bottom line approach, generating sustainable profit or revenue for yourself, your family, business and shareholders, but also making an impact in the community,” Bailey says.

Join top CEOs, founders and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue and building sustainable success.

Are you nearing retirement age?

Career resources platform Resume Genius released a new report this week, the 10 Best Jobs for Older People in 2025, which reveals the 10 best-paying jobs for adults aged 55 and older, based on high salaries, low physical labor demands, and high job growth.

The company used data from the BLS’s Labor Force Statistics Current Population Survey, O*NET Online, and the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook to create the report using several parameters, including removing jobs with salaries lower than $49,500 and roles that require education higher than a Bachelor’s degree. The occupations listed also had to have at least 100,000 employees who were 55 or older.

Related: Here Are the 10 Highest-Paying Jobs with the Lowest Risk of Being Replaced By AI: ‘Safest Jobs Right Now’

In the top spot was sales managers, who lead sales teams and work to improve customer reach, according to the report. The job requires low physical activity and pays a median hourly wage of $66.38. Other professions in the top five were accountants and auditors. These jobs ask professionals to analyze budgets and file taxes, and are well-suited for older adults because they offer flexible work schedules, such as seasonal tax work and consulting.

“Experience is highly valued across industries, and many employers are seeking older candidates to step into leadership or managerial roles,” Resume Genius Career Expert Nathan Soto shared in a press release. “Don’t be afraid to venture into fields beyond your previous career; your skills may be more transferable than you realize.”

Here are the 10 best jobs for older adults, according to Resume Genius.

1. Sales managers

Median hourly wage: $66.38

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 6%

2. Computer systems analysts

Median hourly wage: $49.90

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 11%

3. Management analysts

Median hourly wage: $48.65

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 11%

4. Accountants and auditors

Median hourly wage: $39.27

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 6%

Related: ‘Good Career Move’: These 10 Jobs Will Most Likely Get Raises This Year

5. Social and community service managers

Median hourly wage: $37.61

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 8%

6. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing

Median hourly wage: $35.63

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 1%

7. Property, real estate, and community association managers

Median hourly wage: $32.07

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 3%

8. Food service managers

Median hourly wage: $31.40

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 2%

Related: These Are the Most In-Demand Jobs for 2025, According to a New Report

9. Insurance sales agents

Median hourly wage: $29.02

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 6%

10. Real estate brokers and sales agents

Median hourly wage: $28.35

Estimated job growth (2023-2033): 2%

Let’s be honest: Most of what we call artificial intelligence today is really just pattern-matching on autopilot. It looks impressive until you scratch the surface. These systems can generate essays, compose code and simulate conversation, but at their core, they’re predictive tools trained on scraped, stale content. They do not understand context, intent or consequence.

It’s no wonder then that in this boom of AI use, we’re still seeing basic errors, issues and fundamental flaws that lead many to question whether the technology really has any benefit outside its novelty.

These large language models (LLMs) aren’t broken; they’re built on the wrong foundation. If we want AI to do more than autocomplete our thoughts, we must rethink the data it learns from.

Related: Despite How the Media Portrays It, AI Is Not Really Intelligent. Here’s Why.

The illusion of intelligence

Today’s LLMs are usually trained on Reddit threads, Wikipedia dumps and internet content. It’s like teaching a student with outdated, error-filled textbooks. These models mimic intelligence, but they cannot reason anywhere near human level. They cannot make decisions like a person would in high-pressure environments.

Forget the slick marketing around this AI boom; it’s all designed to keep valuations inflated and add another zero to the next funding round. We’ve already seen the real consequences, the ones that don’t get the glossy PR treatment. Medical bots hallucinate symptoms. Financial models bake in bias. Self-driving cars misread stop signs. These aren’t hypothetical risks. They’re real-world failures born from weak, misaligned training data.

And the problems go beyond technical errors — they cut to the heart of ownership. From the New York Times to Getty Images, companies are suing AI firms for using their work without consent. The claims are climbing into the trillions, with some calling them business-ending lawsuits for companies like Anthropic. These legal battles are not just about copyright. They expose the structural rot in how today’s AI is built. Relying on old, unlicensed or biased content to train future-facing systems is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. It locks us into brittle models that collapse under real-world conditions.

A lesson from a failed experiment

Last year, Claude ran a project called “Project Vend,” in which its model was put in charge of running a small automated store. The idea was simple: Stock the fridge, handle customer chats and turn a profit. Instead, the model gave away freebies, hallucinated payment methods and tanked the entire business in weeks.

The failure wasn’t in the code. It was during training. The system had been trained to be helpful, not to understand the nuances of running a business. It didn’t know how to weigh margins or resist manipulation. It was smart enough to speak like a business owner, but not to think like one.

What would have made the difference? Training data that reflected real-world judgment. Examples of people making decisions when stakes were high. That’s the kind of data that teaches models to reason, not just mimic.

But here’s the good news: There’s a better way forward.

Related: AI Won’t Replace Us Until It Becomes Much More Like Us

The future depends on frontier data

If today’s models are fueled by static snapshots of the past, the future of AI data will look further ahead. It will capture the moments when people are weighing options, adapting to new information and making decisions in complex, high-stakes situations. This means not just recording what someone said, but understanding how they arrived at that point, what tradeoffs they considered and why they chose one path over another.

This type of data is gathered in real time from environments like hospitals, trading floors and engineering teams. It is sourced from active workflows rather than scraped from blogs — and it is contributed willingly rather than taken without consent. This is what is known as frontier data, the kind of information that captures reasoning, not just output. It gives AI the ability to learn, adapt and improve, rather than simply guess.

Why this matters for business

The AI market may be heading toward trillions in value, but many enterprise deployments are already revealing a hidden weakness. Models that perform well in benchmarks often fail in real operational settings. When even small improvements in accuracy can determine whether a system is useful or dangerous, businesses cannot afford to ignore the quality of their inputs.

There is also growing pressure from regulators and the public to ensure AI systems are ethical, inclusive and accountable. The EU’s AI Act, taking effect in August 2025, enforces strict transparency, copyright protection and risk assessments, with heavy fines for breaches. Training models on unlicensed or biased data is not just a legal risk. It is a reputational one. It erodes trust before a product ever ships.

Investing in better data and better methods for gathering it is no longer a luxury. It’s a requirement for any company building intelligent systems that need to function reliably at scale.

Related: Emerging Ethical Concerns In the Age of Artificial Intelligence

A path forward

Fixing AI starts with fixing its inputs. Relying on the internet’s past output will not help machines reason through present-day complexities. Building better systems will require collaboration between developers, enterprises and individuals to source data that is not just accurate but also ethical as well.

Frontier data offers a foundation for real intelligence. It gives machines the chance to learn from how people actually solve problems, not just how they talk about them. With this kind of input, AI can begin to reason, adapt and make decisions that hold up in the real world.

If intelligence is the goal, then it is time to stop recycling digital exhaust and start treating data like the critical infrastructure it is.