The Infusion Therapy Cost Employers Can’t See, and How to Find It
BY Ade Akin November 04, 2026A self-funded health plan paid about $9,000 for one employee’s infusion therapy treatment. Eight weeks later, the patient returned for the same infusion, and the claim came back at $97,000. The drug never changed. The billing did.Price swings like this hide inside many employer health plans. Specialty medications now make up more than half of medical benefit spending, yet more than 61% of employers haven’t fully addressed site of care, one of their biggest levers for cost management, according to research by Local Infusion. That gap framed a From Day One’s webinar about “The Infusion Therapy Cost Hiding in Your Health Plan, and What to Do About It.” Neil Kennish and Renee Lizotte, both directors of growth and employer partnerships at Local Infusion, a specialty infusion provider, walked benefits and HR leaders through how to identify hidden costs in their own claims data.A Small Group Drives Outsized SpendSpecialty infusion refers to medications, mostly biologics, that patients receive through an intravenous (IV) line or injection in a clinical setting, usually on a recurring schedule. Site of care means where that infusion happens: most often a hospital outpatient department or an ambulatory center built for infusions. “The drug is the same in either place. What changes is the setting,” Kennish said.Neil Kennish, director of growth and employer partnerships at Local Infusion, spoke during the webinar (company photo)Infusion therapy costs have risen about 26% year after year, says Kennish. A handful of plan members drives an outsized share of that spending. Across a typical population, about 1.5% of members account for 42% of total spend, while about 80% account for just 15%. “One or two members can dramatically move your entire year,” Kennish said.He estimates that a health plan with about 5,000 members could save as much as $1.5 million by managing where its members receive specialty infusions.Why the Cost Stays HiddenEmployers see the claim, but not the drug’s actual cost. Each claim rolls the drug’s purchase price, the provider’s margin, and any margin from third-party navigators into one figure. Under the “buy and bill” model, the provider buys the drug and bills the plan, and each layer adds margin.“That’s not an accusation. That’s just how the system is built, but it means two plans can pay very different amounts for the exact same drug in the exact same dose, and neither can easily see why that is,” Kennish said.He points to a few reasons the cost goes unnoticed. Infusion affects fewer than 2% of members, so it never triggers a population-wide alert. Some bills read like visits and services, which steers the conversation toward utilization instead of price and place. The category compounds quickly while other medical expenses draw attention. And most employers never check for site-of-care gaps. “Nobody was told to check, so nobody did,” Kennish said.A live poll conducted during the webinar backed up his point: roughly three-quarters of attendees said they weren’t sure what share of their plan’s spending goes to specialty infusion.Lower Prices Does Not Mean Lesser CareRenee Lizotte, director of growth and partnerships at Local Infusion, spoke with Kennish during the webinar (company photo)Lizotte rejects the assumption that a cheaper setting means weaker care. “There are no significant differences in the quality between the hospital outpatient setting and alternative sites,” she said.Patients managing chronic conditions want shorter visits, a dedicated team, and a calmer setting, Lizotte adds. Conversely, delays and fragmented care can worsen symptoms and increase absenteeism.She read a testimonial from a Local Infusion patient. “What I love most is that it feels like a little retreat where I can relax, get my treatment, and feel completely comfortable,” the patient wrote.Where a Provider Model FitsKennish describes Local Infusion, which pairs healthcare technology with clinical care, as a provider rather than a vendor or navigator. The company owns scheduling and prior authorization and employs its own nurses. “We are where the care happens, not the company you call when care isn’t happening,” Kennish said.Local Infusion schedules members within three days of a referral, compared with the industry average of three weeks or more. That speed shapes patient outcomes: a missed infusion for someone with multiple sclerosis or Crohn’s disease often means a flare, which could lead to an emergency room visit.“The cost goes down because the care is better, not in spite of it,” Kennish added. Local Infusion operates roughly 75 clinics across 15 states, along the East Coast and into the Midwest and Texas, and coordinates nationwide home infusion for members outside its clinic areas. Kennish suggests lowering member cost share at alternate sites, even to $0, to give employees a reason to switch without a mandate.Steps to Take This QuarterKennish laid out steps employers can take without a vendor. First, request the data. Ask your third-party administrator or carrier for a report on what the plan spent on drugs under its medical benefit over the last 12 to 24 months. Ask for it broken down by J code, which identifies each drug, and by place of service, which shows where patients received it. “You don’t need member-level data to see a really strong pattern,” Kennish emphasized.Then, vet your options. Evaluate vendors using the five questions Lizotte suggests asking any site-of-care provider: Who owns the execution? What are the quality standards? Who is covered? How long before you go live? What changes to my plan are required?When a third-party administrator or carrier is slow to hand over claims data, Lizotte says employers have a strong case for insisting on it. “All self-funded employers are fiduciaries of their plan, and they have responsibility to do what’s best for the plan assets,” she said. At minimum, she says, a list of J codes gives a provider enough to start a savings analysis.As for Kennish’s $1.5 million estimate, he offered it with a caveat. “That number isn’t a promise, but it is a reason to look,” he said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Local Infusion, for sponsoring this webinar. Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by OlenaMykhaylova/iStock)
Getting Cancer Care Right: A New Lens on Total Cost
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski November 03, 2026Cancer remains one of the fastest-growing and most unpredictable drivers of healthcare spending. Managing these costs requires more than simply reducing expenses. It also means ensuring patients receive the right care from the start.This was the topic of discussion during a From Day One webinar featuring Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, FASCO, chief medical officer at AccessHope, and Peter Bridges, chief strategy and corporate development officer at AccessHope, who discussed how to get cancer care right. AccessHope, as an employer-sponsored cancer support benefit, connects employees as well as their local oncologists with subspecialist expertise from various National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers. “As many of you probably know, 80% of cancer care is delivered in the community by local treating oncologists,” said Bridges. “AccessHope exists to give people access to that incredible subspecialist expertise from individuals working on the main campuses of some of the most prestigious and elite institutions in the cancer world,” he continued.AccessHope wants to make sure cancer care is delivered correctly. In fact, in 8 out of 10 cases that are reviewed by AccessHope, there is an evidence-based, more effective treatment approach identified, says Bridges. As for how cancer care is currently showing up in the benefits strategy of organizations, a poll held during the webinar showed that a large majority, about 40%, have it on their radar but not yet a priority and the other majority.Why Cancer Is an Expensive and Complex DiseaseBefore employers can gain visibility into cancer spending, they first need to understand why cancer is one of the most expensive and complex conditions in a benefits portfolio.Zafar had some thoughts on this. He stated the cancer population is changing and it’s getting younger. There is an increasing incidence, colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among individuals 50 and younger, and the cancer in younger patients is also more biologically aggressive.There’s a hidden risk in the workforce: “45% of cancer occurs in working-age adults,” said Zafar. This relates to individuals with an approximate age range of 20 to 64. The reasons for this statistic have been related to the workforce aging, the rise of early-onset cancers, and survivorship extending the cost tail. Dr. Yosuf Zafar and Peter Bridges of AccessHope led the webinar (photo by From Day One)Another factor contributing to the complexity and expense of cancer care is the knowledge gap around treatment. The pace of innovation, new treatment options, care management challenges, and secondary impacts can all create gaps in care. When a webinar attendee asked why a single cycle of outpatient chemotherapy could cost $85,000, Zafar explained that the expense can reflect both the drug itself and the costs associated with administering it, including infrastructure, staffing, facility fees, and professional fees.Diagnostic testing is another factor driving the cost and complexity of cancer care. Newer drugs often require companion diagnostic tests, adding to the overall cost and complexity of treatment. Genomic testing, meanwhile, is both overused and underused, with only one-third of cancer patients receiving appropriate testing. Community oncologists may also lack the guidance or expertise needed to interpret and apply these newer tests effectively.As a result, the gaps lead to care inequities. For example, 60% of cancer treatment is guideline-concordant, there’s different care quality based on where this care is delivered, and studies have shown that NCI-CCC’s have better outcomes, but only 20% of such cancer care is delivered there. “This is really what we do at AccessHope is we bring the care from these ivory tower centers into the community without the patient having to move,” said Zafar.As for what contributes to the cost and complexity in cancer care, Zafar stated inequity is a significant contributor. “We conducted a study that was peer reviewed and published last year that looked at the kind of recommendations we were making and who we were making those recommendations to and where that member lived, and what we found was members who were most likely to receive a change in care recommendation from us were most likely to live in areas of greatest socioeconomic deprivation,” said Zafar. “And what we do in our model is try to alleviate that inequity to the greatest extent possible.”AI also entered the conversation. In an NBC News poll, results showed that Americans believe AI could have a positive impact on healthcare. “I firmly believe that AI by itself, particularly in cancer, is insufficient because what cancer requires is not just that molecular knowledge that AI is going to give us way better than I can any day, but it requires judgment, it requires application of values for the patient, and it requires accountability,” said Zafar. “And that’s what cancer care requires today.”“AI is not able to give that, but when you have a human working alongside AI, you get those three characteristics, which lead to relationships, and that's what's so important in cancer care today,” he said. The AccessHope ProcessThe AccessHope team follows a defined process to support individuals with cancer. It begins by identifying patients who may benefit from a review through claims data, either by reaching out to the member directly or having the member contact them, though the latter is less common. After applying initial eligibility criteria, the team obtains the patient’s medical records for review by an NCI subspecialist. The subspecialist then prepares a report for the AccessHope team, which shares the findings with the patient’s local oncologist.So, how does AccessHope measure outcome impact? The company follows the claims record to determine whether or not a recommendation was adopted and only applies the savings in their financial model once they have validated evidence of recommendation adoption.To determine whether a change in costs resulted from AccessHope or another factor, the team evaluates two things: whether its recommendation was implemented and the economic value of that implementation. The team establishes a timeframe for adoption and reviews medical notes to verify whether the recommendation was followed. To assess the financial impact, independent actuarial partners use a model that evaluates what portion of the cost change can be attributed to the recommendation and assigns an economic value to that change.So, how can employee benefits leaders stay current with the emerging trends discussed here? Zafar says as an oncologist at AccessHope, he always wants to serve as a resource for their clients with questions and feels that employee benefit leaders may find answers they seek from the partners and vendors they work with to better understand the cancer space.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, AccessHope, for sponsoring this webinar. Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in the Bucks County Herald, Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish.(Photo by Anon Pitipong/iStock)
The Oversight Illusion: Rethinking “Human in the Loop”
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza November 03, 2026The common refrain among HR leaders integrating artificial intelligence into their workflows is that they always keep a “human in the loop”—a statement meant to reassure legal teams, business leaders, and employees alike that a real person is checking the work.But what is that human actually doing?“Humans in the loop is a necessary but insufficient condition,” said Ken Matos, PhD, director of market insights at HR tech platform HiBob. “Everybody can say ‘there’s a human here,’ but can that human actually affect anything?”Having a person involved might seem like a safeguard, but if the work moves too quickly for the human to keep up, or that person isn’t qualified to review output—the safeguard becomes a scapegoat, or, at worst, a liability.Just because a person is licensed to drive a car doesn’t mean they’re qualified to inspect that car before it leaves the factory floor.Kenneth Matos, Ph.D. the Director of Insights Lab at HiBob, spoke during the webinar (company photo)And even if they are qualified, there’s only so much they can do. Imagine asking someone to inspect 50 cars in three minutes. “If the AI is making a decision every 30 microseconds, it doesn’t really matter if a human’s there,” said Matos. “If you want to have a human in the loop, you need to make sure that the loop moves at a speed where the person can process what’s happening and that they are able to interfere with that loop.”During a From Day One webinar on rethinking the notion of having a “human in the loop” when it comes to AI, Matos challenged HR leaders to think more critically about what human oversight looks like, and what it takes to make it work.Rewarding Accuracy vs. Rewarding SpeedOne question leaders should ask is whether they’re rewarding speed or accuracy.Think about a car maker. If workers are rewarded for speed and penalized for stopping production, an error could be repeated for hours, producing hundreds of cars that aren’t fit for purpose. But if quality is the priority, workers have a reason to stop the line and fix the problem.The same goes for AI workflows. If employees are under pressure to work faster, how likely are they to stop and question an AI-generated result? And if they do catch a mistake, do they have the authority to do anything about it? Otherwise, the human in the loop may be little more than a scapegoat.Can Employees Spot the Mistakes?HiBob surveyed 1,200 decision-makers about what AI skills they consider most valuable for their non-technical employees. At the top of the list was proactive output review. Can employees confirm that AI-generated results are accurate? Did they document workflows for consistency? Did they appropriately handle sensitive information?“It’s all about judgment, reliability, and governed execution,” Matos said.But AI makes it possible to produce work you don’t necessarily understand. Someone might use AI to create a graph, for example, but struggle to explain what it shows. This makes reviewing the work especially important. Yet when speed is the priority, employees may have little choice but to rely on spot checks. But spot checks aren’t always enough. Matos gave the example of a company that made layoffs based on an AI analysis of productivity scores. The analysis didn’t account for medical leave, so employees who had been out of work received low scores and were let go. A thorough review might have caught the fact that previously high-performing workers were rated at the bottom of the list. A spot check didn’t catch it.How Many Jobs Can One Person Do?Some leaders are using AI to fold specialized tasks into other jobs. If AI can handle much of the work, why not give one employee several responsibilities? But there’s a limit to how much any one person can reasonably take on, even when that work is carried out by agents.“Just how many roles can we squeeze into one person before it’s just too much, and they’re not doing it well?” Matos said. “Have I asked this person to do too many jobs? Can I get one employee to do risk management and set out the standards that everyone else follows, or am I expecting everybody to be an independent risk management expert?”Not everyone needs to become an expert. Matos suggested that peer mentoring may be a better approach. Companies might identify a handful of employees who understand AI and how it applies to their work, then give them time to keep learning and share what they know, freeing their colleagues to focus on the AI skills they actually need, rather than trying to become experts in a technology that’s constantly changing.Keeping a human in the loop should mean having someone who can question the work, not simply approve it. That’s especially important when tools can produce convincing answers even when they’re wrong. As Matos observed, “AI is really good at sounding correct, much better than it is at being correct.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, HiBob, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by triloks/iStock)
Building and Recruiting Leadership for an AI-Ready Future
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza November 02, 2026The job of a leader is getting harder, and companies aren’t doing enough to prepare them, said Miguel Oliveira, head of culture and leadership at CPG company Danone, during a From Day One webinar on building leadership for an AI-ready future.“I remember the days when you would have a wave of change, and then things would calm down,” Oliveira said. “What you have right now is a wave over a wave over a wave, and the pace, the intensity is very hard, and there is no time for recovery.” Companies, he says, often forget that leaders are employees too.Leaders are expected to help employees embrace AI while still figuring out the implications for their own work. And as companies begin redesigning jobs—and entire teams—around AI, durable leadership skills may matter more than technical expertise.Leading by Example in AI AdoptionOne of the biggest challenges facing leaders is addressing employees’ anxiety around artificial intelligence, particularly its long-term implications for their job security.Robert Foster, who leads workforce strategy and HR operations at Amtrak, is helping his team leads rethink their relationship with AI. Rather than asking how the technology might jeopardize their jobs, Foster encourages them to consider how it might improve them. By identifying opportunities for automation and efficiency, teams can free up time for work that stretches their skills and advances their careers. “As a leader myself, I think it’s my responsibility to help educate others,” he said.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, journalist and From Day One contributing editor, moderated the panel (photo by From Day One)But the walk must match the talk. Leaders also need to demonstrate what working with AI can do. Panelists agreed that leaders can make AI less intimidating by experimenting with it themselves and sharing what they learn. Sukhmani Grewal, principal solution architect at organizational technology platform SHL, said that companies already seeing success with AI are those fostering internal champions who share their knowledge with colleagues, making the benefits both immediate and tangible.Rethinking Work and Leadership As employees incorporate AI into their workflows, the responsibilities of leaders are changing.“I think AI actually elevates the leader’s role,” said Josh Cotton, director of talent assessments and AI at technology manufacturing firm Honeywell. As employees increasingly work alongside AI, leaders will be responsible for managing a new type of workforce, and those who already know how to run effective teams may be best at leading those that blend humans and agents.“AI collaboration is a key development need,” said SHL’s Grewal. The organizations making the most progress aren’t only investing in new technology, they’re developing their people’s capabilities alongside it, including the ability to experiment, learn, and redesign workflows.At cloud communications platform Twilio, HR leaders have been working with teams to identify where AI could take over certain tasks, said Julie Drake, SVP of people and programs. They quickly learned that some teams were more AI-ready than others. Rather than push for enterprise-level changes, Drake decided to work with individual teams at their own pace, helping them identify where the technology could be most useful. Twilio has since doubled down on developing skills like critical thinking and AI literacy in its leaders. “It’s kind of like org design 101,” she said. “You start with the work, not the people.” The exercise has also highlighted the importance of collaboration among HR, IT, operations, finance, and business. Identifying opportunities for AI is of little value if teams don’t have the technology or resources to act on them.Ultimately, the changing nature of work doesn’t mean leaders must become AI experts themselves. Their responsibility is to create the right conditions. “The leader doesn’t have to be the one who’s most skilled in the room,” said Cotton at Honeywell. “They just have to create the environment where the people who are figuring out how to navigate it are being encouraged, rewarded, promoted, and protected.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, for sponsoring this webinar.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Parradee Kietsirikul/iStock)
How Coaching Builds Change Fitness in Leaders and Organizations
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 30, 2026Business leaders are well aware of the new paradigm: Change is no longer a discrete event but an ongoing state of being. Yet even as they recognize that the pace of change isn’t slowing, many continue to rely on traditional models of change management.A few years ago, Michael Hudson was taking a walk with his mentor when he remarked that he couldn’t wait for things to return to normal after the turbulent years of Covid. “She quickly corrected me and said, ‘Michael, wake up. Things are not going back to normal.’”Leaders need a philosophical shift, said Hudson, CEO of the Hudson Institute of Coaching. “We all have to come to terms with the idea that change is not an event. It’s like the weather. It’s all around us, it’s shifting, it’s perennial.” Treating change as an isolated event rather than a constant condition makes it tempting to resist, reverse, or at least control it.During a From Day One webinar on how coaching can build change fitness in leaders and organizations, Hudson outlined an alternative approach. “I’m interested in metabolizing change,” he said, “working with it, engaging with change in order to turn it into things that are useful to us, like learning and growth and innovation.”Getting Comfortable with the UnknownFor leaders accustomed to having the answers, admitting they don’t can be uncomfortable. But in the midst of disruption, clarity isn’t always possible, Hudson said. The expectation that leaders should have all the answers is “an outdated model of leadership, and it gets us into trouble. If we’re relying on one person to analyze data, come up with a plan, and execute it through their team, we’re missing the opportunity to engage.”Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the session with Michael Hudson of Hudson Institute of Coaching (photo by From Day One)Rather than striving for certainty, leaders should cultivate confidence in the direction they're taking, “like navigating with a compass instead of a map.”That requires transparency, even in the absence of information. Leaders should be candid about what they know, what they don't know, and when employees can expect updates. Otherwise, employees will fill the vacuum with their own assumptions and stories.Updating the Change Paradigm for the a Constantly Changing WorldTraditional change-management models treat disruption like an inconvenience to be managed, Hudson said. Leaders make a plan, execute it, and return to business as usual, relying on complex systems of Gantt charts to track progress.“Missing from this is human beings, the human beings who need to come along with the plan, who need to buy into it, believe in it, be inspired by it,” he said. “The human beings who, if they are not brought along, will undermine the plan without even intending to, because they haven’t been involved or because they’re afraid of it.”Hudson advocates developing three key leadership capacities: contain, connect, and conduct.First, leaders must contain, acknowledging and engaging with their employees’ emotional responses to change. Layoffs, for instance, are upsetting, and leaders shouldn’t pretend otherwise. Inviting employees to express their feelings can be uncomfortable, particularly when those feelings are negative. But “by not doing it, those feelings go underground,” Hudson said. “It undermines everything that follows.”Next, leaders must connect, helping their teams make meaning from change. This begins with what Hudson calls “crowdsourcing information,” though it’s not simply a data-gathering exercise. Rather, it’s to understand the different perspectives within an organization. Leaders may assume their interpretation of the facts is the correct one, overlooking how differently employees can experience and interpret the same circumstances.Finally, leaders must conduct, helping their teams move forward despite uncertainty. Rather than simply refining old ideas and approaches, leaders should encourage new ways of thinking. As Hudson put it, “what we need in disruption is possibility thinking.” That means abandoning the familiar five- or ten-year plan in favor of a more adaptable approach.The control that traditional change-management models promise is an illusion. By engaging with uncertainty rather than fighting it, leaders can turn disruption into an opportunity for learning and innovation.Change is messy, and even leaders committed to a new approach will sometimes fall back on old habits. “So we need to have some grace for ourselves and others around how challenging this is,” Hudson said.For that reason, he prefers the idea of maturity over mastery. Mastery suggests a finish line at which leaders have learned everything they need to know about navigating change. But maturity recognizes that the work of adapting and growing in the midst of change, it never really ends.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Hudson Institute of Coaching, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by narvo vexar/iStock)
Getting Holiday Recognition Right: Creating Meaningful Moments That Bring Employees Together
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski October 28, 2026The holiday season offers an opportunity to recognize the people who keep your business running and show appreciation for their contributions throughout the year.Tray Ross, VP of growth at Corporate Traditions, shared how organizations can make holiday recognition more meaningful during a From Day One webinar, discussing how choice-based gifting can help companies show appreciation for the people behind their success.So, how can employers create this holiday recognition that has both a personal feeling and one that’s impactful at scale?Ross said there’s a four-question test that can be used to create the ideal holiday recognition plan for your team and includes the following questions: “Is it simple? Is it scalable? Is it personable? And can you scale it to where it’ll recognize all of the employees in every part of the business?”“As you know, the holidays are the one time of year where the employees are expecting their company to show up, and unfortunately, we still get things wrong a lot of the time,” said Ross. “We do a one-size-fits-all, whether that’s swag items or maybe we do holiday pies for everybody, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we get everybody a Costco pumpkin pie, and then there's 25% of your workforce that absolutely can’t stand pumpkin pie.”“So, the whole goal is making sure that we provide more options,” said Ross. “Once employees have the option to be able to choose exactly what they want, they’re going to be more excited because they get what they want, and then we turn you into being the hero and guarantee to make sure that you stay on budget, which is always the most important thing in all of this.”Holiday recognition can take many forms, from branded swag and catered meals to cash bonuses. The key is choosing something inclusive that workers actually want and that can reach everyone, including remote team members, without creating a logistical burden.Tray Ross is VP of Growth at Corporate Traditions, where he helps People leaders turn new hire onboarding and employee recognition into a competitive advantage (company photo)Corporate Traditions works to check all of these boxes. “One of the benefits of Corporate Traditions is that we make all of the gifting simple for you,” said Ross. “One of our flagship programs is an all-in-one gift certificate. So you can send these out to all of your employees, and then the employee can choose exactly what they want that guarantees you stay on budget.”You’re giving workers something they actually want and will use, says Ross. Company-branded swag can be a nice gesture, but it may not be something people reach for regularly. “That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” said Ross. “It’s allowing employees to choose something that they want right off of their wish list instead of something that they’re never going to use.”Team leaders should brainstorm holiday recognition ideas early while awaiting budget approval. Digital gift cards make distribution quick and easy, letting workers choose what they want while ensuring everyone feels appreciated for their contributions throughout the year.Ross also said to remember to customize the gift and use the employee’s first name for personalization. “Just the sweetest sound in any language is a person’s first name,” said Ross. “So, the more that we can leverage someone’s first name, it’s going to add that personal note.”Corporate Traditions offers various holiday recognition options, such as the Gift Card+, where employees can choose from gift cards of all types; GiftYouPick, which enables employees to choose physical gifts with a budget from a wish list off of their favorite online store and get them shipped right to their door; and turkey and grocery vouchers. “They’re all dollar for dollar, meaning if you had a budget of $25, you can get your employees a $25 Gift Card+ or GiftYouPick certificate, or a $25 valued grocery voucher.”In the end, holiday recognition is about showing your employees that you are thankful for all that they do as part of the team. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Corporate Traditions, for sponsoring this webinar. Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in the Bucks County Herald, Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish.(Photo by miniseries/iStock)
Study Finds One in Three Shoppers Is Open to AI Gift Ideas This Holiday Season
BY Grace Turney October 27, 2026More than one-third of U.S. consumers are very or extremely willing to use an AI tool or chatbot for holiday gift recommendations, according to a Gartner survey. The results suggest AI is emerging as a stop on the path to purchase, one that could influence which products shoppers consider before they ever reach a retailer’s website.Even though consumers are interested in AI, they are not giving up their previous shopping habits. According to Gartner, retailer websites, traditional internet searches, and friends’ and family wish lists are still the most frequently used sources of inspiration for holiday shopping. Stores and Amazon are still expected to be the main places for making purchases, with 77% of consumers intending to shop in stores and 75% planning to buy things on Amazon.The more significant figure is the number of sources that people who use AI consult. Shoppers who currently make use of AI tools to get holiday ideas look at an average of 4.48 sources, whereas those who don’t do so look at 3.24. People using AI are doing more research, not less.As Emily Weiss, a senior principal analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, pointed out, “AI is beginning to establish a role in the holiday shopping journey, but it is not replacing the channels consumers already use. Consumers who use AI for holiday shopping are also consulting a wider range of other sources, meaning marketers should prepare for more fragmented discovery journeys.”The Gartner results support previous research from this year. As From Day One reported in August, Adobe discovered that 86% of consumers use AI when shopping, and the National Retail Federation found that 61% of back-to-school shoppers were using AI tools to look for prices, discounts, recommendations, and ideas.Shoppers also appear to want to stay in control of the final purchase. Adobe’s Vivek Pandya said consumers were comfortable going back and forth with an AI agent, then returning through paid search or social media to buy “with more confidence.”Weiss warned that AI should not be regarded as a separate and self-contained channel. “Marketers should not treat AI shopping tools as a standalone channel,” she said. “Consumers are layering AI onto existing shopping behaviors, making an already fragmented discovery journey even more complex.”She said products should be easy to discover and evaluate across AI tools, search, retailer websites, marketplaces, and stores. In practice, that means product information, pricing, and availability must be consistent across all platforms, so that AI doesn’t confuse shoppers with conflicting details.The lesson for this holiday season is that one third of shoppers being open to AI recommendations doesn’t mean that one third of the budget will go to AI recommendations. It means that brands now have one more place where they need to provide accurate information, just as they do in all the other places.Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, editor, artist, and former journalist and librarian. She holds a Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) and has nearly a decade of experience writing both full time and as a freelancer. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photo by lambada/iStock)
Will Women Get Left Behind in the AI Economy?
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 27, 2026“I’m working with a woman right now who’s the global head of data and analytics at a Fortune 10 company,” said Deepali Vyas, the sector head of AI and data at talent advisory ZRG. “She owns the entire AI roadmap, but her title, by the way, is just ‘data and analytics.’ They haven’t even updated the title yet.”Such a distinction matters in a job market where employers are eager to hire anyone with AI expertise. There’s a shortage of such talent, and companies may be overlooking great hires who don’t tout their deep AI experience, as well as those with non-technical backgrounds who have the transferable skills and the willingness to learn. Many of these people are female. To stay competitive, companies need to carefully monitor the gender demographics in their AI workforce.Women occupy only about one in four AI jobs worldwide, and they’re even more underrepresented in leadership, occupying just 15% of executive AI roles.There’s a universal gap in AI use in the workplace too—as much as a 22% disparity in use among men and women, according to one study out of Harvard Business School. Authors of the report argue that the barriers are myriad across institutions, companies, and society. Some women opt out of using AI at work because they don’t want to be seen as cheating or incompetent, some have ethical concerns, and others don’t have enough exposure to AI tools in their roles to make regular use of them.The imbalance threatens women’s earning potential, job mobility, and employability—and it threatens a company’s ability to build the AI-ready workforce it needs.The Cost of the AI Gender GapArtificial intelligence—generative AI, more specifically—threatens to displace women more than it does men. Women are overrepresented in roles likely to be overtaken by AI, like bookkeeping and customer service. Unless women upskill, they risk becoming less competitive in the market. Plus, fewer women in AI roles mean that AI models can perpetuate bias by omitting gender-diverse perspectives. One study out of Johns Hopkins University found that prompts that include language commonly used by women produce less sophisticated responses from ChatGPT than ones that include language often used by men.A new report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy found that there is a perception gap in which men are more likely to associate AI with curiosity and excitement while women associate it with concern and anxiety—skepticism that may be holding women back.The AI gender gap exposes a critical problem. “The study didn’t find that women were less competent using AI, only that they were less confident, often thanks to a lack of support in their workplace, but also because they trust it less overall,” Nancy Gibbs, Lombard Director of the Shorenstein Center and one of the study’s principal investigators, told From Day One. “That skepticism is a valuable part of a critical debate over AI safety, guardrails, value and uses. When women’s voices are missing from the spaces where decisions are made, we have less cause to trust those decisions.”There’s also the question of the earnings gap. Workers in roles that require AI make 62% more, on average, than those in roles that don’t require these skills. If AI-centric jobs remain male-dominated, the long-standing gender pay gap can widen even further. Women aren’t the only ones paying the price. Companies that overlook female talent can fail to build a universally AI-ready workforce and fall behind their competitors. So far, companies are eager to gobble up AI-literate talent. The number of entry-level roles requiring AI skills tripled between 2025 and 2026, and LinkedIn reports that both technical and non-technical jobs requiring AI skills grew 70% in the last year, now constituting a baseline for both technical and non-technical positions.The AI Talent Companies Are OverlookingVyas noted that some women aren’t giving themselves enough credit for how proficient they already are because using AI in daily workflows has become a standard expectation in some companies, like knowing how to use an email client or Microsoft Office, so they omit it from their resume or work sample—an omission that could cost them valuable opportunities.A few years ago, many companies had clearly defined gender diversity goals, said Vyas. Today, things are moving too quickly for companies to stop and think about the demographics of their workforce. AI-literate talent is in high demand across all departments, so most employers are just looking for anyone who knows what they’re doing, regardless of gender. “It’s like, ‘Who knows this stuff? And whoever knows it, we need to be all over them,’” she said.While most AI hires in 2026 are men, women are successfully entering technical AI roles through side doors, generally with more luck within a company than from without. In fact, many of the newest female hires to AI teams are former HR employees.“HR has been a little bit on the leading edge of this because of people analytics,” Vyas said. “They have a lot of data to work with, so a woman that has led data modernization or analytics in a complex product, like HRIS systems, can bring relevant capabilities even without the AI title.”But persistent misconceptions about the HR department, which has a lingering reputation for being non-technical, prevent some companies from considering resumes from the HR function for AI roles. “The best HR leaders that I know now are so freaking technical,” Vyas said.In a similar vein, at global software engineering company DataArt, some of the freshest technical talent has come from an unlikely place: the English classroom.Maryna Melnik, who leads learning and development, has seen employees who spent years teaching English retrain as business analysts and quality assurance engineers. Some had spent 15 years in education before deciding they wanted a new career.Stereotypes of who has the capabilities and who doesn’t are long-standing barriers to advancement for women entering traditionally male industries, but “you can’t define an AI leader as a copy of the person who held that power for you,” said Vyas. “A search can become really narrow when it starts with a really familiar resume—certain companies, certain schools, certain titles.” Women are winning where they’re given the opportunity to demonstrate their transferable skills and curiosity, and they must be allowed to climb up. Opening the door isn’t enough. The Alan Turing Institute found that even within the AI and data science fields found that “women are more likely than men to occupy a job associated with less status and pay in the data and AI talent pool, usually within analytics, data preparation and exploration, rather than the more prestigious jobs in engineering and machine learning.”One way to broaden that search is to evaluate candidates on what they can do, rather than where they’ve worked or which titles they’ve held. Adam Vassar, senior director of talent science & learning design at CodeSignal, which develops skills assessments and training programs, said such evaluations can give candidates opportunities to demonstrate capabilities that might not be evident on their resumes. “Hopefully it helps level the playing field in some way by giving any candidate a chance to showcase what they can do.”Internal mobility often requires some kind of skill mapping, and that’s how many women at DataArt have made the move from non-technical roles into technical ones. The company built skill matrices for all roles that include descriptions of the requisite AI skills and advice on how to develop them. “So if a junior HR team member wants to level up, they can check the skill matrix to learn what’s expected for more technical roles or ones on the production side of the business. Our HR colleagues were the first ones and the best,” said Melnik. “And then others followed.”DataArt is prioritizing investment in AI-native engineers because that’s the motor for their profit center, “but we deliberately didn’t stop there,” Melnik noted. “We invest in AI capability for our corporate functions at the same intensity as we invest for our engineers, and because those functions are predominantly women, that decision is what we can translate into equal opportunity.”Making AI Skills Pay OffBut even an objective assessment can reinforce disparities if women have fewer opportunities to acquire in-demand skills. “It’s one thing to evaluate, ‘Do you have it or not?’ But is that a result of some systematic lack of access to training?” Vassar said. “And then all we’re doing is keeping score on a larger problem.”AI could solve its own problem, at least in part. AI lets companies democratize learning by replacing expensive human instructors with on-demand-anywhere virtual modules, which means everyone, not just men already in tech roles, can develop new skills just by opting to do so. In fact, some experts advocate for truly universal access. Beth Simone Noveck, director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University, argued in a recent New York Times opinion piece that governments should train their entire workforce on AI use, so transformational is its widespread use.But companies must also have a culture that rewards those skills regardless of gender. Handing out AI tokens and free training modules doesn’t necessarily open new doors, nor does it reward learners for their new skills. Skill competency should be a documented criteria for promotions and pay raises, says Vyas. “If I save the company money, does that hit my bottom line? Do I get kudos for that in terms of compensation?”As AI reshapes the very nature of work, employers will determine whether existing disparities persist or begin to narrow. “Companies that are making decisions right now about who gets trained, who gets hired, who gets to lead AI, those choices are going to influence careers for the next number of years,” Vyas said. “Women need meaningful access to the work and the rewards and the decisions shaping the field.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Dragos Condrea/iStock)
Why the New Influencers Are People You Can Relate To
BY Lisa Lacy October 26, 2026Meet the new influencers: If the last wave was aspirational, the new wave is relatable. People like you, but with the kind of practical insights you’re looking for. The persona of celebrity endorsements is evolving again, as it has over the long history of brands borrowing star power from athletes, actors, and other stars. British actress Lillie Langtry became the face of Pears Soap in the 19th century, marking one of the first celebrity endorsements. Since then, a host of famous faces have followed her lead, from Florence Henderson pitching Wesson Oil, to Michael Jordan drinking Gatorade, and William Shatner becoming the Priceline Negotiator.The dawn of the internet and social media helped democratize influence by enabling everyday people like Michelle Phan and MrBeast to build and monetize their own audiences.Then, in 2024, Instagram changed its algorithm to highlight content from smaller creators, further challenging the notion that influence hinges on widespread fame and follower counts.“I think the way we’ve so far thought about influencer marketing is the way we’ve thought about media. And now we’re thinking of them almost like the creatives that work at your agency or in-house in your department and that’s such a big shift,” Mo Said, founder and creative director at ad agency Mojo Supermarket, told From Day One. There’s a lot at stake: research firm eMarketer estimates U.S. spending on influencer marketing will grow to $13.7 billion in 2027.Here are five trends shaping the industry—and how brands are responding.The Increasing Power of MicroinfluencersMarketers and audiences alike are looking for relatability, according to Karen Tran, principal analyst and CMO Advisor at research firm Forrester. That means “an everyday person who has some level of expertise, knowledge, lived experience that is relatable and valuable to the audiences that we are looking at. That’s what shifts them into having influence or the potential to have influence and that’s what we're seeing buyers trust more than anything,” she said.And microinfluencers, or content creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, are far more relatable to most consumers than high-flying celebrities. “I think that there’s a recognized disconnect [between] how those celebrities are living and do they have a true understanding of my needs, my life, my challenges?” Tran said.DuBose Cole, co-founder of the consultancy New Classic, agrees. “Influence previously ran on aspiration: audiences followed people whose lives they wanted,” he said. “Increasingly, as we face economic uncertainty, influence runs on relatability—people are most influenced by those whose lives have an element that looks like their own.”For his part, Said likened the status quo in influencer marketing to a movie production, which requires a few movie stars and a lot of other people. He pointed to DoorDash’s World Cup campaign. In it, British media personality and aspiring chef Brooklyn Beckham, who is estranged from his famous family, gave away World Cup tickets in host cities with the help of local microinfluencers.“Microinfluencers aren’t anything new. They’re old. But now, for the first time, we’re trying to be strategic with them,” Said said.Fit Over FollowersData from social-media management platform Sprout Social backs up this trend: Its 2026 Influencer Marketing Report found only 17% of consumers consider follower count when deciding whether to follow a creator. That’s in part because audience fit matters more than audience size. “We don’t just want to go to a smaller influencer or niche influencer because that’s what they are,” Tran said. “We want to ensure that we’re aligning influencers with the objectives that we have as marketers.”Instead of looking for influencers with the most followers, brands need to understand what their audience cares about and what they themselves are trying to achieve. “Sometimes a small follow count actually means a very specific area of expertise that could have an impact with very important people,” Tran added.For James McWhinney, founder of DTC bedding brand Premium Grounding, customers are the new creators. “Our best creator content does not come from people with the biggest audiences. It comes from people who already bought, liked the product and can explain it in their own words,” he said. “A customer with a few thousand followers who genuinely uses the product beats a polished creator reading a brief.”Brands Embrace Employee InfluencersIn recent years, we’ve seen headlines about employees turned influencers, from Tony Piloseno at Sherwin-Williams to Miriam Webb of Chick-fil-A and Kaeden Rowland, a/k/a Staples Baddie.While Piloseno was fired and Webb quit, Rowland has the support of her retail parent. “We’re incredibly proud of our associate, Kaeden, and the passion she brings to her work,” Staples chief marketing officer Bob Sherwin told Fast Company earlier this year. “It’s been exciting to see the positive response and enthusiasm she’s sparked.”The Sprout Social report underscored the power of employees like Piloseno, Webb and Rowland: 40% of consumers—and 62% of Gen Z consumers—discover products through employee-generated content at least monthly. “Employees are a unique group that have inside access to your company and can provide a level of expertise that buyers trust,” Tran said.Said pointed to Starbucks’ pilot program with TikTok for employee-generated content as another good example of what’s possible. “I think every company will do it,” he said.Famous Faces Still Have Their PlaceBut that’s not to say celebrities are totally passé.For example, corporate-spending platform Ramp recently tapped skateboarding legend Tony Hawk for its campaign titled Tony Stock: Pro Trader, demonstrating how even B2B brands can use celebrity appeal to generate attention beyond their traditional audiences.“I think there’s still a place for that level of influence and reach and excitement around the celebrity, but it’s kind of like advertising at the Super Bowl to some extent,” Forrester analyst Tran said. “For some brands, it makes total sense.”However, she cautioned this should be part of a bigger strategy—particularly in B2B, where purchases are large, buying cycles are lengthy, and risk aversion abounds.“I think that there’s a place for all kinds of influencers and creators,” she added.The most important aspect is whether the influencer is providing value to the audience and whether they’re being transparent. “I think it has to not be dictated by the brand, and the influencer or creator themselves has to determine what the right way to share the information will be to keep and maintain that trust with their audiences,” Tran said.AI Influencers Are Still an Open QuestionAs AI-generated content and search up the ante for trust and authenticity, what remains to be seen is whether AI influencers like Lil Miquela and Aitana will ever go mainstream alongside their human counterparts.Sprout Social found 44% of consumers still aren’t comfortable with AI influencers and Tran finds it unlikely they’ll gain traction—at least in B2B circles.“What a business buyer is really looking for is that very specific subject matter expertise and/or lived experience,” she said. “So if it’s an AI-generated influencer, I think that there’s going to be a lot of questioning about who’s behind this, how authentic it is, do I really trust this.”Lisa Lacy is a writer based in Atlanta. She has covered marketing and technology for more than a decade for publications like TechCrunch, CMO.com, VentureBeat, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, ClickZ and Search Engine Watch.(Photo by Urupong/iStock)
Recent Job Cuts Show Tech Layoffs Don’t Need an AI Story
BY Ade Akin October 22, 2026Netflix is cutting about 1,000 jobs, roughly 6% of its workforce, in its largest round of layoff in recent years. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the Netflix layoffs in an Oct. 14 memo to employees. Variety reported that the cuts hit the product, technology, legal, and HR teams hardest.Netflix’s announcement doesn’t cite AI as a reason for the cuts. Instead, the co-CEOs framed the workforce reduction as a matter of focus. “Our business is strong and growing, and we remain on track to deliver our full year forecast,” Sarandos and Peters wrote. The company needs to be “disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” they added, reports Variety.Netflix’s explanation stands apart from much of this year’s layoff data. Employers have cited AI in 120,136 announced U.S. job cuts through September, about 21% of the total and the most common reason given so far this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas data reported by Fast Company.Tech layoffs make up a large share of that total. Technology companies announced 165,925 job cuts through September, up 54% from the same period in 2025, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Older explanations haven’t gone away, though. In September alone, employers most often cited market and economic conditions for cuts, while AI ranked fifth.For HR leaders, these cuts carry a second twist. HR is one of the hardest-hit departments, which can stretch the remaining people tasked with guiding employees through the transition. While many employers point to AI, Netflix’s memo explained the cuts in plain business terms. As more companies cut staff for similar reasons, how clearly and quickly leaders explain those decisions may shape employee trust among the people who stay.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by peterhowell/iStock)
Beyond the All-Hands: How to Reach Every Employee, Every Time
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 22, 2026It’s easy to send a company-wide email. Getting employees to read it, and then do something with the information, is another matter entirely.As workforces become more dispersed, HR and communications leaders are finding that the traditional all-hands meeting is no longer enough. Reaching employees means understanding how they work and adapting communications accordingly. During a From Day One webinar on going beyond the traditional all-hands meeting, panelists share their strategies for reaching every employee effectively.“To avoid fragmentation, I focus mainly on a consistent message, multiple delivery methods, and strong governance,” said Jessica Mason, North American director of HR for printer manufacturer Heidelberg. “In HR, we partner with communications and business leaders, and we try to stay aligned. The ultimate part of doing that is to respect all regions.”That’s no small task. Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, which fall under her purview, use different systems. Teams in Mexico prefer WhatsApp, while the U.S. favors on-site TVs and the intranet, and Canada prefers email. To further complicate matters, each site is run by a different president, so Mason has to work within their preferences, too. And the company is headquartered in Germany. “It’s mainly about ensuring consistency of the message, timing, ownership, and expectations,” she said. “As long as employees are familiar with the outlet it’s coming from, they’ll read it, or they’ll listen to it, or they’ll watch it.”Yet companies should beware of channel sprawl, said Vincent Garcia, of employee communications platform LumApps. Fragmentation can create a “two-tier company culture gap” between desk workers and those on the front line. Garcia recommends having a single digital front door to deliver those messages across workforces and regions, which can save HR and comms teams time and energy, and keep workers from feeling inundated with information.Journalist and From Day One Contributing Editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the session (photo by From Day One)The message should ultimately dictate the channel, said Kishore GR, the head of HR at IT services firm Mphasis. During emergencies, like hurricanes, text messages allow leadership to quickly reach their teams, and vice versa. Broader announcements can be shared through email, digital signage, or leadership memos, while employees who can’t access their phones at work may need printed materials.The most consequential announcements require a heavy hand. “If it’s a change in business direction, if we are moving from an A way of selling to a B way of selling, then that has to be a little more intense after the traditional all-hands or top-down approach,” GR said. Smaller working groups can help contextualize those big changes for employees.Repetition is essential to getting messages across, said Tara Karver, who leads HR for the enterprise learning and skills business unit at Pearson. It might take someone hearing something seven times before it really sticks. Employees may need to hear the same information through Slack, email, and directly from their managers. But repetition alone isn’t enough. “The best way for people to retain information is through storytelling—the story of why we have to do this or why this is so important.”Timing matters, too. “Even if I’m hitting you in the flow of work, do you have the headspace to actually think through what I’m trying to tell you?” Karver said. “That’s why these multifaceted approaches are so important, because you never know.”I see the front line managers as the translators, even though the senior leaders bring the message to the workers,” said Mason of Heidelberg. “They’re the ones that build the trust in whatever we’re trying to convey, but comms isn’t always seen as part of a manager’s role,” she said, so “we have to keep instilling it in them.” For particularly complex or consequential messages, Mason hosts sessions with leaders across locations so they can ask questions of HR and senior leaders before they have to take the message to employees. Communications plans are often designed for desk workers, with frontline employees treated as a secondary audience. But different segments of the workforce need different platforms and approaches, said Garcia of LumApps. Especially as more Gen Zers enter the frontline workforce, employers should prioritize mobile-first communication. “We need to meet them more at the place where they look the most, which is their mobile device,” he said.Mason said Heidelberg’s frontline employees have made their preferences clear. “I asked ‘Okay, how can I best communicate with you?’ And they’re like, ‘Just give us the Cliff’s Notes version because we’re moving, we’re reading it, and we’re getting back to work.’”Communicating with remote employees presents a different challenge. At Pearson, where much of the workforce works remotely, traditional workplace channels aren’t always an option. “It’s not like I can put something in the snack room,” Karver said. Instead, Pearson uses virtual forums where employees can ask questions and hear directly from leadership. After a recent Q&A with the CEO, company leaders held their own sessions to directly field employee questions. “It’s one thing if it’s happening at the company level, but what is my manager saying?” Karver said. “Because that’s probably what I’m going to react to first.”Reaching employees is only half the challenge. How can HR leaders know if their messages are actually getting through? “Page views and open rates are purely vanity metrics, especially if the majority of your workforce is on the front line,” said Garcia. “If they just viewed a safety protocol or open enrollment updates, it tells you zero about what they actually understood and whether or not they complied with it.”Rather than measuring how many employees open or read a message, organizations should focus on behavior: Did they complete the requested task? Did they make the required change? Tracking those outcomes, Garcia said, gives employers a clearer picture of whether their communications are landing.Just as important is establishing feedback loops at every level of the organization to assess whether employees understand messages, adopt new tools, and benefit from changes, said GR of Mphasis. As technology evolves rapidly, keeping employees informed and gathering meaningful feedback is an ongoing challenge, but one that organizations can’t afford to overlook.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, LumApps, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock)
Rethinking Early Career Hiring: Turning High Volume Into High Confidence
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 22, 2026As recruiters sift through mountains of applications, often for a single job opening, hiring teams are finding it tough to preserve quality in a process that has become more and more about quantity.But high-volume recruiting doesn’t have to be impersonal recruiting. Especially when it comes to filling early career roles—where there is no shortage of interested applicants—finding capable, coachable hires can feel like an impossible task. Some recruiting experts are advocating for more meaningful assessments, long-term candidate relationships, and clear expectations around AI.Looking Beyond the Resume“Anybody can look good on paper, and there are so many tools that can help us do that,” said Jena Brown, director of global talent management at tech services firm Concentrix, during a From Day One webinar about rethinking high-volume early career hiring. She has reviewed candidates who’ve used AI to build their resumes, complete work samples, even respond to basic interview questions. “We have to be better with our human skills to distinguish what’s presentation and what’s capability.”Journalist and From Day One Contributing Editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the session (photo by From Day One)Because early career hires come with short resumes, recruiters have to probe for “how someone is thinking, how they learn, how they problem-solve, how they adapt, and how they communicate—and AI tooling cannot answer those questions for us always,” said Brown. Aside from reviewing a CV, her team uses behavioral and situational interview questions, virtual assessments, and face-to-face contact, pressing candidates for concrete examples and working through their thought processes.Keeping Hiring Human“I’ve been in university recruiting a long time, and as much as things have changed, they’ve really, in a lot of ways, stayed the same. We’re still going to campuses,” said Meredith Trotta, global director of university recruitment at cyber security company Veeam. “In the age of AI, authenticity is going to rule supreme.”Trotta said she’s more interested in having good conversations with serious candidates and forging long-term relationships than casting a wide net to catch as many applicants as possible.“I could name three students I met yesterday by their first names, and one of them’s already reached out,” said Trotta. “We’re really interested in quality over quantity because the quantity will come.”Volume threatens speed, and candidates are quickly frustrated by radio silence from employers. That’s where hiring teams can stand out. “We don’t want this to just be a moment in time,” said Francesca Jones, who leads talent acquisition at professional services firm EY. “This is a moment where they get to engage with us and think about our brand, even if it’s not at this moment, we want them to think about us in the future as well. That continues to be a reason why we spend so much time in this space. We just want to make sure that our direction of travel is clear and timely for them as soon as possible.”Jones uses virtual events to cover the basics about the company before meeting students on campus, freeing up on-campus time to focus on culture and the candidate experience rather than company presentations.Looking for Potential, Not Just Experience Early career candidates want face-to-face interactions with employers, but they’re also comfortable using AI to prepare their applications. That makes it especially important for employers to establish clear rules around acceptable AI use during the hiring process, says Kristen Cooper, director of solution architecture at SHL.Employers often send mixed signals when they prohibit applicants from using AI in the application process while requiring proficiency for the job itself. Fellow panelist Felix Martinez, GE Appliance’s director of talent acquisition, noted that “we know for a fact that they’re using AI in one way, shape, or form in the process. We also want them to use AI, because this is one of the things that we are going to be required to do at work. We are also very clear at any point in time in our process if there’s AI involved, we let them know prior to them actually engaging.”“Everything you’re measuring through the selection process certainly needs to be job-related,” said Cooper from SHL. Employees will have to invest in their learning and development, yes, but they do need to be trainable, coachable, and open to developing new skills.“I don’t want to meet someone who's on a straight path,” Trotta said. “I want to meet somebody who’s on an interesting path.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Courtney Hale/iStock)
Building a Resilient Immigration Program: What Every HR Leader Needs to Know
BY Ade Akin October 21, 2026A recruiter spends weeks courting a promising candidate. Interviews go well, the hiring manager signs off, and the offer goes out. Then the candidate mentions one detail no one asked about.“You get all the way to an offer, and the person says, ‘I need immigration sponsorship,’ and then everything stops, and you have to bring in counsel,” Matthew Hellrung, the co-founder and managing partner at Meltzer Hellrung, said. Hellrung often watches this scenario play out, and he says companies can avoid it by planning ahead. Employers that hire foreign national workers need more than a lawyer who files paperwork. They need a strategic immigration program that covers every stage of the employee lifecycle, from recruiting to offboarding.Hellrung and his fellow co-founder and managing partner, Matt Meltzer, made that case during a From Day One webinar about “Building a Resilient Immigration Program: What Every HR Leader Needs to Know.”Start With a Clear Sponsorship PolicyA written sponsorship policy sits at the center of any strong immigration program. Hellrung recommends a three- to five-page document that covers which visas the company sponsors, who qualifies, how the company splits costs with employees, and who approves exceptions.Meltzer takes a lighter approach for smaller teams. “If you’re a company of fewer than five sponsored employees, it’s not usually worth the effort to write a policy at all,” he said. Even at larger companies, a first policy can fill a single page. “There’s no reason a policy has to be long,” Meltzer added.Both partners favor sharing the policy with foreign national employees. Hellrung says that transparency signals care for a group whose visa status shapes nearly every career decision. “The most important thing that you’re offering them besides salary is their immigration sponsorship, and they want to know that you’ve got your act together as an employer,” he said.A written policy can also protect the company during an investigation. If a former employee files a complaint with the Department of Labor or the Department of Justice, Hellrung says, the company can show that it followed its documented policy. Hellrung now urges clients to review that policy more often because immigration rules keep changing. “I would have said once a year, but now I’m saying at least once a quarter,” he said.Bring Immigration Into Recruiting EarlyMeltzer encourages companies to decide where sponsorship widens their talent pool. Many new graduates qualify for Optional Practical Training (OPT), which provides 1 to 3 years of work authorization without employer sponsorship. In Meltzer’s view, ignoring these candidates is costly because he estimates that half of students in U.S. science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) master’s and PhD programs are foreign nationals.“If you are recruiting right out of school, and you’re not considering any foreign candidates, you have nixed 50% of the qualified applicants,” Meltzer said.Meltzer cautions that recruiters may ask only two screening questions about immigration status. “Do you have work authorization today? Will you now or in the future need sponsorship?” he said. Employers can also choose which visas they support. A company might decline to sponsor an H-1B for a role but sponsor a TN visa, a category reserved for candidates from Canada and Mexico.Avoid Costly Compliance MistakesSome shortcuts create serious liability. Employers must pay most H-1B costs, and pushing those costs onto workers can backfire. Meltzer warned that a company in that position is “only one complaint to the Department of Labor away from an unpleasant investigation.”Hellrung estimates that the mistake ends up costing about three times the original sum once back pay, fines, and legal fees add up. “Just pay the person what they’re owed,” he said.Job postings carry risk as well. Unless a role involves defense work or falls under International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions, Meltzer advises employers to never state that a job requires U.S. citizenship. Hellrung notes that a citizens-only requirement discriminates against lawful permanent residents, a protected class.Rising filing fees are driving up immigration costs. Hellrung’s team has cut client spending by using premium processing, which he pegs at about $3,000 per case, only when timing truly matters.Plan for Travel and Offboarding Risks“Travel is without a doubt the biggest hiccup in immigration right now,” Meltzer stated. “It is harder to get appointments than ever before.”Hellrung estimates that the share of visa holders pulled into secondary inspection has climbed from about 0.1% to roughly 1%. He stresses that most travelers still cross without trouble, but employers need a plan for workers stranded abroad for weeks or months, including pay, leave, and system access.Offboarding demands the same foresight. Meltzer notes that employers must offer to cover return travel for departing H-1B and O-1 workers who don’t stay in the U.S.Use Green Cards to Build TenureHellrung treats green card sponsorship as a retention tool rather than a hiring incentive. Most of the firm’s clients start the process about a year after a worker joins. “If you don’t do this, this employee will almost certainly leave at some point,” he said.Meltzer sees a recruiting edge, too. If competitors sponsor green cards at 18 months, a company that commits to nine months may win stronger candidates. “Someone may take a reduction in salary for more guarantee of green card sponsorship within a specific timeline,” he said.That loyalty gives HR leaders a way to measure return on investment (ROI). Hellrung suggests comparing the average tenure of sponsored workers with that of the rest of the workforce. “An immigration program structured properly, you can manufacture tenure.”Prepare for Audits and Rule ChangesImmigration enforcement keeps expanding. Meltzer describes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as the largest police force and best-funded agency in the federal government today, and he warns that a single disgruntled employee’s tip can prompt a Form I-9 audit. I-9 compliance errors are common. “Of all the I-9 audits we’ve done, I’ve never seen any employer that’s done them perfectly,” Hellrung said.Meltzer advocates naming one internal point person to manage the program. When several HR business partners share the work, he explained, “Those programs are inherently more inefficient. They move slower. They give worse employee experiences.”Hellrung expects new prevailing wage rules to make permanent labor certification harder, so he urges clients to start eligible green card cases now.Still, Meltzer sees openings for employers willing to stay the course. He says the proposed $100,000 H-1B fee drove many employers out of this year’s lottery, which lifted his clients’ selection rate to 50%, up from roughly a third. Sponsored workers are staying longer, too. “Some of these challenges also create opportunities,” Meltzer concluded.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Meltzer Hellrung, for sponsoring this webinar.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by belterz/iStock)
Solving Marketing's New Challenge: How Does My Brand Show Up on AI Platforms?
BY Grace Turney October 21, 2026“About half the people who get a script don’t actually ever go to PT,” said Brett Groom, chief marketing officer at PT Solutions. Patients need a prescription for insurance to cover physical therapy, and many never use it. For Groom, those missing patients mark the spot where AI search could matter most.That gap framed a discussion at From Day One’s Chicago marketing conference. Four marketing leaders explored how answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization are changing the playbook built for traditional search, and which parts of the old playbook still work, in the session moderated by Jessica Wohl, managing editor at Ad Age. Old Rules, New SearchMuch of that playbook survives, said Matthew Dewoskin, VP of SEO and website marketing at Rate. “Honestly, a lot still applies,” he said. AI tools scrape websites to answer questions in seconds, so page speed and topic relevance still count. “If you’re in a good place with traditional organic search, you should be in a good place to start for generative search, AI search as well.”No marketer controls where a brand appears, he says, in AI-generated answers or traditional search results. Rate built visibility in home equity lending by creating a central hub of content on home equity lines of credit, then repurposing it as video and infographics across as many touchpoints as possible.Earning Citations From AIHope Trumbull, VP of brand partnerships at Social Native, boiled down what makes a brand citable. “AI is going to cite what it can find, what it can trust, and what it can share,” she said. Brands should make sure content isn’t hidden behind a login or JavaScript, and should answer the detailed questions buyers now type into AI tools.Trust, she added, comes mostly from outside sources. “AI is going to source and trust third party more than anything that we are going to do from a self-promotion perspective on your website.” Reviews on Yelp, social media posts, and Reddit threads all count.Panelists spoke about "Solving Marketing's New Challenge: How Does My Brand Show Up on AI Platforms?" at From Day One's Chicago marketing conference To keep brand voice intact as teams use AI to produce more content, Trumbull recommended a brand playbook that every AI tool must check its output against. Julia Goebel, chief marketing officer at Alight Solutions, says a trained tool can produce a solid first draft, but people must stay involved. “We really take care to make sure that what we write or publish sounds like an Alight advisor, because when you are off brand, it’s easy to lose trust.”Reviews Shape the BrandReviews matter most to Groom’s business. “Getting reviews is absolutely critical,” he said. Patients in active search mode read them, and they help Google rankings. PT Solutions, which runs about 550 clinics, recently expanded its Yelp presence because ChatGPT now draws on that site’s reviews, Dewoskin noted.Trumbull said marketers can’t control user-generated content but can influence it by briefing brand ambassadors and executives. Persistent complaints point to deeper problems, though. “That is not just something you can sprinkle frosting on and call it a day as a marketer,” she said. Pricing, service, or operations may need fixing first.Replies matter, too. Groom’s team uses a reputation management platform to answer comments, and healthcare privacy rules push treatment conversations offline. Goebel said a public response still matters. “If you don’t reply, it looks like you’re not paying attention.”Cautious Spending on New ChannelsNone of the panelists has gone all in on advertising in ChatGPT. Goebel says Alight isn’t advertising there yet, but she called herself a fan of pilots. “I never rule out any channel,” she said. Dewoskin plans to add it to Rate’s paid search mix. Groom sees weak tracking as the obstacle: AI firms “want to sell me impressions, not a performance base,” he said, and “if I had an incremental dollar, Bing would probably work better for me.”Dewoskin’s dollars currently go to affiliate partnerships, such as placement in rate tables on sites like NerdWallet and Bankrate. Goebel keeps funding public relations, bylined articles and executive interviews, because third-party credibility still carries weight.Measuring Impact, Not ActivityGoebel says she isn’t yet seeing a return from AI, and doesn’t worry about it. “The search volume that comes from AI is low. It remains single digits.”Dewoskin says most sites have lost organic traffic over the past year and a half, which forced discussions with his leadership team. He has had to rethink visibility, once a vanity metric to him, as a performance measure. Still, he says, leadership responds to business results, not rankings: pre-qualified borrowers, home equity loans, homes bought. “It matters how much you’re bringing into the business,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter how you’re ranking or how you’re positioned.”Groom’s team works from a mantra: “impact, not activity.” As a private equity-owned company, PT Solutions faces tough questions about what each dollar returns.Trumbull advised against tearing up current budgets. “Don’t blow everything up just because we’re now seeing this change," she said. Marketers should set a baseline, compare against it each month or quarter and move money as results shift. Goebel urged teams to reserve funds for experiments. “I actually think you need a bucket for testing,” she said, and to tell finance up front how results will be reported.Looking AheadTrumbull assigns one exercise: list the 25 questions buyers ask most, in search and in AI tools, then check how the brand and its competitors answer them. Timestamp the results so leadership can see progress six months later.Dewoskin expects Rate’s website to shift from a splashy homepage to an AI agent that greets visitors and answers questions, like a request for today’s mortgage rates. A library of content must remain, he says, to train the agent and keep the site relevant in search.Groom is focused on winning local searches. PT Solutions operates in 25 states, he said, but it really competes in about 20 markets, and patients typically travel only five to seven miles for therapy. “We don’t really care about a national presence,” he said. “I only care in the 20 markets I compete in.”Goebel offered a final caution about contracts. “We are deliberately not signing three-year contracts because we know how quickly AI is changing,” she said. Short commitments, she added, avoid sunk costs in technology that may look very different in three years.Half of Groom’s prescription holders never make it to a clinic, and AI search may be how marketers finally reach them. The panel’s advice for the search: keep what works, test what’s new, and keep every commitment short.Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, editor, artist, and former journalist and librarian. She holds a Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) and has nearly a decade of experience writing both full time and as a freelancer. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Creative Halloween Marketing Turns Local Traditions Into Brand Experiences
BY Ade Akin October 21, 2026Two of this season’s Halloween marketing campaigns have a street address. Dunkin’ turned a shop in Salem, Massachusetts, into a haunted house run by its spider-shaped mascot. Reese’s is running a nationwide search to find the best street in America for trick-or-treating, and the winning street gets a block party.Neither brand built its campaign around a traditional ad. Each one centers on bringing people together in a real place, then letting social media carry the story.The timing makes sense. Consumers plan to spend $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, $400 million more than last year’s record of $13.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual Halloween survey of 7,889 consumers.A Social Media Mascot Moves Into a Real StoreIn early October, Dunkin’ opened Spidey D’s Horror House at a location in Salem. The store takeover features the décor of Spidey D, Dunkin’s viral Halloween mascot, exclusive Halloween merchandise, and a Zoltar fortune-telling machine the character has “possessed.” Visitors don’t need a ticket or reservation to join the fun, which runs through the end of October.The Spidey D character began online. The character first appeared on Dunkin’s social accounts in October 2024 as the face of the chain’s purple Spider Donut. In one week, its chaotic posts earned more than 2.5 million engagements and 100,000 new followers, The Boston Globe reported. The buzz reached the counter, too. Dunkin’ sold 13 million Munchkins and doughnuts on Halloween 2024, a record for the holiday, according to the Globe.Last year, Spidey D took over the same Salem shop, covering it inside and out in purple slime and webs. That store went on to post one of the highest single-day sales the brand has ever recorded, the Globe reports. Jill McVicar Nelson, who was Dunkin’s CMO at the time, explained to the Globe that the team “wanted to see what happens when you take Spidey D off the phone and into the real world.”This year’s Horror House builds on that playbook, turning a social media character into an experiential marketing destination fans can walk into.Reese’s Puts Neighborhoods in the SpotlightReese’s launched its Trick-or-Treatiest Street in America search on Oct. 1. To narrow the field to 150 contenders, the Hershey-owned brand surveyed 15,000 Americans and weighed factors such as decorations, community participation, and walkability, Marketing Dive reported.Today, the first-ever Halloween Council named the winner: East Dudley Avenue in Westfield, New Jersey. The winning street receives a Reese’s block party in partnership with Zillow.“The best Halloween streets aren’t just the ones that decorate or have the biggest budgets,” Halloween council-member Christina Ricci asserted in Reese’s announcement. “Instead, they are the ones that create an atmosphere where trick-or-treaters keep coming back, and the entire community becomes part of the experience.”The approach doubles as community marketing: Instead of telling people what makes Halloween special, Reese’s asks neighborhoods to show it.Why Physical Promotions Fit This MomentBoth campaigns give fans something to do, not just something to watch or read.The brand’s hand over part of that conversation by design. Spidey D’s following grew in comment sections, a form of user-generated content that topped 30,000 comments in 2024. Reese’s makes each participating neighborhood’s own Halloween traditions the story. In both cases, the brands give people a reason to participate, turning a seasonal campaign into something they can help shape and share.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by Svetlana Popova/iStock)
Brand Authenticity and Purpose: Aligning Values With Marketing Strategy
BY Grace Turney October 20, 2026Web traffic to seed brand Golden Harvest has dropped about 80 percent, but its marketing chief says that’s not a crisis. Younger farmers are increasingly turning to AI tools to diagnose struggling crops from photos rather than clicking through to company articles. And those who do visit the site are filling out “learn more” forms at higher rates than ever.“We’re still getting more output from the website,” said Eddie Kahle, head of marketing for Golden Harvest at Syngenta. “We’re just getting a lot less traffic to the website.”Kahle discussed this shift during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Chicago marketing conference. Mariah Rush, a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times, moderated the conversation among four marketing leaders from very different industries on the topic of “Brand Authenticity and Purpose: Aligning Values With Marketing Strategy.”Trust Looks Different EverywhereFor Golden Harvest, which sells corn and soybean seeds to Midwest farmers, trust starts with weather no one can control. Kahle says the company’s seeds outperform competitors only about half the time, depending on when rain falls. So Golden Harvest focuses on helping farmers manage risk. “It’s about backing up your products when things go well or go poorly,” he said. The company uses AI models to track rainfall, sunlight, and wind, then alerts field sales teams when something happens in a farmer’s fields.Heidi Sullivan, VP of marketing at Equity LifeStyle Properties, manages more than 400 brands, one for each RV resort, marina and manufactured housing community. She divides the work into what stays fixed and what bends. The community feel and brand promise stay constant, while a campground near Yosemite can look nothing like a retirement community in Florida, she says. Panelists spoke about "Brand Authenticity and Purpose: Aligning Values With Marketing Strategy"At Aparium, an independent hotel company, authenticity is simpler and harder. Dina Fenili Niekamp, the company’s SVP of brand marketing, says the marketing has to match what a guest finds when they check in at 11 p.m. after a long day of travel.For Benjamin Svarczkopf, SVP of global marketing at Biocartis, a molecular diagnostics company focused on cancer, trust looks different. “We’re in a business where you can’t be wrong,” he said.Let Customers Do the TalkingAparium found a stronger approach by shifting its marketing strategy. Rather than relying on in-house campaigns built around road trips and family vacations, Niekamp’s team launched “As Told By,” a program that spotlights local makers, artists and contributors in each hotel’s city. “Nobody really wants to hear from a brand,” she said. “They want to hear from the partners, the customers, the people that made that brand.” The program has performed roughly 25 times better than the earlier campaigns, she says.Regulation pushes Svarczkopf toward the same approach. Pharmaceutical advertising to patients is illegal in the European Union, where most of his business sits, so Biocartis relies on pathologists and laboratory directors to carry its message. His budget goes mostly to case studies. “A really good day is finding a customer that is super excited, and they start putting out LinkedIn posts,” he said.The content that works also varies from industry to industry. Scientists don’t want polish. Svarczkopf says pathologists skip the slick slides and head straight to the footnotes and peer-reviewed evidence, so Biocartis leads with data and adds style afterward.Kahle faces a similar bar from a different direction. Golden Harvest’s products take decades to develop, and university studies often need five or more years to confirm that a product works. His team then boils the findings down into pieces a busy farmer will read.Though farms run on business-sized budgets, Kahle says the decisions often come down to one person in a family operation. That’s why consumer tactics tend to beat business-to-business ones. Golden Harvest borrowed the idea of a rewards program from the hotel industry.Community Is the ProductELS focuses on creating a community for guests, says Sullivan. “We don’t manufacture those relationships; we just facilitate the conditions that allow that to happen,” she said. Pickleball tournaments, campfire s’mores and golf cart parades give people reasons to return. The company’s annual “100 Days of Camping” campaign, which runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day and hands out collectible rally towels, now draws more than 100 million social media engagements, Sullivan says. The first year drew only a few million views.Niekamp described Aparium’s version: a hotel lobby built around a bar and restaurant rather than a check-in desk. She called it the “blue flame,” after the hottest part of a fire, because it draws locals and travelers to the same place. Her team teaches the idea to new hires alongside “the fifth meatball,” a story about staff who noticed a table of five has been served an appetizer of four and fixed it without asking permission.The panelists measure success by what customers say back to them. Sullivan tracks reviews, referrals and surveys. Niekamp watches direct bookings, since commissions from online travel agencies cut deeply into revenue, along with repeat guests. Svarczkopf’s favorite sign is a customer who “repeats your value message back better than you can.”All four said marketing can’t sit apart from finance and operations. “Marketing is not a cost center; it is a revenue driver and a growth driver,” Sullivan said. Listen Before You SpeakEach panelist shared a lesson that customers taught them this year, and each one changed how the company talks. Sullivan had always pictured RV guests as travelers. Then she met the annual guests who park for the season and build decks and tiki bars around their rigs, and she began marketing those sites as second homes.Kahle’s lesson came in his first year leading Golden Harvest. His bosses assumed the brand was fading, but surveys showed the opposite. The problem was reach, not reputation. Golden Harvest needs to get onto more farms so new customers can see for themselves.The four panelists, representing vastly different industries, all seemed to reach the same conclusion. Authentic marketing means talking less, listening more, and letting the people you serve tell the story.Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, editor, artist, and former journalist and librarian. She holds a Master of Library & Information Science (MLIS) and has nearly a decade of experience writing both full time and as a freelancer. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
AI-Powered Personalization: Scaling Relevance Without Losing the Human Element
BY Carrie Snider October 16, 2026AI can personalize a message in seconds. Making that message meaningful is still a human job.At From Day One’s Chicago marketing conference, marketing leaders discussed how to use AI to scale personalization without overwhelming audiences with generic content. Moderated by Alex Maragos, anchor and reporter at NBC 5 Chicago, the panel explored how marketers can work smarter, preserve creativity and build stronger customer connections.Build a Shared Knowledge Base to Power AIEffective AI implementation starts with giving the technology the right information, according to panelist Connor Laughlin, VP of marketing and go-to-market at Transworld Systems Inc. (TSI).His team began exploring AI with TSI’s proposal-writing group, which handles a high volume of requests for proposals (RFPs). The company expects to respond to about one and a half RFPs daily, and the team generates 60% to 65% of new business. Laughlin saw an opportunity to use AI to make that workload more manageable.Early experiments with custom GPTs eventually led to a comprehensive audit of the content, information and data used across the company’s go-to-market operations. Today, employees can connect their AI tools to a shared knowledge base that helps them understand TSI’s business.As Laughlin said, the resource helps each tool become “a domain expert in all things TSI.” But better technology doesn’t automatically mean better marketing. Laughlin warned against flooding audiences with AI-generated emails and social posts simply because production is easier.“We are developing an eye for the vibe, for the feeling that it’s uncanny,” he said. Instead, he encouraged marketers to understand their customers, clarify their messaging and focus on the problems their products solve. Combining AI with thoughtful content creation can help companies scale their efforts without sacrificing authenticity.Keep Humans Responsible for CreativityPanelist Andrew Racine, VP of demand generation and growth at Writer, says marketers must remain accountable for the quality and relevance of AI-generated content.By connecting information from Slack conversations, Salesforce records and sales calls, marketers can better understand customer challenges and personalize their approach. However, Racine cautioned against crossing the line between relevant outreach and excessive, impersonal communication.“We approach it in our company as a human in the lead,” he said. Racine warned that marketers risk repeating past mistakes, such as overwhelming audiences with automated emails and excessive advertising. AI makes producing content easier, but more output doesn’t necessarily create more value.Panelists spoke about "AI in Marketing: Scaling Personalization Without Losing the Human Touch" in Chicago“Would you respond to this?” He added that marketers should evaluate messages from the customer’s perspective before sending them.AI can also help marketing teams become stronger partners to sales. Beyond generating leads, marketers can use it to understand what sales representatives need to advance deals, reach decision-makers and build customer relationships.Successful adoption also requires helping employees rethink their workflows. “It is 99% change management, not the technology.” Leaders must show employees how automation can free them to focus on higher-value work while maintaining human oversight and strong data governance.Prioritize Value Over VolumePanelist Amanda Rosso, head of global integrated marketing campaigns for money management at Stripe, says marketers must be intentional about the content they create as AI makes personalization easier to scale.At Stripe, craft and quality are central to the company’s operating principles. Yet consumers are increasingly overwhelmed by targeted messages that offer little substance.“I’m personally inundated with messages that are built for me, but also don’t say a lot,” Rosso said. She uses AI to refine her writing and explore creative options but prefers to develop her initial argument herself. Without a strong foundation, she warned, AI can gloss over gaps in reasoning and make weak ideas sound more convincing than they are.That discipline should extend to campaign planning. The ability to produce more content doesn’t mean audiences want more information. Marketers should simplify their messaging and focus on what customers need to know. “We still need to simplify and land the same messages in a way that our users understand,” she said.Rosso also stressed that marketing should offer genuine value to sales teams and their customers. Whether creating events, reports or emails, marketers should provide resources that salespeople feel confident sharing because they genuinely help the recipient.Personalization also requires responsible data use. Rosso sees opportunities to deliver timely, relevant messages directly within products, where customers can receive information tailored to their needs. But accuracy, privacy and security must remain priorities.AI may be changing how marketers work, but the fundamentals haven't changed: understand your audience, offer something valuable and earn their trust. The challenge is knowing when to let AI do the heavy lifting and when human judgment needs to take the lead. The marketers who get that balance right will be better positioned to create personalized experiences that feel less like automation and more like genuine connection.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
What’s Changing in the Way People Connect With Brands
BY Jessica Swenson October 15, 2026“I think it’s a generational opportunity. I think it’s the thing of our time,” said Peter Loftus, chief marketing officer of Publicis Creative US & Leo US at Publicis Groupe. He sees AI as a broad opportunity on par with the first iPhone—that was the last time he felt this kind of magic.“What I don’t buy into is that it’s going to eliminate the need for human creativity.” He believes that creativity is one of society’s most timeless, foundational vocations, and it is approaching a shift. The future of creative direction is bringing the “taste, sensibility, and craft to AI” that only a human can offer. “The work’s going to change a lot, and we’re going to have to do the work very differently.”This evolution and its impact on the brand-employee-consumer triad was the topic of a fireside chat between Loftus and moderator Christian Farr, a reporter for NBC5 News, at From Day One’s Chicago marketing conference.Citing Leo’s HumanKind study in partnership with Ipsos, Loftus revealed that despite a deep unease surrounding AI, 58% of Americans are using it. His team identifies a perceived lack of respect as the source of that paradox. “People across all demographics felt ‘people don’t genuinely respect or care about me,’ and because of that fact, they’re doubling down. They’re trying to create their own destiny, and they’re using AI to do it.” he said. “And they’re doing it in an environment where 6 out of 10 people feel that institutions don’t have their best interest at heart, so they’re not feeling respected.”Because they don’t see a future for themselves in today’s industry, younger workers’ goals have shifted from seeking the corner office to creating side hustles that become their main ambition, says Loftus. “We could enter maybe the greatest era of creativity ever in our business, but we have to bring that next generation along for the ride because they are incredibly complex and creative.”Peter Loftus, CMO at Publicis Creative US & Leo US, was interviewed by Christian Farr, General Assignment Reporter, NBC5 News, during the fireside chatCompanies could help slow this shift by simply listening to people and treating them fairly. The Leo HumanKind study showed that 61% of respondents will pay more for something—even in a down economy—when they feel respected by a brand. Loftus offered examples of brands addressing key customer pain points, like T-Mobile’s five-year price lock and Uber’s teen accounts.Encouraging brands to be transparent with consumers about AI content, he said, “If people want to be treated fairly, then transparency is table stakes, and we know from the data that we will be rewarded in kind as marketers if we are honest with people.”This applies most strongly to GenZ, known for their paradoxical nature as they seek meaning both in life and from the brands they interact with. “If more brands listen to them more, and recognize that multiple things can be true about them at the same time, it can't fit them in a box. I think they'd be more successful.”Focusing on AI solely as an efficiency play is another common mistake that Loftus sees companies make. “I think the argument that AI is an efficiency driver is the major issue I have. Absolutely, it can make you more efficient. There’s no question, and it should. But I actually think the most powerful thing in AI today is insight.” He suggests using it to pull information such as pain points and trend data from key social communities to inform your creative.Loftus offered three key takeaways for marketers: find your company’s consumer respect gap and address it, hold onto your humanness to amplify AI’s power, and use AI as a tool to find the insights you need to create meaning.And now is the time, he says, to shape the future of AI. “We’re all using it, so it’s on us to craft a future that we want with it. We have to be vocal, and we have to demand that AI fits into the worldview that we see. We need to stand up and say exactly what we think that should be to craft a better future.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The AI Trust Gap: Why Consumers Are Tuning Out and How to Win Them Back
BY Ade Akin October 15, 2026Conversations in marketing rarely stray away from AI lately. Marketers feel pressure to deliver on the promise of content scaling “in hours rather than weeks or days,” said Meg Moss, head of global agency partnerships at Canva. Generative AI makes that speed possible, yet speed without a point of view carries a hidden cost.“The risk isn’t just wasted budget; it’s lost trust with a direct line to revenue,” Moss said during a thought leadership spotlight about “The AI Trust Gap: Why Consumers Are Tuning Out and How to Win Them Back,” at From Day One’s Chicago marketing conference. In an age of creative velocity, speed alone no longer sets a brand apart. The brands that pull ahead back that speed with human direction, consumer trust, and strong governance, she says. Marketers and Consumers Split on AITo measure the distance between how marketers feel about AI and how audiences respond to it, Canva commissioned The Harris Poll to survey 1,415 marketing leaders and 3,547 consumers across seven markets for its 2026 State of Marketing and AI Report.The results point in opposite directions. Ninety-seven percent of marketing leaders use AI in their daily creative work, and nearly all plan to increase their investment in it, according to the report. Consumers, meanwhile, are evaluating, judging, and pushing back on content that doesn’t feel earned. For Moss, that leaves marketers with one central tension: “how fast versus how well.”The consumer numbers make the point. Sixty-five percent say AI-generated ads are so obvious they’re laughable, 70% say those ads lack soul, and 87% say the best advertising still requires a human touch.When speed and volume push human direction aside, Moss says, teams end up with AI slop. “It’s polished, but it’s hollow. It doesn’t say anything to your customers, and we’re obviously in a sea of sameness,” Moss observed. “This is the cost that doesn’t show up in your AI budget line, but it shows up in your brand sentiment.”Moss stressed that the backlash targets how brands use the technology, not the technology itself. “I promise this isn’t an anti-AI story. Canva is an AI company, but it is conditional,” she said. Sixty-eight percent of consumers don’t mind AI in ads if the ads are helpful or relevant, yet 78% would still rather see ads made by people, according to Canva’s report. “They aren’t rejecting AI; they’re rejecting laziness,” Moss said.In her view, AI has lowered production costs while raising the value of taste. “AI collapses the cost of execution, not judgment,” she said. That shift changes the question teams should ask. “When AI makes almost every idea possible, the question is no longer, ‘Can we make this?’ It’s ‘Should we make this?’” Moss said.Marketing leaders seem to agree. Asked what AI can never replicate, 42% named empathy and emotional intelligence, while 41% cited brand intuition and creative judgment, according to the report. Three-quarters expect creative roles to grow over the next five years. The irony, Moss said, is that creativity “has become more strategic, not less.”Direction, Velocity, and TrustMoss outlined three principles that, working together, turn AI into a growth engine rather than a tool stack. Direction differentiates, velocity gets a team in the game, and trust sustains it.“AI raises the floor of execution, but your point of view is what makes the work unforgettable,” she explained. “High volume without direction just creates noise. High volume with direction creates a competitive advantage.”Trust depends on transparency, especially as AI-made ads become harder to detect. Seventy percent of consumers believe they’ll eventually be impossible to tell apart without disclosure, Canva’s 2026 State of Marketing and AI Report shows.Responsible AI governance needs a strategic approach. “It requires clear guardrails, defined standards, and intentional design,” she said. Make AI Integration IntentionalMany teams still treat AI as a generic layer on top of their old processes. “Generic AI produces generic results, and existing workflows don’t optimize for the new capabilities,” she said. Her answer is workflow optimization by design. Teams need to map where AI steps in, where humans step in, and where AI steps out. “There’s almost no way to accidentally get meaningful impact from AI agents. You have to be intentional,” Moss said.Rebuilding long-standing workflows is a change management challenge, Moss acknowledges, and Canva had to do it, too. The company built a culture around AI use, even asking in internal surveys, “Did you use AI for this, and how did you use it?” It also asked teams to treat AI “less like a tool and more like a teammate.”Canva’s marketing team integrates AI into each campaign. During planning, it uses Canva’s AI-powered search to surface insights and files from the previous year’s campaign, Moss says. For content creation, the team prompts AI to brainstorm visual directions, and the outputs stay fully editable. It also used Canva Code to build an interactive checklist of human-led checks for AI-powered content.Brand kits keep the output on brand. By attaching a brand kit to Canva AI, the team applies its fonts, colors, and tone of voice to every design which has eliminated much of the back-and-forth in production.Data analytics tools inside the platform made it easier to pull data for campaign check-ins and reviews. Automation handles the heavy lifting of localization: the team uses Bulk Create to produce batches of copy for paid campaigns and adapt headlines, text, and graphics for different regions. “This used to take weeks, and actually is one of those times where we now can say it actually takes us hours,” Moss said.How eXp Realty Removed BottlenecksMoss pointed to eXp Realty, a global real estate brokerage with more than 82,000 agents, as a customer that scaled without losing its brand. The brokerage integrated Canva Enterprise with its internal systems, allowing agents to pull listing details directly into brand-controlled marketing materials.With design tools such as Bulk Create, agents in every market can generate campaigns without having to file design requests. The result: eXp has quadrupled its approval speed, according to Canva’s case study.Moss closed by reframing consumer trust as a leadership issue. “AI trust is not a content problem; it’s an operating model problem,” she declared. Chief marketing officers must decide where AI can move fast, where humans stay accountable, and how trust gets measured. Canva took three steps: auditing every customer touchpoint to identify where AI was involved, classifying each by trust risk to determine the level of review and executive oversight needed, and defining who would own judgment, taste, claims, disclosures, and final approval.The winners of this current wave of AI-powered digital transformation will be the organizations that invest in human judgment, not just infrastructure. “As AI becomes standard, how will your brand stand out?” Moss posited. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Canva, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
How AI is Making Marketing More Siloed, and the Only Way to Break Out
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski October 14, 2026AI tools are helping marketers work faster and more independently, but a single-player approach to AI can come at the expense of collaboration. When team members work in silos, it can lead to fragmented workflows and misalignment. A multiplayer approach to AI, by contrast, helps teams work together, share insights, and stay aligned, says David Gorman, SVP of product and co-founder of Opal.Gorman spoke about the topic during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Chicago marketing conference. Working with a multitude of brands for many years, Gorman and his team have seen the transformations these companies have gone through over time. “Even pre-dating Opal, marketing was always kind of a hair-on-fire situation,” said Gorman. “That’s what we always heard when we started, as we were running an agency and working with brands and kind of feeling it on the receiving end.” “We thought that surely, with technology, there has to be a better way,” he said.AI as a Common Marketing Tool“There’s this stat, which is 95% of marketers are using AI in 2026,” said Gorman. Marketing traditionally followed a step-by-step process: executives set the strategy, the marketing team wrote the copy, the art team developed the creative, and channel teams handled distribution across websites and social media.“Today, that looks a little bit different,” said Gorman. “That looks like everyone running a million miles an hour because you can now. Speed is certainly part of the promise here. But everyone is kind of back to doing that in a silo, and everyone is trying to kind of work as their own team with their AI.”But AI can introduce problems, including hallucinations and what Gorman described as a “siloing effect.” Customers have raised concerns about whether their content stays on brand, how siloed teams can quickly become misaligned, and how the broader strategy can get lost when work moves so fast. In the process, collaboration can become an afterthought.This can put you into a type of single-player mode and this is where issues can arise. For example, if three team members are using various AI tools for their work, even if they ask the same question, they’re going to get three different results. Some may be relevant to what you want to put in the market while other responses may be way off. This isn’t an effective way to work. “As someone that comes from the feeling that technology should bring people together to work as a team, I definitely don’t love how this feels,” said Gorman.So, how do we resolve these issues? Gorman stated we have two options: follow the 5% and stop using AI, or stop playing alone. How to Use AI as a Team“With Opal, we’re introducing a concept that we call the memory layer, and it is all about, ‘How do we enable teams to actually work together with AI in an effective way?’” said Gorman.Gorman said two ingredients required to do this include the context of the work and the instruction side of the equation. Opal uses something in the middle called Gem, an intelligence layer. Gem is an AI co-pilot built into Opal’s marketing platform that answers questions using information stored in its database, he says. For example, it can pull details on fall launches from the past five years. Users can also incorporate their workflows, guidelines, and preferences, then easily share the compiled information with teammates or in presentations.“I think about this as a way for the team to work together to produce work, improve the rules, and ultimately get to a better outcome next time,” Gorman said. “Whether that’s someone on your team, or you doing that work, or your agents doing that work, and you have more confidence that they’re working to the best of their ability in a framework that sets them or your team up for success.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Opal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in the Bucks County Herald, Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish.(Photo by Josh Larson for From Day One)