In today’s business landscape, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of understanding sustainability issues and effectively reporting them to stakeholders. With recent regulatory changes and growing investor demand for climate-related information, public companies and financial institutions find themselves at the crossroads of both exciting opportunities and formidable obstacles ahead.

The postponement of the implementation of IFRS S1 and S2 for Hong Kong listed companies to 1 January 2025, as announced by The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, along with the introduction of new standards by The Hong Kong Monetary Authority regarding the sale and distribution of green and sustainable investment products by registered institutions, has produced a fresh array of opportunities and challenges for public companies and financial institutions in Hong Kong and the region.

In a similar vein, the United States has also taken significant steps towards climate-related disclosures. On March 6, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enacted rule changes mandating companies to divulge specific climate-related information. These disclosures encompass a wide range of aspects, spanning from greenhouse gas emissions to anticipated climate risks and transition plans. The overarching objective of these requirements is to equip investors with consistent, comparable, and consequential information to facilitate informed investment decisions, while concurrently establishing clear and uniform reporting obligations for issuers. Additionally, there would be extra territorial rules applying to European companies outside of the EU as well.

Given this evolving regulatory landscape, the question arises: How can public companies (global or local) and financial institutions effectively prepare for these upcoming requirements in Hong Kong and the region?

Five steps to prepare for sustainability and climate disclosure requirements

Following the adoption of different rules pertaining to sustainability and climate disclosure, public companies and financial institutions are under huge pressure to accelerate their efforts to capture, measure and disclose emissions data.

1. Conduct a Comprehensive Audit

To kickstart the journey towards sustainability and climate disclosure, it is crucial for companies to conduct a thorough audit. This audit should encompass quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the company’s operational footprint and identifying the most material sustainability issues. While this process may pose challenges in emerging markets, initiating the audit early on allows for the formulation of effective disclosure strategies.

2. Perform a Holistic Assessment

Having completed an audit, companies need to then understand asset-level physical risks and quantify their financial impact and evaluate the business impact of climate transition risks. By conducting scenario mapping exercises, organizations can assess the potential effects of both physical and transition risks. This comprehensive assessment aids in developing robust business, operational, and communication strategies.

3. Set Science-Based Targets and Metrics

It is essential for companies to establish science-based targets for emissions reductions and align their efforts with various jurisdictions and requirements. These targets should be tangible and achievable to facilitate benchmarking against industry peers.

4. Strengthen Communications and Trainings

Engaging stakeholders, including customers, partners, investors, and employees, is crucial in the sustainability and climate disclosure journey. Proactive communication efforts should be undertaken to ensure transparency and build trust. Additionally, organizing internal training programs equips employees to become ambassadors for sustainability, fostering a culture of environmental responsibility within the organization.

5. Continuous Evaluation and Reporting

Sustainability and climate disclosure is an ongoing process, requiring constant evaluation and reporting. Regularly assessing performance helps identify any gaps and ensures compliance with evolving international standards. Staying ahead of the latest requirements and industry developments is vital to meet the expectations of global stakeholders.

As sustainability and climate-related issues continue to gain prominence, public companies and financial institutions must adapt and embrace the changing landscape. By following these five essential steps—conducting audits, performing assessments, setting targets, strengthening communications and training, and continuous evaluation and reporting—organizations can navigate the complexities of sustainability and climate disclosure requirements effectively. Embracing these practices not only supports regulatory compliance but also enhances your reputation, attracts investors, and contributes to a more sustainable future.

Our team has come across this question from our clients frequently, “How should we engage with Gen Z employees?”

As Gen Z continues to grow in today’s workforce, managers are finding they need to adjust their strategies to effectively engage this generation. Digital natives and pragmatists with greater cultural intelligence, today’s Gen Z workers have different ideals, priorities and expectations from their baby boomer counterparts – one of the oldest generations still working today. They prioritize purpose, collaboration, personal growth and recognition over more traditional metrics.

The pandemic caused lasting disruption to work patterns worldwide, and younger employees are seen to be more detached from their work than other generations. With distractions galore, maintaining focus and passion in their roles presents unique challenges for organizations. However, getting these dynamics right can pay dividends in performance and retention.

Tips for Engaging Gen Z in the Workplace

Create a purpose-driven working environment – Entrust employees with meaningful work that plays to their strengths. Orchestrate inputs on strategic decisions and innovations that shape the future and give autonomy where possible over work schedules and project elements. Make them feel inspired and motivated to contribute to the company’s success so they can see how it benefits them and their career. Engagement often improves when people feel ownership over their roles.

Support connections that fuel engagement – Provide training to managers to empower them to manage a multi-generational workforce. Explore new touchpoints to younger colleagues through digital channels, optimizing your content for a mobile-first experience. This is essential to effectively reaching this audience. Use creative, short video content and graphics to drive easier accessibility. Gamifying content can also create participation, which is effective with some types of internal campaign launches to retain attention beyond the first impressions and limit bounce rates.

Enable collaboration and recognition to boost motivation – Networking comes naturally for the younger generation, which prefers to interact through instant messaging or online collaboration, rather than lengthy emails or in-person meetings. Create a collaborative environment where they can feel recognized for their contributions, both big and small. Apart from traditional hall-of-fame awards, ask them for ideas and opinions that can show how you value their participation and contributions. Then celebrate the ideas (and the employees responsible) that are put into action and generate positive results.

Managing and engaging the younger portion of talent requires updating approaches to match Gen Z values. By connecting work to meaningful causes, encouraging digital teamwork and celebrating contributions, managers can ignite passion and increase engagement. When combined with other strategic initiatives to improve the employee experience, the payoff has potential to be immense — an energized, loyal team that drives innovation and growth in the years ahead.

The NCAA Division 1 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments bring together casual and serious college basketball fans to cheer on their favorite teams and players, and more often than not, programs and prospects that fans have never had a rooting interest in before. Year after year, the tournaments deliver incredibly compelling storylines. This year’s story, undoubtedly, is the surge in popularity of the women’s game. 

Since the tournament’s founding in 1939, the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament has been synonymous with the men’s tournament, and while the men’s game remains extremely popular – there’s been a paradigm shift. For the first time ever, more people watched the women’s championship game than the men’s, according to Nielsen. Additionally, this year’s women’s tournament generated 60% more earned media coverage than the men’s tournament, while also setting viewing records across all six rounds. 

The women’s game is taking center stage – with growing popularity and interest in the teams and their all-star rosters – carving out new and exciting marketing and communications opportunities for brands. Now the question is just how big this opportunity will be and which brands will be at the forefront of advancing women’s sports. 

We identified three takeaways from this year’s tournament, the trends to watch and the opportunities for next year and beyond. 

Drafting off the Popularity of the Tournament Remains a Winning Proposition: March is often when brands try to attach themselves to the men’s or women’s tournaments to better connect with their target audience. Now, seeing the opportunity to drive visibility and conversation, other organizations are getting in the game, too. During the tournament, it “leaked” that the Big3 offered Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa’s record-breaking player, $5 million to suit up for the 3-on-3 league – a “historic offer” to a “generational athlete,” according to Ice Cube. The offer generated 1.5K original stories, so don’t be surprised if you see other professional teams or leagues, or upstarts looking to draft off emerging players, leveraging the popularity of the tournament in the future. Brands can get in the game too, as long as there’s an authentic connection to an athlete or another component of the tournament, e.g., team, coach, etc.  

Women Athletes Deliver Proven Value: Watch any sporting event and you’ll see professional athletes during the commercial breaks. But this March – those athletes were predominantly non-professional women athletes. For those brands that wanted to connect with consumers using current college basketball athletes, there were more well-known women superstars in college basketball than men to choose from. That’s particularly evident when reviewing internet search volume for March, where Clark generated 900% more searches than two of the more popular men’s basketball athletes in Zach Edey of Purdue University or Dalton Knect of the University of Tennessee. Moving forward, brands would do well to identify the rising stars in the women’s game –  now –, to build their playbook for sponsorships and NIL deals headed into next season. An added benefit of utilizing the top women’s players – they’re staying in college (and at leading schools) longer than their male counterparts, providing a longer runway and better opportunities for brands to curate authentic connections with their growing fanbases. 

Leverage Media with Cultural Influence: One of the more interesting moments during this year’s tournaments was Angel Reese, Louisiana State University’s (LSU) star player, declaring for the WNBA Draft, even though she still had a year of college eligibility left. The interesting part wasn’t that Reese declared for the Draft, it’s HOW she did it – with a feature in Vogue (Angel Reese Is Taking Her Talents to the WNBA). Until now, you may not have put Vogue and women’s college basketball in the same category, but the match-up of Reese’s crossover star power, and the popularity of women athletics, made this exclusive one to remember. The Vogue story delivered significant conversation around Reese’s decision, generating 8.5K earned media stories that continue to drive conversation today, and solidify her position as a budding WNBA superstar. In the article, Reese said of her decision to share the news exclusively with Vogue, “I didn’t want anything to be basic.” Not only was Reese not “basic,” she opened the door for brands to target more culturally focused outlets like Vogue, as opposed to relying solely on sports outlets.

What once was a moment dominated by the men’s tournament has shifted dramatically. Women’s players are the rising superstars, taking their lion’s share of the brand opportunities. With several of the women’s game greats declaring for the Draft, there’s optimism and interest to see how their phenomenon evolves, and who will rise next. 

March continues to be one of the greatest times of the year for brands to connect with fans through their shared love of basketball. For those interested in joining the conversation, laying the groundwork for more inclusive partnerships and activations starts now. 

Chris Potter, Gabby Hawley, Miranda Xie, Matt Groch and Steve Hickok contributed to this article.

As a highly contentious election year, 2024 stands to be as volatile and divisive as any period in recent memory. The following principles and guidance will help ensure people leaders are equipped and ready to support and engage with their teams through the potentially rocky period ahead.

Also check out our full Guidance for People Leaders, including worksheets and a checklist, for navigating this year.

Understand the Landscape

To understand the issues creating social division and key milestones that could serve as inflection points throughout the year, people leaders should take a quick scan of the news — from a balance of sources — every morning.

Be Accessible to the Team

To determine how employees are doing, people leaders should walk the halls or host 1:1 meetings with their teams, adopt an “open door” policy, encourage people to reach out when they need to talk, and practice active listening.

Stay Neutral

To remain balanced and refrain from bringing biases into workplace conversations, people leaders should pay attention to employees’ body language, ask how people are feeling while conversations are taking place and direct discussions accordingly.

Get Familiar with Policies and Helpful Resources

To socialize helpful resources to employees, people leaders should designate time to review and share their organization’s corporate values, code of conduct and relevant policies, and use these worksheets to guide their team’s ways of working.

Consider Situations that May Arise

To prepare for potential workplace disruptions, people leaders should consider the specific political and societal issues important to employees, as well as inflection points that may result in displays of emotion in the workplace.

Maintain Control of Conversations

To navigate discussions about politics or polarizing issues in the workplace, people leaders should reinforce that employees are expected to always treat each other with respect and that the workplace is a safe space where no one should feel marginalized or harassed, among other helpful reminders.

Appropriately Address Workplace Issues

To host productive conversations about employee behavior, people leaders should consult with HR before the conversation, seek to understand each person’s perspective and respectfully remove herself/himself from any conversation in which she/he feels threatened or unsafe.

Respond When the Team Needs Support

To determine how to address something that will upset one or more employees, people leaders should consider whether it is a topic appropriate for a team-wide discussion or better suited for 1:1 check-ins and, if needed, reference relevant employee benefits and programs that may be shared in those conversations.

Seek Additional Support

To effectively manage through what’s to come in 2024, people leaders should seek the input of peers they trust or colleagues in supporting functions, such as HR, Employee Communications, Legal and Labor Relations (if applicable).

Private equity as an asset class continues to boom, but this has brought with it added scrutiny, particularly on how firms are incorporating ESG and sustainability into their investing process. It has become a cliché to say that “ESG is in our firm’s DNA” but the PE business model lends itself particularly well to sustainable investing in a number of ways and businesses can communicate this better. In the current absence of uniform disclosure rules, firms that are transparent about their approach to ESG can stand apart in an increasingly difficult fundraising environment while setting an example in an industry that is associated with opacity.

The scene today

Assets under management in the PE industry totaled $2.7 trillion according to Preqin data in 2010 globally. Despite a marked drop in fundraising over the past two years, that figure has still mushroomed to $13.1 trillion as of June 30, 2023, with Asia accounting for nearly a third of that total. As a result, the stakeholders are proliferating, with investors such as private wealth and family offices growing, and demands for greater transparency, and even action on better distribution of profits increasing. The head of Calstrs, a major pension fund and PE Limited Partner (LP) issued a call for PE firms to “share the wealth” with the workers and communities of companies that they invest in.

Among those stakeholders, ESG is of ever-increasing importance when selecting a manager. A recent INSEAD survey showed that 90% of PE investors consider ESG as part of their investment process, with 77% citing it as a gauge for picking a manager.

Transparency is improving, but firms, particularly mid-size and smaller ones that have been hit hardest by the recent fundraising squeeze, can do much more to communicate their strategy and approach to sustainable investing.

Regulation is on its way

ESG regulation regarding disclosure is being developed in Europe and the United States in response in part to demand from investors and media. Examples include the proposed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Scope 3 emissions disclosure rule and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) from the EU, which came into force in January.

The CSRD affects PE firms in Asia as several of their portfolio companies will be in the value chain of the EU companies covered in the directive. They will have to prepare detailed reports covering carbon emissions, workers’ rights and a raft of other measures. They also cover the LPs themselves. Reporting will be released in 2025, but in the meantime, firms will have to move fast to put in place the means to measure the data correctly.

The issue that firms face, and one that affects sustainable investing globally, is the lack of a uniform reporting structure. While that is being developed there are ways for firms to inform their LPs, their stakeholders and the employees of their portfolio companies how they are applying ESG to their investment process, without being mistaken for an impact fund.

ESG really is in the DNA

Private equity as a strategy has several advantages for advancing sustainability due to its ownership structure allowing greater scope for activism at a board level, its focus on sustainability and its ability to offer scale.

Even if LPs don’t own 100% of the companies they are invested in, they will almost certainly have a strong presence on the board, meaning access to information around sustainable performance, can hire or reward executives for hitting sustainable targets and can scrutinize governance closer than investors in public markets and even regulators. They also have a longer investment horizon, meaning they have the time to implement and execute new strategies and see them through to completion.

Secondly, PE as a business model is focused on maximizing efficiency and profitability, initiatives that are clearly aligned with issues like reducing energy use. To maximize efficiency and performance, PE firms also have a rigorous system of collecting KPIs, which can be used to facilitate the collection of sustainability data while aligning it with financial goals.

Finally, PE firms offer scale. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which make up a huge amount of the wider economy and that PE firms often invest in, may struggle with making the changes necessary to pivot to lower or zero emissions as they don’t have the technical ability, knowhow or resources to change their business model in the desired manner. Having a PE firm as an investor or owner means that SMEs can apply all the resources at their disposal and the synergies of their portfolio companies to help businesses make those changes.

How to make it count

Uniformity among reporting regimes is still to come, but firms can demonstrate their actions through increasing transparency, employing strategic messaging, recognizing their extended universe of stakeholders and engaging with them in a clear and thoughtful way. Explaining a firm’s sustainability model transparently as well as the improvements it is making from an ESG-perspective will make sure it can stand out to asset allocators, regulators and the growing universe of stakeholders which PE firms now must address.

This month, the SEC voted to approve new reporting rules that make climate disclosures legally binding. Following this long-anticipated development, sustainability communicators are rightly considering how their own strategies need to evolve. While Scope 1 and 2 emissions are the primary target of the new rules, conversations on the importance of reducing Scope 3 emissions continue to rise at a fast clip.

Scope 3 emissions refer to indirect emissions that occur both upstream and downstream of a company’s value chain. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)— a global collaboration launched by CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and WWT in 2015 — considers Scope 3 emissions the “most significant and most challenging source of emissions from businesses.” According to CDP, emissions in a company’s supply chain are on average 11 times higher than direct (Scope 1) emissions and reflect more than 70% of total emissions. Sectors with large, global value chains — including the food and agriculture sector — likely experience the most pressure to decarbonize their supply chains.   

Since 2021, Google Trends reports search volume for topics related to Scope 3 emissions has increased by more than 214%, signaling heightened visibility of the importance of reducing emissions throughout the value chain. As the pressure to reduce Scope 3 emissions intensifies, there are three best practices for sustainability communications leaders to leverage.

Transparently Report Out Scope 3 Emissions

Though the new SEC reporting rules lack a mandate for reporting on Scope 3 emissions, regulations in other markets — especially Europe — go much further. Due in part to this global regulatory pressure, disclosing emissions is becoming common place for large companies. To qualify as a science-based target, companies must have a plan to “reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to zero or a residual level.” As of this writing, 7,705 companies have started the process of setting a science-based target and 4,778 companies have had their targets approved.

For companies that haven’t taken the step of aligning with SBTi, finding ways to start tracking and reporting out on Scope 3 emissions is a best practice. Scope 3 emissions can be disclosed within sustainability reports and key reductions in emissions should be celebrated in website materials, handouts or even content for LinkedIn.

Focus Media Pitches on Achieving Rather Than Setting Goals

Over two decades ago, psychologists conducted a study designed to assess how people think about the future. Researchers asked participants to consider their activities and available spare time that day and a month from that day, and then decide on which day they’d have more time. This landmark study demonstrated humanity’s tendance toward “delay discounting” wherein we prefer to incur a large cost later, rather than a small cost now.

As 2030 inches closer, the gap between where companies are currently, and the ambition established within their net-zero targets is becoming apparent. In response to the “delay discounting” related to climate targets, many sustainability-focused reporters are giving less airtime to goals announcements and instead prioritizing coverage for companies that meet or exceed targets early. Highlighting key successes and strategies that can be leveraged by other stakeholders to reach net-zero can be a top-tier media-winning strategy.

Collaborate to Proactively Address the Barriers to Decarbonization Within the Value Chain

Disclosing and reducing Scope 3 emissions is challenging because these emissions are not produced by the company themselves. Companies must lean on suppliers and customers to report emissions and track progress. This is particularly challenging for companies like food processors that take in a wide range of inputs to create a food product, and for companies that operate across multiple markets with a patchwork of sustainability regulations. Sharing learnings throughout the value chain and collaborating to increase the accuracy of Scope 3 emissions reporting must become a standard practice. Rather than a “race” to net-zero, we must consider how we can collaborate to get there together.

Though the new norm of reporting out on Scope 3 emissions and diligently working to meet targets set well into the future may be challenging, my colleagues and I remain energized by the opportunity to define solutions for entire value chains to collaborate on decarbonization. By setting transparent goals, working to achieve them and collaborating with sector partners, we can take critical steps on the journey to net zero.

Ericka Loida contributed to this piece.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted today to adopt a long-awaited rule mandating that public companies listed in the U.S. disclose financial risks related to climate change.

The decision came two years later than expected – a period that has seen investor and corporate support for ESG grow and more recently ease amid a political backlash that labeled efforts “woke capitalism.”

The new regulation, effective on May 5, will become a requirement for publicly traded companies.

The SEC rolled back what was perceived as the most onerous part of the rule it proposed: the requirement that companies disclose Scope 3 emissions – those produced by their suppliers and customers.

The new rule requires measurement and disclosure of carbon emissions, as well as reporting about factors like extreme weather events and the clean energy transition that are increasingly impacting public companies’ bottom lines – information the SEC wants investors to have to make investment decisions.

Specifically, the final rule requires companies to disclose:

· Scope 1 and/or Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions

· Material climate-related risks and activities to mitigate or adapt to such risks

· Information about the company’s board of directors’ oversight of climate-related risks

· Information about management’s role in managing material climate-related risks

· Information on any climate-related targets or goals that are material to the registrant’s business

· Disclosure of the financial statement effects (costs and losses) of severe weather events

Since the SEC proposed the rule in March 2022, it received more than 24,000 public comments – the most in the Commission’s 95-year history.

A lawsuit challenging the rule was filed by 10 states just hours after the vote. Industry groups have threatened to sue to stop the rule from taking effect. The rule will also face challenges from congressional Republicans; it would be unlikely to survive if former President Trump prevails in his bid to return to the White House.

FleishmanHillard’s Public Affairs and global ESG specialists are here to help clients navigate the fractured regulatory landscape and stakeholder expectations in a way that allows them to manage risk and reputation.

Every January the largest retailers and most innovative retail tech providers descend on the Javits Center in New York for NRF: Retail’s Big Show. This year was no exception, with hundreds making their stand on the expo floor to share what’s next for retail in 2024 and beyond.

About a month post-event, here are my thoughts on what will show up for retailers throughout the year and what is likely to stay on the show floor for future implementation.

AI is the big guy at the Big Show

Like almost all recent events across the Tech sector, AI stole the show at NRF this year. In fact, according to Salesforce data, only 3% of commerce organizations currently have no AI plans. And consumers are open to the implementation of AI to improve their buying journey.

Apart from the AI use cases that have been commonplace amongst large brands, like personalized customer service and product recommendations, generative AI has widened the horizons for what the technology can do for retailers.

It can enable retail marketing teams to build and manage attention grabbing campaigns, draft effective product descriptions for an ecommerce site, manage loss prevention and even optimize physical store layouts based on traffic. And as brands realize the cost and time savings AI implementation brings to their business, innovation in the space will only continue to grow.

Customer experience and employee experience are top of mind

Another key theme at NRF, and in the retail industry for years, is how businesses can improve the customer experience. In what seems like a lightbulb moment, retailers are now starting to realize that improving customer experience and improving employee experience go hand in hand.

Accelerated by the pandemic, the role of the store associate has changed drastically. Positions that previously only involved working the register have transformed to fulfillment experts for buy-online-pickup-in-store offerings, content creators and live streamers for social media engagement and more. Removing friction and providing employees with the tools they need to succeed is a necessity.

Retail decision makers know that reliable technology has the power to enable employees to excel at their jobs. From training to product search to transaction history and, of course, completing transactions, giving store associates access to easy-to-use technology in the workplace will not only improve their experience, but that of the customer as well.

Supply chain

Supply chain management has been the white whale for retailers for years and optimizing the journey from beginning to end was a headline theme at NRF this year, including a special one-day Supply Chain 360 Summit.

Automation and robotics technologies were prevalent among brands that help to connect end-to-end supply chain operations, enhancing efficiency and meeting customer expectations with transparency into the entire journey. The eruption of retail returns has also pushed brands to streamline the returns segment of the supply chain, to improve customer experience of course, but also to ensure inventory is back on the shelf quickly and efficiently.

The retail tech landscape will only continue to innovate across AI, employee and customer experience, supply chain and more. And no one business is going to take the cake across every area of advancement. While more emerging technologies like augmented reality “fitting rooms” keep retail tech momentum going, decision makers will continue to focus on what will make the biggest impact on their businesses now — and ultimately whatever will serve their bottom line.

As retailers look to the future and prioritize operational efficiency without compromising consumer satisfaction, our ears will continue to be on the ground looking for the next big thing in commerce.

As communications professionals, we are universally obsessed with global news consumption and the big trends driving it. Sure, we often follow them at the behest of our clients — to identify opportunities to react intelligently to breaking stories or white space where they can enter a new or different conversation and even pinpoint reporters and outlets with the most influence on a topic that matters to them.

But we are also inherently curious. We want to know what reporters are covering and why because we want to know how we can be a part of the most important conversations of the day. And to that, it seems that every day there is a new topic driving the agenda — and captivating audiences around the world across myriad platforms and outlets. This is abundantly true when it comes to the dynamic world of technology.

But what of these trends and topics actually has staying power? In partnership with TRUE Global Intelligence (FleishmanHillard’s global research, analytics and measurement practice), our tech team decided to take a quick historic look at big trends in tech innovation and the new consumption around them. 

This stunning image shows search traffic around the term “AI,” which continues to go up, up, up 14 months after the launch of ChatGPT (which gave consumers their first taste of the power of artificial intelligence they could harness directly). 

We see the stratospheric rise of AI best when it is compared to two other terms that felt like they were on everyone’s tongue in the tech world for a hot minute: NFTs and the Metaverse. But looking at the numbers, those trends had a brief burst of attention before being quickly pulled down by gravity.

And while it’s tempting to throw shade at the uncomfortable oddness of NFTs or the lofty promises of anything called a “metaverse”, we think the actual story is simply the fact that as soon as people could start ordering around AI chatbots, they saw the future unfold one answer at a time. AI felt real immediately….and consumers and businesses alike were instantly smitten by the promise of what’s on the horizon. Their interest, as evidenced by this image, rocketed upwards quickly and consistently. And the interest continues to grow.

Beyond the lessons this graphic holds around the rise of AI, it serves as a reminder to us that a sure-fire way to get people talking about a new product or service is to get it in the hands of actual people and let them do things with it that are actually cool.

We are living in a period of unprecedented and incredibly fast change. The adoption of new technologies has never been more dramatic. Of course, the global pandemic did its part to speed digital transformation across geographic, political, economic and social divides. It altered industries from retail to logistics to manufacturing and even entertainment. As a result, technology innovation had an amazing moment that led to this incredible AI story arc.

We can only wonder what will come next…

(Rita Herbstman of our TRUE Global Intelligence practice contributed to this article, as well as designers Sara Cooper and Josh Kirk.)