• The White House DOGE Office walked back $4 billion in claimed savings on its website.
• The group has made similar errors before, like when it lowered its savings by $9 billion in 2 days.
• Since the website doesn't provide details for all claimed savings, other totals are hard to verify.

The White House DOGE Office has slashed another $4 billion — from its own list of savings, not the federal budget.

On Sunday evening, the group deleted or changed upwards of 1,000 contracts that it said it had canceled, according to the New York Times. Together, the alterations accounted for more than 40% of the contracts that the White House DOGE Office had listed on its website the week prior.

Business Insider previously reported that the group lowered its claimed savings by more than $9 billion in a two-day period last month. In February, it had claimed savings on its website of $16.5 billion, mainly in canceled contracts. By March 4, that number was down to around $8 billion, according to the site's "Wall of Receipts," which lists canceled contracts.

A few contracts account for a significant chunk of the changes — for example, the site had said that canceling an Internal Revenue Service contract saved $1.9 billion, per the Times. Really, the outlet found that contract had been canceled in November. The same was true of the White House DOGE Office's earlier accounting snafus, when it claimed to save around $2 billion by cancelling three USAID deals, before deleting two of the entries and with them $1.3 billion in savings.

The website now says the group has saved $105 billion in total but does not list details for savings other than contracts, like the names of terminated grants or buildings with cancelled leases, making the total difficult to verify.

The White House DOGE office has repeatedly tempered expectations. Elon Musk, the group's de facto leader, initially said he'd help cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, before scaling the expectation back to $1 trillion. And earlier today, an agency quietly edited a key memo related to Musk's efforts to remake the federal workforce after a court ruling.

Representatives for the Trump administration and White House DOGE Office did not respond to BI's request for comment.

• Meghan Markle's Netflix show dropped on Tuesday, and she is launching a lifestyle brand this spring.
• It might be difficult for Meghan to stand out and seem relatable in the lifestyle industry.
• PR and branding experts said leveraging her royal status may help Meghan find success.

Say hello to the new Meghan Markle — again.

On Tuesday, "With Love, Meghan" dropped on Netflix. In the first episode alone, the Duchess of Sussex explained how to make a bath salt kit, shared a hack for making homemade popcorn in a paper bag, harvested honey from her personal hive, and made candles with the leftover wax.

The lifestyle series presents Meghan as a jack of all trades when it comes to hosting and homemaking, complementing her lifestyle brand, As Ever. The brand's first product line will be available later this spring. On Tuesday, Meghan revealed As Ever's offerings will include spreads, teas, crepe and cookie mixes, and flower petal sprinkles, which she often uses on "With Love, Meghan."

These new ventures won't surprise longtime fans who have followed Meghan since her scrappy blogging days, but it's also no secret that critics are primed to critique these latest moves. Add in the pressure of entering the oversaturated aspirational lifestyle market, and it's clear Meghan has an uphill battle in creating a brand that feels inviting and approachable. After all, few things are less relatable than a duchess telling you your life can be like hers.

Still, if Meghan can stay true to her fans and lean into her life's fairy-tale arc, she might be on her way to starting her best chapter, experts say.

The crowded lifestyle industry

Although she was known for her acting career before she married Prince Harry, Meghan also ran a blog called The Tig from 2014 to 2017, sharing recipes, travel stories, and posts about her favorite restaurants.

Her two new ventures — "With Love, Meghan" and As Ever — allow her to tap back into those interests before her royal detour, though it will have to evolve as she did in the last eight years.

"She was creating some branding, but it was not as cultured. It was not as refined," Stacy Jones, the founder and CEO of Hollywood Branded, told Business Insider of The Tig. "Becoming part of the royal family, she opened up a whole different level of product class."

Although Meghan's passion for lifestyle is well-established, the industry is crowded.

Martha Stewart has long been the it-girl of the lifestyle world, and celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba have carved their own place in the industry with Goop and the Honest Company, finding commercial and financial success. Goop was worth $433 million in 2020, and as of March 2025, the Honest Company, which went public in 2021, was valued at about $530 million.

Likewise, influencers such as Meredith Hayden have built massive social media followings with lifestyle content, appealing to viewers as "every women."

Jones said Meghan will "need a strong and unique selling point" to make As Ever resonate. Megan Balyk, the vice president of Jive PR + Digital, told BI she thinks Meghan will struggle if she "cannot find a clear, consistent brand identity."

Consistency has been an issue for Meghan since 2020, said Balyk. Meghan has tried her hand at ventures that didn't pan out, like her animated series "Pearl" or the $20 million Spotify deal to make podcasts with Harry. (People reported on March 3 that Meghan is working on a new podcast with Lemonada Media.)

The ever-evolving nature of Meghan's post-royal life has also bred some public distrust, and she doesn't do herself any favors by seeming to take cues from the royals' "never complain, never explain" mantra when it comes to her middling business dealings.

For instance, Meghan announced in February that she was changing her company's name from American Riviera Orchard, a nickname for her neighborhood of Santa Barbara, to As Ever. She cited her partnership with Netflix, her desire to make items that aren't just localized, and the name's nod to her longtime love of cooking as the reasons for the change.

There's truth there, but it doesn't tell the whole story. The trademark office temporarily denied Meghan's application for American Riviera Orchard in August 2024, saying the name was "primarily geographically descriptive."

That denial was likely a motivating factor in the rebrand, and when that kind of information trickles out to the public from the media or internet sleuths as Meghan tells an edited version of events, her critics — who have no reason to give her the benefit of the doubt — may feel even more vindicated in distrusting her.

Finding her brand

Meghan's ventures have an effortlessly luxurious feel in their branding so far, simultaneously appealing and just slightly out of reach. Their light tones are also starkly different from those of her previous Netflix hit, "Harry & Meghan," which detailed her struggles with royal life. Harry is also largely absent from her new show.

The people watching "With Love, Meghan" will likely differ from those eager to hear about her dramatic life as a royal.

"People like looking at train wrecks and car crashes, and they want to gossip," Jones said. "You're really leaning into a very different type of fan base."

Meghan has to build out a new audience that trusts her, but her existing supporters can help. Young women make up much of her fan base, and Black women have been some of Meghan's strongest supporters as she's risen to fame.

Jones said it could "be a huge missed opportunity" if Meghan doesn't prioritize Black women in her lifestyle ventures.

"Most celebrity lifestyle brands cater to a polished, elite, mostly white audience," she said. "If Meghan embraces this community with real action, As Ever could be powerful. If she doesn't, it may feel like she's lost touch with the very people who saw themselves in her story."

Balyk also said that it might be easier for Meghan to build a brand people trust if she positions Melinda Gates and Oprah Winfrey as her contemporaries rather than Stewart or Paltrow, as her passion for philanthropy has been clear to the public from the earliest days of her fame.

If she can incorporate that focus on giving back into her lifestyle work, Meghan may even be able to get the best of both worlds.

Authentically Meghan

When Meghan made The Tig, she was in the sweet spot of being successful but not too famous.

Now, though, she is among the most famous people in the world, married to a prince, and mother to children who are sixth and seventh in line for the British throne. She also lives in a celebrity-studded neighborhood in California and counts A-list stars among her close friends.

Lifestyle content thrives when consumers relate to the creator, but Meghan's life is so singular that relatability isn't an option for her anymore, no matter how much she wants it to be.

Ironically, Jones told BI that Meghan may be able to make herself more approachable to audiences by reminding them that she isn't like them.

"Everyone can buy in on the princess," she said. "Americans like a fable. They like a happy ending."

Viewers might not be able to see themselves in much of Meghan's life, but they can invest in the American dream she lived, looking to her for guidance on how to make their ordinary lives just a bit more sparkly. The duchess can also use her show to tell that story and sell customers on As Ever.

"She has a literal infomercial for who she is that can be viewed 24/7 and streamed," Jones said. "She can tell the stories about the lifestyle and the brand. She can paint pictures about her jam and how it came to be and all the little steps that actually people are fascinated with."

Meghan's fairy tale shouldn't be hard to sell. She is a beautiful actor who fell in love with a prince and wants to live happily ever by helping people make their lives more aesthetically pleasing. If she can tap into that narrative, Meghan will finally find a niche that feels like home.

• In a Deloitte survey, 26% of leaders said their organizations were seriously exploring autonomous agents.
• ServiceNow, SAP, and Salesforce are among the firms that have debuted AI agents to do work tasks.
• This article is part of "AI in Action," a series exploring how companies are implementing AI innovations.

When clients of the cloud-based-software provider ServiceNow contact the company's customer support center, 80% of the cases — in the form of calls and chat messages — are handled without any human intervention.

Instead, the company relies on analytical and generative artificial intelligence — in the form of AI agents — to address common customer questions.

Chris Bedi, ServiceNow's chief customer officer and enterprise-AI advisor, said employees still handle one out of every five customer-support requests.

They're getting new support from agentic AI, which can automate tasks such as drafting a response email to a customer. Workers remain in the loop for a final sign-off before any agentic-AI actions are executed. The combination of human workers and agentic AI shrank the amount of time it took to handle the more complex cases by 52% in a two-week period, ServiceNow said.

OpenAI's cofounder Sam Altman and other leading technologists have said that 2025 will be the year that AI agents "join" the workforce.

In addition to ServiceNow, software developers such as Salesforce and SAP have rolled out their own agentic-AI platforms. These can perform workplace tasks such as processing customer invoices, providing customer support to clients, and drafting emails. The business software giant Intuit, which owns TurboTax and QuickBooks, began rolling out agentic-AI capabilities in December.

Humans mostly remain in the loop for now, but vendors anticipate this technology will become fully autonomous. Multiagent systems, where two or more AI agents collaborate to complete work, will proliferate.

"Agents are the next level of understanding around how you apply AI," Jim Rowan, the head of AI at the consultancy Deloitte, said. "It can perform actions for you."

In a recent Deloitte survey of 2,773 business leaders, 26% of respondents said their organizations were exploring autonomous agents to a "large or very large extent."

Why AI agents have become the new focus for generative AI

For the first two years of the generative-AI boom — which kicked off after the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022 — most businesses that adopted the technology scaled it to power chatbots and complete routine tasks like drafting meeting summaries. AI agents represent an evolution of generative-AI technology, built to complete tasks autonomously, though most are still monitored closely by workers.

Agentic AI "actually possesses some unique skills around reasoning, planning, and orchestration," Bedi told Business Insider. "These agents can collaborate with each other and really start to deliver on the promise of work happening autonomously."

Buzz for AI agents kicked into high gear after Salesforce debuted Agentforce in September to automate tasks in customer support, sales, and marketing. The company has said it will roll out 1 billion agents to customers by the end of this year. The company also reported that more than 340,000 of its customer support questions had been answered autonomously with Agentforce.

ServiceNow estimates that the company's AI agents, already deployed in various parts of the business, such as customer service, human resources, and IT, are driving an estimated $325 million in annualized value by bolstering workplace productivity by 20%. ServiceNow says AI-agent-supported work saves 400,000 labor hours annually.

Still, technology companies are in the early stages of their agentic-AI development. Many are figuring out which processes they can fully automate with the technology. As a result, company leaders implementing agentic AI are training their workers to collaborate with — and provide feedback on — their new "coworkers."

AI agents are often developed as worker-collaboration tools

John Kucera, the senior vice president of product management at Salesforce, recommended that businesses be transparent about what work AI agents can handle and what will remain with workers. He added that businesses should be clear about what an AI agent actually is, saying that not all agentic systems are equal.

"There's a lot of false agents out there," Kucera said. "It's only an agent when you're taking a request and the agent is figuring out what to do and then what data to put in."

While surveys frequently find that many workers worry that AI will replace them, technologists say AI agents won't replace people but assume responsibility for mundane tasks.

"These agents are going to help me do my job, but at no point will they make me do something I'm not aware of," said Walter Sun, the global head of AI at SAP, which sells software for financial, supply chain, and other business management needs. "The most important thing is that the employees are always in control."

How companies are tailoring AI agents with employee feedback

To ensure workers have a voice in how AI agents are developed, SAP encourages employees across its various business lines — including the travel- and expense-management provider Concur and SuccessFactors, which provides HR, payroll, and talent management software — to use an internal online form to reach out to the AI team and propose compelling agentic use cases.

At Intuit, the AI-powered financial assistant Intuit Assist can get businesses paid 45% faster by detecting past-due invoices and automatically drafting a personalized reminder note. After a business owner approves the note's language and sends it out, they are paid, on average, five days sooner than with a human-only process, Intuit Assist said.

But before Inuit Assist takes action, humans have the final say. "What we're trying to do is have the right human-automation interaction," Ashok Srivastava, Intuit's chief data officer, said.

Intuit has embraced a robust AI-training program, focused on responsible AI and what the technology can and cannot do, and built a "sandbox" called GenStudio that allows employees to interact with large language models in a secure environment. The company has also developed educational programs tailored to senior executives, directors, and engineers. "It's very pervasive across the company," Srivastava added.

Asana, which makes work-management software, launched AI agents in October, focusing on a few functions, including marketing, IT, HR, and research and development. Rather than track a specific number of actions that agentic AI takes over, Asana monitors the types of work that can be automated, eliminating the drudgery of busy work to allow employees to focus on more complex tasks.

The company is also keeping a close eye on which tasks AI systems get wrong compared with people. In cybersecurity, human errors tend to occur later in the day, when workers are tired after a long shift. AI doesn't get tired, but it is susceptible to hallucinations — or when an AI model generates a response that is misleading or false information but nonetheless presents it as fact. For example, Asana's AI agent might respond to certain questions by suggesting tasks that are, in reality, nonexistent to a particular workflow.

"The kinds of errors we see are different, so the way we fix them needs to be different," Asana's chief information security officer, Sean Cassidy, said. He said the company conducts automated tests to detect hallucinations and improve the product when they occur.

For AI agents to create a compelling return on investment for the companies that implement them, Deloitte's Rowan said, workers should be tasked with frequently checking on simple automated tasks before any agentic AI actions are taken.

If businesses want to see big returns on their agentic AI investment, they need to place AI at the center of their work model, and then consider how humans will engage with the work, Rowan said. If not, "the savings really won't be there," he added.

ServiceNow's Bedi said the success of AI agents depends on companies nailing three factors: New agentic capabilities should be developed for each department and its specific needs, unique training plans should be designed for every part of the business — like finance, marketing, and sales — and the value and return on of agentic workflows should be closely monitored.

"The companies that combine all three of those ingredients are going to have a competitive advantage," Bedi said.

• The internet is rapidly destroying TV because it gives people more ways to spend their time, for less money.
• Except! The thing that commands the most live attention on the internet is the same thing that commands the most attention on TV.
• Yup: NFL games.

Two things can be true at the same time:

• The internet has atomized the way we absorb information, entertainment, and culture. Which means we all exist in our own bubbles of interest and affiliation.
• The internet is very good at showing lots of people the same thing lots of people used to consume before the internet existed. Which means we're all still watching the same things we used to watch on TV — we're just getting it through broadband pipes.

Here's evidence for the second thing: a list of the top live internet events, ranked by broadband traffic, for the last three months of 2024. If you'd like to see a nonscreenshot version, download this report from AppLogic Networks, a broadband infrastructure company.

As you can see, the fifth entry on the chart is Netflix's Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson kinda-fight — the kind of stunt programming that used to run on ABC's "Wide World of Sports." (See: Knievel, Evel.) And the remaining nine events are all NFL games, streamed by Amazon, or ESPN, or Peacock.

That is: NFL games — basically the only thing that draws big numbers of viewers on TV anymore — are also basically the only thing that draws big numbers of internet viewers. At least when it comes to live, concurrent viewing.

As anyone who works in the TV business can tell you, that doesn't mean you can simply port TV shows over to the internet and get the same viewership, or money, that the traditional TV infrastructure used to deliver. It's much more complicated than that.

But it does seem to mean that TV's biggest live draw is also the internet's biggest live draw.

• Amazon and GE Vernova are partnering on power solutions for data centers.
• Grid operators in the US struggle to keep pace with surging data center demand.
• Big Tech companies are exploring alternative ways to get power to their sites quicker.

Amazon and GE Vernova have signed a strategic framework agreement to help power the cloud provider's rapid data center expansion, both companies said Tuesday in a press release.

Under the agreement, GE Vernova is set to help Amazon connect its growing international fleet of data centers to the electric grid through major electrical equipment expansion, project management, and construction support. The companies will also partner on renewable energy projects, and Amazon plans to work with GE Vernova's accelerator business to explore new forms of power generation for data centers.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Amazon, along with other Big Tech companies, is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data center expansion to advance artificial intelligence technology. Amazon plans to allocate over $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, mostly on expanding its cloud and AI infrastructure.

The development boom has caused energy demand in the US to surge for the first time in decades, and grid operators are struggling to keep up with the pace of growth.

As a result, data center operators are partnering with energy companies to explore various alternative options for getting power to their sites quicker. Last year, Amazon signed a deal with Talen Energy to use power from its Susquehanna nuclear power station in Pennsylvania.

GE Vernova builds and implements electrical power systems and equipment for energy sources such as natural gas, hydropower, wind, nuclear, and steam. The company's gas division saw significant growth in orders in 2024 for natural gas turbines, partially due to data center demand, CEO Scott Strazik said on an earnings call in January.

The company's natural gas turbines are providing power at the first Stargate site in Abilene, Texas. Stargate is a $500 billion joint initiative by OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and the White House to build AI infrastructure.

Amazon and GE Vernova did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Do you have a story to share about data centers and energy? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• Top hedge funds such as Citadel and Millennium lost money in February, BI has reported.
• Geopolitical tensions brought on by President Donald Trump led to rocky markets last month.
• See how some of the biggest multistrategy funds stack up.

Here's how multistrategy funds — which have raised billions in recent years because of their ability to handle volatility — stack up for the year so far:

• Trump's tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports went into effect Monday night.
• Automakers rely heavily on a complex supply chain that routinely crosses borders.
• Industry groups and experts warned of price hikes as a result of the import taxes.

President Donald Trump's tariffs enacted Monday could increase the sticker price of at least 39 car models sold in the US.

The tariffs affect not just foreign automakers but many domestic nameplates, like GM's Chevrolet, as well. An Equinox SUV's transmission may be assembled in the US and shipped to Mexico for final assembly before finally ending up at a lot in Omaha, for example.

Automakers rely on a complex supply chain in which parts and vehicles regularly cross North American borders during the manufacturing process or before they hit dealer lots, thanks to various regional trade agreements inked over the years.

Government data shows 34 models on sale in the US that are imported from either Canada or Mexico, from both domestic and foreign manufacturers.

Experts predict manufacturing costs will rise anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000, with automakers passing much of that cost on to consumers in the form of higher prices. New vehicle prices have skyrocketed since 2020 and now average more than $50,000, according to Edmund's data.

When it comes to vehicles sold in the US, Ford imports the least, making about 78% of those cars, trucks, and SUVs domestically. Mazda, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz import the most, industry data shows.

A trade group representing Ford, GM, and Stellantis said the import costs would stymie American competitiveness, increase consumer prices, and decrease investment in US jobs.

Shares of automakers fell sharply on Monday as Trump said there would be no last-minute reprieve like in February. Ford, GM, and Stellantis are down more than 14% since the November election. Honda is down more than 10%.

Vehicle parts and finished vehicles are the US' top imports from Mexico and second behind oil from Canada. Prices on other vehicles that rely on imported parts could also see increases, even if their final country of assembly is the US.

Here's a look at the models imported for sale in the US and where they are manufactured, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Prices on other vehicles that rely on imported parts could also increase.

BMW

• BMW 2-Series Coupe/Convertible (Mexico)
• BMW M2 Coupe (Mexico)
• BMW 3-Series Sedan (Mexico)

42.7% of BMW cars sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Ford

• Ford Bronco Sport (Mexico)
• Ford Maverick (Mexico)
• Ford Mustang Mach-E (Mexico)
• Ford Mustang GTD (Canada)

78.3% of Ford vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

General Motors

• Chevrolet Blazer (Mexico)
• Chevrolet Blazer EV (Mexico)
• Chevrolet Equinox (Mexico)
• Chevrolet Equinox EV (Mexico)
• GMC Terrain (Mexico)

47.3% of GM vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Honda

• Honda CR-V Hybrid (Canada)
• Honda Civic Sedan (Canada)
• Honda HR-V (Mexico)
• Honda Prologue (Mexico)
• Acurda ADX (Mexico)

58.9% of Honda vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Hyundai

• Hyundai Tucson (Mexico)

Hyundai makes 38.4% of its vehicles vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Kia

• Kia K4 (Mexico)

Kia is owned by Hyundai.

Mazda

• Mazda CX-30
• Mazda3

20.3% of Mazda vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Mercedes-Benz

• Mercedes-Benz GLB (Mexico

36.5% of Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Nissan

• Infiniti QX50 (Mexico)
• Infiniti QX55 (Mexico)
• Nissan Sentra (Mexico)
• Nissan Kicks (Mexico)
• Nissan Versa (Mexico)

45.6% of Nissan vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Stellantis

• Ram 2500-5500 (Mexico)
• Ram ProMaster (Mexico)
• Jeep Compass (Mexico)

• Chrysler Pacifica (Canada)

  68.2% of Stellantis vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Toyota

• Toyota Tacoma (Mexico)
• Toyota RAV4/RAV4 Hybrid (Canada)
• Lexus NX (Canada)
• Lexus RX (Canada)

44.1% of Toyota vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

Volkswagen Group

• Audi Q5/SQ5 (Mexico)
• VW Jetta (Mexico)
• VW Taos (Mexico)
• VW Tiguan(Mexico)

27.8% of Volkswagen Group vehicles sold in the US are made domestically, according to Edmunds data.

• Some companies are already telling customers they'll need to raise prices due to Trump's tariffs.
• At least one — Chipotle — has said it's not planning on passing the cost to consumers
• The tariff announcement has become a key talking point businesses now need to consider.

I'd like to formally announce I will not be passing the cost of the tariffs down to Business Insider Today's newsletter readers.

President Donald Trump's taxes on Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese goods have absolutely no impact on my ability to produce the daily newsletter. (And it's also free to subscribe.)

But don't let the details get in the way of a feel-good story: I am willing to carry the burden of these taxes for you, the reader.

My declaration might sound silly (It is!), but there are undoubtedly some serious conversations taking place at businesses about communicating the impact of these new tariffs.

Some companies aren't wasting time making clear that customers will have to take this one on the chin. Target CEO Brian Cornell said some grocery costs could go up as early as this week, while Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said price increases on imported products are now "highly likely."

Both executives didn't get too specific on their earnings calls, but the message was clear: Don't blame us if we have to raise prices.

They're not alone. Companies big and small have been telegraphing potential price increases due to tariffs for a while. As legendary investor Warren Buffett recently said of tariffs: "Over time, they are a tax on goods. I mean, the Tooth Fairy doesn't pay 'em!" (We've got a full rundown on the products most susceptible to tariffs.)

But one company took a very different approach. Before Tuesday's announcement, Chipotle made clear it was not planning on raising its prices due to tariffs.

Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright told "NBC Nightly News" that the chain planned to absorb any price increases.

"We are fortunate to have such an extraordinary economic model at Chipotle that we can withstand those types of inflationary pressures and not have to pass those costs off to the consumer," Boatwright said.

What a win for the finance bros! You can't tax these gains! I'll take double meat and some guac, please!

Oh, wait, there's one more thing.

Boatright went on to say Chipotle could still raise prices if the cost of the tariffs becomes a "significant headwind."

Oh, ok…

And tariffs aren't even set to hit Chipotle that hard. At least, according to Chipotle. Executives previously played down the impact of tariffs on a recent earnings call. Despite Mexico supplying roughly 90% of the avocados eaten in the US, according to CNBC, the chain only gets about half its supply from Mexico. And Chief Financial Officer Adam Rymer said the produce it gets from our neighbors to the south accounts for only about 2% of its sales.

Hmmm, alright.

Chipotle is also not philosophically opposed to passing along the cost to customers. In fact, the chain literally just did it. In December, Chipotle raised prices by 2% nationwide to offset inflation, its first price increase in over a year. The price hike also addressed the hit to its profit margin that came with ensuring "consistent and generous portions."

So, to recap: A chain that says it's pretty insulated from tariffs and recently raised its prices will do its best not to raise prices on consumers. (But no promises.)

Siri, where is the nearest Moe's?

To be fair to Chipotle, the tariffs are projected to cost the chain some money. Rymer previously estimated that tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China would increase its cost of sales — or how much it pays for the stuff it sells you — by about 0.6%.

That's not nothing, especially when fast-food chains have been fighting to keep prices down in the face of an uncertain economic future. So, credit Chipotle for attempting to avoid passing on the costs to customers rather than just waving the white flag on tariffs or using the trade tax as cover to raise its prices.

"It is our intent today to hold pricing constant because we don't know if the tariffs are transitory, if they're going to be permanent, or how they will impact our business in the future." Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer for Chipotle, told me via email.

But just as some have said Trump's tariff plan is part of a bigger negotiation tactic, don't be surprised if companies look to borrow from the president's playbook. The hot-button issue could be an excuse for businesses to raise prices or an opportunity to tout that they're holding the line to protect their customers.

• The Office of Personnel Management quietly revised a memo about firing probationary employees.
• The update, which says that OPM can't fire workers in other agencies, follows a recent court ruling.
• It's unclear if this affects the thousands of probationary employees who have already been fired.

The Office of Personnel Management quietly revised a memo on Tuesday about the firing of probationary federal employees. The memo includes two new sentences indicating that individual agencies, not OPM, are responsible for terminating workers.

Less than a week ago, a federal judge ruled that OPM doesn't have the power to fire employees in other agencies and had exceeded its legal authority. US District Judge William Alsup said in his ruling that OPM had to inform agencies it didn't have such power. The updates to the memo appear in line with that directive.

The memo was first published on January 20, President Donald Trump's first day in office, and much of it remains unchanged, based on BI's comparison of the original and revised versions.

Originally, the document directed agencies to send a list of all probationary employees to both a general OPM email and Amanda Scales, OPM's chief of staff who is associated with the White House DOGE office. The new version only says to send the list to the general email.

The original version described probationary periods as tools to "assess employee performance and manage staffing levels," suggesting they could be used for workforce reductions. The revised memo drops the staffing management language, instead describing probationary periods only as a way to ensure employees "will be an asset to the Government."

OPM sent agencies' chief human capital officers an email about the new memo, saying that it is "aware of recent litigation challenging the terminations of various probationary employees in different departments of the federal government," according to a copy reviewed by BI.

"The revised memorandum clarifies and confirms that OPM has not directed, and is not directing, your agency to take specific performance-based actions against probationary employees," the email says. It is signed by the "CHCO Council."

Thousands of probationary employees — typically people with less than two years of experience in their roles — have already been fired. It's not clear whether they will be rehired under the new guidance.

Representatives for the White House and OPM did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• President Donald Trump ordered a pause in US military aid for Ukraine.
• An advisor to Ukraine's president told BI the decision puts a spotlight on Patriot air defenses.
• The US-made Patriot missile batteries have been critical to defending Ukraine from Russian attacks.

KYIV, Ukraine — President Donald Trump's decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine is fueling concerns about the future of key weapons, particularly its American-made Patriot air defense systems.

"For us, the most critical positions are, undoubtedly, everything related to missile defense systems, particularly the Patriot systems. The largest production of these is in the United States," Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Business Insider during an interview in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Trump on Monday ordered a pause in the delivery of military aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelenskyy into peace talks with Russia on unfavorable terms. The move, though not necessarily surprising, has escalated the already tense situation following a contentious Oval Office meeting last week.

Podolyak, speaking through a translator, said that Ukraine still needs to identify which areas of US security assistance would be affected by Trump's aid decision and which weapons or ammunition could be replaced by other partner nations.

He singled out Ukraine's Patriot air defenses as an important concern and said Kyiv would continue to work with the US and Europe to find ways to protect civilians and infrastructure from regular Russian bombardments.

"Russia is not stopping its attacks; it continues missile strikes on civilians and critical infrastructure. Russia is not stopping and will not stop," Podolyak said. "Therefore, we will continue to look for ways to counter Russian strikes — both across the entire territory of Ukraine and along the front line."

"We will search for available tools on the global market and use them to destroy Russia's capabilities," he said.

Patriots have been crucial

The American-made MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system, manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, has played a crucial role in protecting Ukraine from Russian attacks since Kyiv first obtained it from the US nearly two years ago.

Ukraine now reportedly operates six Patriot systems at undisclosed locations around the country. These batteries have helped Kyiv shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, including some that the Kremlin claimed were unstoppable.

The US is not alone in providing Patriots; other NATO countries like Germany and the Netherlands have provided Ukraine with batteries and missile interceptors. But Trump's decision to pause aid raises questions about the future of what is now Kyiv's top air defense asset.

Ukraine is said to be running low on Patriot interceptor missiles, for which the US has been a key supplier. Halting further supply could prove detrimental.

Trump's move was a sobering moment for Ukraine. The Biden administration pledged more than $65 billion in security assistance to Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

On Tuesday, in Kyiv, locals expressed frustration and anger with the new military aid pause in conversations with BI.

"There [are] consequences for the front-line cities," said one local resident, who introduced himself as Viktor and didn't give his last name. "Lack of weapons will result in more bombing of those cities. If we are talking about air defense — here in Kyiv and other cities where civilians will die because we don't have enough Patriots, for example."

The military aid pause escalates a substantial rift between Washington and Kyiv, coming just a few days after Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy at the White House over peace negotiations. Ukraine's leader left without signing an anticipated rare-earth minerals deal.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the way the meeting unfolded was "regrettable" and that it was "time to make things right."

"Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format," he wrote on social media. "We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively."

• Warner Bros. Discovery drew criticism for its decision to end its TV deal with the NBA.
• WBD CEO David Zaslav said, "Not doing the NBA was a great decision" for the company.
• He said at a conference that WBD would turn its attention to franchises it owns, like Harry Potter.

When Warner Bros. Discovery decided to end its 35-year partnership with the National Basketball Association, some industry insiders worried the company was making a huge mistake. CEO David Zaslav is putting those fears to rest.

"Not doing the NBA was a great decision for us," Zaslav said at a Morgan Stanley conference on Tuesday.

WBD's latest distribution deals with Charter and Comcast have shown that the company can still secure higher rates for most of its TV networks without the NBA, as Business Insider previously reported.

The company is also investing in other sports. It's kicking off a new deal with NASCAR this year, and has picked up more rights to college sports.

Not having the NBA also saves WBD money. The NBA's last TV contract was worth $24 million over nine years and the league scored a big increase with its latest deal. The new 11-year contract with Disney's ESPN and ABC, Comcast's NBC, is worth $76 billion.

WBD is pivoting to bolster its own franchises

Without the NBA, Zaslav said WBD can reinvest in franchises it already owns and generate more revenue. New content is coming to its Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, DC Universe, and Game of Thrones franchises.

Zaslav thinks this move will provide some stability to the company as it continues to work with distributors to get its content to more people. Its recent pay-TV deals with Charter and Comcast let those cable companies bundle Max with their services, effectively making it free for those subscribers.

Zaslav said the company can monetize franchises it owns through content and merchandising, more than it can with sports.

"We own those," Zaslav said. "Sports is a rental business, and so you got to look and say, 'Are we going to be able to make money on this?'"

• Massachusettes police are investigating seven Tesla charging stations that were set on fire.
• Police told BI that the charging stations were the only ones in the small town outside Boston.
• Investigators suspect the fires were intentional.

A group of Tesla Superchargers in a small town outside Boston caught fire this week — and investigators suspect it was arson.

Massachusettes police are working with local officials to investigate seven Tesla charging stations that were engulfed in flames early Monday morning. Littleton Police said in a Monday press release that local officials have "determined that the fire appears to have been intentionally set."

Littleton Police Deputy Chief Jeff Patterson told Business Insider that the seven charging stations that were damaged are the only ones in the town, and none of them are useable. However, he said they are actively being repaired.

Tesla's charging account on X responded to a post about the incident on Monday and said the charging posts and wiring would be replaced in under 48 hours.

Police chief Matthew Pinard said that officers were dispatched to The Point Shopping Center at 1:10 a.m., following reports of fires at the Tesla charging station.

The officers said that "several Tesla charging stations were engulfed in flames and heavy, dark smoke" and another caught fire while they waited for the Electric Light & Water Department to arrive to shut down the power. Seven charging stations suffered heavy fire-related damage.

There were no reported injuries, and all of the fires were extinguished. The Littleton police and fire departments, along with the Massachusetts State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit, are investigating the incident. The Arson Watch Reward Program is offering rewards of up to $5,000 for information about the incident.

Patterson told BI that he wasn't aware of any Tesla protests or vandalism incidents in the town.

There have been dozens of demonstrations against Elon Musk and Tesla around the country in recent weeks in response to the Tesla CEO's efforts with the Trump administration and DOGE.

Demonstrators have gathered in cities around the country to participate in "Tesla Takedown" protests, many of which have occurred outside Tesla showrooms. Some Tesla owners have also reported being subject to insults when driving or vandalism on their vehicles.

Some of the anti-Tesla and Musk efforts have resulted in arrests.

Colorado police arrested a woman last week on suspicion of her involvement in a series of vandalism incidents at a Tesla dealership, including painting "Nazi cars" in graffiti on the dealership building and throwing Molotov cocktails at vehicles. The suspect was charged with criminal intent to commit a felony, criminal mischief, and using explosives or incendiary devices during a felony, according to police records.

Nine people were also arrested at a Tesla showroom protest in Manhattan on Saturday, Reuters reported. Police said hundreds of people showed up to the protest, some of whom entered the building, prompting employees to close the store. Videos from the protest also captured some of the store's glass shattered.

Are you a Tesla driver or employee with a story to share? Contact the reporter at [email protected]

• Linda McMahon was confirmed as Trump's education secretary on Monday.
• Shortly after her confirmation, she released a memo outlining her goals for the Department of Education.
• They include prioritizing private-school voucher programs and eliminating "divisive DEI" curricula.

President Donald Trump's newly confirmed education secretary is ready to carry out her boss' vision of eliminating her own department.

After being confirmed on Monday night, Linda McMahon published a memo outlining her goals for the Department of Education. She framed her goals as the department's "final mission" to reshape education in the US, saying that coming changes will "profoundly impact" the agency's operations.

"Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children," McMahon said. "An effective transfer of educational oversight to the states will mean more autonomy for local communities. Teachers, too, will benefit from less micromanagement in the classroom—enabling them to get back to basics."

McMahon highlighted three goals for restructuring the Department of Education:

1. Ensure parents are the "primary decision makers" in their kids' education.
2. Focus public education on math, reading, science, and history, and not "divisive DEI programs and gender ideology."
3. Establish postsecondary education as a path to well-paying careers that meet the demands of the workforce.

These follow Trump's executive orders related to education in January. One focused on expanding school voucher programs, partly by redirecting federal funds from public to private schools, while the other prioritized "patriotic education" in public classrooms to eliminate curriculum that doesn't align with the president's politics.

McMahon's first goal is to expand parents' roles in their children's education by providing them with publicly funded vouchers to use at private institutions, which has long been a priority for Trump and Republican lawmakers. Trump's plan to reallocate federal block grants meant to boost underfunded schools to private-school vouchers would take it a step further, education policy experts have told BI. The administration would likely have to go through Congress to implement those changes.

McMahon's focus on math, reading, science, and history is also in alignment with Trump's executive orders. One of them proposed diverting funds away from public schools that teach "gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology." The Trump administration recently cut $900 million in research contracts at the Education Department, and some department employees and education experts said that the cuts could hinder data collection on kids' math and reading progress.

McMahon's memo did not elaborate on her third goal for higher education. She said during her confirmation hearing that she would preserve programs enshrined in law, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. She also wrote a September opinion piece in The Hill expressing support for expanding Pell Grant eligibility to workforce training programs, not just college degree programs.

Trump and Republican lawmakers have criticized broad student-loan forgiveness and former President Joe Biden's key repayment plan, which allowed for cheaper payments. Continuing those efforts is not likely to be prioritized under McMahon.

It's still unclear how Trump's executive orders will be carried out. The orders asked McMahon and other agency heads to prepare guidance on implementing changes to the school system, and it's possible the guidance could end up being less proscriptive than Trump and McMahon's stated aims.

Jon Valant, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institution, previously told BI that even as schools await formal guidance from the department, some districts might prematurely consider McMahon and Trump's directives.

"People may interpret them as having more bite than they actually do," he said.

Trump has reiterated over the past few weeks that he wants to eliminate the Department of Education altogether. While McMahon said during her confirmation hearing that abolishing the agency would require an act of Congress, she told Democratic lawmakers in a recent letter that she "wholeheartedly" supports Trump's mission that "the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states."

Have a tip about the Department of Education or changes to the federal workforce? Contact this reporter via Signal at asheffey.97 or via email at [email protected]. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Dolly Parton and Carl Dean met outside a Nashville laundromat in 1964 and married in 1966.
• Dean stayed out of the spotlight, and Parton addressed conspiracy theories that he didn't exist.
• After nearly 60 years of marriage, Dean died on March 3 at the age of 82.

Carl Dean, Dolly Parton's husband of nearly six decades, died on March 3 at the age of 82.

Parton and Dean met outside a Tennessee laundromat in 1964 and wed in 1966.

Dean supported Parton's country music career from behind the scenes. He so rarely appeared with her in public that Parton addressed conspiracy theories that he wasn't a real person.

Still, Dean inspired some of Parton's most successful work, such as her mega-hit song "Jolene" and her latest album "Rockstar."

Here's a timeline of their relationship.

1964: Dolly Parton and Carl Dean met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville.

Dean was driving by in his pickup truck when he saw Dolly Parton and "hollered" at her, she told The New York Times in 1976. She declined his request for a date but invited him over while she was babysitting her nephew the following day.

"He came up every day that week and we sat out on the porch. I wouldn't even take him in the house," she said. "Then my aunt got a day off, and she could keep the kid and that was my first chance to go anywhere with Carl and he drove me straight to his folks' house and introduced me to his mother and daddy. 'Cause he said he knew right the minute he saw me that that's the one he wanted."

At the time, Parton was 18 and Dean was 21.

May 30, 1966: Parton and Dean wed in a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.

Parton's record label asked her to wait a year before getting married for the sake of her career, but she and Dean couldn't wait. They went to Georgia so that the event wouldn't be reported in the Tennessee press.

"It was just my mother and Carl and me," she told CMT in 2016. "We went across the state line to Ringgold, Georgia. My mother made me a little white dress and a little bouquet and a little Bible. But I said, 'I can't get married in a courthouse because I'll never feel married.' So we found a little Baptist church in town, and went up to Pastor Don Duvall and said, 'Would you marry us?' We got pictures on the steps right outside the church."

1966: Parton and Dean attended their first — and last — red carpet event together.

Parton received her first songwriting award at 20 years old for "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" recorded by Bill Phillips, winning BMI's Song of the Year. She and Dean walked the red carpet and attended the dinner and award ceremony, but it wasn't Dean's style.

"After the dinner, we walked back out, and they brought us our car — I don't even remember what we were driving then — and we got in it and headed for home," Parton told audiences at the Marty Stuart Jam in 2011, The Boot reported. "Carl turned to me and said, 'Dolly, I want you to have everything you want, and I'm happy for you, but don't you ever ask me to go to another one of them dang things again!'"

September 1969: Dean made a rare appearance on the cover of Parton's fourth album, "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy."

"My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" reached No. 6 on the US Top Country Albums charts.

Beyond this image, there are few public photos of the couple.

October 1973: Parton released the song "Jolene," which she says was inspired by a bank teller who was crushing on her husband.

"She got this terrible crush on my husband," Parton told NPR in 2008. "And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, 'Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money.' So it's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one."

August 2012: Parton auctioned off a tour of Nashville sites from her history for charity, including the spot on Wedgewood Avenue where she and Dean met.

The auction benefited the Dr. Robert F. Thomas Foundation, which expands access to quality healthcare in Sevier County. The foundation is named for the physician who delivered Parton, and she serves as its honorary chairperson.

May 30, 2016: Parton and Dean renewed their vows for their 50th wedding anniversary, and Dean released his first public statement for the occasion.

"I got all dressed up in the most beautiful gown you've ever seen and dressed that husband of mine up. He looked like a handsome dude out of Hollywood," she told Rolling Stone in 2016. "We had a few family and friends around. We didn't plan anything big at all because we didn't want any kind of strain, any kind of tension, any kind of commotion, so we planned it cleverly and carefully. We just had a simple little ceremony at our chapel at our place."

In his first public statement in honor of their 50th anniversary, Dean also expressed his love for Parton.

"My first thought was, 'I'm gonna marry that girl,'" Dean said in a statement of the moment they met, Entertainment Tonight reported. "My second thought was, 'Lord she's good lookin'.' And that was the day my life began. I wouldn't trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth."

August 2016: Parton wrote an album of love songs inspired by her relationship with Dean called "Pure and Simple."

"I was just trying to think about all the different colors of love through the years," Parton told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'Well I'm going to write about mine and Carl's relationship. It's just a pure and simple relationship,' so it started with that and then I thought, 'Well why don't I just write a whole album of love songs?'"

December 2018: Parton joked about her husband's crush on Jennifer Aniston on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

Parton and Aniston worked together on the Netflix movie "Dumplin,'" with Parton writing six original songs for the soundtrack.

"I love her to death," she said of Aniston. "My husband is crazy about her. And he was more excited that I was gonna do a movie with her than he was that I got the chance to write all this music."

October 2020: Parton addressed conspiracy theories that her husband doesn't actually exist since he's never seen in public.

Parton confirmed that Dean, a retired businessman, is a real person, despite rumors of him being imaginary.

"A lot of people have thought that through the years, because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all," Parton told Entertainment Tonight. "It's just not who he is. He's like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he'd never get a minute's peace and he's right about that."

Parton said that they each value their independence, and that Dean values his privacy and has no interest in fame.

"I've always respected and appreciated that in him and I've always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can," she said. "He said, 'I didn't choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.' And we do and we have. We've been together 56 years, married 54."

July 2021: Parton recreated her 1978 Playboy cover for her husband's birthday.

Parton shared a video of herself on Instagram in a black bustier and pink-and-white collar with a bow tie. 

"Hey!" Parton said in the video. "You're probably wondering why I'm dressed like this. Well, it's for my husband's birthday."

She said that Dean had always loved her original Playboy cover, so to "make him happy" on his birthday, she decided to get a duplicate outfit and set up her own photo shoot. 

"He still thinks I'm a hot chick after 57 years," she said. "And I'm not gonna try and talk him out of that."

October 2021: Parton told W magazine that she and Dean "don't argue" and that she fell for him instantly.

In the interview, Parton discussed her time working with country star and duet partner Porter Wagoner.

"My husband and I don't argue, but Porter and I did nothing but fight. It was a love-hate relationship," she told W magazine's Lynn Hirschberg.

November 2021: Parton shared a rare old photo of her and Dean on Instagram.

The vintage photo appeared to have been edited to show Dean wearing a shirt from Parton's line of merchandise available on her website.

"Find you a partner who will support you like my Carl Dean does!" Parton captioned the post.

February 2022: Parton said that fried chicken is the one dish everyone should know how to make for a successful marriage.

"You can't go wrong with fried chicken," Parton told Business Insider's Anneta Konstantinides. "I think everybody should really know how to make good fried chicken. No matter where people come from, they love good fried chicken. So you need to make good fried chicken!" 

Parton said she also makes him pork chops with green peas and mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, or chicken and dumplings — her specialty. 

"A lot of people like my chicken and dumplings," she said. "I'm pretty famous for that. Carl likes all my cooking. But he, like the rest of them, especially likes the chicken and dumplings." 

March 2022: Parton initially said she would turn down her nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but she said Dean has encouraged her to make a rock album.

In March 2022, Parton was one of 17 artists shortlisted and one of seven first-time nominees.

"Even though I am extremely flattered and grateful to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I don't feel that I have earned that right," she said in a statement. "I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out."

She added, "This has, however, inspired me to put out a hopefully great rock 'n' roll album at some point in the future, which I have always wanted to do! My husband is a total rock 'n' roll freak, and has always encouraged me to do one."

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame declined Parton's request to be removed from the ballot, saying in a statement, in part, "In addition to her incredible talent as an artist, her humility is another reason Dolly is a beloved icon by millions of fans around the world."

In April, she changed her tune and said she would accept the honor, if she was voted in.

"I'll accept gracefully. I'll just say 'Thanks' and I will accept it because the fans vote," she told NPR's "Morning Edition."

In May 2022, it was announced she had indeed been voted in.

November 2022: Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and she said her next album would be a tribute to Dean's love of the genre.

In a red-carpet interview with E! News at her induction ceremony, Parton said that her upcoming album would feature some of Dean's favorite rock songs.

"We have a lot of favorite songs," she said. "He loves rock 'n' roll, he loves Led Zeppelin and he loves 'Stairway to Heaven.' So I'm going to do a lot of things like that for him."

November 2023: Parton released "Rockstar," her 49th studio album, inspired by Dean's love of rock ‘n’ roll.

The album featured duets with artists including Sting, Stevie Nicks, Steven Tyler, and Joan Jett. "Rockstar" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart and became her best-selling album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.

March 2025: Dean died at the age of 82.

Dean's death was announced in a post on Parton's social media on March 3.

"Carl and I spent many wonderful years together," Parton wrote in the post. "Words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy."

The post shared that Dean would be "laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending."

• Job openings for software engineers on Indeed are at their lowest level in five years.
• Marc Benioff said Salesforce might not hire software engineers in 2025 because of gains from AI.
• Despite AI's impact, demand for skilled tech workers is expected to grow significantly by 2033.

If you're a coder, you already know: There just aren't as many jobs as there used to be.

Openings for software engineers in the US on Indeed are down by more than one-third from five years ago.

For many engineers, the drop-off likely feels even steeper. Job postings are well off levels seen during the pandemic, when the industry was awash in openings.

In early to mid-2022, there were three times as many software engineering roles listed on Indeed.

Artificial intelligence is surely one cause. The same technology that can make coders more productive appears to be undercutting hiring demand.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently said the tech giant might not hire any engineers in 2025 because AI tools allowed Salesforce engineers to do so much more.

"We have seen such incredible productivity gains because of the agents that work side by side with our engineers," Benioff said on "The Logan Bartlett Show" in January.

'Am I going to lose my job?'

Productivity gains are great news for coders with jobs, but the AI boost can be worrisome for job seekers.

A year ago, the startup Cognition Labs released what it said was the first AI software engineer. The company, backed by Peter Thiel's venture capital fund, caused a stir with its announcement.

"There was a lot of panic," Jesal Gadhia, the head of engineering at Thoughtful AI, which creates AI tools for healthcare providers, previously told Business Insider. "I had a lot of friends of mine who messaged me and said, 'Hey, am I going to lose my job?'"

He worried that even though coders are still needed in many areas, AI could step into roles that have long served as training grounds for junior engineers.

"Junior engineers," Gadhia said, "have a little bit of a target behind their back."

Demand is likely to grow

It's not all bad news for those with strong technical chops. In late August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast that demand for software developers, quality-assurance analysts, and testers would grow by 17% from 2023 to 2033. The agency noted that that'd be far faster than growth in the overall job market.

Lighthouse Labs, a Canadian company offering coding boot camps, argued in January that global demand for skilled workers in data analytics, cybersecurity, and cloud computing was outstripping supply. Unsurprisingly, some of the biggest gains involve AI. Lighthouse Labs said that was partly because there's demand well beyond the tech industry for people with skills in areas like machine learning.

AI to do more of the work

Regardless of industry, demands on coders' time will likely continue to evolve because of AI. GitLab has said developers spend only about a quarter of their time coding.

Madars Biss, a tech writer and front-end developer, previously told BI that he expected developers to spend less time generating code and more time managing AI-generated code.

AI tools, Biss said, could "handle much of the routine and repetitive tasks of the developer," while "humans focus on managing, double-checking, and creativity."

As with Salesforce, that could change how companies hire software engineers.

In June, Amazon Web Services' chief, Matt Garman, predicted that AI would handle a good deal of coders' work.

"If you go forward 24 months from now, or some amount of time — I can't exactly predict where it is — it's possible that most developers are not coding," Garman said.

• I tried premade beef stew from brands like Progresso, Dinty Moore, Rao's, and Campbell's.
• I warmed up each one on the stovetop and added small noodles, green onions, and salt.
• My favorite stew was hearty and filling and had a great flavor.

I'm not the best in the kitchen, and cooking is typically the last thing I want to do after coming home from work. As a result, canned beef stew has been my saving grace on the nights I don't have the time to cook an entire meal.

So, I decided to taste four brands of canned beef stew — Progresso, Campbell's, Dinty Moore, and Rao's — to find the best version.

I warmed up each stew on the stovetop, as per each can's instructions, and added small noodles, green onions, and salt to get the most out of my meals. Here's what I thought of each one.

I started strong with Progresso's take on beef stew.

The first stew I tried was Progresso's beef pot roast with country vegetables.

The vegetables and meat were soft, the potatoes had a bit of bite for texture, and the broth was very enjoyable when doctored up with salt and green onions.

I struggled to finish this one, as it was very hearty and had a lot of broth to work through. Still, it was a solid dinner option.

However, I found Campbell's version to be disappointing.

Campbell's chunky beef soup with country vegetables included meat, potatoes, peas, and carrots. I thought these ingredients overpowered the broth, which had a strong tomato taste.

Overall, this one was a bit bland and wasn't as hearty as the other options. After adding salt and noodles, the stew went from just OK to good. However, it still wouldn't be my first pick.

Rao's soup was a pleasant surprise.

Unlike the other stews I bought, Rao's slow-simmered Tuscan-style beef soup came in a glass jar instead of a can. However, I decided to include it in this taste test because it was still a preprepared stew.

When I warmed this one up, I was immediately disappointed by the strong tomato smell and expected it to taste like Campbell's version.

However, I was pleasantly surprised that I could barely taste tomato in the broth. I was also shocked the jar had 11 grams of protein because of how much more broth there was compared to veggies and meat.

Unlike the other stews, Rao's version had mushrooms, which was a nice addition. The only downfall was that this soup was made up of small pieces of beef, carrots, celery, and potatoes, which easily got lost in the broth.

Overall, I enjoyed the garlic and onion taste, giving it a home-cooked flavor. I almost forgot it came out of a jar.

The Dinty Moore beef stew was flavorful and hearty.

The broth in the Dinty Moore beef stew was much thicker than the others I tried. When I initially poured the soup into a pot, it looked like it was mostly vegetables and meat. As it heated up, however, the balance between solids and liquids leveled out.

The broth had a tomato undertone, but it wasn't overwhelming like Campbell's was. It also didn't need any additional salt, which was surprising.

The meat was very soft, and there were a lot of carrots and potatoes. I thoroughly liked the taste of this stew and thought it was perfectly filling.

Overall, the Dinty Moore beef stew was my favorite of the four options I tried.

Before this taste test, I expected to enjoy Campbell's beef stew the most because I was familiar with its products. However, I couldn't shake my distaste for the tomato-heavy flavor.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Rao's stew, but it definitely needed noodles or a side of bread to compensate for its small pieces of meat and vegetables.

The Progresso option was good, but overall, the Dinty Moore stew was my favorite for its strong flavor and hearty broth.

Ultimately, depending on how filling I'd want my meal to be, I'd reach for Dinty Moore and Rao's again.

• Miss Universe CEO Anne Jakrajutatip has been accused of trying to favor Miss Thailand in the 2023 Miss Universe competition.
• A former Miss Universe judge told Business Insider Jakrajutatip told then-president Paula Shugart to put Thailand in the top five.
• Shugart resigned from the Miss Universe Organization during the 2023 competition.

In 2023, on the eve of the Miss Universe finals in El Salvador, Paula Shugart announced the end of her 23-year tenure as the president of the Miss Universe Organization. Her resignation was met with shock and gasps from the thousands of pageant fans in the stands.

However, Denise White, one of the judges for the November 2023 competition, wasn't surprised. White told Business Insider that Miss Universe CEO Anne Jakrajutatip tried to pressure Shugart to favor Miss Thailand in the pageant, wanting the contestant to make the top five during the competition.

Jakrajutatip and her Thailand-based company, JKN Global, bought the Miss Universe organization for $20 million in October 2022.

"I really can't comment at this time in light of my ongoing litigation against Anne in Thailand," Shugart said when BI reached out to her for comment, noting that she has a criminal complaint against Jakrajutatip for defamation in Thailand court. "However, there is nothing I have seen in Denise's comments that I would refute."

According to ABC News, Jakrajutatip denied any wrongdoing in Shugart's complaint against her.

Representatives for Jakrajutatip and the Miss Universe Organization did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

"She said, 'I can't believe Anne is telling me that, no matter what, we have to make sure Thailand is in the top five,'" White said, recalling her conversation with Shugart. White added that Shugart refused to comply with Jakrajutatip's request, although Thailand's contestant was selected as the first runner-up in the end on her own accord.

Voting 'above board'

White, a former Miss Oregon who competed at Miss USA in 1994, specializes in crisis management for high-profile athletes and celebrities. After judging Miss USA 2018, she reconnected with Shugart and was hired as a consultant for the organization in 2022.

The Miss Universe Organization has historically had no say in who makes it to the top five. Still, the organization has helped select the semi-finalists for the pageant for nearly 20 years, a fact that was well-known to the contestants.

In a 2018 New Yorker article, Miss Canada 2012 Adwoa Yamoah told the magazine that Donald Trump — who owned the Miss Universe Organization, including Miss USA, from 1996 to 2015 — "basically told us he picked nine of the top 15."

However, according to one longtime Miss USA employee, the organization had zero input on the results once the preliminary competition was over and the top 15 contestants were announced on live TV.

Each year's televised final featured a different group of judges — often celebrities, models, and past Miss Universe winners — who would rank the contestants based on their performance in the swimsuit, evening gown, and interview rounds. Their votes were always audited by the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

"The judges made the decision, and Ernst & Young would sign off on it," said the Miss USA employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. "Ernst & Young was very proud that it was above board."

A different former Miss Universe employee, who also asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that the Miss Universe 2023 pageant was audited by Ernst & Young but that the organization's partnership with the accounting firm did not continue in 2024.

The source said that current Miss Universe President Raul Rocha publicly announced Miss Universe 2024 would be audited by Deloitte but decided to let the company go a month before the competition in Mexico — opting for a local accountant instead.

'Why not Thailand?'

Miss Thailand 2023 Anntonia Porsild won first-runner up at the competition, losing the 2023 Miss Universe crown to Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios.

"I judged Thailand harder because I didn't like that Anne was trying to push Paula to somehow tell us," said White. "And nobody knew about this except me; the other judges had no idea this was going on."

White said Porsild earned first runner-up fair and square. "She totally got it above board. She got this off her own volition," White added.

Representatives for Palacios and Prosild did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Multiple sources who worked at Miss Universe and were present at the 2023 pageant told BI that Jakrajutatip was unsatisfied with the results despite Thailand making the top five.

One source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, recalled the CEO saying, "Why not Thailand?" just moments after the winner was announced.

By then, Shugart had already resigned. White said she advised Shugart to make a public speech during the competition.

"I said, 'What you've been asked to compromise, and the things happening behind the scenes, is not OK,'" White recalled telling Shugart.

When Shugart gave her surprise resignation speech the night before the finalists were announced, she told the crowd of pageant fans: "There is a critical difference between declaring the words 'transformational leadership' and being a real transformational leader."

"It can and it must be empathetic beyond self-interest," Shugart said. "It can and it must be committed to building confidence through inspiration and teamwork, not insecurity and chaos."

"Above all, it must be about honesty, respect, integrity, and living by your word," she added. "One cannot just talk the talk. One must walk the walk."

A scandal-plagued organization

In January 2023, four months after Jakrajutatip acquired the Miss Universe brand, she gave a rousing speech during the Miss Universe finals in New Orleans, promising to usher in a new era.

"From now on, it's going to be run by women, owned by a trans woman, for all women around the world," Jakrajutatip said.

That same year, married women and mothers walked the Miss Universe stage for the first time in its history. In 2024, all women over the age of 18 were allowed to compete. Many hailed the organization as a champion for diversity.

Months later, in an October 2023 video obtained by BI, Jakrajutatip told her staff that diverse pageant contestants "can compete, but they can't win," calling it a "communication strategy."

In a statement later posted to her Facebook page, Jakrajutatip said she was discussing a potential Miss Universe reality show rather than the competition.

In October 2024, Jakrajutatip shocked pageant fans when she went on Instagram Live and began judging the photos of the Miss Universe contestants, laughing and appearing to grimace at some of the women's pictures.

The following month, she made headlines once again after praising the blond hair and blue eyes of Miss Universe 2024 winner Victoria Kjaer Theilvig. When a reporter asked Jakrajutatip about the evolution of the Miss Universe pageant, the CEO said, "We already got the best here."

"We have blond and blue eyes, so we're coming to the ultimate evolution already," Jakrajutatip said. "We don't need any more evolution here."

White told BI she believes Shugart's resignation was the demise of the Miss Universe Organization.

"I told Paula, 'Sometimes you have to watch something burn to save it,'" White recalled. "But after this burns, I don't know if there's any saving it."

"Once people cannot trust that this is a fair competition or a fair organization, most people don't want to be a part of it," she added. "If people think there's no fairness and equity in it and it's rigged, that thing is destined to fail."

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• I started law school full of ambition, but I quickly realized I hated it.
• Quitting wasn't an option, so I had to find a way to make peace with my studies.
• I'm glad I stuck with my law major in the end because it taught me a lot and I found my niche.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to become a lawyer. Everyone told me it would suit me, that I was made for it. So, after high school, I immediately enrolled at Saint-Louis University in Brussels as a law student.

I eagerly awaited university, believing life would finally begin. Yet, from the first time I squeezed into an overcrowded lecture hall, I knew I would hate college, especially my major.

In my first year, I convinced myself that the uninspiring courses were necessary basics. By my second year, I knew nothing would change. And by the third, the fourth…I felt like I was on the wrong path.

The difficulty kept increasing, exams became more stressful, and the competitive college atmosphere among students turned ruthless.

Five years later, I've completed two master's degrees in law at schools in Europe, and I'm about to finally graduate.

So, how did I survive all these years, spending much of my time studying a major I didn't like? I still don't know, but I don't regret it.

I had little interest in my law classes

Law classes quickly became a chore. The coursework in law school is often overwhelming, and exams are psychological battles. My entire year boils down to a single exam, usually oral, with professors who sometimes make disparaging remarks that only add to the pressure.

It became clear to me that universities and their courses are designed to shape us into robotic professionals — and if that doesn't satisfy you, you have to look beyond what is being offered.

I also felt that true reflection was absent, and we just had to swallow what the teacher said. Those experiences made me realize how much the academic system was draining me. It wasn't just the major that weighed on me but also the structure of higher education.

Having always been passionate about literature, I considered switching majors in my second year. Devoting myself to a passion that had existed long before my interest in law: writing.

After hours of reflection, doubts, discussions, and family tensions, I chose to stay. After all, I was doing well academically. I told myself that law was broad enough to lead to multiple career paths, with additional training if necessary.

That gave me hope, but it didn't make the process any easier. The question haunted me daily: "Am I wasting my life?"

I relied on discipline to get me through school

Law school is tough even for those who love it — worse when you don't.

I had to face panic attacks, pressure to stay in the race, and the stress of applying for internships — all while wondering if any of it mattered. Every day, hundreds of doubts swirled in my mind.

My doubts made it even harder to focus in class or complete the simplest daily tasks, which suddenly required an enormous effort. Studying for over 10 hours a day glued to a desk is already tough. Add in a vortex of self-doubt pulling you down every second, and it quickly turns into a nightmare.

That's when discipline forced me to do what I didn't want to do, even through the tears falling into my cereal bowl or my instant noodles. I reminded myself that this time was only temporary, and I had what it takes to see this thing through.

It was all worth it in the end

I hated my studies so much, but choosing to stay forced me to look beyond what was being taught. Because the courses didn't interest me, I had to think outside the box to find what sparked my curiosity.

That's when I stumbled upon a legal article on law and art. For the first time, I felt a flicker of passion. Despite the psychological toll of staying in law school, I finally found my own path within a major that didn't seem to suit me.

Staying in my studies was the right choice because I found a niche that brings me joy.

If staying at university has taught me anything, I learned that it's that it's better to ask questions, doubt your path, and explore more options than to end up in a job you don't like.

• After growing up on the East Coast and living in New York City for years, I moved to Los Angeles.
• Some things were easy to adjust to, like the climate and the differences in public transportation.
• Other things threw me off, like LA's chill attitude toward alcohol and the slower pace of the city.

I grew up in New Britain, Connecticut, and when I was 18, I fulfilled my dream of moving to New York City for college.

I ended up staying for three more years after school, and I still think it's the most incredible place in the world.

However, I felt like I needed a change. Things were growing a bit stagnant in my life, so I packed up and moved to Los Angeles in hopes of finding work in the film industry.

Moving across the country is expensive — it costs thousands of dollars for professional movers alone — and I knew I was taking a risk. But I was also excited about the new adventure.

As a lifelong East Coaster, here are the things that surprised me the most about moving to California.

I adjusted to the climate more quickly than I expected.

Coming from the Northeast, with its bitter winters and humid summers, it's been pretty amusing to witness Southern California's version of seasons.

I can't help chuckling when I see people bundled up in Arctic-strength parkas when it's 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

That said, I acclimated much faster than I thought I would. After just a couple of weeks of being spoiled by sunny days above 70 degrees, I started feeling chilly when the temperature dropped in the evenings.

Now, I grab a light jacket anytime the temperature might dip into the 50s. In New York, if it got into the 50s in the spring, I'd be taking off my coat.

I thought not having a car would be a problem, but it's actually been easy.

Having spent my entire adulthood in New York City (where it's pretty rare to own a car), I was prepared for some difficulty adjusting to LA (where living without one is apparently unheard of).

Lots of people told me that it couldn't be done, that public transit in California wasn't very good, and that I'd have to spend a fortune on rideshare apps.

However, getting around has been pretty easy.

Although I'm used to the well-established and expansive public transit available in NYC, LA's bus and train system is actually super helpful. It even has some advantages over New York — the trains, though they don't cover as much ground, are generally on time and clean.

When I can't take the train, rideshares get me farther for less money than they did in New York.

Long-distance travel is the norm here.

All of the places I'd seen Angelenos visit in movies and on TV — Joshua Tree National Park, Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe — are way farther from the city than I imagined.

On the East Coast, a two- or three-hour drive was a big ordeal reserved for special occasions.

In LA, though, people are willing to drive three to five hours for a spontaneous weekend trip. An hourlong drive to Malibu for a beach day is also common.

The food is equally delicious, but totally different, in LA.

New York has a world-class restaurant scene, where chefs are doing some of the most interesting things out of any culinary city in the world. But California has the natural advantage of delicious, fresh ingredients.

It seems like so many vegetables and fruits grow here, and the amazing produce enhances the food in restaurants and grocery stores exponentially.

In New York, I felt like I had to be extra eagle-eyed when buying produce, but I hardly come across sad, pinkish tomatoes or tragically unripe avocados in Los Angeles.

That said, there are a handful of things I just can't seem to find in California. Specifically, big, cheap portions of takeout (especially Chinese food) and a decent bagel.

For me, finding an apartment in LA was so much easier.

In New York, the process of hunting for and securing real estate is notoriously head-spinning.

You generally need to have a lot of financial documentation (sometimes a letter of recommendation from a former landlord) and a cashier's check ready fast — or else someone else will probably snap your place up.

If your yearly salary isn't at least 40 times a month's rent, you also may need a guarantor to sign on with you.

In Los Angeles, I visited two apartments, picked the second one I saw, and the property manager told me there was "no rush" in getting him my deposit. I couldn't believe it.

Additionally, the approval process was much less rigorous. My years of apartment hunting in New York prepared me for a much more intense and complicated process than I actually had to deal with here.

I think LA has a more laid-back attitude toward drinking and drugs.

Growing up in Connecticut and living in New York as an adult, I was always confused when my friends who grew up on the West Coast would ask me to pick up a bottle of wine from the grocery store.

Most East Coast states have laws that wine and liquor can only be purchased at designated, licensed stores.

In California, however, I can pick up wine and liquor while shopping for groceries. It's a small difference, but it was a little jarring when I first arrived.

Overall, things seem to be more chill in California.

As far as I can tell, it's not just a stereotype — people seem to be more relaxed in LA.

I've noticed that many people take longer lunches and seem to love getting outside. And, despite the traffic, I've noticed much less road rage here than in NYC.

I miss the pace of life in New York and the to-the-point attitude of East Coasters. I'm getting better at having friendly conversations with chatty strangers, but sometimes, I miss the public solitude I was used to.

I also miss how New Yorkers always seemed to bond by complaining — my candidness doesn't seem as welcome in LA.

Deep down, I'm still very much an East Coaster at heart. But so far, I'm loving the sunshine, the fresh avocados, and the overall relaxed vibe of the West Coast.

This story was originally published in March 2020 and most recently updated on March 4, 2025.