• John Chambers, Cisco's former CEO, said leaders need to reinvent themselves every year.
• Refreshing a company's strategy every two to three years is no longer sufficient in this AI age, he said.
• The pressure to keep up with AI is already being felt in many boardrooms.

John Chambers has a message for executives in AI: Remake yourself every year or risk falling behind.

"Most leaders do not reinvent themselves," said the former Cisco CEO and current VC on an episode of the "Grit" podcast published Monday. "As a leader in AI, you have to reinvent yourself, in my opinion, every year."

This is because AI is moving in "internet terms" at "five times the speed" and delivering "three times the results," Chambers said.

That pace means companies will succeed and fail faster than ever before, he added. He was the CEO of Cisco from 1995 to 2015.

The pressure to keep up with AI is already being felt in boardrooms. JPMorgan Chase on Monday told investors that starting this year, less of its $95 billion in annual spending will go toward hiring as the bank seeks to do more with less, thanks in part to AI.

LinkedIn data showed that since the fall, AI hiring has risen 30% faster than overall hiring. By 2030, 70% of the skills required for most jobs will change due to AI, the company said.

Chambers, who now runs JC2 Ventures, said refreshing a company's strategy every two to three years is no longer sufficient. In this AI age, the lack of change just means "you're not getting the leverage out of it, you're chasing the new shiny object," he said.

Reinvention, in his view, means rethinking everything from target market and products to how companies differentiate and go to market.

Chambers said a founder he works with has grown his company 100% year-on-year and still cut his head count by 10% because he used AI "to change everything."

The founder uses AI not only for his core product development, but also in sales, analytics, forecasting, and customer service, Chambers said.

Large language models, often seen as the cornerstone of AI, are also quickly becoming commoditized. What sets companies apart now is how they use AI across their entire tech stack, he said.

Across the tech world, executives are voicing a similar urgency — that keeping up with AI means constantly adapting, or risk falling behind.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who considers himself an AI optimist, said the tech transition comes with responsibility.

"One of the things we have to watch is that the pace of this transition may be quick, it may be quicker than other technology transitions in the past," Jassy said while speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit last month. "We have to make sure that we're responsible about the way the algorithms work and the way the models work."

Consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG are also echoing this shift. '

"About 40% of the work we do is analytics-related, AI-related, and a lot of it is moving to Gen AI," a McKinsey senior partner told BI last year.

The character Vianne, made famous by actor Juliette Binoche 20 years ago, is back with her very own origin story. Helen Coffey sits down with her creator to discuss the healing power of cooking, the existential threat of AI, and why the marginalised need sticking up for more than ever

• Novisto has secured $27 million in Series C funding to expand its corporate ESG tracking platform.
• The platform automates sustainability data management, working with companies like Meta and Sanofi.
• Check out the 17-slide pitch deck the startup used to secure the fresh funding.

A startup that's helping companies track their ESG efforts has just secured a $27 million Series C.

Canadian startup Novisto, launched in 2019, offers a software platform for clients to monitor and measure their sustainability impacts.

"We have an accounting-like platform for broader sustainability-related data for corporates," cofounder and CEO Charles Assaf told Business Insider.

"What is unique about that platform is that it becomes the system of records that really drives not just the reporting and the disclosure exercise, but also the broader management of the sustainability functions," he added.

Novisto's platform automates the collection and management of a company's sustainability data — a task that can otherwise be time-consuming if done manually. It then compares a company's ESG efforts according to industry benchmarks and outlines how well itis doing in relation to its competitors, for example.

"When your board is requesting specific targets to be tracked, these targets can't sit in an Excel sheet — they have to sit in a system of record that ensures the auditability of that information," Assaf said. "So a lot of companies have proceeded with externally assuring their ESG reports, and we have a mechanism to support this."

As an enterprise software startup, Novisto makes its money by charging a monthly subscription fee to clients. Customers include the likes of Meta, JetBlue, and pharma giant Sanofi, among other conglomerates and blue-chip companies.

Amid fluctuating attitudes toward ESG policy globally, fueled in part by a change in the US administration, climate tech startups have been facing more headwinds while fundraising. As a result, startups in the sustainability sector have found more opportunities to expand in Europe, where there are more stringent guidelines for ESG reporting.

The Series C was led by Inovia Capital, with participation from all previous investors, including White Star Capital, SCOR Ventures, and Sagard. This brings the startup's total funding to $55 million.

With the cash injection, Novisto will grow its team in Europe.

Check out the pitch deck used to secure the fresh funding.

Katy Perry nearly bared her bust on her Lifetimes Tour.

Perry, 40, narrowly avoided a wardrobe malfunction while performing in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 17. In a now-viral TikTok video shared on Sunday, May 18, Perry could be seen sprinting across the stage wearing nothing but a bedazzled bra, matching underwear and thigh-high boots. She suddenly stopped running and caught her lingerie, moments before it came undone entirely.

“Oh s—, my bra is gonna come off,” Perry said while singing her hit “Part of Me.” She then carefully walked to the main stage while her dancers carried on the show.

Perry then called an assistant on stage and asked him to help her fix her costume. “Put my bra back on, Patrick,” she quipped. “Sorry, guys, you didn’t pay that much.”

The Most Embarrassing Wardrobe Malfunctions of All Time

After Perry’s bra was secured, she continued the show with a dramatic death drop.

@alrod_182

Wardrobe malfunction in Part of me song by @Katy Perry in Las Vegas show #wardrobemalfuction #katyperry #lasvegas #tmobilearenalasvegas

♬ sonido original – Alfredo Amador

“Wardrobe malfunction in Part of Me song by @Katy Perry in Las Vegas show ,” the fan captioned the post. More followers laughed off the incident with Perry in the comments section.

“This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” one wrote. A second giggled at Perry’s quote, “‘Sorry guys you didn’t pay that much’ ,” while a third praised her moves, “Okay kind of love what she’s doing here.”

Olivia Rodrigo's Top Suddenly Breaks Open During 'Guts World Tour'

Perry is hardly the first celeb who’s had a wardrobe malfunction while performing. Olivia Rodrigo’s bra also burst open in 2024 while she was singing “Love Is Embarrassing” on her GUTS World Tour. Or, take Taylor Swift and Kelsea Ballerini, who both had their Christian Louboutin heels break while hitting the stage.

Brian Austin Green is addresses his reason for speaking out about his “toxic” relationship with ex Vanessa Marcil.

“Everything that’s come [out] recently has genuinely been for the purpose of speaking about a relationship,” Green, 51, told People at the 32nd Annual Race to Erase MS Gala on Friday, May 16, adding that he doesn’t regret calling the former couple’s relationship “toxic.”

“It’s not pointing fingers, placing blame on anyone,” he continued. “If she takes things that way, then there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s pretty obvious just in listening to the things that I say and what it is we do on our show, that’s not our intention.”

Instead, Green explained, his intention is “to help people” — especially people who “go through toxic” and “tough situations.”

Brian Austin Green Compares ‘Toxic’ Vanessa Marcil Relationship to Vietnam

“The best you can do is be open and honest about it and hopefully steer other people clear of those situations or help them get through them,” the 90210 star added.

Green’s comments came after he spoke about his mother’s tendency to smother him on the “Oldish” podcast alongside his partner, Sharna Burgess, and Randy Spelling.

“If I’m looking for a woman, I want the complete opposite of that,” he said on the May 5 show. “I had some major missteps because of that. I mean, the relationship that I had with Vanessa was very toxic in that way. Like, it wasn’t a loving, caring relationship.”

He also said he thought his ex was “trying to help me and fix me and get me through things” but that “after two years or so, you’re kinda looking at yourself in the mirror and you’re like, ‘Who am I at this point?”

“So that relationship ended up not working out,” he continued. “Then Megan [Fox], she was a breath of fresh air, coming out of what felt like Vietnam to me.”

Green and Marcil met on the set of Beverly Hills: 90210 in the late 1990s and got engaged in 2001. Their son, Kassius Lijah Marcil-Green, was born on March 30, 2002. The pair broke up soon after, in 2003. The actor moved on with Fox, 39, and the pair got married in 2010 before welcoming three children, Noah, Bodhi, and Journey. They called it quits in 2021, with Fox moving on with rapper Machine Gun Kelly while Green is now engaged to Burgess. The pair welcomed their child, Zane, in 2022.

Vanessa Marcil’s Contact Name for Ex Brian Austin Green Raises Eyebrows

In response to Green’s initial comments, Marcil shared alleged text message exchanges between the pair, primarily focused on coparenting Kassius. In one alleged exchange, one coparent’s schedule was shared before a follow up text asking, “Father’s Day?” (The screenshots shared via Instagram Stories have since been deleted or expired.)

New exhibition marks the first in-depth exploration of the early period of Hockney’s career, when he was a student at the Royal College of Art

Springsteen set off the latest Trump conflict calling his administration corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous

Springsteen set off the latest Trump conflict calling his administration corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous

I've spoken with scores of CEOs and hundreds of students in recent weeks. They agree on one big thing: There's growing confusion about what constitutes strong, smart leadership in the transition to an AI world.

Why it matters: We run two companies (Axios + Axios HQ), oversee 500+ employees and spend an inordinate amount of time talking with the architects of the leading AI companies. So I wanted to share how we're approaching leadership in this volatile, hinge moment.

The big picture: America is facing the biggest, fastest, most consequential technological shift in history — at the very moment people have lost faith in the big institutions. Making matters worse, most of us feel exhausted before contemplating super-human intelligence — which is often so unimaginable or scary that it's easier to ignore than engage. Many are jamming their heads in the sand instead of exploring this new frontier.

• The result: a stunning lack of preparedness for a technology that could hit every person, every job, every company over the next year or so.
• Yes, AI might never match the hype. But we're betting it approximates the hype in the next 18 months to three years. And so are most CEOs and top government officials we talk to, even if they're strangely silent about it in public.

More than ever, it's strong, smart, high-integrity leaders, especially CEOs and heads of organizations big and small, who can provide a vital service to employees and the broader public as AI hits land.

• Here are a few ways we are trying to do this at Axios:
• Be blunt: Stop downplaying the tectonic shifts that could hit every job, starting next year. Employees need the hard truth that entire classes of jobs could be wiped away, especially if people don't quickly adapt. I recently told the Axios staff that we're done sugar-coating it, and see an urgent need for every employee to turn AI into a force multiplier for their specific work. We then gave them tools to test. My exact words to a small group of our finance, legal and talent colleagues last week: "You are committing career suicide if you're not aggressively experimenting with AI."
• Prepare people: We provided our entire staff with access to the advanced Open AI ChatGPT model, and asked for volunteers to find ways to improve productivity in every job here. They then pass what they learned to colleagues doing the same work. Shockingly, nearly half our staff volunteered. Almost every person is doing personal experimentation. This gives everyone a chance to adapt to AI before better versions upend their craft. Free versions of ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Grok and other models are a great place to start. We tell most staff they should be spending 10% or more of their day using AI to discover ways to double their performance by the end of the year. Some, like coders, should shoot for 10x-ing productivity as AI improves.
• Prepare yourself: AI is both tantalizing and terrifying. It's our job as leaders to realize this, and sharpen our own thinking and explanations about how this will affect organizations and the people who rely on us. This is a moment to over-communicate, even if we admit the uncertainty and unknowns ahead. Government is doing little to raise awareness, so it's on us to explain what's coming. We can at least detail how we're handling early preparations and setting boundaries for how, when and why we'll use AI.
• Be clear-eyed: We believe many businesses will be destroyed by AI. But many will be born or made bigger and better. It's our job to get ahead of the change and leverage AI to make our companies stronger, more profitable and more enjoyable. World-changing companies will be built with just a few people. Miracle cures will be discovered by creative, persistent people who figure out how to conjure magic out of the models. Massive fortunes will be made — with tools that are basically free. Yes, much of what will happen is worrisome now, and soon will be scary. But some will master the tools, instead of vice versa. That could be you. At Axios, we see AI helping us vastly expand our local news coverage. So we're working feverishly to use the emerging tech to grow this business.
• Be leaders: So many have lost confidence in so many institutions. Don't expect the government or the AI companies to step in to restore faith at this volatile time. Truth is, government officials won't regulate or prepare the public because they see this as a race against China for global dominance. That's a valid, if incomplete, thesis. Plus, most politicians don't want to warn people of possible job losses, even if they anticipate them coming. The AI companies are focused more on speed to market than societal consequences. That's their fiduciary obligation to shareholders. So it's up to other leaders, especially CEOs, to make this transition safer and smoother. That takes wisdom, honesty, candor, smarts — and some empathy for nervous workers.
• Simplify: You'll hear a lot more from us on this topic in the year ahead. The pace of change in all jobs and all sectors will soon hit hyperspeed. The winners will be those who can simplify their business, purpose, structure, systems and work to adapt fast and smartly. One simple start to simplicity: Make sure every person at every level can name — in order of importance — the three things they must do to crush their job. Then, make sure you agree! Then, push them on how AI can help them with those three most important things.

The bottom line: Experiment assuming the current glitches — usually hallucinations or incorrect answers — will be fixed as models improve. These glitches keep us from currently using AI much beyond experimentation and augmentation.

• But we work under the assumption that one day soon the models will operate at a human-efficacy level for many tasks.