• Also, a Rivian spin-off, thinks the time is right for e-bikes.
• I rode its new $4,500 TM-B model around Manhattan. It could rip like a motorbike and give you a workout.
• The company's director of product believes in "bikes as transportation," not just toys. It shows.

Many Americans view cars as a necessity. But for me, and millions of other people, bikes are how we get where we need to go.

My steel Fuji road bike is like another limb. I use it to get to work, grab groceries, and pedal to see my friends. I can haul it onto the subway if I get tired, or if the weather takes a surprise turn for the worse. It's cheap to maintain, and I can use it in place of a gym membership.

In New York City, where I live, e-bikes — the road bike's zoomier cousin — are everywhere. They're not just popular with the 135,000 members of Citibike, our city's bike-share program; businesses have also embraced them. Many delivery workers use e-bikes to avoid our city's awful traffic snarls, and giants like Amazon use them to drop off packages and reduce emissions.

So when one of my colleagues told me they'd been getting emails from Also, a new e-bike company, I couldn't resist hopping in the saddle. I've been thinking about buying an e-bike, and the emails said Also's bike, the TM-B, had some unique features. The fact that it had been spun out of Rivian, a $21 billion electric vehicle company, intrigued me.

Rivian has retained a minority stake in Also — as in, "you can drive a car, and you can also ride a bike." Also uses the same battery cells as Rivian's autos, and takes inspiration from the carmaker's drive for simplicity. While many e-bikes are manufactured by traditional bike makers, Also sticks exclusively with electric-powered products. It has raised $305 million, according to Pitchbook.

Just before Thanksgiving, I met up with Saul Leiken, Also's director of product, to learn about the new $4,500 TM-B and take it for a spin around Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

I came away surprised at how flexible it was, and thinking it could be a good add-on — or primary method of transportation — for many households across the US.

Like an electric car, it's highly computerized

All e-bikes are complex pieces of machinery compared to normal bikes. In pedal-assist modes — when the motor only kicks in when you turn the pedals — the bike needs some way to process and interpret how hard you're pedaling to decide how much to help you. Those sensors need to be able to "talk" to the motor.

The TM-B, which stands for "Transcendant Mobility Bike," operates on an entirely different level from your typical e-bike. The pedals don't connect to a chain; they power a generator and provide input to a computer system that tells the motor how much juice to give the bike, a system the company calls "DreamRide." If there are updates, they'll be delivered over-the-air, like with your smartphone — or, increasingly, your car.

"Everything's software-defined," said Leiken, who also joined me on a test ride.

It struck me how digitized everyday transportation is becoming. Even gas-burning cars don't have direct, mechanical links between the steering wheel and the wheels or even the gas pedal and the engine. It's all digital, or "drive by wire." That makes the TM-B "pedal by wire."

Riding felt natural

I started out riding the TM-B in "All Purpose" mode. I relied on pedal assist, and I changed the levels by tapping a small screen at the top of the bike's head tube. It didn't feel like I was giving instructions to a computer; it felt like I was pedaling.

The part of Manhattan we were riding in was pretty flat, and it was a somewhat chilly day. Even if I'd been using a normal bike, I probably would not have broken a sweat. But the assist from the DreamRide would be welcome on a warmer day, and I could see it propelling me over the Manhattan Bridge if I wanted to get to Brooklyn without much effort.

Later on, we tried the TM-B's "Sport" mode, which approximates the experience of a standard, geared bicycle. There's no chain to clank around to let you know you've switched gears, but there is haptic feedback, just like on your smartphone, that courses through the pedals.

The bike is speedy, but compliant

State and local e-bike regulations are evolving, but in most states, there are three classes of e-bike, and the TM-B is what's called a "Class 3" e-bike, capable of hitting speeds up to 28 miles per hour. That's about as fast as a car will ever go in most places in New York City, except for a highway or a boulevard in one of the outer boroughs — in the middle of the night.

I inched toward that top speed at a couple of points during our 30-minute ride. Once, early on, I cranked the pedal-assist level to its max. I was only going in the mid-20s, but still beating traffic because bikes are simply more nimble than cars, until we hit a red light.

Later, when we were going west along a large block, I remembered to hit the throttle — a little orange button near my right thumb designed to take me up to 20 miles per hour.

It gave me a real rush; it felt almost like riding a motorbike, which I hadn't done in years. At the same time, I knew I had to be attentive, for my own safety and that of others.

The e-bike business is competitive

Nationwide, estimated e-bike sales are between 1 million and 2 million a year. It's hard to be precise, partly because the market has so many players, and partly because customs data is incomplete and lumps e-bikes into a larger category of imports, according to eCycle Electric, a consulting firm. What's clear is that it's growing: eCycle predicts that sales will grow 14% to 25% per year until 2030.

Some e-bike companies have run into trouble. Recently, Techcrunch reported that Rad Power Bikes, which says it has 680,000 customers, could run out of money by January 2026. VanMoof, a Dutch e-bike brand whose sleek rides stood apart from competitors with chunky batteries and conspicuous wiring, went bankrupt in 2023, and its new owners are trying to reestablish themselves.

When I asked Leiken about this, he said Also's timing was better — some e-bike companies built too much during the pandemic and were desperate to unload inventory afterward — and its business model is less reliant on partners. The bike's adaptability struck me as a potential selling point, too: It can ride on roads, rutted streets, and trails, and can be used for a workout or a quick errand.

Also is iterating and developing new products

Some things about the bike weren't final. The bell is digital, emitted by a speaker, and Leiken told me they were considering tweaking the tone and modifying it so that, if you hit it hard, it would sound like a car horn. It reminded me of how electric car manufacturers have created custom sounds to alert pedestrians at low speeds, as required by federal regulations.

Also has also rolled out a helmet, called the Alpha Wave. It has built-in front and rear lights meant to catch drivers' attention, speakers, and a noise-cancelling mic. While simple bike helmets provide some degree of protection in case of a collision, Also's helmet has a new technology called the Release Layer System that's meant to reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury.

The bike's flexibility means a lot of people could love it

There's a learning curve to bike ownership, and Also seems focused on flattening that curve.

While I didn't have the controls down pat in a roughly 30-minute ride, I felt completely safe the whole time, and I'm sure I would've gotten the hang of it in another hour. For a novice rider, it might take longer, and it would be smart to start in a park or a parking lot before mixing with traffic.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the bike was its swappable "top frames." With a couple of taps, you can replace the seat with one for a much larger or much smaller rider. You can also swap in a roomier bench seat, or a seat with a utility rack to schlep cargo or a kid. It slots in like a ski boot, with a mechanical lock and an electrical connection to power the back lights on the bike. I'm not aware of any e-bikes with a similar feature.

The point of the TM-B wasn't just to create a fun ride, Leiken said. It was to further the idea of "bikes as transportation" — as something that can actually replace a car for local trips. While $3,500 is nothing to sneeze at, Leiken said the company wanted to bring a "super-premium feature set and experience" to riders. He said bikes with similar features are usually more like $8,000. Besides, a used car will set you back $25,000 on average, and an average new car is $50,000.

I've long thought that e-bikes are generally good to have in society, and that they could replace a great deal of car trips. I've occasionally mulled buying one, but I feel like, as a fit person in my 30s, it might be overkill.

The TM-B didn't radically change my mind. I'm still undecided on buying an e-bike — I really love my Fuji road bike — but it could be good for someone who wants an e-bike that can do it all. It's a flexible workhorse, and given how pricey cars are getting, I think a lot of people could justify the price tag.

• Amazon and Walmart are racing to see who can get stuff to shoppers' doorsteps the fastest.
• Other companies have attempted to offer ultrafast delivery in the past, with limited success.
• Business Insider retail reporters Dominick Reuter and Alex Bitter debate the push for 30-minute delivery.

The ultrafast delivery wars are heating up.

Amazon said last week that it's testing a 30-minute delivery option in Seattle and Philadelphia, while Walmart said it managed to fulfill a Black Friday order in 10 minutes and is expanding its drone service to the Atlanta area.

The race is on to get online orders to shoppers' doorsteps as fast as possible, but we can't help but wonder as companies pour money into the infrastructure to support it: Is 30-minute delivery overhyped or under-appreciated?

Business Insider's senior retail reporters Alex Bitter, who primarily covers gig work apps and groceries, and Dominick Reuter, who mainly covers big box stores, sat down to hash it out.

Dominick: I'd say 30-minute delivery is the future. Are you saying it's an already-failed past?

Alex: The fundamentals are not there. Unless there's some massive other piece that we're not seeing, I don't get why Amazon is doing this.

Dominick: I definitely think it only works as part of a larger strategy where this service builds and strengthens customer relationships. It does not fly on its own.

Alex: A few years ago, we saw some startups try to do something very similar. You had companies like Gorillas — a German grocery delivery concept — pop up to deliver items in 15 minutes.

It was the same pitch: Is there an ingredient or two that you forgot for dinner tonight? No problem. We'll deliver it to your door, fast.

Now, though, many of those startups either no longer exist or have scaled back significantly. Getir, an ultrafast delivery company from Turkey, left the US. Gopuff is still around and raising money, though reportedly at a lower valuation than it did during the height of the pandemic.

Grocery is already one of the lowest-margin categories in retail. With delivery this fast, you're making it even less profitable.

To be fair, Amazon has a lot more money and experience than those startups did. But that does not change the fundamental truth that this is a challenging business model.

Dominick: Scale is everything here — the biggest players have a shot at making this successful. Even though it didn't work out for the startups, their very existence shows the consumer demand for fast service.

But it takes such an astonishing volume of inventory to support that speed of fulfillment. Companies like Amazon or Walmart already have that inventory, which eliminates one of the biggest hurdles to making 30-minute delivery work.

It's working in China, it's working in India, and it's gaining momentum in other global markets. The big challenge in the US is suburbia, but that's solvable.

Although I will say 15 minutes is wildly unrealistic.

Alex: When we reported on the ultrafast delivery startups a few years ago, an analyst told me that a 30-minute delivery promise is more reasonable than a 15-minute one.

But Amazon already has fairly fast delivery. Not 30 minutes, obviously, but you can get orders from Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods in as little as a few hours.

Also, this is yet another grocery offering for Amazon. It feels like it has too many now. Consider Whole Foods Daily Shop, a small-format grocery store that's designed for the same kind of fill-in trips that Amazon seems to be targeting with its 30-minute delivery option.

Dominick: When it comes to adding more stores and fulfillment centers, that's exactly what Amazon needs to be doing, and it needs to get people going to those brick-and-mortar stores and counting on Amazon-exclusive products.

Walmart and Target are proving that having lots of physical locations can get you way closer to making these ultrafast deliveries successful. Walmart has 4,600 stores, Target has 2,000 — that counts for a whole lot.

There are 25,000 Amazon drop boxes, but those obviously can't contain what's in a typical Supercenter. Amazon is working on it, though.

Alex: Maybe this is Amazon figuring out how it can compete with Walmart — and Albertsons and Kroger, for that matter — without having the same store footprint. This also puts it in more direct competition with Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Instacart.

Many US consumers live in smaller towns or suburbs. I don't think 30-minute delivery works well in those areas. People drive themselves to stores — something the retailers love because it's cheaper for them than making deliveries.

Amazon is not yet in a lot of those areas, like it is in the densest cities in America.

I could see this 30-minute idea working in Manhattan, though people in such densely populated urban areas already have lots of options for a quick grocery run (bodegas, anyone?).

Amazon has been trying for years to boost its market share in grocery. I'm not sure this is it.

Dominick: The last thing I'll say is I see ultrafast delivery as a key complement to the marketplace strategy that Amazon and Walmart are leaning on.

When customers need something now, that lets the company serve up an ad or some other exposure to the marketplace for a later purchase.

If Amazon and Walmart can get you to check their app first to get that missing ingredient, they could also sell you on some higher-margin product that might take a couple of days to arrive.

Alex: You need toothpaste, onions, and eggs right now, but that Christmas gift you've been meaning to buy can come this weekend.

Dominick: That, I think, is the reason it's going to be these two giants driving this shift: you need to be very big to offer 30-minute delivery in the first place, and then you need to be very big to see any benefit from it as well.

• The Society for Human Resource Management, known as SHRM, was hit with an $11.5 million discrimination verdict on Dec. 5.
• Its CEO, Johnny C. Taylor, told employees that the ruling was a "blip." SHRM said it would appeal.
• He also told them not to talk to the press, as criticism mounted on social media.

Johnny C. Taylor, CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, was heading to the trade group's annual holiday party on December 5 when he received bad news.

In a video sent to SHRM staff, Taylor described learning that a Colorado jury had just hit the organization with an $11.5 million verdict in an employee discrimination and retaliation case.

"While as a lawyer, you all know, I respect the judicial process, we vehemently disagree with the decision," Taylor said in the video, which was seen by Business Insider. He added that the case lacked merit and would go down as "just a blip in the history of SHRM."

He also urged SHRM employees not to talk to the press about the case or any other company matters.

The case was filed by Rehab Mohamed, who worked at the organization as an instructional designer from 2016 to 2020.

SHRM's holiday party was held at a Washington, D.C., restaurant called The Hamilton, according to two people, one of whom was an attendee.

SHRM said in a LinkedIn post that it plans to file an appeal "to the highest courts in the land," a response that has since drawn more than 100 comments, many of them critical.

"An $11.5 million verdict doesn't happen in a vacuum; it reflects patterns, dismissed concerns, and a lack of internal accountability," one user wrote.

"We understand the heightened attention surrounding this case because SHRM exists to advance workplace excellence. A verdict like this can create questions, and we take those concerns seriously," SHRM spokesperson Eddie Burke wrote in a statement to Business Insider. "As an employer, we are appealing this verdict because our employees trust us to walk the walk. We maintain that the defendant in this case was not discriminated against."

'Staggering high figure'

Mohamed, whose lawyers have said she is Black and Egyptian, was awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages by the jury.

That amount meets the threshold of what is commonly known in the legal and insurance industries as a "nuclear verdict."

The median federal race-discrimination verdict in a seven-year period ending in 2021 tracked by the legal data company Westlaw was $150,000. The largest such verdict in Westlaw's dataset was less than $7 million.

The size of the verdict "is a staggering figure" for an employee-discrimination case, said Allison Williard, an employment lawyer with Washienko Law Group in Boston. "Getting a punitive damages award in and of itself is difficult because it is such a high bar to prove that the conduct at issue is extreme and outrageous."

The extraordinary award likely speaks to the jurors' understanding of how SHRM brands itself as an expert in HR best practices, Williard added.

"It's not unreasonable to think that they want to punish SHRM," she said. "SHRM, of all organizations, really should have known better."

In September, SHRM asked the court to bar Mohamed from introducing evidence or argument that the organization is a specialist in HR best practices.

US District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher later denied SHRM's request, saying its "asserted expertise in human resources is integral to the circumstances of this case and cannot reasonably be excluded."

SHRM faces punitive damages

The jury deliberated for about four and a half hours before delivering its verdict, said Ariel DeFazio, one of Mohamed's lawyers.

Court records show that jurors sent one note, asking two questions: "Who receives punitive damages AND is there a formula or max value for punitive damages?"

The impact of the case on SHRM's reputation could have harmful consequences for its more than 575 local chapters around the world, said the president of a US chapter, who asked not to be named due to concerns about retaliation.

Describing the verdict as "mind-blowing," this person said they worry the chapter could lose both members and sponsors — sources of income that local affiliates need to survive.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mark Rivers, the CEO of Canyon Ranch, based in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I've been the CEO of Canyon Ranch, a wellness hospitality company, since September 2023. Before that, I guided the company's new development opportunities starting in 2022.

Joining Canyon Ranch capped off over 25 years of experience in hospitality operations and property development at other resorts and clubs. I was the original master developer of the campus that's now the Driftwood Golf & Ranch Club in Austin, a development principal of Solage Hotels and Resorts in Napa Valley, and an executive at the Steve Wynn-founded, Las Vegas-based Mirage Resorts.

Canyon Ranch sits at the crossroads of hospitality and wellness. Wellness is certainly having its moment right now — and for a brand like ours, which was just named the best wellness resort in the Americas in 2025 by the Michelin Guide, this is a seminal moment to lead, redefine, and infuse our expertise and energy.

We have resorts in Tucson and Lenox, Massachusetts; the largest day spa in North America at The Venetian in Las Vegas; and a wellness club and spa in Fort Worth, Texas. We're also developing a new resort and residential community outside Austin.

Not much can derail my day — I'm an optimist and highly motivated. I brush off the difficult, the impossible, and the stressful, and move on.

Here's an idea of what a day in my life is like.

At 2:45 a.m. on Mondays, I start with a very early wake-up call

On a typical day, I wake up at 4 a.m., but on Mondays, I'm up at 2:45 a.m. to make the nearly three-hour drive from my home in Austin to our corporate office in Fort Worth. I live in Austin, and our company's biggest investment to date is the new resort we're building, so I like to be at or near it during most of the week.

The ride to work gives me time to listen to my favorite podcasts. My go-tos are usually Acquired or Founders, which have great insights on corporate brands and stories.

I like to do a 5 a.m. workout

It's important to get the body moving, first and foremost.

Whether at the office gym in Fort Worth or the fitness facilities at all our properties, I work out daily.

I always hydrate before caffeine in the morning, stretch, and get my brain going with The New York Times Spelling Bee before dawn.

After a protein shake, I love to be at my desk before 7 a.m.

I try to get some busy work and emails done early, before the day is overrun with meetings and the daily unexpected.

When in Tucson, I love 'cowboy coffee,' which starts at 7 a.m.

This is our fun morning ritual where we recreate a ranch tradition of brewed coffee served by our 'ranch hands' on staff — I can visit with coworkers and guests around a warm fire.

We meet in a eucalyptus courtyard in the center of the property. It's a warm, social morning gathering for guests and staff — a perfect way to start the day.

I start meetings around 7:30 a.m.

With properties and management sprinkled throughout the country, I'm frequently on the road visiting all of our locations. I prefer in-person human connection, but virtual meetings dominate.

On any given day, I probably have 10 to 12 meetings until 6 p.m., with a quick break for lunch.

12 p.m. is lunchtime

I grab a quick lunch from one of our dining outlets. These healthy, nutrient-packed meals help me with my mood and mental focus for the rest of the day.

I love breakfast at almost any time of the day — egg scrambles with all sorts of veggies, a fruit bowl, or an oat bar snack.

I also have an absolute sweet tooth — ice cream is a vice. I'm always grabbing coworkers and making a beeline for a quick ice cream.

For the rest of the afternoon, I'm at our resorts with coworkers and guests

I try to spend time in Fort Worth with our leadership team, and balance the week between our properties and our new resort project in Austin.

Spending time with our food-and-beverage, programming, spa, and health teams is especially rewarding — and it motivates me to maintain my diet and exercise regimen.

On many afternoons, you'll find me knee-deep in the development and construction of the newest Canyon Ranch in Austin

Over the last couple of years, I've spent a few days each week at the 600-acre ranch, located west of Austin, where our newest resort and residential community will open in fall 2026.

We'll have the largest spa in Texas — a Women's Wellness Collective dedicated to well-being, featuring 141 rooms, outdoor adventures, and three dining outlets.

I love the process of creating guest experiences, innovating and experimenting, and marshaling our teams to launch this new destination. It's something like a movie production with our cast, sets, script, imagination, and location.

For me, that means meetings with the architects and contractors, interior designers, and our teams on the campus.

To wrap up the day, at 6 p.m., I try to get an early dinner and one more physical activity

Tennis has become a passion of mine, and I can play year-round with friends and pros in Texas.

I'm not much of a TV or Netflix person, but I will follow some sporting events of my favorite teams: the Buffalo Bills, UConn Huskies, and Boise State Broncos. I share Buffalo Bills season tickets with my adult children.

My typical bedtime is 8:30 p.m.

Before settling in for sleep, I apply some sleep learnings and protocols from Longevity8, a program we recently launched that enables guests to enjoy a longer and healthier lifespan. I do a specific breathwork technique designed to trigger relaxation, which can be followed by journaling.

To keep my morning routine intact, I don't stay up late and barely drink alcohol. I'm early to bed — I'd rather have 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. to think, organize, and get ahead of the day than 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. for TV.

• Rednote has evolved into a major AI discussion hub for Chinese tech workers globally.
• The app, originally focused on beauty and shopping, now attracts tech founders and AI startups.
• Tech founders use Rednote to promote their startups, demo products, and hire people.

When the Chinese app Rednote launched in 2013, it was mainly used for shopping and cosmetics reviews. Now, it's one of the hottest hubs for Chinese tech workers in Silicon Valley to talk shop about AI.

Rednote is also known as Xiaohongshu, which translates to "Little Red Book." For Chinese tech workers in the Bay Area working at companies like OpenAI and Meta, Rednote has become a sort of home away from home for shopping and food recommendations. And since the launch of ChatGPT, AI-related content on Rednote has exploded.

Technology-related content on the app has more than doubled in the past year, and the number of tech-related creators has more than tripled, according to Rednote. Many users post video reviews or tutorials of AI models, just like people review their favorite beauty products.

"Every time a new model is out, people on Xiaohongshu will share their reviews," said Tony Peng, founder of the Recode China AI newsletter. "If I want real user-generated feedback, I go to Xiaohongshu."

Many American Gen Z users downloaded Rednote in January amid fears of a TikTok ban. More than half of the app's users were born after 1995, Rednote said.

Tech founders told Business Insider that they have used Rednote to promote their startups, demo products, and hire people. Some of the most popular posts on Rednote focus on Big Tech companies or AI giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google DeepMind. Users may share their anxieties about the tech job market, ask for help, or discuss the compensation packages they've received.

Chinese founders promote their AI startups

Brandon Chen, cofounder and CEO of the AI-powered chat app Intent, needed to apply for a visa last year to work in the US.

To do this, he had to prepare hundreds of PDFs for his lawyer, and he decided to write an AI program to help organize them. He posted before-and-after screenshots of his project on Rednote. Soon, people messaged him asking if he would release it as an app so they could use it.

"I thought it was amazing. I just randomly developed something for myself," Chen told Business Insider.

He ended up releasing it as a product called Riffo.

Chen said he used Rednote to promote his product and even to recruit workers in Japan. He posted on Rednote asking if any Japanese speakers could help with his social media expansion efforts, and within 15 minutes, someone reached out, Chen said.

Qian Chen, a journalist and media entrepreneur who cofounded the tech media company Valley101, said she distributes her videos on channels including YouTube, WeChat, and Rednote. The videos she has produced on topics like Meta's recent AI layoffs, and the battle between ChatGPT and Google, have performed especially well on Rednote, she said.

Founders find an audience

Rednote helps startup founders foster communities, users say.

Bill Zhu, founder and CEO of Pokee AI, which uses AI to build workflows, said he found a tight-knit community on Rednote to share his learnings, attract users for his products, connect with others, and ask for feedback. Rednote users are often drawn to posts about personal experiences, Zhu said. In Rednote posts, he has chronicled his fundraising efforts, including successes and setbacks.

"You can actually connect with the founder," Zhu said. "It's someone you're actually talking to. You can reach out to this person building this awesome piece of tech that is able to solve these problems."

During the back-to-school season in September, Rednote launched an "AI Guide" campaign, inviting 20 professors to join a discussion on the app.

Rednote has gained more international users thanks to its AI translation feature, which enables users to translate posts from Chinese to English or other languages with a single click. And while most of the content that appears on Rednote is in Chinese, the app is increasingly featuring English content, including an AMA, or Ask Me Anything, event with Thomas Wolf, cofounder and chief science officer of Hugging Face.

An atmosphere of "sincere sharing" has fueled a trend of AI-themed AMAs on Rednote, said San Bing, Rednote's senior director of tech community.

The AMAs are popular because Rednote users are eager to learn about cutting-edge technology, said Peng, the founder of Recode China AI.

"For AMAs, you can get firsthand answers to tell you, what is the next frontier?" Peng said.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at rmchan@businessinsider.com, or Signal at rosal.13. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• The Federal Reserve will decide on a possible interest rate cut at its final 2025 meeting.
• The government shutdown delayed economic data, making the central bank's decision more difficult.
• A rate cut could lower borrowing costs for mortgages and credit cards, bringing relief to consumers.

The Federal Reserve has one more decision in 2025 — and it will set the tone for where interest rates will go in the new year.

On Wednesday, leaders at the central bank will decide whether to continue cutting rates or put a pause on loosening monetary policy. The call will have ripple effects across consumer prices, the job market, and Corporate America. CME FedWatch predicted the Fed had a roughly 90% chance of a quarter-point cut on Monday.

But slicing rates isn't a sure thing. The final Federal Open Market Committee meeting of 2025 will follow the record-long government shutdown, which upended job stability for federal workers and disrupted data releases, including on unemployment and inflation. Even with the government open again, federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics continue to delay or have canceled their reports. It leaves the Fed's decision makers without a full picture of US economic health.

"The risk to the labor market's still there, the risks to inflation are still there, neither of which are necessarily a cause for alarm right now," Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, told Business Insider, but "the picture is cloudy."

The Fed still has limited economic data

Fed leaders are missing some key job and price data. Because BLS didn't collect new data during the shutdown, the agency can't publish the October consumer price index report or the October unemployment rate, and the November jobs report and inflation data won't be released in time for the December meeting.

Renter said the murky economic picture may mean the Fed leans on last-minute data reports to make its decision. The job openings and labor turnover survey results and the employment cost index will be released on December 9 and December 10, respectively.

The delayed September jobs report that came out on November 20 showed that the US added more jobs than expected that month, and unemployment increased amid an increase in labor force participation. Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Business Insider that this doesn't mean the job market is reinvigorated or that the Fed's concerns over the labor market would immediately fade.

"We're still off to one of the worst starts we've had since 2010 after you take out the pandemic," Stahle said. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in the last FOMC press conference that labor market conditions had "not changed much" between the Fed's September and October meetings.

Claudia Sahm, the chief economist for New Century Advisors, expects the Fed to cut rates again, but wouldn't be surprised if members then decide to hold off for a while to see how the economy evolves. She also said there hasn't been much progress on cooling US inflation this year. After another cut to help with the job market, she expects a wait-and-see period before another rate cut, assuming there aren't drastic labor market changes.

"I have a feeling that if all goes well in the economy, the Fed probably is not going to be doing a whole lot because they took steps right now to ensure against the worst outcomes," Sahm said. "Then it's just going to take time for the inflation to start moving back down."

The Fed has kept monetary policy restrictive so far this year, holding rates steady until September. But not all Fed leaders agree. Minutes from recent meetings show that some FOMC members would prefer larger and more consistent interest rate cuts. It's possible that monetary strategy could change in 2026, as Powell's term ends in May. President Donald Trump — who has been a vocal advocate for rate cuts — is likely to nominate a new Fed chair in January.

A pattern of cuts could trickle down to consumers

A third consecutive cut would help make major purchases more affordable.

Thirty-year fixed mortgages, two-year auto loans, and credit card rates tend to fluctuate alongside the federal funds rate. And, while inflation remains above the Fed's 2% goal, mortgage rates have largely cooled in recent months in anticipation of rate reductions.

A quarter-point cut could mean lower returns on investment for savers using high-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit, though it would become cheaper to pay off credit cards. Lower rates would also make home equity lines and small business loans more accessible to Americans.

If there is a cut, Renter said it could be a positive sign for people applying to roles in the sluggish labor market: If job seekers "hear that the Fed is responding to an unfavorable labor market, that's going to feel good to them; they may feel like relief is on the horizon," she said.

Sustained rate cuts would bolster the job market by making it easier for businesses to borrow and invest money. This would free up more funds for companies to hire and pay employees, which could lead to higher consumer spending — all factors needed for a healthy economy.

Though Powell said the Fed will be careful to balance jobs goals with curbing inflation. A rate change is likely this week, but "not a foregone conclusion, far from it," he said. "Policy is not on a preset course."

• Anthropic researchers say the industry doesn't need a flurry of agent-building.
• Instead, "skills" can equip a general agent with domain expertise and reusable workflows.
• Despite their intelligence, Barry Zhang said today's agents "lack expertise" and often miss context.

The tech industry has spent the past year racing to build AI agents, but Anthropic researchers say a simpler idea can make AI more effective on the job.

Barry Zhang and Mahesh Murag said at the AI Engineering Code Summit last month that the real breakthrough for agent workflow isn't more agents, but "agent skills."

"We used to think agents in different domains will look very different," Zhang said in a clip of the talk published Monday. "The agent underneath is actually more universal than we thought."

Instead of building new agents for every use case, companies should rely on a single general agent powered by a library of skills, Zhang said.

Skills are "organized collections of files that package composable procedural knowledge for agents," Zhang said. They are simply folders that contain whatever an agent needs to complete a task consistently and efficiently.

Despite their intelligence, Zhang said today's agents "lack expertise" and often miss important context in real-world use cases. Skills help fill in those gaps by giving agents domain knowledge and reusable workflows.

Murag said Anthropic has already seen skills built by people in accounting, legal, recruiting, and other non-technical roles. In the five weeks since launch, users have created thousands of these skills, and large companies are starting to treat them like internal playbooks for AI, he added.

Fortune 100 companies are using skills to "teach agents about their organizational best practices," Murag said.

The rise of AI agents

Tech leaders have described AI agents as a potential game-changer for office work. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in June that AI agents are already performing tasks that are normally done by junior-level employees.

"You hear people that talk about their job now is to assign work to a bunch of agents, look at the quality, figure out how it fits together, give feedback, and it sounds a lot like how they work with a team of still relatively junior employees," Altman said of AI agents at the Snowflake Summit 2025.

We'll "start to see agents that can help us discover new knowledge, or can figure out solutions to business problems that are kind of very non-trivial," Altman added.

Microsoft's AI platform product lead Asha Sharma said in an episode of "Lenny's Podcast" in August that AI agents could flatten corporate hierarchies.

"The whole kind of organizational construct might start to look different in a few years," he said. "You just don't need as many layers."

But some people in the industry have said agents have been overhyped.

Guido Appenzeller, a partner at a16z, said on a company podcast episode in May that some startups are simply adding a chat interface to a language model and calling it an agent so they can charge more.

"A couple of startups are basically saying, 'Hey, we can price this software that we're building much, much higher because this is an agent,'" he said, adding that "there's a marketing angle to agents."