• Netflix's 'Marines' explores US Marines in Japan preparing for uncertain Pacific conflict.
• The series highlights the daily reality and stress of military deployment training.
• 'Marines' offers insight into modern military life amid US-China tensions in the Pacific region.

A new Netflix mini-docuseries released this month turns its lens on an unusual part of military life: not the heat of battle, but the long, grinding calm that can precede it.

The series "Marines" follows a handful of service members with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a roughly 2,000-member Marine contingent that deploys aboard a trio of Navy ships, floating sea bases that can be rapidly moved into global hotspots. The 31st MEU is based in Japan, home to one of the Corps' three major bases, with others in California and North Carolina.

Marines go through intense training in preparation for such deployments, certifying for missions ranging from disaster response to amphibious assaults. The Netflix show centers on the planning behind a large-scale beach landing, a classic Marine Corps mission. If the exercise fails, the entire unit could lose its deployment certification.

Unlike most military-themed television, "Marines" focuses on the tension of preparation rather than combat itself in four 45-minute episodes. Executive producer Sebastian Junger, a well-known wartime journalist who focuses on the human costs of war, told Business Insider that he hopes to show viewers the unromanticized — and stressful — reality of a force that spends years preparing for a war that may never happen.

"When people sign up for the military, they're thinking, 'I will prove myself to myself, that I'm worthy, that I'm courageous, that I'm brave, that I'm strong,'" he said. "But in order to do that, you have to kind of want to wind up in combat."

Yet combat, especially the kind that the US could face in the Pacific, home to near-peer rival China, could be devastating. Junger said he also hopes his series serves as a way for Americans to think critically about the human cost behind any future conflict.

"I think the American public would be absolutely shocked at the price tag of a full-scale war," he said. The cost in lives in Ukraine has been catastrophic. A war in the Pacific could be worse.

The new series is a narrow but revealing lens into the urgency many troops in the Pacific feel, and traces the experiences of a group of real Marines as they train their teams for deployment: a senior enlisted infantry Marine and his officer, a pilot still mastering his flight skills, and a naval officer balancing command duties with the guilt familiar to many working mothers. There's also a pair of lifelong best friends serving as a machine gun team.

All of them are navigating the struggle of belonging to a generation of Marines with little or no combat experience. Most hardened veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have cycled out of service, leaving mostly younger troops who sometimes yearn for the kind of battlefield tests they've only heard about.

For many Marines in the post-Global War on Terror era, deployments, the opportunities for which are often highly coveted, are often limited to the maritime MEU deployments. It's not combat, but it's not without its hardships.

"Life on the ship is tough," said director Chelsea Yarnell of Marines' experiences aboard Navy warships. "The living conditions on the ships are really severe, like extremely close quarters," she said. "No creature comforts, plumbing didn't always work. If you forgot your shower shoes, you would live to regret it."

All of the training seen in the series unfolds against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions. Stationed in Japan, the Marines and sailors of the 31st MEU sail with the Navy on the front lines of uneasy American tensions with China, a palpable dynamic throughout the show. At various points, a Chinese spy vessel appears to be shadowing the Navy ships carrying the MEU.

Not everyone in the series is shown storming beaches or flying aircraft. Much of "Marines" dwells on the 'staff officer' side of military life, the meticulous, painstaking planning that underpins every operation. It's the modern version of watching old-timey generals moving battlefield figurines around a map of Europe, but now, it's all done with PowerPoint, caffeine, and untold logistics and administrative checks.

It's less gripping compared to firefights. But that's the point, the director said.

"I think that what I was expecting was a story of physical toughness," Yarnell said of the production process. But it was the psychological toll of that laborious planning and preparation, especially aboard a ship, that proved most compelling.

Junger hopes the series helps correct long-standing misconceptions about military service that have persisted since the end of the draft in the 1970s. Most troops now don't run around carrying guns and slinging rounds downrange all day, he said. In reality, the majority of service members work in roles like logistics, intelligence, and planning, essential but often unseen jobs that sustain those storming the beach.

Troops are often portrayed in Hollywood films as either heroes on a pedestal or invading villains, Junger said. And often, the military falls victim to its own exclusive culture, pushing jargon and cultural norms that few outsiders fully understand, Yarnell said.

What's frequently lost is a deeper reckoning with what's asked of individuals trained to kill and die on behalf of the nation. That question feels newly urgent as the US and China continue to challenge one another in the Pacific.

"These are your sons and daughters," Junger said when asked what viewers might take away from the documentary. "Whether we ever go to war or not, every American I think should understand the nature of our military, in not just political terms but human terms."

• Lisa La Valle, 64, moved to Paris in 2018 seeking a fresh start after separating from her husband.
• Paris didn't meet her expectations, and in 2021, she moved to Brescia, Italy.
• Moving to a new country has its highs and lows, but La Valle said she doesn't regret her choice.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lisa La Valle, 64, who moved from New Jersey to Paris in 2018 and now lives in Brescia, Italy. La Valle retired in 2023, but still works part-time as an English teacher and is an author who writes about culture and the expat experience. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I lived abroad for the first time at 24. I did my final university semester in Athens, Greece, and I loved it so much that I said, "I'm just going to stay" — and I did, for two years.

I eventually moved back to the US and settled in New Jersey. I got married, had kids, started a career as an expat career coach, and spent many years working and traveling around the world.

My ex-husband and I always dreamed of moving to Europe once our children were older.

When we divorced, I looked ahead at the rest of my life and thought, "I'll be damned if I spend the next 30 years in New Jersey." I didn't want to worry about affording healthcare or staying in the rat race to keep up with the high cost of living. So, in 2018, at the age of 57, I kept the dream alive and purchased a one-way ticket to Paris.

I have lived in Europe for eight years, first in Paris and now in Italy. Moving to a new country is always an adventure, but there's a difference between doing it at 24 and at 57.

In my 20s, I immersed myself in Greek culture rather than being "me." Now I'm more fully formed as a woman; I came to Europe to breathe, to find myself, and to see whether I could do it.

Paris wasn't what I'd hoped for

There's a phenomenon called Paris Syndrome: a shock that hits when your Paris bubble, the fantasy of what the city should be like, pops. It happened to me.

When I first moved to Paris in 2018, I sometimes had to pinch myself. I remember crossing the statues on Pont Neuf and crying at the beauty. But after nine months, the rose-colored glasses came off.

Some places are great at exporting a brand — the American dream, the romantic Parisian dream — but it doesn't always reflect reality.

I eventually realized that life and the people in France are just like everywhere else. The glamorized version seen on Netflix's Emily in Paris couldn't be further from the truth — and no, not everyone looks like Jane Birkin.

What wore me down most about living in France was the cynicism. In many ways, Paris felt like a private club, and I was not invited.

Forming friendships in a new country can be a challenging experience. Although I'm willing to befriend anyone, I know not everyone is, and being an expat can be an extraordinarily isolating and lonely experience for some people.

I lived in Paris for four years, and overall, I had a good life. I made some close friends and enjoyed teaching English at several schools, including the International School of Paris. But still, I never got the feeling that it was where I wanted to stay forever.

I feel at home in Italy

I moved to Italy in 2021 after accepting a job teaching English literature at an international high school. This was before I took early retirement; I was still working about 20 hours a week and earning about $1,500 a month.

I think it's much easier to move to a new place when you have a job lined up. You have a financial safety net, a social network, and sometimes even a place to live. That security turns the risk into a calculated one.

I am a third-generation Italian. My ancestors left Italy in search of a better life in the United States. Ironically, a century later, I became a reverse immigrant.

I live in Brescia, in the North between Milan and Verona. There isn't the chaos of the touristy South, and, beyond the Old City, it is distinctly modern — more like a Northern European city than the Italian cliché.

After experiencing the "Hollywood version" of Europe, with its cobblestone streets and lantern-lit homes, I'm grateful to live in a modern, fully refurbished apartment in Brescia.

I have a big living room with terracotta tiles, a kitchen, a full bathroom, a wide hallway with floor-to-ceiling windows, a large bedroom, and a terrace. It feels like a hotel, but I pay only €550 ($636.60) a month in rent.

In Paris, my rent was $1,200 a month. I really had to work my ass off; it's one of the reasons I left there. Here in Brescia, I'm saving money, and I also feel welcomed, whereas in Paris, I used to be filled with anxiety.

'I feel as if my DNA has been rearranged'

Everyone knows about the American Dream: get married, have kids, build a career. I think a lot of people in the United States are waking up to the reality that it isn't working anymore, or it doesn't exist the way it did for their parents. That's why we're seeing people with the means to move abroad actually do it.

I'm all for following your dreams, but brace yourself — it's not always easy moving to a new country. In many ways, it might not live up to your expectations.

While Europe has given me the quality of life I envisioned — the transportation is excellent, the healthcare system is solid, the food is fresh, and people are polite — I'm living in a different Europe than the one I experienced in Athens in 1984. It's taken some time to adjust.

Still, I feel like I have a great life. I'm retired now and have been receiving Social Security for the past two years, so I work part-time. I don't make a lot, but the lower cost of living makes life much easier. I don't feel like I have to struggle financially, like I would have had to in the US.

I feel as if my DNA has been rearranged. I definitely wish I had moved sooner, but I had obligations — now, not so much.

When I go back to the US, it's like slipping into an old shoe, but I don't feel nostalgic or as if I'm missing out. I don't wonder, "Did I make the right decision?" If anything, the visit reaffirms that I did.

• Meena Lakdawala-Flynn began competitive gymnastics at age two and said she wanted to compete in the Olympics.
• The grit, work ethic, and competitive drive she learned from the sport helped her succeed at Goldman Sachs.
• Athletes are a key recruiting pool for Goldman, and sports experience can differentiate applicants.

Meena Lakdawala-Flynn knew what it meant to perform under pressure years before becoming a partner at one of the country's top banks.

Lakdawala-Flynn, cohead of Global Private Wealth Management and One Goldman Sachs, started doing gymnastics when she was two years old. By the time she was eight, Lakdawala-Flynn said she was exercising between 30 and 40 hours a week, and dead-set on going to the Olympics.

Yet even though Olympic glory wasn't in Lakdawala-Flynn's future — "I grew four inches, I put on 20 pounds, and I wasn't good enough," she told Business Insider — the years in the gym still echo in her work on Wall Street.

"The moment I stepped foot on that trading floor, the same competitive juices that I had in gymnastics came out in something else," she said of her first finance internship at an investment boutique. In her years rising at Goldman, Lakdawala-Flynn said she has relied on the work ethic, grit, perseverance, and need to perform that she mastered during her time as a gymnast. Even though gymnastics is an individual sport, competing on a team in college influenced her ability to form key relationships at Goldman.

"Gymnastics is won in millimeter-level details under pressure, so is working in finance," Lakdawala-Flynn told Business Insider in an email. She said the same is true of her job: the small, precise changes she makes to models, risk assessments, and client meetings can lead to big advantages.

Athletes have become an important talent and recruiting pool for Goldman Sachs, which hired a former NFL star in 2018 and promoted him to managing director in 2022. Business Insider previously spoke to three former D-1 college athletes who work at Goldman about how their experiences have helped them stand out and get ahead.

"It is a way to differentiate yourself," Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman's head of human capital management, previously told Business Insider about why athletes are compelling applicants. "These qualities are not just transferable but powerful and directly applicable to the dynamic environment of financial services."

Those qualities don't just have to come from sports, though.

Lakdawala-Flynn said that being seriously devoted to any craft can teach the same teamwork and dedication common among many successful people.

"If you have that amount of passion, curiosity, and dedication, and you rise to become one of the best, it's the same skill sets, whether it's an athlete or not an athlete," she said.

Landing a job at Goldman isn't easy, especially for Gen Zers who are trying to differentiate themselves in a challenging job market. The firm received more than 360,000 applications for its 2025 summer internship program, and accepted less than 1% of hopefuls.

Work at Goldman or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Episode Four, an ad agency in New York, created an AI tool called RYA to generate ideas for clients.
• The agency is leaning into the more nonsensical "hallucinations" to keep the ideas fresh.
• The tool has helped with ideas for clients in the financial services, auto, and travel sectors.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Leslie Walsh, head of product strategy and development at the New York-based advertising agency Episode Four. It has been edited for length and clarity.

The biggest thing about creativity is that ideas need to feel original and unique. I think everyone in the creative industry fears that if we're all using ChatGPT, we're going to have the same ideas — that we'll get into a sea of sameness. It's a race to the bottom.

A lot of people come at creative ideas in different ways. We like to say that we come at it from a place of, "Where do my customers actually want to engage?"

We needed something to base our ideas on, so that clients just didn't say, "Where is this coming from? Is this just something in your crazy brain? Is this something that's actually going to help drive my business?"

RYA is our creative AI tool. We position it as: radical ideas that are acceptable to your audience, because they're all grounded in data.

We put together a weekly survey that asks Americans: If you had extra time or money in your day, how would you spend it?

We serve up 180 genres and 20 different actions, things like "I want to go on a trip" or "I want to go out to eat." And then the genres add a little bit of nuance: "You said you like to go out to eat. What kind of food do you like? You'd like to go on a trip. What kind of traveler are you?" That's where we can really pinpoint passion points.

With that dataset, we then figured out how to train large language models to be creative and come up with ideas just as if our teams were coming up with ideas on their own — but at a rapid pace. We found that Anthropic's Claude is the best at generating creative ideas, but we use different ones for different things.

Typically, in an agency project process, you work with the clients, and then you work on the brief. You go back and forth, back and forth. You brief your teams, and then it takes a few weeks to craft those ideas, shape them, and get them to a good place. Then you present to the client, go back, revise, and come back again. That could take six to eight weeks, usually.

We have streamlined that process down to a couple of days. We like to say we can do it all in one day and, if our clients have time, actually do it in a couple of minutes. It just depends on how much you want to shape and mold the idea.

It's really helping us get to a good starting place, and it's solving for the bigger picture. It's less of that executional layer that I know a lot of creative tools are in the market right now.

RYA is not going to help you build a banner ad. RYA is not going to help you put out a social post. RYA will help you come up with a big idea that could then turn into a banner ad or social post.

Leaning into the 'weird' and 'nonsensical' AI outputs

We really like to lean into the weird combinations, the nonsensical places, the less obvious places that you might want to start your ideation from, because we believe that that leads to better work.

The way that you get AI to be a little bit more nonsensical is in your prompting strategy and the way you adjust the temperature settings. There are ways that you can give it guard rails to try to make sure that it's not going to hallucinate in a way that's going to get you in trouble, but hallucinate in a good way. You really need strong inputs. As we say, garbage in, garbage out.

For a financial services client, we turned financial education into a celebrity chef cooking series. And at a recent financial industry event, we turned product sales materials into custom pressed EDM vinyls.

For a travel and leisure client, we launched a cruise ship with a global digital treasure hunt that hid Google Maps clues across the web —transforming a product demo into a game.

For an auto lending company, we created a dating show that matched singles with both a car and a partner.

Everyone's coming up with different AI tools for different purposes, different verticals, and domain expertise. I'm not an engineer, but I do have a lot of domain expertise in terms of how to think about the best way to brief creatives, to work with clients, to crack a really tough brief, to conduct research, and get interesting insights.

Then, along with my creative partners, who have much better domain expertise in actually generating ideas, we put all of that input into a large language model so that it can replicate our thinking.

That is where we're headed. That is what's going to be exciting about this industry. There are opinions out there about whether AI can truly be creative. We believe it can.

• I lived in New York City for seven years before moving to a nearby suburb.
• Then I moved to a small, rural town in Upstate New York during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• I've been surprised by some aspects of living here, such as the services, roads, and costs.

When I moved out of my apartment in Brooklyn, New York, and into a house in a suburb on Long Island, I thought it was for the long haul.

Then COVID-19 hit.

Like many others during the pandemic, my husband and I took the time to consider our priorities. For us, that meant leaving our large commuter town outside New York City — and all of its expenses and conveniences — for a small, rural town in the Catskill Mountains, about three hours north.

We've always loved the Catskills for its outdoor activities, breathtaking landscapes, and quieter way of life. So, in January 2021, we sold our home on Long Island, New York, and relocated.

The town we left behind had a population of 25,000 people, thousands of homes, busy roadways, a town center with restaurants, bars, and businesses, and a train line that took us straight to Manhattan within 40 minutes.

Our new town has a population closer to 1,600, excluding the deer, groundhogs, and bears.

There have been no regrets, but over the past almost five years, there have been a few surprises. Here are 12 things that surprised me after we moved.

After years of dealing with frustrating traffic, I find it novel that it's completely nonexistent here.

Long Island's traffic is infamous. When living there, I would automatically factor in an additional 30 minutes when driving anywhere. And everyone knows driving is the worst way to get across New York City.

So, when I moved here, it was truly novel to me that I could enter an address into Google Maps, and it would actually take me that long to get there. I am never stuck in traffic, and I never have to factor in extra time.

Instead, our traffic concerns are a little different. Heavy snow makes traveling by car more precarious, although the snowplows are usually out in force when the first snowflake falls. Driving up the mountain when it's ringed with fog also requires me to take things a little slow.

Additionally, I need to be much more aware of wildlife on the roads and the dangers we present to each other.

Something else that's nonexistent: wait times at the doctor's office, post office, or restaurants.

Anyone who's tried to mail anything in New York City knows they have to set aside an hour and a good deal of patience for a visit to the post office.

Now, I just walk across the street and straight to the counter, where I'm met with warm smiles and quick service. I'm out within minutes.

Some processes are just much easier when you're contending with fewer people, and I'll never take that for granted.

Not only are wait times shorter, but the services are far better than I experienced in the city.

In New York City or Long Island, my doctor was always an hour behind. By the time I was finally seen, I'd waited so long I felt forgotten—and the visit itself felt like it lasted only seconds.

On the other hand, my first medical-care experience here was like I'd seen in the movies — a scenario I'd previously dismissed as fiction. I was seen at my scheduled appointment time, and the doctor sat with me, looked me in the eyes, and discussed my concerns at length. Being treated with respect and patience by a doctor left me taken aback.

I've since had a child here, and the exceptional care continued throughout my pregnancy. The night I gave birth to my son, only one other child was born in the hospital, meaning there were multiple staff available in what felt like a stress-free environment.

That's not to say that simply practicing medicine here makes you an exemplary doctor, or that stellar doctors don't exist in the city. However, in my experience, the overwhelming demands of the city's population have had a detrimental impact on my care.

Despite the smaller population, meeting people and maintaining friendships is much easier.

When we left Brooklyn for Long Island, we were drawn to the fact that our new suburban town was populated with people our age. But when we actually moved there, not knowing anyone, it was surprisingly hard to make friends.

But here in the Catskills, we've been more successful. It's smaller, so we see the same people everywhere: in the coffee shops, on the trails, and at the farmers' markets. We meet new people and discover they know people we know, and it all just feels connected.

It's also far less transient than somewhere like New York City. People who live here might have done so for generations, and others have moved here with intention. It means people seem more willing to invest time in their neighbors and in the broader community because this is where they plan to stay.

Additionally, with its long, snowy winters and limited convenience, this lifestyle may not be suitable for everyone. So if you meet someone who lives here too, you know you already have some things in common.

People really do say hello to everyone they pass on the street.

While some people might not find this surprising, others might think it's a small-town myth. 

However, in my experience, everyone says hello to everyone, even if you don't know them or have never seen them before. I've become friends with many other residents this way.

It also means I can always tell when someone is visiting from out of town because they don't even try to make eye contact.

What I find particularly surprising about these interactions is that I love them. One of the things I enjoyed about living in New York City was the anonymity it afforded me. So I thought I would hate people recognizing me or knowing about my life, but the truth is, I love the sense of community and small shows of kindness.

Absolutely nothing here is convenient, but surprisingly, that's OK.

Living in New York City means you can get anything practically any time of the day: Bodegas are still open in the early hours of the morning, bars don't close until late, and public transportation keeps ticking around the clock.

None of that is true here. We barely have public transportation — don't even think about getting an Uber — and it's almost an hour's drive from my house to the train station. The nearest supermarket is a 30-minute journey down the mountain, and I travel an hour to big-box stores to stock up on items like diapers.

I'm sure this aspect of living here would frustrate some people, but I don't mind it. There are a lot of positives to having less convenience. I turn errands into day trips. I plan meals better. I don't drink alcohol because I need to drive everywhere. I pass epic scenery just to get groceries. And I've gotten through a lot of audiobooks.

I expected life to be cheaper here, but that's just not the case.

One factor behind our decision to move was the cost. For example. Now, our property taxes are a fraction of the cost — around a fifth of what they were on Long Island — despite having a larger property. Because of that, I naively thought everything would be cheaper here.

Still, with all the extra driving, I'm paying much more for gas and car maintenance. Our heating bills are about four times what they were on Long Island. Groceries in local stores can be more expensive because of the limited options and because they have to travel up the mountain. If we're having any service done at our home — getting a lock fixed, for example — we're often charged extra for the distance the technician has to travel.

Then, we also have expenses we didn't incur in Long Island or the city, such as paying to have our driveway plowed in the winter and paying for trash pickup.

Plus, with people like me moving here from cities, everything is becoming more expensive for residents who've lived here much longer. We're driving up property prices and causing a housing crisis for the locals and seasonal workers.

So, while our area was perhaps once considered a cheaper option and affordable for many families, that isn't the case in reality now.

Some services I took for granted in other places I've lived don't exist here.

One reason our taxes are lower is because they don't cover services I've previously taken for granted, such as trash pickup. (Due to bears, we can't leave trash in cans overnight anyway.) Instead, residents take their trash to a local waste station, paying a couple of dollars per bag to dump it. Recycling is also available for free.

By comparison, our homes in New York City and its suburbs had robust sanitation departments that many people probably don't think twice about.

Access to other services can also be limited. We live close enough to our town's main street that we have access to fiber internet, and we're connected to the town's water mains. However, other residents rely on satellite internet, well water, and septic tanks, which require additional maintenance.

I knew we'd be surrounded by wildlife, but I was surprised by the variety and proximity.

I grew up in the countryside, but still, I wasn't familiar with many of the wild animals I now regularly see here, such as porcupines, wild turkeys, skunks, snakes, hummingbirds, turkey vultures, and bears.

My favorites are the chunky groundhogs that waddle about town, and I've become overly invested in a family living in our backyard. The male groundhog has two families — one under the shed and one in the woods — and runs between the two.

Who needs Netflix when you have this level of drama right in your backyard?

My wardrobe changed from office- and city-appropriate attire to ice spikes and hiking boots.

In winter, even the quickest errand in town requires pulling my microspikes over my boots to prevent slipping on the roads or sidewalks.

With temperatures hovering around 20 degrees Fahrenheit — and as low as -1 degree Fahrenheit — throughout the winter, I also wear two outer layers: a padded jacket underneath a larger coat. We've also invested in snowshoes for cross-country hikes after a heavy snowfall.

In summer, the weather is dry and hot, and the paths are dusty. I now look at the white sneakers, heeled shoes, and tailored coats in my closet with incredulity, wondering how I ever wore them.

While people are definitely stylish here, there's far less pressure — or expectation — to dress a particular way. Events are less formal; everyone understands we dress for practical purposes, not fashion.

When I moved here, I couldn't believe how clear the night sky was.

New York City's pollution prevents much stargazing, and I spent so little time outside in the suburbs that I never noticed the stars there, either.

However, the night sky here is clear and breathtaking, and the view is uninterrupted by buildings, allowing you to appreciate the vastness.

There are four distinct seasons, and they're all incredible.

In New York City, there were two seasons: bitterly cold, wet days, or sweaty, swelteringly hot days. Plus, I was rarely around nature, so I never noticed the seasons like I do now.

Here, every season is distinct. My first fall felt like I was experiencing fall for the first time. I'd never seen such vibrant colors for such a prolonged period.

Our winter is more extreme than in the city — we get multiple snowstorms each season, and the icicles are taller than me — and it lasts longer, too. But summer is gentler. It's hot but not unbearable, and none of it needs to be spent inside a subway car.

Nearly five years later, none of the surprises have made me regret our decision to live here.

Other millennials who fled big cities during the pandemic have expressed regret over their decisions, but that has not been my experience.

I will never take it for granted that I wake up to views of towering mountains every day or have access to epic hikes just five minutes away. I love the seasons, the services, the people, and the stillness.

When I lived in the city and suburbs, I yearned to return to the countryside, and now that it has happened, I have no regrets.

• CEOs are integrating AI into their personal and professional lives.
• Nvidia's Jensen Huang uses AI as a tutor, while Apple's Tim Cook organizes emails with the tech.
• The AI market is projected to hit $4.8 trillion by 2033.

It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere these days. CEOs seem to like it that way.

The technology continues to impact numerous sectors across the global market, including education, healthcare, and entertainment. By 2030, AI could contribute around $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to consulting firm PwC.

From Jensen Huang to Tim Cook, here's how seven CEOs are integrating AI into their daily lives.

Microsoft's Satya Nadella

Microsoft has invested heavily in AI, including introducing its Copilot assistant in 2023, inking a $13 billion partnership with OpenAI in 2024, and creating teams dedicated to developing the tech.

CEO Satya Nadella, who took charge of the company in 2014, previously discussed how recent developments in AI will change workflows and humans' cognitive labor. For Nadella, AI has become a necessary part of his life, both in and out of the office, according to Bloomberg.

During an interview published in May, Nadella said he enjoys podcasts but doesn't listen to them. Instead, he uploads the transcripts of podcasts to the Copilot app on his phone so he can discuss the content with a voice assistant during his commute.

When he reaches Microsoft's headquarters in Washington State, Nadella uses Copilot to summarize his Outlook and Teams messages. He utilizes at least 10 custom agents from Copilot Studio to help with meeting prep and research.

"I'm an email typist," Nadella told the outlet.

OpenAI's Sam Altman

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has become one of Silicon Valley's most prominent tech giants thanks to OpenAI's premier product, ChatGPT.

The company launched a chatbot demo in 2022, and it quickly went viral on social media as people inquired about everything from diets to recipes. Over the last three years, OpenAI has shared more advanced GPT programs with users and is working to expand its global reach despite competition from Chinese tech companies like DeepSeek.

This January, President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion private-sector investment in AI infrastructure called Stargate. OpenAI was among the companies asked to help with that project.

So, it's unsurprising that Altman uses AI to streamline tasks his his personal life. Altman appeared on Adam Grant's "ReThinking" podcast this January, saying, "Honestly, I use it in the boring ways."

Altman said the AI bots help him process emails or summarize documents. The tech has also helped him with fatherhood.

During an OpenAI podcast interview published in June, Altman said he used AI "constantly" after welcoming his first child in February.

"Clearly, people have been able to take care of babies without ChatGPT for a long time," Altman said. "I don't know how I would have done that."

Now, Altman said he mostly uses ChatGPT to research developmental stages.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang

Another major player on the global tech scene is Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO. The California-based company is one of the most valuable in the world, with a market value of over $3 trillion, according to Google Finance. The company is focused on designing and manufacturing hardware, including chips and graphical processing units to assist AI.

During the 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in May, Huang told the audience he uses AI programs to learn new concepts.

"I use it as a tutor every day," Huang said. "In areas that are fairly new to me, I might say, 'Start by explaining it to me like I'm a 12-year-old,' and then work your way up into a doctorate-level over time."

AI's ability to rapidly collect, analyze, and communicate information could close the tech gap, according to Huang.

"In this room, it's very unlikely that more than a handful of people know how to program with C++," Huang said. "Yet 100% of you know how to program an AI, and the reason for that is because the AI will speak whatever language you wanted to speak."

In a 2024 interview with Wired, Huang said he uses Perplexity and ChatGPT "almost every day" for research.

"For example, computer-aided drug discovery. Maybe you would like to know about the recent advancements in computer-aided drug discovery," Huanng said. "And so you want to frame the overall topic so that you could have a framework, and from that framework, you could ask more and more specific questions. I really love that about these large language models."

Apple's Tim Cook

Apple is navigating the global AI market under CEO Tim Cook, who announced Apple Intelligence — a generative AI system — at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2024. He also unveiled a slew of other AI-based features at the time, including the Image Playground and the ability to remove unwanted background details from photos.

Cook, who became CEO in 2011, publicly spoke about how he uses AI day-to-day in a 2024 interview with The Wall Street Journal. He said Apple Intelligence helps him summarize long emails.

"If I can save time here and there, it adds up to something significant across a day, a week, a month," Cook told the outlet. "It's changed my life," he says. "It really has."

One year earlier, Cook appeared on "Good Morning America" and said he was "excited" about developments in AI.

"I think there's some unique applications for it and you can bet that it's something that we're looking at closely," Cook said.

Zillow's Jeremy Wacksman

Real estate tech companies like Zillow are also leaning into AI. The company announced in 2023 that it implemented an "AI-powered natural-language search" to help users navigate the website.

CEO Jeremy Wacksman, like the other executives, has begun using AI to be more efficient.

"I spend a lot of time either catching up on meetings I've missed or on asynchronous documentation," Wacksman told The New York Times Dealbook. "You can tell ChatGPT, 'Treat me like my role. Here's all this data — summarize it for me the way I would need to know going forward,' and you can get a personalized summary. That's just — that's far more valuable to me than to try to read a transcript at one-and-a-half speed or watch a video at one-and-a-half speed."

Wacksman added that he wants Zillow staffers to experiment with the technology.

"We've had what we call 'AI days,' where we showcase work and celebrate examples," Wacksman said. "We've also started weaving it into our bigger meetings, like product reviews: When a product manager-design-engineering team is prototyping, oftentimes, they're now using an AI tool called Replit. They're prototyping really quickly to get something in front of a user."

Coinbase's Brian Armstrong

Like many other companies, Coinbase has recently sought to expand its operations using AI. The cryptocurrency exchange acquired Agara, an AI support platform, in 2021 to expand its customer experience tools. Nearly three years later, CEO Brian Armstrong said in an X post that his development team witnessed their first "AI to AI crypto transaction."

"What did one AI buy from another? Tokens! Not crypto tokens, but AI tokens (words basically from one LLM to another). They used tokens to buy tokens," Armstrong said.

Coinbase partnered with Perplexity AI to give traders access to real-time crypto data, CEO Brian Armstrong said in an X post this July.

"Perplexity is now ingesting our market data, including COIN50, and using it to power market analysis," Armstrong said.

Armstrong, who cofounded Coinbase in 2012, said he was enthusiastic about the tech during a "Cheeky Pint" podcast episode published in August 2025.

"Even as CEO, by the way, I use it a lot," Armstrong said, adding that he and the Coinbase team are testing the limits of decision-making in AI.

"We use a decision-making process called RAPIDS, and everyone writes their input," Armstrong said. "We have a row now for AI that writes its input in as one of the people that help make decisions. We're testing the limits of it. Like, when can it actually start to be the decision-maker on some things and do better than humans?"

During the same interview, Armstrong said he fired Coinbase employees who hadn't adopted AI into their workflow before a given deadline.

"Some of them had a good reason because they were just getting back from a trip or something," Armstrong said. "Some of them didn't, and they got fired."

LinkedIn's Ryan Roslanksy

LinkedIn has followed in the footsteps of its parent company, Microsoft, by integrating AI into its platform, including an AI-powered coaching tool that provides professionals with tips and resources. In November 2025, the company announced that premium subscribers gained access to an AI-powered people search.

During a fireside chat at the company's San Francisco office in October 2025, CEO Ryan Roslanksy said using AI to complete tasks is like "having a second brain." One way he uses AI in his daily life is drafting "high-stakes emails" to executives, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

"A lot of the time when I'm sending a super high-stakes email to Satya Nadella or other CEOs or world leaders or etcetera, you've got to make sure you sound super smart when you do that. I would say that without a doubt, almost every email that I send these days is being sent with the help of Copilot," Rolansky, referring to Microsoft's AI assistant, said.

However, Rolansky said AI doesn't write the entirety of emails. Instead, the tech guides him through a step-by-step process to determine the end result.

"Historically, there'd be a button that said, 'Draft the reply for me.' And it would just try to draft the reply," Rolansky said. "The problem is that you're actually asking AI to make tons of decisions for you when you ask it to blindly reply to an email."

Eli Lilly's David Ricks

Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, is one of many in healthcare learning how to use AI.

In September 2025, the company announced it's creating an AI-powered platform designed to give five biotech companies access to drug discovery models. Eli Lilly, in October 2025, said the supercomputer it is building with Nvidia could take AI to the next level.

"Our supercomputer will be the most powerful in the pharmaceutical industry and enable AI-based research at a scale previously thought impossible," a press release said. "It has the potential to expand our ability to discover, develop and distribute new medicines faster."

During an episode of the "Cheeky Pint" podcast published in November 2025, CEO David Ricks said he finds the technology quite helpful for meetings.

"I read a lot of medical journals. I go to conferences where data is presented," Ricks said. "I spend time with our scientists to stay curious. Yeah, now I have at least one or two AIs running every minute of every meeting I'm in, and I just am asking science questions."

When it comes to AI, Ricks said he prefers to use Anthropic's Claude or xAI's Grok rather than OpenAI's ChatGPT.

• Jugal Bhatt struggled to land tech interviews before rethinking his job search strategy.
• He made a list of over 100 target companies and tried to connect with recruiters and employees.
• He said the shift helped him land a software engineering job at Amazon.

This 'as-told-to' essay is based on a conversation with Jugal Bhatt, a 24-year-old software engineer at Amazon based in Phoenix. Business Insider has verified his employment with documentation. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

Eight months before graduation, I began searching for a software engineering role. I thought my job search approach was solid, but in hindsight, it was holding me back.

In 2024, I moved to the US from India to pursue a master's in computer science at the University of Illinois. I kicked off my job search that September — not just to give myself time before my May 2025 graduation, but because I'd heard that August, September, and October were peak hiring months.

I struggled to gain traction, and for the first few months, I didn't land any interviews. Slowly but surely, I realized I needed to make a change.

After implementing a new approach that incorporated Boolean search techniques, strategic networking, and targeted LinkedIn posting, I began receiving interviews. My strategy eventually helped me land a software engineering role at Amazon.

My initial approach was flawed

At the start of my job hunt, I was mostly cold-applying for software engineering jobs — whatever I could find of interest on company websites and job platforms. I didn't ask many connections for referrals or reach out to many recruiters, and I used the same résumé for every application.

My strategy shift began around the end of last year. One of the new things I focused on was making connections with recruiters, hiring managers, and employees at companies of interest in the hopes of giving my application an edge.

I got strategic with Boolean searches and networking

I started by making a list of 100 to 150 companies I wanted to work for, a mix of startups and larger tech firms. Every morning, I'd spend time searching for people from these companies on LinkedIn. I did so in part by using Boolean search techniques — searching terms like "recruiter" or "hiring manager" in quotation marks, along with the company name.

I'd identify more than a dozen people from each company and try to connect with or follow them. Once I found them, I'd comment on their LinkedIn posts to get on their radar — and eventually reach out about roles of interest. I think the comments served their purpose because conversations seemed to flow more naturally when they were familiar with me.

When it came to my résumé, I started tailoring it to each role I applied for.

Being active on LinkedIn and GitHub helped me land my first job offer

I also started writing a lot more posts on LinkedIn — sharing my projects and thoughts on different startup products. After doing that, I started getting more messages from recruiters.

But I didn't just work on my own projects. Some startups had publicly available repositories on GitHub, and I began contributing to them to increase my visibility.

My efforts eventually started to pay off, and this strategy helped me land my first job interviews, including one for a founding software engineer role at the startup LiteLLM. I had commented on LinkedIn posts of the company's founder and contributed to their GitHub repository, and someone from the company reached out and asked if I'd be interested in interviewing for a role I hadn't applied for.

I later accepted an offer with them to start full-time after graduation.

A connection with an Amazon recruiter helped me land a job

When I accepted the offer at LiteLLM, I was still being considered for other roles, including a software engineering position at Amazon.

That opportunity began when an Amazon recruiter reached out to me via email about a role that typically required more than three years of experience, which I didn't have at the time. I asked if there were any more junior-level openings, and they told me to keep an eye out and reach out if I spotted any good fits. It sounded like they might be able to help get my résumé a closer look.

Around the end of March, I spotted three or four roles that seemed like a good fit and emailed the recruiter. I was asked to complete an online assessment for a software engineering position before participating in a series of interviews.

In July, I received an offer from Amazon and resigned from LiteLLM.

My advice for Amazon applicants

I believe my connection with the Amazon recruiter gave me a competitive edge in the application process. Now that I work at Amazon, I've seen how recruiters can flag promising candidates and help their applications stand out.

My top advice for anyone looking to land a job at Amazon is to identify the recruiters and hiring managers involved in the decision-making process, whether through LinkedIn searches or connections within Amazon.

Additionally, I recommend you take ample time to prepare for the company's interview process. Reflecting on my time at Amazon, the work has definitely been challenging — but in some ways, the interview preparation was harder than the job itself.

• Several major fashion brands and retailers have filed for bankruptcy in 2025.
• Economic challenges, tariffs, and competition from fast-fashion brands like Shein hurt sales.
• Store closures and shifting consumer spending patterns continue to impact the fashion industry.

It's been a busy year for corporate bankruptcies, and fashion brands and retailers aren't immune.

An uncertain economic environment has led some consumers to be more selective about where they spend their money. As a result, some are reaching for cheaper styles — fast-fashion retailers like Shein took market share from competing brands in 2024, according to data and analytics company GlobalData — or buying secondhand clothing.

Many retailers and restaurants, such as baby apparel brand Carter's and department store chain Macy's, have been shuttering stores. More than 3,700 stores have closed across the US in 2025, by Business Insider's count.

President Donald Trump's tariffs have also created new challenges for fashion brands, from Abercrombie & Fitch to Nike, some of which have said they're raising prices or altering their supply chains to minimize the financial impact.

However, other companies haven't been able to bounce back from waning traffic, tariffs, and more. These apparel brands filed for bankruptcy protection in 2025.

Forever 21

Forever 21 was once a mainstay in fast fashion for young women shopping at the mall. The past six years have been marked by financial losses, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice.

The rise of online fast-fashion brands like Shein and Temu, which typically offer styles at a lower price than Forever 21's already budget-friendly offerings, has hurt the brand in recent years.

In a March 2025 bankruptcy filing, the company cited the "de minimis" rule, which had permitted shipments valued under $800 to enter the US without tariffs, as a key factor that weakened its ability to compete on price with foreign online retailers.

Authentic Brands Group, the owner of Forever 21's intellectual property, said in September that it found new partners to renew the US business and transform it into a digital-led brand.

Ssense

Online retailer Ssense is known for selling niche luxury fashion brands. In August, the marketplace filed for Canada's equivalent of bankruptcy protection in the Quebec Superior Court.

Business of Fashion reported that Ssense CEO Rami Atallah blamed the company's downfall on the Trump administration's trade policy, in an email sent to staff. Canada faces a 35% tariff on goods that are not covered by a free trade agreement between the nations.

Liberated Brands

Liberated Brands, which operated Billabong and Quicksilver, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. The case was dismissed in May, and the company has shut down its US and Canadian retail operations.

In February court filings, Liberated Brands said it had been hit by macroeconomic pressures, supply-chain disruptions, and declining profits.

Sneakersnstuff

The popular Stockholm-based sneaker retailer filed for bankruptcy in January, as Swedish outlet Ehandel first reported. It was confirmed by Sneakersnstuff cofounder Peter Jansson in a now-deleted Instagram post.

The company was acquired by German investment company Reziprok Ventures in February.

• A University of Texas professor says AI didn't break college — it revealed how broken teaching was.
• Steven Mintz said that mass lectures and formulaic essays dehumanized education long before AI.
• He said that schools must automate rote learning so humans can focus on thinking and mentorship.

When Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, opened 400 essays from his students, he noticed something uncanny. The sentences were the same. The structure was the same. Even the conclusions matched.

In a LinkedIn post, Mintz said this wasn't a cheating crisis but a pedagogy crisis.

For years, he said, universities have operated like factories: mass lectures, standardized prompts, and rubric-driven grading handled by what he described as overworked teaching assistants.

Professors have called this mentorship, he said, but it's really "industrialized education," he wrote in a more detailed Substack post on the topic. And AI, he believes, has simply revealed how hollow that model had become.

"Machines can already do most of what we ask students to do — and often do it better," Mintz wrote on LinkedIn. "When 400 students can generate identical essays in 30 seconds, the problem isn't the students. The problem is the assignment."

The death of the take-home essay

In an email to Business Insider, Mintz said the traditional take-home essay is obsolete because it tests exactly what AI now excels at — research, understanding context, and constructing and developing an argument.

"AI can now do all that," he said.

As a result, he said he has moved away from essays done outside class and toward forms of assessment that demonstrate visible learning, including in-class writing assignments, oral presentations without detailed notes, and student-led discussions.

There should be "no outside of class graded assignments. Assessment will be based exclusively on activities that can be observed in person," he said.

Mintz envisions a system where AI handles what he called "mastery learning" — basic facts, chronology, and conceptual frameworks — freeing students to focus on what he described as "inquiry learning": asking students to pose questions and construct complex arguments.

He believes schools should double down on timeless literacies — research, writing, numeracy, and critical reading — but in ways that demand creativity and independent thought.

"We must ensure that students graduate with the ability to conduct research, write and speak clearly and analytically, read closely and critically, be numerate, culturally literate, and well prepared for their future career," he said.

If universities continue with "business as usual," he said, public faith in higher education and the value of a degree will "wither."

A final reckoning for higher ed

For Mintz, AI is a mirror, showing universities how deeply they've relied on mechanical learning, and how far they've drifted from the roots of education.

"AI doesn't threaten to dehumanize higher education," he wrote on Substack. " It reveals how thoroughly we've already dehumanized it — and offers us one last chance to recover what we've lost."

Looking ahead, he told Business Insider that the next five years must be a period of reinvention.

"We must reinvent assessment," he said, and offer courses that center on "slow reading, deep questions, ethical dilemmas, historical reasoning, data fluency, and creative problem-solving."

"We must invest in seminars, mentorship models, undergraduate research, and experiential learning," he said.

Now, colleges face a choice: double down on surveillance and standardization, or rebuild around what machines can't replicate.

"This is our moment to redesign — not defend — the future of learning," he wrote on LinkedIn.

• Employees who reshape their jobs around AI report higher engagement and motivation at work.
• Multiverse found that "job crafting" with AI cuts down on low-effort, low-quality "AI slop."
• Deeper AI collaboration links to higher focus, energy, and commitment, the researchers said.

Tired of "AI slop"? A team of learning scientists at AI skills platform Multiverse says there's a fix.

Employees who take the initiative to reshape their roles around artificial intelligence — rather than simply using it to speed through tasks — are more engaged, motivated, and creative at work, according to new research from Multiverse, the upskilling platform for AI and tech adoption.

The study, conducted in June and July, analyzed 295 UK full-time professionals across industries, including finance, government, and technology, all of whom had used generative AI for at least six months.

It found that those who actively "job craft" — redesign their tasks and workflows to integrate AI — experience significantly higher engagement than those who use the technology passively.

"Job crafting essentially means reexamining the components of your role and reshaping them to suit the needs of the task at hand," Barry Goulding, an organizational psychologist at Multiverse, told Business Insider.

"So moving from 'this is my job' to 'this is how I could do my job better.'"

'AI slop' comes from low engagement

The Multiverse team sees "AI slop" — the flood of low-quality, generic output produced by generative AI — as a symptom of disengagement rather than a flaw of the technology itself.

"AI slop is a function of employees not properly engaging with the tech," Goulding said.

"Copy-pasting a report written by AI without reviewing or revising it isn't an indicator of a highly engaged employee, nor does it suggest that they are deeply collaborating with the AI tool they're using," he added.

Job crafters, on the other hand, he said, are the ones who "catch errors, question the AI's logic, and ultimately ensure the final product is high-quality."

By training employees to think critically about how AI fits into their role, companies can curb sloppy output and foster higher-quality work, he added.

AI engagement isn't automatic — it depends on intent

The findings also challenged a popular narrative that AI reduces cognitive engagement.

While some studies, including OpenAI and MIT's research on ChatGPT and Oxford University Press's study on AI tools, have found that AI can cause people to think less deeply, Multiverse's data suggests that when used intentionally, AI can actually increase focus and dedication.

"If the intent is low-effort automation, you'll no doubt see low cognitive and employee engagement," Goulding said.

"But our data shows that when employees use AI with intent, and proactively reshape their job around it, their absorption, dedication, and vigor (the factors that make up employee engagement) increase."

Goulding said this proactive mindset helps employees move from a passive to an active relationship with AI.

He cited a customer service manager, for instance, who could go beyond answering tickets one by one and instead use AI to analyze trends and recommend process improvements.

That kind of mindset shift, he added, "can provoke a real uptick in work engagement."

How leaders can make 'job crafting' part of their AI strategy

To harness these benefits, Goulding said AI adoption needs to go beyond rolling out new tools.

"Handing out licenses to AI tools without training employees in how to use them is pretty much guaranteed to ensure lower-quality outputs, low engagement, and negligible impact on productivity," he said.

He recommends embedding training within broader AI strategies, measuring outcomes, and giving employees space to experiment.

Leadership, he added, plays a crucial role in setting expectations and modelling the right behaviour.

"Give employees the agency to reshape their roles and the licence to experiment within guardrails," Goulding said. "Lead from the front."

He pointed to the consulting firm Capita as an example of a company that has made AI adoption a strategic transition, rather than just a tech rollout.

One employee there, after being trained in AI, built an "Ask Me Anything" assistant that has already handled more than 70,000 queries across the firm, he said.

Don't track job crafting — track what it drives

Rather than trying to measure "job crafting" directly, Goulding advised leaders to focus on the outcomes it's meant to drive.

"You won't see value if you're just trying to track a behavior," he said.

"It's more important to measure the output and impact you're after: is productivity improving? Are employee engagement scores going up?"

He added that training people to use AI effectively within their context naturally leads to curiosity, problem-solving, and higher-quality collaboration with the technology.

Goulding said he believes job crafting will soon become a core competency for the AI era.

"AI will change how we all work," he said. "Those who grab hold of the reins will win quicker and win bigger than those that don't — and the benefits will multiply at an organizational level if you can embed these behaviours through tech training."