Artificial intelligence has been widely hyped for its potential to transform a broad swath of industries, from cybersecurity to medicine. Now, we might start to get a clearer picture for how it could be used to change the way we shop.
The motto at Bambino Mio, a manufacturer of reusable diapers here in the English midlands, is "cloth nappies for changing times." The description may never have been more apt.
Britain's departure from the European Union could send shock waves across the global economy and threaten more than a trillion dollars in investment and trade with the United States.
Sitting still flies in the face of everything Kathleen Hale's company stands for. Started less than two years ago in Washington, Rebel Desk sells treadmills and desks for professionals who prefer to stand and move while they work. It's ironic, then, that Hale’s company feels a bit stuck.
The online grocery delivery business seems to get more crowded - and more competitive - by the minute. Tech giants Google and Amazon.com are offering it in some major cities, and so are upstarts such as Instacart, Postmates and FreshDirect. These newcomers are battling with more established businesses such as Peapod, which has been delivering groceries for more than 20 years, and services from companies such as Wal-Mart that allow customers to place orders online and pick them up at a nearby store.
Amazon reportedly will open a brick-and-mortar shop in Midtown Manhattan in time for the holiday shopping season and that it will be a place for customers to return products, make exchanges or pick up their online orders.
As Home Depot scrambles to determine the scope and scale of a potentially massive breach of its customers' data, the retailer's troubles underscore the challenges facing retailers and card issuers attempting to gird themselves against cybercriminals.
President Obama announced an initiative to improve the fuel efficiency of trucks. That's a lofty goal, but here's an even better idea: Let's make an effort to move more freight by rail and less by road. Trains are far more energy-efficient than trucks "” and they always will be.
The discussion of American manufacturing is often a muddled one, steeped in nostalgia for a bygone era and accompanied by a certain misty-eyed conviction that it is a sector in ceaseless decline. A new study from the McKinsey Global Institute adds some welcome clarity. In 184 pages, the global consulting giant presents a picture of manufacturing as among the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. and global economies, driving higher productivity and standards of living. But it also shows that what we usually think of as a traditional manufacturing job isn't coming back.
As U.S. cornfields withered under drought conditions last summer, Brazil's once-empty Cerrado region produced a bumper crop of the grain, helping feed livestock on U.S. farms and ease a drought-related spike in prices.
