WSJ: “Intelligent agents make it easier for supply chains, logistics, cybersecurity, market research and more to operate 24 hours a day…Unlike human workers, the AI agents operating in fields from healthcare to cybersecurity don’t care about work-life balance. They don’t get tired or hungry, call in sick or go on vacation. They don’t fall in and out of love, pick up groceries on the way home, read bedtime stories to their children or separate their recyclables. “AI is reshaping the economy by providing automation that transcends traditional time and capacity constraints, enabling businesses to operate seamlessly around the clock,” Konstantine Buhler, a partner at Sequoia Capital, [said].”
FT: “AI is a major driver of electricity demand. But it also has the potential to unlock substantial supply gains. We can’t afford to miss this moment. More capacity, lower costs and greater energy security are within our grasp. The US still has built an advantage in energy independence. The test is whether we can meet the energy needs of the next era of innovation. If so, we will be in a stronger position in AI than any other nation for decades to come.”
HT: “Hundreds of start-ups and traditional FMCG companies are shifting their budgets to q-comm. Sample some numbers. Digital advertising is the fastest growing among all media. Within digital, advertising on retail media – a term for e-comm and q-comm apps like Amazon, Myntra, Nykaa, Blinkit, Zepto, Flipkart Minutes – is growing the fastest. “And within retail media, advertising on q-comm apps is fastest growing,” says Siddharth Jhawar, country manager at ad-tech firm Moloco India. “Already platforms like Zepto make nearly ₹1,000 crore in ad revenue which is remarkable since they barely existed a few years ago,” he says. Currently, retail media or e-comm advertising is pegged at ₹18,000 to 20,000 crore. “Quick commerce is cornering 20% of all e-comm ad revenue,” says Karan Taurani, senior VP at Elara Capital. This is hardly surprising given that advertising is increasingly moving from brand campaigns to conversion-led ads, he says. With both big and small, new-age and traditional brands using q-comm to advertise, ad money has become a big lever for quick commerce platforms for profitability, Taurani says.”
Ruchir Sharma on the trade wars: “The big losers are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of globalisation — American multinationals. As barriers to trade and capital fell in recent decades, US corporations increased profits much faster abroad than at home. Profit margins for S&P 500 companies had held steady since the 1960s. Then margins nearly doubled to around 13 per cent after 2000, coinciding with China’s entry into the WTO. Many US giants generated “supernormal” profits, far higher than their developed world rivals, by cashing in on the appeal of American brands and outsourcing production to nations with the cheapest costs. Today, US multinationals generate more than 40 per cent of their revenue abroad. The biggest gainers were manufacturers, which on average pay their workers overseas 60 per cent less than staff at home. Now, American businesses will think twice before setting up new factories abroad and decisions will not be driven by the straightforward logic of maximising profitability. The large multinationals in particular will see profit margins under constant pressure.”
Debashis Basu: ” Those expecting India to emerge as the next link in global supply chains may need to temper their hopes. Building global competitiveness requires patient, unglamorous hard work, done diligently over a decade. That means investing in science and technical education, scaling up vocational training, easing conditions for doing business, lowering indirect taxes, fostering fierce competition, supporting budding export champions, and creating conditions for sustained foreign direct investment with meaningful technology transfer. These failings cannot be remedied by mere geopolitics.”
