“Look, technology is another word for tool. There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. We got past that. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.”

—Tom Clancy, Author and Screenwriter

Your Favorite New Musician May Not Exist

A recent international survey asked 9,000 people to identify which songs were made by artificial intelligence.

97% couldn’t tell the difference between human-made and machine-made music. More than half said that made them uncomfortable.

The music platform behind the study now receives about 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day. That’s more than a third of its daily uploads.

In response, the company has started labeling AI music and removing it from playlists and royalty calculations. So far, no other major streaming service has followed.

Generative AI music is expected to create $46B dollars in global revenue over the next five years. At the same time, songwriters and musicians could lose $11B dollars as their work is used without permission and their income is replaced by machine-made songs.

And we can already see it happening. Two of the top three songs currently on Billboard’s country digital chart were created entirely by AI.

Nashville's songwriting community is now demanding laws that protect creators' voices, words, and likenesses from being copied or replaced by AI.

AI will reshape more than just playlists. As automation expands across industries, the gap between what’s efficient and what’s meaningful becomes easier to miss and harder to fix.

For retailers built on trust and local credibility, that’s not just a marketing question. It’s a strategic one.

AI can write fast. But you bring the angle.

When you're sitting on an idea but not sure if it's a newsletter, a LinkedIn post, or a panel riff, this prompt can helps you find the best lane before you hit “publish.”

• Service and Parts: Syncron
  Parts inventory planning, parts pricing optimization and service fulfilment operations (e.g., managing warranty, repair operations, parts supply for dealerships) in the auto aftermarket.
   

• Marketing & Advertising: Predis.ai
  Generates social media posts, videos, carousels, ads, captions and schedules them, automating much of the content creation and posting workflow for digital marketing.
   

• Content Creation: Anyword
  Generates and optimizes marketing copy, ads, emails, and social posts using natural-language processing. Speeds up creative production and improves messaging relevance letting you reach more buyers with sharper, more consistent campaigns across platforms.

Todd Caputo says AI will be the great separator in 2026.

Not because it replaces people, but because it spotlights every weak process inside a store.

The operators who tighten their basics now will see AI speed up follow-up, clean their data, sharpen acquisition, and cut wasted effort across the board. The ones who skip the groundwork will feel the pain fast.

Catch Caputo’s practical playbook for the new year here.

• Jack Dorsey is rebooting Vine (no AI allowed). 🌱

• Jeff Bezos appoints himself CEO of the AI startup, “Project Prometheus.” 👔

• Out of 26 different languages, Polish proved to be the most effective for prompting AI models. 🇵🇱

• New reports reveal that toys equipped with chatbots may be harmful to children. 🧸

• China has released a mass deployment of robots to work in car factories across the country. 🤖