Tech Sector Workers Fearful of Losing Jobs to AI Automation

A KPMG report revealed that 67 percent of tech sector employees fear losing their jobs to automation and 70 percent worry their jobs will be eliminated due to the economic downturn. In other industries, only 44 percent of workers are concerned about losing their jobs to automation and 57 percent worry their jobs will disappear. Conducted in April, the survey queried 1,000 full-time/part-time workers, of whom 223 were in the tech sector. Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stated that, in the future, AI will write its own software. Continue reading Tech Sector Workers Fearful of Losing Jobs to AI Automation

Japan’s Recruit Aims to Compete with Top Global Websites

In Japan, Recruit Holdings, the center of a corporate scandal that ended with the ousting of the prime minister, is being put back together by a group of employees. Whereas the former Recruit was a magazine publisher and job-placement firm, the new version is an Internet behemoth that combines the capabilities of LinkedIn, Zillow, Yelp, eHarmony, Booking.com, Square and many other apps. Recruit chief executive Masumi Minegishi is betting the company has the experience and resources to dominate consumer spending by 2030. Continue reading Japan’s Recruit Aims to Compete with Top Global Websites

Jawbone Is Liquidating, CEO Launches Jawbone Health Hub

After producing Bluetooth earpieces and wireless speakers for years, Jawbone pivoted to fitness wearables in 2011, with the debut of its UP health tracker. Then came two lawsuits in 2015, with Flextronics and Fitbit, and research that reported the company had captured only 2.8 percent of the fitness wearables market. So it should come as no surprise that Jawbone has entered into liquidation proceedings, and co-founder/chief executive Hosain Rahman is no longer with the company, having left for a new venture named Jawbone Health Hub. Continue reading Jawbone Is Liquidating, CEO Launches Jawbone Health Hub

Time is Up for Yahoo’s Turnaround, Sale Now On the Table

Since the 2012 hiring of former Google executive Marissa Mayer to improve Yahoo’s fortunes, the company has failed to turn around and is now facing difficult choices. Among many plans devised, the latest occurred last month when executives favored spinning off the company’s main Internet business. That strategy may be abandoned as Yahoo considers a sale of its business, while an activist — and anonymous — investor mounts a proxy fight. Employee morale is said to be low in light of 1,100 layoffs since August 2014. Continue reading Time is Up for Yahoo’s Turnaround, Sale Now On the Table