Liberty Global

"Block out the noise and keep kicking ass." That's the conclusion of an all-employees note Axon Enterprise President Josh Isner sent about AI's impact on their jobs — referenced in a Wall Street Journal piece last week that framed the split building across corporate America: as AI matures, CEOs face a stark choice between cutting jobs and stretching their workforce. A few weeks ago I wrote about the cold war forming inside organizations over AI adoption and the leadership failures driving it. This is the flip side of that same coin, and employees are learning something important about the kind of company they work for. On one hand, you have the cutters. Coinbase is eliminating 14% of its workforce. PayPal plans to cut 20% of its staff over the next two to three years. Meta is laying off 8,000 people. On the other end of the spectrum are leaders like Axon's Isner, who also wrote: "I am thinking of AI as the thing that allows our teams to do more, not the thing that replaces our teams." Spotify is keeping headcount flat while dramatically increasing output. IBM 's CHRO is pushing leaders to stop asking "how does AI make us more productive?" and start asking "how does AI make us grow?" Layoff rates are at their highest level outside the pandemic, and the narrative that AI is driving them has become a convenient excuse for companies carrying out standard job cuts. But the data on cutting is sobering. A recent Gartner survey of 350 companies deploying AI found that about 80% were cutting staff and generating no meaningful ROI. The conclusion was stark: layoffs create budget room, they don't create returns. Companies that improved ROI amplified their people; they didn't eliminate them. I don't have my head in the sand on this. AI will have massive impacts on the workplace: some functions will shrink, some will disappear, and most of the ones that remain will look different. Companies will need to be far more agile, redeploying people across new assignments on unpredictable timelines. And employees will need to be agile too. Leaders owe their people honesty about that, not false reassurance. But here's the distinction that matters: companies using AI primarily to cut headcount and juice the stock weren't operating from a market-domination philosophy to begin with. They had a stock-first philosophy. AI didn't create that; it just accelerated it and gave it cover. Those employees were always at risk. The pink slip just has a different return address now. The companies that dominate the next decade will be those that treat AI as a force multiplier, not a headcount calculator, and that build the trust and psychological safety I wrote about a few weeks ago, because their people have something authentic to believe in. Cutting staff to match pre-AI output levels is the corporate equivalent of a sugar high. It feels like a win right now, but the crash is coming. The stretch camp doesn't just win on culture. It wins on the scorecard that actually matters.

After 20+ years scaling other people's companies, I've done something I genuinely didn't expect. I've spent 2026 co-founding one. Fleetweaver , with Dan Gittleman Brian Woods Alexander Brooke Lee Westenberger Paul Krzyzanowski . I've been quiet about it on here until now. Today felt like the right moment to stop being quiet. For two decades I've been the person you bring in to scale the thing that already exists. Build the team. Deploy the technology. Drive the outcomes. I was good at it. I liked it. I assumed that was the shape of my career. Then a problem started following me around. I kept seeing it in different rooms, with different people, in different parts of the autonomous mobility industry. The kind of problem where you find yourself sketching the same diagram on the same whiteboard for the third time in a month, and eventually you stop and think: someone should build this. So we did. I'll share more about what Fleetweaver does in a few days. The product, the thesis, the market. For now I just wanted to mark the moment, because it's a good one, and I'd rather mark it honestly than keep pretending I'm still in a previous chapter. If you've made a similar jump, from operator to founder, I'd genuinely value hearing how it landed for you.

Next week I have the pleasure of attending SAP Saphire with ProFinda . Teresa McGivern Rory Lawson Cam Dobinson Marcel Biesmans are free to meet up. If you’re going to be there, please DM me or reach out directly — would be great to connect.

One thing that’s really stood out to me during the last couple of months working with AI systems is how little attention is being paid to trust and controllability. Most of the conversation still seems to revolve around speed, autonomy and impressive outputs. But once you start thinking about real business use, a different question starts to matter very quickly: Can you actually rely on the outcome? If a system can’t consistently produce results that are understandable, repeatable and grounded in reality, then adoption eventually hits a wall no matter how clever the demos look. I’ve got a feeling this becomes one of the biggest AI conversations over the next few years.

"Is Your Treasury Tech Stack Future-Proof? Find Out Now." The latest Treasury Tech Map newsletter is out — and the treasury IT landscape has never moved faster. From AI-powered forecasting to real-time payment rails, ISO 20022 readiness, and next-gen TMS platforms, the tools shaping treasury in 2026 are rewriting the rules of cash management, risk, and liquidity. Are you keeping up — or falling behind? Read the latest edition and stay ahead of the curve: 👉 www.treasurymap.com #TreasuryTech #TreasuryMap #DigitalTreasury #FinTech #CorporateTreasury #TMS #Innovation Luxembourg Association Of Corporate Treasurers Fennech Financial Ltd COMO Digital Life Kantox TreasurySpring Solum Financial Ltd Xplain EACT - European Association of Corporate Treasurers ION SAP INTENSUM Finologee Corpay https://lnkd.in/ewfEJJBr

ATEL Spring Conference - Nice occasion to meet our treasury peers. Luxembourg Association Of Corporate Treasurers The key words were: Treasury under pressure: optimise - resist - protect. Sis ID Astran Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) Agicap Thanks to our partners for their support!

Our ATEL Spring Conference was successful. “Treasury under pressure: optimise, protect, resist.

The last ATEL newsletter has been released. We hope you will enjoy reading! Luxembourg Association Of Corporate Treasurers https://lnkd.in/e3Z9pvQd

Excited to arrive in Panama ahead of the Americas Summit with Biennial of the Americas . Looking forward to cross-cultural connections and conversations all week…y practicando hablar español!