Good morning.
I’m in Las Vegas this morning at CES, along with 130,000 other people and enough gadgets to fill 2.5 million square feet of convention space. There are transparent television screens, a self-driving stroller, and AI-assisted ovens, toothbrushes, pillows—AI-assisted everything.
My job last night was to interview Best Buy CEO Corie Barry at the Leaders in Technology dinner. I started by reminding her that a decade ago, the smart money assumed Best Buy was headed for extinction. It would end up in a graveyard with Toys ‘R’ Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, and countless other big box stores. After all, who needs a gadget store in a world where you can buy it all on Amazon? Her response:
“What people got wrong was two things. First, this is an amazing industry. It’s incredibly vibrant. It changes all the time. I know it’s often talked about as discretionary spending, but I’m sorry, how many of you can go one hour of your day without some consumer electronics device? And we are the only scale U.S. player left who only deals in consumer electronics. And we are the only one who is really agnostic to the customer. We don’t care about the brand. I love all my children.
And then as a company, we decided, okay, then let’s double down on who we are. We’re the place you go. You want to know what my favorite statement is to hear in a store? ‘I had no idea I can do that.’ That’s what we do. We humanize technology. We make it not just about the SKU and the speeds and feeds…It’s about what you want to do.”
Barry returned to the human theme again and again…indeed, she used the word “human” more than she used the word “technology.” For instance, I asked her how AI would change Best Buy’s business. Here’s the response:
“Here’s the ironic thing about AI. AI will actually make all of our experiences with technology feel more human…I don’t see a world where there’s less technology in our homes, in the most intimate parts of our lives. And so the role that we play is to really humanize it, to bring it to life, to help the world understand how it can make their lives better.”
I asked her to look 10 years down the road and forecast how our lives will change as a result:
“I think all of us are going to rely more and more on tech, and yet it’s going to feel more and more transparent, meaning you’re not going to realize you’re even using it. It’s just going to be humanly part of what we do every single day. And I think our responsibility collectively is to make that happen in a way that is fair, equitable, safe and responsible.”
I’m down with that, even if I don’t really need an AI-assisted toothbrush. More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Salesforce pauses hiring
Salesforce and its subsidiary Slack will pause hiring in their technology and product divisions, according to an internal memo. The freeze comes after the tech company announced plans to hire 3,300 people in sales and engineering in September. A Salesforce spokesperson disputed that the memo refers to a hiring freeze, and instead says the company is pursuing “strategic hiring.” Fortune
Citi's peso headache
Argentina President Javier Milei’s surprise decision to devalue the peso by over 50% is causing a headache for Citigroup. The Wall Street bank warned that its quarterly results, due to be released Friday, will include $880 million in currency conversion losses tied to the Argentine peso. Citigroup also warned of $780 million in restructuring charges as CEO Jane Fraser tries to simplify the bank’s structure. CNBC
Bitcoin ETFs
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday, including those from firms like BlackRock and Grayscale. The crypto industry hopes the new financial products, which track the current price of Bitcoin, will lead to an inflow of funds from traditional wealth managers wary of crypto exchanges like Coinbase. SEC Chair Gary Gensler, a crypto skeptic, said the approval was not an endorsement of Bitcoin and affirmed his view that many crypto assets are subject to federal securities law. Fortune
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Millennials are ‘carpooling for homes’ by teaming up with non-romantic co-buyers because of the disastrous state of the housing market by Sydney Lake
‘The extra money runs out this year’: Jamie Dimon is skeptical about ‘Goldilocks’ economy predictions for 2024 by Eleanor Pringle
Yale management professor: ‘Harvard’s board is guilty of 5 key failures. Here’s how to avoid repeating them’ by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
Gen X drugmaker is coughing up millions for Paris Olympics sponsorship to show Gen Z and millennials it’s a cool place to work by Prarthana Prakash
Cheap EVs help China leapfrog Japan as the world’s largest car exporter—while foreign giants like VW and GM sink in the lucrative Chinese market by Nicholas Gordon
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
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