What sparked a “massive sentiment change” within his company is a new approach to training. Along with communicating that AI is a priority and a plus, Eschenbach greenlit an “everyday AI” training program about six months ago that forced everyone on staff to confront their fears. “At the end of it, each of our employees had to write down their own AI training roadmap,” he said. “So now every manager has a roadmap and an AI plan for every employee to make sure they’re embracing it and they’re learning about it and they’re leveraging it.”

Surveys following that exercise showed higher levels of trust and engagement around AI, which points to a simple lesson for leaders: “We need to embrace the technology and make sure our employees know it’s safe. It’s safe to lean in, it’s safe to engage and it is what’s going to drive a massive change for them in their careers if they embrace it.”

“It’s all about making sure the human remains in the center of everything we’re doing, that AI is just a technology,” said Eschenbach, who is also rolling out new AI agents and developer tools for customers. “We’re not talking about that enough: that this is about how to change your career. It’s about how to go work on things that you’re excited about, as opposed to doing mundane tasks. This is all about opportunity. Employees today believe they’re competing against AI. They’re not. They’re competing against their peers who are using AI.”

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

CEOs are secretly angry at the Trump administration

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Fed cuts rates

The Federal Reserve cut rates by a quarter of a point on Wednesday amid sluggish hiring and consistent attacks from President Donald Trump. During the meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that there is “no risk-free path” to steer clear of stagflation as depressed job growth and inflation concerns pull the Fed in different directions.

Sardar Biglari’s 14-year war against Cracker Barrel

It’s not just the logo. Activist investor Sardar Biglari has spent more than a decade trying to get onto the board of the restaurant chain in order to stop it expanding and optimize its current operations. His proxy battles are among the longest and most contentious activist campaigns in restaurant industry history. They have also earned him more than $1 billion.

Jimmy Kimmel suspended for Kirk comments

ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say it would not air the show

Trump designates Antifa as a terrorist group

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Meta launches Ray-Ban glasses in race for “superintelligence”

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new smart spectacles yesterday. The glasses have a digital display in the right lens showing notifications, and will be priced at $799.

China bans Nvidia chips

Beijing has ordered Chinese companies not to buy Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a chip made for the Chinese market. CEO Jensen Huang took the long view: “We probably contributed more to the China market than most countries have. And I’m disappointed with what I see,” he told the FT. “But they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States, and I’m understanding of that.”

25% chance AI will go “really, really badly,” Anthropic CEO says

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Amazon CEO says “no bureaucracy” inquiry brought 1,000+ reports

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Potential future U.K. prime minister will say anything for $95

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The markets

S&P 500 futures up 0.8% this morning. The index closed down 0.09% in its last session. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.77% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.33% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.15%. China’s CSI 300 was down 1.16%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 1.4%. India’s Nifty 50 was flat before the end of the session. Bitcoin rose to $117.2K.

Around the watercooler

The average American homeowner lost $9,200 in home equity during the last year. It’s not a collapse but a ‘long-term market correction’ by Sydney Lake

Kraken’s co-CEO says he once threw away Bitcoin: ’It was worth maybe $300 million to $400 million today’ by Ashley Lutz

Nvidia shares drop, China tech surges as Beijing tries to push homegrown AI chips by Nicholas Gordon

Bill and Melinda French Gates gave their Gen Z daughter this piece of business advice before she launched her own $8 million startup by Jessica Coacci

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.