“What we created here since I took over as CEO is a completely revamped way of hiring our veterans and military spouses,” the company’s CEO, Juan C. Andrade, tells Fortune. “This is not just for the benefit of USAA—this is for the benefit of the military community.”

USAA launched its “Honor Through Action” program in 2025, committing half a billion dollars over the next five years to improve the careers, financial security, and well-being of its customers—many of whom are active military, veterans, or related to them. It’s the brainchild of Andrade, who stepped into the company’s top role in April last year. As someone who also left a longstanding career in the federal government, he understands the growing pains that come with an intimidating career pivot. And for thousands of USAA members, the situation is dire. 

Around half of veterans ditch their initial post-military jobs within the first year, according to the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program, and USAA’s CEO believes a lack of thoughtful transition services is largely to blame. When colonels, generals, and sergeants leave behind their high-powered jobs, Andrade says some struggle to adapt both emotionally and skills-wise.

While businesses are required to re-employ former employees who return from military duty per U.S. federal law, those stepping into civilian roles for the first time often need a helping hand. And even before they exit the military, the careers of their partners tend to suffer. 

The jobless rate of military spouses has hovered around 22% over the past decade, according to Hiring Our Heroes. That’s more than four times higher than the 4.6% nationwide unemployment rate. When their partners need to relocate for a new duty assignment, spouses are 136% more likely to be unemployed within six months, according to a 2024 Defense Department survey.

This trend of low job retention among veterans and spouse joblessness can be detrimental to the financial and professional livelihoods of American military families. So Andrade is leading the charge to get them on payroll. Corporations like JPMorgan have ramped up ex-military resources, and services like Armed Forces YMCA have long been assisting veterans; But USAA’s CEO says the issue needs a more targeted approach.

“While there’s a lot of organizations that are very well-meaning and do some very good work, the approach has been fragmented,” Andrade explains. “The problem with private sector companies is [if they] have not had that experience of service, or if they don’t have a large population of employees that serve, it’s very difficult to understand the fact that they’ve lost their tribe. The fact that, in a lot of ways, they’ve lost their sense of belonging to something greater than self.”

USAA’s $500 million plan and new fellowship pathways

USAA already has several veteran employment initiatives on the docket this year. This March, the company tells Fortune it will host a nationwide U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation program, Hiring our Heroes, in San Antonio to connect on the issue. And in the coming months, USAA will host events with nonprofit and HR association SHRM to brainstorm the best ways to improve military hiring in the U.S.

In stride with Honor Through Action, USAA also launched two 18-month fellowship programs designed to transition military personnel into full-time company positions: Summit and Signal. In three six-month rotations, participants cycle through different parts of the financial services giant to find the best fit. The future leadership track, Summit, rotates fellows through departments including business strategy, operational planning, and product ownership. Starting anew can be isolating, so USAA is ensuring that military personnel are not walking these career paths alone—veterans are connected to mentors every step of the way.

“Those 18 months are incredibly important, because it goes to show you: What is it that you can do? How does a private company actually work? What is it that you do on a daily basis?” Andrade says. “They get one-on-one mentorship and support every step of the way with people that have already walked in their shoes and been successful, so all of that helps.”

And just like what other companies are looking for in white-collar talent, USAA places a special emphasis on AI-savvy workers. That’s where the Signal fellowship comes into play: the pathway targets applicants with tech know-how, cycling them between assignments including technical solutions and data processing. The CEO notes that the military community is teeming with tech skills, and some already come with prior training from U.S. Cyber Command roles. Aside from getting ex-military members back into work, Signal is also proving to be extremely beneficial for the business itself. 

“We’re always looking for people who have the expertise and skill sets in data science or data engineering,” Andrade continues. “As they retire from the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, we bring them into a specialized program focused on their skills and how they can help us from technology experience.”

Serving an overlooked population: veteran spouses struggling with joblessness

Even when they’re not deployed, U.S. military personnel are battling wars at home—depression, financial insecurity, and homelessness. But one group is often ignored in the fight: their spouses. The husbands and wives of military personnel face sky-high unemployment rates and long-term instability due to the nature of their partners’ jobs. But Andrade recognizes them as an overlooked and underutilized pool of professionals.

“Military spouses are an incredible source of talent—they’re literally the CFO and the CEO of their home,” USAA’s CEO says. “When their spouses are deployed, when there’s a permanent change of station for their spouse, they have to leave their job. And if they don’t have that flexibility, then you know that’s why the unemployment rate is so high.”

USAA is funneling its resources to get to the root of the issue; as part of the Honor Through Action initiative, the company tells Fortune it will host Military Spouse Advisory Councils in San Antonio this March. The mission is to help shape policy, programs, and resources to better serve the unique needs of military families. That same month, the business also plans to work with other organizations in funding Blue Star Families’ release of Military Spouse Employment Research with the aim of pinpointing actionable solutions to their raging unemployment. And reflecting internally, Andrade reports that USAA will continue to lead by example. 

“We can offer a lot of flexibility… Having that level of empathy and understanding becomes very critical,” he says. “This is where we hope—with Honor Through Action—to be able to help companies understand the value that [military spouses] have, but also why you need to treat them a little bit differently given their personal situation.”

At Pinterest, for instance, we’re deploying AI to flip the script on social media, using it to more aggressively promote user well being rather than the alternative formula of triggering engagement by enragement. I believe AI can benefit our 600 million users for years to come and at a fraction the cost that many associate with the technology.

You don’t need to be a company with the size and scale of a Silicon Valley juggernaut to unlock the enormous economic benefits and innovation that AI could deliver. In fact, I have long argued that AI can be far more democratized than it currently is, leading to an entirely new generation of entrepreneurial success stories.

To realize AI’s real potential, however, commonly held assumptions need to be challenged. This is the only way to address a widespread public trust problem that AI currently faces and create an AI ecosystem that leaves no one behind.

For starters, our fundamental view of access to essential tools must change. Although often viewed as a battle between the largest (and often costly) proprietary models, a community of accessible open-source models is thriving in 2026, leveling the playing field for entrepreneurs eager to usher in the next generation of innovation.. 

Additionally, creators and publishers are no longer powerless when it comes to protecting the value of their work from companies that attempt to use their information to train generative AI models. The Napster phase of AI needs to end – now is the time for a clear exchange of value that benefits content creators.

Finally, regulation can no longer be viewed as the enemy. Oversight protects users and provides an incentive for private companies to compete on safe and positive user experiences. 

Open Source: Blueprint for Next Batch of Big Companies  

To date, too much of the focus of AI is who is building the largest proprietary models. The race to build powerful models is profound, but the discussion needs to include far more emphasis on open source and its ability to spur innovation across the broad business community.  

Pinterest recently announced an important milestone that demonstrates the potential. In our quest to harness the power of AI, we were able to tap into available large-scale open-source models and achieve performance similar to proprietary models but at 90% less cost. This addresses the return-on-AI-investment headache that many CEOs are facing as they spend a fortune on off-the-shelf proprietary solutions that don’t yet offer commensurate savings. 

This is not a new phenomenon. For decades, open-source software has been an important accelerant to nascent industries. Many of today’s largest companies, including trillion-dollar market cap enterprises, wouldn’t exist if they had to rely on proprietary databases or operating systems. 

The next batch of world-changing companies should follow a similar blueprint. Otherwise, we risk seeing the proprietary software companies collect all the value and, as a result, stifle innovation and ultimately block AI’s long-term potential. 

• Ownership Matters – Ditching AI’s Napster Era

Social media platforms like Pinterest live and die by users’ willingness to share creative and original ideas. 

Thankfully, humans feed the internet with a trove of new information every day. That information is inspired and validated by a level of creativity, reasoning, and work ethic that even the most advanced generative AI models do not possess. 

This presents large language models with a daunting learning curve that cannot be addressed without real-time access to this torrent of fresh ideas. That access should not be unfettered. 

When AI disregards ownership, content creators are less inclined to share their work and the public discourse suffers. When AI respects ownership, these originators can thrive, and the public gets better information. 

Currently, AI’s approach has resembled the old Napster pirating model – where music could be downloaded by tens of millions of internet users at no cost – than the iTunes or Spotify model – where publishers get compensated every time their work is accessed. 

The good news is there are several frameworks emerging that solve this problem. One is Cloudflare’s new model that allows content creators to choose whether and how GenAI companies use their content. Cloudflare’s tool works as a pay-per-crawl service, distinguishing GenAI crawlers that take information without sending much traffic back to creators, from search crawlers, which actually drive traffic back to the original source. 

Supporting Regulation that Protects and Promotes

As hard as it is to believe, standard installation of seatbelts were once considered “bad for business” by carmakers. That changed when crash test ratings created an incentive to do the right thing. The same can happen with standards in tech that protect users and promote responsible innovation. 

If you spend much time playing with AI, you’ll understand the need for regulations to stop a race to the bottom currently influencing the industry. No company should allow chatbots to have sexually explicit conversations with children, for instance. People, meanwhile, should be protected from bad actors attempting to use AI to manipulate their images or other information.

The question is what does meaningful regulation look like?

The App Store Accountability Act is one example of where immediate progress could be made. By making the app store a one-stop shop for age verification and parental consent, we can create consistent protections from the very moment a device is first turned on. 

Additionally, Pinterest envisions a world where social media companies and AI companies are competing on their safety records. To do this, the industry will need baseline regulations that focus on outcomes and leave space for companies to innovate in how to exceed those basic expectations.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Trump’s message to Jonas Gahr Støre appears to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark. On Saturday, Trump announced a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight nations that have rallied around Denmark and Greenland, including Norway.

Those countries issued a forceful rebuke. But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought to de-escalate tensions on Monday. While the White House has not ruled taking control of the strategic Arctic island by force, Starmer said he did not believe military action would occur.

“I think this can be resolved and should be resolved through calm discussion,” he said.

Still, the American leader’s message to Gahr Støre could further fracture a U.S.-European relationship already strained by differences over how to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, previous rounds of tariffs, military spending and migration policy.

In a sign of how tensions have increased in recent days, thousands of Greenlanders marched over the weekend in protest of any effort to take over their island. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post Monday that the tariff threats would not change the their stance.

“We will not be pressured,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business, minerals, energy, justice and equality, told The Associated Press that she was moved by the quick response of allies to the tariff threat and said it showed that countries realize “this is about more than Greenland.”

“I think a lot of countries are afraid that if they let Greenland go, what would be next?”

Trump sends a message to the Norwegian leader

According to two European officials, Trump’s message to Gahr Støre read in part: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

It concluded: “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it had been forwarded to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. PBS first reported on the content of Trump’s note.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the president’s approach in Greenland during a brief Q&A with reporters in Davos, Switzerland, which is hosting the World Economic Forum meeting this week.

“I think it’s a complete canard that the president would be doing this because of the Nobel,” Bessent said, immediately after saying he did not “know anything about the president’s letter to Norway.”

Bessent insisted Trump “is looking at Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States,” adding that “we are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”

The White House did not respond to questions about the message or the context for Trump sending it.

Gahr Støre confirmed Monday that he had received a text message the day before from Trump but did not release its contents.

The Norwegian leader said Trump’s message was a reply to an earlier missive sent on behalf of himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, in which they conveyed their opposition to the tariff announcement, pointed to a need to de-escalate, and proposed a telephone conversation among the three leaders.

“Norway’s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter,” the Norwegian leader said in a statement. “As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have clearly explained, including to president Trump what is well known, the prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government.”

He told TV2 Norway that he hadn’t responded to the message, but “I still believe it’s wise to talk,” and he hopes to talk with Trump in Davos this week.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is an independent body whose five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.

Trump has openly coveted the peace prize, which the committee awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado last year. Last week, Machado presented her Nobel medal to Trump, who said he planned to keep it though the committee said the prize can’t be revoked, transferred or shared with others.

Starmer says a trade war is in no one’s interest

In his latest threat of tariffs, Trump indicated they would be retaliation for last week’s deployment of symbolic numbers of troops from the European countries to Greenland — though he also suggested that he was using the tariffs as leverage to negotiate with Denmark.

European governments said that the troops traveled to the island to assess Arctic security, part of a response to Trump’s own concerns about interference from Russia and China.

Starmer on Monday called Trump’s threat of tariffs “completely wrong” and said that a trade war is in no one’s interest.

He added that “being pragmatic does not mean being passive and partnership does not mean abandoning principles.”

Six of the eight countries targeted are part of the 27-member European Union, which operates as a single economic zone in terms of trade. European Council President Antonio Costa said Sunday that the bloc’s leaders expressed “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion.” He announced a summit for Thursday evening.

Starmer indicated that Britain, which is not part of the EU, is not planning to consider retaliatory tariffs.

“My focus is on making sure we don’t get to that stage,” he said.

Denmark’s defense minister and Greenland’s foreign minister are expected to meet NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Monday, a meeting that was planned before the latest escalation.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak in West Palm Beach, Florida; Emma Burrows in Nuuk, Greenland; and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.