Business

In the Age of AI, some tech leaders think communications degrees may actually be more valuable than computer science degrees

Published

4 months ago

August 25, 2025

In between bites of crème brûlée at Chicago gastropub The Gage last week, ServiceNow Chief Transformation Officer Kelley Steven-Waiss asked a room full of CHROs a bold question: What if computer science degrees weren’t actually as valuable as everyone’s been claiming?

In this heavily AI-powered world, some would guffaw. I leaned in closer. What if, Steven-Waiss posed, it was actually those with communications degrees who would likely win out in the end? The soft people skills that comms majors learn—like conflict resolution and ability to influence, persuade, and inspire—are just going to increase in importance in the age of AI, she said at a Fortune dinner presented in partnership with ServiceNow.

It’s an interesting theory, and may make sense at a time where tech job postings remain 36% below pre-pandemic levels, with entry-level tech roles down 34%, according to a recent Indeed study.

And with some fearing that entry-level roles could decrease thanks to AI, it may be time to think of other options for recent grads. Steven-Waiss proposed a solution: A two-year, entry-level career program where new hires enter a “problem-solving pool.” She envisions companies hiring up to 100 early-in-career, digital natives every year that rotate around a company and figure out where their contributions and passions are highest.

“It’s like the new hustle those of us GenXer’s learned climbing the corporate ladder or doing the summer job. There’s going to be people that figure out, ‘God, I’m really good at engineering,’ or ‘I’m really good at inbound product management’ or ‘I’m really good at finance,’” she said. “It’s a problem-solving team with a mission and they will learn how to collaborate, and we will likely see innovative new solutions that existing teams wouldn’t have come up with.”

Steven-Waiss said this type of model would be a positive for the bottom line, too. Companies wouldn’t have to have specific jobs in each department to budget for. Everyone in the problem-solving pool would make the same salary, and finance departments would know exactly what the spend would be, she said.

“When you grow up in a function or a career path, you almost always wear that jersey. So in the case that they’re coming into this rotation, where there’s no set job, they’re wearing the jersey of the company,” Steven-Waiss said. “They’re wearing the jersey of the problem they’re actually working to solve, and they are going to learn so much about the dynamics, about how the company makes money.”

Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
kristin.stoller@fortune.com

Around the Table

A round-up of the most important HR headlines.

Nearly half of CEOs who leave the top position transition to an executive chair role. But does having two leaders make sense? New York Times

Despite more employees completing online courses and job-skill certificates, a new study finds they don’t often pay off. Wall Street Journal

How much does it cost to fire your CEO? While it can vary, it’s almost always not cheap. Bloomberg

Watercooler

Everything you need to know from Fortune.

The Great Resentment. Employer revenge is returning, as bosses lord over workers with RTO mandates and pay cuts. —Nick Lichtenberg and Ashley Lutz

ChatGPT counselor. A quarter of Gen Zers say they are following ChatGPT’s career advice, and only 3% admit they regret it. —Jessica Coacci

Toxic traits. Job ads that call for “ambitious,” “self-reliant,” or “results-driven” candidates disproportionately attract narcissists. —Orianna Rosa Royle

This is the web version of Fortune CHRO, a newsletter focusing on helping HR executives navigate the needs of the workplace. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.

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Business

Trump says he’ll allow Nvidia to sell advanced chips to ‘approved customers’ in China

Published

26 minutes ago

December 8, 2025

Jace Porter

President Donald Trump said Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China.

There have been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips to be sold to China as it could help the country better compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities, but there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.

The chip, known as the H200, is not Nvidia’s most advanced product. Those chips, called Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin, were not part of what Trump approved.

Trump said on social media that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping about his decision and “President Xi responded positively!”

“This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump said in his post.

Nvidia said in a statement that it applauded Trump’s decision, saying the choice would support domestic manufacturing and that by allowing the Commerce Department to vet commercial customers it would “strike a thoughtful balance” on economic and national security priorities.

Trump said the Commerce Department was “finalizing the details” for other chipmakers such as AMD and Intel to sell their technologies abroad.

The approval of the licenses to sell Nvidia H200 chips reflects the increasing power and close relationship that the company’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, enjoys with the president. But there have been concerns that China will find ways to use the chips to develop its own AI products in ways that could pose national security risks for the U.S., a primary concern of the Biden administration that sought to limit exports.

Nvidia has a market cap of $4.5 trillion and Trump’s announcement appeared to drive the stock slightly higher in after hours trading.

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Business

Google Cloud CEO lays out 3-part AI plan after identifying it as the ‘most problematic thing’

Published

58 minutes ago

December 8, 2025

Jace Porter

The immense electricity needs of AI computing was flagged early on as a bottleneck, prompting Alphabet’s Google Cloud to plan for how to source energy and how to use it, according to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.

Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm AI event in San Francisco on Monday, he pointed out that the company—a key enabler in the AI infrastructure landscape—has been working on AI since well before large language models came along and took the long view.

“We also knew that the the most problematic thing that was going to happen was going to be energy, because energy and data centers were going to become a bottleneck alongside chips,” Kurian told Fortune’sAndrew Nusca. “So we designed our machines to be super efficient.”

The International Energy Agency has estimated that some AI-focused data centers consume as much electricity as 100,000 homes, and some of the largest facilities under construction could even use 20 times that amount.

At the same time, worldwide data center capacity will increase by 46% over the next two years, equivalent to a jump of almost 21,000 megawatts, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

At the Brainstorm event, Kurian laid out Google Cloud’s three-pronged approach to ensuring that there will be enough energy to meet all that demand.

First, the company seeks to be as diversified as possible in the kinds of energy that power AI computation. While many people say any form of energy can be used, that’s actually not true, he said.

“If you’re running a cluster for training and you bring it up and you start running a training job, the spike that you have with that computation draws so much energy that you can’t handle that from some forms of energy production,” Kurian explained.

The second part of Google Cloud’s strategy is being as efficient as possible, including how it reuses energy within data centers, he added.

In fact, the company uses AI in its control systems to monitor thermodynamic exchanges necessary in harnessing the energy that has already been brought into data centers.

And third, Google Cloud is working on “some new fundamental technologies to actually create energy in new forms,” Kurian said without elaborating further.

Earlier on Monday, utility company NextEra Energy and Google Cloud said they are expanding their partnership and will develop new U.S. data center campuses that will include with new power plants as well.

Tech leaders have warned that energy supply is critical to AI development alongside innovations in chips and improved language models.

The ability to build data centers is another potential chokepoint as well. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently pointed out China’s advantage on that front compared to the U.S.

“If you want to build a data center here in the United States, from breaking ground to standing up an AI supercomputer is probably about three years,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in late November. “They can build a hospital in a weekend.”

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Business

Pepsi to cut product offering nearly 20% in deal with $4 billion activist Elliott

Published

1 hour ago

December 8, 2025

Jace Porter

PepsiCo plans to cut prices and eliminate some of its products under a deal with an activist investor announced Monday.

The Purchase, New York-based company, which makes Cheetos, Tostitos and other Frito-Lay products as well as beverages, said it will cut nearly 20% of its product offerings by early next year. PepsiCo said it will use the savings to invest in marketing and improved value for consumers. It didn’t disclose which products or how much it would cut prices.

PepsiCo said it also plans to accelerate the introduction of new offerings with simpler and more functional ingredients, including Doritos Protein and Simply NKD Cheetos and Doritos, which contain no artificial flavors or colors. The company also recently introduced a prebiotic version of its signature cola.

PepsiCo is making the changes after prodding from Elliott Investment Management, which took a $4 billion stake in the company in September. In a letter to PepsiCo’s board, Elliott said the company is being hurt by a lack of strategic clarity, decelerating growth and eroding profitability in its North American food and beverage businesses.

In a joint statement with PepsiCo Monday, Elliott Partner Marc Steinberg said the firm is confident that PepsiCo can create value for shareholders as it executes on its new plan.

“We appreciate our collaborative engagement with PepsiCo’s management team and the urgency they have demonstrated,” Steinberg said. “We believe the plan announced today to invest in affordability, accelerate innovation and aggressively reduce costs will drive greater revenue and profit growth.”

Elliott said it plans to continue working closely with the company.

PepsiCo shares were flat in after-hours trading Monday.

PepsiCo said it expects organic revenue to grow between 2% and 4% in 2026. The company’s organic revenue rose 1.5%. the first nine months of this year.

PepsiCo also said it plans to review its supply chain and continue to make changes to its board, with a focus on global leaders who can help it reach its growth and profitability goals.

“We feel encouraged about the actions and initiatives we are implementing with urgency to improve both marketplace and financial performance,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a statement.

PepsiCo said in February that years of double-digit price increases and changing customer preferences have weakened demand for its drinks and snacks. In July, the company said it was trying to combat perceptions that its products are too expensive by expanding distribution of value brands like Chester’s and Santitas.

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