Join the conversation about this story »

• Deloitte's technology consultants used to meet primarily with clients' chief technology and chief information officers.
• But lately, they've been meeting much more frequently with CEOs and other top-level leaders that don't work in corporations' technology departments, Bill Briggs, Deloitte's global CTO, told Business Insider.
• The top leaders have come to understand how important cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence are to the future of their businesses.
• CEOs and board members also want to be up-to-date on the latest tech trends and how digital innovations are transforming the business landscape so they can ask informed questions and make considered decisions, he said.

It used to be that when Bill Briggs was giving an overview of the latest technologies making their way into corporate America or the technological trends that are likely to affect enterprises in coming years, his audience was mostly chief information and chief technology officers.

These days, though, Briggs, who is the chief technology officer of auditing and consulting giant Deloitte, is spending as much time talking about the digital transformation of business with clients' CEOs and board members as he is with their technology leaders.

"The biggest story for me is that technology has been elevated into the heart of business strategy," Briggs said in a recent interview with Business Insider in advance of his firm's release of its latest tech trends report. Corporate directors and top executives, he continued, are "recognizing how critical this is."

Deloitte consultants have been meeting with CEOs and top business leaders for decades, of course. And, occasionally, they'd want to meet with Briggs and his team of technology consultants too. But in the last two or so years, Briggs and his team have been meeting with CEOs and board members with increasing frequency, he said.

The CEOs and directors want to understand new technologies

The meetings typically aren't just one-hour briefs or surface overviews of the landscape, he said. Instead, the non-technology executives and leaders want to roll up their sleeves and explore the topics Briggs covers in-depth, he said.

Corporate leaders outside the IT department have started to understand that new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G wireless technology, the internet of things, and virtual and augmented reality are crucial to their futures, Briggs said. They've also started to see the need to be as familiar with such innovations as their technology teams, he said.

Read this:5G wireless service is coming, but don't expect it to super-charge your smartphone's internet anytime soon

Directors and CEOs want to be able to ask informed questions of their companies' consultants and vendors about the products and services they're recommending and selling, Briggs said. They also want to be able to educate themselves on what's possible and real so they can push their organization to embrace change, he said.

Top corporate leaders are saying, "'Even though we need more out of our technology organizations that help lead us, we also, collectively, have the responsibility to understand deeply what's possible and what it's going to take for us to get there," he said.

Deloitte hosted directors at CES

And the Deloitte's technology team isn't just meeting with CEOs and directors in corporate boardrooms and executive suites. Earlier this month, Deloitte hosted about 40 corporate directors at CES, the annual technology convention in Las Vegas. Most hadn't ever attended the show before, and Deloitte helped show them some of the highlights of the show, focusing in particular on the convergence of consumer electronics and enterprise technologies, Briggs said.

"We did an outreach and said, 'We'll help you navigate through the chaos, but we'll also help translate [it] into what it means to be a board director and what it might mean to the entities that you represent,'" he said.

Briggs said he got something out of the event as well — a renewed sense of wonder about the giant trade show and all that's on display there.

"It's fun to see CES through first-timers eyes again," he said.

• Read more about how enterprises are embracing technology:
• Many companies are stumbling as they rush to adopt artificial intelligence — here's what's tripping them up
• A new survey suggests Salesforce and SAP have an early lead over Amazon and Google in the next frontier in tech
• The head of tech of one of the world's largest consulting firms says the business world's most overhyped new technology is also the most important
• These charts show how pumped up HR departments are about AI — even if many of them are still relying on paper documents
•  

SEE ALSO: Most companies using AI say their No.1 fear is hackers hijacking the technology, according to a new survey that found attacks are already happening

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How Apple went from a $1 trillion company to losing over 20% of its share price

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That’s the strategy e-tailers will have to adopt if they want to compete with Amazon. To fight back against the e-commerce giant’s expanding dominance, other online retailers must understand exactly why and how customers are buying on Amazon — and which aspects of the Amazon shopping experience they can incorporate into their own strategic frameworks to win back customers.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has obtained exclusive survey data to give e-tailers the tools to figure out how to do just that with its latest Enterprise Edge Report: The Amazon Commerce Competitive Edge Report.

Enterprise Edge Reports are the very best research Business Insider Intelligence has to offer in terms of actionable recommendations and proprietary data, and they are only available to Enterprise clients.

Business Insider Intelligence fielded the Amazon study to members of its proprietary panel in March 2018, reaching over 1,000 US consumers – primarily hand-picked digital professionals and early-adopters – to gather their insights on Amazon’s role in the online shopping experience.

In full, the study:

• Uses exclusive survey data to analyze the factors behind Amazon’s success with consumers.
• Segments three types of Amazon customers that e-tailers should be targeting.
• Shares strategies on how e-tailers can attract shoppers at key moments.

First, why is Amazon so popular?

Amazon is ubiquitous. In fact, a whopping 94% of those surveyed said they’d made a purchase on the site in the last twelve months. And of those who did, the vast majority believed Amazon’s customer experience was simply better than its leading competitors’ — specifically eBay, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.

The biggest contributor to Amazon’s superior experience? Free shipping, of course. According to Amazon’s 2017 annual report, the company actually spent $21.7 billion last year covering customers’ shipping costs, a number that’s been compounding over the past few years.

Not only is free shipping included for all Prime members as part of their subscriptions but, of all e-tailers listed in the survey, Amazon also offers the lowest minimum order value for non-subscription members to qualify for the perk (just $25). The pervasiveness of free (and fast) shipping is steadily heightening customer expectations for the online shopping experience — and forcing competitors to offer similar programs and benefits.

Who exactly is shopping on Amazon?

The survey results showed that across generations for a large minority of respondents, Amazon is a standard part of their typical shopping process. Nearly a third (32%) of respondents said they begin their online shopping process on Amazon. Of those who do start their journeys elsewhere, 100% ended up purchasing something from Amazon at some point over the last 12 months.

Based on the trends in responses, Business Insider Intelligence segmented out three different types of Amazon shoppers, each with unique implications for how competitors could evolve their strategies:

• Amazon loyalists: This group of consumers is most committed to shopping on Amazon. E-tailers must understand what has made Amazon their default experience — and how they could be pried away.
• Comparison shoppers: This consumer segment looks at other sites before ultimately completing a purchase with Amazon, which could allow e-tailers to find success at the bottom of the purchase funnel. E-tailers should focus on what they can do more of to steal sales away at the end of the purchasing process.
• Open-search shoppers: These consumers start their online product search away from Amazon, often with specific reasons including what they’re looking for and why they’re not looking on Amazon. Other e-tailers have the opportunity to attract these shoppers from the beginning of the purchase funnel — keeping them from ever venturing to Amazon.

Want to learn more?

Business Insider Intelligence has compiled the complete survey findings into the four-part Amazon Commerce Competitive Edge Report, which dives deeper into each of these consumer segments to give e-tailers an intricate understanding of Amazon’s role in their purchasing processes.

The report presents actionable strategies for retail strategists and executives to zero in on three individual consumer segments at critical shopping moments, and empower them to win sales in an Amazon-dominated world.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Big data startup Palantir works with government organizations, and its technology has been used to investigate terror attacks.
• Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in an interview that he learns about a foiled terrorist attack in Europe once a week.
• Palantir is reportedly looking at a $41 billion IPO in the coming year.

Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, says he learns about a foiled terrorist attack in Europe almost every week.

Palantir, a private company that specializes in big data technology, is known for its secretive work with organizations like the U.S. government and the U.S. Army. The 16-year-old company, which is reportedly planning for $41 billion IPO this year, boasts that its technology has been used in high stakes missions and is able to prevent terrorist attacks.

"I find out about a stopped terror attack in Europe about once a week - and not just the caricature that we all see in the media of radical Muslim attacks - also far right people attacking Muslims," Karp said in an interview on inside.pod, a podcast by Business Insider parent company Axel Springer. "I believe that if those terror attacks had happened you'd have a very different political reality, and that is super motivational."

Palantir's work with government secret services has been controversial, and Karp said people's fears of misuse of software by companies and governments is a "legitimate fear." However, he said that Palantir is actually helping to protect data, not mishandling it.

In Germany, Palantir's software transmitted data about Anis Amri, the perpetrator of the 2016 Berlin Christmas market terrorist attack, to police officers throughout the country. Even in Germany, Palantir is controversial, as politicians have questioned whether a company so involved in the U.S. military should handle German law enforcement data, which includes police databases for criminal investigations and connection data from telephone surveillance.

"Typically, people who are unhappy with Palantir being used by police and clandestine services and the special forces I believe either don't believe we actually are providing data protection, which we are...or they don't trust government entities of any kind to be truthful about what they're doing," Karp said in the interview.

Read more: Mysterious big data company Palantir is reportedly looking at an IPO — and could see a valuation of $41 billion

Palantir was also rumored to have been instrumental in finding Osama bin Laden. Karp said that he cannot comment on that.

"I'm super proud of our work and there are someday a lot of stories I'd like to tell," Karp said. "Hopefully I can talk about that one."

SEE ALSO: The 10 most popular programming languages, according to the 'Facebook for programmers'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Saturn is officially losing its rings — and they're disappearing much faster than scientists had anticipated

• The Department of State is postponing an international conference on border security and export control "due to the partial US government shutdown," a spokesperson said in a statement to INSIDER.
• The 16th International Export Control and Border Security Conference would have included about 270 export and border-security experts from roughly 85 countries.
• "In light of the very limited funding available during the lapse in appropriations, the Department will exercise judicious use of limited, remaining resources," the spokesman wrote. "Travel, hiring, contracting, public affairs, and other activities will continue to operate in a constrained manner."
• The Export Control and Related Border Security Program, which is under the direction of the State Department, focuses on numerous border-control systems and the prevention of weapons proliferation — including the detection and interdiction of "illicit transfers at the border."

The Department of State is postponing an international conference on border security and export control "due to the partial US government shutdown," a spokesperson said in a statement to INSIDER.

"In light of the very limited funding available during the lapse in appropriations, the Department will exercise judicious use of limited, remaining resources," the spokesman wrote. "Travel, hiring, contracting, public affairs, and other activities will continue to operate in a constrained manner."

The 16th International Export Control and Border Security Conference, which was scheduled for three days in February in Edinburgh, Scotland, would have included about 270 export and border-security experts from roughly 85 countries.

Topics that were discussed in previous conferences included "challenges and the latest developments in the multilateral nonproliferation regimes," surface-to-air missiles, smalls arms, and light weapons.

The Export Control and Related Border Security Program, which is under the direction of the State Department, focuses on numerous security systems at the US border and the prevention of weapons proliferation — including the detection and interdiction of "illicit transfers at the border," according to its website.

Kathryn Insley, the director of the Office of Export Control Cooperation, wrote in a letter dated January 16 that the event was postponed "due to uncertainty associated with" the shutdown, according to CNN, who first reported on the incident.

The letter was reportedly sent to at least 55 US embassies and missions that were assisting with travel plans for the conference's participants.

The ongoing government shutdown, now on its 32nd day, is the longest government shutdown in US history. President Donald Trump, who is demanding $5.7 billion in funding for a barrier on the US-Mexico border, faces opposition from a Democratic-majority House. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi has signaled the body will not pass spending for the barrier.

The House has passed legislation to open the government without border-wall funding. Before the shutdown, there were not enough votes in the Senate (it needs 60) to pass a bill with funding for the wall. As of Thursday, the Senate was inching closer to a vote which could end the shutdown, Reuters reported.

SEE ALSO: The government shutdown may force Trump to make a nightmare choice between his border wall and the economy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The US Air Force refuels combat jets in midair with a 'flying boom system' — watch it in action

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Of the many technologies reshaping the world economy, distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are among the most hyped. DLTs are most often associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but such coverage sidelines the broader use cases of DLTs, even though they stand to make a far bigger impact on the broader the financial services (FS) industry.

DLT's value lies in its ability to centralize record-keeping, while cutting out the need for authorization by an overseeing party, instead allowing a record to be confirmed by multiple parties with access to the database. This means DLTs have the potential to streamline financial institutions' (FIs) operations, boost data security, improve customer relationships, and drastically cut costs. But many FIs have struggled to implement DLTs and reap the rewards, because of organizational obstacles, but also because of issues rooted in the technology itself. There are a few players working to make the technology more usable for FIs, and progress is now being made.

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence takes a look at what DLTs are and why they hold so much promise for FS, the sectors in which DLTs are gaining the most traction and why, and the efforts underway to remove the obstacles preventing wider DLT adoption in finance. It also examines the few FIs close to unleashing their DLT projects, and how DLTs might transform the nature of FS if adoption truly takes off. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• DLTs are proving attractive to FIs because of their ability to act as a single source of truth, distribute information securely, cut out middlemen, improve transaction times, and cut redundancy and costs.
• DLTs like blockchain and smart contracts stand to save the FS industry up to $50 billion a year through improved operational efficiencies, reduced human error, and better regulatory compliance. 
• The technology is being explored actively across FS, with trade finance, insurance, and capital markets proving especially active. Overall adoption is still low because of organizational and technical hurdles, but these are now being eliminated, promising to boost implementation.
• A few FIs have pulled ahead of the curve and are very close to taking their DLT projects live, if they haven't already. These players can serve as useful case studies for other institutions in getting their DLT solutions live.

In full, the report:

• Looks at what DLTs are, and why the FS industry is working hard to make use of them. 
• Gives an overview of the financial segments which are seeing the most DLT activity, and what they stand to gain.
• Outlines efforts being made to make DLT more approachable and usable for the FS industry.
• Examines use cases in which FIs have managed to take their pilots live, and what they can teach their peers. 

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

Learn More

Purchase & download the full report from our research store

Join the conversation about this story »

• The commandant of the US Coast Guard called the ongoing partial government shutdown "unacceptable" following reports that some Coast Guardsmen are relying on donations from food pantries while their regular paychecks remain on hold.
• While Schultz praised the "outpouring of support" from local communities that have donated daily essentials, he sharply criticized the situation and said he would "continue to seek solutions" on Capitol Hill.
• "This will end. We will get through this," Master Chief Petty Officer Jason Vanderhaden added.
• Around 800,000 federal employees and contractors are affected by the longest government shutdown in US history, including the Coast Guard, which operates under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security.

The commandant of the US Coast Guard called the ongoing partial government shutdown "unacceptable" following reports that some Coast Guardsmen are relying on donations from food pantries while their regular paychecks remain on hold.

"We're five-plus weeks into the anxiety and stress of this government lapse and your non-pay," Adm. Karl Schultz said in a video message to service members. "You, as members of the armed forces, should not be expected to shoulder this burden."

While Schultz praised the "outpouring of support" from local communities who have donated daily essentials, he sharply criticized the situation and said he would "continue to seek solutions" on Capitol Hill.

"But ultimately, I find it unacceptable that Coast Guard men and women have to rely on food pantries and donations to get through day-to-day life as service members," Schultz said.

"This will end. We will get through this," Master Chief Petty Officer Jason Vanderhaden added.

In a statement to Coast Guard service members last week, Schutlz offered his support after receiving word their paychecks were delayed. 

"Today you will not be receiving your regularly scheduled mid-month paycheck," Schutlz said in a statement.

"I recognize the anxiety and uncertainty this situation places on you and your family, and we are working closely with service organizations on your behalf," he added.

Around 800,000 federal employees and contractors are affected by the longest government shutdown in US history. The Coast Guard, which operates under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, was reportedly not able to pay around 42,000 active-duty service members last week.

The shutdown, which has been ongoing for more than a month, marks the first time a branch of the military was not paid.

Around 3,500 Coast Guardsmen in Washington and Oregon are reportedly affected by the shutdown, the majority of whom are working without pay. Food banks have been operating to support the service members, similar to those that have sprouted up in other areas of the nation for federal employees and contractors.

President Donald Trump, who is demanding $5.7 billion in funding for a barrier on the US-Mexico border, faces opposition from a Democratic-majority House, who have refused to pass any funding bill that includes spending on the barrier.

SEE ALSO: Trump could end up taking money from Puerto Rico disaster funds to build his border wall

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The US Air Force refuels combat jets in midair with a 'flying boom system' — watch it in action

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Outside of the US Postal Service (USPS), FedEx and UPS have dominated the domestic logistics industry — and in particular, the last-mile of the delivery — for decades. On a quarterly earnings call in 2016, FedEx estimated that itself, UPS, and USPS executed a whopping 95% of all e-commerce orders.

But rapidly rising volumes have put the pair of legacy shippers in a bind. E-commerce sales have risen over 50% and are projected to continue their ascent into the next decade. High volumes are already straining shippers' networks — UPS struggled to bring consumers their parcels on time due to higher-than-anticipated package volume, which upset some big-name retail partners, including Macy's, Walmart, and Amazon. As online sales surge further, package volumes will outstrip legacy shippers' capacities, creating space for new entrants. 

Amazon is uniquely well-positioned to dethrone UPS and FedEx's duopoly. It's built up a strong logistics infrastructure, counting hundreds of warehouses and thousands of delivery trucks.

Further, as the leading online retailer in the US, it has a wealth of data on consumers that it can use to craft a personalized delivery experience that's superior to UPS and FedEx's offerings. Amazon must act soon, however, as UPS and FedEx are hard at work fortifying their own networks to handle the expected surge in parcel volume.

The longer the Seattle-based e-tailer delays the launch of a delivery service, the more it runs the risk that these legacy players will be able to defend their territory. 

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explains how the age of e-commerce is opening up cracks in UPS and FedEx's duopoly. We then outline how Amazon's logistics ambitions began as an effort to more quickly get parcels out the door and fulfill its famous 2-day shipping process and how it'll be a key building block for the company if it builds out a last-mile service. Lastly, we offer concrete steps that the firm must take to maximize the dent it makes in UPS and FedEx's duopoly.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Alibaba, Amazon, FedEx, and UPS.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• While UPS and FedEx have dominated the US last-mile delivery market for the last few decades, the surge in e-commerce is creating more volume than shipping companies can handle.
• Amazon is uniquely well-positioned to put a dent in UPS and FedEx's duopoly due to its strategic position as the leading online retailer in the US.
• Amazon can carry its trust amongst the public, a wealth of consumer data, and its ability to craft a more personalized delivery experience to the last-mile delivery space to ultimately dethrone UPS and FedEx.
• The top priority for Amazon in taking on UPS and FedEx needs to be offering substantially lower shipping rates — one-third of US retailers say they'll switch to an Amazon shipping service if it's at least 20% cheaper than UPS and FedEx. 

In full, the report:

• Outlines Amazon's current shipping and logistics footprint and strengths that it would bring to the last-mile delivery space in the US.
• Lays out concrete steps that Amazon must take if it wants to launch a standalone last-mile delivery service, including how it can offer a more memorable, higher-quality delivery experience than UPS and FedEx.
• Illustrates how Amazon can minimize operating costs for a delivery service to ultimately undercut UPS and FedEx's shipping rates in the last-mile space.

SEE ALSO: Amazon and Walmart are building out delivery capabilities

Join the conversation about this story »

• The paradigm for what constitutes "beauty" in the fashion world is slowly shifting.
• Models like Winnie Harlow, Sophia Hadjipanteli, and Diandra Forrest pride themselves on looking different. 
• Nyle DiMarco and Jamie Brewer are calling for increased deaf and Down syndrome representation, respectively.

The beauty paradigm in the fashion world is slowly, but surely, shifting. This year, Rihanna's Savage x Fenty fashion show showcased a variety of body types, as more and more designers are choosing to highlight uniqueness over conformity. 

Models like Winnie Harlow and Diandra Forrest are shedding light on (and erasing stigma from) their respective skin conditions. Others, like Nyle DiMarco, who's deaf, and Jamie Brewer, who has Down syndrome, are inspiring people around the world. 

Keep scrolling to learn more about 10 models who are breaking barriers in the fashion world.

Model Vivian Eyo-Ephraim is advocating for more representation.

Nigerian model Vivian Eyo-Ephraim went viral in April 2018 for her ASOS campaign. The 20-year-old model (and student at the University of East London) gained worldwide exposure after appearing in a swimsuit campaign for the British clothing brand.

Twitter and Instagram showed an outpouring of support, and Eyo-Ephraim spoke on the reaction to her campaign to Refinery29 saying, "I had no idea it would go viral, but I'm so grateful and excited that so many people all over the world are supporting me. I hope the industry sees this and makes a more positive direction in terms of inclusiveness for plus and curve models."

Supermodel Winnie Harlow was the first model with vitiligo to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

Supermodel Winnie Harlow has a skin condition called vitiligo, which causes the loss of skin color and pigmentation in patches. She did not let it stop her from pursuing her dream, competing on "America's Next Top Model" and becoming the first model with vitiligo to walk the Victoria's Secret runway in 2018.

Throughout her career, Harlow has made it a point to educate the public on her condition. She told Vogue in September 2018, "Why is there a stigma around being different when we’re all different?"

Model Nyle DiMarco won "America's Next Top Model" in 2015, and has since become an activist for the deaf community.

Nyle DiMarco took first place in Cycle 22 of "America's Next Top Model" in 2015, and he also appeared on (and won) "Dancing With The Stars." DiMarco is deaf, and a longtime activist for the deaf and hard of hearing community.

He set up the Nyle DiMarco Foundation to help children around the world gain access to sign language education, which he says has helped his life and career greatly. DiMarco describes his deafness as "an asset and not a limitation." 

Former "Drag Race" contestant Carmen Carrera is an outspoken activist for the transgender community.

Carmen Carrera appeared on season three of "RuPaul's Drag Race," and has since made a name for herself in the modeling world, signing with Wilhelmina, per her Instagram. She's also a transgender woman, and has been an outspoken advocate for the trans community throughout her career.

Carrera was in the news in March 2018 for defending the trans community against RuPaul's alleged bigotry by saying, "What do people think drag is — for trans women or people in general — other than an expression of art? And why are you telling us 'no' just based on who we are?" 

• Oracle underpaid women and minority workers by $400 million between 2013 and 2016 due to what the US Labor Deparment described as systematic discrimination, the agency said Tuesday.
• The company showed "extreme preference" for hiring Asian workers with visas that it could underpay, the department charged.
• It also based pay for women and minorities on their prior salaries, a move that helped extend existing wage disparities, it alleged.

Women and minority workers at Oracle workers lost out on at least $401 million in wages from 2013 to 2016 due to what the US Department of Labor described as systematic discrimination on the part of the tech giant.

The enterprise software company intentionally shows "extreme preference" for hiring Asians workers with visas, because doing so also allows it to underpay them, the Labor Department charged in a new filing in its ongoing lawsuit against Oracle.

As a result, the company hires few African-American or Hispanic workers, but when it does, it dramatically underpays both them and women workers as well, the agency said in the filing.

"Oracle has continued to systemically discriminate against employees and applicants based on gender and race," Laura Bremer, a Labor Department attorney, told an administrative law judge.

Oracle spokeswoman Julia Allyn declined to comment.

During the four-year period it studied, the Labor Department found that 90% of the 500 recent college graduates Oracle hired to work in technical positions at its Redwood City headquarters were Asian. Just six of the graduates were black and only five were Hispanic.

Oracle's discrimination added up, the department said

But the company's discrimination extended beyond new hires, according to the reports. The company regularly based pay for women and minority workers on their prior salaries, the Labor Department charged, a move that frequently serves to continue disparate wages between them and white male workers, who are typically better paid. It also frequently pushed Asian, black, and female employees into lower paid positions, according to the filing.

"Oracle's suppression of pay for its non-White, non-male employees is so extreme that it persists and gets worse over long careers; female, Black, and Asian employees with years of experience are paid as much as 25 percent less than their peers," the filing said.

The discrimination added up. Oracle underpaid women in technical jobs at its headquarters by a collective $165 million during the four-year period, according to the filing. During the same time frame, it underpaid Asian technical workers at its headquarters by $234 million, the department said in the filing. It shorted the fewer than 30 black technical workers $1.3 million in the time period, according to the filing.

In addition to the Labor Department suit, Oracle is also facing a class-action suit on behalf of its workers. The plaintiffs in that suit have charged that Oracle paid female workers $13,000 less per year than their male counterparts for doing equivalent work.

The suits against Oracle come amid growing awareness and frustration in Silicon Valley about gender and racial discrimination in the tech industry. Last fall, some 20,000 Google workers took part in a walkout in part to protest pay discrimination against women at the company.

• Read more:
• The 'father of the internet' gave a thumbs up to the Google employees who walked out to protest sexual misconduct policies
• It's become increasingly clear that Alphabet, Google's parent company, needs new leadership
• This female founder went from teaching middle schoolers to mentoring tech entrepreneurs — here's her unusual path and how she plans to help others succeed in Silicon Valley
• Silicon Valley's MeToo moment is changing the venture capital industry — but many wonder if it will last

SEE ALSO: Jesse Jackson scolded Facebook about its lack of progress on diversity

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I cut Google out of my life for 2 weeks, but the alternatives prove why Google is so much better

Tech-driven disruption in the insurance industry continues at pace, and we're now entering a new phase — the adaptation of underlying business models. 

That's leading to ongoing changes in the distribution segment of the industry, but more excitingly, we are starting to see movement in the fundamentals of insurance — policy creation, underwriting, and claims management. 

This report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, will briefly review major changes in the insurtech segment over the past year. It will then examine how startups and legacy players across the insurance value chain are using technology to develop new business models that cut costs or boost revenue, and, in some cases, both. Additionally, we will provide our take on the future of insurance as insurtech continues to proliferate. 

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Funding is flowing into startups and helping them scale, while legacy players have moved beyond initial experiments and are starting to implement new technology throughout their businesses. 
• Distribution, the area of the insurance value chain that was first to be disrupted, continues to evolve. 
• The fundamentals of insurance — policy creation, underwriting, and claims management — are starting to experience true disruption, while innovation in reinsurance has also continued at pace.
• Insurtechs are using new business models that are enabled by a variety of technologies. In particular, they're using automation, data analytics, connected devices, and machine learning to build holistic policies for consumers that can be switched on and off on-demand.
• Legacy insurers, as opposed to brokers, now have the most to lose — but those that move swiftly still have time to ensure they stay in the game.

 In full, the report:

• Reviews major changes in the insurtech segment over the past year.
• Examines how startups and legacy players across distribution, insurance, and reinsurance are using technology to develop new business models.
• Provides our view on what the future of the insurance industry looks like, which Business Insider Intelligence calls Insurtech 2.0.

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

Learn More

Purchase & download the full report from our research store

Join the conversation about this story »

• People have been using handbags since ancient times.
• 18th-century "purses" were actually pockets.
• Designer "status bags" originated in the '50s.

If you keep your whole life in your purse, it's easy to take your favorite accessory for granted. But there's a whole history behind that tote or saddle bag you're carrying.

Here's how handbags have evolved through the years.

Handbags have been depicted since ancient times.

From Iraq to New Zealand, archaeologists have identified handbag-like symbols in ancient carvings. Though interpretations vary, the etchings might represent the cosmos, with the "strap" standing in for the sky's hemisphere and the base denoting the earth.

One of the oldest sites featuring a handbag image is Göbekli Tepe, a collection of monoliths in Southeastern Turkey believed to be linked to prehistoric worship. Dating back around 11,000 years, the structures predate Stonehenge.

Hunter-gatherers stored food and supplies in pouches.

Starting in 38,000 BCE, hunter-gatherers used fiber-based pouches and bundles to stow food and supplies. The earliest of these primitive pouches were simple, but they became more complex towards the end of the Stone Age.

In 2012 near Leipzig, Germany, archaeologists found remnants of what might be the world's oldest purse— a collection of more than 100 dog teeth embedded in the dirt — in a grave circa 2500 to 2200 BCE. The teeth were arranged in a pattern that suggested they once decorated a textile or leather bag.

"Over the years the leather or fabric disappeared, and all that's left is the teeth. They're all pointing in the same direction, so it looks a lot like a modern handbag flap," Susanne Friederich, an archaeologist with the Sachsen-Anhalt State Archaeology and Preservation Office, told National Geographic.

The word "purse" comes from bags used in ancient Greece.

In ancient Greece, people carried coins in pouches called "byrsa" ("hide, leather"), which entered the English language via Latin to become "purse."

• The 2019 World Economic Forum kicked off in Davos, Switzerland, this week.
• The Air Charter Service expects that roughly 1,500 private jets will shuttle attendees to and from the conference this week.
• The WEF challenged the ACS projection and said the organization expects private jet traffic to fall 14%. 
• The most popular aircraft are large private jets from Gulfstream and Bombardier. 

The 2019 World Economic Forum kicked off in Davos, Switzerland, this week. As the world's business and political leaders descend upon the Alpine town, their armada of private jets fills the tarmac at nearby airports.

The Air Charter Service expects that roughly 1,500 private jets will shuttle attendees to and from the conference this week. According to the private-jet leasing company, that's up from the 1,300 private jets that serviced the WEF in 2018. 

"The global interest in the event led us to analyze the private jet activity over the past five years of WEF," Andy Christie, private jet director at ACS, said in a statement. "Davos doesn't have its own airfield and, whilst we have several clients who fly into the town by helicopter, the four main airfields that private jet users attending the forum use are Zürich, Dübendorf, St. Gallen-Altenrhein, and St. Moritz."

Read more: The next CEO of Airbus explains the major hurdle that stands in the way of electric planes.

Oliver Cann, the head of strategic communications at the WEF, pushed back against the ACS's projections. Instead, Cann argued in a post on the organization's website that it expects private jet traffic to drop by 14% from 2018. 

While the ACS's figures used data from four airports, the WEF projection is based only on traffic data from Zürich and St. Gallen-Altenrhein airports. 

According to Christie, the most popular aircraft are Gulfstream GV and Bombardier Global Express planes. These are large, ultra-long-range private jets that typically cost more than $60 million per aircraft. With the ability to make discreet transoceanic flights at high speed, these aircraft are common among business leaders:

SEE ALSO: Airbus CEO reveals why he's not worried about a recession hurting the company's business

FOLLOW US: On Facebook for more car and transportation content!

The Gulfstream GV debuted back in 1998. In 2004, Gulfstream introduced an updated version of the plane called the G550.

The G550 costs more than $61 million and has a range of nearly 7,800 miles.

There are currently more than 560 G550s in service around the world.

• Tesla laid off 7% of its employees on Friday.
• Tesla employees who were let go on Friday described to Business Insider an abrupt, impersonal process that left them wondering why they had been chosen.
• One former employee expressed both sadness at having to leave the company and relief that she would not have to deal with the aftermath of the layoffs.
• Another employee described the layoffs as yet another one of Tesla's "purges," and described turnover at the company as the fastest she'd ever seen.

• And another employee said: "I worked hard, I got a great bonus, and they just took it away from me."

Tesla laid off 7% of its employees on Friday, seven months after cutting 9% of its workforce.

Tesla had expanded its workforce by 30% in 2018 as it ramped up production of its Model 3 sedan, CEO Elon Musk said in an email to employees on Friday. He suggested this round of layoffs was necessary for Tesla to become consistently profitable while introducing lower-priced vehicles, such as the long-awaited $35,000 version of the Model 3.

But Musk had framed the 2018 layoffs as a decision Tesla would not have to repeat.

"We are making this hard decision now so that we never have to do this again," he told employees at the time.

Read more: Everyone who's telling you that Tesla is influencing the rest of the auto industry is completely wrong

Five former Tesla employees who were let go on Friday spoke with Business Insider about their time at the time company and how they were told they were being laid off. 

Each former employee requested anonymity because of fear of retribution from Tesla.

Were you affected by the Tesla layoffs? Have a story to share? Contact Business Insider's Linette Lopez at llopez@businessinsider.com and Mark Matousek at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.

'Like sheep to the slaughter'

One former employee, who worked in Tesla's delivery division in California, woke up on Friday to Musk's email. He said he tried not to think about it but found that difficult once he arrived at his office, where his coworkers were discussing the email. He noticed one of his managers was being quiet and "kind of standoffish" as he arranged chairs in the corner of the office farthest from the employees.

The manager told the delivery employee and about 15 of his colleagues to meet him by the chairs. There, the manager read from a script, informing them they were being let go. The script sounded as if it had been written by Tesla's human-resources department, the delivery employee said.

"I sat there in silence like a sheep to the slaughter," he said.

One colleague asked if he could speak with the manager one-on-one after the speech, but the manager declined his request.

The manager told the employees their positions had become redundant, but not everyone on the delivery employee's team was let go, and the manager didn't provide specific details about why each employee was being laid off. The employees weren't given details about their severance packages, only a blank piece of paper on which to write their names and personal email addresses. The delivery employee then said his goodbyes, packed up his personal items, and left.

"I just want to know why we were the people who were picked," he said.

The delivery employee said being laid off wasn't devastating since he had planned to leave the company later in the year, but the abruptness of the announcement bothered him.

"It's a very crappy way to treat your employees who have worked their butts off," he said. "Now, I have no idea what to do."

Overall, the delivery employee said he enjoyed his time at Tesla, especially the camaraderie with his coworkers, but he didn't feel that same bond with his managers and sometimes felt pressure to work long hours with no advance notice.

'I was in shock'

An engineering employee who worked at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada said she was surprised by the layoffs, citing Musk's assertion that the 2018 layoffs would be Tesla's last.

About an hour after she arrived at work on Friday, management-level employees began pulling some of her colleagues into meeting rooms. An hour later, she was called into one of the rooms, told she was being let go, and asked to confirm her contact information. She was then accompanied to her desk, where her laptop was taken. She was directed to leave immediately.

The process took about five minutes, she said, and she was not given a reason for her termination.

"I was in shock," she said.

She was told she would receive two months' pay as severance, but hadn't seen the exact details of her severance as of Tuesday afternoon.

The engineer said she had liked her job at Tesla, particularly the ability to work with and learn from a variety of departments, but she wishes she had been given more information about why she was let go.

'It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be'

A third former employee, who worked in Tesla's energy division in California, said that while she loved working at Tesla and was sad to see her time at the company end, she found it easier to be let go than to watch her colleagues be laid off and deal with the aftermath. 

"Having seen everybody go through this before, being one of the people that remains, it is a lot harder than being one of the people that gets to go," she said.

After waking up on Friday morning, she read Musk's email and saw her manager had sent her a Google Calendar invite. Her meeting with her manager was brief, and she didn't ask why she had been let go since a conversation she had with another manager before the meeting suggested her manager hadn't been able to choose which members of his team would be laid off. She found the experience to be relatively painless because her team works remotely and wasn't in the office that morning.

"It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be," she said.

She described Tesla as a demanding but rewarding work environment, and she said she felt pride in Tesla's mission and a close bond with her coworkers. 

She doesn't mind having a few months of paid time off, she said, and the flood of messages she has received about professional opportunities has removed any anxiety she might have about her next step.

"People seem pretty eager to help me find a new job," she said.

It was another 'big purge'

A delivery-experience specialist who was let go told Business Insider that this round of layoffs was just another one of Tesla's big "purges." They happened every six months or so at the company, she said. Employees would trickle out monthly too. Then every three months or so, there would be a jolt of new hires.

The logic of who was let go, the woman said, "was random," and the turnaround was the fastest she'd ever seen at any company. 

"The managers who were at my store a year ago are not the same managers today. My store operates as a sales, service, and delivery hub, and each role of management has been changed from January 2018 to January 2019. That’s just management," she told Business Insider.

So, ultimately another purge was expected.

She described her seven months working at Tesla as exhausting and chaotic. Her job was to prepare the paperwork for customers coming in to buy their cars. She would then go to a document signing that could take five minutes or an hour, depending on the customer or how well the paperwork was done.

Then the customer would get a brief orientation of their car. According to her training, this was all supposed to take about 15 minutes, but it usually took much longer, and the result was a backlog of customers waiting. Sometimes she and her colleagues would have to get help from nearby vehicle centers.

Sometimes customers refused delivery of their cars because of damage, complicating matters even further, she said. 

Going forward, she sees fewer cars being delivered because of a reduction in the tax credit offered to Tesla customers. She said she also worries about competition from new entrants in the electric-vehicle market, such as Porsche. But that doesn't mean she's lost faith in the company.

"I do have confidence that it’s a great product. They have a good following still. They just need to hang on."

'So this is my walk of shame'

One supervisor at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory said his dismissal came as a total shock. He loved working at Tesla and found his colleagues to be incredibly supportive.

"I loved it, I loved what I did. It was fast-paced, exciting, very demanding. Challenging at best, but I loved it."

He was also good at it, he said. He said he received an outstanding review in December with an extremely generous performance reward. So, he said he had reason to believe he would make it through this round of layoffs untouched.

Plus, on the day of the layoffs, he was informed that his team would be saved, so he assumed he was included in that. But at the end of shift on Friday, his immediate manager asked him to gather his things and go with him to human resources.

"So this is my walk of shame?" he asked his manager.

He was asked to turn in his laptop and expect paperwork from the company on Saturday.

As for his 2018 performance bonus, he said he was disappointed. Because of Tesla's bonus structure, he will receive only a portion of his 2018 bonus.

A Tesla representative said the company offers cash options that vest quarterly over a four-year period.

"I worked hard, I got a great bonus, and they just took it away from me," the supervisor said.

• Read more about the Tesla layoffs:
• Tesla is slashing workers ahead of one of the most crucial deadlines in its history
• Tesla was right to lay off 7% of its employees as big expenses loom, experts say
• Tesla's layoffs mean the company's lead on electric vehicles could be ending, one Wall Street analyst says
• Elon Musk is pulling out the oldest trick in the executive playbook by laying off 3,000 Tesla workers

SEE ALSO: Cadillac's new president says the luxury brand can't successfully go electric by copying Tesla

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what it's like to drive trains on London's Tube — one of the most complicated subway systems in the world

• After a shaky start, wearables like smartwatches and fitness trackers have gained traction in healthcare, with US consumer use jumping from 9% in 2014 to 33% in 2018.
• More than 80% of consumers are willing to wear tech that measures health data — and penetration should continue to climb.
• The maturation of the wearable market will put more wearables in the hands of consumers and US businesses.

The US healthcare industry as it exists today is not sustainable. An aging patient population and rising burden of chronic disease have caused healthcare costs to skyrocket and left providers struggling to keep up with demand for care. 

Meanwhile, digital technologies in nearly every consumer experience outside of healthcare have raised patients’ expectations for good service to be higher than ever.

One of the key mechanisms through which healthcare providers can finally evolve their outdated practices and exceed these expectations is wearable technology.

Presently, 33% of US consumers have adopted wearables, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, to play a more active role in managing their health. In turn, insurers, providers, and employers are poised to become just as active leveraging these devices – and the data they capture – to abandon the traditional reimbursement model and improve patient outcomes with personalized, value-based care.

Adoption is going to keep climbing, as more than 80% of consumers are willing to wear tech that measures health data, according to Accenture — though they have reservations about who exactly should access it.

A new report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, follows the growing adoption of wearables and breadth of functions they offer to outline how healthcare organizations and stakeholders can overcome this challenge and add greater value with wearable technology.

For insurers, providers, and employers, wearables present three distinct opportunities:

• Insurers can use wearable data to enhance risk assessments and drive customer lifetime value. One study shows that wearables can incentivize healthier behavior associated with a 30% reduction in risk of cardiovascular events and death.
• Providers can use the remote patient monitoring capabilities of wearable technology to improve chronic disease management, lessen the burden of staff shortages, and navigate a changing reimbursement model. And since 90% of patients no longer feel obligated to stay with providers that don't deliver a satisfactory digital experience, wearables could help to attract and retain them.
• Employers can combine wearables with cash incentives to lower insurance costs and improve employee productivity. For example, The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority yielded $5 million in healthcare cost savings through a wearable-based employee wellness program.

Want to Learn More?

The Wearables in US Healthcare Report details the current and future market landscape of wearables in the US healthcare sector. It explores the key drivers behind wearable usage by insurers, healthcare providers, and employers, and the opportunities wearables afford to each of these stakeholders. 

By outlining a successful case study from each stakeholder, the report highlights best practices in implementing wearables to reduce healthcare claims, improve patient outcomes, and drive insurance cost savings, as well as how the evolution of the market will create new, untapped opportunities for businesses.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway made headlines last year for holding "creativity workshops" for her followers that were poorly run and derided as "scams." 
• When Calloway decided to relaunch her tour, I was able to attend her five-hour-long workshop this past weekend in New York.
• Calloway first rose to prominence in 2015, when she started posting personal stories about college life and heartbreak. Since then, she has amassed more than 800,000 Instagram followers.
• Many of Calloway's fans say they admire the 27-year-old for her realness and authenticity, and jumped at the chance to attend her $165 workshop.

While many of us were making resolutions to bring in the New Year, Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway was paving the way for her redemption tour.

The 27-year-old Calloway has headlined the most recent news cycle after stories about her $165 "creativity workshop" gained traction in December. A viral Twitter thread accused Calloway of running a scam, and the Instagram star was forced to cancel her tour and refund attendees after she received heavy criticism.

Details emerged that Calloway, who has more than 800,000 Instagram followers, was wholly unprepared for the tour and even made people bring their own food to events. Supporters say Calloway was simply "in over her head," but that hasn't stopped her actions from drawing comparisons to the people behind the infamous Fyre Festival.

But last week, Calloway changed her mind: Along with the rest of the world — or at least Calloway's 800,000 followers — I found out that she had decided to un-cancel hercreativity tour. The first rescheduled workshop would take place in New York this past Saturday — three days out from her announcement.

So I went.

Calloway's 'personal brand'

By many, Calloway is considered one of the first iterations of what we refer to as "influencers," the people behind those established social media brands who are able to make ripples across the Internet, just by posting content for their thousands of devoted followers.

Calloway first started to develop a following back in 2013, when she began documenting her picturesque life as an American expat studying at the "real-life Hogwarts"— also known as the University of Cambridge. Her posts were unique for their accompanying long, flowery captions describing romantic relationships and emotional break ups with Josh, then Oscar, then Conrad.

By spring 2015 she had amassed 300,000 followers, the Daily Mail reported.

"She is famous for something that didn't really exist until a few years ago: a personal brand,"Man Repeller wrote about Calloway in June 2018. "Posting intimate personal details on social media is now commonplace, but when Caroline first started sharing stories about her life, her friends and her romantic relationships, it was different. Unique. A bit scandalous, even."

Her long captions read like excerpts from a young adult novel, and publishers agreed: Calloway nabbed a $500,000 deal with Flatiron Books in 2015 to write a memoir called "And We Were Like," based off the life she detailed on Instagram.

But that deal shuttered sometime later (her last post about the book is from April 2016). Calloway realized that the "the boy-obsessed version" of herself she painted on Instagram wasn't the one she felt comfortable conveying, she said during her workshop.

She backed out, and is still responsible for paying back the $165,000 advance she got for her book deal. (She joked during the workshop that she now takes Uber Pool instead of UberX because, "Hello, debt!")

Calloway's personal posts didn't end after she backed out of the book deal. But she leveled with her massive Instagram following in a post in November 2018, where she revealed she was feeling "broken and scared and still worthy of love," and archived two years worth of Instagram posts. She also shared on Facebook that she had struggled with an Adderall addiction during college.

The person that emerged, Calloway says, was her more authentic and true self. Instead of posts, Calloway informs followers about her day-to-day life through long Instagram Stories.

Her Stories contain lengthy blocks of text you might have to screenshot just to be able to read them in their entirety. She's used the Snapchat-like feature since it debuted in 2016 in a way much like she used her image captions: as a personal journal to share with the masses.

'Are you here for Caroline Calloway?'

So on Saturday morning, I found myself approaching a nondescript warehouse in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, double-checking Google Maps to ensure I had plugged in the correct address. There were no markings and no numbers on the building's exterior.

After messaging Calloway, I had secured myself an invitation to her un-canceled workshop. In a 1,500-word email I and other interested attendees received, Calloway shared the detailed itinerary for the five-hour workshop. She also shared what would change this time around: there would be no flower crowns, but there would be catered food.

"So can I guarantee you’ll like this workshop? No," Calloway wrote in the email. "But I think there is a 95% chance you will, especially since you felt moved to buy this ticket in the first place."

When I arrived at the warehouse, I had a fleeting thought that this was the scam itself: that all these people would show up to a building that didn't exist to attend a workshop that wasn't actually happening.

But as I approached the building, walking toward me with the same confused look were two 20-something women with blown-out hair, expensive-looking boots, and long, designer coats.

"Are you here for Caroline Calloway?" one of them asked me. The two women were lost, and had banded together to find the workshop.

I was definitely in the right place.

We were ushered into the warehouse by one of Calloway's assistants, and followed her up four flights of dark stairs. (Later, I learned that Calloway’s assistants are two sisters in college, overwhelmed and overworked by how much time they've had to devote to helping Calloway put her un-canceled workshop together at the last minute.)

We followed the assistant into a gorgeous loft apartment filled with knick-knacks and plants, tailor-made for an Instagram photoshoot.

As we entered, we were told to explore the space and locate our "personalized notebooks" before sitting down to talk with other attendees and grab coffee. The cover of my notebook was adorned with cheap, sticky letters spelling out my name, and an envelope inside contained scrapbook-ready stickers you could use to decorate your notebook.

The first hour of the five-hour workshop was devoted to "new student orientation," which Calloway said she wouldn't attend because she didn't want to "steal focus."

During the orientation, I chatted with some of the women seated around the room. Besides the three journalists in the room, there was a woman in Yale University's nursing program who had traveled down from Connecticut for the day to attend. There was an aspiring actor studying psychology in the city, and two woman who had flown in from Seattle for the workshop and were making a weekend of it in New York. Another woman said she had just quit her job, and had bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles for next week.

Four of the women there were given scholarships to cover the costs of the $165 workshop. Some of these scholarships were able to be offered by charging reporters to "cover a sensationalized news-storm of their own making," Calloway's assistant told me in a text.

After an hour of mingling, Calloway arrived, albeit a little late. She showed off her white t-shirt that read "SCAMMER," and pointed out the Fyre Festival banner she proudly says she made herself, without using stencils.

"It was not a part of my dream to be compared to a literal Caribbean island where people almost died," Calloway said.

Calloway made her way around the room, stopping for long introductions and intimate conversations with some of the groups. Her prep for the event was evident: she came in knowing each person's last name, and was ready with remarks about any mutual friends or interests. She smiled widely and cracked cheeky jokes, letting attendees in on secrets like they were her friends. She was bubbly and easy-to-like, if a bit calculated.

During the workshop, Calloway said her class would cover topics like resiliency, creativity, heartbreak, and authenticity. In reality, this translated to long narratives about her life — many of which her fans already knew, since she had told them in past Instagram captions.

She also shared philosophical one-liners like, "You cannot read that doubt like tea leaves," and, "Sometimes closure is picking up a pretty red leaf and putting it on a bench and walking away." At one point, she compared sex to Thai food: "If you go to a restaurant and order Thai food and don't like it, you shouldn't keep eating Thai food."

Calloway also talked about her past. She talked about her addiction to Adderall in school, which she hadn't revealed much about online. She said the book deal "suffocated" her. And she insisted she's not trying to scam anyone, despite what the media says about her.

"People make a lot of assumptions of young, fit, white girls on Instagram," Calloway says. "You know what, I don't even read the news. I haven't read about what people think I am."

'I just totally connected with you on another level'

Many of the women in attendance told Calloway they had been following her since 2015. Several referenced a Total Sorority Move article from March 2015 that called Calloway's Instagram a fairy tale — "if a fairy tale consisted of drinking wine, flirting with boys, and studying in Europe."

These women said they felt a connection with the raw emotion she described in her captions. (Calloway maintains she was one of the first people to post a "crying selfie" to the Internet.) Several of the woman said they were drawn in by Calloway's authenticity, and that she seemed to just "get it."

"I just totally connected with you on another level," one attendee told Calloway.

That connection does not seem lost on Calloway. She described her life as a "journey" she and her fans had shared, that her highs and lows were something everyone in the room experienced. She painted a picture of "us versus the world"— Calloway and her followers on one side, the "haters" on the other.

"We've been through some crazy f-----g s--t together," she said at one point during the workshop. "You guys are in your own category of people I'll never forget."

Her fans have stuck behind her loyally, even as stories have referred to her as the creator of "the next Fyre Festival," or have — as Calloway calls it — "hate-followed" her on Twitter. Multiple attendees told me they had enjoyed the workshop, and said it was worth the $165 fee.

"I think she is someone who is learning and growing like the rest of us," one attendee told me in an Instagram message after the workshop. "I didn't expect too much from it after the rescheduling, but she is very relatable and kind. She went out of her way to remember everyone's first and last names as well as their letters they've written."

"Caroline did a brave thing. She wanted to offer her time, her heart, and her experiences to a community that she has quite literally grown up with," one of Calloway's assistants told me after the event. "Even though there were details of the tour and workshop that weren't perfect, I think she did a good job of making something beautiful for the people that came."

Later, after attendees took their solo portraits with Calloway, each person was given a "care package" to remember the workshop by: another notebook, a mason jar, and small colorful drawstring pouches holding a small candle, a "crystal" rock Calloway swears by, a bunch of flower seeds, a matchbook with a "Calloway House" crest, a face mask, and a stick of incense.

Journalists attending the event were also given an emergency thermal blanket — Calloway said she wanted the blankets to be a tongue-in-cheek nod to Fyre Fest. 

At one point during the workshop, Calloway interrupted her lesson to take a video for her Instagram Story.

In the video, she pans around the room of eager workshop attendants sitting in front of her. "What do you guys think?" she asks them.

"10 out of 10!" someone shouts.

She then turns the camera back on herself and deadpans: "Total f-----g scam, right?"

SEE ALSO: Instagram influencers are so overwhelmed by hackers, they’re hiring hackers of their own to get their accounts back

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: All smartphones look the same today for 2 key reasons

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

The healthcare industry is undergoing a profound transformation. Costs are skyrocketing, consumer demand for more accessible care is growing rapidly, and healthcare companies are unable to keep up. 

Health organizations are increasingly turning to tech companies to facilitate this transformation in care delivery and lower health expenditures. The potential for tech-led digital health initiatives to help healthcare providers and insurers deliver safer, more efficient, and cost-effective care is significant. For healthcare organizations of all types, the collection, analyses, and application of patient data can minimize avoidable service use, improve health outcomes, and promote patient independence, which can assuage swelling costs.

For their part, the "Big Four" tech companies — Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft — see an opportunity to tap into the lucrative health market. These same players are accelerating their efforts to reshape healthcare by developing and collaborating on new tools for consumers, medical professionals, and insurers.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence explores the key strengths and offerings the Big Four will bring to the healthcare industry, as well as their approaches into the market. We'll then explore how these services and solutions are creating opportunities for health systems and insurers. Finally, the report will outline the barriers that are inhibiting the adoption and usage of the Big Four tech companies’ offerings and how these barriers can be circumvented.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Tech companies’ expertise in data management and analysis, along with their significant compute power, can help support healthcare payers, health systems, and consumers by providing a broader overview of how health is accessed and delivered.

• Each of the Big Four tech companies — vying for a piece of the lucrative healthcare market — is leaning on their specific field of expertise to develop tools and solutions for consumers, providers, and payers.
• Alphabet is focused on leveraging its dominance in data storage and analytics to become the leader in population health.
• Amazon is leaning on its experience as a distribution platform for medical supplies, and developing its AI-assistant Alexa as an in-home health concierge.
• Apple is actively turning its consumer products into patient health hubs.
• Microsoft is focusing on cloud storage and analytics to tap into precision medicine.

• Health organizations can further tap into the opportunity presented by tech’s entry into healthcare by collaborating with tech giants to realize cost savings and bolster their top lines. But understanding how each tech giant is approaching healthcare is crucial.

 In full, the report:

• Pinpoints the key themes and industry-wide shifts that are driving the transformation of healthcare in the US.
• Defines the main healthcare businesses and strategies of the Big Four tech companies.
• Highlights the biggest potential impacts of each of the Big Four’s healthcare strategies for health systems and insurers.
• Discusses the potential barriers that will challenge the adoption of the Big Four tech companies’ initiatives and how these hurdles can be overcome.

Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

Learn More

Purchase & download the full report from our research store

Join the conversation about this story »

• BuzzFeed is cutting 15% of its staff, according to an internal memo sent by CEO Jonah Peretti to company employees Wednesday. 
• The decision could cost 250 employees their jobs, according to The Wall Street Journal. 
• "We are confident the changes we are making will put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come," Peretti said in the memo. 

BuzzFeed is cutting 15% of its staff, CEO Jonah Peretti said in a memo sent to employees Wednesday.

The digital publisher is laying off the employees in order to get its costs in line with revenue, and the cuts will happen next week, Peretti said. The layoffs could affect 250 employees, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report the news. 

"Even though I'm confident this is the right business decision, it is upsetting and disappointing," Peretti said in the memo, which was obtained by Business Insider.

BuzzFeed's move could be an effort to better position itself financially for a merger with another digital media outlet, according to The Journal.

In his memo, Peretti cast the layoffs as an effort to make BuzzFeed's business more sustainable. Over the last year  the company has "diversified" its revenue, and its business has grown by "double digits," but it needed to reduce its costs so it could control its own future, he said.

"We are confident the changes we are making will put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come," he said.

Read this: 2019 is expected to be another terrible year for media brands, but publishers like BuzzFeed and Refinery29 have a plan to survive

BuzzFeed will give employees more information on the layoffs by Monday, Peretti said.

Here is the full memo obtained by Business Insider: 

Hello BuzzFeeders,

I'm writing with sad news: we are doing layoffs at BuzzFeed next week. We will be making a 15% overall reduction in headcount across the company. I'm sending this tonight because I wanted you to hear it from me directly instead of from the press.

Over the past few months, we've done extensive work examining the trends in our business and the evolving economics of the digital platforms. We've developed a good understanding of where we can consolidate our teams, focus in on the content that is working, and achieve the right cost structure to support our multi-revenue model. We are confident the changes we are making will put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come.

I'm so proud of what our team accomplished over the last year, including diversifying our revenue, and growing our business double digits. Unfortunately, revenue growth by itself isn't enough to be successful in the long run. The restructuring we are undertaking will reduce our costs and improve our operating model so we can thrive and control our own destiny, without ever needing to raise funding again. These changes will allow us to be the clear winner in the market as the economics of digital media continue to improve.

I'll share more about our future structure in a few days, but today I want to focus on what will be a difficult week, especially for the people who are leaving the company. These are talented people, friends, and valued colleagues, who've made huge contributions to our success, and who've done nothing wrong. Even though I'm confident this is the right business decision, it is upsetting and disappointing.

On a personal note, I've never thought about my job as "just business." I care about the people at BuzzFeed more than anything other than my family. This will be a tough week for all of us and I realize it will be much worse for the people losing their jobs. To them, I want to say thank you, I'm sorry our work together is ending this way, and I hope we get to work together again in the future. Our loss will be to the benefit of other organizations where I know you will go on to make formidable contributions.

We will be back to you with specifics on the process by Monday at the latest. Thank you all in advance for your compassion and kindness as we go through this process.

Jonah

SEE ALSO: With media-merger talk swirling, Vox Media says it will evaluate partnerships and acquisitions

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos is worth over $100 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money

• Artificial intelligence is a "new human right" that everyone should have access to, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
• Otherwise, Benioff said, the world will see another tech divide; those with access to A.I. will be smarter, healthier, and richer, while those without access will be weaker and poorer.
• Debate has already emerged on the ethical uses of AI, and Salesforce recently hired a chief ethical and humane use officer to help guide its efforts.
• Benioff also spoke about how privacy breaches and the misuse of data have led to a growing distrust of tech companies.

The next tech divide could be between those who have access to artificial intelligence and those who do not, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff warned on Wednesday.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a "new human right," and everybody will need access to it, Benioff said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"Today, only a few countries and only a few companies have the very best artificial intelligence in the world," Benioff said. "Those who have the artificial intelligence will be smarter, will be healthier, will be richer, and of course, you’ve seen their warfare will be significantly more advanced."

By contrast, those who do not have access to AI will be "weaker and poorer, less educated and sicker," he said.

"We must ask ourselves, is this the kind of world we want to live in?" Benioff said. "This can be seen right where I live in San Francisco, where we truly have a crisis of inequality."

Salesforce hired a new executive to guide its AI efforts

Debate has already emerged about the ethics of AI and the possibility that it can be used for harm, for example, in warfare. To tackle these questions and to guide its use of the technology, Salesforce in December hired its first chief ethical and humane use officer.

Read this:Salesforce is hiring its first chief ethical and humane use officer to make sure its artificial intelligence isn't used for evil

"AI is technology like none of us have ever seen, and none of us can truly say where it’s going," Benioff said. "But we do know this: Technology is never good or bad. It’s what we do with the technology that matters."

AI isn't the only divide the tech industry is grappling with. Companies in the industry are facing a crisis of trust in the wake of privacy breaches and the mishandling of data, Benioff said.

Benioff has becoming increasingly vocal about economic and other inequalities. Last fall, he was a major proponent of a measure in San Francisco that would tax large companies to help the city deal with its growing homelessness problem.

Some other tech figures followed his lead in making pledges to benefit the homeless, while other CEO's disagreed with the approach.

SEE ALSO: Here's why Walmart is betting on Microsoft's AI to challenge Amazon in online and physical retail

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Smart speakers comprise one of the fastest-growing device segments in the consumer technology market today. Ownership levels have nearly doubled from early 2017 to summer 2018. 

With this rapid growth, there are a few pivotal questions that both companies looking to develop and sell smart speakers as well as those looking to sell products, deliver media, and offer access to services like banking over these devices need answers to in order to craft successful strategies. In particular, they need to know who is and isn’t buying smart speakers, and what consumers who own smart speakers are actually doing with them. 

To offer these stakeholders insight, Business Insider Intelligence asked more than 500 US consumers about their knowledge of smart speakers, the devices they do or don’t own and what led them to their purchase decisions, as well as the tasks they’re using their smart speakers for.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence will look at the state of the smart speaker market and outline how each of the major device providers approaches the space. We will then focus on the key factors that affect whether or not someone owns one of these devices. Next, we will use our survey data to outline the reasons why people don’t own devices in order to offer guidance for who to target and how. Finally, we will discuss what consumers are actually doing with their smart speakers — specifically looking at how the devices are used and perceived in e-commerce, digital media, and banking — which can help companies determine how well they’re publicizing their smart speaker services and capabilities.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, Google, Apple, Samsung, Facebook, Sonos, LG, Anker, Spotify, Pandora, Grubhub, Netflix, Hulu, Instagram, Snap.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Despite their growing popularity, nearly half of respondents still don't own a device — which presents a long runway for adoption. Our survey data reveals a number of key factors that impact whether or not someone owns one of these devices, including income, gender, and age.
• Smart speakers are establishing themselves as a key platform for e-commerce, media, and the smart home.
• The introduction of a screen to some smart speakers will expand the possibilities for companies developing for the device — but developers will need to resist the compulsion to use speakers to accomplish too much.

In full, the report:

• Provides an overview of the key players and products in the smart speaker market.
• Highlights critical adoption rates broken out by key factors that define the segment.
• Identifies how consumers are using devices in important areas where companies in various industries are trying foster greater use of the voice interface.

Join the conversation about this story »