We may still be learning about the ways AI will change work, but there’s no doubt it’s here to stay. Given the current business climate, there’s no better way to upskill yourself than by learning about AI.

Below, I’ve rounded up the best free AI courses this November, so you can level up your understanding with the latest tools and guidance with industry experts.

Each course will teach you something different about the technology and, hopefully, give you the confidence to navigate today’s landscape.

Designing and Building AI Assistant Workflows with IBM

Summary:

• Ideal for those wanting to get hands-on with building and using AI assistants
• 5 modules, taking 3 weeks to complete (at 10 hours a week)
• Intermediate level
• Shareable certificate available upon completion

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AI is only as good as the instructions you give it. In this course, you’ll learn to build and use your own AI assistant, specifically for a designed business scenario.

If you’ve been waiting to see how an AI assistant can accelerate your professional role, this course is a solid investment. Using IBM watstonx Orchestrate, you’ll learn to describe the architecture of an AI assistant, including skills, tools, instructions, and routing logic.

Likewise, you’ll learn to connect assistants to enterprise data sources and write integration requirements for your IT teams. You’ll also design intake, triage, routing, and human-in-the-loop workflows.

When you enroll onto this course, you’ll also be enrolled onto the IBM Business Process Automation with AI Assistants Specialization.

View this course at Coursera

AI Fluency for Creative Work with Anthropic

Summary:

• Ideal for creative professionals wanting to develop AI fluency
• 8 lessons, taking 5 hours to complete
• Beginner level
• Completion badge available

Balancing creativity with AI takes a lot of consideration. Anthropic understands this and has created this course for creatives to allow them to experiment with AI “while protecting what makes their work theirs.”

Specifically, this course helps creative individuals build practical skills to collaborate with AI through Anthropic’s 4D framework: Delegation, description, discernment, and diligence.

You’ll begin with no AI, and then start to use analytical tools like the Creative Value Lens and the Production Lens. Ultimately, the course asks users to carefully consider what they use AI for, and leaves room to question whether you need to use AI at all.

View this course at Anthropic

Human-AI Systems Integration with Coursera

Summary:

• Ideal for those looking to blend human collaboration with AI input
• 6 modules, 1 week to complete (at 10 hours a week)
• Advanced level, recommended professional experience and comfort with AI tools
• Shareable certificate available upon completion

While AI is advancing rapidly, humans remain an essential element of any system. Learning how to effectively balance AI input with human expertise is an essential lesson for any business leader today.

Luckily, this course will get you there. You’ll drive into how AI capability changes cascade across connected teams, identify and rank AI value-creation opportunities, and design human-AI handoff protocols and role-allocation frameworks.

Likewise, by the end, you’ll be able to quantify and communicate genuine productivity and value gains. With businesses focusing on AI ROI, this skill will be an incredibly useful one.

As well as being enrolled into this course, you’ll also be enrolled into the Human-Centered AI Transformation: Strategy & Ethics Professional Certificate. It’s also advised you have some professional experience and comfort with AI tools before starting.

View this course at Coursera

AI in Society: Ethics, Leadership, and the Road Ahead with HP

Summary:

• Ideal for individuals that want to understand the ethical conversation around AI
• 6 modules, taking 2-4 weeks to complete
• Intermediate recommended, but beginners welcome
• Certificate available for paying learners

The ethical conversation around AI is becoming more and more important. As security threats ramp up, leaders should be educated on how they can fairly and safely implement AI.

This course covers all bases: AI’s major security threats, its role in augmenting the workforce, the AI regulatory landscape (including the EU AI Act), the alignment problem and the ongoing debate around Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

You’ll also understand how bias enters AI systems and how to build fairer ones, learn about breakthrough AI applications, and how to apply responsible AI principles in your own work and life.

Like other edX courses, you can take this course for free, but you’ll need to audit it. Certificates are only available for paying learners.

View this course on edX

Why You Should Invest in Free AI Courses

AI is moving at an incredible pace, despite calls from leaders to slow it down. It can be disorienting trying to keep track of what the technology is doing next, and take that from someone who reports on it every day.

Free AI courses are an easy, flexible way to learn more about AI from the comfort of your home. Many of them address and provide insight into the issues facing business leaders today, such as AI’s security threat, and how to balance human collaboration with AI input.

By keeping track of these courses, you can invest in AI with confidence, and carry this assurance with you to your organization.

The post Best Free AI Training Courses for November 2026 appeared first on Tech.co.

These workflows are from Tech.co’s weekly newsletter, The AI Strat. To receive free weekly workflows tried and tested by industry experts, subscribe to the newsletter. 

AI can be a real game-changer for small businesses. Studies have shown that it can improve productivity and remove a lot of the repetitive, slow-paced work that weighs down workers. Overall, this can have a positive influence on overall ROI.

However, you’ve got to start from somewhere. While signing up for the tools is a good start, it takes a while to understand where AI fits in your organization. These workflows will hopefully give you a head start, all with a simple graphic and examples of how it has improved operations.

This month’s workflows are:

• Run AI video production
• Turn bank statement PDFs into data
• Manage media and PR opportunities
• Write social media captions

Run AI Video Production Workflow

Recommended by Arthur Hof, founder and CEO at Bunny Honey Club

If you’ve got limited creative spend as a small business, this process allows you to quickly turn around videos with AI. While the whole process can be automated, I always recommend a human-in-the-loop for final review.

According to Hof, this workflow saves 30 hours of human labor per month. What used to be 20-36 hours of manual work, became only around 5 hours.

Turn Bank Statement PDFs into Data Workflow

Recommended by Pankaj Jasoria, founder of Bank Statement Converter AI

One of the best attributes of AI is being able to turn vast, complicated datasets into ready-to-analyze information. This workflow helps businesses convert bank statements into clear, structured data that can then be plugged into a financial workflow.

Jasoria recommends using AI as an extraction and organization layer rather than trying to replace financial judgement. Given the security risks with AI, I’d also check out your settings before plugging any sensitive data into a tool.

Manage PR and Media Opportunities Workflow

Recommended by Dr. Morissa Schwartz, founder of GenZ Publishing and Dr. Rissy’s Writing & Marketing

This workflow enables small teams to handle multiple media and PR opportunities without losing sight of deadlines. In this workflow, AI handles the first draft, and a human reviews the final messaging.

In one recent run, the workflow caught one request that had already been pitched and produced three distinct, confirmed submissions.

Write Social Media Captions Workflow

Recommended by Alex SB, founder at Fuxux

Having an online presence is a nonnegotiable for businesses today. This workflow lets AI draft social media captions for posts across different channels, including X and Instagram.

For teams that want to plan posts ahead of time, this is a great addition to any social media workflow.

Remove the Guesswork with Tried and Tested AI Workflows

AI is here, but leaders are still struggling to find out how useful it can be. This can lead to surging AI costs, failed pilots, and ultimately, a lack of ROI.

Relying on the experts that have already successfully implemented AI and have the numbers to prove it is a solid start for any business looking to see results.

Every week, I take an AI workflow that has led to genuine business impact from experts across industries and create a ready-to-implement graphic so anyone can get started. If you’d like this in your inbox every Wednesday and more, subscribe to the AI Strat newsletter.

The post Best AI Workflows of the Month appeared first on Tech.co.

Not that long ago, prominent AI leaders including Sam Altman and Dario Amodei predicted their AI systems would replace workers, leading to massive shifts across organizations and industries. But while AI has made an impact, their early theories are yet to hold weight.

Arguably, graduate and entry-level workers are suffering the most from AI. However, many companies are struggling to generate ROI from AI investments, and systems aren’t yet able to operate entirely without humans, which could be why jobs haven’t suffered substantially.

Hiring leaders confirm that human skills, including leadership, creativity, and relationship building remain vital to any organization in the AI era. Nevertheless, some suggest there is still a possibility we’ll see mass AI-related job losses in the future.

Mass AI-Related Job Cuts are Yet to Occur

In May of 2025, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sounded alarms when he said AI could wipe out half of entry-level white collar roles, and push the unemployment rate to 10-20% within 1-5 years.

In early 2026, CEO of Microsoft AI Mustafa Suleyman said most tasks done “sitting down at a computer” would be fully automated within 12-18 months. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who catapulted AI into the mainstream with the release of ChatGPT in 2022, has been warning about mass job losses since as early as 2015.

Most leaders have now backtracked on their original claims. Altman came out and said he was “pretty wrong” about the economic impact of AI, Suleyman re-routed and said he expected AI to help white collar workers, rather than replace them, as did Amodei.

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Either way, we’re yet to see AI completely take over the workplace. Undoubtedly, it has played a role in augmenting and shifting roles and industries, but current data suggests we’re not at the point of an apocalypse once foretold.

According to data from consulting firm Challenger, Grey & Christmas, 112,713 AI-related job cuts were announced in July 2026. This number rose to 116,275 in August. However, August also saw the lowest monthly layoff number linked to AI since December 2025.

Overall, total layoffs to August are down 41% year on year. Hiring plans, in comparison, are up 37%. In some lights, the argument that AI will create more jobs seems to have gained strength.

AI is Unable to Function Without Humans, For Now

Despite some confirmations of AI-related business value, uncertainty is still being felt by leaders. Yes, companies are adopting AI, but several studies indicate clear ROI is yet to follow.

According to PwC’s Global CEO Survey, 56% of CEOs have seen no significant financial benefit from AI, and only 1 in 8 report both cost and revenue gains. For workers, 94% of marketers say AI hasn’t made any significant impact.

Of those that have displaced workers in favor of AI, success hasn’t been a guarantee. The most notable example being Klarna, which replaced around 700 customer service workers with AI, only to invite them back after complaints from customers.

The human element, it seems, remains a vital component. “AI isn’t replacing people yet at scale because it needs people to be effective,” Sabra Sciolaro, chief people officer at Firstup, told Tech.co. “We are at a place where it needs people to give it direction and context, and the quality of the input is so critical.”

That’s not to say AI could never perform more effectively than humans. Actually, it could get better very soon, given the speed at which we’re developing. However, at the moment, the technology still leads to a lot of mistakes, and humans are needed to prevent them.

Sciolaro explains how what she looks for in a job candidate has changed, because of AI. “Curiosity and a willingness to try and fail and iterate, is something that becomes more important with every passing week and month, as things are moving more and more quickly.”

Lisa Highfield, principal director of research and advisory for technology and AI at McLean & Company, agrees that a “human-centric” mindset is still very much needed in times of implementation. Highfield works directly with organizations as they introduce AI.

“We talk about things beyond employee empowerment,” she told Tech.co. “Being able to think about new ways of working and having a culture of innovation and even the resiliency that we need as we go through this.”

We Could Still See Big Job Cuts Related to AI

Admittedly, data related to AI job cuts is always going to be difficult to track. The above Challenger report, for example, measures announced cuts and reasons given by employers. Actual displacement isn’t measured, and corporate messaging, particularly as more people fear job losses due to AI, makes the true picture harder to reveal.

Nevertheless, there are areas we could point to that suggest the AI takeover of jobs is already happening, particularly in the graduate and entry-level markets.

A study from The Stanford Digital Economy Lab found that, among 22-25 year-olds in highly AI-exposed occupations, employment is about 19% below the trend compared to peers in less exposed roles.

Similarly, recent graduates were found to be experiencing an unemployment rate of about 5.6-5.7%, higher than the general unemployment rate of 4.1-4.2%. Only four years ago, these two percentages were almost identical.

Beyond the graduate and entry-level markets, plenty of major companies have referenced AI in layoff messages, including Block, Salesforce and Accenture. Just recently, Microsoft offered a quarter of its workforce a voluntary redundancy buyout while looking to spend billions on AI.

And, CEOs still expect to be making cuts. There’s an argument to say that what we’re seeing with the graduate market is only the beginning, and AI’s impact will eventually spread to the rest of the population.

When I asked Sciolaro if we’re heading in this direction, she said she didn’t think so. “I don’t see it as, we’re heading in the direction and we’re clearly on a path where all work is automated. I just don’t think it’s practical.”

Highfield, on the other hand, believes layoffs are still a possibility. “I think the potential for AI replacing roles exists. I think there’s a lot of variability across roles, and we know that roles are a combination of many different tasks and the potential for AI to automate those tasks varies widely. So yes definitely, the potential is there.”

The post Why Aren’t We Seeing Mass AI Layoffs? appeared first on Tech.co.

As the US prepares to go to the polls next week, a new survey on voters finds over half are opposed to companies building superintelligent AI systems.

A significant amount of voters are fear losing control of powerful AI, which is understandable given the well-documented risks the technology poses.

Similarly, the data identifies a trust gap between AI companies and US citizens. Workers still fear job losses, and businesses appear to be operating within a “trust deficit,” according to an expert.

58% of US Voters are Opposed to Superintelligent AI

A new survey from public affairs and strategtic communications firm Bryson Gillette found 58% of US voters oppose companies building superintelligent AI. Likewise, 61% believe humans would keep little or no control over it if it were built.

Superintelligent AI, for the purpose of the survey of 1,000 registered US voters, was defined as AI that is smarter than humans at nearly everything, including scientific research, strategy, and persuasion. As voters prepare to face midterms next week, superintelligent AI could prove to be a contentious topic.

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President Trump’s administration has largely backed away from regulating AI in any federal capacity. Though Trump held a summit at the end of September with some of the most influential AI leaders, including representatives from Nvidia, Anthropic, and OpenAI, no federal laws around AI have been passed.

Given voters’ sentiments around AI, as shown in this survey, conducted at the end of September, AI fears could steer the midterms in a certain direction.

Lindsey Mears, lead researcher at Bryson Gillette, spoke to Tech.co about what role AI could play next week: “AI has moved from a tech story to a campaign issue. Data centers, electricity costs, and who controls these systems are all being argued on the trail.

“Whoever holds Congress in 2027 will set the terms for AI policy, so candidates and companies need to know what voters think before that happens,” she told us.

Voters Fear for Safety Amidst Powerful AI Systems

Even before AI systems started “going rogue,” cyber experts have been sounding alarms. Now, we’re beyond imagining what AI-powered attacks will look like, and have numerous examples of the devastation that these attacks could cause.

It’s no wonder, 83% of voters worry about losing control of powerful AI. Going down a darker route, 73% worry about AI threatening human existence altogether.

“People see the technology advancing faster than the accountability around it,” Mears explained to us, and plenty of cyber experts have expressed concern about a disregard for security-related infrastructure and proper hygiene.

Following the OpenAI/Hugging Face attack earlier this year, AI leaders even began calling for a slow down of development, in part so security risks could be properly evaluated. The cry was met with some agreement, but it was also disregarded by other leaders, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and the President himself.

This stance could greatly impact voters as their minds settle on the midterms. “Our data tells us that voters expect to lose control of a technology they did not ask for, built by companies they do not trust,” Mears told us.

She also doesn’t believe skepticism will die down after voting ends next week. “Expect more political scrutiny after the midterms,” she said. “Skepticism crosses party lines, the next Congress will face pressure to act on AI no matter which party gains ground.”

AI Skepticism Is Rife and Companies Must Earn Trust

While big tech has never inspired heaps of trust, AI companies have earned very, very little as of late. Mears explained how this was represented in the survey:

“We also found a trust gap that matters,” she said. “Two-thirds of voters say tech and AI companies have real influence in Washington, but only 38% trust them.”

This lack of trust can be accredited to security risks, but it could also be the result of an early job loss narrative that swept early AI messaging. While leaders have since abandoned this course, the impact on voters has been significant, according to Bryson Gillette.

Indeed, 58% of voters are concerned about job loss from AI generally, and 44% of voters are concerned about their own job. “Concern about jobs is real, and it’s personal,” Mears told us.

Because of this, Mears explains that businesses automatically “start from a trust deficit” when it comes to AI. This means the AI rhetoric, as well as AI integration, needs to be carefully planned.

“Be specific with employees about which AI tools are in use and where a person still makes the final call, pair every rollout with training and reskilling, keep productivity claims modest, and give workers a real say in how these tools are used,” she advised.

The post US Voters Are Opposed to Superintelligent AI appeared first on Tech.co.

GoDaddy’s Airo AI Builder is an affordable option for businesses, with plans ranging from $9.99 to $99.99 per month (billed annually). GoDaddy also offers shared, WordPress, and VPS hosting plans, plus domain registration.

Based on our latest round of research, GoDaddy is one of the best website builders for value.

How Much Does GoDaddy Cost?

GoDaddy’s website builder plans start from $9.99 per month (billed annually), with web hosting plans beginning at $5.99 per month (for a three-year contract).

I’ve listed the introductory prices for the cheapest GoDaddy plans in the table below:

GoDaddy’s Airo AI Builder Plans

GoDaddy’s website builder, known as Airo AI Builder, has four plans: Free, Starter, Professional, and Ultimate.

Pricing for the AI website builder starts at $9.99-$99.99 per month (billed annually) — you can save 50% by choosing an annual subscription versus a rolling monthly contract.

How much does it cost to top up AI credits?

GoDaddy offers AI Credit packs, meaning you can top up your monthly allowance. These credits are valid for one year before they expire.

• 250 AI credits — $24.99
• 500 AI credits — $44.99
• 750 AI credits — $59.99
• 1,000 AI credits — $74.99

You can also purchase larger packs to suit your needs and budget. To test GoDaddy’s limits, I went up to 100,000 AI credits, which would cost $7,499 in total, but I could keep increasing the AI credit figure even higher!

GoDaddy’s AI Credit packs can be purchased at checkout when you initially subscribe to GoDaddy’s Airo AI Builder, or you can buy them from your account dashboard when managing your plan.

GoDaddy Hosting: Types and Plans

GoDaddy offers various web hosting plans, including shared, WordPress, and VPS hosting. Pricing varies across the hosting types, but you can get started from just $5.99 per month.

Hosting is included with Airo automatically, but these standalone plans are available if your site is built elsewhere.

Web hosting plans: from $5.99

GoDaddy has eight web hosting plans in total, ranging from $5.99 to $54.99 per month (for a three-year contract). All web hosting plans include a free custom domain, email, and SSL certificate, though you’ll be charged after your first year.

The web hosting plans are split into two categories: Standard Performance (for simple websites and apps) and High Performance (for high-traffic, resource-heavy sites and apps).

The Standard Performance web hosting plans are listed below:

The four High Performance hosting plans are listed below:

WordPress hosting plans: from $5.99

For WordPress websites, GoDaddy offers three managed hosting plans: Hosting for WordPress Basic, Hosting for WordPress Deluxe, and Hosting for WordPress Ultimate.

For the cheapest deal, choose at least a three-year contract, with prices ranging from $5.99 to $12.99 per month.

VPS hosting plans: from $8.99

GoDaddy’s eight VPS hosting plans start from $8.99 per month (for a three-year contract). Overall cost will vary depending on your chosen operating system, control panel requirements, and website security needs.

Like web hosting, the VPS plans are split: the more budget-friendly Standard Performance plans versus the more powerful High Performance plans.

The Standard Performance VPS plans are listed below:

GoDaddy’s High Performance VPS plans start from $64.99 per month:

Does GoDaddy Have Any Additional Costs?

In addition to your website builder or web hosting subscription, GoDaddy will charge you for a few extras, such as AI credits or custom domain names.

The key features to budget for are:

• AI credits — if you run out of monthly credits, GoDaddy’s AI Credit packs start at $24.99
• Domain name — GoDaddy includes a free custom domain for your first year (a .com domain will then cost $22.99 per year to renew)
• Email — you get a free trial of Microsoft 365 Email Essentials for one year with select hosting plans, or you can pay $11.88 for one year on Airo plans (this will renew at $107.88 per year)
• SSL certificate — this is free for one year with GoDaddy, but will automatically renew at $119.99 per year
• Control panel — for VPS hosting plans, cPanel/WHM costs $19.99 per month, Plesk Web Pro Edition costs $19.99 per month, and Plesk Web Host Edition costs $29.99 per month
• Website security — VPS plans can also pay for website security, with standard protection costing $5.99 per month
• Transaction fees — GoDaddy Payments, which is integrated into all online stores built with GoDaddy, charges 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction

How Does GoDaddy Compare With Other Website Builders?

GoDaddy offers some of the cheapest website builder plans on the market, particularly in comparison to more expensive platforms, like Shopify (which starts from $29 per month).

See how GoDaddy’s pricing compares to our top-rated builders:

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		Overall score All Tech.co research categories, condensed into one score	Cheapest price	Free plan	Free trial
GoDaddy	Wix	Squarespace	Shopify	Hostinger
4.2	4.8	4.5	4.2	4.1
$9.99/month	$17/month	$19/month	$29/month	$2.99/month
check	check	close	close	close
7-day free trial	14-day free trial	14-day free trial	3-day free trial	7-day free trial

GoDaddy Pricing: Is GoDaddy Worth It?

As a website builder, web host, and domain registrar, GoDaddy is great value for money. GoDaddy’s plans are an affordable option in a competitive market, allowing users and merchants to get set up online for just $9.99 per month (billed annually).

You can even build and test websites or apps using Airo’s free plan, giving you the freedom to experiment with new ideas without stretching the budget. When you’re ready, simply upgrade to launch your site to the public and access additional features, such as ecommerce.

FAQs: GoDaddy Pricing

The post GoDaddy Pricing 2026: Website Builder & Hosting Costs appeared first on Tech.co.

This article is part of an interview with Shams Chauthani, chief technology officer at Tempo Software. This interview was conducted for Tech.co’s AI newsletter, The AI Strat. For more interviews, with AI experts on the latest trending topics, subscribe to the newsletter.

Shams Chauthani, CTO at Tempo Software, recently told Tech.co that the biggest mistake he sees businesses making with AI is assuming everyone needs to be a builder.

Instead, he believes having a dedicated group of AI builders, or AI champions, that understand the technology, will save businesses time and resources.

Furthermore, AI skills aren’t the only valuable currency as we move into this new era of work. Human skills such as leadership and emotional intelligence remain key as we move further into automation.

Train the Tools, Not the People

Since the technology first started to make waves, workers have been invited to embrace AI. Using it came with affirmation-like wisdom: you’ll be more productive, you’ll save time, you can build anything you like.

With this, there was encouragement to experiment, to reimagine daily workflows entirely. In some companies, AI use became a performance indicator, and out of this metric, tokenmaxxing entered. And then, thankfully, quickly left.

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“Tokenmaxxing doesn’t get you anywhere,” Shams Chauthani, chief technology officer at Tempo Software, told Tech.co in an exclusive interview.

However, one of the bigger mistakes Chauthani says he made when introducing AI, and one he still sees businesses making today, is assuming everybody needs to be a builder in the AI era.

“[It was] a waste of time, effort, and resources,” he told me. Instead, businesses should “train the tools, not the people.”

What this means practically, is knowing who your builders are from the go, and letting them create the benefit for everybody else.

Having AI Champions Isn’t a Bad Thing

When thought about in practice, having a dedicated group of AI builders that have built and know your company’s tools, makes complete sense for businesses battling limited time and resources.

On the one hand, while letting all workers build something out of AI encourages creativity, it also means taking the time to train each employee on how to build with AI. Time which many companies may find difficult to find.

Likewise, AI use is becoming expensive. Businesses need to understand immediately where their money is going, otherwise they risk overspending.

To be clear, we’re talking about AI builders here, not AI users. Training employees on how AI works and how it should be used is a non-negotiable, particularly as AI continues to pose serious security and privacy risks if deployed recklessly.

Leaders should provide the foundations for any employee using company AI and should ensure training is consistently monitored and updated as needed. Similarly, workers should be allowed to become experts if they want to.

However, Shauthani advised having dedicated team of experts, who can build the tools needed to push the company forward, and then share their findings with everyone else. It means impact can be immediately recognized and fostered.

Valuable Skills in the AI Era Go Beyond Using AI

In our interview, Chauthani acknowledged that the nature of work is changing.

“It’s changing from human-centric work to more of a collaboration between AI and humans.”

It’s likely we’ll see a collaborative structure between AI and humans in the future, and in some industries, the change is already happening.

However, in this new age of work, AI skills are not the only necessities. Not everybody needs to be a builder.

For example, decision-making and critical thinking abilities remain essential, as human judgement trumps AI output. Similarly, emotional intelligence, active listening, and communication remain paramount for building relationships between clients, consumers, and brands.

Good leaders provide opportunities for employees to upskill. The ability to build and deploy AI systems is undoubtedly a valuable one today, but human-focused skills remain vital as more and more work is offloaded.

The post Everyone Doesn’t Need to Be Building AI appeared first on Tech.co.

A new survey finds 82% of AI workers have stayed silent on safety concerns in internal meetings, partially due to fears around professional reputation.

Similarly, workers were found to be misaligned with leaders regarding AI’s capabilities. Nearly 1 in 4 say their company’s claims about AI are overstated.

Many AI workers said they’d leave their current company for one with a more honest public position. As more and more companies invest in AI, securing talent for AI companies appears to be as much about transparency as it is about a paycheck.

Workers Building AI Aren’t Speaking Up About Safety Concerns

Experts and cyber leaders alike have been speaking louder and louder about AI’s safety risks. However, it seems those working directly on the technology share the same sentiment.

In a new study from Movchan Agency, 82% of AI workers said they’d stayed quiet in an internal meeting about a safety, capability, or accuracy concerns, because it felt professionally risky. More than half (54%) say it has happened more than once.

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When asked why they had stayed silent, 42% said fear of being blacklisted in the industry, and 40% said fear of losing equity or vesting. The real leverage, as AI becomes more desirable within businesses, seems to be financial and reputational.

Despite this culture of silence, safety remains a top concern. 72% of those surveyed say they’d personally support a memorandum to pause AI capability advances, not unlike some of today’s top AI leaders.

“Most of the debate about trust in AI focuses on the public,” Neal Lathia, CTO and co-founder at Gradient Labs, told Tech.co in a recent interview. “The survey rightfully asks the people closest to the technology, which leads to an unsurprisingly uncomfortable answer.”

Leaders Are Overclaiming AI’s Capabilities

Not only are workers concerned for safety, the survey suggests a believability gap between leaders and workers linked to AI’s capabilities.

Of the surveyed workers building AI today, 23% believe their own company’s claims about the technology’s capabilities are overstated. Almost 2% say capabilities are substantially overstated.

Worker skepticism is rising, but it’s mostly doing so in private. 81% of workers have had conversations with colleagues about company concerns that they have not raised directly with leadership.

AI hasn’t exactly swept the world silently. It has inspired tales of mass job losses, global cyber attacks, and the end of human civilization. With a technology that claims so many headlines, the capability expectations are as high as the level of investment.

So, it’s understandable that speaking out would carry risk. However, companies can’t survive on hype alone. Workers need to be able to trust leaders and what they’re building.

“Leadership is the core to inspiring their organization’s trust in investments in AI and they can do so by being clear about what the product does today and keeping that separate from the product roadmap,” Lathia told us. “Most of the overclaiming that I encounter stems from blurring those two ends.”

Company Direction and Dishonesty Among Workers’ Reasons for Leaving

A lack of belief in a company’s mission is enough for workers to consider leaving, the data finds. 77% of respondents say a colleague has privately told them they’re considering leaving over the company’s direction or honesty.

Similarly, 87% of AI workers would leave their current job for a company with a more honest public position, suggesting transparency and trust are key for AI workers.

“It is a crowded market where every company is looking in the same pool of talented AI professionals,” Lathia said, “but being honest about what your product can do may be one of the best hiring advantages in your arsenal.”

Ultimately, businesses should focus on being honest with employees about what it is they’re building, and foster a culture of communication that treats raising concerns as a necessary part of the process.

The post Study: 82% of AI Workers Stay Quiet on Safety appeared first on Tech.co.

Personal agents are emerging as the next big wave of AI. Products from Meta and OpenAI indicate a new age for consumers, where agents are able to act on their behalf and make purchase decisions.

The agents, however, face a varied response. Some retailers, such as Walmart, are openly encouraging agentic attendance to their site. On the other hand, Amazon is among those keeping its doors shut.

Several studies indicate hyper-personalized, agentic AI assistants are the future of commerce. Yet, resistance remains high, from both websites and consumers themselves.

Consumer AI Enters a New Chapter

Most recently, Meta’s new Muse agent changed how consumers can use AI to make purchase decisions. Muse goes beyond answering questions – it can operate largely on a user’s behalf.

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As a result, users are handing over information such as credit card numbers and home addresses, so agents can book flights, make dinner reservations, and more.

Agent usage, according to data from HUMAN, is high. Meta’s Muse, released only last month, accounts for an average of 72% of daily AI-agent requests. Among these requests, 84% target product and search pages.

Businesses Have Mixed Reactions to AI Agents

While some retailers have welcomed agents to their site, others have put their walls up. Most notably, Amazon made headlines for blocking Meta’s Muse, preventing it from browsing and making purchases on users’ behalf.

Users found that an error message would appear each time they tried to make a purchase using an agent: “Continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed.”

Of course, Amazon has its own set of agentic AI tools, so blocking Muse could be for this reason. However, it’s not the only website where users have faced issues: Delta Airlines, Yelp, eBay, Pizza Hut, and Adidas have faced similar complaints.

On the other hand, retailer and Amazon competitor Walmart has taken a different stance. It has even launched its own Agentic Gateway, allowing it to manage transactions and other features when an agent enters its site.

Walmart is also set to introduce Agent Profiles, which will allow customers to authorize each AI agent they use with a dedicated account profile.

Earlier this month, Meta announced it was working on an open standard with Walmart, an existing partner, as well as other businesses including Stripe. The standard will dictate how AI agents can communicate with businesses, and how good bots (like Meta’s AI agents) can be separated from bad bots.

In a blog post, Meta also said the protocol will be focused on agent-to-agent communication for the purposes of online commerce.

Are Agents the Future of Commerce?

In a post on Substack titled “Why We’re Building Muse,” Meta’s Chief of AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, wrote of grand possibilities: “Now imagine every person on earth with a second mind beyond their own. A general manager whose whole job it is to find out what you want and make sure it happens.”

The future that AI leaders predict for us, in some way, is already taking shape. In this future, humans will no longer be burdened with chores like rescheduling appointments or comparing mattress prices.

With sales of Muse booming, it’s natural to assume more hyper-personalized AI assistants will follow, particularly from competitors.

And, there may very well be an audience for them. According to Adobe’s 2026 holiday shopping report, AI-driven traffic to retail sites is expected to increase 130% year over year during the holiday season.

Likewise, another study from Adobe found almost half (49%) of organizations expect customers to eventually prefer AI agents as their primary way of interacting with brands. Although, only 19% of customers agreed with this.

Security warnings about AI continue to mount, which may mean consumers are less likely to use AI with their personal information, including card details. Plus, if major retailers like Amazon and eBay continue their resistance, this could slow things down.

For the moment, we’re yet to see agentic AI completely overhaul commerce, but for now, it’s definitely in the picture.

The post Personalized AI Agents Are Taking Over Commerce appeared first on Tech.co.

Zoho Books is the best accounting software overall for sole traders and micro-businesses due to its superior reconciliation tools, lower starting price, and intuitive interface.

However, when it comes to deciding between the two, the victor will ultimately depend on your specific needs. While Xero took me a bit more time to get to grips with, I found that its advanced cash flow management features and its generous user limits make it a better choice for growing businesses, those managing complex financial processes, and those yielding high profits.

Xero and Zoho Books are some of the best accounting software for small businesses, but they both excel in different areas. To help you choose between the two, we offer a granular comparison of their accounting features, user experience, pricing plans, and more.

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		Tech.co review score	Starting price	Free trial	Best for	Core Benefit	Pros	Cons	Payroll processing	Office 365 integration	Phone support	Try now
Zoho Books	Xero
4.8	4.6
Free	$27/month $5.40/month for the first 3 months
14 days	30 days
Integrations	Experienced accountants and established businesses with complex financial needs
Strong automation features	Online integrations
Extensive data import/export features Time tracking tools with billable hours conversion Highly effective transaction documentation	Over 1,000 third party integrations Useful client portal for self-service needs Robust fixed asset tracking functionality
Higher than average transaction fees No customer support outside business hours Limited non-Zoho integrations	Steep learning curve for advanced features Outdated, poorly designed interface Must give one-month notice before cancellation
close	check
check	check
check	close
Try Zoho Books	Try Xero now

Xero vs Zoho Books: At a Glance

Xero and Zoho Books are both leading accounting platforms, but it’s safe to say their specialisms lie in different areas. Here’s a summary of how the providers compare head-to-head.

• Overall, Zoho Books offers slightly stronger core accounting than Xero, due to its superior journal entry and financial reconciliation tools.
• Zoho Books places stringent user limits on all of its plans; all of Xero’s plans welcome unlimited users, making it the most cost-effective provider for large teams.
• Zoho Books’s clean interface and straightforward navigation make its learning curve much shallower than Xero’s.
• Zoho Books’s entry price is lower than Xero’s ($15/user/month compared to $27/user/month), and Zoho Books offers a free plan, making it the more affordable option overall. However, Xero is currently running a special deal that gives businesses 90% off its plans for the first six months.
• While both providers boast useful cash flow projection tools, Zoho Books alerts users about potential cash shortfalls, making it the better choice for businesses with unpredictable revenue streams.
• Zoho Books’ support options are excellent, letting you reach out via phone lines, email, live agent, and AI chatbot, while Xero requires you to solve problems independently through its user forums and a knowledge center.
• Both providers let you connect with heaps of third-party apps, but Xero’s app marketplace is around double the size, offering 1,000+ options, compared to Zoho Books’ selection of 500+.

Who is Xero better for?

• Users with prior experience using accounting software
• Businesses managing complex workflows
• Businesses yielding high profits, with lots of clients
• Businesses interested in integrating their accounting software with specific applications

Who is Zoho Books best for?

• New business accounting software for the first time
• Self-employed workers or micro businesses wanting to get started for free
• Retailers who want to manage their inventory effectively
• Businesses already using one of Zoho’s services

Xero vs Zoho Books: Top Features Comparison

Xero and Zoho Books are both brimming with useful bookkeeping and financial management features. Yet, after putting the providers through their paces in our research and user testing, I found they excel in different areas.

Read on to see how Xero and Zoho Books’ features compare head to head.

Tax management: It’s a tie

After pitting Xero’s and Zoho Book’s tax management features against each other, they performed similarly well. Both providers let you calculate taxes and assign taxes to different categories, and offer support for different tax types like VAT, income tax, and CIS.

Xero and Zoho Books both automatically update taxes as regulations change too, helping businesses stay up to date with compliance without having to make manual amendments. Unfortunately, neither platform provides tools that assist with tax forecasting, though, so if you’re in need of this capability, I’d recommend opting for FreeAgent instead.

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Financial reconciliation: Zoho Books

Zoho Books outperforms Xero in financial reconciliation by providing native, in-house bill scanning, whereas Xero requires third-party add-ons like Scan2Invoice.

That said, both providers sync with multiple bank accounts, send receipts following transactions, and refund customers, making them both reliable choices for businesses serious about keeping their finances in check.

Invoicing: It’s a tie

Xero and Zoho Books also score neck-and-neck in our research on invoice management. Both providers let you keep on top of payments by setting up recurring invoices, automating invoice and quote sending, and supporting multi-currency invoices.

Users can also see when clients have viewed an invoice and automatically send them reminders, to ensure they’re never getting short-changed.

Both providers let you customize your invoices with your company branding too – from your logo to custom color scheme – helping you to maintain professionalism with clients. Xero even lets you automate invoice processing with AI, eliminating the need for you to tackle piles of admin manually.

Cash flow forecasting: Xero

Xero wins in the cash flow forecasting category thanks to its cash flow projection tool, which provides users with visibility into how cash balances will rise and fall in response to expected transitions.

Zoho Books also offers cash flow forecasts to help users plan for future bumps in the road, but I didn’t find it as intuitive as Xero’s.

Financial planning: Zoho Books

Zoho Books is better at helping businesses plan their finances. Unlike Xero, Zoho Books alerts users about potential cash shortfalls and surpluses, and is capable of creating ‘what-if’ scenarios to help businesses prepare for future financial outcomes.

For these reasons, I recommend Zoho Books over Xero for businesses intent on growing, as well as those dealing with fluctuating demands.

AI automation: Xero

Xero floors Zoho Books in AI automation. Not only does the platform offer useful AI-powered insights to help users identify important trends and anomalies in financial data, but the platform also lets users automatically categorize budgets and forecasts, saving workers from having to carry out these tasks manually.

Zoho Books offers a handful of AI-powered features, including proactive error detection and automated financial reconciliation, but its capabilities are nowhere near as advanced as Xero’s.

Third-party integrations: Xero

Xero is your safest bet if your business needs to integrate your accounting platform with niche systems. Xero offers the best App Store out of any other accounting provider we researched, with over 1000 third-party integrations available for businesses to choose from.

Xero adds new entries regularly too, and lets users create their own integrations using APIs, making the potential of the system feel limitless, especially compared to platforms without established app stores like Clear Books.

Both providers let you customize your invoices with your company branding too – from your logo to a custom color scheme – helping you to maintain professionalism with clients. Xero even lets you automate invoice processing with AI, eliminating the need for you to tackle piles of admin manually.

Help and Support: Xero

Xero’s support center is head-and-shoulders better than Zoho Books‘, due to its round-the-clock availability.

Xero lets you get in touch with a member of its customer support 24/7 by using the Contact Xero Support button at the bottom of its online articles. The provider also offers a wide range of support articles and an AI-generated search results feature, which helps provide you with relevant information quickly.

Zoho Books, on the other hand, lets paid users resolve queries by email, phone, and chat — while free users will be restricted to email options only. The clincher is that its live chat and phone channels are only available from 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday, making the platform less useful than Xero for businesses operating outside of traditional business hours like restaurants and hotels.

Check out our guide to the best accounting software for hotels to learn how sector-specific providers when it comes to support, price, and more.

Xero vs Zoho Books: Ease of Use

Zoho Books is much easier to use than Xero. After testing out both systems firsthand, I found Zoho Books’s interface to be much more modern than Xero’s, which was quite dated and clunky in comparison.

Zoho’s well-signposted sidebar helped me locate features quickly, and its dashboard houses all the important insights small businesses need, without overcomplicating it. In comparison, navigating Xero felt like an uphill battle, due to its poorly designed dashboard and lack of visual indicators when I completed tasks.

While carrying out some processes with Xero, like uploading receipt images and creating bills, was straightforward, simple tasks like importing clients or changing currency were unnecessarily complicated.

Xero’s saving grace was that when I did encounter an issue, I was able to resolve it quite quickly through its useful help and support resources. Ultimately, I still concluded that Zoho Books’ slicker interface made it much easier to use overall, making the platform better suited to businesses managing simple bookkeeping tasks and novice accounting software users.

Xero vs Zoho Books: Pricing Plans

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly or free accounting system, I’d definitely point you in the direction of Zoho Books.

Zoho Books offers a total of five plans: Standard ($15 per month), Professional ($40/user/month), Premium ($60/user/month), Ultimate ($120/user/month), and Elite ($240/user/ month). The provider also lets you get started for completely free with its Free plan.

In contrast, Xero only offers three: Early ($27/user/month), Growing ($59/user/month), and Established ($97/user/month). As you can see, Xero’s entry price is slightly higher than Zoho Books. However, the provider is currently running a promotional deal that gives businesses 90% off all its pricing plans for the first six months, bringing its entry price down to just $2.70/user/month.

Read on to learn more about how Xero and Zoho Books’ pricing plans compare, and to see their plans side-by-side.

Zoho Books’ entry-level plan is cheaper

Zoho Books’ paid plans start from $15/user/month, which is $12 lower than Xero’s entry price of $27/user/month. While this margin may not seem too big, it will make a difference for small businesses requiring decent accounting features while wanting to keep overheads as low as possible.

This being said, Xero’s cheapest paid plan, Early, does offer a number of features that Zoho Books Standard lacks, including short-term cash flow forecasts and unlimited invoicing, making it a better deal for businesses that require these capabilities.

Zoho Books offers a free plan

Unlike Xero, Zoho Books has a completely free plan tailored towards solopreneurs and micro businesses. The Free plan gives you access to a decent raft of bookkeeping features, including invoice creation, automated payment reminders, and receipt tracking, but limits access to one user.

If you want to test out Xero before committing to a subscription, the provider does offer a 30-day free plan, compared to Zoho Books’, which only lasts 14 days.

If you’re able to make do without some basic accounting features with a permanently free version, you can also check out our guide to the best free accounting software.

The average price of Xero’s plans is lower

While Zoho Books offers more affordable options for smaller businesses, the average price of its plans ($79.17/user/month) is actually quite a lot higher than Xero’s. This is because while Xero’s priciest plan – Established – is capped at $97/user/month, Zoho Books offers two premium plans – Elite and Ultimate – which come in at $120/user/month and $240/user/month, respectively.

This isn’t necessarily a negative, though, as for businesses that can afford it, Zoho Books’ priciest tier offers some stand-out features that Xero lacks, like 50+ Pre-built data visualizations, and KPI tracking.

Xero’s plans have more generous user limits

Unlike Zoho Books, which places stringent user limits on all of its paid plans, none of Xero’s plans cap user numbers. This is pretty unprecedented for accounting software, with most of the other platforms we’ve researched placing some kind of user limits on most of their plans.

Xero’s generous user caps will benefit businesses with large teams the most, as they won’t be required to upgrade to a pricier plan to give lots of users access to the software.

How Did We Compare Xero vs Zoho Books?

The post Xero vs Zoho Books: Which Accounting Platform Is Best For You? appeared first on Tech.co.

AI worms are self-replicating computer programs, able to spread across devices without having to trick a human, and learning about new threats as they develop.

A new report from Anthropic listed smaller devices connected to the internet as particularly vulnerable to attacks, such as smart TVs, as they are patched less often and less rigorously.

Businesses should focus on basic security hygiene and anticipate future AI-powered cyber attacks by keeping a human-in-the-loop.

What Are AI Worms and Where Did the Term Come From?

AI worms are self-replicating programs that spread autonomously through devices connected to the internet, usually with malicious intent.

The threat was first identified in a new report from Anthropic. Researchers explained how a program was able to “split” parts of itself among 15 Android TV boxes, and could function by using a small amount of power from each device.

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Though the name is comical, worms are not a new cyber phenomenon. Traditionally, they are simply self-replicating computer viruses, that don’t need to trick a human in order to spread.

However, according to Mitchell Spicer, cofounder and COO of Revelion AI, the real concern with AI worms isn’t how fast they can spread: “It is that AI could make it cheaper to find weaknesses, identify new targets and exploit connection between systems.”

“The more connected an environment is, the more potential routes an attacker may have,” Spicer told us.

What Kind of Threat do AI Worms Pose?

Traditional worms have caused plenty of upset in the past, however, the threat is different now that AI is involved. Stanislav Kazanov, head of strategic practices at Innowise, a software development company, explains the difference:

“Traditionally a worm exploited a specific vulnerability and defenders neutralized it by plugging that specific hole,” he told Tech.co. “An agent-based worm reads the guidelines for exploiting vulnerabilities in publications and customizes its behavior for every new system.”

The real concern, therefore, with AI-based worms, is that they will be able to learn from past behavior and adapt themselves to keep up with whatever defenses are in place.

In particular, Anthropic identifies smart devices as those facing the biggest threat. These devices have generally weaker security measures in place, and are patched with new measures less often than phones or laptops.

Anthropic’s list of susceptible devices included smart ovens, smart TVs, security cameras, and video-conferencing units.

Kazanov agreed that these kinds of devices are most vulnerable, “since they are never patched, never monitored, and typically sit on the same network as everything else.”

The report comes at a time where security concerns around AI are seriously mounting. Several AI leaders, including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have even called for development of the technology to slow down so security can be properly addressed.

How You Can Defend Yourself

Capabilities develop quickly in the world of AI, and it’s always wise to always keep an eye on what’s coming. Anthropic believes these AI worms are only months away as AI starts to gain these “self-replicating” capabilities.

I’ve spoken to many cybersecurity experts about how leaders can manage this change, and the biggest advice remains doubling down on the basics. Ensure you’re following best practice, like enabling two-factor authentication, and you’re already off to a strong start.

Furthermore, Kazanov advises businesses to not forget about the human-in-the-loop. For fighting AI worms specifically, he notes: “Consider anything an AI model reads or writes as tainted data and forbid the use of any assistants to send emails, messages, or documents without a human having to approve the action.”

However, Kazanov also acknowledges that more lasting change is needed in the world of policy to address these new risks. “The current mindset is to believe that control of the large-scale models controls the risk.

“The evidence indicates the opposite: the risks lie with small-scale and freely available models that anyone can run anywhere,” he said.

What’s most obvious is that while AI has brought a lot of exciting times, it could also bring dangerous ones – and we should be prepared to deal with the consequences as well as revel in the triumphs.

The post What Are AI Worms and Should You Be Worried? appeared first on Tech.co.