The job you studied for? AI may soon have it.

Good morning. The highest-stakes thing my sibling and I ever co-owned was a video game console. “We will share it,” we said. We did not. Within days, our parents had to mediate. The dispute was never truly settled — not that I’m bitter about it.

So, us running a business together? Unlikely. Meanwhile, Business Insider spoke with two brothers who’ve cracked the code. Here are the three rules they swear by to keep the peace while running multiple companies.

In today’s big story, a shift that could create a new wave of nimble, fast-moving companies — while leaving workers to face fewer jobs and limited career paths.

What’s on deck:

Markets: Dealmaking on Wall Street is so back — but hiring isn’t.

Tech: More young tech founders are staying sober to focus on the grind.

Business: The former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA give their first joint interview since resigning.

But first, big businesses need fewer people

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The big story

The end of the mega-employer

How many people do you employ? Once, the bigger the number, the more impressive the answer. But perhaps not anymore.

With the rise of AI, pretty much every CEO overseeing a large white-collar workforce is hoping to achieve the same thing sooner or later, BI’s Aki Ito writes.

Andy Jassy said it in a blunt message to staff in June. JPMorgan, Klarna, and Ford all agreed: there are going to be fewer workers in the near future.

This shift has been happening for a while. Remember in 2022 when Meta announced it was cutting 11,000 workers in a single blow? Virtually every tech company then started trimming its ranks. Other industries were close behind.

At first, the narrative was simple. Pandemic overhiring. Market correction. Then back to normal. But the cuts kept coming. Months passed, then years. The hiring never quite came back. More and more, AI appears to be driving those austerity measures, Aki writes.

This is probably just the beginning.

That’s according to J. Scott Hamilton, CEO of workforce analytics provider Live Data. His team analyzed the share of tasks at Microsoft that could theoretically be handled by AI. The finding: Microsoft could eliminate up to 80,000 jobs, which is 36% of its workforce.

“The optimists are saying that the good companies will simply redeploy the assets elsewhere now that they can be more efficient,” Hamilton says. “But I think an equal argument can be made that they’ll just say, ‘We’re going to do the same amount with fewer people.'”

Meanwhile, America’s education system continues to churn out graduates trained for a world of white-collar stability that may be quietly vanishing. If the future of work is built around doing more with less, who will hire them?

There are reasons to be hopeful, however. If startups can launch with leaner teams, we may see more of them. New businesses tend to employ people with less experience and fewer credentials, Aki writes. They also create more competition for the established giants, which is good for consumers.

What comes next could be faster, leaner, and more efficient. For many people, this could also mean the jobs they were promised may disappear before they ever begin.

3 things in markets

1. The $1 billion cottage industry that’s cashing in on the retail trading craze. Businesses are offering courses, retreats, coaching, and other services that claim to improve traders’ performance, getting them in the right mindset to turn a profit. The demand is booming among retail traders looking to go full-time, improve, or who are simply bored, sources in the space told BI.

2. Dealmaking is back, but hiring isn’t following suit. Wall Street has been cautiously optimistic after big banks recently reported better-than-expected dealmaking returns. Emphasis on cautious, though: There’s still a wave of uncertainty that hasn’t retreated, and it’s slowing hiring. Plus, some banks are still cutting jobs behind the scenes, BI has learned.

3. How banks are staving off private equity poachers. Wall Street firms from Bank of America to JPMorgan have adopted different policies to keep junior bankers from taking future-dated buy-side jobs. Those policies range from reassigning juniors to firing them.

3 things in tech

1. No, Instagram is not secretly sharing your location. After Instagram rolled out a new map and location-sharing feature this week, users fretted that the app was automatically showing everyone where they were posting from. That’s not true — but the panic shows just how much people distrust Meta, writes BI’s Peter Kafka.

2. In Silicon Valley, it’s cool to be sober. Young tech founders are ditching alcoholic drinks at parties and other social gatherings. The choice goes beyond personal preference: The appearance of staying sober is important in the industry’s health-focused grind culture.

3. Apple risks a “BlackBerry Moment.” A usually bullish analyst warned Apple is in danger of repeating its old rival’s mistakes. The iPhone replaced the BlackBerry as the hot cellphone of choice more than a decade ago, and Apple could risk its pole position in tech if it doesn’t pivot fast enough with AI.

3 things in business

1. Life after Miss USA. Noelia Voigt and UmaSofia Srivastava were the first Miss USA and Miss Teen USA to resign their titles. They told BI’s Anneta Konstantinides what they think about the future of the organization they left — as well as what’s in store for each of them — in their first joint interview since stepping down.

2. Gen Z is looking for love in the office. As workers have returned to office buildings, they’ve taken their quest for love with them. Although workplace romances have risks, younger generations are more likely to take them, thanks to dating app fatigue and a desire for a slow burn.

3. Can (A)I take your order? Elon Musk’s Tesla Diner might’ve been onto something. Expect many fast-food and fast-casual restaurants to go cashless and feature fewer human servers, industry insiders told BI. They shared how AI will reshape the restaurant experience.

In other news

• Diddy’s bid to avoid prison: He’ll become a domestic abuse counselor.
• A rising star commodities trader is out at Jain Global.
• They’re in their 80s, still working, and living paycheck to paycheck.
• Top Amazon sellers agree that succeeding in e-commerce in 2025 means looking to TikTok Shop: “It’s explosive.”
• Inside KPMG’s lavish Florida “Lakehouse,” where interns get drumming parades, soft-serve ice cream, and mini-golf.
• Costco Wholesale salaries revealed: How much the company pays software engineers and other tech workers.

Readers told us how they use AI in their job search — or why they avoid it.

What’s happening today

• Federal court bench trial on whether President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles was legal.

• Ford Motor event in Kentucky to share plans to design and build electric vehicles in the US.

  Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York (on parental leave).

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