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Issue #7 05.08.2026
The weekly standup
Everything you need to know before you have to microwave your coffee for the first time.
🧠
The internet is learning to live without clicks
🤖
Big AI wants to close the doors
👴
Retirement is getting ghosted
The office chatter ☕
What everyone’s pretending not to read during meetings.
🤖
The AI industry is having a custody battle
OpenAI and Anthropic want tighter controls on open-source AI, while Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and others are pushing back. At stake: who gets to build, access and profit from the next generation of AI.
💸
Alberta just made AI a cost-of-doing-business
Alberta says AI is changing how it buys technology, with government contractors expected to show how they’re using AI to improve speed and efficiency. Vendors that don’t adapt could find it harder to win future government work.
The breakroom bulletin 📌
What’s hot, what’s not and what’s all for show.
Getting promoted
🌉
Canada just built a shortcut to the U.S.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is expected to generate billions in economic benefits. After years of waiting, Canadian businesses finally get to see what the $6.4B bet delivers.
Source: CBC News
🏪
Apparently, the internet isn’t winning
Independent retailers are growing faster than online-only businesses. Turns out, being close to your customers can still be one hell of a competitive advantage.
Source: Retail Insider
On a PIP
🌐
The internet has a traffic problem
AI summaries are answering questions without sending people to the websites that supplied the information. For businesses built around search traffic, that’s a pretty serious problem.
Source: CBC News
👴
Retirement is getting ghosted
Canadians are staying in the workforce longer. For employers, the retirement plan is starting to look less like an exit strategy and more like a moving target.
Source: Benefits Canada
Corporate Theatre
🧪
The wellness industry has been put on trial
Canadians are increasingly checking wellness claims before buying. Turns out, slapping “science-backed” on the label isn’t enough anymore.
Source: Retail Insider
🤝
Zuckerberg thinks we’re all getting AI employees
Mark Zuckerberg predicts billions of people will have personal AI agents within five years. The future apparently comes with a very large headcount.
Source: TechCrunch
Ideas worth stealing
📚
The algorithm has competition
As the internet gives us more things to buy than ever, people are paying for human curation. The rise of the “book sommelier” is a reminder that expertise beats an endless list of options.
Source: The Peak
🪄
The donut is now merchandise
Tim Hortons is turning its Harry Potter collab into a full-blown experience. The lesson? Give people something to participate in, not just something to buy.
Source: Retail Insider
What I can’t stop thinking about 🧠
What happens when the job breaks the people doing it?
📖
The story
A new survey found 10% of Canadian ER doctors have left the specialty, while nearly half have cut their hours. The problem? Crushing workloads and the toll they’re taking on the people keeping emergency rooms running.
📶
The signal
We spend a lot of time talking about attracting talent, retaining talent and filling talent gaps. But there’s a more uncomfortable question: what happens when the way a job is designed makes good people decide they don’t want to do it anymore?
🛫
The takeaway
Workplace strain isn’t just an employee wellbeing problem. It’s a workforce problem. If the answer to every staffing shortage is asking the people who stayed to work harder, eventually there won’t be enough people left to ask.
Smart people saying smart things 💬
One post, tweet or take that’s making people in the world of work stop scrolling.
This week, entrepreneur, investor, and Dragon’s Den star Robert Herjavec shared a reminder that setbacks aren’t necessarily a sign you’re on the wrong path. Sometimes, they’re just part of the price of building something that matters.
My music at work 🎵
One song helping us survive another week of impromptu Slack huddles.
The last thing before we jump 🦘
There’s a funny thing happening at work right now. A $54 million contract can become a $2.5 million one. A doctor can decide the workload isn’t worth it, and a small retailer can outperform the internet.
None of these stories are really about technology, healthcare or search. They’re about friction. The businesses that win won’t necessarily be the ones with the biggest budgets or the fanciest technology. They’ll be the ones that figure out where people are getting stuck: and remove it before someone else does.
See you next week.
Forward this to the coworker who always sends you the best memes. Consider this payback.
