Page Crahan, general manager of Tapestry at Google’s X, the Moonshot Factory, said that AI is becoming as ubiquitous among businesses as energy. “Would you ever ask a business owner if they use math?” Crahan asked.

Gordon Bitko, IT Industry Council executive vice president of policy, said energy and AI are inextricably linked. “AI uses a lot of power, so the answer is: Let’s use more AI to figure out how to use less energy,” Bitko said. Industry has used AI technology for years to determine ways to be more efficient, so this sounds like a paradox. AI is being used to create hardware that can process data better, and it only makes sense to use AI to determine the best ways to generate power, optimize workloads and automate data centers.

Crahan’s project is building an AI-powered, unified platform for the electric grid. Crahan said Tapestry is essentially creating “Google Maps for electrons” to figure out and predict what’s happening throughout the grid. And the rise of AI— which she called a wonderful tool for helping solve extremely complex problems with data—is coming at the perfect time. 

But while AI can find solutions, it comes back to the question of power. Bitko said that for AI to do its best, the U.S. needs to de-risk investment in the technologies that can improve performance and capacity for energy infrastructure, as well as get the critical materials available to build them. China has not been waiting to move forward, Bilko said, and the U.S. shouldn’t either. 

Crahan added that there’s another key to making quick advancements: People talking to one another and sharing their solutions. This isn’t just a matter of companies and countries talking, but also people from different parts of organizations communicating and understanding one another. 

“It’s really on us to take those actions forward, and that is what gives me a lot of optimism is this community is here for the change and we help each other,” Crahan said. “We want to drive change, and I think that’s really special.”

Honeywell Global Regions CEO Anant Maheshwari moderated the discussion, in which Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-N.D.) also participated.

Many companies are asking their employees to return to the office this year, but there are still fully remote companies. I spoke with Ann Schlemmer, CEO of software company Percona, about why her employees will not be asked to report to an office anytime soon. An excerpt from our conversation appears later in this newsletter.

Until next time.

Even though these are positive metrics, they don’t necessarily indicate a recovering economy. While stocks have recovered from their low point in early April, markets are still down since Donald Trump’s presidency began in late January—the S&P is now 5% lower. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s first 100 days in office have been the worst for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 since President Richard Nixon’s second term in 1973.

While there was more job growth than expected, a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that layoffs are way up—April’s cuts were up 63% compared to a year ago, and the more than 600,000 layoffs so far in 2025 are 87% higher than at this point in 2024. The firm found that 48% of the layoffs were tied to cuts made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Forbes senior contributor Teresa Ghilarducci found troubling signs for employment underneath the strong job creation numbers. Worker confidence is down: 11.8% of the unemployed had left their jobs, down from 13.2% in January. Payroll numbers only increased by 0.3%, though inflation is much higher. Long-term unemployment is on the rise—1.9% of unemployed people have been without work for 15 weeks or longer, up from 1.4% in January.

The economy as a whole also contracted significantly in the first quarter. According to the Bureau of Economic Research, GDP was down 0.3% compared with the last three months of 2024. That’s a drop from steady previous growth—GDP was up 2.4% in Q4—and the weakest growth since Q1 of 2022. Much of the drop in GDP came from fewer imports, as sweeping tariffs loom. And while the Trump administration has touted deals in progress—including talks to reduce a 145% tariff on China—nothing has been announced and Beijing says it is evaluating whether to negotiate. Tariffs are already reducing the amounts of goods shipped to the U.S. from China, setting the stage for fewer items on shelves in coming months, writes Forbes senior contributor Pamela Danziger.

Last week, the Trump Administration also eliminated the de minimis trade exemption, which allowed low-cost items from online retailers, including Temu and Shein, to be shipped to the U.S. duty-free. Now, items from those retailers are seeing a 145% tariff, more than doubling prices for U.S. consumers. Meanwhile, several companies anticipating a negative impact from tariffs for the rest of the year have reduced their estimates or pulled guidance.

Abel, a 62-year-old Canadian who’s been with Berkshire since it acquired MidAmerican Energy in 1999, will have big shoes to fill. Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” is an American legend for his shrewdness in investing. Even this year prior to Buffett’s announcement, Berkshire’s stock is up 19%, nearly matching its compounded annual gain of 19.9% from 1965 to 2024.

This isn’t to say that C-suites across the board are getting the AI skills they need. About four in 10 leaders said their top team is preventing AI adoption, citing reasons like lack of training, no change management plan, and failure to be convinced of AI’s ROI. LinkedIn and Microsoft have opened several AI skills courses, making them free of charge for several months. The time spent gaining AI skills is likely to pay off. LinkedIn found that 51% of organizations that adopted generative AI reported revenue increases of at least 10%.

Everyone knows that AI can be used to make business processes run more efficiently, but there are other uses, including research, creativity and outreach, which make it even more valuable. Here’s