What's up: Companies can’t find the workers they want; Microsoft’s CEO relinquishes some duties; Apple pulls back on VisionPro plans.

Good morning. Given all the pricey bets on artificial intelligence, it had to happen sooner or later. This week has seen some big announcements that push the pitch for AI enterprise applications beyond the sometimes hazy promise of improved productivity and into the easily quantifiable activity of getting people to buy stuff.

OpenAI this week said it is letting ChatGPT users buy things through the chatbot. And now Meta Platforms said it will start using people’s conversations with its AI chatbot to help personalize ads and content. The WSJ’s Meghan Bobrowsky describes the policy, set to go into effect Dec. 16, as “a crossing of a new frontier in digital privacy.”

Time to rethink those AI therapy sessions. “The change means that if users ask Meta’s AI chatbot for nearby hiking recommendations, for instance, they might start seeing ads on Instagram and Facebook for hiking boots or other gear, as well as hiking-related content from creators in their feeds,” Bobrowsky writes.

Users won't be able to opt out, but Meta says that certain conversations won’t be used to customize ads or content.

Personalized advertising is core to Meta’s revenue model and the company has made no secret of its expectation that AI will power all levers of its business, from improving ads, to giving people chatbot companions. And the company is spending heavily on talent and infrastructure to get there.

More to come. Google is experimenting with ads alongside AI features in search. Meanwhile social-media platform X has started using the Grok AI model of its parent company, xAI, to help better match ads to users.

AI is not (yet) scrambling the workplace, according to study. Contrary to what you may be hearing, the U.S. job market has yet to be significantly disrupted by AI, according to a study by Yale University’s Budget Lab.

“Overall, our metrics indicate that the broader labor market has not experienced a discernible disruption since ChatGPT’s release 33 months ago,” the researchers wrote.

Buckle up. At the same time, the researchers noted, adoption of gen AI remains in its early stages and the lack of disruption is "not unlike the pace of change with previous periods of technological disruption." 

Google Cloud this week cut more than 100 design-related jobs, CNBC reports.

The IT executive tasked with revamping how Tesla sells cars. Raj Jegannathan, who landed in the top tech spot at Tesla following the departure of longtime CIO Nagesh Saldi, knows AI infrastructure.

He also is an expert in customer service and sales. People close to the company tell the WSJ that Jegannathan now also oversees customer service and North American sales on top of his IT duties.

Notes the Journal: "The change signals Musk’s trust in Jegannathan, as well as the central role that tech will play as Tesla transitions its business away from selling electric vehicles and into selling robotics and artificial intelligence products."

Microsoft promoted sales chief Judson Althoff to CEO of its commercial business, with Althoff essentially overseeing a large swath of the technology giant’s operations, according to the Journal. Chief Executive Satya Nadella in a note to employees said the move will allow him to focus on AI and other technical work.

Hackers claiming to have compromised a suite of Oracle apps housing business and customer data, are extorting executives at a number of large organizations, Bloomberg reports. The hackers may belong to a ransomware outfit linked to other high-profile incidents, including the 2023 compromise of a popular file-transfer product.

Thinking Machines Lab, the startup co-founded by OpenAI's former CTO Mira Murati, just announced its first product, Tinker, which lets developers finetune open-source models on their own data, the Information reports. 

Apple has pulled staff working on a less expensive, lighter version of its VisionPro headset to focus on smartglasses, Bloomberg reports. Rival Meta Platforms currently leads the space, shipping about 2.8 million units of its Ray-Ban smartglasses over the past four quarters, according to IDC.

Intel is in talks with AMD to manufacture its chips, a deal that could boost the company's struggling foundry business, Semafor reports. 

Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix surged to multiyear highs after the South Korean memory-chip makers struck initial agreements with OpenAI to team up for the AI company's Stargate infrastructure initiative. No deal value was disclosed.

BlackBerry reported that its QNX automotive software grew sales by 15% in its latest quarter, helping total company sales rise about 3%.

The Trump administration is laying out a set of operating principles that it wants universities to agree to in exchange for preferential access to federal funds. (WSJ)

French authorities detained crew members of a tanker carrying Russian crude oil and are investigating whether it played a role in last week’s drone incursions in Denmark. (WSJ)

The U.S. shed 32,000 private-sector jobs in September, payroll-processing giant ADP said Wednesday. That is down from a revised loss of 3,000 in August. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected an increase of 45,000. (WSJ)

Jane Goodall, the British primatologist who studied chimpanzee behavior for decades in Africa, has died. She was 91. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.