• In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the potential for AI to destroy entry-level jobs.
• The big story: Who is paying to eat with Trump at his crypto dinner?
• The markets: Up, up, and up!
• Analyst notes from Macquarie, HSBC, and Wedbush on the U.S.-China trade deal, and Pantheon on “tariff frontloading.”
• Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. AI is disrupting entry-level jobs. While most CEOs are focused on upskilling their workforce, several have told me they’re reluctant to hire junior staff whose work can be done by AI agents. Companies are posting fewer internships—down 15% from two years ago, according to Handshake—and hiring fewer young people once those internships are done. Economic volatility plays a role but AI risks replacing what junior analysts, consultants, and other knowledge workers typically do.
Suzanne Clark, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reflected on the consequences when we spoke yesterday. “What happens if you don’t hire a generation of people? How do you create that next layer of leadership? If you have machines doing entry-level work, how do you develop culture?”
One answer is to reinforce the importance of mentoring and developing young leaders. I just read Who Believed in You? by prominent banker Dina Powell McCormick and Sen. David McCormick (R-Pa), who write about the power that mentors played in their lives and the lives of leaders like Satya Nadella and Tory Burch. McCormick talked to me about how 99-year-old Henry Kissinger encouraged him to run for the Senate while Powell McCormick stressed the transformational role that former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein played in the decade she reported to him.
“You have to take an interest in building the next generation; it’s perhaps the greatest legacy any of us could have,” said Powell McCormick: “Every CEO and every board member should be asking, what kind of mentoring culture do we have in this company?”
And maybe you have to hire differently. Jasper.ai’s CEO Timothy Young told me recently that, “With the commoditization of intelligence, it’s not about having the smartest people anymore. It’s about developing your staff to have management skills because every employee in the next 12 months is going to have a series of agents that are helping them do their work.” Young, for one, hires for curiosity and resilience. “There is a lot of power in the junior employees but you can’t leverage them the same way that you would in the past.”
More news below.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
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Fortune Most Powerful Women is going global with its first ever Middle East summit taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 20–21. Join speakers including former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May; Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen; Rashida Jones, former MSNBC president; Julie Brill, Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Vice President, Global Privacy, Safety, and Regulatory Affairs at Microsoft; and many more to discuss the key forces shaping the global business landscape. Find more information here. |
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Realizing the Value in Smart Manufacturing In an era where increased capacity can set companies apart, smart manufacturing can drive advantage. Deloitte's Smart Manufacturing and Operations study reveals that smart manufacturing investments have led to significant improvements in production output, employee productivity, and unlocked capacity. However, companies must set their sights on the right investment and implementation strategies to create value. Read the insights here. |
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Trump’s memecoin dinner is likely dominated by foreign interests. On May 22, the president will have dinner with the top 220 buyers of the $TRUMP cryptocurrency. Fortune can report that 18 out of the top 25 buyers have transacted with Binance, a foreign crypto exchange that excludes Americans. The guests will include Chinese crypto billionaire Justin Sun and Australian investor Kain Warwick. “The competition is fierce. Own $TRUMP—or watch from the sidelines,” the $TRUMP site says of the event.
Republicans uneasy with Qatari gift plane. Not everyone is on board with the idea of accepting Qatar’s offer of replacing Air Force One with a $400 million jet, free of charge. Qatar has financially backed the terror group Hamas. "I don't know how you make it safe,” Senator Rick Scott told The Hill. “I don't want the president of the United States flying on an unsafe plane."
Trump is in Saudi Arabia this morning on a tour of the Middle East, including Qatar. He is not visiting Israel.
Let the frontloading begin! Companies are scrambling to order as much advance inventory as they can during the 90-day period in which tariffs on Chinese goods entering the U.S. are reduced to just 30%.
China guarding rare Earth metals. As trade negotiations between the U.S. and China enter a new phase, all eyes are on China’s highly sought-after supply of rare Earth metals. China put in place harsher export controls on these resources after President Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement last month, and analysts say the country will likely continue to use this negotiation tactic strategically.
Fake North Korean IT workers are infiltrating mundane remote work tasks in the West. Election website design, patio construction, home remodeling, and architectural design are among the jobs that have been taken by 100,000 North Korean workers in 40 countries, who make billions to fund the dictatorship’s weapons program.
UK prime minister’s house set on fire. Police have arrested a man after fires were set at Keir Starmer’s private residence in the Kentish Town neighborhood of London, an apartment house he also owns, and a car.
Elon Musk’s Boring Company is bidding to construct a tunnel for Amtrak, according to the NYT.
Most CEOs haven’t seen ROI on AI investments. A new IBM survey of global CEOs found that only 25% of their AI investments have provided the expected return on investment (ROI). 85% of those CEOs still say they believe AI efficiency and cost-cutting investments will bring a positive ROI by 2027.
Tyson appoints former CFO to board. Tyson Foods announced that they are adding former CFO John Randal Tyson and his sister Olivia Tyson to the company’s board. John Randal Tyson notably left the company’s C-Suite after pleading guilty to a DUI charge last summer, his second arrest on record.
The markets
• There was an almost universally positive reaction to the reduction in tariff levels in the U.S.-China trade war across global stock markets yesterday and today. The S&P 500 index went up 3.26% yesterday and it nearly erased its losses for the year (it is still down 0.64% YTD). But futures contracts on the index ticked lower this morning premarket—an indicator that some investors predict there will be some profit-taking sales when the markets open in New York. The Nasdaq Composite rose 4.35% (but is still down 3% YTD). Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.43% this morning. China’s CSI 300 closed up 0.15%. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.21% in early trading. Bitcoin is sitting at $102K.
From the analysts
• Macquarie on the U.S.-China trade deal: “Avoiding a severe slowdown was a goal of both sides, but the US has not abandoned its desire or intent to slow or stop China's rise to primacy in global economic, political, and military matters. The US is re-engaging with the world now through a kinder, gentler economic diplomacy than it did in March and early April - that's the 'Bessent brake'. And yet, the view of the US as a ‘full faith and credit’ counter-party won't return soon, given the damage caused by April's events,” per Thierry Wizman and Gareth Berry.
• Wedbush on the U.S.-China trade deal: “This is clearly just the start of a broader and more comprehensive negotiations, and we would expect both these tariff numbers to move down markedly over the coming months as deal talks progress. The baseline view heading into the weekend was some deescalation of US/China tariffs and the agreement for more talks....instead in a dream scenario this morning Bessent/Chinese came out of these talks with massive cuts to reciprocal tariffs and is a huge win for the market and bulls … we believe new highs for the market and tech stocks are now on the table in 2025,” per Daniel Ives and team.
• Pantheon on “tariff frontloading”: “Taiwan’s April trade data suggest tariff front-loading is continuing, despite earlier expectations that it would fade. Exports rose by 29.9% year-over-year, up from 18.6% in March. We had forecast a moderation to 17.0%, while consensus had expected 16.0%,” per Miguel Chanco and Meekita Gupta.
• HSBC on the China deal: “The swift moves to pull back the hefty tariffs will be most welcome from businesses on both sides, which had already been starting to feel the weight of the impact from the reciprocal tariffs since 9 April. The latest trade figures in China showed that direct exports to the US fell by 21% y-o-y in April, though overall exports outperformed as exports to other markets picked up the slack … For China, the 30% additional tariffs this year would be the equivalent to about a 0.9ppt drag on GDP,” per Jing Liu and Erin Xin.
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