1. CEO Fires Engineers Who Didn’t Try AI

When Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong discovered some engineers hadn't even tried the company's new AI coding assistants after a week, he took unprecedented action.

After posting a Slack mandate requiring all engineers to onboard with GitHub Copilot and Cursor by Friday, Armstrong held a Saturday meeting with stragglers: those without valid excuses were fired on the spot.

While he admits the approach was "heavy-handed," the message was unmistakable: AI adoption isn't optional anymore.

The cryptocurrency exchange now runs monthly sessions where teams share creative AI implementations, creating a culture where resistance to AI tools is career-ending.

The takeaway

Armstrong's zero-tolerance approach reveals a harsh new reality: companies are moving from gentle AI encouragement to mandatory adoption with real consequences.

Leaders who allow their teams to remain AI-skeptical risk falling behind competitors achieving 10x productivity gains. The question isn't whether to mandate AI adoption, but how quickly and firmly to push the transformation.

2. The Best 6 AI Certifications for Leaders (Under $100)

Want to level up your AI skills? Get certified by one of those tech companies investing in education. Each program costs $100 or less.

Here are three broad certifications, plus three more that dive into specific technologies:

General Certifications

• Google AI Essentials (Coursera) — about $49 for one month; short, practical course with a certificate from Google on completion

• IBM “AI for Everyone: Master the Basics” (edX) — $99 verified certificate option

• AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) — $100 exam. Entry-level AI credential from Amazon; explicitly aimed at business roles (BA, PM, marketing, ops)

More Tech-Focused Certifications

• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900) — $99 exam

• Google Cloud Generative AI Leader (new, 2025) — $99 exam

• Salesforce AI credential — first attempt FREE through Dec 31, 2025

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4. Quick AI Updates for Leaders

Here are the three highest-impact options for leaders:

• ChatGPT’s lead shrinks as Google & Grok rise. ChatGPT is still #1, but Google’s Gemini and xAI’s Grok are closing fast, per a16z’s new consumer AI report. Gemini is now the No. 2 AI app on mobile (≈half of ChatGPT’s MAUs and ~12% of its web visits), while Grok has surged past 20M MAUs after its July Grok-4 release.

• OpenAI and Anthropic team up on AI safety. The labs ran a first-of-its-kind cross-evaluation, testing each other’s publicly released models and publishing the results. OpenAI reports GPT-5 shows improvements on sycophancy, hallucinations, and misuse resistance: framing the effort as a template for more transparent, cross-lab safety testing.

• AI Content Dominates Professional Feeds: 54% of LinkedIn posts are now AI-generated, with successful creators using AI to double subscriber growth while cutting content time by 70%. The winning formula blends AI efficiency with authentic insights: creators are using AI for ideation and structure while infusing personal experience and industry insights.

5. One Prompt You Can Use at Work Today

Here’s a practical ChatGPT Prompt you can use at work:

For example,