AI's impact on the workplace is intensifying, even as the technology faces scrutiny regarding its safety and the broader market experiences significant shifts. A recent study from Berkeley Haas School of Business revealed that AI is not reducing work but rather intensifying it, while a new benchmark is being developed to evaluate the safety of autonomous AI agents. Simultaneously, the software market saw a $2 trillion wipeout, and Asia's tech-savvy population is poised for continued economic growth.
According to a study by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye from Berkeley Haas School of Business, published in the HBR, AI is intensifying work. Their research, conducted from April to December 2025, involved 200 employees at a U.S.-based technology company. The study found that AI introduced a new work rhythm, where employees managed multiple active threads simultaneously, leading to exhaustion. "The productivity boost these things can provide is exhausting," the researchers noted.
In the realm of AI safety, researchers are developing new benchmarks. Miles Q. Li and five other authors submitted a paper to arXiv on December 23, 2025, titled "A Benchmark for Evaluating Outcome-Driven Constraint Violations in Autonomous AI Agents." The paper aims to ensure the safety and alignment of autonomous AI agents in high-stakes environments.
The financial markets are also experiencing significant changes. Last week, the software market saw a $2 trillion wipeout, according to Dubravko Lakos-Bujas. This drawdown reduced the sector's weight in the S&P 500 from 12.0% to 8.4%. Despite this, the S&P 500 futures were up 0.18% this morning before the opening bell in New York after the index closed up 0.47% yesterday, leaving it just a tick below its all-time high. Traders bought up stocks after most companies in the S&P reported that they had beaten consensus earnings estimates so far.
Meanwhile, Asia continues to be a region of economic growth. Kim-See Lim, the chief investment officer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), told Fortune that Asia is set to contribute as much as 40% of global growth by 2040. Lim highlighted the region's young, tech-savvy population as a key driver of this growth.
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