Hi! Just a day after Anthropic made fun of ad-backed chatbots in its Super Bowl commercial, OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT — still, the company’s reported aim for ad spending commitments would cost far less than Anthropic’s Big Game slot. Today we’re exploring:

TOGETHER WITH

Spotify added about one California’s worth of users in its latest record quarter

A year and a week ago today, we wrote about how Spotify’s FY2024 had quickly become a hit with investors, offering a pleasing mix of soaring user figures, better-than-expected revenues, and its first full year of profitability.

Now, like anyone in the final months of the year trying to cultivate the coolest-possible Spotify Wrapped, the streamer has simply hit “repeat,” serving up another medley of impressive metrics to get shareholders singing its praises again, with the stock up almost 20% at one point during yesterday’s session.

Spotify’s gross margin hit an all-time high of 33.1%, and revenues rose 7% to €4.53 billion ($5.4 billion)... but it was the monthly active user (MAU) numbers that really wowed. Thanks in no small part to its year-end music stats wrap-up feature, MAUs soared to a whopping 751 million by the end of Q4, having risen by a record 38 million from the tally reported in the quarter before.

The Swedish streaming company — now helmed by co-CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström, after founder Daniel Ek stepped back at the end of last year — specifically pointed to their “biggest Wrapped yet,” as well as enhanced features like audiobooks, music videos, and AI personalization, to explain the rising user figures. Premium subscribers hit 290 million in Q4, up 3% from the end of the third quarter, while ad-supported monthly users rose 7% from the period prior, reaching 476 million.

So, the books look pretty good for a music streaming platform that just announced it’s getting into the print publication game, even as subscription prices keep climbing.

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A new rule from the Trump administration could make it easier to dismiss senior government workers

The government is carving out a new job category for high-ranking federal employees that could make it easier for them to dismiss about 50,000 workers, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Fed head dread

A rule issued by the US Office of Personnel Management last Thursday created a category for senior career officials whose work is policy determining, making, or advocating in nature. Workers falling into these areas would be made exempt from long-standing job protections that allowed employees to appeal against firing or disciplinary actions.

That’s just the latest bad news for federal workers. Having already shrunk rapidly last year, the government’s employment levels fell to 2.73 million in October, the lowest point since July 2014. That was down 179,000 from September, the largest month-over-month drop since 1995, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Per the BLS, the data includes employees who “accepted a deferred resignation offer” and finally “came off federal payrolls” — meaning that the October slump reflects those affected by the extensive layoffs under DOGE (which was disbanded around November), as well as workers dismissed during the recent government shutdown who were still considered employed while furloughed.

According to new jobs data out today, federal government employment continued to decline in January — with 34,000 jobs lost in the first month of the year — despite a broadly rosier-than-expected picture elsewhere. 

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AI Won't Replace Your Workforce. But a Bad AI Strategy Could Replace You.

Despite the hype, less than 1% of layoffs in 2025 were attributable to productivity gains from AI, while net job growth from AI is expected to grow by 2028.

The real risk? 50% of GenAI projects are abandoned and 49% of leaders fail to demonstrate AI value.

With 200,000+ in-depth client conversations on AI, 6,000+ AI-related written insights and 1,000+ use case analyses, Gartner is an indispensable resource in navigating everything AI. 

Gartner helps C-Level leaders — from marketing, HR and finance, to supply chain, sales and legal — find real ROI.

And, AI is always front and center at Gartner conferences.

Americans are spending more of the workday sitting — the jobs driving the trend often come with more money

Standing desks may have become a workplace staple, but Americans are spending more time seated at their jobs than at any point in nearly a decade, according to new federal labor data. That might be a good thing for their personal finances.

Indeed, while it may not please many health experts, the share of the working day that the average US worker spends standing has been shrinking over the past decade, from 61% in 2016 to 55% in 2025.

Among the most sedentary professionals are software developers, who spent 97% of the workday sitting last year, with investment analysts (96.4%), accountants (96.2%), and lawyers (86.4%) also spending most of their day in a chair. At the other end of the spectrum were food prep and service workers, including fast food cooks and bartenders, who spent over 98% of their shifts on their feet. Construction roles like carpenters and electricians weren’t far behind.

Interestingly, how much time you spend seated often lines up with how much you earn, according to the latest wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Workers in management spent nearly three-quarters of the workday seated, with the highest-grossing occupation earning $171,200 on average in 2024. Other desk-bound roles in legal, computer, and financial fields also pulled in six-figure salaries. Meanwhile, workers in food service, personal care, transportation, and maintenance — jobs that require standing most of the day — typically earned around $41,000 or less per year.

The pattern isn’t universal, though. Office and administrative support workers, along with bus drivers and chauffeurs, naturally spent a majority of their workday seated and still earned below the national average of $49,500. Pharmacists, by contrast, earned ~$137,000 a year while spending just 28% of their day sitting.

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Gartner suggests that through 2025, 50% of GenAI projects will be abandoned due to poor data, inadequate risk controls or unclear value. Gartner proprietary insights, tools and conferences are helping C-Level leaders navigate everything AI to drive real ROI.

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Off the charts: Which European booze behemoth saw wine and spirit exports slump to new lows last year amid tariff tensions? [Answer below].

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