AI Managers

Author

Adam Smith
July 08, 2025

Good morning and happy Monday Tuesday. In case you weren’t aware, slapping “AI” onto your business is worth at least $1B. In the most recent example, Surge AI is eyeing a staggering $15B (yes - with a B) valuation after announcing it has hired advisors to raise $1B in it’s first ever capital raise.

What’s in this issue?

  • A look at the top AI ETF market movers from yesterday

  • AI could decide your next promotion (or termination)

  • Zuck just bought another top AI executive

  • Some other news

AI Markets

Ticker

Price

Daily Change

QQQ

552.03

- 0.75 %

BOTZ

32.16

- 1.92 %

ROBO

59.49

- 2.73 %

AIQ

43.54

- 1.05 %

Data is provided by Google Finance as of market close 7/7/2025.

Markets Summary: Markets broadly stumbled as President Trump announced new tariffs on BRICS-aligned countries triggering a dip in U.S. futures and rattling global trade sentiment.

At Work

According to a recent survey from Resume Builder, AI’s calling the shots: 78% of managers use it for raises, 77% for promotions - and yes, even 66% for layoffs and 64% for firings.

Quick stats from the survey:

  • 20% of managers let AI make final decisions without human input

  • 66% of managers using AI to help manage teams haven’t received formal AI training

  • 50% of all managers have been asked if AI can replace their direct reports

So, uh, why?

Efficiency and Scale: Managers are using AI to quickly analyze performance data, benchmark outputs, and spot trends across teams. This helps reduce the time and effort managers spend on manual reviews, especially in large organizations.

Data Driven Consistency: AI brings a standardized approach to evaluating employees. By relying on metrics and KPIs instead of gut feelings, it aims to make decisions more consistent across the board. That said, the risk of bias still exists depending on how the AI is trained.

Organizational Push to Adopt GenAI: There’s growing pressure inside companies to integrate generative AI into core business functions. HR processes like performance reviews and promotions are seen as ideal testing grounds for automation and innovation.

Key Takeaway: Managers are feeling pressure to become ”AI First”. As such, they’re deploying AI to make key staffing decisions on their team, even if they’re not trained on the best ways to use AI to make those decisions. Our recommendation for our readers: always send your AI model a quick “Thank you” before logging off for the day.

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg just made another bold move in the AI talent arms race. Ruoming Pang, Apple’s head of AI models, has jumped ship to join Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s newly formed AI division led by Alexandr Wang (who was brought on during the acquisition of Scale AI).

Pang wasn’t a junior hire. He led Apple’s internal team developing on-device models for Siri, email summarization, and Genmoji. His departure feels like a wake-up call for Apple. Their AI roadmap has been sluggish, and reports suggest they might lean more on external partners like OpenAI or Anthropic to power Siri.

Why does this matter?

  • Talent is everything. Meta is offering generous multi-million-dollar packages and recruiting heavily from Apple, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to build out its superintelligence team.

  • Meta’s ambitions are growing fast. This hire signals that Meta isn’t just investing in productized AI but chasing theoretical breakthroughs like human-level reasoning and multimodal understanding.

  • Apple may be losing momentum. With Pang’s deputy already gone and more departures rumored, Apple risks falling further behind in delivering next-gen consumer AI.

Key Takeaway: Meta’s scooping up AI talent fast. Maybe to build the future, maybe just to bleed the competition. Either way, the question now is: what will all this brainpower actually produce?

In Other News

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