Category: 3. Business

The Butterfly Prostatic Retraction device is currently under investigation in a prospective pivotal trial (NCT05341661) in men with lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).¹

In a recent interview with Urology Times®, Bilal I. Chughtai, MD, walked through the design and potential implications of the trial for clinical practice. Chughtai is the chief of urology at Plainview Hospital at Northwell Health in Syosset, New York.

The study has completed enrollment at 245 patients. To be eligible for enrollment, patients needed to be aged 50 years or older and have a prostate length between 25 mm to 45 mm, a prostate volume between 30 to 90 mL, and symptomatic BPH.

Those included in the study were randomly assigned 2:1 to receive the Butterfly device or a sham comparator. Patients in the sham arm are able to crossover to the treatment arm at 3 months.

The primary end points for the study include change in International Prostate Symptom Score at 3 months and 12 months. Primary completion of the trial is expected in December 2025.

During the discussion, Chughtai also touched on the potential impact of this device if approved, saying, “Once we have a device like this, I think we’re going to see a paradigm-shift. I think there’s going to be shift away from medications, which have been shown to have additional effects…These meds aren’t as safe as we thought.”

He added, “I think this is going to fill a niche where patients can get an option that is local, reversible, and get decent relief.”

REFERENCE

1. Butterfly pivotal study. ClinicalTrials.gov. Last updated January 15, 2025. Accessed July 6, 2025. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05341661

After a new focused update was issued by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), adding to the guidelines for topical and systemic atopic dermatitis treatments in adults, Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, spoke with HCPLive about the update and its relevance to clinicians and patients.^1,2

Sidbury is known for his role as a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and as chief of the Division of Dermatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Sidbury’s multidisciplinary workgroup recently conducted a systematic review that resulted in this update by the AAD, with the investigators having implemented the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach for assessing evidence on recently approved drugs.²

“It had a lot to do with just how far down the road the studies [we evaluated] were,” Sidbury explained. “If you look at the National Eczema Association website, it is just a wonderful resource. It’s a patient advocacy group, but it is also a fabulous resource for providers, for journalists, for anyone interested in this space…You can go to a tab on their ‘Research’ page, which lists all of the clinical trials and their various stages of development, phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, and beyond. If you’re in phase 3 development, you’ve passed some significant hurdles, and though it does not mean you’ll be granted FDA approval, it is a significant distance down the road to having a drug you can prescribe.”

The decision to include this update, specifically regarding 4 newly US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatments for atopic dermatitis, was the result of the level of research supporting each of their uses. The therapies were roflumilast cream 0.15%, tapinarof cream 1%, lebrikizumab, and nemolizumab (with topical therapy), with each being recommended by the AAD for physicians to integrate into clinical practice.

Sidbury noted that this update allows clinicians to have more options for patients who are prone to various side effects. Sidbury used the examples of dupilumab and Janus-Kinase (JAK) inhibitors to describe scenarios in which clinicians may be able to make informed decisions with more alternatives.

“Dupilumab, for instance, and other IL-13 category blockers, can have conjunctivitis or irritation of the eyes that is non-infectious. It’s an inflammatory conjunctivitis,” Sidbury said. “But if that patient before you, and you’re talking about various options, has a really bad history of conjunctivitis or other ocular disease, not an absolute contraindication to those medications…you’d want to review all of the options with that patient before choosing that one. Similarly, the JAK-inhibitors, another class of medication that is newer, have a boxed warning with various conditions and concerns that may always be important to discuss with patients, but may, given that particular patient’s history and comorbidities, make that class of medications either a good choice or not.”

To find out more about the AAD’s atopic dermatitis guideline changes, view the full interview video posted above.

The quotes in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.

Sidbury has reported serving on Pfizer’s advisory board, for which he receives honoraria; acting as an investigator for Brickell Biotech and Galderma USA, with support through grants and research funding; serving as a principal investigator for Regeneron, also receiving grant and research support; and working as a consultant for Galderma Global and Microes, with compensation provided or, in some cases, not received.

References

1. Smith T. 4 New Recommendations for Atopic Dermatitis Management, with Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH. HCPLive. July 3, 2025. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.hcplive.com/view/4-new-recommendations-atopic-dermatitis-management-robert-sidbury-md-mph.

2. Davis DMR, Frazer-Green L, Sidbury R, et al. Focused update: Guidelines of care for the management of atopic dermatitis in adults. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2025 Jun 17:S0190-9622(25)02125-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2025.05.1386. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40531067.

While it seems like the RTO battles have reached a plateau, with companies settling into a hybrid detente, Salmirs says the fight isn’t over; many CEOs are secretly hoping to add on another day to two of in-person work to employee schedules. That’s particularly true now that the labor market has shifted power away from workers, and back into the hands of bosses. 

“This return to office, it’s still happening, absolutely. I think with this economic climate, we’ll really see what companies are thinking,” Salmirs tells Fortune. 

But there are a few key changes that businesses are making to their offices as they try to lure workers back, says Salmirs. Many large companies are cutting headcount and streamline operations; as a result, they’re trading in more outdated buildings for smaller, higher-quality spaces in centralized locations as a way to attract workers. They’re also ditching their open-plan offices and adding more private spaces to make the space “more hospitable,” he says. And of course, bosses are making sure that the pantries are fully stocked with snacks.  

“They’re looking closely at pantries and what they’re serving, including the coffee, the snacks, all that good stuff,” he says. “It really matters to employees.”

Fortune sat down with Salmirs to discuss the future of office space and what workers can expect going forward.

Fortune: What kinds of trends are you seeing when it comes to RTO? 

Salmirs: There’s been this commercial real estate crisis, if you will, about people not coming to work, and what’s going to happen with office buildings. Predominantly Class A buildings have been really resilient. As people are coming back, the benchmark now is a solid three to four days per week. Over the last 18 months, it’s been more and more. 

But the little-known fact about this more difficult time that we’re having right now economically, is that it gives management teams the ability, especially with the hiring market not being great, to ask workers to come back into the office more. Four years ago there was no way that a management team could tell people they’re coming back. they’ll just go get another job. Not so much now.

What does the future of RTO look like? 

I think with this economic climate, we’ll really see what companies are thinking. It’ll be an incremental “one more day.” So if you’re at three, it’s going to be four, if you’re at four it could be five. This will be, in my mind, over the next six to nine months.

We were promised an office apocalypse a few years ago, when people were saying that corporate real estate would be empty. What are you seeing in the market right now?

We classify real estate into three buckets, class A, class B and class C. Class A is the good buildings, the ones with really good amenities, and those are doing great. I mean the leasing rates are off the hook, the occupancy rate is like 95%. It’s the B and C class spaces that are struggling a lot more. 

Say you have 20,000 square feet, and are in a class B building, paying $50 a square foot for rent. Now with not as many people coming in, you can pay $100 a foot for a 10,000 square foot building with top amenities in the best location because they know that if you want to get your people back to the office, you’ve got to give them good space. 

What are you seeing as the top priorities for companies right now when it comes to office space? 

I think it’s how they organize the space, because now that more people are coming back, there’s usually a shortage of private spaces. People used to want this big open plan where everyone was sitting at long desks. To get people back, companies are realizing that they have to give people some more privacy. So we’re seeing them convert open space into conference rooms, or areas with more secluded space.

Also, they’re looking closely at pantries and what they’re serving, including the coffee, the snacks, all that good stuff. It really matters to employees.

Since COVID, companies are also prioritizing clean spaces. We’re seeing a lot of [companies] making sure that they could say to employees that their workspace is healthy and clean. Some clients are moving some of our cleaning people on to the day staff, so they’re more visible, so people can see them cleaning and walking around the office.  

The most important thing is to really pay attention to people’s work habits. Are they working in groups collaboratively? Is it solo work? Are they on the phone a lot? Are they on video a lot? What we always say to our clients is that you really have to start with understanding the culture of the organization and the different use cases.

Less than a year after the spectacular cyber-triggered shutdown of Sea-Tac Airport, the FBI has issued an urgent and chilling new warning. On June 27, 2025, the agency declared that America’s airlines are under attack. Not from hijackers with boxcutters, but from cybercriminals with keyboards. And the timing is no coincidence. With global tensions escalating, the possibility of a devastating cyber event in aviation is no longer a remote risk. It is a real threat that must now be part of our national security calculus.

As former White House cyber advisor Tom Kellermann warned, “The cyber 9/11 is coming.”

Meet “Scattered Spider”

This warning was not buried in bureaucratic language or a quiet bulletin. It was issued plainly, publicly and with urgency. The FBI confirmed that Scattered Spider, one of the most dangerous and sophisticated cybercrime gangs operating today, is now targeting the airline industry. This group, already infamous for crippling MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, has pivoted its tactics toward aviation.

Their strategy is simple and sinister. By impersonating airline employees or IT contractors, they trick help desks into bypassing multi-factor authentication. Once inside, they exfiltrate data and deploy ransomware across critical systems. According to Google’s Mandiant division, Scattered Spider excels at persistence, lateral movement and rapid escalation. “They can detonate ransomware within hours of breach,” said Mandiant CTO Charles Carmakal.

The Stakes Could Not Be Higher

This is not a drill. Over the past 60 days, a disturbing pattern has emerged:

• WestJet in Canada confirmed a cyberattack that disrupted internal systems and its mobile app
• Hawaiian Airlines reported a breach affecting non-critical IT operations
• Qantas disclosed that the personal data of over six million passengers was accessed in a call center platform breach

All of this comes on the heels of the August 2024 ransomware attack on Sea-Tac Airport, which forced port officials to disconnect critical systems, stranding nearly 1,400 passengers.

Let’s be clear. This is not about delayed boarding passes or missing loyalty points. Today’s air travel depends on deeply interconnected digital systems. Reservation systems, crew scheduling, maintenance tracking, flight planning and air traffic communication are all vulnerable. A breach in any one of them can ripple outward and cause catastrophic disruption.

What the FBI is signaling is a shift from isolated data theft to coordinated campaigns targeting aviation infrastructure. And Scattered Spider may just be the beginning. Experts warn that nation-state actors like China, Iran, Russia and North Korea are observing, learning and potentially preparing to strike. More importantly, non-state actors affiliated with Al Qaeda and ISIS, the same groups responsible for the 9/11 attacks, are undoubtedly watching as well. They have long viewed aviation as both a symbolic and strategic target and the rise of digital vulnerabilities gives them new avenues to exploit.

Could Terrorists Hijack A Plane Through Code

That is the question no one wants to ask aloud. While no attack to date has compromised flight-critical avionics, security researchers have demonstrated that aircraft systems could be targeted through satellite links, Wi-Fi networks, or compromised ground systems.

Modern planes are flying data centers. The same technologies that enable efficiency and automation such as real-time telemetry, remote diagnostics and automated cockpit integrations can also become potential attack surfaces. A hacked flight planning system or corrupted weather feed could ground planes or worse.

As cybersecurity strategist Theresa Payton put it, “The future of warfare will be about disrupting trust and sowing chaos in the systems we rely on every day. Aviation is right at the top of that list.”

Sea-Tac was a wake-up call. But what happens when a coordinated cyberattack strikes multiple major airports or airlines at once? For a chilling preview, watch the dystopian film Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts and produced by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. In the story, a wave of cyberattacks collapses infrastructure, sparks global conflict and pushes civilization to the edge. It is fiction, but it is not far-fetched. The breadcrumbs are there and the warnings are real.

History Is Warning Us

This is not the first time the aviation industry has been tested:

• In 2015, hackers grounded 1,400 passengers in Warsaw by crashing LOT Airlines’ flight plan system
• In 2018, British Airways and Cathay Pacific suffered breaches exposing hundreds of thousands of passenger records
• In 2020, EasyJet disclosed that data on nine million customers had been compromised
• In 2024, Sea-Tac’s ransomware event shut down critical airport functions for days

Every one of these incidents revealed cracks in the aviation system. And each time, the industry promised reforms. But promises do not stop payloads. The adversary is better funded, more persistent and more creative than ever.

Six Actions That Must Be Done Now

The time for incremental fixes is over. The aviation industry must act boldly and immediately across six critical areas:

1. Redesign Identity Verification Processes: Most breaches begin with social engineering. Airlines must implement zero-trust architectures, verify identity through multiple independent channels and eliminate single points of failure. Help desks must be trained to recognize manipulation and resist pressure tactics.
2. Secure The Entire Ecosystem: The FBI’s warning was not limited to airlines. Vendors, contractors, call centers and outsourced IT firms are all part of the threat surface. Every third party must be held to the same standard. Require them to meet strict cybersecurity protocols, report breaches promptly and enforce robust multi-factor authentication.
3. Adopt And Enforce CMMC-Level Standards Across The Industry: Aviation is already considered critical infrastructure and must be treated accordingly. The industry should proactively adopt the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification framework and require its implementation across all airline systems and supplier networks. The airline industry has long been a global model for standardization, from flight safety to maintenance. This is your digital preflight checklist. Make it mandatory.
4. Segment And Harden Core Infrastructure: Critical flight systems must be isolated from public-facing applications. Outdated or vulnerable platforms should be patched, upgraded or retired. Emergency response plans must be tested and drilled with the same rigor as inflight safety protocols. Assume failure, then build resilience.
5. Report And Share Intelligence In Real Time: Silence helps the enemy. Airlines must embrace a culture of transparency, sharing threat intelligence in real time with FAA, TSA and CISA. The only way to outpace the attackers is through collective defense and constant communication.
6. Fund Cyber Resilience Like Safety: Cybersecurity is not just an IT function. It is national infrastructure defense. Boards, regulators and investors must fund cyber programs with the same urgency as they fund runway repairs or flight safety. Every dollar spent on digital defense is a dollar that protects passengers, preserves trust and prevents the next crisis.

Final Approach

The consequences are no longer theoretical. Without immediate action, we risk:

• Systemwide outages that ground fleets
• Breaches that expose millions of passengers
• An erosion of trust in the safety of air travel
• And in the worst case, a cyber-induced mass casualty event

That last scenario may sound extreme. But there was a time when hijacking four commercial aircraft and flying them into American landmarks was unthinkable too.

We are entering an era where a few lines of malicious code can do what bombs and bullets once did. This is not science fiction. It is the next frontier of terrorism and organized crime. As we remember those lost on 9/11, we must not forget the lesson of that day. Complacency is the co-pilot of catastrophe. The FBI is warning us. Breaches are happening. The time to act is now.

Though Morgan Stanley’s Innovation Lab sits firmly in Manhattan’s Financial District, I hardly saw any of the finance bros who dot the streets outside during my recent tour.

I didn’t know quite what to expect ahead of my visit — robots analyzing market moves? intricate gadgets? — and Megan Brewer, the head of firmwide market innovation and labs, tempered my wildest expectations when she described the space as “effectively a very large data center.” The lab, she said, gives people “all the infrastructure that is needed to test ideas in a secure, scalable fashion.”

Morgan Stanley employees who want to experiment with their own ideas or test third-party products that might help the firm can use the Innovation Lab. Brewer told me that most of the people who use the space are technologists, but that everyone at the bank has access.

“Most people don’t think of banks as where people are sitting there soldering and working on custom design trips,” she said. “But we offer that as well.”

Morgan Stanley is sure to celebrate innovators

And it became clear to me that Brewer’s team is pulling multiple levers to attract and retain the firm’s technologists. She helps run the bank’s Patent Accelerator Program, which guides innovators through the patent process. When someone’s invention earns a patent, Brewer’s team sends a message to their manager. They post on internal sites, frame the physical patent, and note the accomplishment on the person’s company profile. Morgan Stanley has even put patent-holders’ faces on their digital ads in Times Square, Brewer said.

Patents don’t only grant legal control over an invention, but also acknowledge something as a creative, genuinely new idea. Inventions have to be “non-obvious” to get a patent, and they’re a quantitative way for banks to flex their technological chops.

Banks are generally racing to embrace the newest technology. A McKinsey report from late 2024 found that banks have massively increased their tech spending in recent years, and are especially focused on hiring people to produce products in-house.

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While tech companies are cutting back on new-hire offers, my time at Morgan Stanley made it clear that banks might be keen on snapping up some of the available talent. Citi also has a network of physical innovation labs across the world, and many banks have accelerator or innovation programs.

When we were ready to enter the lab, Brewer told me I might need to leave my notebook behind, since it’s flammable. The first room, though, seemed pretty innocuous: a bunch of computers with black screens, and a lone guy sitting at a desktop. I almost felt like I was in a “Black Mirror” episode, the rows of blank monitors a dystopian end-of-world tableau.

The lab was full of high-end, deceptively plain machines

As we kept moving through the lab, the image of a stereotypical bank continued to fade. It was hot and loud inside the data center, with a white noise of whirring machines and fluorescent lighting. Brewer advised me to stand on a vent if I got too hot amid the rows of equipment.

Most of the time, I didn’t know what I was looking at — at one point, it turned out to be the lab’s first GPU. I asked how much it was all was worth, and everyone laughed, saying I didn’t want to know.

“Many millions,” Brewer said, adding that some pieces cost as much as rent on a New York City apartment. (I became very conscious of not stepping on the many blue wires grazing the floor in my kitten heels.)

Huge investment aside, though, some parts of the lab seemed almost scrappy, evidence of exploration and technology that’s still in the works. There were labels made of blue tape and Sharpie, stickers that looked like they came from a name-tag machine, flame-retardant Post-Its.

At the end of the tour, I met an electrical engineer, who was standing in front of a clearly very complex, very impressive machine he’d made. My tour guide told me that he’d already built and patented multiple versions of the chip machine sitting before us, which he was too polite to mention himself.

He carefully explained his project — Morgan Stanley asked that don’t get into specifics here — and indulged my many questions, talking to me in what were likely excruciatingly simple terms. When I asked whether he ever expected to work at a bank, I got an emphatic no and some knowing head-nods from those leading my tour.

Morgan Stanley has around 23,000 tech employees, 15,000 of whom are developers. At the time of this writing, the bank had 249 full-time technology jobs listed on its site.

The lines between banking and Big Tech

I didn’t talk to, or maybe even see, a single banker the whole time I was there, which makes some sense given that Morgan Stanley’s main New York headquarters are in Midtown and I was at a smaller office downtown. People talked in the terms of a startup, pushing themes like innovation that may appeal to an engineer more than the average investment banker.

We eventually left the lab and emerged into a similarly harshly lit hallway, the walls lined with cardboard boxes, before passing through a door and into the shinier, more central office area. I stepped into the bathroom before leaving; it was designed in the crisp image of the finance aesthetic, with a few cubbies holding hair straighteners.

Looking around, I remembered where I was: a bank at the tip of Manhattan, not a tech company in California. I wondered, though, how the lines between the two will continue to blur — and how much they’ve blurred already.

Nationwide is under fire for refusing to give members a binding vote on a controversial 43% pay rise for its chief executive, Debbie Crosbie, which could total up to £7m.

Campaigners say it leaves the mutual’s members with fewer rights than shareholders of listed UK banks and exposes a worrying “loophole” in building society rules.

Nationwide argues that after its £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money Crobie’s pay should compete with that offered by banks such as Lloyds and NatWest. However, the board is only offering members an “advisory” vote at its annual general meeting (AGM) on 25 July, meaning there are no repercussions if they reject it.

Large high street banks are required to hold a binding vote on their pay policies at least once every three years, under laws governing large businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange. If shareholders reject the policy, they have to revert to the old pay plan and put a revised pay deal to shareholders within 12 months.

Nationwide could do the same, but said it is already going further than required under the Building Societies Act, which only requires binding votes for the election of board members.

“As part of our commitment to member engagement and transparency, Nationwide voluntarily puts the remuneration policy to the membership on an advisory basis at the AGM and we currently have no plans to change this approach,” a spokesperson said.

While Nationwide has never held a binding vote on pay, it has also never proposed such a large renumeration package for its chief executive, which could result in a record payout worth up to £7m from current levels of £4.8m. That is close behind NatWest Group, which in April secured backing for a package worth up to £7.7m for chief executive Paul Thwaite.

Luke Hildyard, the director of the High Pay Centre thinktank, described the situation as a “loophole in the governance of building societies”.

“Mutuals are supposed to have a more collective approach to business than corporate banks, but while the banks are required to revise pay policies that are rejected by a majority of shareholders, and provide a response to the stock market if more than 20% vote against, building societies can in theory ignore their members.”

“The Nationwide case, where there may be significant discomfort with the huge pay out planned for the chief executive, highlights the need for the loophole to be closed,” he said.

Crosbie’s £7m pay deal has angered some members. “I’m a Nationwide customer and didn’t know about this? Please send me a voting form immediately,” one posted on X. “Building societies are supposed to be the good guys. The apple has fallen far from the tree,” another claimed.

Sara Hall, the co-executive director at campaign group Positive Money said Nationwide “hiking its chief executive’s pay because that’s what the big banks are doing would be completely at odds with what building societies are supposed to stand for”.

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The move is “counterintuitive for an institution whose main selling point is putting its customers before shareholders”, Hall added.

A Nationwide spokesperson pushed back against the criticism, saying its pay proposals – although advisory – “always received overwhelming member support”.

“Any suggestion that we would ever ignore a vote against it is simply ridiculous. We always consider their views and at the last AGM over 94% of votes were in favour of the proposed remuneration policy,” they said.

“Nationwide delivered record member value last year, we are still first for customer satisfaction among high street banks, and more people switched their current accounts to Nationwide than to any other brand.

“We have managed this because we can attract, retain and motivate talented leaders. Even after the changes that are being proposed at the AGM, Nationwide’s chief executive will still be paid substantially less than the other large banks.”

Are you happy? Do you sleep well? Do you have many friends? Are you a workaholic?

Those are some of the questions Katelin Eagan, 27, said she had to answer recently when she was applying for a job.

She agreed to take a cognitive and personality assessment as part of the hiring process, but was a bit bewildered. Many of the questions had nothing to do with the engineering position, which, after completing the tests and going through several months of silence, she was eventually rejected for.

Eagan says she’s been applying for jobs full-time since the start of the year. Her efforts haven’t panned out yet, which she attributes partly to how competitive her field has become and employers having room to be picky.

“I think there’s definitely a lower amount than I thought there would be,” she said of available roles.

But that may be only part of the story. Employers are growing increasingly selective, partly because many are seeing a flood of seemingly perfect candidates, many of whom are suspected of using AI to finesse their applications, according to recruiters and hiring assessment providers who spoke to BI.

The solution many companies have come to?

Make everyone take a test — and see who candidates really are, irrespective of what ChatGPT suggested they put on their résumés.

According to surveys conducted by TestGorilla, one firm that administers talent assessments for employers, 76% of companies that had hired in the 12 months leading up to April said they were using skills tests to determine if a candidate was a right fit, up from 55% who said they were using role-specific skills tests in 2022.

Employers seem most interested in testing for soft skills — amorphous qualities like communicativeness and leadership — as well as administering general aptitude and personality tests, Wouter Durville, the CEO of TestGorilla, told Business Insider.

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TestGorilla’s Critical Thinking test was completed more than 100,000 times in the first quarter of this year, a 61% increase compared to the same quarter in 2024.

The firm also offers a Big 5 personality assessment, which was completed more than 127,000 times in the first quarter — a 69% increase compared to last year.

Demand among US employers in particular has been “massive,” Durville said, adding that many firms have turned to tests as a result of being overwhelmed with job applications. The US is the largest market for the firm, which is based in the Netherlands.

“The biggest thing is people just want to hire the best people. It’s very selfish and it’s fine,” Durville said.

Canditech, another firm that offers hiring assessments, says it’s also seen rapid growth in the last year. In 2024, the assessment usage grew 135% compared to the prior year, CEO Guy Barel told BI. He estimates that assessment usage is on track to soar 242% year-over-year.

Barel says the surge is partly due to the job market tipping more in favor of employers. In many cases, companies he works with are flooded with “tons of candidates” and looking to “move forward as fast as possible,” he said.

Criteria, another skills-based assessment provider, says test usage has more than doubled in recent years.

“AI is kind of creating this authenticity crisis in talent acquisition, because everyone can and is putting their résumé into ChatGPT.” Criteria CEO Josh Millet told BI. “It’s all about demonstrating your ability or your skill or your personality in an objective way that’s a little bit harder to fake.”

The AI job market

Jeff Hyman, a veteran recruiter and the CEO of Recruit Rockstars, estimates that demand for testing among his clients has increased by around 50% over the last 18 months.

That’s due to a handful of different reasons, he said — but companies being inundated by job applications is near the top, thanks to candidates leaning more on AI to gain an edge and send out résumés en masse, he says.

Hyman says a typical job he tries to fill for a client has around 300 to 500 applicants, though he’s spoken to companies trying to fill roles with more than 1,000 candidates within several days of being posted online.

The number of job applications in the US grew at more than four times the pace of job requisitions in the first half of 2024, according to a report from WorkDay.

Companies also want to test candidates’ soft skills as remote work grows more common, Hyman adds — and they want to be sure they’re getting the right person. Depending on the size of the organization, a bad hire can cost a company anywhere from $11,000 to $24,000, a survey conducted by CareerBuilder in 2016 found.

According to TestGorilla, 69% of employers who issued tests this year said they were interested in assessing soft skills, while 50% said they were interested in assessing a candidate’s cognitive ability. A separate survey by Criteria ranked emotional intelligence as the most sought-after skill among employers, followed by analytical thinking.

“It’s about their personality and to see if they are a good fit to the organization, if they share the same DNA,” Durville said, though he noted that, in many cases, companies find the results of the tests to be shaky as a sole evaluation metric.

TestGorilla, Canditech, and Criteria told BI that employers say they’re enjoying the time and cost savings of administering tests.

According to TestGorilla, 82% of employers who said they used skills-based hiring — a catch-all term for hiring based on proven skills — said they were satisfied with new hires, compared to 73% of US employers on average.

Canditech, meanwhile, claims its assessments can help employers cut down on hiring time by as much as 50%, and reduce “unnecessary interviews” by as much as 80%, according to its website.

But Hyman thinks there are some issues with hiring tests. For one, he says employers turn down candidates who don’t score well “all the time,” despite them being otherwise qualified for the job.

The trend also appears to be turning off job candidates. Hyman estimates around 10%-20% of applicants will outright refuse to take a test if employers introduce it as a first step in the hiring process, though that’s a practice Canditech’s Barel says is becoming increasingly common.

Hyman says he frequently has conversations with employers urging them not to put so much weight on test results, due to the potential for a mis-hire.

“That’s lazy hiring, to be honest. I think that’s not the right way to go about it,” he said.

ISLAMABAD: The Power Division has assured development partners that commercial operations of the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) are expected to begin by the end of September 2025.

The new system will allow bulk power consumers with a demand of 1 MW or more to purchase electricity through direct contracts with competitive suppliers.

The operationalisation of the Independent System and Market Operator will be a key part of this transition. The framework for open access charges and the allocation of wheeling capacity is in the final stages of preparation.

A phased market opening will follow, supported by the establishment of market rules and wheeling charges.

During a meeting with representatives of nearly a dozen development partners, the Power Division discussed updates on power sector reforms, industrial and agriculture pricing packages, grid capacity strategy, and distribution sector reforms, including private sector participation and investment readiness.

The Power Division said capacity costs, denominated in US dollars, have risen from Rs 11.1 per kWh to Rs 18.8 per kWh due to currency depreciation. However, fuel costs have remained steady with the addition of lower-cost generation.

The government said it aims to de-link capacity costs from currency movements and increase reliance on domestic energy sources for long-term sustainability.

Electricity tariffs remain high due to taxes and duties, adding pressure on consumers. The circular debt continues to grow due to inefficiencies and poor debt pricing. A roadmap to address this debt is under development.

Inefficient pricing has raised debt servicing costs and reduced demand.

The government has introduced the Bijli Sahulat package for the winter, offering power at marginal cost plus a small margin. A similar approach is being considered for industrial users to boost grid usage without adding subsidies.

The mechanism would offer marginal pricing while protecting fixed cost recovery through base tariffs.

To increase consumption, the government has proposed a three-year package from March 2025 to December 2027 for industrial and agricultural users. The plan projects an increase in demand of 3,745 MW in March–June 2025, 10,720 MW in 2026, and 11,018 MW in 2027.

The proposed rate is Rs 22 per unit for both sectors, with industrial users saving Rs 10.50 per unit and agricultural users saving Rs 7.77 per unit compared to current rates.

Nepra has set total fixed charges at Rs 2.505 trillion based on 106 billion units. A 5–10 percent drop in demand does not reduce these costs due to their fixed nature, highlighting the importance of increasing usage for cost recovery.

Development partners raised the need for clear pricing over the next three to five years and urged the government to avoid policies that shield inefficient domestic industries. They also stressed the need to finalize wheeling charges and market rules by September, track and publish marginal generation costs, accelerate grid and metering upgrades, and begin structured talks with industry on long-term energy policy.

The government said it is preparing a 10-year plan for generation and transmission planning. It also highlighted the importance of digital tools such as SCADA and AMI for data use and performance tracking.

The Energy Infrastructure Development and Management Company will take over planning and execution of PSDP-funded transmission projects by FY26/27. Board approvals are in progress and the CEO hiring is expected by year-end.

ISMO has been formed by combining technical teams from NTDC and CPPA-G, and will handle market operations independently of NTDC.

Ongoing transmission projects aim to expand northward evacuation capacity by 2,000 MW over the next three to four years. Development partners noted the urgency of investing in grid upgrades to meet the projected 25 percent rise in industrial demand.

They flagged several projects delayed at the planning or early implementation stage and urged quick resolution of legacy design and execution issues.

The planned rollout of 35 million advanced metering infrastructure units will require improved digital capacity and change management within distribution companies.