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The Morning Risk Report: CEOs Deploying AI in Increasingly Complex Ways

By Richard Vanderford | Dow Jones Risk Journal

 

Good morning. Chief executives of some of the world’s biggest companies are pressing ahead with artificial intelligence projects and are keen to find ways to measure the technology’s returns.

  • Growing use: Top leaders from a range of companies, including advertising agency WPP, oil giant Shell, delivery app Deliveroo and fast-food company Yum China Holdings, discussed how they are using artificial intelligence at the WSJ CEO Council Summit.
     
  • Cutting costs: At Yum China, which runs 18,000 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants, AI tools help a single manager order supplies for about 300 stores, said Chief Executive Joey Wat. Before AI, one manager was assigned to each store to make such orders, she said.
     
  • Second opinion: Shell’s C-suite executives are turning to the technology to vet their decisions. One project measures “decision quality,” CEO Wael Sawan said. AI tools look at the track records of Shell’s investments, including returns and risk profiles. The idea is to “red team” potential investment opportunities, he said, referring to a concept in cybersecurity where outsiders test company defenses for what could go wrong.
 
Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
AI Boom Buoys Chip Industry Even as Risks Loom Large

Soaring AI-driven demand is pushing semiconductor revenues to new heights, but 2027 and 2028 could paint a different picture. Read More

More Risk & Compliance articles from Deloitte
 

Compliance

Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand put forward new forced labor legislation. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

Canada plans new forced labor legislation following Trump tariff threat.

Canada’s government is slated to introduce new legislation to tackle the import of goods made with forced labor, a move that follows Trump administration plans to apply tariffs to countries seen as laggards on the issue.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand intends to introduce a bill regarding a forced-labor import ban, a notice published Thursday by the country’s House of Commons said.

 ‏‏‎ ‎
  • President Trump has picked a Capital One compliance executive to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the agency has sat mostly idle for the past 18 months, Risk Journal reports (free link).
     
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission said it wants to scrap a 2005 rule that calls for trading platforms to execute buy and sell orders at the best possible price.
     
  • The Canadian government proposed banning children under 16 years old from social-media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, at least temporarily.
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2.5 Billion

The volume, in gallons, of water that Amazon data centers used in 2025. The water use fell from the previous year even as Amazon expanded its data-center footprint.

 

Risk

Jeff Bezos. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press

Bezos bats down AI job loss fears while launching new venture.

Jeff Bezos said he expects artificial intelligence to create a “labor shortage in the economy,” rejecting fears that the fast-evolving technology will put humans out of work as he launches a new venture aimed at making engineers more productive.

The billionaire founder of Amazon.com is co-leading a new AI business called Prometheus, which plans to build an “artificial general engineer” that can design and manufacture complex physical products such as a jet engine.

 

Trump says Iran deal is close but Tehran says no decision has been made.

President Trump on Thursday insisted the U.S. was nearing a deal on peace talks with Iran, pulling back from his threats just hours earlier to launch more military strikes and seize Iran’s oil infrastructure.

Trump said Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had signed off on the plan, which he said would be completed in coming days, paving the way for additional talks on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran said it hadn’t decided.

One major hurdle to advancing peace negotiations has been Iran’s demands that it immediately access tens of billions of dollars frozen by U.S. sanctions, which would offer relief to its deeply damaged economy.

  • India Says U.S. Strike on Tanker in Iran Blockade Killed Three Nationals
 
  • Trade tensions between Ottawa and Washington have delayed the opening of a new multibillion-dollar bridge aimed at alleviating the traffic congestion on North America’s busiest land crossing.
     
  • The World Cup has put Mexico’s cartel crisis on the global stage.
     
  • Trade deficits and surpluses will be on the agenda at next week’s G-7 summit in the French Alps. They are starting to look excessive.
     
  • The global economy could grow this year at less than half its 2025 pace if the conflict in the Middle East leads to a lengthy reduction in energy supplies and a sharp fall in equity prices, the World Bank said Thursday.
     
  • Germany’s central bank on Friday cut its growth forecasts and raised its inflation expectations for this year and next as the war in Iran weighs on the economy.
     
  • The U.K. economy contracted at the beginning of the second quarter following a strong start to the year, with the fallout from the Iran war set to further weaken activity
 ‏‏‎ ‎

“We look forward to helping shape the future of prediction markets.”

— ProphetX CEO and Co-Founder Dean Sisun. The company said Thursday it became the first "sports-native" prediction market to receive approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
 

Podcast

The simmering conflict in the Middle East is raising more questions than before fighting broke out, as Israel and Iran teeter on the brink. Plus, airlines once touted sustainable fuel as the future. It hasn’t worked out like that.

James Rundle hosts.

You can listen to new episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.

 

What Else Matters

  • President Trump said he would nominate Jay Clayton, a top federal prosecutor and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to be the next director of national intelligence, potentially defusing a standoff with Congress over who would oversee the nation’s spy agencies.
     
  • Citigroup is establishing a way for its wealthy and institutional clients to trade shares of private companies through a blockchain, a venture it hopes will be adopted by other banks across Wall Street.
     
  • BlackRock put in an order to buy at least $5 billion of SpaceX shares, according to people familiar with the matter, and other large asset managers submitted similarly eye-popping orders. While such firms often buy large stakes in IPOs, orders of this size are multiples of those seen in traditional offerings.
     
  • Rent is so high, New York's young professionals are living with nuns.
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About Us

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at david.smagalla@wsj.com.

 
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