World
Hundreds of Zara stores have closed over the last few years, but this budget Inditex fashion brand is rising fast
Few brands have been more associated with the fast-fashion boom of the last two decades than Zara, the flagship apparel chain owned by Spanish clothing giant Inditex SA. It...
The Download: China’s dying EV batteries, and why AI doomers are doubling down
In the past decade, China has seen an EV boom, thanks in part to government support. Buying an electric car has gone from a novel decision to a routine...
Engineering’s AI reality check
Most engineering leaders cannot answer the one question their CFO is about to ask: “Can you prove this AI spend is changing outcomes, not just activity?” Every December, roadmaps...
How AI made me more (and less) productive in 2025
Thank you once again for reading Fast Company’s Plugged In. A quick programming note: We will be taking the next two Fridays off. Happy holidays to all, and I...
Your AI strategy is your leadership philosophy
AI is forcing every leader into a choice they can’t dodge: do you believe your people are fundamentally creative and motivated, or lazy and in need of control? Most...
Retro, a photo-sharing app for friends, lets you ‘time-travel’ through your camera roll
Nostalgia has been one of the dominant themes of 2025, from AI-generated scenes of the good ol’ days to the resurgence of analog hobbies. Retro, a friends-only photo journal,...
Why zoning does more harm than good
Thomas Kuhn was a philosopher whose groundbreaking 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, is credited with bringing the term paradigm shift to pop culture. Kuhn described how scientific...
Trump moves to downgrade marijuana, breaking with GOP hardline stance
The days of Republicans’ hard stances against marijuana have seemingly gone up in smoke. On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III...
Can eating cheese lower your dementia risk? A new study says maybe
Don’t beat yourself up if you do some serious damage on a cheese plate during holiday festivities this year: You just may do your future self a favor. A...
China figured out how to sell EVs. Now it has to deal with their aging batteries.
China is not only the world’s largest EV market; it has also become the main global manufacturing hub for EVs and the batteries that power them. In 2024, the...
