What We Learned This Week

Sharpies Have Yet to Move the Needle: Starbucks’ turnaround still isn’t showing up in the numbers. While it's early in CEO Brian Niccol’s effort to reset the company’s trajectory, the financials continue to lag. The coffee chain just posted its fifth straight quarter of same-store sales declines, missing expectations on both revenue and earnings. Niccol acknowledged the disappointing results but pointed to signs of operational momentum that haven’t yet translated into financial performance—things like improved order throughput and a pivot away from automation in favor of increased staffing.

Many of the changes currently underway are weighing on earnings as the company invests in hiring, streamlining operations, and revamping its mobile and app experience. The focus is on simplifying the menu, improving in-store execution, and enhancing the guest experience—much-needed steps, but success is far from guaranteed. Add in a tough macro backdrop, softening consumer demand, and the risk of tariff-driven coffee cost inflation, and it’s a difficult environment to stage a brand reset. Still, if they can weather the near-term pressure and rebuild customer loyalty, it may prove to be a worthwhile long-term repositioning.

Automakers Got a Bit of Breathing Room: The Trump administration moved this week to ease the burden on automakers facing the steep new tariff regime. Following meetings with industry leaders and lobbying groups, the administration announced adjustments aimed at preventing a “stacking” effect from multiple layers of tariffs. The 25% tariff on imported vehicles will remain in place, but manufacturers with final assembly operations in the U.S. can now apply for partial rebates on tariffs tied to imported parts used in domestic production.

These rebates will be capped at 3.75% of the vehicle’s total value in year one and 2.5% in year two, giving companies a two-year window to realign their supply chains and shift more manufacturing stateside. The move has been welcomed by automakers with significant U.S. operations—not just the legacy Detroit names but also foreign firms like BMW, which assembles most of its SUVs in South Carolina. While the long-term impact of these evolving trade policies remains uncertain, this update brings a degree of near-term clarity. Most manufacturers are holding off on price hikes for now, though GM delayed its earnings call this week to rework its guidance—underscoring how fluid the situation still is. At the very least, it appears less disruptive than initially feared.

AI Continues to Make Inroads: Coding has long been viewed as a natural fit for AI integration, and that vision is starting to take shape at some of the world’s biggest tech firms. At Meta’s developer conference this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella held a wide-ranging conversation on the role of AI in today’s technology landscape. One striking moment came when Zuckerberg asked Nadella how much of Microsoft’s code is now generated by AI. The answer: between 20–30%, and climbing. Zuckerberg followed by saying Meta expects roughly half of its code to be AI-generated by next year.

That’s a meaningful shift, particularly coming from companies historically known for aggressively hiring top-tier developer talent. If we’re moving toward a world where AI handles a large share of code writing, the implications for the broader developer workforce are significant. It suggests a future where only the most adaptive, high-value engineers thrive—those who can complement AI tools rather than compete with them. While this kind of automation is more feasible at tech giants with deep infrastructure, others are already following suit. Google said 25% of its code is now AI-assisted, and Shopify’s CEO recently told staff they’ll need to prove AI can’t do a job before requesting new headcount. The shift is coming—it’s just a question of how fast, how widespread, and who it will displace along the way.