Generative AI can be a powerful tool in the hands of a creator. It can expand creativity by working as a partner in brainstorming, ideation, and execution, and it has the ability to help creators produce their best work quicker.

But since the technology climbed into public consciousness, creators have, understandably, had their guard up. Uncertainty abounds about its potential impact on creators’ livelihoods. There’s been little transparency around how companies are training their AI — and whose content they’re using.

Adobe has set out to solve for this uncertainty with Adobe Firefly, its family of creative generative AI models built to bring out the best in human creativity — while granting creators the transparency and choice they deserve. Designed to be safe for commercial use, Adobe aims to make Firefly the most creator-friendly generative AI solution on the market, delivering on the promise of generative AI responsibly.

Generative AI that creators can trust

A creative identity is an amalgamation of many things — the creator’s vision, their experiences, their personality, the content they’ve consumed, and so much more. It’s a unique style and expression that’s honed over years of practice.

A concern with generative AI is whether it will make it easier for bad actors to mimic a creator’s style without credit. So, Adobe is taking seriously its commitment to constructing a better environment for creators. The company only trains Firefly on content it has the permission and rights to use, such as licensed material from Adobe Stock and public domain content — never customer content. Unlike many other companies, Adobe doesn’t train Firefly with content mined from the web without permission. 

In addition, Firefly is designed so that it does not generate content that infringes on copyright or intellectual property rights. Adobe deploys safeguards at each step — prior to training, during generation, when the engine is prompted, and when the engine creates an output.

When contributors add their work to Stock, they do so with transparency that it may be used to train Firefly. And Adobe has provided bonus payments to Stock Contributors whose work was used in training Firefly.

Putting human creativity on super drive

Creators know that their boundless imagination sometimes outpaces the time available to bring their ideas to life. Integrated seamlessly in popular Adobe apps that creators know and love like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Premier Pro, and Adobe Express, Firefly aims to close that gap with generative AI features that speed up and expand the creative process.

For instance, creators can make quick edits or create variations of their existing content — while maintaining brand standards. In Photoshop, the Firefly-powered Generative Expand feature helps creators broaden the frame of a photograph, while Generative Extend in Premiere Pro can add frames to videos for a smoother overall edit. In Lightroom, Generative Remove allows photographers — from hobbyists to pros — to easily and quickly remove unwanted objects and distractions even on complex backgrounds. In Adobe Express, creators can use Firefly-powered Generate Image and Text Effects to generate unique videos or create standout social posts and stories. 

These tools all help maintain the integrity of the creative process while freeing creators from tedious and time-consuming tasks so that they can efficiently summon their best work. Firefly generative AI models are powerful and, critically in the age of AI, developed responsibly.

Protecting creators and driving trust

Adobe’s efforts, however, don’t stop at the level of its own AI. The company is an advocate for responsible innovation and creator rights across industries, even within legislation.

Adobe is a founding member of the Content Authenticity Initiative, a massive collaboration of some of the most recognizable names in media, technology, and civil society that aims to restore trust and transparency in the digital ecosystem. In an age in which deepfakes can deceive even the trained eye, the Initiative’s Content Credentials — which act as a “nutrition label” for digital content — have emerged as the global standard for content provenance, providing a peek into the content’s origin and creation process. The tamper-evident metadata can be attached to digital content to show information like who made it and how it was created — including whether AI played a role. This information not only gives creators recognition for their work, but also protects them from anyone looking to repurpose their work without giving proper credit.

Content Credentials are already supported in Adobe apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Adobe Express. They’re also gaining significant momentum across the industry, with implementation spreading to, among other companies, Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and OpenAI.

Beyond technical solutions, Adobe believes that there’s also work to do at the policy level. With some generative AI, it takes just a few clicks for a bad actor to impersonate a specific creator in the marketplace. It’s crucial that we institute regulations and protections to help guard creators’ rights. Adobe is advocating for a federal anti-impersonation right that can help protect creators’ style and work in the age of AI.

By putting creators at the center, Adobe is setting an example that the entire industry can follow. To learn more about Adobe’s approach to generative AI with Firefly, visit Adobe’s website.

• From the Desk of: Ed Jay
• From the Desk Of: Anousheh Ansari

And while traditional business partnerships typically prioritize safety and predictability, customer data holds the power to unlock a world of possibilities to help businesses stand out and expand into new audiences.

In fact, 87% of marketing leaders think their company isn’t using data to its full potential. But those who do are seeing huge payoffs – 58% of respondents from one study shared that they have seen a large increase in customer loyalty and retention. This abundance of data enables businesses to form new hypotheses and create connections that may not have been obvious to them, or to their peers. And when there’s a trusted partner to help identify and recommend new directions, businesses of all sizes have the opportunity to thrive and grow.

J.P. Morgan Payments, moving almost $10 trillion per day (or around $100 million in value every second) has a unique vantage point on customer behavior. Especially with Customer Insights that go beyond simple demographics. Now, businesses can instantly tap into a rich understanding of what fuels customer decisions, including their behaviors, preferences and values.

“Our Customer Insights data can help company leaders, including product and marketing teams, figure out the best strategies to pursue for their business,” explains Florencia Ardissone, Head of Product and Analytics at J.P. Morgan Payments. Ardissone and her team transform customer data into actionable insights that inform strategic decision-making.

For example, Customer Insights might reveal that 30% of pet store transactions take place on a Saturday and 40% of those same shoppers visit a home furnishing store after¹. This suggests that exploring a new line of pet beds could create an unexpected expansion opportunity, potentially leading to increased foot traffic and sales.

Customer Insights empower decision-makers to take their company to the next level through powerful partnerships, pursue bespoke products and deliver personalized services that resonate with their consumers. This data-driven approach, fueled by Customer Insights, is unlocking a new era of customer engagement and fueling long-term business success.

1. Data is for illustrative purposes only. Based on actual customer data.

Disclaimer: Future capabilities of Customer Insights are under development; features and timelines are subject to change at the Bank’s sole discretion.

© 2024 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Deposits held in non-U.S. branches are not FDIC insured. Non-deposit products are not FDIC insured. The statements herein are confidential and proprietary and not intended to be legally binding. Not all products and services are available in all geographical areas. Visit jpmorgan.com/paymentsdisclosure for further disclosures and disclaimers related to this content.

A recent white paper found that organizations using data to drive their decisions were over three times more successful than those with less mature data operations. And a major component of that success was that over 98% of those organizations had a good or excellent understanding of their customers’ journeys. So it makes sense that, from banking, to healthcare, to retail, businesses across nearly all sectors are making the decision to be more data-driven.

Without access to robust data about their target customers’ behaviors and preferences, businesses run the risk of falling behind their competitors where it matters most: customer loyalty. But the question is, how can businesses not only gather this data, but make sense of it without the cost and labor involved in scaling up an internal data department? 

Florencia Ardissone, Head of Product and Analytics at J.P. Morgan Payments, has potential answers. “Our Customer Insights Solution equips businesses with analytics around where, when and how people are buying their products. And with the data of almost 10 trillion dollars in daily transactions at our fingertips, we’re able to provide unrivaled insights to help our clients’ businesses thrive and grow.”

As an example, Customer Insights data might show that a business has far better success in converting new customers at a physical touchpoint, but that most returning customers prefer to buy online. Leveraging these insights, J.P. Morgan Payments could recommend a strategy tailored to that customer journey, such as getting customers to a pop-up store during the holiday season, then following up with a digital coupon for the new customer’s next online purchase.

J.P. Morgan Payments delivers insights like these that can help businesses make the best decision for their bottom line. “No matter what sector your business is in, knowing where your customers are can help you reach them – and your goals,” Ardissone said.

Disclaimer: Future capabilities of Customer Insights are under development; features and timelines are subject to change at the Bank’s sole discretion.

© 2024 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Deposits held in non-U.S. branches are not FDIC insured. Non-deposit products are not FDIC insured. The statements herein are confidential and proprietary and not intended to be legally binding. Not all products and services are available in all geographical areas. Visit jpmorgan.com/paymentsdisclosure for further disclosures and disclaimers related to this content.

So, what role should food and beverage companies play?

“A lot of food banks need staples like long-life milk and fresh produce,” explains Rashna Shroff, Community Programs and Partnerships Manager at Nestlé Australia. “But often food bank organizations which rely on donations can struggle to meet demand and often look for institutional support,” she adds.  

To support food banks in their efforts to combat food insecurity, companies like Nestlé are taking action. In 2023, Nestlé donated over 140 million food servings globally.  

“Along with donating stock, a company like Nestlé can do so much,” Shroff shares. “Our brands have intentionally fostered partnerships with food banks, our employees volunteer their time to pack food boxes or sort donations, and we also fund programs like nutrition education initiatives.”

Here’s how that’s playing out globally. In Indonesia, children face high rates of stunting  due to chronic malnutrition. Nestlé Indonesia is collaborating with local partner Edufarmers on their ZeroStunting program to focus on nutrition issues and bolster communities. This includes product donations and educational programs to improve nutrition awareness. And it’s working, one program they collaborated on lowered severe stunting rates by 28% over the course of 100 days.

In the United States, one in eight people struggle with hunger. Nestlé USA has partnered with Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, and local food access groups like Rid-All, an urban farm in Cleveland, Ohio, to strengthen urban farming initiatives and community food systems.

Down under, Nestlé Australia has partnered with Foodbank Australia to mitigate a common challenge faced by food relief organizations: inconsistent food donations. Food banks often receive a random assortment of items, making it difficult for families to prepare balanced, nutritious meals. To alleviate this, Nestlé Australia worked with several industry partners to develop the Maggi Hearty One Pot Casserole, a recipe base that is designed to create delicious and nutritious meals with the food found in relief packages. This is the first ever designed-for-Foodbank product, and since its creation in 2021 has helped to make more than 1.2 million meals a year. “Our number one goal is to help feed more people,” says Rashna Shroff. 

By leveraging resources like staff, inventory, and supply chains, companies can empower food banks. Successful partnerships built on strong relationships, local needs assessments, and sustainable systems, can create a lasting impact on the billions of people that need food each year.

We all face crossroads at various points in our lives. These moments — like deciding whether to accept a new job offer or move to an unfamiliar city — help define us and impact the trajectory of our lives. 

That’s the idea behind Crucible Moments from Sequoia Capital. On the podcast, the founders of some of the world’s most notable companies talk about the decisions they confronted, how they navigated making them, and how those decisions ultimately helped shape their company’s legacy. Hosted by Roelof Botha, the managing partner of Sequoia, each episode of the podcast goes in-depth into one company’s story, offering advice and inspiration on navigating those crucible moments we all face. 

In season one, which premiered last fall, guests included PayPal founder Max Levchin, Block founder Jack Dorsey, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, and Eventbrite founder Julia Hartz. Crucible Moments is now back for an exciting second season, with episodes on companies including DoorDash, Dropbox, Robinhood, and more. Listeners will hear from well-known guests like Steve Huffman of Reddit, Frank Slootman of ServiceNow, Steve Chen of YouTube, and the Sequoia partners who work with them like Doug Leone, Pat Grady, Andrew Reed, and Alfred Lin.

Season two of Crucible Moments premieres August 29 with a new episode dropping every two weeks. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or Amazon Music, and listen to the trailer below. 

It’s a sight practically synonymous with online shopping: the brown cardboard box with the Amazon smile logo on the side. Maybe there are a few dozen arriving at your apartment building every day, or maybe you haul a flattened pile to the end of your driveway once a week. It’s hard to imagine a world in which they aren’t ubiquitous. But Amazon’s own employees are working to create one in which you receive far fewer of them.

As a new mom, Kayla Fenton orders a lot of diapers. These days, they arrive on her doorstep in a single box, stamped with the manufacturer’s branding but shipped by Amazon. Diapers aren’t exactly fragile products, but it’s not unusual for them to arrive wrapped in an extra layer of cardboard and plastic padding.

“As you can imagine, I’ve got enough to deal with,” Fenton said. “I don’t need another box to break down.”

Fortunately, as senior manager of technology products with Amazon’s Packaging Innovation team, she’s in a position to do something about it. She and her colleagues are focused on finding more efficient ways to get the billions of products Amazon ships each year to customers. That starts with packaging — whether the solution is reducing it or, as in the case of the diapers, avoiding the additional box entirely.

“At a macro level, we’re really trying to get rid of customers receiving the box-in-the-box or the bag-in-the-bag when they shop online,” Fenton said. That means answering the question: What’s the least amount of packaging the company can use and still ensure a product arrives safely?

Amazon’s Ships In Product Packaging (SIPP) is part of a variety of initiatives aimed at addressing this issue on a massive scale. It’s also one of many innovations helping Amazon achieve the goals of The Climate Pledge, which Amazon co-founded five years ago to incentivize companies to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. (More than 500 companies have signed on since.)

Through the SIPP program, certain items shipped by Amazon may be shipped in their original manufacturer’s packaging without any supplemental boxes, bags, or packing materials added by Amazon. The option is only available for products that meet specific suitability standards (a bulk order of dog food, yes; a single chef’s knife, no) but through the efforts of Fenton’s colleagues, that share is expanding by the day. The team determines which items qualify for SIPP by putting packages through a variety of performance-based tests, including drop-testing boxes and evaluating the seal strength for flexible mailer bags. These experiments, conducted in Amazon’s labs and fulfillment centers, or directly at selling partner sites, are designed to ensure that packages hold up throughout the shipping journey and arrive safely at customers’ homes. Products that shoppers may not want visible during delivery — such as adult products — aren’t eligible for the program and will ship in discreet packaging.    

Already, the company has reduced the per-shipment packaging weight by 43 percent on average since 2015, avoiding more than 3 million metric tons of packaging materials. Cutting down on cardboard and plastic is beneficial not only for the materials avoidance, but also for downstream effects on the amount of space products take up in delivery vehicles. 

After all, the smaller the parcels, the fewer trips, in aggregate, it takes to bring them to customers’ homes. “If you can fit more packages on a last-mile delivery truck, then instead of needing two for a neighborhood, you may need one instead,” Fenton explained.

Over 21 billion parcels were delivered in the U.S. in 2022 according to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, and with e-commerce playing an ever-greater role in people’s lives, reducing the waste of each shipment is an increasingly pressing consideration. SIPP is the rare win-win program where what’s better for the customer is also better for Amazon, its selling partners, and the environment. Customers who receive SIPP products opt-in spend less time breaking down boxes and peeling off tape. Manufacturers have the chance to build brand recognition, further sustainability initiatives, and save on seller fees.

Maximizing these benefits is a team effort. Fenton’s colleagues work directly with sellers to not only identify items for which the existing packaging meets the criteria to ship as-is but also to help develop and implement better packaging solutions. Take trigger bottles, which usually ship with lots of added materials so they don’t spill or leak in transit — a challenge for companies like Windex manufacturer SC Johnson that are trying to cut down on their packaging footprints. To tackle this, Windex and Amazon teamed up to design a streamlined box with a paper component that kept the bottle secure and wrapped it with thoughtful branding.

“They’re able to advertise the sustainability attributes of the product itself from a plastic-reduction perspective, while also reducing the likelihood that product’s going to damage in transit,” Fenton said. The project went from idea to implementation in under six months, she said — speedy for such a large brand — demonstrating the potential for significant large-scale change.

Packaging for products tends to be designed with the brick-and mortar shopping experience in mind — packages are deliberately sized up to stand out on a shelf, with hang tags conveying the same information as online product pages. In an ideal world, these extraneous features could be re-invented for online shoppers.  

As Fenton puts it, “The best possible outcome is that the product and the packaging are designed for e-commerce in a way that’s a net end-to-end reduction in the amount of materials needed.” 

This doesn’t mean that every product will arrive without a box: Amazon sells everything from smartphones to shampoo to floor lamps, and if something needs protection, packaging serves that purpose. Reducing damage during transit isn’t just about consumer satisfaction — it’s also a sustainability issue. If a set of wine glasses arrives cracked, it’ll likely end up in the recycling bin (if not the trash) and the company will have to send a replacement item, doubling the environmental impact of a single order.

For these items, the focus shifts to finding more sustainable materials to get them where they need to go safely, which is where updates like Amazon’s paper filler — a recyclable alternative to plastic air pillows — comes in. In less than a year, Amazon has replaced 95 percent of the plastic air pillows in its delivery packaging in North America with paper filler made from 100 percent recycled content. This effort will avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually. The company’s materials scientists and packaging engineers are always testing new materials, and design adjustments with the aim of minimizing waste.

These days, they also have a crucial partner in determining the most efficient packaging for items that need to be shipped: the Package Decision Engine, a collection of business rules and machine learning models trained on millions of examples of previous products and shipments, including those that cracked, leaked, or otherwise got damaged in transit. This model learns from these opportunities to help Amazon proactively determine the best right-sized packaging for its constantly growing global catalog of products. 

While her team is still constantly gathering data through physical testing — stacking boxes on vibration tables that simulate the movement in the back of an 18-wheeler truck or the belly of an airplane, squeezing them with clamps that replicate the force of a forklift, and putting them through incline tests that mimic the impact of sliding onto a metal truck bed — AI can apply these learnings, as well as those gained through real-life shipments, to Amazon’s near-infinite worldwide catalog.

At every step, success is measured not only by how well Amazon can implement these innovations but also by how seamlessly they can be adopted by other companies. Amazon’s size and influence mean that any advances or changes it makes ripple like corrugated cardboard through the industry.

“It’s not just about Amazon meeting our goals to be net-zero carbon,” Fenton said. “It’s about developing solutions that can help many retailers and also customers know how they can be a part of reaching net-zero carbon emissions as well.”

A single major sports event can generate up to 40 tons of trash. That’s the weight of two loaded charter buses being added to a landfill — and that waste doesn’t even take into account the energy used to power the stadium, or the gasoline-fueled cars so many fans drove to get there.

That’s why Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena — the first large-scale live events space named for a cause, not for a company — is leading the way on a greener alternative with a host of initiatives around energy, waste, transit, and beyond. In fact, Climate Pledge Arena and its resident teams, the Seattle Kraken and the Seattle Storm, are among the signatories of The Climate Pledge, a coalition of companies that are committed to reaching an ambitious goal: achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. This September marks the fifth anniversary of the Pledge, which was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019. Over 500 signatory companies have signed on since.

As the growing movement to fight climate change focuses around the need for massive, cross-industry collaboration, signatories in the entertainment and sports industries are coming together to address their environmental impact collectively. In the case of Climate Pledge Arena, that means devising innovative solutions to make the future of live events more sustainable.

Oak View Group, which operates Climate Pledge Arena and 400 other venues worldwide is also a signatory of the Pledge. Kristen Fulmer, head of sustainability for Oak View Group, says the arena’s environmental achievements also have a broader impact: helping inspire other signatories and venues globally. Fulmer also serves as director of GOAL, or Green Operations & Advanced Leadership, Oak View Group’s sustainability working group that pulls together leaders from 40 event spaces in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. 

“Sustainability doesn’t just show up in [new] venues,” Fulmer said. “We’re pushing out goals and minimum standards to all of our venue operations teams, and providing them with support and resources to make sure that they know what sustainability looks like for the Iowa Events Center just as much as it does [for] the Climate Pledge Arena.”

Creating a green road map

Motivating live events spaces around the world to embrace sustainable practices could have an enormous impact. Each year, the global sports industry emits an estimated 350 million tons of carbon dioxide, according to the Carbon Literacy Project, a figure that includes factors like transportation emissions, construction of venues, and the supply chain for merchandise. Concert goers, meanwhile, are responsible for over 116 million pounds of waste in the U.S. alone. 

Climate Pledge Arena’s success story demonstrates some of the tangible actions that Pledge signatories can take, starting with energy. Everything in the arena, from the heat that warms attendees to the machines that resurface the hockey rink ice, runs on electric power. Currently, one percent of that power is provided by on-site solar panels, and the rest comes from other renewable sources, according to Rob Johnson, senior vice president of sustainability and transportation for the Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken.

Siemens, a fellow Climate Pledge signatory, has been helping with further energy-reduction methods for the 18,100-seat arena, “starting with tracking and sub-metering to understand exactly where the building energy systems are using the most power, and what we can really do to reduce those emissions,” Johnson said.

And the environmental sustainability initiatives go beyond traditional “green” building operations. The arena also offers free local public transit with every ticket to encourage fans to choose options like light rail or the bus over driving to events. Rainwater collected from all those rainy Seattle days is even used to make the hockey rink’s ice, which Johnson said has already saved more than 400,000 gallons of water over the past three seasons. The food program prioritizes local sourcing, with a goal to source 75 percent of ingredients from within a 300-mile radius of the arena.

Plus, its 22,000-ton roof (which was built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and has official historical landmark designation) was preserved while the new arena was built under it. That significantly reduced the 41,000 metric tons of carbon emissions associated with construction, according to Johnson. 

The arena’s approach is inspiring groups worldwide — from Eastern European hockey clubs to Japanese arena developers — who regularly request more info about its initiatives, Johnson said. “To see the number of venues who … are asking us for tours or jumping on calls to ask questions about how we’re doing it has been powerful,” he said.

Getting to zero-waste

One of Climate Pledge Arena’s most talked-about recent achievements has been its TRUE Platinum certification for operating as a functionally zero-waste facility. To achieve that, the venue diverts more than 90 percent of its waste from the landfill to recycling and compost.

Hitting that zero-waste target took a three-pronged approach, said Brianna Treat, director of sustainability for the arena and the Seattle Kraken. The first step was simplifying procurement, which involved shifting the products for sale. Only products with compostable food contents and recyclable packaging can now be purchased. Single-use plastics have also been eliminated. The Arena achieved this milestone in October 2023, well ahead of the 2024 goal.

Finally, the team overhauled how the cleaning staff does the “bowl sweep” to collect trash after events. Instead of having crews collect all items in one bag and then sort them later into separate bags for landfill, recycling, and compost, the cleaners started sorting as they did the bowl sweep. “We saved so much time that we actually went from needing 10 housekeepers to four to six every event just because of that very simple approach to our operations,” Treat said. “The bowl sweep was huge for us, because it saved us money on the back-of-house front, but it also saved us a lot of time on the sorting front. It takes 10 hours to sort through 10 tons of waste.

Then, there was fan education. Signs at each disposal station, for instance, show the 30 most-sold items in the stadium and specify where each should be tossed so there’s no guessing. The team has even strapped a camera to a soda bottle to show where it goes after being binned.

Climate Pledge Arena’s zero-waste performance is well beyond the average landfill diversion rate for GOAL network members (90 percent vs. 32 percent). But to Fulmer, it’s more about appreciating the overall progress. “That’s over one-third of their waste not going to landfill or being incinerated,” she said. “If we total that up across the number of events that these venues host and then across the whole portfolio, that’s substantial. Even just small, incremental changes can really help reduce big numbers.”

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