# AZ Computer Guru Radio Show - April 25, 2026

# AZ Computer Guru Radio Show Prep

## Saturday, April 25, 2026

Show Date: April 25, 2026

Research Date: April 25, 2026

Format: 4 segments, 12-16 minutes each

Theme: AI Is Taking Jobs AND Saving You Money — Both Things Are True

## COMMON THREAD

"AI Is Taking Jobs AND Saving You Money — Both Things Are True"

This week we're tackling the biggest tension in tech right now. The same technology that put 78,557 tech workers out of a job in the first three months of 2026 is also quietly saving American households hundreds of dollars a month on groceries, travel, and bills. The same AI that Meta is using to justify cutting 8,000 employees is also available to you — free or for $20 a month — doing work that would have cost a small business owner tens of thousands of dollars in staff.

The trick is not to panic and not to be naive. AI is a genuine economic disruption happening in real time. Oracle cut 25,000 jobs. Block cut 40% of its workforce. Meta just announced 8,000 more cuts THIS WEEK, citing AI as the reason. That's real, and those are real people. But the same tools are also handing small business owners in Tucson capabilities that used to be reserved for Fortune 500 companies with big IT budgets.

Today's show is about both sides — without the hype and without the doom. What's actually happening, what it means for people in this town, and what you can do about it starting Monday morning.

## SEGMENT 1: "The Pink Slip Wave — Who's Actually Getting Cut and Why" (14-16 min)

### Opening

"By the end of March, the tech industry had shed 78,557 jobs. Nearly half — and I mean this precisely — 47.9% of those cuts were companies explicitly saying 'we don't need this person anymore because AI does it now.' That's not layoffs. That's replacement. Let me walk you through what happened, who got hit the hardest, and what kinds of jobs are disappearing."

### Story 1: The Q1 2026 Layoff Numbers

#### Key Facts

- 78,557 tech workers laid off January through March 2026
- 47.9% of cuts (37,638 jobs) explicitly attributed to AI/automation by the companies themselves
- 76% of affected workers are in the United States
- March was the worst month: 33,000+ job losses in a single month
- AI cited as layoff cause jumped from less than 8% in 2025 to 47.9% in Q1 2026

#### Talking Points

- 78,557 is a tracked figure from layoffs.fyi — the definitive database of tech cuts — not a rounded estimate
- "Nearly half due to AI" jumped from under 8% in 2025 to 47.9% in Q1 2026 — that's not a trend, that's a cliff
- The roles disappearing: customer support, quality assurance, content moderation, middle management
- These are not coding jobs — these are the jobs that millions of people without CS degrees held
- Block CEO Jack Dorsey directly cited "growing capability of AI tools" when cutting 4,000 jobs — no euphemisms
- AI job listings are UP 34% year-over-year even as general tech postings fell 8% — the industry is replacing workers, not growing the pie
- Workers with advanced AI skills earn 56% more than peers in identical roles without those skills (LinkedIn data)

#### Why This Matters

This is the first quarter where AI job displacement stopped being a prediction and became a data point. We're not talking about "AI might take jobs someday." Companies are now openly listing AI as the reason for cutting specific teams. Customer support is being automated. QA testing is being automated. The people who held those roles — many of them non-engineers who built careers in tech — are the ones bearing the cost of this transition.

### Story 2: Oracle, Amazon, Block — The Biggest Cuts

This week alone: Meta cut 8,000 jobs. Microsoft offered 8,750 buyouts. Combined: 16,750 in a single week. Both announced April 23, 2026 — two days ago.

#### Key Facts

- Oracle: 25,254 layoffs across Q1 2026 — $2.1 billion set aside for restructuring
- Amazon: 16,000 corporate positions cut in 2026 so far
- Block (Jack Dorsey / formerly Square): 4,000 jobs — nearly 40% of total workforce — with CEO explicitly citing AI
- Meta (announced April 23): 8,000 jobs, 10% of total workforce, effective May 20, 2026
- Microsoft (announced April 23): 8,750 workers offered voluntary "Rule of 70" retirement buyouts — first time in 51-year company history
- Meta's 2026 AI capital expenditure: $115–135 billion (nearly double 2025's $72 billion)

#### Talking Points

- Oracle cut 25,000 people while spending billions on AI cloud infrastructure — they are not struggling, they are replacing
- Block's CEO made it the clearest: 4,000 people gone, AI capability cited directly
- Meta's Mark Zuckerberg this week: "Projects that used to require big teams can now be accomplished by a single very talented person" — that is an 8,000-person cut explained in one sentence
- Meta is spending $115–135 billion on AI this year while cutting 10% of its people — the trade-off is explicit
- Microsoft's "Rule of 70" buyout: age + years at company equals 70 = they pay you to leave — first time in 51-year history
- These are not struggling companies. Meta made $62 billion in profit last year. Microsoft made $88 billion. They are cutting people because AI is cheaper.

#### Why This Matters

When Meta and Microsoft — the most profitable companies in human history — swap people for AI while drowning in money, every other company's board is watching. This sets the template for every business below them.

### Story 3: Who Is Actually Getting Hired — The Flip Side

#### Key Facts

- AI and ML engineering postings: up 34% year-over-year (LinkedIn data, March 2026)
- 50% of US tech job postings now require AI skills
- Workers with advanced AI skills earn 28–56% more than peers in the same role
- BCG 2026: AI will create an estimated 170 million new roles globally by 2030
- Fastest-growing new roles: ML operations, AI safety, prompt engineering, data infrastructure, AI trainer

#### Talking Points

- The job market is splitting: AI builders up, AI-replaceable workers down
- Workers pivoting fastest are going into AI-adjacent roles — not necessarily coding, but the operations around AI systems
- UK government expanded free AI training to 10 million workers this year — the US has no equivalent program
- The IMF said in January: "Reskilling is not optional — it's the defining economic challenge of 2026"
- The 56% wage premium for AI-skilled workers is the single most important number for anyone in the workforce right now

Segment Transition: "So that's the disruption side. Real numbers, real companies, real people. Now let's flip it around — because the same AI that's putting those workers out of a job is also landing in your pocket as a consumer and saving you actual money. We'll talk about that after the break."
Segment 1 Time: 14-16 minutes

## SEGMENT 2: "The $172 Billion Freebie — What AI Is Actually Worth to Regular People" (12-14 min)

### Opening

"Stanford University just released their annual AI Index — 400-plus pages of data on everything happening in artificial intelligence. One number jumped out at me: the estimated value of generative AI tools to U.S. consumers is $172 billion a year. For reference, that's more than the entire GDP of Hungary. And most of it is free. Let me tell you where that number comes from and what it means for your household."

### Story 1: The $172 Billion Consumer Windfall

$172 billion/year — estimated value flowing to U.S. consumers from AI tools (Stanford AI Index 2026). Up from $112 billion a year prior. Median value per user tripled in early 2026.

#### Key Facts

- Estimated U.S. consumer surplus from generative AI: $172 billion annually (Stanford AI Index 2026)
- Up from $112 billion the year before — a 54% increase in one year
- Median value per user tripled between 2025 and 2026
- 53% of the US population adopted generative AI within 3 years — faster than smartphones (5 years), internet (7+ years), PCs (10+ years)
- 61% of American adults used AI in the past 6 months; 31% interact with it multiple times daily (Pew Research, March 2026)

#### Talking Points

- "Consumer surplus" = the gap between what something is worth to you and what you paid. You're getting $172 billion worth of help from tools that are mostly free or $20/month.
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini — free. Premium tiers: $20/month. What's $20 worth of old-school professional help? A lawyer charges that for about 7 minutes.
- AI reached 50% US adoption in 3 years; the internet took 7 years. Smartphones took 5 years. This is the fastest technology adoption in human history — by a lot.
- Nearly 1 in 3 Americans uses AI multiple times a day — most don't even think of it as "using AI"
- Netflix recommending a movie, Gmail finishing your sentence, Spotify building a playlist — that's AI, all day, every day
- The $172B number is a "transfer" — value that used to require paying professionals is now flowing directly to consumers at near-zero cost

#### Why This Matters

This is genuinely unusual in economic history. Most technology revolutions created value for businesses first and consumers second. This one is different — consumers are capturing an enormous share of the value, and most of them don't even realize it.

### Story 2: AI at the Grocery Store — Real Numbers

#### Key Facts

- Families using AI meal planning report 15–25% reduction in grocery bills
- ABC News / GMA live test (March 2026): families saved $40–$80 per week using AI grocery planning
- Grocery prices still 20%+ above 2021 levels — AI is one of the few practical countermeasures
- AI budgeting tools (Copilot, YNAB AI layer) analyze spending patterns and find waste automatically
- 62% of millennials and 67% of Gen Z already use AI for financial decisions (Experian)

#### Talking Points

- Real use case: Tell ChatGPT what's in your fridge, what you want to make this week. It generates a shopping list with cheapest substitutions, organized by store section. Free. Five minutes.
- You can photograph a store shelf or receipt and ask AI to compare value per ounce — instant answer
- AI budgeting tools find spending patterns you didn't know about — subscription creep, price drift, recurring waste
- In a year where Tucson families are still absorbing 20%+ grocery inflation, this is a practical tool, not a luxury
- People not using AI for grocery planning and budgeting are leaving real money on the table every week

### Story 3: GPT-5.5 — The AI That Does Your Actual Work

Released April 23, 2026 — two days ago. GPT-5.5 scores 84.9% on tasks across 44 knowledge work occupations. This is not a chatbot upgrade. This is an AI that executes workflows.

#### Key Facts

- OpenAI released GPT-5.5 on April 23, 2026
- Classification: "Agentic" — plans and executes multi-step tasks without constant prompting
- Benchmark scores: 82.7% on Terminal-Bench 2.0, 84.9% on GDPval (44 knowledge work categories), 78.7% on OSWorld-Verified
- Already integrated into Clio (legal software) for autonomous legal research workflows
- Can write/debug code, research online, fill spreadsheets, operate software, manage a workflow start-to-finish

#### Talking Points

- Old AI: "Write me an email." New AI: "Here are my expenses — categorize them, flag anything unusual, draft a summary for my accountant." It does all three without you asking twice.
- 84.9% across 44 knowledge work job categories means it can do nearly 85% of standard office tasks without human intervention
- For small business owners: one person can now do what used to require two or three people
- Lawyers using Clio + GPT-5.5 can now hand off research workflows that used to take paralegals hours
- Important caveat: it still makes mistakes in legal, financial, and scientific domains. Human oversight required for high-stakes work.
- Most people haven't heard of this yet — released two days ago

#### Why This Matters

GPT-5.5 is not a chatbot upgrade — it's a shift from AI as a helper to AI as a worker. For small business owners, this is the most significant product release of 2026. The question is no longer "can AI help me?" but "what tasks am I still paying a human to do that AI can now handle?"

Segment Transition: "A trillion-dollar industry disrupting jobs and handing consumers free tools worth $172 billion. Now let's talk about what that actually looks like for the small business owner in Tucson — the restaurant, the plumber, the boutique, the auto shop — because the adoption numbers here are genuinely surprising."
Segment 2 Time: 12-14 minutes

## SEGMENT 3: "The $4,100-a-Month Tool You're Probably Not Using" (12-14 min)

### Opening

"68% of small US businesses now use AI regularly. That's up from 36% just three years ago. The businesses using it report spending about $120 a month on tools — and getting back $4,100 a month in time savings and efficiency gains. That's a 34-to-1 return. I want to talk about what that actually looks like for a small business in this town, because the use cases are more practical than you might think."

### Story 1: What Small Businesses Are Actually Doing With AI

34-to-1 ROI. Small businesses spend $120/month on AI tools. Average monthly benefit: $4,100. 78.6% report reduced costs or improved efficiency.

#### Key Facts

- 68% of US small businesses use AI regularly (Business.com 2026) — up from 36% in 2023
- Average AI tool spend: $120/month | Average monthly benefit: $4,100/month
- 78.6% of SMBs using AI report reduced costs or improved efficiency
- SMB employees save 5.6 hours per week using AI tools (managers save 7.2 hours)
- Companies using AI complete tasks 40% faster and cut operational costs by 35%
- 62% of SMBs now use AI in both customer service and marketing

#### Talking Points

- #1 SMB use case: customer communication — chatbots handle routine questions at 3am when you're asleep
- #2: Content and marketing — a neighborhood bakery used $50/month in AI tools to replace 8-10 hours/week of social media work
- #3: Scheduling, invoicing, admin — tasks that used to require a part-time bookkeeper
- The math: 5.6 hours/week at $25/hour = $140/week in recovered labor time per employee. Times 4 weeks = $560/month saved. Tools cost $120. Net gain: $440/month per person.
- The businesses NOT using AI are competing against ones that complete work 40% faster — that's a structural disadvantage that compounds every month
- This isn't enterprise software requiring an IT team. It's ChatGPT and Canva on a laptop.

#### Why This Matters

Small businesses in Tucson are in a competitive environment that just changed permanently. If the plumber across town is using AI to generate estimates, respond to leads overnight, and manage scheduling — and you're not — they have a cost structure advantage over you. The tools are cheap. The adoption curve is still early enough that getting in now gives you a real edge.

### Story 2: Real Use Cases — Restaurants, Trades, Retail

#### Key Facts

- AI demand forecasting reduces food waste 20–30% for restaurants
- AI customer service bots: answer routine questions 24/7 at zero marginal cost after setup
- AI-generated marketing content: freelance graphic design charges $75–150/piece; Canva AI costs $15/month unlimited
- Healthcare office AI scribes: save 2–3 hours of physician charting time per day
- AI scheduling tools (Calendly, Reclaim, Motion) now include AI layers for automatic optimization

#### Talking Points

- Restaurant owner: AI tracks which dishes sell on which days and in what weather. You stop over-ordering. Margins go up.
- Trades (plumbers, electricians, HVAC): AI drafts estimate emails, follows up with leads you forgot, writes the job description for your next hire
- Retail: AI writes product descriptions, generates social media posts, handles customer return inquiries via chat
- Freelance design vs. Canva AI: $75–150 per piece vs. $15/month unlimited. For a shop doing weekly promos, that's $3,000–$6,000/year saved.
- Healthcare offices: AI scribe transcribes doctor-patient conversations in real time — physicians report saving 2–3 hours of charting per day
- Key caveat: AI still makes mistakes. You review and approve before anything goes out. But "review and approve" is much faster than "create from scratch."

### Story 3: The Human Advantage — Jobs AI Can't Replace

#### Key Facts

- BCG 2026: AI reshapes more jobs than it eliminates — but reshaping requires human judgment, communication, and relationship skills
- Roles showing highest resilience: healthcare (human touch), trades (physical, on-site), sales (relationship), education (mentorship)
- Workers with AI skills earn 28–56% more than peers in the same role without AI skills
- Workers who pivoted into AI-adjacent roles in first 6 months post-layoff are re-employed at higher wages

#### Talking Points

- The workers doing best right now are not ignoring AI — they're using it to make themselves more valuable
- Example: a customer service rep who answered 40 tickets/day now manages the AI that handles 400 tickets/day. Job changed. Value went up.
- AI cannot replicate: judgment under pressure, physical work in variable environments, genuine human empathy, accountability
- Trades workers in Tucson: your value is going UP, not down. AI cannot tighten a fitting or diagnose a weird noise under a house. Demand for trades is rising.
- Healthcare workers: AI assists diagnosis, but patients want a human face when the news is bad
- One concrete move today: spend one hour learning how to use ChatGPT or Claude for your specific job. That one hour may be worth more than 40 hours of job searching.

#### Why This Matters

This is not a "robots take all jobs" story and it's not a "don't worry, everything will be fine" story. It's a "the people who adapt will do better than the people who wait" story. That has been true of every technological transition in history — steam, electricity, computers, internet. The question is not whether change is coming. It's whether you're going to be ready for it.

Segment Transition: "So AI is cutting jobs at the top, saving consumers money in the middle, and creating opportunities for small businesses at the local level. Next segment, we zoom out — GPT-5.5 just launched two days ago, and what an 'AI agent' really means for your daily life going forward."
Segment 3 Time: 12-14 minutes

## SEGMENT 4: "The Robot in Your Phone — Agentic AI and What Comes Next" (14-16 min)

### Opening

"This week OpenAI released GPT-5.5, and the coverage mostly missed the point. Everyone talked about benchmark scores. What they should have talked about is the word 'agentic.' Because the shift from regular AI to agentic AI is the difference between a calculator and an employee. Let me explain what that means for you, and why it matters more than any individual product launch."

### Story 1: GPT-5.5 — What "Agentic" Actually Means

#### Key Facts

- Released: April 23, 2026 (two days ago)
- Developer: OpenAI
- Classification: Agentic — executes multi-step tasks autonomously, not just answering prompts
- Key benchmarks: 82.7% Terminal-Bench 2.0, 84.9% GDPval (knowledge work, 44 job categories), 78.7% OSWorld-Verified (real OS navigation)
- Already integrated into legal software Clio for autonomous research workflows
- Competitor context: Anthropic's Mythos model (limited release only) benchmarks higher but is restricted to 40 organizations due to security risk

#### Talking Points

- Old AI model: "Write me a cover letter." It writes a cover letter. Done.
- New agentic model: "I'm applying for healthcare admin jobs in Tucson. Research the top 10 employers, find open positions, tailor a cover letter for each, and send them." It does all of that without you touching it again.
- "Autonomous computer use" means it navigates your OS, opens applications, fills forms, and moves between tools — like a person using a computer
- Legal use case at Clio: attorneys hand off case research as a workflow — GPT-5.5 finds relevant cases, summarizes them, organizes by relevance — attorney reviews and approves
- Customer service: set up the agent once, it handles inquiries, sends follow-ups, escalates to human only when needed
- Important caveat: still makes errors in legal, medical, financial domains. Human review required for high-stakes work.

#### Why This Matters

The move from "AI answers your question" to "AI completes your task" is the transition that makes most white-collar job displacement possible. When the AI doesn't just draft an email but sends it, tracks the reply, and follows up — the gap between AI assistance and AI replacement narrows significantly. GPT-5.5 is the first mainstream model to cross that threshold with enough reliability to be used in production.

### Story 2: The Meta-Microsoft Week — What This Moment Actually Means

April 23, 2026: Meta cut 8,000 jobs. Microsoft offered 8,750 buyouts. Same day. Combined: 16,750 in one week. CNBC headline yesterday: "AI-driven labor crisis is here."

#### Key Facts

- Meta (April 23): 8,000 jobs cut (10% of workforce), effective May 20 — 6,000 open roles also closed
- Meta 2026 AI capex: $115–135 billion (nearly double 2025's $72 billion)
- Microsoft (April 23): 8,750 US employees offered "Rule of 70" voluntary retirement — first time in company's 51-year history
- CNBC April 24 (yesterday): "20,000 job cuts at Meta, Microsoft raise concern that AI-driven labor crisis is here"
- Meta profit in 2025: $62 billion. Microsoft profit in 2025: $88 billion. These are not struggling companies.

#### Talking Points

- Both companies announced on the same day — the timing signals industry-wide coordinated move
- CNBC used the phrase "AI-driven labor crisis" in a headline — not a fringe publication
- Meta's math is transparent: $115B to AI infrastructure, $600-700M in salary cuts. The swap is explicit.
- Microsoft's "Rule of 70" is unprecedented in their 51-year history — this is a structural reset, not a cost cut
- Zuckerberg's exact words: "Projects that used to require big teams can now be accomplished by a single very talented person" — that is an 8,000-person cut explained in one sentence
- The most profitable companies in human history are choosing AI over people — every other company's board is watching and taking notes

#### Why This Matters

Meta and Microsoft cutting a combined 16,750 jobs in a single week while both are enormously profitable is the clearest signal yet that this is not a downturn — it's a deliberate restructuring. Companies are not laying off people because they can't afford them. They're laying off people because AI is cheaper. Understanding that distinction matters enormously for anyone thinking about their career trajectory right now.

### Story 3: What You Should Actually Do — Practical Takeaways for Tucson

#### Key Facts

- Workers with AI skills earn 28–56% more than peers in the same role
- Free tools right now: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Perplexity — all free tiers available
- Best paid tools: ChatGPT Plus ($20/month), Claude Pro ($20/month), Canva Pro ($15/month)
- Free training: Google "AI Essentials" (Coursera), Microsoft AI Skills Initiative — both free
- 80% of college students now use AI regularly — non-users are at a competitive disadvantage

#### Talking Points

- Monday morning move: Go to Claude.ai or ChatGPT.com. Free. Type the most annoying repetitive task from your workday. Ask it to help. That's the starting point.
- Business owners: pick ONE problem — customer follow-up, social media, estimates — and spend two hours testing if AI can do it. Don't overhaul everything at once.
- Workers in vulnerable roles (customer support, data entry, content moderation, QA): the job search AND reskilling conversation are both urgent. Start with Google's free AI Essentials course.
- Retirees and people helping family with finances: AI is excellent at explaining complicated documents in plain English. Medicare notices, insurance letters, legal documents — paste it in, ask it to explain simply. Works extremely well.
- Parents: 80% of college students use AI. If your kid isn't, they are at a competitive disadvantage. Worth a conversation this weekend.
- Trades workers in Tucson: You are in one of the most AI-resistant positions in the economy. Physical, variable, licensed, trusted. Your value is going UP. This is a great time to be a plumber in Tucson.

#### Why This Matters

Every major technological transition in the last 200 years rewarded the people who adapted early and penalized the people who waited until they had no choice. Steam engines didn't eliminate farming — they changed what farmers needed to know. Computers didn't eliminate office work — they changed what office workers needed to do. This one is faster and broader than any previous transition, but the same rule applies: early adapters win, late adapters struggle, and people who refuse to engage lose their seats entirely.

Segment Wrap: "AI eliminated 78,557 tech jobs in Q1 2026. Nearly half explicitly because of AI. This week Meta and Microsoft cut a combined 20,000 more. And yet — consumers are capturing $172 billion in free value from AI tools. Small businesses using AI are making 34 times what they're spending on it. And GPT-5.5, which launched two days ago, can now execute multi-step work tasks without you touching it again. Both of these things are true at the same time. The question is not whether AI changes your life. It's whether you're going to be the one deciding how."
Segment 4 Time: 14-16 minutes

## SHOW WRAP & FINAL TAKEAWAYS

### Closing Summary

"Here's what we covered today. Q1 2026: 78,557 tech jobs gone, nearly half explicitly because of AI. Oracle cut 25,000. Block cut 40% of its entire company. Meta and Microsoft cut 20,000 more just this week. Those are real people. On the other side: U.S. consumers are getting $172 billion in free value from AI tools annually — and that number tripled in the past year. 68% of small businesses are using AI and getting 34-to-1 returns on their $120/month investment. GPT-5.5 launched two days ago as the first mainstream AI that actually executes tasks, not just answers questions. And the workers doing best right now are the ones who treated AI as a skill to learn, not a threat to wait out."

### Final Thought

"I've been doing this show long enough to remember when 'the internet will change everything' sounded like hype. It wasn't. This is not hype either. The difference is that this one is moving faster, it's hitting more job categories, and the tools are available to literally everyone right now — for free. You don't have to be a tech company to use this. You don't have to be a programmer. You have to be willing to try something new. That's always been the price of adaptation. It's still the same price today."

### What You Can Do This Week

- Try AI for one task: Go to Claude.ai or ChatGPT.com — free — and ask it to help with the most annoying repetitive task in your week
- Grocery savings: Ask ChatGPT to build a meal plan and shopping list from what's in your fridge. Compare your bill to a normal week.
- Business owners: Identify one function — customer follow-up, estimates, social media — and test whether AI can do a first draft
- Workers in vulnerable roles: Start Google's free "AI Essentials" certificate at coursera.org/google-ai-essentials
- Parents: Talk to your kids about AI in their coursework. 80% of college students use it. If yours doesn't know how, that's a gap worth closing.
- Retirees: Use Claude or ChatGPT to translate confusing Medicare or insurance documents into plain English. Paste the text, ask it to explain simply.
- Trades workers: Your value is going UP. AI cannot fix a furnace, find a leak, or rewire a panel. Consider adding a basic AI tool for estimates and client communication — that's an easy win.

## SOURCES

### Q1 2026 Tech Layoffs

- Tom's Hardware: "Tech industry lays off nearly 80,000 employees in Q1 2026 — almost 50% due to AI"
- Metaintro: "78,557 Tech Workers Lost Jobs in Q1 2026"
- StartupArticle: "Tech Layoffs 2026: Oracle, Amazon, Block, and Meta"
- North Penn Now: "Q1 2026 Tech Layoffs Surpass 60,000"
- CNBC: "20,000 job cuts at Meta, Microsoft raise concern that AI-driven labor crisis is here" (April 24, 2026)
- CNBC: "Oracle cutting thousands as company continues to ramp AI spending"
- Al Jazeera: "Meta lines up layoffs while Microsoft offers buyouts"

### Stanford AI Index 2026 / Consumer Value

- Stanford HAI: Full 2026 AI Index Report
- Stanford HAI: Economy section — $172B consumer surplus
- Stanford HAI: "12 Takeaways from the 2026 AI Index Report"
- Pew Research: "How Americans View Artificial Intelligence" (March 2026)

### GPT-5.5 and Agentic AI

- OpenAI: "Introducing GPT-5.5"
- Neowin: "GPT-5.5 arrives with advanced agentic coding and computer use"
- BusinessToday: "GPT-5.5 brings autonomy into focus, takes on Anthropic's Mythos"
- Clio: "GPT-5.5 Support in Clio Work and Vincent" (legal agentic workflows)

### Consumer AI Savings / Grocery

- ABC News / GMA: "Shoppers can use AI to save money amid rising grocery prices"
- Sangamon Reporter: "Shoppers Turn to AI Tools to Stretch Grocery Budgets"
- Family Finance Warriors: "Tech-Infused Frugal Living in 2026: AI Budgeting Tools"

### Small Business AI Adoption

- Business.com: "2026 Small Business AI Outlook Report"
- Digital Applied: "Small Business AI Adoption: 68% Use It, Most Wing It"
- US Chamber of Commerce / CO-: "AI Is Powering Small Business Growth in 2026"

### Workforce Retraining and AI Labor Trends

- BCG: "AI Will Reshape More Jobs Than It Replaces"
- Rest of World: "Tech jobs in 2026: layoffs, AI hype, and new roles"
- IMF: "New Skills and AI Are Reshaping the Future of Work" (January 2026)
- Gloat: "10 Key AI Workforce Trends in 2026"

### Notes for Next Show

- Track May 20 Meta layoff execution — specific roles and team impacts
- Microsoft "Rule of 70" buyout acceptance rate (watch for announcement)
- GPT-5.5 real-world adoption stories — will emerge rapidly in next 2-3 weeks
- Watch for US government response to AI labor displacement question
- UK's 10-million-worker AI training program — contrast with US lack of equivalent
- Any Tucson/Arizona small business local color on AI adoption — great for the show

Research Date: April 25, 2026
Show Date: April 25, 2026
Format: 4 segments — approximately 52-60 minutes total
Research Method: Live web search, April 23-25, 2026 sources