Klw Commentary news and trends

Agentic Commerce Needs Its Febreze Moment
Artificial Intelligence // September 23, 2026

In the mid-1990s, Procter & Gamble made a stunning claim. They said they’d invented a miracle in a bottle. A chemist working there found a compound that completely got rid of really bad smells instead of covering them up with a fancy perfume-y spray. Stinky...

AI Has a Frankenstein Dilemma
Artificial Intelligence // September 16, 2026

AI Has a Frankenstein Dilemma Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818. More than two hundred years later, it’s said to sell about 40,000 to 50,00 copies a year. It’s said that’s more than many best-selling releases. Most people who’ve read the book remember the monster....

Paycheck-to-Paycheck Consumers Have Already Cut the Lattes
Consumer Finance // September 09, 2026

Meet Tom and Elaine. (Our names, not theirs.) Both report household income between $65,000 and $70,000. Both are married, live in a city and say day-to-day spending is why they live paycheck to paycheck. For both, the next paycheck is critical to meeting their monthly...

Apple’s New CEO Has a Hardware Event and an AI Problem
Mobile Commerce // September 08, 2026

John Ternus has been Apple’s CEO for all of eight days, counting weekends, which I’m sure he worked. This coming Wednesday he headlines his first keynote, an event Apple has titled “Surprise and shine.” The press has already told us most of what’s on the...

Interviews & Exclusives
Apple’s New CEO Has a Hardware Event and an AI Problem

September 08, 2026
John Ternus has been Apple’s CEO for all of eight days, counting weekends, which I’m sure he worked. This coming Wednesday he headlines his first keynote, an event Apple has titled “Surprise and shine.” The press has already told us most of what’s on the slides. I’ll be listening for what isn’t. I’ve spent the […]

Longevity Rewrites the Economics of Inheritance

January 13, 2026
AI-driven longevity is redefining aging, with longer, healthier lives fueling more spending later in life. The result: inheritance happens later and looks very different.

Legacy Business Models Break

January 12, 2026
“Your margin is my opportunity” was Jeff Bezos’s way of describing Amazon’s hunger for bloated profit pools. In 2026, the real question isn’t whether margins get attacked, but who gets...

Online Finally Breaks Brick and Mortar

January 09, 2026
In 2026, online and digitally-influenced retail finally surpasses brick-and-mortar sales in the categories that matter most to modern retail. This moment has been years in the making, obscured less by...