Gen Alpha expert Matt Britton on how the age of AI 'will change everything'
Gen Alpha expert and author Matt Britton joins the 2025 CNBC CEO Council Summit to discuss thoughts from his new book "Generation AI: Why Generation Alpha and the Age Of AI Will Change Everything."
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Business Wire
4 days ago
- Business Wire
Incent, MDT Partner to Provide Youth Digital Banking Solutions for Credit Unions
PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Incent, a leading provider of family and youth digital banking solutions for banks and credit unions and Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), and MDT, a CUSO that helps credit unions navigate complex financial technology ecosystems, announced today a partnership to provide MDT clients a fully integrated, youth banking platform to more effectively engage and attract youth members by offering a secure, real-world digital banking experience for children and teens. Incent and MDT partner to provide an advanced youth banking solution, helping credit unions attract Gen Z and Gen Alpha, build long-term loyalty by engaging younger members and build responsible money management habits. The growing demographic disparity among credit unions further underscores the importance of engaging with Generation Z (ages 16 -18) and Generation Alpha (ages 6 – 15). In a recent survey conducted by CULytics, 80% of credit union leaders indicated that attracting younger members is 'extremely important.' However, in the same survey, less than 40% of respondents reported gaining 'real traction' with this segment. Incent, in partnership with MDT, is helping address this concern with its fully integrated, white-labeled solution that is designed specifically for younger members with interactive features, a seamless user interface and an intuitive design that is easy to navigate. Pete Major, Vice President, Fintech Solutions at MDT, said, 'At MDT, we are committed to providing our credit union clients with proven tools and services that support their business goals and help them remain institutions of choice. Engaging the next generation of members is a top priority for credit unions across the country. Incent's platform not only ensures credit unions remain relevant with Generation Z and Generation Alpha, but also has built in features to foster long-term relationships. We are proud to partner with Incent and to make this compelling offering available to our credit union community.' Together, MDT and Incent are providing credit unions a youth banking solution that builds responsible money management habits by offering a secure, real-world digital banking experience. The platform's robust suite of features are designed to teach financial literacy and encourage responsible money management through various modules including: Learn, Earn, Spend, Save, Give and Borrow. Marcell King, president and COO of Incent, said, 'MDT has a strong reputation and history of supporting the digital movement and ensuring credit unions of all sizes are equipped to not only succeed, but to thrive in today's increasingly competitive environment. This partnership is yet another example of that commitment and together, we are providing MDT's credit union clients with invaluable tools to educate and engage with younger generations, while also ensuring these members are equipped with the knowledge needed to make sound money decisions and to establish a solid financial foundation. Our platform is designed to engage the entire family, building trust and loyalty for not only today's members, but for future generations as well. We look forward to a long-standing partnership with MDT and to working with their member credit unions.' Incent's youth banking platform keeps deposits and interchange revenue within the credit union rather than diverting them to third-party fintech sponsor banks. Additionally, the platform helps credit unions grow their share of wallet by maintaining ownership of the relationship and seamlessly transitioning the child to an 'adult' account when the child turns 18. About Incent Incent is the leading provider of B2B youth banking services for U.S. banks and credit unions. Designed specifically for community financial institutions, Incent's youth digital banking solution provides the tools needed to teach kids responsible financial habits. The platform engages youth (ages 6–18) by combining financial education and gamification with hands-on real-life banking experiences focused on earning, saving, giving, spending and borrowing money. Incent seamlessly integrates with financial institutions' existing digital banking solutions, enabling banks and credit unions to engage younger customers while maintaining deposits within the institution. The parent or guardian retains full control of the account, ensuring a safe and educational digital banking experience. For additional information about Incent visit or connect with the company on LinkedIn. About MDT MDT helps credit unions navigate complex financial technology ecosystems, ensuring they remain institutions of choice for members. In addition to hosting the Symitar core processing system from Jack Henry™, MDT provides credit unions with the tools and technology needed to compete and grow. Committed to partnership, security, and compliance, MDT takes a collaborative approach to service—leveraging deep industry expertise to understand each institution's unique needs and foster long-term success. MDT supports over 100 credit unions with cloud-based solutions, expert consulting, and digital transformation strategies. With MDT, credit unions across the country can more effectively implement technology, boost efficiencies, and enhance member service. Visit or follow @memberdriven for more information.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Forbes
Ellis Brooklyn Celebrates 10 Years With Their First Rollerball Perfumes, Plus How They Changed Fragrance
The Ellis Brooklyn Fragrance Oil Rollerballs created for the brand's 10th anniversary It's easy to see why Saturday Night Live used to create mock perfume commercials. The fragrance world used to be very different. 'Twelve years ago, when I first had the inkling to start Ellis Brooklyn, the story lines being told in fragrance were really exotic—and not in a good way,' says Bee Shapiro, Founder & CEO of Ellis Brooklyn. 'I mean exotic as in, wow, this makes no sense. Literally, it's a famous actress rolling in the sand in what looks like the Sahara. I also noticed that there were very few women in fragrance, which, to me, was bizarre, if you think about how much fragrance impacts a woman's life. It goes anywhere from deodorant to your shampoo; scent truly affects so many different parts of our lives, in such a functional way. And there was no representation. Honestly, I just felt like it needed change. I also was itching to have a different kind of creative outlet.' Shapiro took matters into her own hands and launched Ellis Brooklyn 10 years ago. At the time, she was a beauty writer for the New York Times, so she had a deeper understanding of the beauty industry and the white space she was seeing. 'I wanted to try something where the boundaries were unlimited, so it was a fun exercise,' Shapiro says. 'At that point in time, fragrance was very, very dominated by very expensive niche brands and designer brands, and that was kind of it. And wow, has it changed. I love Gen Alpha and Gen Z because they're talking about fragrance in the way that I dreamed people could talk about fragrance—there's an openness to it. There's an understanding, even at a very young age, that fragrance is joyful and not a necessity. Fragrance is a dream. It's desire, attraction and joy. It's fun to see how much the world has transitioned to this very elevated, open minded approach to fragrance. There's more brands and diversity in this space, which has only fueled that whole environment and made fragrance such a fun category.' A trio of Ellis Brooklyn fragrances When Ellis Brooklyn launched, it was one of the few clean luxury fragrance brands. In the beginning, Shapiro had to go through the banned ingredients list with her retail partners and explain why they were different. 'We're still clean and still hold those standards, but it's become table stakes amongst certain brands,' she says. 'Obviously not all brands are clean, but I certainly think a lot more are.' Additionally, sustainability metrics are important to the brand and Shapiro has learned about things like biotech ingredients, upcycled ingredients and green chemistry along the way. 'There's always new ingredients, but there's always new ways to get ingredients,' Shapiro says. 'That is endlessly fascinating to me, because you can be very responsible to the environment now, or at least be able to track and make choices. When I first started, it was more just about safety, and as we've moved on from it, it's like how can we also be responsible? It has to be done during the creation.' Ellis Brooklyn Founder & CEO Bee Shapiro In addition to setting a new standard for sustainability, Shapiro also wanted to change the way people talk about luxury fragrance. 'When we first came on the scene, a lot of the scents were described in a difficult to approach way,' Shapiro says. 'It was intimidating, frankly, and very European. The way we describe scent is pretty straightforward. Even when we write copy, we use three descriptors. We want our scents to be understandable. I don't think luxury should have to be explained. I think luxury is a feeling. So, when I'm creating, I start with a note that is understandable. Miami Nectar opens with pink pineapple. People know what pineapple is, but then it has this complex storyline. It's taking something that most people understand, but in a different direction and elevating it.' When Shapiro considers all of the Ellis Brooklyn launches over the last decade, she believes each is a reflection of its time. 'I want to keep it modern,' she says. 'When I made Myth, there was a lot of loud fragrances at the time, and Myth was the counterpoint to that. It was one of the early skin scents.' Though the values of Ellis Brooklyn haven't changed over the last decade, the scents themselves have. Initially the perfumes were typically subtle and muted, but the perfumes have gotten bigger, more floral and juicier. 'My first five years I treated them almost like editorial projects,' Shapiro says. 'But, I had to take a step back, because as the brand grew, it's like raising a child. When the brand is very small, you're caring for it and putting your own imprint on it because it's your brand. As the brand grows, it starts to have its own personality, and it's a reflection of the era. Especially from COVID on, we've thought about fragrance as escapism. Fragrance needs to have that jolt, that feeling that makes you feel so good right when you smell it.' Ellis Brooklyn Miami Nectar and Guava Granita Embracing bigger, louder scents now follows current trends, but Shapiro says that also mirrors her personal journey. Over a decade ago, when she was working at the Times, she was afraid to wear a strong scent because she thought she'd be judged in the elevator. 'The culture has changed,' she says. 'We certainly aren't post-feminism, but we are in a completely different era where you're not judged on your scent as a match to your intellectual prowess, which is so bizarre. As I've gotten older, I've come more into my own too. In the beginning, I was making scents for my life at that point in time, [when] my career was still on the up and up. It's not that I was trying to hide myself, but it wasn't that era either where the super loud scents were considered work appropriate or everyday life appropriate. Because I was looking to romanticize our everyday lives, I was looking to make the scent that people would wake up in the morning and want to reach for.' As Ellis Brooklyn has evolved as a brand, their stature has too. They have international distribution now, including at Mecca in Australia, Space NK in the UK and Sephora Canada. They've been growing about 80% YOY this year and had 200% YOY growth on social media engagement. Shapiro credits that success to their new VP of Digital Marketing and E-commerce. The Ellis Brooklyn Fragrance Oil Rollerballs 'We learned so much in the last two to three years,' Shapiro says. 'We had a couple years where we were growing, but it was such a struggle. The problems are smaller as you're trying to scale. There was a lot of mistakes I made, and I learned on all those mistakes, and a lot of that gelled together as well on the marketing side. Our era is not a traditional era; there's always a new media channel and a new way to reach. For a brand, what works efficiently? Because you can't do everything. It's a lot of mistake learning that led to this, but also being able to add key staff.' To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Ellis Brooklyn is releasing their first fragrance oil rollerballs later this month. The quiet scents are reminiscent of their first perfumes, making it a full circle moment for the brand. 'In our early years, the scents were more muted, but I would also argue that the scents were more unisex,' Shapiro says. 'There's something very Brooklyn about that. I wanted to create a nod back to our history, which is the musks and unisex scents, but also to make them modern and effortless. I am obsessed with Milk Wood. Milk Wood is this creamy, clean wood, and I made it with [perfumer] Frank Voelkl. It's so Williamsburg from my era of living there; it is a little walk down memory lane. Blonde Musk is like a cousin to Myth. It's a white musk that is different and new. Vanilla Santo was my attempt to blend the current day with this would be unisex palo santo Brooklyn vibe. It has a vanilla up top, but it's not this super sweet vanilla. It is very woodsy, a tiny bit smoky. I wanted to do the rollerballs at a lower, approachable price because it's something that I could see in everybody's bag.' Ellis Brooklyn Banana Milkshake Hair and Body Fragrance Mist Shapiro hopes the next 10 years of Ellis Brooklyn allow her to continue to grow the brand and become a better manager. 'One of the most challenging aspects of running a company is understanding that your role is to be a great leader as well,' she says. 'When you're growing fast, fast, fast, it's really hard. It can be chaotic. You just want to make sure people feel good too. 'The other part is I want to continue launching, since that impacts a broad group of people. Once I realized I needed to let this brand be as big as possible, the fun part of it now is how many people can I get onto Banana Milkshake? I remember when we were presenting to Sephora, everybody was saying banana was the challenging note because not everybody likes banana. Banana has outsold the other two milkshake scents by double. My favorite part is to create with the perfumers I work with, but also to take something so ordinary as a banana and really elevate it. If I can find more moments like that in the future, that's what I'm looking for.'
Forbes
5 days ago
- Forbes
Degrees Vs. Skill Stacks: What Prepares You For The AI Economy?
Will AI skills matter more than degrees? College used to be the default launchpad for success. But in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, automation, and rapidly evolving industries, that formula is shifting. Today's students—and their parents—are asking a new question: Does a degree still guarantee a future-proof career? The answer is increasingly nuanced. While specific degrees remain valuable, especially in fields such as engineering, healthcare, and data science, a growing number of young people are adopting a "skill stack" approach to education. That means pairing classroom learning with real-world experience—like earning certifications, interning, or launching a business—to create a resume that reflects today's evolving job market. A skill stack refers to a personalized combination of marketable skills, credentials, and experiences that can evolve in response to emerging trends and market demands. For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, that might look like: It's not about abandoning formal education—it's about supplementing it with real-world experience, adaptability, and proof of initiative. The job market is undergoing a significant transformation as employers increasingly prioritize practical AI skills. This shift is evident in hiring practices across the tech industry and beyond, with a growing emphasis on demonstrated expertise and hands-on experience. According to McKinsey's 2024 AI Workforce Report, job postings for AI-related roles grew by 21% as a share of total listings between 2018 and mid-2024, underscoring the surging demand for AI talent with real-world capabilities. Leading companies such as Google, IBM, and Apple are at the forefront of this movement, frequently hiring candidates based on their skills, project portfolios, and industry-recognized certifications rather than traditional degree requirements. Google's career certificates—offered through platforms like Coursera—can be completed in just three to six months, providing a fast, practical pathway into high-demand AI roles. This trend reflects a broader industry consensus: in a rapidly evolving field like AI, up-to-date skills and proven problem-solving abilities are often valued more highly than conventional academic credentials. According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report, AI and big data top the list of most in-demand skills, followed by network cybersecurity and technological literacy. But the most crucial AI skills aren't just technical—they're about working alongside artificial intelligence, not being replaced by it. A study published in Semantic Scholar (2023) revealed that AI skills command a wage premium of 23%, surpassing the value of degrees up to the PhD level. This premium reflects the high demand for professionals who can work effectively with AI systems across industries. The most in-demand AI-adjacent skills include: Technical fluency without deep programming expertise: Understanding how to use AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, or automation platforms rather than building them from scratch. Python programming dominates the skill sets most in demand, with data science, computer vision, and natural language processing (NLP) following closely. Still, students don't need to become machine learning engineers to benefit from AI literacy. Prompt engineering and AI collaboration: Knowing how to communicate effectively with AI systems to generate useful outputs. This skill is becoming as valuable as traditional research or writing abilities. Data interpretation and critical thinking: Creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, and agility are also gaining importance, along with curiosity and a lifelong learning approach—the ability to analyze AI-generated insights and make informed strategic decisions based on them. Human-AI workflow design: Understanding how to integrate AI tools into existing processes to amplify human capabilities rather than replace them. The skill stack approach isn't limited to tech companies—it's reshaping hiring across sectors as AI integration accelerates. In healthcare, medical professionals are increasingly valued for their ability to work with AI diagnostic tools and telemedicine platforms. A nursing degree combined with certifications in health informatics creates competitive advantages that traditional education alone cannot provide. Marketing teams seek professionals who understand both creative strategy and AI-powered content creation tools. Finance firms want employees who grasp traditional principles while leveraging AI for risk assessment and algorithmic analysis. Even manufacturing companies now prioritize workers who combine industry knowledge with AI tool proficiency for predictive maintenance and quality control. This cross-industry demand explains why the skill stack approach is gaining traction regardless of chosen field. The shift away from degree-first hiring isn't happening in isolation. It's driven by several converging forces: Skills become obsolete faster: A computer science degree from 2020 may already be outdated in certain areas, while someone who learned current AI tools last month has more relevant capabilities. Portfolio work demonstrates ability: A GitHub repository showing actual projects, a business that generated revenue, or case studies from internships provide concrete evidence of capabilities that transcripts cannot. Remote work changes evaluation: When hiring for distributed teams, managers care more about demonstrated communication skills and self-direction than where someone went to college. Nearly 70% of recent graduates report needing more training on emerging technologies, especially generative AI, and a majority of employers expect foundational AI knowledge from new hires. For students and parents thinking about how to prepare for an AI-driven future, it comes down to being intentional about what you learn and how you apply it. The strongest approach often combines a college degree with targeted certifications and real-world experience, providing students with both a solid foundation and the flexibility to adapt as technology evolves. Start with foundation skills: Strong communication, problem-solving, and collaboration abilities remain essential. These human skills become more valuable, not less, in an AI-driven workplace. Add technical literacy: Learn to use current AI tools effectively. This doesn't require becoming a programmer—it means understanding how to leverage automation, create effective prompts, and interpret insights generated by AI. Gain real-world experience: Pursue internships, launch projects, or start small businesses that let you apply skills in authentic contexts. Document these experiences through portfolios, case studies, or demo reels. Pursue targeted certifications: Industry-recognized credentials from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, or specialized platforms often carry more weight than general degrees for specific roles. Programs offering hands-on, industry-recognized certifications are increasingly recognized as credible alternatives to formal education. Build continuously: The half-life of specific technical skills is shrinking. Develop the habit of continuous learning and adaptation. Instead of "What's the best major?" parents might consider these questions: The answer isn't to abandon college altogether—degrees still matter in many fields and remain essential for specific career paths. The students who excel are those who view education as more than just a diploma. They approach it with a broader lens, mixing classroom learning with hands-on experience and building specific skills. The AI economy rewards those who can adapt, create, and solve problems in partnership with intelligent systems. Whether that preparation occurs through a four-year degree, intensive bootcamps, certificate programs, launching entrepreneurial ventures, or some combination depends on individual goals and learning styles. What matters most when it comes to artificial intelligence and developing your AI skills is starting early, staying curious, and building a track record of real accomplishments. In a world where change is the only constant, the ability to learn, apply, and create value becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.
