A growing share of the questions that used to begin on a search results page now begin in a chat window. A customer looking for a Chandler accountant or a Tempe HVAC company may ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews and act on the answer without ever seeing a list of blue links. For Phoenix-area businesses, that shift raises an uncomfortable question: When an AI … [More]
Phoenix Employers Need an AI Apprenticeship Scorecard
Greater Phoenix is building a technology economy that needs both automation and a deeper talent bench. In Business Magazine’s August issue puts young workers, AI accountability and the semiconductor workforce in the same conversation. Arizona is also expanding a registered-apprenticeship system that now reaches modern sectors, including semiconductors, cybersecurity, healthcare … [More]
Data in Constant Flux? Tech Slashes Updating Time & Effort
Our full-service marketing agency has spent the past year automating how we manage digital advertising for our retail and homebuilder clients, using Fluency, the agentic advertising operating system. Our shift to agentic automation addresses a problem familiar to many agencies: Growth has traditionally required hiring more staff as new clients are onboarded. Our … [More]
Some Assembly Required: Arizona Builds the Last Step in Chipmaking
Amkor’s Peoria campus and TSMC’s packaging plans aim to finish Arizona-made chips without a trip across the Pacific
When Nvidia and TSMC Arizona marked the first Blackwell wafer produced in Phoenix in October 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called it “the very first time in recent American history that the single most important chip is being manufactured here.” It was a milestone. It was also, in one important sense, unfinished. A wafer is not yet a working chip. Before a processor can … [More]
Arizona’s Chipmakers Bet on Recycled Water as Colorado River Cuts Deepen
Arizona’s semiconductor boom has always come with a question attached: Where will the water come from? That question got sharper on Aug. 21, when the U.S. Department of the Interior issued new operating guidelines for the Colorado River. The decision cuts Lower Basin deliveries by 1.25 million acre-feet in each of the next two years. Arizona’s share is 760,000 acre-feet a … [More]
SEMICON West Finds Its Permanent Home in Phoenix
For more than half a century, SEMICON West and San Francisco were nearly synonymous. The annual gathering became a fixture of the Bay Area’s technology landscape, bringing together the companies, innovators, suppliers and decision-makers responsible for advancing the semiconductor industry. Now, the industry is moving and its premier North American gathering is moving with … [More]
As AI Gains Authority, Businesses Face a Management Test
Most businesses still treat AI governance as an afterthought. The technology gets built or bought, tested, rolled out - and only once something goes wrong, or a regulator comes asking, do questions about oversight and accountability get any real attention. That's starting to change, out of necessity more than choice. ResearchCollab Technologies, an AI consultancy that helps … [More]
SRP Invests $3M in Arizona’s Public Universities for Power, Water and Wildfire Research
Salt River Project has invested $3 million in 34 research and development projects with Arizona’s three largest public universities – Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona – as part of an ongoing effort to support reliable power and water delivery to SRP customers. Every project awarded funding by SRP was assessed for alignment with … [More]
Why Manufacturing’s AI Future Depends on Frontline Adoption
As the shift towards smart manufacturing accelerates, more companies are implementing AI solutions to streamline core manufacturing processes, with AI-powered defect detection standing out as one of the most popular use cases in the industry. Nonetheless, achieving true efficiency of defect detection in smart manufacturing requires more than just installing AI-enabled systems … [More]
Why Employee AI Adoption Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All
As artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in everyday life and work, organizations are investing heavily in tools and employee training. But new research from Texas A&M University suggests a one-size-fits-all approach may miss a fundamental truth: People don’t all respond to AI the same way. In a paper published in the journal Customer Needs and … [More]
Nokia to Transform NXP’s Chandler Campus for AI-Era Optical Chips
Nokia plans to give NXP Semiconductors’ Chandler manufacturing campus a new role in the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The telecommunications company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NXP’s Chandler Fab and Chandler Probe site. Subject to regulatory approval, Nokia will begin leasing part of the facility in early 2027 and acquire the full … [More]
Employees Are Exploring AI Tools on Their Own
Half of small business workers use AI – most to boost productivity, not automate jobs
from U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Half of all workers at small businesses already use AI at work — and the vast majority are using it to get more done, not to automate themselves out of a job. That is the central finding of the inaugural Main Street AI Monitor, released earlier this year by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in partnership with Ipsos. The survey — … [More]
Phoenix’s Growth in Advanced Manufacturing Attracts New Tech Center
Mazak, a leader in the design and manufacture of productive machine tool solutions, selected Phoenix for its newest Technical Center because Arizona has emerged as one of the nation’s fastest-growing advanced manufacturing regions. With hundreds of billions of dollars being invested across semiconductor, aerospace, defense, medical device and cybersecurity industries, the … [More]
Webinars Could Be a Business’s Growth Lever, but Its Workflow Is Holding It Back
Webinars have re-emerged as one of the most effective formats in B2B marketing. As buyers increasingly seek educational content they can consume on their own schedule, webinars have evolved beyond one-time presentations into long-term business assets. For business leaders, this changes how webinar success should be measured. Rather than serving only as live events, webinars … [More]
Echoes of the Boom: Arizona’s Fab Explosion Brings Suppliers in Tow
TSMC’s $265 billion commitment is accelerating the supplier network taking shape around Arizona’s semiconductor industry
Arizona’s semiconductor boom has long been measured by its biggest numbers. Billions in investment. New fabrication plants. Thousands of jobs. TSMC’s latest expansion pushes those numbers to another level, but some of the clearest signs of its impact are showing up in the smaller facilities and industry connections forming around those massive projects. In July, TSMC … [More]
Arizona’s Semiconductor Story Adds a Korean Chapter
Arizona’s international semiconductor work has focused largely on Taiwan and Japan. TSMC put the state’s connection to Taiwan at the center of its industry growth, and agreements signed earlier this year brought Arizona, Taiwan and Japan together around manufacturing, research and workforce development. State officials are now directing more attention to South Korea. The … [More]
The AI Problem Valley Business Leaders Don’t Know They Have
With AI, there’s no ‘one and done’
For those leading an Arizona-based business today, chances are very high their employees are already using AI. They’re using it to draft emails, summarize meetings, analyze data, create presentations, write code, review résumés and solve countless everyday problems. Whether the organization has formally rolled out AI tools or not, AI has already found its way into day-to-day … [More]
The ‘Loyalty Payroll’: Why Small Businesses Are Delaying AI
AI may promise lower costs, faster output and leaner teams, but small-business owners are not rushing to replace trusted employees with software. A new study of 3,022 small-business owners by Careerminds, a global workforce solutions provider, found that 67% believe AI could already perform a meaningful portion of the work handled by at least one employee. Applied to estimated … [More]
