For many creatives, there are few times in life that are more thrilling and filled with possibilities than the summer you graduate. At the same time, there's usually a fair bit of anxiety, and in 2025, there are good reasons for that. If you're a creative graduate preparing to enter the workforce, you face a rapidly changing landscape shaped by technological advancements, shifting work paradigms and unprecedented challenges. In short, you'll be navigating uncharted waters as you transition from structured academic environments to the professional world. To help bridge this gap, we've gathered industry-leading advice from established leaders across various disciplines. These veterans have weathered economic shifts, tech revolutions, and cultural transformations throughout their careers. As such, their collective wisdom offers a compass for any graduate at a time of extraordinary opportunity and complexity. 1. Be kind to yourself First things first. You'll want to get into decent-paid work straight away, but in the current job market, that might not happen. That completely sucks, of course, but the important thing is that you don't beat yourself up over it. Creative director Charlie Bowden acknowledges the challenges of getting your foot in the door, even with a degree. "Converting an internship into a job is hard and may take longer than you'd like," he cautions. "So be kind to yourself. The best work comes when you're happy." Adrian Carroll, creative director at D8, agrees. "Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't land a role straight away," he stresses. "It's an incredibly tough market for graduates at the moment. Fewer people are setting up agencies, and more people are opting to freelance, which is tough if you don't have much experience." 2. Build your personal brand In a crowded jobs market, you need to stand out. That can be challenging for many creatives, especially if you're shy or introverted. But the important thing to understand, according to Simon Manchipp, founding partner at SomeOne, is this: "YOU ARE A BRAND. Like it or not." With that in mind, he recommends you: "Get your story straight. Make it stick. Website. Insta. LinkedIn. Behance. They should sing the same song—and it should sound like you. SHOW WORK. NOT PROMISES. Don't tell us what you want to do; show us what you did. Projects are better than platitudes. Side hustles count. So do failed ones. Especially failed ones." 3. Craft a portfolio with cut-through When it comes to your portfolio, Alex Rexworthy, co-founder and design director at Outlaw, advises showcasing development alongside final work. "Show your process, not just a flashy render," he urges. "Take the reader on a journey through each project in your portfolio. Start with the brief, share your initial ideas, and explain how you arrived at the final result." Above all, encourages Cat How, founder and ECD at How Studio, make an impact. "Go big, or go home," she says. "This is your time to shine, so you owe it to yourself to be OUTRAGEOUS." 4. Stay true to your vision When you're struggling to get work, it's natural to want to apply for everything and maybe even pretend to be someone you're not. But Paul Leon, creative director at U037, reckons you'll ultimately be more successful if you focus on your authentic creative path. "Focus on what you really want to do and head for that," he advises. "If you feel something's not right for you, don't be afraid to speak up, and don't be afraid to say no. Value yourself: the journey is where all the good stuff happens. Detours, etc, are fine." When applying for a job at an agency, you obviously need to do your research. But Charlie notes that you need to look beyond an agency's portfolio. "Consider the culture, not just the work," he explains. "Certain agencies make great work, but their culture may not be right for you. Internships are a great way of getting a gauge of this, but so is asking to come in for coffee and a crit, so you can see what the agency is like first-hand." 5. Embrace the beginner's mindset You need confidence to succeed in life, but that confidence shouldn't spill over into overconfidence or the idea that you already know it all; you don't. With that in mind, Kiser Barnes, partner and chief creative officer at Red Antler, stresses the importance of humility paired with curiosity. "Be humble and stay wildly curious," he says. "Finishing school feels like reaching the peak… until you realise you're right back at the bottom of a new hill again. That's okay. The people who thrive in this industry are the ones most open to learning, evolving and collaborating." Barrington Reeves, creative director at Too Gallus, offers similar advice. "Be ready to learn," he urges. "The change from education to commercial can sometimes be daunting. But although you've just been through a full course of education, the real learning begins now. " Part of that means adapting to commercial timeframes. "Don't be discouraged by the pace of change and iteration," he stresses. "While university might teach you to nurture and grow an idea over a prolonged period of time, in the commercial market, it is an incredible skill to be able to think—and fail—fast." 6. Develop leadership skills early Being humble doesn't mean you can't have one eye on the future and start developing your leadership skills. With that in mind, Ashleigh Hansberger, co-founder and COO at Motto, suggests you: "Start studying business and leadership now. Leadership isn't about title; it's about behaviour. That means building discipline, making clear decisions, being accountable, and taking responsibility for your actions and impact. "Practise your own leadership development early," she adds. "Read about it. Reflect on it. Try it. Accumulate experience and wisdom through the unglamorous work of getting 1% better every day. That's how you grow into someone people want to follow." 7. Master your craft while embracing technology Emerging technologies might be disrupting everything right now, with negative consequences for employment. But Kiser encourages graduates to engage with them all the same. "Don't be afraid of AI—tinker with it, play with it, understand it," he says. "Use your fresh perspective to imagine better ways of working. The world doesn't need more copies of what already exists. It needs people who can push the whole system forward." Matthew Schneider, director of product marketing at LucidLink, takes a similar line. "Know your craft, but don't be afraid of new tech," he advises. "When I started, a single video editing system cost well over $100k; now, a subscription to professional editing software might cost as little as $20 monthly." And the moral of this story? "Now people have access to great tools, what sets you apart is how you use them and the story you ultimately tell with them," Matthew explains. "Growing up an aspiring filmmaker myself, my mother would always tell me, 'It's not the story; it's the storytelling'. She's right!" Tom Munckton, ECD at Fold7Design, similarly notes the accelerating pace of industry evolution right now. "The industry used to shift annually; now it feels more like monthly—with processes and project delivery being challenged by AI and other democratising factors," he says. Ultimately, though, he recommends focusing on creative direction over specific tools. "Regardless of the tool or method you use right now or in the future, confidence will come from being clear about the type of work you want to make and making constant steps towards that," he reasons. 8. Embrace discomfort as growth Finding all this stressful and frightening? Many creative people feel like they don't "belong" in normal society, but the good news is that agencies are generally pretty friendly places and are probably filled with other people who've felt like outsiders themselves. Take Claire Parker, group creative partner at The Chase. "I never fitted in at school—couldn't do maths, couldn't spell—but I could create," she recalls. "The world needs curious minds like yours. Creativity isn't about having all the answers; it's about asking better questions. "Stay interested, stay committed, and back yourself even when you feel out of your depth," she adds. "In fact, especially then, as David Bowie said, 'Always go a little further into the water'. That's where the magic happens. Be more Bowie."

Hundertwasser’s home in the Kaurinui Valley, located just 20 minutes north of Kawakawa and less than a three-hour drive from Auckland, is to be the only one of his homes around the world that is open to the public. I was given a tour by volunteers from Living Hundertwasser, including Richard Smart, who worked closely with Hundertwasser for eight years and now represents the non-profit Hundertwasser Foundation in New Zealand. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Austria in 1928, Hundertwasser was a world-famous painter and architect, renowned for his radical views and eccentric approach to design. His childhood, marked by the devastations of World War II, led him to find solace in painting alternative worlds filled with nature, vibrant colours and abstract forms that would later influence the trajectory of his environmentalism and architecture.1 The Eyeslit, Kaurinui, 2025.© Image:  Richard Smart In 1976, he settled in New Zealand, purchasing a dairy farm in the Kaurinui Valley with the intention of setting nature free.2 He did just that: over two decades planting 150,000 trees and widening the Kaurinui Stream that flows through the farm. His philosophy is embodied in every aspect of the property and, despite recent health-and-safety upgrades, Hundertwasser’s dwellings remain as he left them, down to his last shopping list and paintbrushes left on the table. The tour begins at the Eyeslit, a Hundertwasser design built after his death, replacing the old decaying farmhouse. Aligned with his distinctive style, it features vibrant pink walls, colourful mosaics and columns reminiscent of his iconic Kawakawa toilets. The Eyeslit serves as a communal space for a pre-tour introduction to Hundertwasser and his legacy that lives on in Kaurinui. The Bottlehaus, Kaurinui.©  Image:  Richard Smart The tour continues through four of his six idiosyncratic dwellings scattered throughout the property, each reflecting his ecological philosophies. The next stop is The Boatshed, a gabled timber building, home to his boat, La Giudecca. Across a bridge over the Kaurinui Stream is The Cave, a space dug into the hillside, containing a bench and hundreds of wētā. Returning over the stream, we arrive at The Pigsty, Hundertwasser’s primary dwelling, which, true to its name, is a former pigsty converted into a habitable space. Inside, a hallway stretches the length of the home, with the kitchen, dining and living room, and a combined bedroom and bathroom branching off. It is built from recycled glass bottles and natural materials, such as earth bricks and logs laid on their sides, extending from inside to outside, mortared in place with a lime, cement and sawdust mixture. With its spontaneously vegetated green roof, felled tree trunk columns and uneven interior floors, the dwelling echoes his philosophy that buildings, like human skin, should grow and wrinkle over time, evolving alongside nature.3 Mountain Hut, Kaurinui, 1994/95.©  Image:  Richard Smart The Bottlehaus, originally the farm’s milking shed, is Hundertwasser’s other main residence. The interior is filled with natural light from the polycarbonate skylight and bottle walls, providing perfect conditions for painting. Not yet included in the tour because of their distance are the Railway Hut and Mountain Hut. Smart recounts how he and his children would hike up to the Mountain Hut, spending the night in the home, built three-quarters underground. The walls and floor are clay earth and the roof, covered in wild greenery, sits just above the ground’s surface. Hundertwasser’s alignment with Māori culture is reflected throughout his homes; adorning the walls are timber-carved tiki and the koru flag he designed for New Zealand, symbolising a unified national identity. Hundertwasser was inherently nomadic, moving between buildings based on their various functions, inadvertently resembling the organisation of customary Māori papakāinga settlements, where buildings serve distinct purposes. Māori would move between kāinga seasonally, leaving structures built from natural materials to decay and return to the earth. At the tour’s final stop, the Exhibition Building, a letter from Hundertwasser’s friend A. D. Fagan in 1974 describes him as a guardian of the land, a sentiment akin to Māori identification as kaitiaki – guardians of the whenua. Before his death, Hundertwasser expressed his desire for Māori artists to have equal opportunities in New Zealand. This wish was realised in the Whangārei Hundertwasser Art Centre and Wairau Māori Art Gallery, completed in 2022.4 Throughout the property, Hundertwasser’s interventions – from a waterwheel and outdoor bath to timber plank bridges and ladders feeding into ponds – speak to a lifestyle that reinforces his commitment to living in harmony with nature. In contrast to his bold European architecture, Hundertwasser’s New Zealand home is more subdued and organic, blending seamlessly into the forest, indistinguishable from the natural environment. As Living Hundertwasser volunteer Clive Jackson explains, “He wanted to let the colours of nature speak.” He allowed nature to exist in its most wild and natural state, supporting his 1983 Peace Treaty with Nature, where he asserted that humanity must put itself behind ecological barriers so the earth can regenerate.5 As an example, he considered trees to be fellow ‘tenants’ on the property, who ‘paid rent’ through their provision of oxygen, beauty and joy.6 Hundertwasser died in 2000 and, at his own request, was buried under a tulip tree at Kaurinui, his body returning to the earth to nourish the ‘tree tenant’. This final act encapsulates his lifelong philosophy of humanity in harmony with nature and, as such, he lives on through the property. Hundertwasser famously stated, “We are only guests of nature and must behave accordingly. Man is the most dangerous pest ever to devastate the earth.”7 In a world where modern architecture is disrupting the natural environment and climate, Kaurinui offers a blueprint for a return to ‘original nature’ – a more sustainable, symbiotic relationship with the earth, and one that resonates with our country’s indigenous identity and the role we must assume as kaitiaki, guardians, of the natural world. REFERENCES 1 Nir Barak, 2022, ‘Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000)’, The Architectural Review, 18 October 2022. 2 Andreas J. Hirsch, 2022, ‘Hundertwasser’s “Five Skins” Unfold’, in Hundertwasser in New Zealand: The Art of Creating Paradise. Auckland: Oratia Books, p. 72. 3 Wieland Schmied, 2007, For a More Human Architecture in Harmony with Nature: Hundertwasser Architecture. Köln: Taschen, p. 259. 4 Cooperation Agreement 2016, p. 24. 5 Friedensreich Hundertwasser, 1983, Peace Treaty with Nature, Hundertwasser Foundation. hundertwasser.com/en/texts/friedensvertrag_mit_der_natur 6 Wieland Schmied, 2007, For a More Human Architecture in Harmony with Nature: Hundertwasser Architecture, p. 86. 7 Hundertwasser Foundation. 2016. Hundertwasser Architektur & Philosophie. Germany: Wörner Verlag GmbH, p. 30.

The collective yearning for romantic escapism feels far greater than ever. Promising to soon stave off the hunger are a handful of highly anticipated period dramas—from Downton Abbey 3 to Call it kismet that the growing desire for all of this in 2025 coincides with the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Fans return to the famed author's work time and again as it’s ripe with opulent settings where captivating tales unfold, from Sense and Sensibility to Emma to Persuasion. But, once again, the alluring interiors in these narratives are pushing past the page and screen. Let’s call it an Austentatious revival.Courtesy of Max RollittA daybed with a lush canopy adds romance to a room by designer Max Rollitt.While Bridgerton may have sparked initial interest in Regencycore, this aesthetic furthers the appeal. Austentatious interiors are dominated by everything from heirloom-inspired furniture to delicate wallpapers. Less heavy on ornamentation in modern-day practice, the atmosphere relies on details that exude charm: strategic moldings, arresting lampshades, and vases of fresh flowers. And the maximalist style embraces intentional clutter. Every surface is covered with beloved objects and collections, whether it be leather-bound books or taper candles in special holders.Courtesy of Nicola HardingSmall ornate frames pop against lavender walls in this bedroom by Nicola Harding.Courtesy of Nicola HardingA striped clawfoot chair creates a formal yet comfy corner for reading in this bedroom by Nicola Harding.To embrace Austentatious interiors, Max Rollitt, a designer based in Winchester, England, points to furniture made of popular Regency-period materials, like mahogany and rosewood, as a grounding foundation. These furniture finds are best found in antique shops, where shoppers can get a good feel for the piece in person. “Regency period interiors saw hints of neoclassicism, and we often see [Jane Austen’s] characters reclining on a chaise lounge or beds with curled ends,” says Rollitt.Courtesy of Max RollittGolden walls and wood furnishings exude warmth in a drawing room by Max Rollitt.London–based designer Nicola Harding recommends zeroing in on the color palette. “Blue was a popular color during the Regency period, often used with yellow,” she says. But there are plenty of other soft yet spirited shades to drench walls in should you fancy blush pink, lavender, or pearl gray. Blue-greens especially stand out in Austen adaptations. From the seafoam green dining room in Emma (2020) to the turquoise drawing room in Persuasion (2022), vibrant paint colors make these formal spaces feel less stuffy.Courtesy of SchumacherSchumacher’s Mr. Darcy wallpaper transports onlookers to the English countryside.Wallpapers inspired by nature enhance the overall effect. Take, for instance, textile company Schumacher’s Pride and Prejudice-inspired wallpaper, released in early 2025. Dreamt up by Johnson Hartig, founder of fashion brand Libertine, the three-panel design showcases a bird’s-eye view of an 18th-century English village. Fittingly named Mr. Darcy, it encompasses an aristocratic estate, manicured gardens, a Gothic cathedral, small homes dotting rolling hills, and a serene lake in the distance. A handmade feel gives the design the aura of an original artwork from a bygone century. “I can just see Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett walking across the foggy misty field and running into each other—I could see that happening in between the two houses in the wallpaper,” Hartig told Vogue.In the realm of fabrics, Illinois-based designer Andrea Goldman has been seeing more tone-on-tone embroidery and the use of "ditsy prints, which are very small-scale patterns,” she says. “We’re big fans of the tone-on-tone embroidery, because it feels like a pattern without being in your face. In the Regency era, that would’ve been trellised or vined patterns, but the modern play on it leaves it open to more pattern options.”Aimee MazzengaSheer curtains with white embroidery maintain an airy atmosphere in the kitchen of a Naples, Florida, home by designer Andrea Goldman.Goldman recently used a sheer white fabric with white embroidery for a window shade in the service kitchen and laundry room of a Florida home. “The use of sheers also was very common in regency fashion, and they make their way into our modern interiors.”Another fabric type Goldman recommends for embracing Austen-inspired interiors? Upholstered walls. In a bedroom or home movie theater, the textured, inviting detail can produce an exceptionally sumptuous setting.Whether you fully embrace the charm or simply add a touch of enchantment, Austentatious interiors serve as your gateway to infusing romance into the everyday. In a world where unsettling events are all too frequent, this style offers a much-needed escape and sense of relief. Related StoriesFollow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

Gaming keyboard or ergonomic keyboard? You typically have to choose. But in the wise words of Old El Paso Tacos, “Por qué no los dos?” That’s the thinking behind the Asus ROG Falcata, a wireless gaming board that splits apart and connects over a USB-C bridge. Adam Patrick Murray went hands-on with it at Computex. By the way, Asus sponsored the video on PCWorld’s YouTube channel. Asus did not sponsor this article — I wanted to write it up because I think it’s cool. The Falcata is a 75 percent board in two pieces, the better to support more ergonomic typing or a more tactical cant, whichever is more applicable in the moment. It’s not the first split keyboard to claim gaming prowess, but it is the first one to come from a major PC gaming accessory company like Asus, which says it developed the design with help from pro eSports gamers. The design has a lot of adjustment options. It comes with eight different screw-in foot locations, four on each side, plus a bit of extra on the wrist rest (which can also be removed). Because in keyboards, as in the woods, tenting is important! Other features include a small volume wheel on the left side, four layers of sound dampening, 800Hz polling (yes, even wirelessly) and hall effect switches for you twitchy shooter fans, and a bit of RGB bling. Asus Asus has apparently heard my grousing about the Armoury Crate software, so you don’t need it for this keyboard (though Asus PR tells me it’s an option, contradicting Adam in the video). You can program the keyboard on its own or use a web-based interface to set up custom profiles. Good on ya, Asus, more companies should do that (and they are). Because it’s of particular interest to me, I asked Asus PR if you could unplug the right side of the keyboard and use the left side on its own as a dedicated wireless keypad. No comment, though of course eventually we’ll find out when the Falcata launches later this year. Go ahead and subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube for the latest from Computex in Taipei, and watch The Full Nerd podcast for weekly insights on PC gaming.

Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans. Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.What is Connections Sports Edition?The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Here's a hint for today's Connections Sports Edition categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:Yellow: To show offGreen: Areas to watch the gameBlue: They wear blue and orange jerseysPurple: They share the second half of the word Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections Sports Edition categoriesNeed a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:Yellow: BoastGreen: Stadium seating sectionsBlue: New York KnicksPurple: ___StopLooking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.Drumroll, please!The solution to today's Connections Sports Edition #238 is...What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition todayBoast - CROW, GLOAT, GRANDSTAND, SHOWBOATStadium seating sections - BLEACHER, LOGE, SUITES, UPPER DESKNew York Knicks - BRIDGES, HART, MCBRIDE, TOWNS___Stop - BACK, JUMP, PIT, SHORTDon't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections. Topics Connections

Language models trained on vast internet-scale datasets have become prominent language understanding and generation tools. Their potential extends beyond language tasks to functioning as decision-making agents in interactive environments. When applied to environments requiring action choices, these models are expected to leverage their internal knowledge and reasoning to act effectively. Their ability to consider context, weigh options, and choose actions opens new possibilities for their integration into agentic systems that interact with dynamic environments. Despite this promise, these models exhibit critical limitations in decision-making. While capable of forming accurate chains of reasoning, they often fail to act upon them. This issue is identified as the knowing-doing gap, where models recognize correct strategies but do not implement them in practice. Another significant concern is greediness, where models repeatedly select high-reward options prematurely, ignoring alternative strategies that could lead to better outcomes. Moreover, smaller models display frequency bias, favoring commonly seen actions regardless of reward, impairs exploration, and hinder learning from diverse scenarios. To address these challenges, researchers have experimented with various strategies. Traditional reinforcement learning methods, including bandit algorithms like the Upper-Confidence Bound (UCB), aim to manage exploration-exploitation trade-offs. In contrast, in-context learning and behavior cloning imitate expert trajectories but often reinforce the same decision biases. While some exploration strategies have improved performance marginally, these approaches lack a mechanism to convert internal reasoning into optimal action reliably, especially in complex or stochastic environments. Researchers from Google DeepMind and the LIT AI Lab at JKU Linz focused on refining language model behavior through Reinforcement Learning Fine-Tuning (RLFT). Their approach employs self-generated Chain-of-Thought (CoT) rationales as training signals. By evaluating the rewards of actions following specific reasoning steps, the model learns to favor decisions that sound logical and yield high returns in practice. This reinforcement links model reasoning to environmental feedback, promoting improved decision alignment and reducing gaps between thought and behavior. The methodology centers on token-based fine-tuning using environment interactions. At each step, the model receives an input instruction and a recent action-reward history, and it generates a sequence containing the rationale and the selected action. These outputs are evaluated based on environmental rewards and whether the action conforms to the desired format. A penalty is applied when the model fails to generate a valid action. Over time, reward shaping encourages consistent output formatting while preserving exploration. The process includes Monte Carlo baseline estimates and generalized advantage estimation for variable-length tasks like Tic-tac-toe, allowing the model to learn from diverse decision sequences. Performance results show that RLFT considerably improves the model’s decision-making abilities. In a button-based multi-armed bandit setting with 10 arms, the action coverage for a 2B parameter model increased from 40% to over 52% after 30,000 gradient updates. In environments with 20 choices, coverage remained suboptimal but showed meaningful improvement. The frequency bias in the 2B model decreased from 70% to 35% in early repetitions after RLFT. Moreover, in Tic-tac-toe, the 2B model’s win rate against a random opponent rose from 15% to 75%, and the model achieved a draw rate against an optimal Monte Carlo Tree Search agent, improving from -0.95 to 0.0 in average return. Furthermore, larger models like the 27B variant exhibited an 87% rate of generating correct rationales, yet chose the optimal action only 21% of the time without RLFT. This gap was significantly reduced after fine-tuning. The research shows that refining large language models through reinforcement on their reasoning processes enhances their ability to act according to their knowledge. This connection between thought and action is vital in creating reliable decision-making agents. The proposed method offers a practical path forward for developing more capable and autonomous LLM-based agents by directly addressing common decision errors and reinforcing successful behaviors. Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit. NikhilNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute.Nikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/LLMs Struggle with Real Conversations: Microsoft and Salesforce Researchers Reveal a 39% Performance Drop in Multi-Turn Underspecified TasksNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/Salesforce AI Releases BLIP3-o: A Fully Open-Source Unified Multimodal Model Built with CLIP Embeddings and Flow Matching for Image Understanding and GenerationNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/Georgia Tech and Stanford Researchers Introduce MLE-Dojo: A Gym-Style Framework Designed for Training, Evaluating, and Benchmarking Autonomous Machine Learning Engineering (MLE) AgentsNikhilhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/nikhil0980/This AI Paper Investigates Test-Time Scaling of English-Centric RLMs for Enhanced Multilingual Reasoning and Domain Generalization 🚨 Build GenAI you can trust. ⭐️ Parlant is your open-source engine for controlled, compliant, and purposeful AI conversations — Star Parlant on GitHub! 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Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Microsoft announced a significant expansion of its Copilot Studio platform at Build 2025 today, introducing multi-agent systems that allow different AI agents to collaborate on complex business tasks, along with new developer tools, security enhancements, and integration with WhatsApp. The suite of announcements represents Microsoft’s most ambitious attempt yet to make AI agents more practical for enterprise use, addressing key limitations that have hindered broader adoption of agent technology in business settings. “We’re seeing from customers doing large-scale production rollouts that governance and observability become even more critical,” said Ray Smith, VP of AI Agents at Microsoft, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “The beauty of Copilot Studio is that we provide a managed infrastructure framework with built-in lifecycle management and comprehensive governance capabilities.” How Microsoft’s new multi-agent system is transforming enterprise workflows At the heart of the announcements is Microsoft’s new multi-agent system, which enables agents built with Copilot Studio, Microsoft 365, Azure AI Agents Service, and Azure Fabric to work together, delegating tasks to one another to complete complex business processes. This capability addresses a fundamental challenge organizations have faced when implementing agent technology. “Creating a reliable process within a single agent is extremely challenging,” Smith explained. “Breaking it down into multiple agents not only improves maintainability and simplifies solution building, but it also significantly enhances overall reliability.” The system enables scenarios such as a Copilot Studio agent pulling sales data from a CRM, handing it to a Microsoft 365 agent to draft a proposal in Word, and then triggering another agent to schedule follow-ups in Outlook. Microsoft is also emphasizing interoperability through support for the agent-to-agent protocol recently announced by Google, potentially enabling cross-platform agent communication. ‘Computer use’ feature brings human-like UI interaction to AI agents without API dependencies Another key announcement is “computer use” for Copilot Studio agents, which allows agents to interact with desktop applications and websites by controlling interfaces directly — clicking buttons, navigating menus, and typing in fields — even when APIs aren’t available. “When APIs aren’t available, this feature can interact directly with user interfaces — whether desktop applications, browsers, or other platforms,” Smith said. “It provides what we call ‘no-cliffs extensibility’ and operates based on intent rather than pixel coordinates, unlike traditional desktop automation. This goal-oriented approach makes it significantly more robust.” This capability is currently available through Microsoft’s Frontier program for eligible customers with 500,000+ Copilot Studio messages and a U.S.-based environment. Customizable model selection and Python-powered analytics supercharge enterprise AI solutions Microsoft is giving organizations more flexibility with their AI models by enabling them to bring custom models from Azure AI Foundry into Copilot Studio. This includes access to over 1,900 models, including the latest from OpenAI GPT-4.1, Llama, and DeepSeek. “Start with off-the-shelf models because they’re already fantastic and continuously improving,” Smith said. “Companies typically choose to fine-tune these models when they need to incorporate specific domain language, unique use cases, historical data, or customer requirements. This customization ultimately drives either greater efficiency or improved accuracy.” The company is also adding a code interpreter feature that brings Python capabilities to Copilot Studio agents, enabling data analysis, visualization, and complex calculations without leaving the Copilot Studio environment. Smith highlighted financial applications as a particular strength: “In financial analysis and services, we’ve seen a remarkable breakthrough over the past six months,” Smith said. “Deep reasoning models, powered by reinforcement learning, can effectively self-verify any process that produces quantifiable outputs.” He added that these capabilities excel at “complex financial analysis where users need to generate code for creating graphs, producing specific outputs, or conducting detailed financial assessments.” WhatsApp integration extends AI agent reach to billions of global users Starting in early July, organizations will be able to publish Copilot Studio agents to WhatsApp, enabling them to reach customers through one of the world’s most popular messaging platforms. “WhatsApp is obviously a key channel. Globally, it’s pretty huge,” Smith explained. “So that became a high priority for us through the various channels and integrations, to unlock that as a way for end users to interact at a time that suits them.” This addition, along with a new SharePoint channel (now generally available), significantly expands the reach of custom agents beyond Microsoft’s own ecosystem. Microsoft bridges the developer experience gap with VS Code extension and enhanced admin controls For professional developers, Microsoft is launching a Visual Studio Code extension for Copilot Studio, bringing familiar tooling and workflows to agent development. The extension provides features like IntelliSense, color formatting, and “find all references” functionality, enabling developers to edit agents directly from within Visual Studio Code. IT administrators gain new tools as well, including a centralized “Agents & connectors” page in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center for managing the full lifecycle of Copilot agents. This interface allows admins to view all agents, filter by metadata, assign sensitivity labels, manage connector behavior, and block or delete agents that violate security policies. AI-powered agent discovery solves the ‘which agent do I need?’ problem for end users As organizations develop more specialized agents, Microsoft is addressing the challenge of agent discovery with new in-conversation agent recommendations. This feature suggests the most relevant agent based on a user’s needs, dynamically recommending handoffs when appropriate. “It’s fundamentally like an agentic RAG pattern,” Smith explained, referring to retrieval-augmented generation. “It uses vector databases and indexing based on the description of the agent. When you describe the task, it’s looking up and going, ‘Hey, I think you should look at this agent.'” The system only recommends agents the user has access to, respecting existing permissions structures. Overcoming enterprise AI implementation hurdles: Microsoft’s roadmap for success Despite the new capabilities, organizations still face significant challenges when implementing multi-agent systems. Smith recommends focusing on specific use cases rather than attempting comprehensive transformations from the outset. “Best practices have been customers who’ve focused on a use case or problem to start with, broken that down into parts, and looked at embedding an agent at various parts of that process,” he said. “They go from one agent to two agents, and then effectively they’re stitching it together in a multi-agent solution.” He emphasized the importance of hands-on experience with the tools: “You need to know good at what it’s not… it’s a mix of tooling that you will use to transform your business process.” These announcements collectively strengthen Microsoft’s position in the enterprise AI market, where competition with Google, Amazon, and specialized AI startups continues to intensify. By addressing key enterprise requirements like security, governance, and interoperability, while simultaneously expanding the platform’s capabilities through features like computer use and code interpretation, Microsoft is creating a more complete offering for organizations looking to deploy AI agents at scale. “Microsoft is very much in a leading position in building and managing and scaling these agentic solutions or agentic workflows,” Smith noted. “I think we’ve hit an important inflection point of some of the key feature asks from customers.” The company’s dual approach — supporting both no-code tools for business users and professional development environments for engineers — also sets it apart from competitors that focus primarily on either developers or business users. “Our platform serves experienced developers who prefer to use Visual Studio for direct access to APIs and frameworks,” Smith said. “It also accommodates business users with limited coding experience who want to start with a specific business problem and rapidly prototype solutions using natural language.” While Microsoft has addressed many of the key challenges for enterprise AI adoption with these announcements, Smith hints at future developments focusing on agent discovery and accessibility. “I think the next piece will be all of these agents surfacing within a marketplace or catalog and then accessible from AI assistants like Copilot or Microsoft 365 Copilot and beyond,” he said. The Build 2025 announcements represent a significant step forward for Microsoft’s AI strategy, but the company continues to face the challenge of driving widespread adoption of these technologies across industries and helping organizations realize tangible business value from their AI investments. As Smith concluded, “At the core of all transformation isn’t really technology itself. It’s about delivering solutions that are more cost-effective, faster, higher quality, and that ultimately create a superior customer experience.” Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Design Bridge and Partners have created a kintsugi-inspired new look for Gen-All, a charity that promotes intergenerational work and best practice. Gen-All co-founder Judith Ish-Horowicz has run a nursery within a care home since 2017. She received lottery funding to create a new body bringing together different organisations in the space to share best practice. “We were aware that there was a lot of intergenerational work going on, but there was no understanding of what was actually impactful,” she explains. The new Gen-All logo by Design Bridge and Partners Ish-Horowicz worked with the Beth Johnson Foundation to revive the Centre of Intergenerational Practice and Research and Development (CIPRD). She met Design Bridge and Partners’ Chief Strategy Officer Matt Boffey because his daughter attended her nursery and he offered to work on the project pro bono. “Everyone recognises that stronger relationships between the generations create some really positive outcomes for society, especially in this moment where we’ve got demographic change and stretched resources,” Boffey says. “We wanted to create a compelling brand that people could get behind, so it could become a beacon to attract different partners.” Design Bridge and Partners’ visuals for Gen-All Boffey and his team felt the name CIRP “took a lot of unpacking” while Ish-Horowicz is more blunt – “It was a terrible name.” They hit on Gen-All as a simple and immediate way of capturing what the organisation stands for. “Intergenerational work is about all the generations rather than just the extremes of the very young and the very old,” Boffey says, “So we wanted something that could represent that broader sense of inclusivity, and something that wasn’t too abstract.” He says this immediacy was particularly important for a small organisation with limited budgets. They created a simple wordmark using the new name in Hepta Slab, with the hyphen also acting as a visual metaphor bridging the generations, and the various organisations Gen-All wants to unite. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/Gen-All_PR_07.mp4 Senior designer Leanne Kitchen explains that the logo was kept deliberately neutral because of the very busy and colourful assets that were developed for the broader identity. This was built on the idea of fragmentation, which applied across generations as well as among the intergenerational practice community itself. “We wanted to translate that into a very clear message and we liked the idea of filling the gap, to bring the generations back together,” Kitchen explains. This led them to kintsugi, or golden joinery, which is the Japanese act of repairing broken objects with a lacquer that reconnects the pieces, but doesn’t hide the fact it has once been broken. “We liked the idea that it creates something new, but embraces the past and its previous fragmentation,” Kitchen explains. “We’re not shying away from where we’ve been, and just trying to glue it back together. Using kintsugi creates a more meaningful whole.” Design Bridge and Partners’ visuals for Gen-All And so the visuals are created from repaired ceramic pieces that represent different generations, with contrasting imagery attached together. There was also a neat historic link to the Beth Johnson foundation, which is based in Stoke, the heart of the Potteries. They held workshops at Ish-Horowicz’ London nursery to create the first pieces, where they also collected stories from participants about how bringing together young and old had benefitted their lives. The team later used AI image generation tools to expand the visual assets and create a broad suite of imagery for Gen-All’s digital channels. And the pottery theme extends into lots of nice touches, such as using stacked plates to create a chart to share key stats in the Gen-All newsletter. Boffey says it’s important for Design Bridge and Partners to take on projects like this alongside its big-name client work. “It’s a great opportunity for us to take the talent we have and create a different type of impact with a different type of partner, which is no less important than furthering the ends of our commercial clients,” he explains. “It’s very motivating to our people, and it gives them an opportunity to stretch themselves in new directions. We get lots of people wanting to be involved and we don’t ever treat these projects as a hobby or a side project.” For Ish-Horowicz, the impact of the rebrand is already being felt, with renewed interest and engagement across the UK, as well as new connections around the world, from the US and Sweden to Israel, India and Turkey. And she is excited for how the new brand will help further this work, which she has committed so much of her life to. “For the first time we are connecting people together, so professionals in this space can support each other and bring the level of impact up,” she says. “It’s no longer coming into care homes and singing at somebody at Christmas. Now we are all singing together, and singing from the same song sheet.” https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/Gen-All_PR_09.mp4

Commissioned when material reuse was banned in public projects, a recycling centre in Antwerp by Bovenbouw Architectuur confronts the absurdity of waste ‘Waste is a religious thing,’ says Nick Shay, the main character of Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld from 1997. ‘We entomb contaminated waste with a sense of reverence and dread. It is necessary to respect what we discard.’ Nick is a waste manager. In 1978, he attends a conference in the Mojave Desert. Jesse Detwiler, a ‘waste theorist whose provocations had spooked the industry’, lectures about the scenery of the future, which will be, according to him, a scenery of waste. ‘Basic household waste’, he says, ‘ought to be placed in the cities that produce it. Bring garbage into the open. Let people see it and respect it. Don’t hide your waste facilities. Make an architecture of waste. Design gorgeous buildings to recycle waste and invite people to collect their own garbage and bring it with them to the press rams and conveyors. Get to know your garbage.’ Despite Detwiler’s advice, waste management is rarely the remit of architecture. Incinerators, landfills and recycling centres are usually a matter of infrastructure, of machinery, or of landscapes that have been destroyed by being filled to the brim. In Belgium, this has changed in recent decades; the majority of public commissions – even those relating to waste management – are now a matter of architecture. In 2009, Antwerp‑based practice Bovenbouw Architectuur won a competition organised by the City of Antwerp for the masterplan of its recycling centres, referred to as containerparken. The very first public recycling facility in Belgium opened in 1976, next to the incinerator of the municipality of Izegem, close to the French border. It could boast of three containers: one for glass, one for metal and one for combustible household waste. At this time, garden waste was collected separately and occasionally incinerated together with fuel oil and old tyres; economy and efficiency, rather than environmental considerations, were the main motivations for selective collection. A decade of national protests against the numerous rubbish dumps and the (profitable) import of foreign waste followed. This situation started to change on a national level in 1981, when the Flemish government issued a ‘waste decree’ and established the Openbare Vlaamse Afvalstoffenmaatschappij (Public Flemish Waste Management Institution or OVAM). Since then, foreign waste has continued to be imported, but it is processed instead of dumped. Waste collection at home started to be separated, and in many Flemish cities, five categories were collected weekly or biweekly: plastics, compostable waste, paper, glass and everything else. By means of generous subvention, OVAM also encouraged every municipality to open a recycling centre – with an estimated cost of about €75,000 each. These facilities had a quadruple purpose: to prevent illegal dumping, to promote recycling, to make the population aware of waste, but also to save on energy and raw materials. Construction and demolition waste could be used for local road paving; garden and pruning waste could be composted on site; OVAM took care of all the dangerous waste while contracts with specialised firms, foreign or domestic, were necessary for all the other materials. The first recycling facility in the city of Antwerp opened in 1988; today, almost 40 years later, the city has eight container parks, and five of them have been upgraded by Bovenbouw since they won the open competition in 2009; a facility at Kielsbroek, to the west of the city and next to its main highway junction, opened at the end of 2024. The site is next to a junction of highways in an industrial zone of warehouses, set among mature trees and vegetation. The city, however, is very close: trains whizz by, and new towers of apartments are visible in the distance, as is the river Scheldt, and the petrol‑blue substation by noAarchitecten built in 2009, that supplies a large part of Antwerp with electricity. The entrance of the facility is accompanied by a building for workers, housing a reception, staff room, toilets and changing rooms. The roof is extended to form a large steel canopy supported by a large laminated‑timber beam, under which hazardous waste is stored, such as liquids, batteries or polystyrene. The building’s facades are made out of red bricks, stacked lying on their long edge, so the two holes that puncture each brick are exposed – a kind of ‘improper use’ that draws attention to the specificity and tactility of materials, a tactility shared by everything that passes through the hands of the visitors into the containers. A circular window is cut out from the outer leaves of brickwork at the corner of the building, exposing the inside of the bricks and leaving the edges raw, in a playful but also slightly brutal, DIY way, revealing the different possibilities of banal building materials. The windows offer views of a square, at the project’s centre, intended as a semi‑public meeting place. In reality, visitors are mostly concerned with their waste; an initial part of the project to organise workshops and infosessions – about, for example, composting – has been dropped by the city. Opposite the long building, the square is demarcated by a row of containers and their retaining walls, made out of prefabricated concrete elements, that can be, so the architects argue, disassembled and reused later. An existing height difference in the terrain was preserved: the containers are set into this lower level – accessible only to lorries that come to collect the waste – and visitors are able to drop rubbish into them from the higher square without having to climb a stepladder. Yellow numbers for the containers, hung high on a steel structure with vertical tube lights, indicate what belongs where. The visitor circulation – for cars, although nothing prevents you from arriving by cargo bike – was duplicated to allow for two circuits: one free and one paid‑for (for rubble and combustible waste), accessible via a weighbridge. Once on the square, however, it is easy to switch between the two zones (and, for example, to deliver combustible waste without paying), which is why it was recently decided to send everyone past the weighbridge. The container park does not escape surveillance, and compared with other Belgian cities, everything in Antwerp is strictly regulated. It is, for example, forbidden to take other people’s waste home with you, even if it is still perfectly usable, although the option to put things aside for charity shops is offered. The new Kielsbroek recycling centre was a slow process. In the proposed concept from 2012, the architects explained that they wanted to favour ‘creativity and craftmanship’ over ‘industrial production’. At the same time, they regretted ‘the ban on the reuse of material in a public tender’, which is why they decided to ‘use as much ecological building material as possible,’ (wood insulated with cellulose, for example, or OSB with reduced formaldehyde), ‘without resorting to literal reuse’. Bovenbouw is currently participating in competitions for containerparken elsewhere and, according to founder Dirk Somers, they will pursue ecological standards and approaches more strictly. Thanks to the pioneering work of specialist Belgian design practice Rotor, the legislation in the country has changed: since 2020, the principles of the circular economy are encouraged. The guidelines no longer stipulate the exclusive use of new materials; recycled or reused components have become more accessible and less expensive. For reasons of continuity, however, but also because the client preferred a smooth and efficient process, the starting points of the masterplan from 2012 were preserved. The project replaces an older and smaller facility, a few hundred metres away, from which some elements were reused, such as the storage volumes for chemical materials. Bovenbouw’s material and organisational approach in Kielsbroek – but also at the four other locations – makes it possible to get to know your garbage, as DeLillo’s character phrased it; the contents of the open containers are visible, and although the building’s materials are not recycled or reused, they are conspicuously presented as ‘materials’. It is a space in which to confront that weird and ultimately absurd activity of recycling. Why, after all, bother acquiring something that you have to throw away later anyway? Recycling, in this sense, is what continues to enable production and consumerism. This is how Slavoj Žižek expresses it in his recent book Against Progress: ‘The ecological dream‑notion of total recycling (in which every remainder is used again)’ is ‘the ultimate capitalist dream.’ At the same time, the optimisation of recycling is equally dependent on the industry. Most of the waste in Kielsbroek travels to the port of Antwerp‑Bruges, which also houses the largest chemical cluster in Europe. The private firm Indaver processes approximately five million tons of waste annually, coming from large‑scale factories, public authorities (such as the city of Antwerp), but also from other waste companies, including those from abroad. Indaver has 2,300 collaborators all over Europe, and achieved a turnover in 2023 of €871 million. At the Hooge Maey, some 20km north of Kielsbroek, a 1960s landfill closed in 2018; a new one close by is still in use, while rubbish continues to be destroyed at high temperature in rotary kilns. ‘How’s the waste business?’ someone asks Nick in Underworld. His reply: ‘Booming. The waste business. Bigger by the minute.’ 2025-05-19 Christophe Van Gerrewey Share AR May 2025CircularityBuy Now