Technology leaders are baffled by a “cacophony” of “buzzwords, hype and confusion” over the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), according to the founder and CEO of technology company Pegasystems. Alan Trefler, who is known for his prowess at chess and ping pong, as well as running a $1.5bn turnover tech company, spends much of his time meeting clients, CIOs and business leaders. “I think CIOs are struggling to understand all of the buzzwords, hype and confusion that exists,” he said. “The words AI and agentic are being thrown around in this great cacophony and they don’t know what it means. I hear that constantly.” CIOs are under pressure from their CEOs, who are convinced AI will offer something valuable. “CIOs are really hungry for pragmatic and practical solutions, and in the absence of those, many of them are doing a lot of experimentation,” said Trefler. Companies are looking at large language models to summarise documents, or to help stimulate ideas for knowledge workers, or generate first drafts of reports – all of which will save time and make people more productive. But Trefler said companies are wary of letting AI loose on critical business applications, because it’s just too unpredictable and prone to hallucinations. “There is a lot of fear over handing things over to something that no one understands exactly how it works, and that is the absolute state of play when it comes to general AI models,” he said. Trefler is scathing about big tech companies that are pushing AI agents and large language models for business-critical applications. “I think they have taken an expedient but short-sighted path,” he said. “I believe the idea that you will turn over critical business operations to an agent, when those operations have to be predictable, reliable, precise and fair to clients … is something that is full of issues, not just in the short term, but structurally.” One of the problems is that generative AI models are extraordinarily sensitive to the data they are trained on and the construction of the prompts used to instruct them. A slight change in a prompt or in the training data can lead to a very different outcome. For example, a business banking application might learn its customer is a bit richer or a bit poorer than expected. “You could easily imagine the prompt deciding to change the interest rate charged, whether that was what the institution wanted or whether it would be legal according to the various regulations that lenders must comply with,” said Trefler. Trefler said Pega has taken a different approach to some other technology suppliers in the way it adds AI into business applications. Rather than using AI agents to solve problems in real time, AI agents do their thinking in advance. Business experts can use them to help them co-design business processes to perform anything from assessing a loan application, giving an offer to a valued customer, or sending out an invoice. Companies can still deploy AI chatbots and bots capable of answering queries on the phone. Their job is not to work out the solution from scratch for every enquiry, but to decide which is the right pre-written process to follow. As Trefler put it, design agents can create “dozens and dozens” of workflows to handle all the actions a company needs to take care of its customers. “You just use the natural language model for semantics to be able to handle the miracle of getting the language right, but tie that language to workflows, so that you have reliable, predictable, regulatory-approved ways to execute,” he said. Large language models (LLMs) are not always the right solution. Trefler demonstrated how ChatGPT 4.0 tried and failed to solve a chess puzzle. The LLM repeatedly suggested impossible or illegal moves, despite Trefler’s corrections. On the other hand, another AI tool, Stockfish, a dedicated chess engine, solved the problem instantly. The other drawback with LLMs is that they consume vast amounts of energy. That means if AI agents are reasoning during “run time”, they are going to consume hundreds of times more electricity than an AI agent that simply selects from pre-determined workflows, said Trefler. “ChatGPT is inherently, enormously consumptive … as it’s answering your question, its firing literally hundreds of millions to trillions of nodes,” he said. “All of that takes [large quantities of] electricity.” Using an employee pay claim as an example, Trefler said a better alternative is to generate, say, 30 alternative workflows to cover the major variations found in a pay claim. That gives you “real specificity and real efficiency”, he said. “And it’s a very different approach to turning a process over to a machine with a prompt and letting the machine reason it through every single time.” “If you go down the philosophy of using a graphics processing unit [GPU] to do the creation of a workflow and a workflow engine to execute the workflow, the workflow engine takes a 200th of the electricity because there is no reasoning,” said Trefler. He is clear that the growing use of AI will have a profound effect on the jobs market, and that whole categories of jobs will disappear. The need for translators, for example, is likely to dry up by 2027 as AI systems become better at translating spoken and written language. Google’s real-time translator is already “frighteningly good” and improving. Pega now plans to work more closely with its network of system integrators, including Accenture and Cognizant to deliver AI services to businesses. An initiative launched last week will allow system integrators to incorporate their own best practices and tools into Pega’s rapid workflow development tools. The move will mean Pega’s technology reaches a wider range of businesses. Under the programme, known as Powered by Pega Blueprint, system integrators will be able to deploy customised versions of Blueprint. They can use the tool to reverse-engineer ageing applications and replace them with modern AI workflows that can run on Pega’s cloud-based platform. “The idea is that we are looking to make this Blueprint Agent design approach available not just through us, but through a bunch of major partners supplemented with their own intellectual property,” said Trefler. That represents a major expansion for Pega, which has largely concentrated on supplying technology to several hundred clients, representing the top Fortune 500 companies. “We have never done something like this before, and I think that is going to lead to a massive shift in how this technology can go out to market,” he added. When AI agents behave in unexpected ways Iris is incredibly smart, diligent and a delight to work with. If you ask her, she will tell you she is an intern at Pegasystems, and that she lives in a lighthouse on the island of Texel, north of the Netherlands. She is, of course, an AI agent. When one executive at Pega emailed Iris and asked her to write a proposal for a financial services company based on his notes and internet research, Iris got to work. Some time later, the executive received a phone call from the company. “‘Listen, we got a proposal from Pega,’” recalled Rob Walker, vice-president at Pega, speaking at the Pegaworld conference last week. “‘It’s a good proposal, but it seems to be signed by one of your interns, and in her signature, it says she lives in a lighthouse.’ That taught us early on that agents like Iris need a safety harness.” The developers banned Iris from sending an email to anyone other than the person who sent the original request. Then Pega’s ethics department sent Iris a potentially abusive email from a Pega employee to test her response. Iris reasoned that the email was either a joke, abusive, or that the employee was under distress, said Walker. She considered forwarding the email to the employee’s manager or to HR. But both of these options were now blocked by her developers. “So what does she do? She sent an out of office,” he said. “Conflict avoidance, right? So human, but very creative.”

Not to be outdone by his one-time rival, Sonic’s new racing game takes the fight to Mario with genuinely surprising mechanics we've not seen before in the genreTech20:00, 07 Jun 2025Where will you end up?Who doesn’t love a kart racer? The trouble is, they’ve started to fall into a pretty staid rhythm now. You battle it out for lap one, everything sort of settles down in lap 2, and then lap 3 can be similarly formulaic if you don’t get hit by a power-up or two.While Nintendo Switch 2's launch title Mario Kart World has moved to change this with a system that links tracks together, iconic hedgehog Sonic is doing something a little different with his return to karting.‌Not only does it make for much more chaotic racing, but there’s more going on under the hood than it first seems.‌Tracks are varied, making jumping from one to the other very excitingSonic Racing CrossWorlds initially starts off like most other kart racers. Players pick their character from a starting roster of 23 characters, pick their vehicle, and then head off.And, while the first lap plays out as you’d expect, whoever is winning gets to pick lap 2’s location, meaning racers drive through a Travel Ring and end up on a different track, before coming back for lap 3.Article continues belowGetting ahead of another vehicle so you can pick a track you know better for the next stage of the race is great, as are the ‘Rival’ you’ll be assigned at the start of each Grand Prix.Not only do these racers react more aggressively to you, but they’ll also offer unique dialog when you appear out of nowhere to overtake them, hit them with an item, or fall behind the pack.This track sees you travel through a Dragon‌Once the Grand Prix is done, there’s a chance to secure further points by racing across each track from the prior Grand Prix in a sort of three-lap sprint.In my limited playtime, I was locked alongside my rival for points before pulling out the win thanks to that final spring.More competitive racers may baulk at such randomness creeping into tracks they’ve rehearsed, but it’s a breath of fresh air for the genre and stops those middle laps feeling too predictable.‌Each vehicle can be customised furtherAside from the Travel Rings, it doesn’t hurt that Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a fantastic racer in its own right.Drifting to earn a boost and pulling off tricks to zip past rivals is great fun, although it did take a moment to knock me out of my Mario Kart muscle memory.‌Vehicles fall into a variety of categories, and each has customisable paint jobs, too, letting you make each feel bespoke. Want a purple car for Big the Cat? Go for it. Looking to add some colour to Shadow’s vehicle? You can do it.There are also gadgets you can use to tie into your playstyle, like hoovering up rings from further away, or simply improving your smallest boost.Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a hedgehog with a driver's licence!‌The game also brings back the “Land, Sea, and Air” transformation modes for vehicles, meaning one minute you’re driving, then sailing, and then flying.The latter is particularly enjoyable, letting your character of choice navigate jump hoops and tight turns, while there are secrets to find throughout each track to encourage replayability.Sonic’s video games feel like they’re in a pretty good spot at the moment, and CrossWorlds looks to be another fine addition.Article continues belowMuch will hinge on how fun its tracks are, but early signs are very, very promising that this will be a racer that shakes up the genre just as well as anyone else can.Previewed on PS5. Preview access provided by the publisher.‌‌‌

IBM and Roche are teaming up on an AI solution to a challenge faced by millions worldwide: the relentless daily grind of diabetes management. Their new brainchild, the Accu-Chek SmartGuide Predict app, provides AI-powered glucose forecasting capabilities to users. The app doesn’t just track where your glucose levels are—it tells you where they’re heading. Imagine having a weather forecast, but for your blood sugar. That’s essentially what IBM and Roche are creating.AI-powered diabetes managementThe app works alongside Roche’s continuous glucose monitoring sensor, crunching the numbers in real-time to offer predictive insights that can help users stay ahead of potentially dangerous blood sugar swings.What caught my eye were the three standout features that address very specific worries diabetics face. The “Glucose Predict” function visualises where your glucose might be heading over the next two hours—giving you that crucial window to make adjustments before things go south.For those who live with the anxiety of hypoglycaemia (when blood sugar plummets to dangerous levels), the “Low Glucose Predict” feature acts like an early warning system, flagging potential lows up to half an hour before they might occur. That’s enough time to take corrective action.Perhaps most reassuring is the “Night Low Predict” feature, which estimates your risk of overnight hypoglycaemia—often the most frightening prospect for diabetes patients. Before tucking in for the night, the AI-powered diabetes management app gives you a heads-up about whether you might need that bedtime snack. This feature should bring peace of mind to countless households.“By harnessing the power of AI-enabled predictive technology, Roche’s Accu-Chek SmartGuide Predict App can help empower people with diabetes to take proactive measures to manage their disease,” says Moritz Hartmann, Head of Roche Information Solutions.How AI is speeding up diabetes researchIt’s not just patients benefiting from this partnership. The companies have developed a rather clever research tool using IBM’s watsonx AI platform that’s transforming how clinical study data gets analysed.Anyone who’s been involved in clinical research knows the mind-numbing tedium of manual data analysis. IBM and Roche’s tool does the heavy lifting—digitising, translating, and categorising all that anonymised clinical data, then connecting the dots between glucose monitoring data and participants’ daily activities.The result? Researchers can spot meaningful patterns and correlations in a fraction of the time it would normally take. This behind-the-scenes innovation might do more to advance diabetes care and management in the long run than the app itself.What makes this collaboration particularly interesting is how it brings together two different worlds. You’ve got IBM’s computing prowess and AI know-how pairing up with Roche’s decades of healthcare and diabetes expertise.”Our long-standing partnership with IBM underscores the potential of cross-industry innovation in addressing unmet healthcare needs and bringing significant advancements to patients faster,” says Hartmann.“Using cutting-edge technology such as AI and machine learning helps us to accelerate time to market and to improve therapy outcomes at the same time.”Christian Keller, General Manager of IBM Switzerland, added: “The collaboration with Roche underlines the potential of AI when it’s implemented with a clear goal—assisting patients in managing their diabetes.“With our technology and consulting expertise we can offer a trusted, customised, and secure technical environment that is essential to enable innovation in healthcare.”What this means for the future of healthcare techHaving covered healthcare tech for years, I’ve seen plenty of promising innovations fizzle out. However, this IBM-Roche partnership feels promising—perhaps because it’s addressing such a specific, well-defined problem with a thoughtful, targeted application of AI.For the estimated 590 million people (or 1 in 9 of the adult population) worldwide living with diabetes, the shift from reactive to predictive management could be gamechanging. It’s not about replacing human judgment, but enhancing it with timely, actionable insights.The app’s currently only available in Switzerland, which seems a sensible approach—test, refine, and perfect before wider deployment. Healthcare professionals will be keeping tabs on this Swiss rollout to see if it delivers on its promise.If successful, this collaboration could serve as a blueprint for how tech giants and pharma companies might work together on other chronic conditions. Imagine similar predictive approaches for heart disease, asthma, or Parkinson’s.For now, though, the focus is squarely on using AI to improve diabetes management and helping people sleep a little easier at night—quite literally, in the case of that clever nocturnal prediction feature. And honestly, that’s a worthwhile enough goal on its own.(Photo by Alexander Grey)Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

JCT Construct is a subscription-based contract drafting system with advanced editing features, enabling you to create and amend your JCT contracts in a secure, flexible, and easy-to-use online environment Depending on the type of subscription chosen, JCT Construct also provides instant access to each JCT 2024 Edition contract, as soon as it is published. With JCT Construct’s powerful tools, you can edit the JCT contract text itself, adding your own amendments, clauses or other customised text. The system also features an intuitive Q&A-driven process to assist you in filling in your contract comprehensively. The JCT Construct system generates your contract in plain copy as well as a comparison document, making it possible to easily read the contracts and see all the changes from the published JCT text. Guest sharing supports collaborative working amongst those involved in the contract drafting to share drafts, to edit and to see all the changes. Version-to-version comparison allows you to see any changes between draft versions and against the published JCT text, ensuring full transparency between the parties to the contract at all times. Key benefits Easy to use, flexible, and secure online contract drafting. Access to each JCT 2024 Edition contract, as soon as it is published Add your own amendments, clauses, and other customised text. Clause numbers, cross-references in the JCT text, and table of contents all update automatically. Guest sharing supports collaboration and enables all those involved in the drafting to share drafts, edit, and see all the changes. Create boilerplates so you can reuse your standard set of changes. Print draft contracts for review. Print final contracts for signing. Print comparison documents showing all changes against the published JCT text for full transparency. Learn more and choose your subscription at jctltd.co.uk/jct-construct 2025-05-27 AJ Contributor comment and share

Casalgrande Padana’s Terrae tiles collection Earthy tones bring a timeless charm to everyday living spaces, and are conducive to a sensation of wellbeing. Casalgrande Padana’s new Terrae collection draws on colour shades offered by the pigments and precious minerals of the earth. Tiles in the Terrae collection are available in six colours (beige, white, caramel, brick, tobacco and taupe grey) and different shapes, including square (200×200mm, 600×600mm, 900×900mm, 1,200×1,200mm) and a range of rectangular options (82×250mm, 300×600mm, 600×1,200mm and 1,200×2,780mm). Different thicknesses, from 6mm to 9mm to 200mm, and finishes are available, including natural and grip surfaces. The aim is to provide a pleasant tactile sensation while meeting a range of technical requirements. A version of the beige, tobacco and taupe grey tiles in 600×600×20mm and 600×1,200×20mm is specially designed for the outdoors, with an anti-slip surface. These tiles can either be laid directly on turf, gravel or sand, or glued on screed or raised supports to allow for the installation of electrical and plumbing systems. Porcelain stoneware is a compact, hard and non-porous ceramic material made from finely ground clays, quartz and other minerals that are fired at high temperatures. Resistant to water and scratches, this durable material is particularly well suited to flooring and wall cladding. In additional to the solid colours, the Terrae collection comprises more decorative tiles with elegant ribbed, gridded and other geometric patterns that make use of several colours in the collection’s earthen palette. These tiles help create attractive visual and tactile effects, with unique colour contrasts that add character and a touch of sophistication to both indoor and outdoor spaces. Suitable for the most challenging design applications, the tiles will maintain their aesthetic and functional characteristics intact over time. The silver-based treatment Bios Antibacterial applied to the tiles guarantees continual protection against micro-organisms, while the tiles are easy to both lay and clean. The durability and outstanding technical performance offer designers an impressive range of creative options, allowing for customised uses in various types of projects, whether adaptive reuse or new builds, and including private homes, civic spaces and commercial interiors. Based in Italy, Casalgrande Padana has been producing advanced ceramic materials since 1960. Carrying out continuous research and experimentation has enabled them to improve their products’ aesthetic and technical features over time. They currently produce 24,000,000m2 of porcelain stoneware tiles per year, entirely made in Italy, and work with 70 countries around the world. To find out more about Casalgrande Padana’s new Terrae collection, please visit casalgrandepadana.com/product/terrae 2025-05-20 AR Editors Share

This witchy fantasy sci-fi mashup looks wonderful.

This post will share how to build an AI journal with the LlamaIndex. We will cover one essential function of this AI journal: asking for advice. We will start with the most basic implementation and iterate from there. We can see significant improvements for this function when we apply design patterns like Agentic Rag and multi-agent workflow.You can find the source code of this AI Journal in my GitHub repo here. And about who I am. Overview of AI Journal I want to build my principles by following Ray Dalio’s practice. An AI journal will help me to self-reflect, track my improvement, and even give me advice. The overall function of such an AI journal looks like this: AI Journal Overview. Image by Author. Today, we will only cover the implementation of the seek-advise flow, which is represented by multiple purple cycles in the above diagram. Simplest Form: LLM with Large Context In the most straightforward implementation, we can pass all the relevant content into the context and attach the question we want to ask. We can do that in Llamaindex with a few lines of code. import pymupdf from llama_index.llms.openai import OpenAI path_to_pdf_book = './path/to/pdf/book.pdf' def load_book_content(): text = "" with pymupdf.open(path_to_pdf_book) as pdf: for page in pdf: text += str(page.get_text().encode("utf8", errors='ignore')) return text system_prompt_template = """You are an AI assistant that provides thoughtful, practical, and *deeply personalized* suggestions by combining: - The user's personal profile and principles - Insights retrieved from *Principles* by Ray Dalio Book Content: ``` {book_content} ``` User profile: ``` {user_profile} ``` User's question: ``` {user_question} ``` """ def get_system_prompt(book_content: str, user_profile: str, user_question: str): system_prompt = system_prompt_template.format( book_content=book_content, user_profile=user_profile, user_question=user_question ) return system_prompt def chat(): llm = get_openai_llm() user_profile = input(">>Tell me about yourself: ") user_question = input(">>What do you want to ask: ") user_profile = user_profile.strip() book_content = load_book_summary() response = llm.complete(prompt=get_system_prompt(book_content, user_profile, user_question)) return response This approach has downsides: Low Precision: Loading all the book context might prompt LLM to lose focus on the user’s question. High Cost: Sending over significant-sized content in every LLM call means high cost and poor performance. With this approach, if you pass the whole content of Ray Dalio’s Principles book, responses to questions like “How to handle stress?” become very general. Such responses without relating to my question made me feel that the AI was not listening to me. Even though it covers many important concepts like embracing reality, the 5-step process to get what you want, and being radically open-minded. I like the advice I got to be more targeted to the question I raised. Let’s see how we can improve it with RAG. Enhanced Form: Agentic RAG So, what is Agentic RAG? Agentic RAG is combining dynamic decision-making and data retrieval. In our AI journal, the Agentic RAG flow looks like this: Stages of Agentic Rag. Image by Author Question Evaluation: Poorly framed questions lead to poor query results. The agent will evaluate the user’s query and clarify the questions if the Agent believes it is necessary. Question Re-write: Rewrite the user enquiry to project it to the indexed content in the semantic space. I found these steps essential for improving the precision during the retrieval. Let’s say if your knowledge base is Q/A pair and you are indexing the questions part to search for answers. Rewriting the user’s query statement to a proper question will help you find the most relevant content. Query Vector Index: Many parameters can be tuned when building such an index, including chunk size, overlap, or a different index type. For simplicity, we are using VectorStoreIndex here, which has a default chunking strategy. Filter & Synthetic: Instead of a complex re-ranking process, I explicitly instruct LLM to filter and find relevant content in the prompt. I see LLM picking up the most relevant content, even though sometimes it has a lower similarity score than others. With this Agentic RAG, you can retrieve highly relevant content to the user’s questions, generating more targeted advice. Let’s examine the implementation. With the LlamaIndex SDK, creating and persisting an index in your local directory is straightforward. from llama_index.core import Document, VectorStoreIndex, StorageContext, load_index_from_storage Settings.embed_model = OpenAIEmbedding(api_key="ak-xxxx") PERSISTED_INDEX_PATH = "/path/to/the/directory/persist/index/locally" def create_index(content: str): documents = [Document(text=content)] vector_index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(documents) vector_index.storage_context.persist(persist_dir=PERSISTED_INDEX_PATH) def load_index(): storage_context = StorageContext.from_defaults(persist_dir=PERSISTED_INDEX_PATH) index = load_index_from_storage(storage_context) return index Once we have an index, we can create a query engine on top of that. The query engine is a powerful abstraction that allows you to adjust the parameters during the query(e.g., TOP K) and the synthesis behaviour after the content retrieval. In my implementation, I overwrite the response_mode NO_TEXT because the agent will process the book content returned by the function call and synthesize the final result. Having the query engine to synthesize the result before passing it to the agent would be redundant. from llama_index.core.indices.vector_store import VectorIndexRetriever from llama_index.core.query_engine import RetrieverQueryEngine from llama_index.core.response_synthesizers import ResponseMode from llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex, get_response_synthesizer def _create_query_engine_from_index(index: VectorStoreIndex): # configure retriever retriever = VectorIndexRetriever( index=index, similarity_top_k=TOP_K, ) # return the original content without using LLM to synthesizer. For later evaluation. response_synthesizer = get_response_synthesizer(response_mode=ResponseMode.NO_TEXT) # assemble query engine query_engine = RetrieverQueryEngine( retriever=retriever, response_synthesizer=response_synthesizer ) return query_engine The prompt looks like the following: You are an assistant that helps reframe user questions into clear, concept-driven statements that match the style and topics of Principles by Ray Dalio, and perform look up principle book for relevant content. Background: Principles teaches structured thinking about life and work decisions. The key ideas are: * Radical truth and radical transparency * Decision-making frameworks * Embracing mistakes as learning Task: - Task 1: Clarify the user's question if needed. Ask follow-up questions to ensure you understand the user's intent. - Task 2: Rewrite a user’s question into a statement that would match how Ray Dalio frames ideas in Principles. Use formal, logical, neutral tone. - Task 3: Look up principle book with given re-wrote statements. You should provide at least {REWRITE_FACTOR} rewrote versions. - Task 4: Find the most relevant from the book content as your fina answers. Finally, we can build the agent with those functions defined. def get_principle_rag_agent(): index = load_persisted_index() query_engine = _create_query_engine_from_index(index) def look_up_principle_book(original_question: str, rewrote_statement: List[str]) -> List[str]: result = [] for q in rewrote_statement: response = query_engine.query(q) content = [n.get_content() for n in response.source_nodes] result.extend(content) return result def clarify_question(original_question: str, your_questions_to_user: List[str]) -> str: """ Clarify the user's question if needed. Ask follow-up questions to ensure you understand the user's intent. """ response = "" for q in your_questions_to_user: print(f"Question: {q}") r = input("Response:") response += f"Question: {q}\nResponse: {r}\n" return response tools = [ FunctionTool.from_defaults( fn=look_up_principle_book, name="look_up_principle_book", description="Look up principle book with re-wrote queries. Getting the suggestions from the Principle book by Ray Dalio"), FunctionTool.from_defaults( fn=clarify_question, name="clarify_question", description="Clarify the user's question if needed. Ask follow-up questions to ensure you understand the user's intent.", ) ] agent = FunctionAgent( name="principle_reference_loader", description="You are a helpful agent will based on user's question and look up the most relevant content in principle book.\n", system_prompt=QUESTION_REWRITE_PROMPT, tools=tools, ) return agent rag_agent = get_principle_rag_agent() response = await agent.run(chat_history=chat_history) There are a few observations I had during the implementations: One interesting fact I found is that providing a non-used parameter, original_question , in the function signature helps. I found that when I do not have such a parameter, LLM sometimes does not follow the rewrite instruction and passes the original question in rewrote_statement the parameter. Having original_question parameters somehow emphasizes the rewriting mission to LLM. Different LLMs behave quite differently given the same prompt. I found DeepSeek V3 much more reluctant to trigger function calls than other model providers. This doesn’t necessarily mean it is not usable. If a functional call should be initiated 90% of the time, it should be part of the workflow instead of being registered as a function call. Also, compared to OpenAI’s models, I found Gemini good at citing the source of the book when it synthesizes the results. The more content you load into the context window, the more inference capability the model needs. A smaller model with less inference power is more likely to get lost in the large context provided. However, to complete the seek-advice function, you’ll need multiple Agents working together instead of a single Agent. Let’s talk about how to chain your Agents together into workflows. Final Form: Agent Workflow Before we start, I recommend this article by Anthropic, Building Effective Agents. The one-liner summary of the articles is that you should always prioritise building a workflow instead of a dynamic agent when possible. In LlamaIndex, you can do both. It allows you to create an agent workflow with more automatic routing or a customised workflow with more explicit control of the transition of steps. I will provide an example of both implementations. Workflow Explain. Image by Author. Let’s take a look at how you can build a dynamic workflow. Here is a code example. interviewer = FunctionAgent( name="interviewer", description="Useful agent to clarify user's questions", system_prompt=_intervierw_prompt, can_handoff_to = ["retriver"] tools=tools ) interviewer = FunctionAgent( name="retriever", description="Useful agent to retrive principle book's content.", system_prompt=_retriver_prompt, can_handoff_to = ["advisor"] tools=tools ) advisor = FunctionAgent( name="advisor", description="Useful agent to advise user.", system_prompt=_advisor_prompt, can_handoff_to = [] tools=tools ) workflow = AgentWorkflow( agents=[interviewer, advisor, retriever], root_agent="interviewer", ) handler = await workflow.run(user_msg="How to handle stress?") It is dynamic because the Agent transition is based on the function call of the LLM model. Underlying, LlamaIndex workflow provides agent descriptions as functions for LLM models. When the LLM model triggers such “Agent Function Call”, LlamaIndex will route to your next corresponding agent for the subsequent step processing. Your previous agent’s output has been added to the workflow internal state, and your following agent will pick up the state as part of the context in their call to the LLM model. You also leverage state and memory components to manage the workflow’s internal state or load external data(reference the document here). However, as I have suggested, you can explicitly control the steps in your workflow to gain more control. With LlamaIndex, it can be done by extending the workflow object. For example: class ReferenceRetrivalEvent(Event): question: str class Advice(Event): principles: List[str] profile: dict question: str book_content: str class AdviceWorkFlow(Workflow): def __init__(self, verbose: bool = False, session_id: str = None): state = get_workflow_state(session_id) self.principles = state.load_principle_from_cases() self.profile = state.load_profile() self.verbose = verbose super().__init__(timeout=None, verbose=verbose) @step async def interview(self, ctx: Context, ev: StartEvent) -> ReferenceRetrivalEvent: # Step 1: Interviewer agent asks questions to the user interviewer = get_interviewer_agent() question = await _run_agent(interviewer, question=ev.user_msg, verbose=self.verbose) return ReferenceRetrivalEvent(question=question) @step async def retrieve(self, ctx: Context, ev: ReferenceRetrivalEvent) -> Advice: # Step 2: RAG agent retrieves relevant content from the book rag_agent = get_principle_rag_agent() book_content = await _run_agent(rag_agent, question=ev.question, verbose=self.verbose) return Advice(principles=self.principles, profile=self.profile, question=ev.question, book_content=book_content) @step async def advice(self, ctx: Context, ev: Advice) -> StopEvent: # Step 3: Adviser agent provides advice based on the user's profile, principles, and book content advisor = get_adviser_agent(ev.profile, ev.principles, ev.book_content) advise = await _run_agent(advisor, question=ev.question, verbose=self.verbose) return StopEvent(result=advise) The specific event type’s return controls the workflow’s step transition. For instance, retrieve step returns an Advice event that will trigger the execution of the advice step. You can also leverage the Advice event to pass the necessary information you need. During the implementation, if you are annoyed by having to start over the workflow to debug some steps in the middle, the context object is essential when you want to failover the workflow execution. You can store your state in a serialised format and recover your workflow by unserialising it to a context object. Your workflow will continue executing based on the state instead of starting over. workflow = AgentWorkflow( agents=[interviewer, advisor, retriever], root_agent="interviewer", ) try: handler = w.run() result = await handler except Exception as e: print(f"Error during initial run: {e}") await fail_over() # Optional, serialised and save the contexct for debugging ctx_dict = ctx.to_dict(serializer=JsonSerializer()) json_dump_and_save(ctx_dict) # Resume from the same context ctx_dict = load_failed_dict() restored_ctx = Context.from_dict(workflow, ctx_dict,serializer=JsonSerializer()) handler = w.run(ctx=handler.ctx) result = await handler Summary In this post, we have discussed how to use LlamaIndex to implement an AI journal’s core function. The key learning includes: Using Agentic RAG to leverage LLM capability to dynamically rewrite the original query and synthesis result. Use a Customized Workflow to gain more explicit control over step transitions. Build dynamic agents when necessary. The source code of this AI journal is in my GitHub repo here. I hope you enjoy this article and this small app I built. Cheers! The post How to Build an AI Journal with LlamaIndex appeared first on Towards Data Science.

10 incredible new tabletop games for you to play in summer 2025 Lucy Orr Published May 16, 2025 2:00pm Pokémon TCG is in for a hot summer (The Pokémon Company) GameCentral looks at the most exciting new summer tabletop releases, including adaptations of Final Fantasy, Assassin’s Creed, and Citizen Sleeper The tabletop games industry has become an unlikely victim of Trump’s tariff trade war. Just after it was recovering from Covid supply chain issues it now sees itself hit with manufacturing issues and an uncertain future. It’s so bad that board game developer CMON has already shut up shop and Stonemaier, famous for the hugely successful Wingspan, is suing the Trump administration. Meanwhile Cephalofair, developer of fan favourite Gloomhaven, can’t even get their product on to the shelves, as it’s stuck in China. While I don’t expect any empty shelves at the UK Games Expo this month, there’s definitely panic in the air. Although one company that doesn’t seem to be too concerned is Games Workshop, who have always manufactured most of their products in the UK – although accessories and terrain for your favourite Warhammer army might become harder to find in the future. After everyone got into it during lockdown, the tabletop industry was riding a huge boom, with recent industry projections of the market doubling to around £20 billion by 2030. But US tariffs have left the industry reeling and could see the price for tabletop games around the world rise significantly. Despite the doom and gloom there’s plenty of exciting new products already out this year and many more on the way from massive brands such as Pokémon and Disney, as well as new Kickstarters that you can print yourself, thereby completely bypassing any manufacturing issues. There’s also never been a better time to support your local board game shop or Dungeons & Dragons club, as their overheads rise, so here’s a selection of games you might find on their shelves right now and those coming soon, that I’m excited to play during the summer break. Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy Square Enix’s iconic Final Fantasy franchise is stepping onto the cardboard battlefield with Magic: The Gathering, and the result is as gloriously nostalgic as it is mechanically exciting. The Universes Beyond initiative brings beloved characters, summons, and settings into Magic’s gameplay, with Cloud Strife leading the charge. The Final Fantasy Starter Kit offers two pre-constructed 60 card decks, packed with flavour and function and perfect for newcomers attracted by the sight of a Chocobo or Moogle. Each deck includes five rares, a foil mythic legendary, deck boxes, and digital codes for Magic: The Gathering Arena. But the real draw? The cards themselves. They are stunning. Cloud channels Final Fantasy 7’s environmental and emotional themes, with equipment-focused synergies that feel spot-on. Stiltzkin the Moogle is a flavourful support piece for donation strategies and the terrifying Tonberry arrives with Deathtouch and First Strike, which is fitting for a creature that’s haunted players for decades. With gorgeous full art treatments by amazing artists such as Takahashi Kazuya and Yoshitaka Amano, underpinned by clever mechanical call backs, this crossover is more than fan service, it’s a lovingly crafted bridge between two gaming giants that’s bound to fly of the shelves. £15.99 on Amazon – releases June 13 Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team: Typhon There’s a possible future where Games Workshop is the final tabletop company left standing, as they dodge tariffs and take down licence infringers like a particularly vicious swarm of tyrranids. You too can act out this future in Kill Team: Typhon, which delivers the chaos of Warhammer 40,000 in a claustrophobic, subterranean brawl between flesh-rending Tyranid Raveners and a desperate Adeptus Mechanicus Battleclade. The latest Kill Team box looks stunning and turns up the tension with asymmetric forces: a lean, elite brood of Raveners – deadly melee predators that can tunnel through terrain – versus a jury-rigged Mechanicus strike team, built from repurposed servitors and guided by a technoarchaeologist scouring ancient relics. But this isn’t Helldivers 2. The Raveners can be customised into deadly variants like the Tremorscythe and Felltalon, each armed with bio-engineered weapons designed for close-quarters carnage. On the other side, the Mechanicus bring massed, lobotomised firepower: breachers, gunners, medics, and overseers to allow for some tactical coordination. Also included are Hormagaunts, the swarming Tyrranids shock troops and new Tyranid-infested terrain – always the standout feature of these kill team boxes, in my opinion, and perfect for narrative or larger 40K battles. Typhon embraces Kill Team’s strength: cinematic asymmetry and high stakes. Price TBA – releases June Scalpers are going to love this (The Pokémon Company) Pokémon Trading Card Game Scarlet & Violet – Destined Rivals Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box This red and black box is going for gangbusters on eBay, before it’s even supposed to be out. The Scarlet & Violet Destined Rivals set reintroduces the beloved Trainer’s Pokémon mechanic, but now with a twist where players can align with iconic duos like Arven’s Mabosstiff and Ho-Oh ex or Cynthia and Garchomp ex. Or fall in with Team Rocket under Giovanni’s command, fielding heavy hitters like Mewtwo ex. It’s a rich throwback to the Gym Heroes era, with cards that spotlight specific trainer and pokémon bonds, each emblazoned with the trainer’s name. The expansion includes 83 cards branded under Team Rocket, 17 new Pokémon ex cards (10 of which are Trainer’s Pokémon ex), and a trove of high rarity collectibles: 23 illustration rares, 11 special illustration rares, and six hyper rare gold-etched cards. But the pre-launch hasn’t been all Sunflora and Jigglypuffs. Since its full reveal on March 24, pre-orders have sparked a frenzy amongst scalpers, with sellouts and early store hiccups are already marring the rollout. Still, between the nostalgia bait and villainous charm, Destined Rivals is shaping up to be one of 2025’s hottest trading card releases. RRP £54.99 – releases May 30 Finspan One game I just can’t put back on the shelf at the moment is Finspan; who’d of thought fish could be so much fun? Since Wingspan took flight in 2019, it’s become a modern classic: part art piece, part engine builder, and a benchmark for gateway games. Finspan, the third entry in the series, swaps feathers for fins, inviting players to explore marine ecosystems across oceanic zones in a beautifully illustrated, medium-lightweight game that last about 45 minutes. Mechanically, Finspan is more accessible than Wingspan, thanks to forgiving resource generation and a gentler deck structure. Strategic depth is still there, whether you chase high value fish, go wide with schools, or balance both. It’s more of a solo puzzle, and less about blocking opponents, which might suit more casual groups. Replayability is strong, and with one to five player support it scales well. The art is stunning, and the fish facts make you feel like a would-be marine biologist. But I missed the funny components (no birdhouse dice tower), so this is missing some of that Wingspan magic. Finspan is a fantastic entry point to the series and an accessible and fun addition to the franchise. It’s not as perfect as Wingspan, but it swims confidently in its own current. Could we see whale and crustacean expansions? I hope so. RRP £41.99 – available now Star Wars Unlimited – Jump To Lightspeed While you might have missed the Star Wars Celebration in Japan last month, and be bereft over the end of Andor Season 2, don’t worry – there are plenty of alternatives for Star Wars fandom. Fantasy Flight Games is revving its hyperdrive with Jump To Lightspeed, the fourth set for trading card game Star Wars Unlimited. A dramatic shift from previous ground-focused releases, this set propels players into orbit, with an emphasis on space combat and a host of gameplay refinements. Headlining the release are two new Spotlight Decks, each featuring a classic rivalry, such as Han Solo vs. Boba Fett. These 50-card preconstructed decks introduce Pilots, a brand-new card type that changes how space units operate. Pilots can be deployed to enhance ships with improved health and damage dealing abilities, offering fresh tactical depth. The set also debuts the Piloting keyword, a hyperspace mechanic, and five special rarity cards per deck, including one new Leader per Spotlight release. It’s a sleek continuation of Unlimited’s mission, with deep strategy wrapped in Star Wars flair. Fantasy Flight isn’t just releasing a new set; they’re effectively entering year two of the game with a soft reboot, that smartly rebalances and refreshes. For new and returning players, the standalone Spotlight Decks offer a refined on-ramp into the meta, while the stellar art and fan favourite make this one of the best sci-fi trading card games around. RRP: £34.99 – available now An indie tabletop game adapting an indie video game (Jump Over the Age) Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack I was gutted I didn’t manage to nab some physical Cycles of the Eye Data-Cloud dice from Lost in Cult, before they sold out, so I was ecstatic to see the shadow drop of Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack, especially as it’s completely free. It’s a lean, solo tabletop role-player set in the neon-drenched corridors of the Far Spindle, part of the Citizen Sleeper universe. Released on May 5th (aka Citizen Sleeper Day), it’s a print-and-play experience that trades dense narrative for kinetic delivery runs and tactical movement through a crumbling space station. Inspired by Kadet, the courier from Citizen Sleeper 2, Spindlejack casts you as one of the eponymous daredevils: airbike mounted messengers who dodge cargo haulers and urban decay to deliver sensitive payloads in a haunted, half-dead network. The draw? Not just the cryo or reputation, but the thrill, the competition, and the culture. Using your 10 six-sided dice, a pencil, and some printed sheets you’ll chart courses across randomly generated intersections, upgrade your bike, and edge toward Spindlejack legend status. Designed by Gareth Damian Martin, with stylish, gritty art from Guillaume Singelin, this is a tight, systems-focused dive into a beloved sci-fi setting. No campaign scheduling. No group required. Just you, your dice, and the Spindle’s rusted arteries. For fans of Citizen Sleeper or those craving a focused, atmospheric solo experience, Spindlejack is a no-brainer. DIY or DIE. Available now Disney Lorcana has become a certified hit (Ravensburger) Disney Lorcana – Reign Of Jafar Set 8 and Illumineer’s Quest: Palace Heist The internet has been on fire with the announcement that forthcoming Lorcana sets are to include Darkwing Duck and The Goofy Movie cast, emphasising that Disney Lorcana has become something of a juggernaut since its 2023 debut, captivating collectors and competitive players with a blend of nostalgic charm and evolving mechanics – judging scandals aside. During the Next Chapter of Lorcana livestream earlier this month, Ravensburger dropped major news. The autumn 2025 set, Fabled, will introduce Lorcana’s first ever set rotation, a sign the game is maturing into a competitive force. To support this shift, Fabled will include reprints from earlier sets, while also debuting two new rarity levels: epic and the ultra-rare Iconic. Reign Of Jafar, the game’s eighth set, sees Jafar rise as the new central villain, corrupting Archazia’s Island and bringing a darker twist to the narrative. Familiar faces like Mulan, Stitch, Rapunzel, and Bruno return, alongside new cards and accessories, including updated sleeves and deck boxes featuring classic Enchanted artwork. The new Illumineer’s Quest: Palace Heist PvE box expands on the beloved Deep Trouble, letting players face Jafar co-op style. Expect pre-built decks (Amethyst Amber and Ruby Steel), booster boxes, and enough lore-packed cardboard to fuel your summer break. £16.99 starter pack – releases May 30 The Lord Of The Rings: Fate Of The Fellowship While Finspan might be missing a dice tower, Fate Of The Fellowship more than makes up for that with a dice tower Barad-dûr. This is a one to five player co-op strategy game that builds on the Pandemic System but adds enough fresh features to feel distinct, deeper, and more precious than ever. Players take on the roles of Fellowship members and allies, racing to protect havens from surging shadow troops and helping Frodo sneak past the Nazgûl en route to Mount Doom. Unlike previous Pandemic adaptations, Fate Of The Fellowship leans hard into narrative mechanics. You’ll juggle four resources – stealth, valour, resistance, and friendship – across a sprawling map as you battle despair and shifting objectives. Each player commands two characters, with asymmetric abilities and layered decisions every turn. With 24 rotating objectives, a constant threat from the Eye of Sauron, and a cleverly tuned solo mode, designer Matt Leacock has crafted his richest Pandemic variant yet. I’ve seen plenty of tabletop gamers saying this will be their must-play at UK Games Expo. RRP £69.99 – releases June 27 Assassin’s Creed Animus Animus brings the Assassin’s Creed universe to the tabletop in a wholly fresh, narrative-driven experience. Up to four players select historical eras, each tied to a legendary assassin like Ezio or Eivor, resulting in distinct, asymmetric playstyles, unique objectives, and specialised mechanics. Rather than a miniatures skirmish, this is a competitive, timeline-jumping adventure where players dive into ancestral memories via the titular Animus. Strategic stealth and precision matter: while one player might rush to the end, victory favours those who stay synchronised with their ancestor’s memory by completing tasks efficiently and, of course, stealthily. While there’s still not much information about this game at the moment, Animus looks to employ modular and evolving dynamics driven by interactive card play. Players can impact each other’s timelines, which will hopefully keep the experience reactive and organic. With deep lore integration, and Ubisoft’s full support, this could the most ambitious Assassin’s Creed tabletop title yet. Crowdfunding starts summer 2025 Some like it Hoth (Days of Wonder) Star Wars: Battle Of Hoth Days of Wonder, the studio behind tabletop classic Ticket To Ride, has unveiled its next major release, with Star Wars: Battle Of Hoth. Designed for two to four players, aged 8 and up, this fast-paced board game runs around 30 minutes per session and leans on the accessible, card-driven Commands & Colors system. More Trending Players will face off as Imperial or Rebel forces across 17 scenario-driven missions, with options to escalate into campaign mode. Leader cards introduce familiar names like Vader, Luke, Leia, and Han to influence the tide of battle. Although it should be easy to learn, concerns linger about the scope of the battlefield. A cramped board could reduce tactical play to simple dice duels, something fans of strategic depth may find frustrating. Questions also remain about unit range and movement dynamics. Still, Battle Of Hoth promises cinematic nostalgia and the potential for layered tactics, and all for a very reasonable price. RRP: £49.99 – crowdfunding starts summer 2025 Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

It doesn't matter where you go, or who you talk to, in the creative industries right now. There's one tool that we're about hearing, over and over, again: Adobe Express. It seems like everyone from content creators to marketing professionals, photographers to animators, are discovering that they can use it to create professional content, quickly and easily, and without a big learning curve. To discover more, we spoke with two Adobe Express Ambassadors: Angel White, a small business advocate focused on entrepreneur wellbeing, and Aseil Amgheib, founder and lead graphic designer at Design Wolf LDN. Their stories reveal some of the biggest benefits of using Adobe Express, and they offer their personal tips on getting the most out of the software. "It's such a game-changer!" Aseil's journey to founding Design Wolf LDN took several creative turns, from earning a first-class honours degree in Interior Architecture to working on Netflix sets and fashion shoots before finding her true calling in brand design. Throughout this evolution, Adobe tools such as Photoshop and After Effects have been a constant companion. When she launched a design agency, though, Aseil discovered how Adobe Express could transform her workflow, particularly for clients requiring regular content. "I had retainer clients who needed work every month," she explains. "I used to spend hours coming up with ideas and designing brand templates for them. Then I discovered Adobe Express, and it made my life so much easier. As it evolved, so did my workflow. I could schedule posts, link client accounts, and create brand kits that made designing for clients way faster. Now I use it alongside Acrobat, and honestly, the two together are a chef's kiss!" For Aseil, the platform offers the perfect balance between pro-grade design capabilities and practical efficiency. "I'm on Illustrator every day, but sometimes I just want to design something quickly without overthinking it," she shares. "I've already set up a Design Wolf brand kit with our colours and fonts, so I don't get distracted. I just design on the go." This efficiency extends to cross-platform content creation, an increasingly important aspect of digital marketing. "The best part is that I can instantly resize content for other platforms. We've been growing our Pinterest, so that feature has been a lifesaver!" "It's like having a design team in your phone" While Aseil is a professional designer, Angel White's experience demonstrates how the platform empowers those without formal design training. Based in Hull, Angel runs multiple businesses including Pink Angel Studios and The Small Biz Angel, working from a renovated pink caravan. Her mission focuses specifically on supporting fellow entrepreneurs with both practical skills and wellbeing advice. "I started The Small Biz Angel to help like-minded entrepreneurs, as I felt there wasn't much support around the mental health and wellbeing of small business owners," she explains. "It's always 'do this, do that, you need to have this' blah blah blah. But there was never any focus on taking care of yourself whilst you're running a business... well, until I came along." For Angel, Adobe Express is more than just a design tool: it's a solution to the overwhelming pressure many small business owners face. "Many entrepreneurs struggle with design, feeling like they need advanced skills or expensive tools to make their content stand out," she points out. "Adobe Express has been a game changer in helping me empower small business owners to create professional, on-brand content without feeling overwhelmed." This accessibility aligns perfectly with Angel's core mission. "For me, it's not just about creating content—it's about giving small business owners the confidence to show up consistently and make an impact," she explains. "With Adobe Express, I can teach entrepreneurs how to build a recognisable brand, streamline their content creation, and focus on what they do best to grow their businesses. It's like having a design team in your phone, and that's exactly the kind of support solopreneurs need." Angel adds that Adobe Express helps address a critical but often overlooked aspect of entrepreneurship: mental wellbeing. "Content creation can be one of the most overwhelming tasks, especially for those managing everything solo," she points out. "The pressure to be consistent, creative, and engaging on social media can quickly lead to burnout. That's why tools like Adobe Express are so valuable—they simplify the process and take the stress out of designing content." Aseil agrees and notes how such tools help him maintain creative energy. "When you're starting a digital business, you're already wearing a million hats, so finding tools that save time, streamline processes and keep you organised is so important. The less time you spend on manual, repetitive tasks, the more you can focus on creativity." "No more manually swapping brand elements" With both Aseil and Angel so enthusiastic about the platform, it made sense for them to join Adobe Express Ambassador Programme. Launched in February 2025, this programme brings together passionate creatives who are harnessing the power of Adobe Express to transform their businesses. Collectively, these Ambassadors are dedicated to showcasing to their fellow creatives how Adobe Express is breaking down traditional barriers to professional-grade design and making sophisticated content creation accessible to everyone. So, let's get specific for a moment: what are the standout features when it comes to Aseil and Angel's day-to-day use of Adobe Express? "Haha, honestly, that's like asking me to pick a favourite child. I love all of them!" Aseil laughs. "But if I had to shout out a few, I'd say the Brand Kits, quick resizing, and the scheduler. They make everything so seamless, especially when juggling multiple clients and platforms." For Angel too, the Brand Kits feature has been especially transformative. "Since I run multiple brands, each with its own unique style, being able to switch between different logos, colour palettes, and fonts effortlessly makes content creation so much faster and more seamless," she explains. "No more manually swapping brand elements or second-guessing if my colours are correct: it's all set up and ready to go." She's also a big fan of the Content Scheduler. "It means I can plan, design, and schedule posts for my different businesses all in one place, without jumping between multiple apps or platforms," she shares. "It helps me stay consistent, keeps my content organised, and saves me hours of manual posting. Instead of scrambling to create last-minute posts, I can batch my content and let the scheduler handle the rest." Both creators emphasise how these practical features translate into tangible business outcomes. "They make Adobe Express more than just a design tool—it's an efficiency powerhouse that allows me to stay on top of content creation without feeling overwhelmed," explains Angel. Tips for creative entrepreneurs New to content creation? Then here are some top tips from Angel on using Adobe Express. Start with a Brand Kit: "Set up your logo, brand colors, and fonts in Adobe Express so every piece of content stays visually cohesive," says Angel. "This builds recognition and makes your brand feel polished and professional." Use templates to save time: "Don't get stuck trying to design everything from scratch," she adds. "Adobe Express has templates that can be customised in minutes, helping you create content quickly while still making it unique to your brand." Keep it consistent, not perfect: "Your content doesn't have to be flawless!" Angel stresses. "It just needs to feel authentic and aligned with your brand. Simple, well-branded posts will make a bigger impact than overly complicated designs." Experiment and have fun: "Content creation should feel exciting, not overwhelming," Angel reminds us. "Play around with different styles, try new templates, and see what resonates with your audience. I always say trial and error is so important and needed." Conclusion Both Angel and Aseil see enormous potential for how accessible design tools will shape the creative industry's future. "By leveraging digital design tools like Adobe Express," says Angel, "solopreneurs can focus on growing their business instead of getting lost in design stress." Aseil adds, "It also empowers businesses to create high-quality, professional visuals without needing a huge team, which is great for smaller studios and freelancers." As Angel aptly puts it: "At the end of the day, content creation should feel empowering, not draining. Adobe Express helps solopreneurs show up consistently, create with confidence, and reduce the stress that often comes with managing a brand alone."