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Travelers passing through Philadelphia International Airport on Monday may have expected long security lines. But the longest line was made of cheesesteaks.

Organizers say they achieved a new Guinness World Record for the longest line of cheesesteak sandwiches, with 1,291 lined up inside a departure hall to mark National Cheesesteak Day. The display far surpassed the previous benchmark of 500 sandwiches.

“We went for the world record for the longest cheesesteak in history,” said Clarence LeJeune of MarketPlace PHL, a company that operates airport concessions. “Today we accomplished that goal here in Philadelphia.”

The cheesesteak, which originated in Philadelphia in the early 1900s, is widely considered the city’s signature food. LeJeune called it “synonymous” with Philadelphia, alongside its sports culture.

People in black aprons assembled cheesesteaks along tables set up in the walkway between Terminals B and C, filling rolls from silver buckets as they moved past storefronts.

After the record was certified, volunteers handed out the sandwiches to travelers, airport workers and Transportation Security Administration staff, who have been working without pay during the government shutdown.

LeJeune joked there are few hard rules for cheesesteaks, which is part of the “beauty of the experience” — except, he said, “You don’t ask for Swiss cheese,” referencing a 2003 moment when then-presidential candidate John Kerry drew criticism in Philadelphia for ordering one with Swiss.

Michael Empric, a Guinness World Records adjudicator, said rules require all food used in record attempts to be eaten or donated.

“In this case, they are going to TSA agents who definitely could use some lunch,” Empric said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Iran has received an American plan to pause the war in the Middle East, officials said Wednesday — a proposal sent even as Washington deploys paratroopers and more Marines to the region.

Tehran did not confirm receiving the plan and publicly dismissed the diplomatic effort while launching more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, including an assault that sparked a huge fire at Kuwait International Airport. Iran also continued to come under attack.

Two officials from Pakistan, which delivered the plan to Iran, described the 15-point proposal broadly, saying it addressed sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. An Egyptian official involved in the mediation efforts added that the proposal includes restrictions on Iran’s support for armed groups. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet released.

Some of those points were nonstarters in negotiations before the war: Iran has insisted it won’t discuss its ballistic missile program or its support of regional militias, which it views as key to its security. And its ability to control passage through the Strait of Hormuz represents one of its biggest strategic advantages.

Iran’s attacks on regional energy infrastructure along with its restrictions on the strait have sent oil prices skyrocketing and rocked world markets over fears of a global energy crisis, in turn putting pressure on the U.S. to find a way to end the chokehold and calm markets.

More US troops are on the way to the region

At least 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to the Mideast in the coming days, three people with knowledge of the plans told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

The paratroopers are trained to jump into hostile or contested areas to secure key territory and airfields.

The Pentagon is also in the process of sending about 5,000 more Marines, trained in amphibious assaults, and thousands of sailors to the region.

Diplomatic efforts face major challenges

The 15-point plan now in Iranian hands is “a comprehensive deal” to reach a ceasefire, according to the Egyptian official.

Mediators are pushing for possible in-person talks between the Iranians and the Americans, perhaps as soon as Friday in Pakistan, the Egyptian and Pakistani officials said.

Speaking Tuesday at the White House, Trump said the U.S. is “in negotiations right now” and that the participants included special envoy Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. He has not said who from Iran they are in contact with.

“We have a number of people doing it,” Trump said. “And the other side, I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal.”

Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which commands both the regular military and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, dismissed the idea of talks. Iranian leaders have repeatedly denied they are happening, while acknowledging that the foreign minister is in contact with various countries but not the U.S. or Israel.

“Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the headquarters, said in the video statement aired on state television. “Not now, not ever.”

Israeli officials, who have been advocating for Trump to continue the war against Iran, were surprised by the submission of a ceasefire plan, according to a person who was briefed on the contours of the proposal and also confirmed it had been submitted. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Any talks between the U.S. and Iran would face monumental challenges. It’s not clear who in Iran’s government has the authority to negotiate — or would be willing to, as Israel has vowed to continue killing the country’s leaders.

Iran remains highly suspicious of the United States, which twice under the Trump administration has attacked during high-level diplomatic talks, including with the Feb. 28 strikes that started the current war.

“We have a very catastrophic experience with U.S. diplomacy,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told India Today on Tuesday.

Israel launches new strikes on Iran

The Israeli military announced new wide-scale attacks on Iran early Wednesday targeting government infrastructure, and witnesses reported airstrikes in the northwestern city of Qazvin.

Missile alert sirens sounded multiple times in Israel as Iran launched its own attacks.

Iran also kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbors, with Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry saying it had destroyed at least eight drones in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province, and missile alert sirens sounding in Bahrain.

Kuwait said it shot down multiple drones but one hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire, the General Civil Aviation Authority said. Firefighters were working to contain the blaze.

Iran’s death toll has passed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In Israel, 16 people have died. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.

Meanwhile, authorities say more than 1,000 people have died in Lebanon, where Israel has targeted the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group, which has also fired on Israel.

Energy prices fall back but remain high

The news of potential negotiations drove down the price of oil — after it skyrocketed in recent weeks.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, has neared $120 a barrel during the conflict but was trading below $100 Wednesday. It is still up around 35% from the start of the war.

Economists and leaders have warned of far-reaching effects if energy prices remain high — from rising prices on food and other basics to higher rates for mortgages and auto loans.

A big driver of the spike in the oil price has been Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Iran has allowed a small number of ships through the strait, but has said no ships from the U.S., Israel or countries seen as linked to them can pass.

Asked in the interview with India Today whether Iran was charging ships for passage, Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said “absolutely.” He did not elaborate.

___

Madhani reported from Washington, Rising from Bangkok and Ahmed from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

At 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time today, the price of oil sits at $99.75 per barrel, using Brent as the benchmark (we’ll explain what that means shortly). That’s a decrease of $2.72 since yesterday morning—but $26.64 more than at this time last year.

Will oil prices go up?

Nobody can predict the future path of oil prices with certainty. A range of factors influence how oil trades, yet supply and demand remain the main drivers. When fears of economic slowdown, conflict, or similar shocks rise, oil prices can move sharply.

How oil prices translate to gas pump prices

The price you see at the gas pump reflects more than just crude oil. Also built in are the costs of refining, distribution through wholesalers, various taxes, and the margin your neighborhood station charges.

Crude oil is still the largest single driver of the final pump price, typically representing over half of each gallon’s cost. Spikes in oil prices tend to push gas prices higher in short order. But when oil prices decline, gas prices often ease down gradually, a behavior known as “rockets and feathers.”

The role of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve

In the event of an emergency, the U.S. maintains a stockpile of crude oil known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Its main goal is to safeguard energy security when disasters strike—think sanctions, severe storm damage, or war. It can also do a lot to ease the pain of sudden price jumps when supply gets disrupted.

It’s not a permanent fix, as it’s more meant to provide immediate support for consumers and ensure critical parts of the economy like key industries, emergency services, public transportation, and so on can keep operating.

How oil and natural gas prices are linked

Both oil and natural gas play key roles as major sources of energy. A big change in oil prices can affect natural gas by proxy. If oil prices increase, some industries may swap natural gas for some segments of their operations where possible, increasing the demand for natural gas.

Historical performance of oil

Oil prices are often measured by two key benchmarks:

• Brent crude oil is the main global oil benchmark.
• West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the main benchmark of North America.

Between the two, Brent is a better representation of global oil performance because it prices much of the world’s traded crude. It’s also often the best way to review historical oil trends. In fact, the U.S. Energy Information Administration now leans on Brent as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook.

When you look at the Brent benchmark across multiple decades, you’ll see that oil has been anything but consistent. It has experienced spikes driven by wars and supply cuts, as well as crashes linked to global recessions and an oversupply (called a “glut”). For example:

• The early 1970s brought the first big oil shock when the Middle East cut exports and imposed an embargo on the U.S. and others during the Yom Kippur War.
• Prices dropped in the mid-1980s for reasons such as weaker demand and more non-OPEC oil producers entering the industry.
• Prices spiked again in 2008 with rising global demand, but soon crashed alongside the global financial crisis.
• During the 2020 COVID lockdown, oil demand collapsed like never before, bringing prices to under $20 per barrel.

In short, oil’s historical performance has been far from steady. It’s massively affected by wars, recessions, OPEC whims, evolving energy initiatives and policies, and much more.

Energy coverage from Fortune

Looking to stay up-to-date regarding the latest energy developments? Check out our recent coverage:

• Iran war ends in abundance, growth, and oil at $40 a barrel—or global recession and years of oil at $150
• Europe has survived 3 energy shocks in 4 years
• $580 million in suspicious oil futures traded minutes before Trump’s Iran reversal

Frequently asked questions

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Even as global unemployment hits historic lows, a sweeping new study of the global workforce by one of the definitive workforce data sources finds that “anxiety”—not confidence—defines how most workers feel about their job, their future, and AI transforming both.

The numbers don’t lie, and they don’t comfort. Only 22% of workers worldwide strongly agreed that their job was safe from elimination, according to a new report from ADP Research released Wednesday. The finding comes from one of the largest workforce sentiment surveys ever conducted—more than 39,000 workers across 36 countries—and lands with the force of a gut punch: The world’s workers are consumed by fear.​

“Despite three years of historically low global unemployment and steady economic growth, our data reveals widespread job insecurity expressed by workers worldwide,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.​

The culprit is hiding in plain sight: artificial intelligence. As generative AI tools race into the workplace at breakneck speed, workers from Tokyo to Topeka are struggling to process what it means for their livelihoods—and they’re not reassured by what they see.​ “AI is not like the weather. It is not just going to descend upon us,” Richardson told reporters in a briefing on the survey results in New York City. “It really is hitting us at the task level—by augmenting and making certain tasks more high value.”

A world of anxious workers

The ADP Research Today at Work 2026 report, based on survey responses collected in late summer 2025, paints a portrait of a global workforce caught in the crosscurrents of technological disruption, demographic upheaval, and deep uncertainty. The anxiety cuts across borders and industries, but ADP found that it hits hardest at the bottom of the organizational ladder.​

Among individual contributors—the frontline workers who make up the bulk of most companies’ headcount—only 18% felt their job was safe. Frontline managers fared only slightly better at 21%. Confidence rose predictably with seniority: Middle managers came in at 23%, upper managers at 31%, and C-suite executives at 35%. In other words, the higher your perch in the org chart, the less afraid you are of falling.​ But even then, only barely more than a third of top executives feel like they have job security, according to the results.

The geographic divides are equally stark. In Japan—a country long defined by lifetime employment culture—only 5% of workers felt their jobs were secure, the lowest reading of any market in the survey. Nigeria, by contrast, registered the most confident workforce, with 38% of workers expressing job security, driven largely by a young, tech-savvy population and booming AI adoption. In the United States, the figure was 28%.​

AI is making it worse—and better, sort of

The paradox at the heart of the report is this: AI use is correlated with higher engagement and less stress, yet it’s also making workers feel dramatically less productive. Daily AI users were four times as likely as nonusers to say they weren’t as productive as they could be.​

The explanation, researchers suggest, is psychological. AI has taken over the small, checklist-style tasks that gave workers a sense of daily accomplishment—answering emails, summarizing documents, generating first drafts. Without those quick wins, people feel as if they’ve done less, even when they’ve arguably done more. “AI does the things that we used to say make us feel productive,” Richardson explained to reporters. “It writes our emails for us. It responds. It summarizes documents for us. And so we have to kind of remeasure productivity in a different way; it’s shifting from productivity based on volume of work to value [of work].”

The flip side: 30% of daily AI users were fully engaged at work, versus just 14% of those who never use AI. Heavy AI users were also significantly less likely to experience negative stress: 11% reported feeling overloaded, compared with 23% of nonusers. The data suggests AI may be a powerful tool for worker well-being, if companies can figure out how to deploy it without triggering dread.​

The creeping, unpaid extension of the workday isn’t helping with this angst over productivity: 62% of global workers said they put in up to five hours of unpaid work per week, while 38% reported working off the clock for six hours or more; 12%—disproportionately executives and upper managers—said they work without pay for 16 hours or more weekly.​

The data reveals a troubling paradox: Workers logging the most unpaid hours are simultaneously the most engaged and the most likely to be looking for another job. They’re dedicated enough to give their time for free, yet burned out enough to be quietly interviewing elsewhere. “Free work comes at a cost,” the report concludes. “People who put in unpaid hours are more likely to feel unproductive and stressed. They’re also more likely to quit.”

“AI is entering a workforce that is anxious,” said Jay Caldwell, ADP’s chief talent officer. “And to me, that’s very, very risky. And the importance for HR professionals right now is not as much about the technology. It’s more around, ‘How do we lead through the technology? And how do we bring our workforce along?’ And the transformation that comes with that.”

Five generations, one nervous breakdown

Compounding the AI anxiety is a demographic collision unlike anything the modern workplace has ever seen. For the first time in history, five generations are working side by side—from teenagers to great-grandparents. And they are not on the same page.​

Young workers ages 18 to 26 were the most optimistic, with 29% saying they had the skills needed to advance. But older workers ages 55 to 64 told a bleaker story: Only 18% felt similarly equipped, and just 12% believed their employer was investing in their development. Meanwhile, 20% of young workers strongly agreed AI would positively impact their jobs in the next year—a figure that dropped to just 10% among workers ages 55 to 64.​

“Younger workers are definitely more optimistic about their skill set,” Richardson told reporters. “Older workers are also, you know, more likely to say that they’re financially unprepared. Which is interesting. They make more money, but they feel more stretched financially. They’re more likely to say that they’re less productive and less engaged than younger workers. Youth and optimism go hand in hand.” She connected these findings back to Japan, which has a culture famously respectful towards elders. Fortune has previously covered the madogiwazoku, or “window workers,” who are so named because they sometimes just stare out the window. The upshot is that jobs for younger workers are harder to come by.

The data also exposes a troubling engagement crisis hiding beneath the surface calm of low unemployment. Only 19% of workers globally were fully engaged on the job in 2025—unchanged from the year before—meaning more than 80% of the world’s workforce is, by some measure, just going through the motions. Workers who find meaning in their jobs are 12.5 times as likely to be fully engaged as those who don’t.​

What employers must do

ADP researchers are emphatic that the anxiety gripping workers is not inevitable; it is, in large part, a leadership failure. Workers who feel their employers are investing in their skills were 5.3 times as likely to feel their jobs were secure. Among those who strongly agreed their employer was investing in them, 53% were fully engaged. Among those who didn’t feel that investment, only 12% were.​

The prescription is clear: Communicate, upskill, and stop treating workers as passive recipients of technological change. “Upskilling isn’t just a strategy,” Richardson said at the briefing. “It’s a reassurance. It’s a trust pact between the employer and the worker.”

Caldwell urged HR professionals to help workers reframe what productivity even means in an AI-driven world—away from task volume and toward judgment, creativity, and long-term impact. “Workers who clearly see the role their existing skill sets will play in an organization’s future,” Caldwell said, “will be more engaged, productive, and have the confidence to thrive in this next era of work.”

For now, though, the world’s workers are mostly not thriving. They’re waiting, watching, and wondering whether their jobs will survive the machines. The survey suggests that the answer—for most—remains maddeningly unclear.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Good morning. AI is escaping the screen and that should be setting off both alarms and opportunities in the finance function.

Deloitte’s new CFO Guide to Tech Trends 2026 explores how finance leaders can think strategically about emerging technologies and embrace what’s possible, which in turn elevates their function’s value and helps shape what’s next for their entire organization.

One tech trend on the rise is AI-enabled robotics. AI is no longer confined to dashboards and copilots. “Physical AI,” which is the convergence of AI with robotics, sensors, and real-world systems, marks a turning point. As Deloitte notes, intelligence is becoming “embodied” in factories, warehouses, and supply chains, where autonomous systems can optimize operations in real time. For example, BMW is testing humanoid robots to handle tasks that traditional industrial robots cannot perform, according to Deloitte. Meanwhile, the Bank of America Institute projects that the material costs of a humanoid robot could fall from $35,000 in 2025 to between $13,000 and $17,000 by 2035.

Why should CFOs care about AI-driven robots? According to the report, they directly affect both costs and ROI. Adopting physical AI can reshape products, operations, and supply chains, influencing everything from manufacturing to quality control. Finance leaders must ensure these changes are accurately reflected in KPIs and financial reporting to drive competitive advantage. At the same time, CFOs need to strengthen how they measure ROI in a hybrid human–AI workforce and invest in upskilling finance teams to understand and manage the financial implications of this technology.

But physical AI is just one piece of a broader transformation. Deloitte highlights a surge in agentic AI, systems that don’t just analyze but act, alongside a resurgence in hardware investment, as AI workloads demand specialized infrastructure. These shifts introduce new cost structures, including rising energy consumption and capital intensity, placing CFOs at the center of critical trade-off decisions.

The finance function’s role is expanding from measuring performance to shaping the technological bets that will determine it.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The question on Wall Street’s lips this week has been about Iran: When and how will the war end? President Trump issued some positive updates over the past 48 hours, though some analysts have pointed out there’s little verifiable action at present to support those claims.

BlackRock CEO and founder Larry Fink sees the conflict ending in one of two extremes: Global powers accept Iran, and its goods and services (most importantly, its oil) is released onto the world market, pushing prices down. Or, the Iranian regime continues to stand at odds with global adversaries, and oil prices stay significantly elevated not for mere months, but for years.

Wall Street has been determinedly upbeat about the war in Iran resolving in a relatively short window—even the ever-skeptical Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said he is a “little optimistic” about the long-term outcome of the current chaos in the Middle East.

Fink also wants to be hopeful, and outlined there is a best-case scenario: “I could paint a scenario where I could see, a year from now, oil at $40 a barrel, I could see it above $150—we have two very extreme outcomes,” Fink told the BBC this morning.

“Everybody has to recognise that there’s not going to come somewhere in the middle. It’s going to be [one] of two extremes: Is Iran a country that can be accepted by the international community, can it be a country that participates in the world again?” Fink mused. Such an outcome could slash oil prices, flooding the market with supply currently choked by military threats in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran borders the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf through which exports from the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iraq all flow. Some 20 million barrels of oil typically flow through the strait every day, about 20% of the global oil supply. Iran has said it controls the strait, littering it with mines, meaning shipmasters are too nervous to enter the waterway—only certain ships, paying a hefty price tag, have been allowed to pass by the Iranian authorities.

The worst-case scenario

Oil prices have already spiked in response to the chokehold, with analysts questioning how quickly normal trade may resume once the conflict draws to a close. If the conflict does rumble on for longer than the roughly month-long window President Trump had indicated, this will have longer-lasting impacts on gas and energy prices—a particular concern for consumers already sensitive to affordability shocks.

“Iran remains a threat,” Fink continued. “A threat to trade, a threat to the Strait of Hormuz, a threat to the peaceful coexistence of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region—I would argue that we could have years of above-$100, closer to $150 oil, which has profound implications in the economy. The $40 oil implication is one of abundance and growth; the other is an outcome of probably stark and steep recession. I don’t think anybody knows what the outcome will be.”

The U.S. and Israel, to some extent, have already achieved their aim in Iran: The country’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed earlier this month. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, now leads the country. Indeed, if the younger Khamenei is more open to working alongside the West, then Trump could easily wind down the conflict and maintain the rhetoric that he achieved his aim of eliminating a threat.

If Iran’s leadership wants to continue to be an “exporter of fear” and chooses to work against international trade, Fink added: “We’ll have global recession. Think about what it means for agricultural prices, fertilisers is a by-product from gas … it really disrupts a lot of supply chains.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Good morning. On Fortune‘s radar today:

• The U.S. and Iran appear to be exchanging messages about a proposed peace deal, and the markets are loving it. Oil is down, stocks are up. Iran said “non-hostile vessels” could pass through the Strait of Hormuz, with its permission. But President Trump is still sending thousands of ground troops to the region.
• Exclusive: Alphabet is No. 1 on Fortune’s America’s Most Innovative Companies list.
• Anthropic may be target of “attempted corporate murder,” a judge says.
• Yikes: Growth in corporate investment is now reliant solely on AI.
• Polymarket thinks the war will last until May.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

As I’ve been rewatching HBO’s Silicon Valley, my favorite roast of the first season is the incessant refrain that tech is “making the world a better place.”

But that isn’t always true, by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve been thinking that I’ve spent a lot of time covering the capital and companies, but not nearly enough time writing about the world this technology creates. I was especially thinking that as I read my colleague Kristin Stoller’s new feature about tech addiction, published this week. It’s a story that spans years and companies. Case in point:

At age six, Sarah Hill was handed her first iPad by her parents, which she used to play games like Angry Birds and Minecraft whenever she was bored. By age 21, the Alabama native had fallen so deep into virtual reality experiences and playing video games that she’d stopped seeing friends, showering, and brushing her teeth. “If you compare video game and tech addiction to drugs,” she says, “VR is the meth of drugs.”

At college, she spent so much time holed up in her room compulsively accessing a chatbot site, Character AI, on her phone that she failed classes. “I remember the night I told my parents I’d lied about everything and I flunked,” she recalls. “My parents didn’t have any words. They were like, ‘Just go.’ I went to my room, but the last thing I saw was my mom resting her elbows on the counter and just crying. That was the worst thing I ever saw.”

Hill’s parents flew with her from Alabama to a town just outside of Seattle and enrolled her at reSTART, one of the nation’s few residential treatment programs for digital overuse that treats tech addiction as a danger on the scale of alcohol or drug addiction. 

Though some say tech addiction doesn’t exist, evidence is mounting that the growing string of legal cases against startups like Character and giants like Meta, Alphabet-owned YouTube, and TikTok could create an unambiguous inflection point.

Read more about who gets addicted—and whether tech is approaching a “Big Tobacco” moment here.

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady profiles Centene CEO Sarah London.
• The big leadership story: CFOs plan AI-related layoffs—but not as many as you might think.
• The markets: Up globally on reports of an Iran breakthrough
• Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. Sarah London, the youngest-ever female CEO to run a Fortune 500 company, isn’t leading from a place of comfort. As federal cuts and new regulations reshape U.S. health care, the chief executive of Centene, the country’s biggest Medicaid insurer, is reimagining what it means to innovate in a constrained environment. Her playbook is less about bold spending and more about disciplined reinvention; she’s streamlining operations, shedding noncore businesses, and using predictive algorithms to help manage care for vulnerable populations. At a moment when “the country is getting poorer and sicker,” as she puts it, London’s version of innovation isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about using technology to keep the social safety net intact.

Centene grew revenue almost 20% last year amid drastic cuts to federal Medicaid spending that have inflicted pain on the bottom line and customers. That hasn’t stopped London from focusing on programs that tie affordable housing to health care or leveraging AI to identify and deliver a suite of services to members with high-risk pregnancies.

“There is an opportunity in this moment to innovate and deliver within the construct of these programs,” she told me. “We’re harnessing this moment to transform and simplify the organization, to lean into our mission and the levers that are going to fundamentally change how we power that mission.”

Companies that stand the test of time tend to draw on their strong foundation to lean into the future. They’re focused on what’s ahead without ignoring the value that comes with expertise, relationships and brand. Case in point: the pioneering giants on Fortune’s 2026 Most Innovative Companies list, out this morning. As many of you know, we’re holding a Fortune 500 Innovation Forum in Detroit on Nov. 17 and 18 to look at the next 250 years of American innovation. It’s part of a broader push to dig into the issues and opportunities around innovation, and to highlight the companies that are shaping what’s next. Get in touch with me or find out more here if you’re interested in joining us.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com