‘Virtual employees’ could join workforce as soon as this year, OpenAI boss says

Virtual employees could join workforces this year and transform how companies work, according to the chief executive of OpenAI.The first artificial intelligence agents may start working for organisations this year, wrote Sam Altman, as AI firms push for uses that generate returns on substantial investment in the technology.Microsoft, the biggest backer of the company behind ChatGPT, has already announced the introduction of AI agents – tools that can carry out tasks autonomously – with the blue-chip consulting firm McKinsey among the early adopters.“We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents ‘join the workforce’ and materially change the output of companies,” wrote Altman in a blogpost published on Monday.OpenAI is reportedly planning to launch an AI agent codenamed “Operator” this month, after Microsoft announced its Copilot Studio product and rival Anthropic launched the Claude 3

Aldi celebrates ‘best Christmas ever’ with sales of £1.6bn

Aldi has reported its “best Christmas ever” after Britain’s fourth-biggest grocer said it made sales of more than £1.6bn in the four weeks to Christmas Eve, thanks to shoppers trading up to its premium range and new store openings.The supermarket chain said total sales for the crucial holiday period increased by 3.4% year-on-year, helped by a 12% increase in its Specially Selected own-label products.Sales were also boosted by the addition of about 3

Regulator forces HS1 rail line to cut charges in push to open up route to Eurostar rivals

The High Speed 1 line that carries Eurostar trains from London to the Channel tunnel has been forced by the regulator to cut the prices it charges rail companies in a push to open up the route to more operators and reduce fares.The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said it hoped the £5m annual reductions in what HS1 Ltd may charge those using its rails up to 2030 will support growth, “including the introduction of new operators”.Eurostar runs the only international train services from Great Britain, but two companies – Spanish rail firm Evolyn and the Dutch train startup Heuro – are interested in offering rival services amid criticisms of the cost of Eurostar.The Channel tunnel operator, Getlink, said a year ago that new direct high-speed train routes from London to Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva and Zurich could be up and running within five years.Any company operating a service on HS1 must pay charges to access the 67-mile (109km) line

UK firms plan price rises as confidence falls to lowest level since Truss budget

More than half of British companies are planning price rises in the next three months, according to research that found UK business confidence has slumped to its lowest since the chaos of Liz Truss’s brief stint as prime minister.Of 4,800 businesses polled by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), 55% said they expected to increase prices by April, up from 39% in a similar survey in the second half of last year.There was also a steep increase in concern about looming tax rises, after the government revealed a budget in October that relied heavily on business taxation to raise £40bn in extra revenues, including £25bn more in employer national insurance contributions (NICs).It prompted a wave of criticism from business groups, although the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said there is “no alternative” given the parlous inheritance from the previous Conservative administration and desire for investment in the NHS and in infrastructure.Labour under Keir Starmer has said that it is focused on making investments to boost GDP growth, but has come under fire over a series of poor economic data suggesting no improvement in the economy’s fortunes in the six months since the party took power

FTSE 100 bosses make more money in 2025 by noon today than average worker in a year

The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies will have made more money in 2025 by midday on Monday than their average worker does in a whole year, according to the latest measure of inequality between bosses and their employees.Median pay for FTSE 100 chief executives is £4.22m, 113 times the median full-time worker’s pay of £37,430, according to the High Pay Centre, a campaign group. That means UK bosses will exceed their workers’ annual pay within 29 hours – or at about 11:30am on Monday, if they started work straight after the new year holiday.Bosses will hit the milestone marginally quicker this year than last, when it was reached at 1pm on the third working day of the year

Amazon aims to branch into UK internet market with satellite broadband plan

Amazon is hoping to offer a satellite broadband service in the UK within the next two years as it prepares to launch a constellation of spacecraft that could ultimately deliver a mobile signal even to the most remote areas.The tech company, founded by Jeff Bezos, said it would seek access to British radio frequencies “over the next one to two years” as it prepares to offer satellite internet, according to a regulatory filing first reported by the Sunday Telegraph.Companies are racing to build and launch their own clusters of satellites into low-Earth orbit. If a single system launches enough of the smaller satellites less than 1,000km (620 miles) from Earth’s surface it can offer continuous coverage, without the time delays that are unavoidable for geostationary satellites 35,000km away.Amazon’s Project Kuiper subsidiary is planning to launch 3,000 small satellites in an attempt to compete directly with Starlink, the satellite internet subsidiary of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX