Happy 2026 Blizzard. Just when the city was finally digging itself out, we get hit with round two. If we’re going to be snowed in, we might as well use it wisely. While you’re inside, I want to elevate two upskilling opportunities from people in our network.

First up, Barry Lowenthal is hosting a LinkedIn Live on becoming great at networking. Not surface-level networking. Strategic networking. Barry is the founder of Neurohaus.AI and brings over 35 years of experience in media and technology leadership. He also served as President of Inuvo, a publicly traded AI ad tech company. So yes, he understands both people and platforms. If you’re trying to build leverage in this market, learning how to build the right rooms around you matters. Register below.

Second, let’s talk digital efficiency. Digital literacy is no longer optional, it’s the baseline. If you’re using Asana or need to get sharper with it, now is the time. They’re running live weekly trainings through mid-March to help professionals get more fluent with the platform.

Events for You:

There’s a particular kind of anxiety in the air right now. It’s not loud at all, but the thought of “is AI going to outpace me?” lingers in the back of your mind. No matter where you are in life, you’ve got responsibilities, so when the ground starts shifting under your feet, it becomes real. 

The Lightcast report, Beyond the Buzz: Developing the AI Skills Employers Actually Need, is a highly recommended read. They’ve analyzed millions of job postings to see what employers are actually paying for. In 2019, 61% of AI-related job postings were in IT and Computer Science. In 2024, that dropped to 49%. That means more than half of AI jobs are now outside tech. Marketing. HR. Finance. Sales. Customer support. Education. If you’re in one of those fields and still telling yourself, “I’m not technical,” the market has already moved past you. 

Since ChatGPT launched in 2022, generative AI postings outside IT are up 800%. Marketing roles now list AI in over 8% of postings. Science and Research over 6%. HR and Finance still look small in raw percentage terms, but HR is growing AI demand at 66% year over year, and Finance at 40%. 

Now let’s talk money. Job postings that mention at least one AI skill pay 28% more. Roughly $18,000 more per year. Two or more AI skills? The premium jumps to 43%. The biggest salary bumps are showing up in Customer and Client Support, Sales, and Manufacturing. These are not hoodie-wearing engineers building neural networks, these are everyday business roles. AI literacy is becoming a compensation lever. But here’s the twist. When you look at the top skills required in AI jobs, only two of the top ten are purely technical. The rest are human. Communication, leadership, research, writing, customer service, and problem-solving. AI amplifies the people who can combine them with machines. The labor market is rewarding the person who can use AI to generate insights, then explain them clearly, make decisions, and lead people through change.

What I don’t see changing for a while is the premium on people who understand systems, think critically, and apply technology strategically. A technical skill can age in 18 months, but judgment compounds over the years.

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78x as an investment return in less than three years is pretty good. That’s what happened with Zoom’s venture capital arm’s [Zoom Ventures] investment in Anthropic. SEC filings back in May 2023 revealed that Zoom made over $50 million in strategic investments. In February 2026, analysts from the financial services firm, Baird, estimated that the current value of those Zoom Ventures investments are now worth up to $4 billion. 

But Zoom isn’t just making good investments. It might be a good investment itself once again. 

Zoom reached its peak stock price at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was dumped by long-term and short-term investors as return-to-office policies were implemented. However, despite a severe slump in many software stocks like Adobe and ServiceNow, Zoom Communications, Inc is up nearly 7% year-to-date as of February 9, 2026. Over the past 6 months, there has been a slow uptrend in Zoom’s stock price. 

Should you invest in Zoom? That’s clearly up for you to decide. At the very least, perhaps it’s time to ake a second look at Zoom after realizing what its investment in Anthropic might be worth today and the positive uptrend in stock price? 

We’ve all seen LinkedIn ask us, again and again, if we want to verify our profile. You get a verification badge and you get increased trust and visibility. In some cases, it can reduce impersonation risk and make recruiters or partners more confident that you are who you say you are. On the surface, it feels like a no-brainer, but I’m still not giving out my data. 

As a recruiter, I spent years sourcing candidates using advanced Boolean strings. If you know, you know. You can pull together an incredible amount of open-source information about someone just by knowing how to search properly. Public resumes, conference appearances, GitHub commits, PDF attachments, old newsletters, cached documents. The internet remembers everything. That experience alone makes you cautious. So when LinkedIn asks you to upload a government ID and take a live facial scan for verification, it’s worth pausing for a minute because identity data is not like an email address. It’s not something you can rotate when it leaks.

According to this great deep dive from The Local Shack, here’s what’s actually happening under the hood. When you verify your LinkedIn profile, you’re not handing your passport directly to LinkedIn. The verification is handled by a third-party identity provider called Persona. You upload your ID, complete a facial recognition check, and the system confirms you’re legitimate. 

Persona collects your government ID images, facial geometry data from the selfie scan, and associated identifying information. According to the article, they may also validate that information against additional third-party data sources to confirm authenticity. This is standard in identity verification systems, especially in financial services. Most professionals clicking “Verify” probably aren’t thinking about cross-referencing and biometric mapping.

Now, to be fair, this is not some rogue operation. Identity verification is becoming normalized across platforms. The goal is to reduce bots, impersonation scams, and fake recruiter accounts. In an era where AI can spin up realistic fake profiles in minutes, some level of friction makes sense. However, you must think about the tradeoffs

Biometric data, facial scans, and government ID images are extremely sensitive. Unlike a password, you cannot reset your face. Persona states that it retains data for a defined period and follows legal and compliance obligations. Under certain legal frameworks, particularly U.S. law, companies can be compelled to provide stored data to authorities.

So what should you actually do with this information?

First, don’t panic. Verification does not automatically mean your data is being misused. There are legitimate use cases for identity checks, and many professionals will decide the trust signal is worth it.

Second, make a conscious decision instead of a reactive one. Ask yourself:

Third, understand the broader context. We are moving into a world where AI, identity, and digital reputation are merging. Blue checks are becoming social currency. At the same time, data ecosystems are expanding quietly in the background. Being digitally literate now includes understanding not just how to use tools, but how your data flows between them.

As someone who has seen how much information is already publicly accessible about professionals through simple search techniques, I don’t take additional data sharing lightly. That doesn’t mean never verify. It means verify with your eyes open.