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Time management has always been a critical skill, but as workloads increase and efficiency becomes more valuable, artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool for optimizing schedules, automating tasks and improving productivity. AI-driven solutions help individuals allocate their time more effectively, eliminating repetitive work and streamlining decision-making. Unlike traditional time management methods that rely on manual input, A I leverages data and automation to create more efficient workflows , ensuring that time is spent where it matters most. The analytics that come from consistent use of tools like Gemini and ChatGPT provide a clear picture of how time is being spent across projects and teams, enabling businesses to streamline operations and eliminate unnecessary meetings. Predictive AI technology anticipates peak work periods and adjusts schedules accordingly, helping professionals prepare for heavy workloads in advance. This is especially useful in industries...
The Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE), dedicated to expanding opportunities for Black entrepreneurs in Atlanta, GA, and beyond, has received a $2 million donation from The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. According to a news release, Blank’s donation will help the center move forward with RICE 2.0, a hub for innovation, collaboration, and economic empowerment that will provide essential resources for Black business founders, including small business grants, expanded programming, and mentorship opportunities. “This investment reflects our chairman’s entrepreneurial journey and his commitment to giving back to Atlanta, a city that has given him so much,” Blank Foundation President Fay Twersky said. “RICE’s extraordinary work supporting entrepreneurs creates pathways to economic mobility and opportunity. By investing in entrepreneurs at all stages, we’re fostering collective thriving where individual success strengthens entire communities.” In 1978, Arthur Blank...
LeBron James paid it forward to his mother when he signed a lucrative contract with Nike. The Akron, OH , athlete was drafted to the NBA in 2003 as a No. 1 overall pick, according to Basketball Reference. In his rookie year with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he caught the attention of Nike, Adidas, and even Reebok, which would have amounted to a $10 million shoe deal. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, James ultimately rejected the Reebok deal since it came with the condition of being unable to speak with other companies. “Me and my mom were living in an apartment—section 8 housing in Akron. I’m going back. I don’t have sh-t, whatever, and my mom looked at me. She said, ‘Son, trust your gut. If they’re offering you this, then who knows what the other companies may offer you.’ She’s super composed. She’s like, ‘We ain’t got sh-t already, so it’s not like it changes our life in this moment. Maybe in the future, but I want you to trust your gut and do what you think is right,’” James said on...
Michael Jordan’s sports memorabilia remains highly sought after. AFROTECH™ has covered multiple auction sales featuring memorabilia from Jordan’s legendary NBA career. This includes a jersey worn during his 45-point game during the 1996-1997 season with the Chicago Bulls, which sold for $4.7 million at Sotheby’s auction house in November 2024. “One of the finest Michael Jordan jerseys ever to come to auction, MJ wore this road-red jersey for 5 months and 17 games during the Chicago Bulls legendary 1996-1997 championship season,” Sotheby’s detailed on their Instagram. “In the 1990s, the jersey’s image landed on trading cards, magazines, newspapers, and collectable posters like these from Starline or Costacos Brothers that decorated the walls of kids’ rooms around the world.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sotheby's (@sothebys) In February 2024, a set of six individual sneakers sported by Jordan during his victorious championship season sold for $8 million, which was the...
We are giving our flowers to Black leaders who are shaping the future. Established in 2022, the AFROTECH™ Future 50 list will commemorate innovators, visionaries, founders, venture capitalists, technologists, and changemakers in the technology sector who have made historic strides, lifted as they climbed to create a more inclusive future, and are transforming their sectors and communities. AFROTECH™ Future 50 Categories There are five categories for submission. The Dynamic Investors category highlights venture capitalists who have not only driven strong returns but have also championed underrepresented founders in technology. A prime example is Charles Hudson, founder and managing partner of Precursor Ventures, which manages over $175 million in assets and has made more than 413 investments, according to Carta. Next, the Future Makers category will honor Black professionals who have achieved historic firsts, earned industry recognition, launched groundbreaking products, measured...
Megan Thee Stallion has stepped into the spirits industry following advice from Beyoncé. The “Savage” rapper, born Megan Pete, has long admired the fellow Houston artist and credits their first interaction in 2020 with a major career milestone. “My favorite moment was definitely meeting Beyoncé. I met her first in 2020, I think. Every time I see her, I act like a little kid. And I really need to stop that at this point. Like I’m always fanned out,” Megan Thee Stallion told Forbes. Beyoncé’s support for Megan goes beyond music. In addition to their collaboration on the hit record “Savage Remix,” which they performed during the “Renaissance World Tour” in Houston, TX, Beyoncé has also shared valuable business advice — encouraging Megan to launch her own spirits brand. Leading by example, in 2024, Beyoncé made her official debut in the spirits industry with the launch of SirDavis in partnership with Moët Hennessy. The brand offers an American rye whiskey that pays homage to her...
Meta is being sued for allegedly directly contributing to education inequities in Black communities. A lawsuit filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP on behalf of the Equal Rights Center (ERC) cites that Meta’s algorithm has shown bias by directing ads for for-profit colleges and universities to Black communities. In contrast, more ads featuring public and nonprofit colleges and universities were shown to white users. “Relegating Black students to receive information about for-profit schools, which often provide lower quality education at greater financial cost, also sends a negative message about who belongs in which types of institutions,” a statement from an email sent to AFROTECH™ by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights read. The difference between the two types of institutions is that for-profit colleges focus on generating profits...
A group of HBCU students were awarded during the week of Super Bowl LIX for their innovative pitch in sports technology. Diverse Representation, a company focused on increasing the number of Black agents, attorneys, managers, and publicists across sports, hosted its inaugural HBCU Sports Business Pitch Competition in New Orleans, LA, in partnership with the talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, during Super Bowl LIX week. According to information shared with AFROTECH™, the competition was launched to provide local HBCU student entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch sports-related concepts for a chance to receive funding and connect with decision-makers in the industry. “When I initially launched Diverse Representation, I’ve always been very, very clear about what our mission is: to help Black professionals in the sports and entertainment industry,” Diverse Representation Founder Jaia Thomas told AFROTECH™. “Not minorities, not people of color—Black...
Some facts about Black History Month have been well-established: Carter G. Woodson was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. His frat created Negro History and Literature Week in 1924. Woodson sent out a press release to announce the first Negro History Week. He chose February to honor another historical legend, a formerly-enslaved-man-turned-activist Frederick Douglass, who had chosen February 14 as his birthday without knowing his real birthdate. Negro History Week was also chosen to honor former President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12. And on its 50th anniversary, in 1976, younger members of the Association for the Study of African American History extended Negro History Week to Black History Month. While all of these facts are inarguable, there’s one point that remains vague: What exactly are you supposed to do during Black History Month? Like Juneteenth , there were never any established rules. For employees who want to honor this month, are there tips for how to...
Gmail users may have been confused when they opened their email accounts and saw pop-ups about Gemini . Instead of Google sending out big “coming soon” announcements about their next-gen flagship artificial intelligence (AI) model, Gmail users just saw a subtle star in the right-hand corner of their screens. With Gemini, ChatGPT and China’s DeepSeek, along with plenty of other programs, it’s clear that AI is sticking around for the long haul. So is it worth newbie investors investing in AI, and how is this possible to do anyway? African-American Investors Are Getting Younger A new report from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) confirmed that African-Americans tend to be much younger than white investors, with 49% of African-American investors between the ages of 18-34 while 51% of white investors were ages 55 and older. Growing up in a tech-dominant age, African-American investors are using social media to get their investment education and to learn about trading...
Black-owned edtech company Beanstack has secured another investment from Mark Cuban. The platform was launched in 2013 by Felix Brandon Lloyd (CEO) and Jordan Lloyd Booke, a husband-and-wife duo with extensive backgrounds in education. Booke served as Google’s head of K-12 education outreach from 2011 to 2013, while Lloyd worked as a teacher and dean at the SEED Public Charter School for seven years. The idea for Beanstack was sparked while they were reading to their 2-year-old son, inspiring them to focus on increasing literacy rates. “The early idea for our company came one night when [me and Jordan] were reading a book to our 2-year-old son and soon-to-be big brother,” Lloyd told AFROTECH™ in a previous interview. “He pointed to biracial characters on the page that looked like him and said, ‘That’s me, and that’s little sister.’ The power of reading was so clear. We immediately decided to put our backgrounds in education to work on a new business idea.” Beanstack initially...
South African billionaire Elon Musk is known for his desire to swallow up companies and rebrand them with his own trendy vision. The Tesla CEO previously used his familial wealth to purchase stakes in such businesses as PayPal, SpaceX and of course, X (formerly Twitter). Now, according to official statements made by the Trump administration cabinet pick, the emerald mine profiteer is considering buying the rights to Vine, a defunct app which predates TikTok . This would be a major development in the world of social media, since the latter is still potentially facing a long-term ban within the United States, unless the app’s parent company ByteDance can agree to divest to American financial interests. When prompted by a fellow X user about bringing Vine back into the fray to fill in the power vacuum left by TikTok, Musk simply responded, “We’re looking into it.” So, now seems like as good a time as any to examine what Vine is (or was), how Elon could bring it back to compete with...
Serena Williams and her family are investors in what has now become the most valuable women’s sports franchise. In 2020, the tennis star, alongside her husband and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian , joined a star-studded ownership group to establish Angel City FC, a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team representing Los Angeles, CA, which officially launched in 2022, according to BBC Sport. Investors at the time included actresses Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner, Uzo Aduba, and America Ferrera. Williams and Ohanian also added their daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., who was just 2 years old at the time, as one of the team’s investors. This led Olympia to make history as the youngest owner of a professional sports team at the time, and she held onto that title until it was taken by her younger sister Adira River Ohanian, as AFROTECH™ previously mentioned. “We come together with a collective passion for bringing about change,” Julie Uhrman, Angel City FC co-founder...
Travis Hunter has a string of victories to celebrate. In December 2024, Hunter was awarded the 2024 Heisman Trophy and became only the second two-way player to receive the honor, following Charles Woodson in 1997, according to the NFL. The award is given to an athlete who is considered the most outstanding player in college football. “First, I want to say I thank God, man I never thought I woulda been in this position,” Hunter said during his acceptance speech. Lil Wayne was also present to celebrate Hunter’s achievement. Hunter revealed he would often play the rapper’s music during pregames and expressed his gratitude. “I’m really appreciative of it, Wayne. You don’t know how you came in, came into our life, man. My fiance loves you. I didn’t know none of your songs until she let me know ’cause I don’t listen to music,” Hunter explained. “She told me you got to listen to this. If you don’t listen to music listen to Wayne, and from that day on that’s all I listen to.” He also told...
50 Cent has recently received technology advice from fellow studio owner Tyler Perry. In 2008, Perry, a self-made billionaire , made history when he opened the first major Black-owned film studio. The 330-acre studio, located at a former Confederate Army base in Atlanta, GA, features 12 sound stages that are available to rent. These are accompanied by various staged sets, such as baseball fields, a chapel, a bank, a county jail, a coffee shop, an oval office, and a theatre, among others, as AFROTECH™ previously mentioned. It’s no surprise that Perry’s recent projects, including “The Six Triple Eight,” “Beauty in Black,” and “All the Queen’s Men,” have been filmed at this groundbreaking facility. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tyler Perry Studios (@tylerperrystudios) In 2024, Tyler Perry has been offering words of wisdom to rapper and entrepreneur 50 Cent, whose television empire continues to thrive. Since launching G-Unit Studios in Shreveport, LA, in April of this...