NEW DELHI, INDIA - SEPTEMBER 11: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) meets Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (L) on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India, on September 11, 2026.
Contestants at the 2026 Miss USA pageant in Miami on August 27.
Ivan Apfel/Getty Images
The 2,400-seat Miami theater lit up like a Coldplay concert when the QR code dropped at the Miss USA pageant. A sea of phones — held up by supportive parents, partners, and past pageant queens — trained their cameras on the massive barcode being projected from center stage, ready to vote for their favored contestant.
Violetta Kruglyak, 44, is a real estate broker and makeup and hair stylist living in NYC.
Marissa Alper for BI
Working in NYC real estate, brokering deals for the rich and famous in one of the most desirable property markets in the world, is a "glamorous" business. Yet, for broker Violetta Kruglyak, that does not translate to a glamorous life.
My boss had a proposal: It was time to replace him with AI.
It was late spring, following months of AI-attributed layoffs across the economy that left workers wondering: Am I next? In the name of journalism, my editor and direct manager, Ryan Kailath, agreed to be a guinea pig.