Top tech and business trends face off in our March Madness bracket
Angel Reese (right) points to her ring finger as Caitlin Clark walks by at the end of the 2023 National Championship game.
Caitlin Clark (left) and Angel Reese are two of the biggest stars in college basketball.AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Happy Friday, it's a good one! Got a flight coming up? Text yourself your flight number if you have an iPhone for a cool little hack.

In today's big story, we're looking at results from our business, tech, and innovation bracket and voting on the semifinal matchups.

What's on deck:

But first, a final four.


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The big story

More madness

march madness
Chelsea Jia Feng/BI

We're back with the latest installment of our own March Madness bracket. 

In case you missed it, we created a bracket with eight of the biggest topics in business, tech, and innovation. Then, we left it to the readers to vote. 

Let's get to the results:

[1] The AI race (81.9%) defeats [8] The Ozempic effect (18.1%): The only real blowout of the first round. No real surprises here. As important as weight-loss drugs are, AI is a monster.

[4] Future of social media (71.8%) defeats [5] Streaming wars (28.2%): A bit surprising. I thought more people would care about everything changing with how we watch TV and movies. But social media has been around so long, it's truly embedded in our DNA. 

[3] US presidential election (73.6%) defeats [6] Boomers' retirement (26.4%): Retirement is a massive issue. (Just ask BlackRock's Larry Fink.) But yes, deciding the next US president feels a tad more urgent right now. 

[2] Interest rates (56.8%) defeats [7] US-China relations (43.2%): The closest of the four matches was also the most surprising, in my opinion. I thought interest rates, which impact our entire economy, would secure an easy win. But fears over China remain strong. 

Let's get into the semifinals. 

[1] The AI race vs. [4] Future of social media: In one corner, something primed to change how we do almost everything. In the other, something that quickly grew to become a foundational part of our society, now trying to figure out where it goes next. Coincidentally, the future of social media could be reshaped by AI — with the rise of AI influencers.

[2] Interest rates vs [3] US presidential election: It's a fitting matchup since a change in rates, or lack thereof, could swing the election one way or another. President Joe Biden winning reelection or former President Donald Trump returning to the White House come with plenty of knock-on effects. But, according to at least one economist, the Fed's current rate-cut projects could lead to a recession.