Houston expert shares 3 strategies for integrating AI into the workforce

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AI's true potential lies in its ability to enhance human capabilities, not replace them. Photo via Getty Images

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence is forcing businesses to evaluate how they will manage the inevitable changes this technology will bring. With its ability to automate tasks, analyze large amounts of data, and provide detailed insights, AI offers an enormous opportunity for businesses of all sizes. However, realizing this potential requires a strategic approach that positions AI as a powerful partner, rather than a replacement for human ingenuity.

The British Council reports that an estimated 65 percent of today's students will eventually work in professions that have yet to be conceived. With the emergence of new AI, this projection emphasizes the importance of cultivating a versatile skill set that allows us to adapt to the ever-changing landscape. It also underscores the importance of having a strategy that embraces the division of labor between humans and machines.

What this means is that an AI strategy shouldn't just be about automation – it should also incorporate an understanding of the human-AI partnership that will be necessary for future success. By using the concepts of automation, augmentation, and autonomy, businesses can unlock the full potential of AI to boost efficiency, enhance decision-making, and ultimately drive continued success.

Automation: Delegating to the AI

We know AI can automate many tasks in a business. However, we should also look at automation from a strategy standpoint by asking, "What tasks can be fully delegated to the AI?" Answering this question might include considering routine, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks that shouldn't require human intervention or those that would be more susceptible to human error. The goal here should be to identify tasks that don't benefit from human nuance, meaning asking questions about time, precision, and compliance could offer even more value.

Time. What tasks are time-consuming and could be completed quickly with well-written instructions?
Precision. What tasks require precision that is difficult for humans to achieve?
Compliance. What tasks involve critical safety procedures or adherence to strict compliance that humans might overlook?

Augmentation: Using AI to boost your potential

Beyond automation, AI's true power lies in its ability to boost human capabilities. In this lens, you should ask, "How can the AI boost my output potential?" Think of AI as a skilled assistant that can analyze vast datasets, identify complex patterns, and present insights that aren't readily apparent to humans alone. The focus here is on tasks that still require a human touch but can benefit from computers' speed and data processing power. When exploring this further, consider asking questions about skill boosts, assistance, and focus.

Skill boosts. What tasks am I doing that I understand but need to be an expert at?
Assistance. What tasks still require a human's touch but could use processing or speed boosts?
Focus. What tasks are causing employees to spend more time on tools and less on goals?

Autonomy: The importance of humans in the loop

One question that comes up frequently when discussing AI is whether it will replace a particular set of jobs. My thoughts, however, are that while AI is remarkably powerful, the key to making all this work is understanding that not every task requires automation. In fact, some tasks would suffer from automation. This step requires you to ask, "Where are human emotion, creativity, intuition, and oversight essential?" Autonomy, in this sense, means digging into creativity, intuition, and uniqueness.

Creativity. Does this task require a level of creativity that a machine can't replicate?
Intuition. Does this task require emotional awareness that a machine can't discern?
Brand Uniqueness. Does this task represent a part of my brand that shouldn't be automated or machine-driven?

AI brings a lot to look forward to. It’s fair to say it’s on its way to transforming the world, but it's important to remember that the businesses that strategically embrace a human-centered approach to integrating AI into everyday business activities are the ones that will thrive. The three A’s: automation, augmentation, and autonomy, provide an essential foundation to begin this journey. By understanding the best applications for each aspect of AI, businesses of all sizes can discover areas for increased efficiency, more thoughtful decision-making, and a competitive edge that drives long-term success. AI's true potential lies in its ability to enhance human capabilities, not replace them.

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Kelsey Ruger is the chief technology and product officer for Hello Alice.

The concept is simple: Think before you act in marketing. Getty images

How to think before you act when it comes to marketing for your company

Strategizing for startups

If there were a joke about how entrepreneurs treat their marketing — and there totally isn't — it would go something like this.

An entrepreneur walks into a bar. Before the bartender can ask, the entrepreneur says, "I want a drink and I need it ASAP."

"What type of drink?", the bartender asks, motioning to the hundreds of bottles behind him.

"I need a drink that is refreshing, doesn't make me too drunk and makes me feel like I'm getting my money's worth."

The bartender begins listing drink after drink, and the entrepreneur, sometimes sampling the drink, turns each one down.

At long last, the entrepreneur climbs behind the bar, grabs a glass, pours in some ice and soda water, and takes a long sip.

"This is exactly what I wanted," the entrepreneur proclaims, "Why didn't you offer me this in the first place?"

The moral of the story? When it comes to marketing, entrepreneurs tend to know exactly what they want, yet they focus on quenching that immediate thirst, not knowing why they're in a bar in the first place.

The idea of your first step is nothing compared to the reality of your second. You can know something but applying those principles to starting and/or running your own business can be difficult.

When we (yes, I'm an entrepreneur too) look at marketing, we often confuse tactics with strategy. I see a problem and immediately need a tool to fix it. Hanging a picture? Where's the hammer?!

While it's tempting to lead with the tactics (i.e. website, brochure, display ad, video, etc.), they can be misguided. This can drain precious resources. Strategy can inject purpose into everyone's mindset.

Marketing efforts must be considered a sequence of events that, when lined up in the right order, produce results that are repeatable, more effective, and can lead to a predictable type of profitability.

Where careers rise and fall is the accuracy of any particular strategy. Since we're talking about accuracy, let's use an archery metaphor. Sure, you can consistently hit a target from five feet away. The farther away you get, though, the more you have to consider crosswind, the arrow's trajectory, and your own focus in order to hit that bullseye. And that's all part of a process of whittling down the variables you don't know or can't control.

It's the same with marketing. The more time you've spent preparing, studying, testing, and strategizing, the more often you will accurately target that bullseye.

Where a lot of entrepreneurs also miss the mark is not clearly understanding the core business issue. If you're lost in the forest (and it can totally feel like that sometimes), you're supposed to be quiet when hunting for food but you supposed to make a lot of noise when trying to get rescued. That's what mixing up a core business issue can do. As a process where you're whittling down the variables, marketing is a sequence, like this:

Graphic from Jarred King

Seems simple enough, right? But the process itself is dependent on the intangible pieces in between the steps. This is what happens between the "knowing" and the "doing." So, the above graph should really flow like this:

Graphic from Jarred King

Usually, the typical entrepreneur prefers to start with step four and just "get sh*t done." The problem with this approach is that it can either be the wrong solution (you're hunting with a rock instead of an arrow) or the wrong effort (you're staying quiet when you should be hollering).

The difficulty here is that the desired effect doesn't happen overnight. It rarely solves "today's problems" today. Even worse, it might require a larger investment. Without fundamentally understanding your business problem, any solution offered will be less effective, more expensive, and more wasteful of time and resources.

Instead, simply start with the business problem and then follow the above sequence to leverage "the doing" part in order to develop "the knowing" part. This doesn't have to be a drawn-out process, and there are a ton of free resources available online to help conduct your own research, analysis, and planning.

Ultimately, I'm saying "think before you act." It's not difficult to understand. The challenge for entrepreneurs is that they are faced with hundreds of important and, often, business-critical decisions each day. We can't help but to react, then decide, and move on. While our gut and grit got us to this point of success, it's strategy that will take us from surviving to thriving.

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Jarred King is the founder and president of Swagger Agency, a full-service marketing firm as well as the current president of Entrepreneurs' Organization - Houston. King also serves on the board of InnovationMap.

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Houston claims 19% of Texas’ new live-work-play growth

by the numbers

In Texas, Houston is a big player in the live-work-play real estate movement.

A new 21-city analysis from coworking marketplace CoworkingCafe shows the Houston area added five live-work-play projects—mixed-use developments with residential, office and recreational components—over the past decade.

From 2016 to 2025, Houston accounted for 19 percent of Texas’ new live-work-play inventory, the analysis shows. Among the new local developments were Arrive Upper Kirby, St. Andrie, and The Laura:

Arrive Upper Kirby, which was sold in 2021 for $182 million, offers more than 61,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space adjacent to apartments and offices. The 13-story, 265,000-square-foot project was completed in 2017.
St. Andrie, a 32-acre, mixed-use community, was completed in 2019. The apartment-anchored development includes an H-E-B grocery store and 37,000 square feet of office space.
The Laura, spanning 110,000 square feet, was completed in 2023. Among the apartment complex’s amenities is a coworking space.

According to Northspyre, a software provider for real estate developers, live-work-play projects enable people to meet their needs, such as housing, workplaces, stores, restaurants, and recreation facilities, in a single place.

A total of 542 live-work-play developments opened between 2016 and 2025 in the 21 cities, with another 69 in the pipeline for 2026, CoworkingCafe says. Among major markets, New York City made up the largest share (119) of new live-work-play developments from 2016 to 2025.

The Houston area’s five projects were built in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2024, and 2025, CoworkingCafe data indicates, with another project scheduled for completion next year. The Greater Houston Partnership recently highlighted four mixed-use projects taking shape in the region, but only one of them is scheduled to be finished in 2027. It can take two to five years or more to complete a mixed-use development.

Of the five Houston developments finished in the past decade, 56 percent of the space went toward multifamily units, 29 percent toward offices, and 16 percent toward retail, CoworkingCafe says.

As noted by the Houston-Galveston Area Council, economic development in the 21st century “is about cultivating quality live-work-play environments that attract, retain, and grow a diverse and skilled population. Employers and businesses are increasingly choosing to make long-term investments in places that connect and engage people to strengthen economic competitiveness and promote innovation.”

With eight completed projects, Austin led construction of live-work-play developments in Texas from 2016 to 2025, according to CoworkingCafe. Dallas, which welcomed five live-work-play developments during that period, tied with Houston. San Antonio data wasn’t available.

Rice Business Plan Competition awards $1.4M to 2026 student teams

winner, winners

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct the total amount of investment and cash prizes awarded at the RBPC and with additional information from Rice.

Another team from the Great Lakes State took home top honors and investments at this year's Rice Business Plan Competition.

BRCĒ, a material-tech startup from Michigan State University, took home the top-place finish and the largest investment total at the annual Houston event. It has developed Lattice-Grip technology to create utility-based polymers that can replace traditional fabric. The materials are stronger, fire-resistant and more stable than traditional textiles, according to the company. Last year, the University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems won first-place finish and the largest investment total of $902,000.

In total, the RBPC doled out more than $1.4 million in investment and cash prizes, according to Rice. Over the three-day event, held April 9-11, the 42 competing startups presented their business plans to 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors. Seven finalists were selected.

Three Texas teams, including one from Houston, were named among the finalists. Here's who won big this year, with their investment totals and some of their awards listed below.

BRCĒ, Michigan State University — $611,500

The recent Shark Tank alum finished in first place for its utility-based polymers technology.

$200,000 Goose Capital Investment Grand Prize
$100,000 The OWL Investment Prize
$100,000 Houston Angel Network Investment Prize
$75,000 The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Texas Angels Investment Prize
$50,000 nCourage Investment Network’s Courageous Women Entrepreneur Investment Prize
$25,000 New Climate Ventures Sustainable Investment Prize
$20,000 Aramco Innovator Cash Prize
$1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize
$500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prize – Consumer Hard Tech

Legion Platforms, Arizona State University — $535,500

The startup won second place for its multiplayer gaming platform that can be accessed with slow internet speeds.

$100,000 Anderson Family Fund & Finger Interests Second Place Investment Prize
$200,000 Goose Capital Investment Prize
$100,000 The OWL Investment Prize
$25,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize
$500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prize – Consumer

Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin — $111,000

The pediatric medical device company won third place for its multifunction neonatal feeding tube, known as Trinity Tube

$50,000 Anderson Family Fund & Finger Interests Third Place Investment Prize
$25,000 Pearland EDC Spirit of Entrepreneurship Cash Prize
$25,000 The Eagle Investors Investment Prize
$1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prize

Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas – $16,000

The startup won fourth place for its pain-free strep test.

$5,000 Norton Rose Fulbright Fourth Place Prize
$1,000 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prize — Overall Winner

Routora, University of Notre Dame & University of Texas at Austin – $15,500

The team won fifth place for its route optimization app that works to reduce fuel costs, travel time and carbon emissions

$5,000 Chevron Fifth Place Prize
$500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prizes — Digital

DialySafe, Rice University — $15,500

The startup won sixth place for its technology that aims to make at-home peritoneal dialysis simpler and safer.

$5,000 ExxonMobil Sixth Place Prize
$500 Mercury Fund Elevator Pitch Competition Prizes — Life Science

Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University – $16,000

The startup won seventh place for its AI-powered sizing system for carry-on baggage.

$5,000 Shell Ventures Seventh Place Prize
$1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prizes

Other significant prizes included:

BiliRoo, University of Michigan – $26,000

$25,000 Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium Pediatric Device Cash Prize
$1,000 Anbarci Family Company Showcase Prizes

BeamFeed, City University of New York – $25,000

$25,000 Amentum and WRX Companies Rising Stars Space Technology and Commercial Aerospace Cash Prize

Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh — $20,000

$20,000 Aramco Innovator Cash Prize

A total of $75,000 in in-kind legal services was awarded to all finalists. The grand prize winner, BRCĒ, also received a chief financial officer consulting prize worth $40,000. Each competing startup received at least $950 in prizes for placement in the competition.

“The Rice Business Plan Competition has grown into far more than a competition—it’s a proving ground for founders and a catalyst for real company formation, as well as a catalyst for building the Houston entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Brad Burke, associate vice president of Rice Innovation and executive director of Rice Alliance, said in a news release. This year's event was Burke’s final RBPC after nearly 25 years of leadership.

Last year, the Rice Business Plan Competition facilitated over $2 million in investment and cash prizes. According to Rice, more than 910 startups have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital through the competition over the last 25 years.

See a full list of this year's winners and stream rounds from the competition here.

Here's the income it takes to live comfortably in Houston in 2026

Money Talk

2026 report analyzing how much it costs to live "in sustainable comfort" in the biggest U.S. cities has found Houston residents have the 11th lowest salary requirement to live a comfortable life in 2026.

SmartAsset's annual report found single adult residents in Houston need to make $89,981 a year to qualify as "financially stable." Compared to last year, single Houstonians needed to make $83 more to live comfortably in the city.

Families with two working parents and two children need to make a household income of $204,672 to have a financially stable life in Houston, the report found. That's almost $2,000 less than what families needed to make last year.

To determine the rankings, SmartAsset's analysts examined 100 of the largest U.S. cities and used the latest cost of living data – such as the costs for housing, food, transportation, and income taxes where applicable – from the MIT Living Wage Calculator for childless individuals and for two working adults with two children.

For the purpose of the study, the 50/30/20 budgeting strategy was used to determine "comfortable lifestyle" costs for both individuals and families: 50 percent of income to cover needs and living expenses, 30 percent for "wants," and 20 percent for savings or paying down debt.

Here's breakdown of a Houston resident's comfortable lifestyle based on SmartAsset's findings:

$44,991 dedicated to needs and living expenses
$26,994 dedicated to wants
$17,996 dedicated to savings or debt repayment

This is SmartAsset's interpretation of a comfortable lifestyle for families of four:

$102,336 dedicated to needs and living expenses
$61,402 dedicated to wants
$40,934 dedicated to savings or debt repayment

SmartAsset said single individuals and families should compare the fluctuating local cost of living and their long-term goals to fully "understand the context" of their respective household incomes. But it's worth pointing out that a financially stable life in Houston isn't quite attainable for many residents: The city had a median household income of $64,361 in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Comfortable salaries in other Texas cities

Elsewhere in Texas, the report found that families in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs Frisco and McKinney "are closest to a comfortable salary."

"In Frisco, the median household earns $145,444 – substantially higher than the national median of $83,730," the report's author wrote. "This figure also accounts for 63.1 percent of the $230,464 income a family of four in Frisco needs to live comfortably. In McKinney, TX, the $124,177 median household income accounts for 53.9 percent of the $230,464 needed."

Both cities also tied with Plano for the 29th highest salary needed nationally to live comfortably in 2026. Single adults living in these cities need to make $109,242 a year to live a financially stable life this year.

On the opposite end, San Antonio has the lowest salaries needed to live comfortably in the U.S. Single adults only need to make $83,242 a year, and $192,608 for families of four.

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