Samsung’s Galaxy Glasses could weigh just 41 grams with standard lenses, making them lighter than earlier leaks suggested.
Battery life could reach nine hours, with the charging case extending total runtime to 72 hours.
Gentle Monster reportedly offers six frame designs across 16 variants, while Warby Parker plans three styles with multiple color and lens options.
A November launch is reportedly planned, with Gentle Monster models targeting South Korea and the US, and Warby Parker versions initially limited to the US.
Samsung’s first AI-enabled smart glasses might be lighter than previous leaks have suggested, and they look to be available in a wider range of designs than we’ve seen so far.
New information obtained by SammyGuru reveals that the upcoming Galaxy Glasses weigh around 41 grams with standard lenses, alongside a detailed look at frame options from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.
Previous reports, meanwhile, have put the glasses in the range of 46 to 50 grams. Of course, prescription lenses will certainly add some weight, but the exact amount will depend on the model. If Samsung can keep the hardware this light, the glasses may be more comfortable for everyday wear.
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The glasses are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chip inside, with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 12MP camera captures video at 3K resolution and 30 frames per second, and there are four microphones for calls and talking to Google Gemini. The audio comes through two open-ear speakers so you can still hear the world around you.
These glasses do not include a display but instead focus on hands-free AI assistance, photography, and audio instead of information in front of your eyes. It boasts a 155mAh battery that lasts up to nine hours and a charging case that offers a total of 72 hours of battery life. The IPX4 rating should also protect the glasses against sweat and light splashes, but the case itself is not water-resistant.
Samsung seems to be working just as hard on the styling. SammyGuru reports that Gentle Monster has six frame designs in 16 variants, including black, burgundy, cream, and pale lilac.
(Image credit: SammyGuru)
Warby Parker is also expected to have three named styles — Alden, Reid, and Wren — in colors like dark green, reddish brown, and black. Clear lenses and sunglasses are also said to be available depending on the frame.
Get the latest news from Android Central, your trusted companion in the world of Android
(Image credit: SammyGuru)
The glasses are expected to run Android XR, Google’s operating system for extended reality, with AI features powered by Gemini.
Samsung is reportedly targeting a November release. Gentle Monster models are expected to be available in South Korea and the US, while Warby Parker versions will be US-only at launch. The glasses will be available for purchase through the brands’ stores and websites and Samsung Experience Stores in the US. Pricing and a definitive launch date have yet to be confirmed.
The big question is whether Samsung can assemble a competitive smart glasses offering against Meta’s well-established smart glasses without sacrificing comfort, style, or battery life. At 41 grams, its upcoming eyewear could have a promising starting point, but its success will ultimately depend on how useful Gemini proves in everyday situations.
I got married at an incredibly young age to get away and flee from a very physically abusive mother. I wasn’t saved at the time, didn’t love him, and honestly, without my knowledge, I just traded one set of abuses for another.
But I believed in the fairy tale romances, that love would get us through. Through his p*rn, through his illegal crimes, through bouncing around from one family member’s home to another and we remained married for many years.
It was directly after I got out of the homeless shelter and into my own, small apartment, that I gave my life to God and I wondered why He had allowed all of that to happen to me.
I started learning how to become a godly woman, how to please God, and how to live a righteous life and in turn, I learned how to become a wife above reproach.
It was a lot of fun for me. I was learning all I could and growing in the Lord. That was a long time ago, and one day, in God’s timing, I’ll have someone godly to marry (until then, I refuse to settle for anyone who’s not completely sold out to God, like I am!)
The more you learn about God’s design for marriage, the more you please God and shine God’s light on a dying world, whether married or not.
Let’s look at some amazing verses and Scripture marriage encouragement: 30 Bible verses about marriage, to get you started.
*Update: A lot of people want to know what Bible I use in particular. I have read many, MANY study Bibles on the market. My absolute favorite, hands down, is Charles Spurgeon’s Bible!! It’s my go-to for everything. His notes are amazing and you learn a lot! This is the exact Bible I have and LOVE!
“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”
A good wife is to be a blessing to her husband all the days of his life. Our main goal as a woman is to be a blessing to everyone around us, particularly our husband.
2) Colossians 3:18-19
“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.”
This verse gets a bad wrap, but wives aren’t the only one in the marriage called to submit! Husbands are called to submit to their wives as well!
Do not take this out of context, the husband is to submit to his wife, as a weaker vessel and heir in Christ as well. They BOTH submit to each other!
3) Ephesians 5:25-27
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
Loving your wife with GOD’S love is key here! Not human, selfish love, but with Christ’s love, who was willing to lay down His life for the church.
4) Deuteronomy 24:5
“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.”
When I get married, I’ve asked (and God has approved) to give me TWO years with my husband, just me and him, before we begin any big ministries, to enjoy each other, learn about each other, and love on each other. This is very, very important for a newly married couple! If you’re just setting up your home or you’re struggling to balance everything, be sure to download my free Household Binder here! It was such a foundational help to me to streamline all my home activities and work and I know it will be for you too! ❤️
5) Matthew 19:4–6
“He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
As a woman, you will be tempted to listen to the gossip of your friends telling you how your husband is bad or how their husband is bad. Steer clear of women who have poison on their tongue, even if it’s covered in syrup! What God brought together, don’t let Satan creep in and separate on the sly, because he WILL try, even through your friends, parents, and any other relationship he can get his foot in.
6) Hebrews 13:4
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
Do not sleep with anyone other than your husband. Period.
7) Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”
Your spouse is designed to lift you up, help you, and encourage you at all times. When you’re feeling drained, you can go to your spouse and they will help strengthen you, hold you, be tender with you, love you. Knowing your spouse always has your back is important. It’ll keep you grounded and both of you strengthened.
8) Ephesians 5:28-30
“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”
Husbands are to tenderly care for their wives as they would their own bodies. It’s a sacrificial love and it goes both ways.
9) 1 Peter 3:7
“Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite verses. Want to hinder your prayers with God? Be mean to your wife. It’s as simple as that. God calls men to a standard, and it is to treat their wife with respect and honor (and her to him as well), not as property or meanly.
10) Isaiah 62:5
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
It is pretty standard for a young man to marry a young woman, but it is not sin or found anywhere in the Bible saying not to marry at differing ages (think: Ruth and Boaz, which is the ideal couple). I happen to like younger guys (think: 10ish years younger) and I’m not ashamed of it in the least. I refuse to marry someone my own age for many personal reasons. Mostly, because my personality is like a big kid, I’m like Peter Pan and I never want to grow up. 😆 I’d much rather play video games (Mario is my fav), travel, and have fun than be adult-ish. I watch cartoons. I play and joke around. And men don’t live as long as women do; I don’t want to bury a husband. I need a guy a bit younger than me so I don’t have to bury him and so our personalities match. 😊 Some women like older men, though. Someone I am close to happens to like older men (totally opposite of me) and that’s okay. Again, nothing in the Bible forbids marrying someone of a certain age or race. Is it common to marry someone of a similar age, yes. Is it sin to marry someone of a different age? No, as long as you both know fully what you’re getting into.
11) Proverbs 21:9
“It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.”
A quarrelsome wife is THE WORST! She’s cantankerous all the time, you’re never able to please her, and she’s always just so argumentative. There’s no peace in your home and it’ll drive you nuts. Be on the same page with your wife and seek to remain in unity and peace at all times.
12) 1 Corinthians 7:2-5
“But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
It is SO very common for a woman to withhold sex from her husband and use it as a tool of manipulation. This is WRONG and should not ever be done! I would also say that most married couples only have sex once a week on average and the man needs it more than that. Men read sex as you wanting them. They read it as love. If you’re not intimate with them, they think you don’t love them!! You both should be actively striving to please each other, in all ways, and by doing so, once a week is usually never enough for the guy. You want to make purposeful time to be together each and every day. That doesn’t always mean sex every day (although it can), but spending loving time together every day is a must in any good, healthy, godly marriage. This will also help your husband not be tempted by Satan.
13) 1 Corinthians 16:14
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
Everything you do in your life, should be done with love. This is especially true in our daily living with our families. Are we gruntled, gruff, and treating them badly, or are we kind, sweet, polite, and loving?
14) 1 Corinthians 7:10-11
“To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”
There is a lot of teaching in the Bible about marriage and divorce. If a woman divorces her husband for any other reason than he’s had a physical affair or he has abandoned her, she should not remarry as this would be sin. Divorce is not to be used flippantly. What do you do though if your husband wants a divorce? God intended marriage to be for life and this is how we must view it also!
15) Proverbs 19:14
“House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”
The very first thing I did when I heard this verse was to look up the word prudent so that I have a good working knowledge of it to make sure I qualify in this area. I would encourage every woman to do the same (as well as single men to know what to look for in a future wife!) Basically, it’s a wife who cares for the future, prepares early, etc. As a mom, this tends to come naturally to women (think: packing a diaper bag), but it’s very important to make sure we’re lining up with this verse in all areas of our life. 😊
16) Ephesians 4:32
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
A marriage without forgiveness cannot last a week! At some point you AND your spouse are going to step on each other’s toes and it’s about asking forgiveness when you sin, when you mess up, and the other person forgiving. Forgiveness is important in ANY type of relationship! If you don’t forgive, it leads to bitterness, which is poison to the soul.
17) Ephesians 5:33
“However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
If your husband is not living a godly life, it can be super hard to respect him, but we are commanded to respect our husband. So, what do you do? I wrote a post all about it here to help!
18) Genesis 2:24
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
There is a point in a man’s life where he is not a child anymore. He becomes a man and so he will leave the home of his parents and be united (flesh, heart, mind) with his wife. If a man is holding onto his parents, not letting them go, it can add a lot of problems in the marriage. Of course, that never means to ignore them, as the Bible says to honor our parents, but it does mean there needs to be biblical boundaries. His wife becomes the #1 person to him on earth (after God), no longer his parents.
19) Proverbs 31:10-12
“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.”
I love this verse so much for so many reasons. She is to do him good. Think about all the ways you can do your husband BAD. Talking about him behind his back, belittling him in public, tearing down his name to his friends, just so many ways. Wives are NEVER to participate in these things. We are to build UP our husband, treasuring him. He can safely trust her that she means him no harm, ever, even when she’s mad!!! Retaliation is the worst thing possible in a marriage. If you work on one thing in your life, work on that. That when you are mad, you never, ever retaliate. Better to take the offense and be innocent before God and man, then to attack back.
20) 1 Corinthians 7:39
“A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.”
One of the things I look forward to most about being married in the future is BELONGING to someone and here you have it spelled out very clearly for us. We are to BELONG to our husband, we are his, we belong to him and he belongs to us. It’s a fitting together of the souls. You fit with each other in unison. It’s such a beautiful picture of marriage. 💎 But if her husband dies (she becomes a widow; again men usually don’t live as long as women do), she is free to marry someone else, but if she does, he must be a believer.
21) 1 John 3:18
“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
So often we throw around the word “love”. I love video games. I love traveling. I love baseball. I love graphic design. But God’s love has a much deeper meaning than we like something or that we’re physically attracted to our spouse. It’s about choosing them, sacrificing for them daily. It’s not just saying “I love you”, but rather SHOWING them that you love them daily, and yes, you SHOULD show your spouse you love them daily, even if it’s in the smallest of ways. You will do well to strive the rest of your life to show your spouse you love them in different ways every single day of your life. It’ll force you to get creative, to think outside the box, to put a lot of mental effort forth for your marriage, but it makes the other person feel good. It makes them happy and content, to know they are loved. It makes them feel secure, that you’re still chasing them AFTER marriage (both men AND women should do this). It’s about showing them how much they mean to you, that love is more than love, not just some words you said at your wedding day many years ago.
22) 1 Corinthians 13:13
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
This is a vital verse in the Bible and can apply here to marriage as well. The greatest characteristic to have, above all else is love, and love is cultivated in marriage. We understand love more when we are married because it is daily on display in our hearts and lives.
23) 1 John 4:18
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
This is such a wise statement, there is no fear in love. While we may experience fear, when we love, it is focused on the OTHER person. Fear is focused on ourselves. I’m afraid of public speaking. I place my focus on myself. What will they think of me, will they like me, hate me, will I stumble and trip over my words? But if I’m focusing on loving someone else, I’m not worried about my fear of public speaking. I’m just talking to YOU, loving you, doing what is necessary for YOU. My thoughts are on you, not myself. Therefore, where there is fear, love cannot exist and where love exists, there is not fear.
24) 1 Peter 4:8
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
This isn’t saying that the other person doesn’t sin or that we just forget when someone’s hurt us, covering it over like a rug. Here it’s talking more about loving someone so much that you forgive them, even when they mess up really bad. That you love them so earnestly, with all your heart and soul, that you can’t bear to stay mad at theme and you forgive them and let the offense go.
25) Ecclesiastes 9:9
“Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.”
This has GOT TO BE one of the LEAST romantic verses on marriage in the entire Bible, for sure, but in it, there’s a lot of wisdom. Solomon is basically saying, enjoy your wife because in your feeble, insignificant existence, that’s the best you get. Work is vanity, life is vanity, everything is vanity, and you work so hard for your wife anyway (providing for her, meeting her needs, etc.), might as well enjoy her. It’s really hard to believe that this same guy wrote Song of Solomon, a book full of PASSION and romantic words for your cherished one, but he did and he wrote Ecclesiastes AFTER Song of Solomon to boot. Either way, that’s what he’s saying here: enjoy your wife because it doesn’t get any better than that.
26) 1 Corinthians 7:8-9
“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”
This one totally tripped me up years ago. I thought that it was better to be single than be married so I can serve Christ more, but I realized that I can serve Christ just as much with a husband than without (it’s just about balancing my time). It’s really up to your own conscience if you want to be married or not and what the Lord has allotted for you. For me, I want to be married. 🥰
27) Genesis 1:27-28
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God has blessed man with a wife, for many reasons. One, being that he not be alone. A wife is a gift from the Lord. Listen up men, never forget that. 😊
28) Song of Solomon 8:6-7
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.”
I love that…many waters cannot quench love. It’s so true, isn’t it? Love cannot be quenched. It makes me think about Christ’s love for us, how He died for us, how He will never leave us, how His love for us will never end. ❤️
29) 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
This is a fantastic verse that shows us the standard of what God’s love is! Definitely worth deep diving into it and applying every aspect to your life!!
30) Proverbs 12:4
“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.”
A good wife is a jewel to her husband, a gift from the Lord, someone who makes him look good and be a better man. But a bad wife is like rottenness to his bones. It’s a SLOW kind of death, but a death, none the same. She slowly kills him, crushes his soul, discourages him, manipulates him, he becomes miserable over time and all joy is sucked from his life.
When Your Heart Feels Heavy in Marriage
If you’re here reading Bible verses about marriage, there’s a good chance your heart is carrying something heavy. 😔
Maybe you feel lonely inside your own home, even though you’re married. Maybe the same argument keeps coming back up over and over. Maybe you’re wondering if your marriage is “too far gone,” or if God is disappointed in you for past sins.
God is not surprised by these things. He is near to the brokenhearted, even in the middle of messy, imperfect marriages. He cares about your covenant, and He cares deeply about your tired, hurting heart.
You don’t have to fix everything today (Rome wasn’t built in a day), but you can take one small step toward having a better marriage. ❤️
👉 Did you like this Christian marriage verses list? If so, be sure to check out all the Bible verses by topic here.
If you’re eager to get your hands on the highly anticipated iPhone Duo, the first foldable iPhone, here’s how to get a head start on ordering. Apple has opened a staging page for preorders on apple.com, where you can get ready to place a preorder for the viral phone.
Head over to Apple’s online storefront, and you’ll find that a new iPhone Duo configurator is now live. On that page, save your preferred phone color, storage, mobile carrier and payment method. Saving these details in advance ensures you can complete your purchase immediately when preorders open at 5 a.m. PT on Friday.
Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, one of its first new products under the helm of new CEO John Ternus, during its Surprise and Shine event in Cupertino, California, on Friday. It’s the first foldable from Apple, although merely the latest in a wave of new bendy phones to hit the market.
The iPhone Duo opens to reveal a 7.6-inch display and folds down to a pocketable passport size. The shifting shape supports split-screen multitasking and Apple Pencil, and brings a host of new features and animations to Apple iOS 27.
Pricing starts at $1,999 for the 512GB model and tops out at $3,199 for the 2TB version — before carrier subsidies — making the iPhone Duo the most expensive iPhone ever released. Price aside, observers expect demand among early adopters to be high, so prepping your order now is a smart idea.
Not quite sure that the new iPhone Duo is the right phone for you? I’m also on the fence. Check out CNET’s coverage leading up to the launch of the new foldable and iOS 27, as well as the more conventionally shaped iPhone 18 Pro, so you can make an informed decision.
Antuan Goodwin
Senior Writer, Electrified Cars
Antuan has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience testing hundreds of cars, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen, and traditional combustion vehicles.
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Fight to join the isolated world of Kutala with the heavens and fulfill an ancient oath!Camp Whittlewood
Get ready to embark on an action-packed adventure where you stomp, launch, deflect and bash your way through Kutala, a land of demons, on a quest to defeat the Demon Lord Yalda and link Okko’s isolated world with the heavens! After 1,000 years of concealment, Okko is ready to wield the Mighty Fang and take down Kutala’s lords one by one. Defeat powerful foes, overcome obstacles and unleash your heart as Okko fights to fulfill an ancient oath. Enjoy meticulously hand-drawn 2D animations that bring Kutala’s characters to life in retro-inspired pixel art glory!
Explore side-scrolling stages with precision platforming, link attacks to form devastatingcombos, send enemies flying and face down enormous bosses that require quick-thinking strategy! As capable as Okko may be, he won’t be alone in his quest. A colorful cast of allies will sell you valuable items, fill your belly and provide useful information at The Old Throne, a place of respite with its own buried secrets to uncover. Upgrade and unlock new abilities to give Okko an edge in combat, collect Deevols to unlock Underground challenge levels and more. A devilish world of discovery is at Okko’s fingertips!
Game Features:
Vibrant, hand-drawn pixel art brings Okko’s world path of destruction to life as he explores the demon lands of Kutala.
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Fill your belly, purchase goods, and chat up a colorful cast of characters at The Old Throne, a place of respite, while also uncovering the secrets of its depths.
Screenshots
SystemRequirements
Minimum Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 or 11
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E8400, 3.0GHz or AMD
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Geforce 9600 GT or AMD HD 3870 512MB
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 4 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
InstallationGuide
TurnOff Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
Ask a franchise owner how they wrote last week’s Instagram caption, and the answer is often ChatGPT. The store manager who replied to that one-star Google review probably used it too, and so did whoever wrote the job ad at the Tampa location.
None of it went through HQ. There was no rollout, no training, no memo. People found tools that saved them twenty minutes and kept using them. That’s why AI governance for franchisors has moved from an IT side project to an operations problem.
It shows up in the data, too. Across industries, IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report found shadow AI involved in 43% of breached organizations, more than double the year before.
The questions that follow are uncomfortable. Which tools are people using? What are they pasting into them? Does the output match the brand, the current offers and the legal fine print?
The instinct is to clamp down, and that usually backfires. The better answer is governance built for how franchise networks actually work: locations keep moving fast, and HQ keeps control of what matters.
What Is AI Governance?
AI governance is the set of policies, permissions, systems and processes a company uses to control how AI is accessed and used. That’s the textbook version. The practical version is simpler: good governance gives clear answers to six questions.
Which AI tools are approved?
What data is off-limits?
Which tasks can AI help with?
Who can access which company knowledge?
When does a person need to check the output before it goes anywhere?
How does the company see what’s actually happening?
For a single-office business with one marketing team, those are manageable. A franchise system is a different animal. You’re governing HQ, regional teams, franchise owners, store managers and frontline staff across dozens or hundreds of locations.
Each group needs different things, and most of them don’t report to you. Franchisees own their businesses, which limits what HQ can simply require (more on that below). It also helps explain why so many companies are behind: in IBM’s 2026 report, 68% of breached organizations lacked AI governance capable of managing AI use or detecting shadow AI, up from 63% a year earlier.
Shadow AI Is Already Happening Across Franchise Networks
Shadow AI is when employees or franchisees use AI tools without formal company approval, visibility or oversight. If you remember shadow IT (the Dropbox account marketing set up without telling anyone), it’s the same idea. It just spreads faster and is harder to spot.
In a franchise network, it looks completely ordinary:
A franchisee uploads the operations manual to a free AI tool so they can ask it questions.
A local marketer uses ChatGPT to write a promo for a discount HQ retired last month.
A manager pastes a month of customer complaints, names and phone numbers included, into a chatbot to look for patterns.
Twelve locations write twelve different prompts for replying to reviews.
Nobody here is trying to cause problems. They’re trying to get through a busy week. That’s the part most companies miss.
Shadow AI is often a usability problem disguised as a compliance problem.
If the approved way of doing something takes longer than opening a browser tab and typing into ChatGPT, people will open the browser tab. Every time.
Why an AI Policy Alone Is Not Enough
Most companies respond to shadow AI the same way: they write an AI policy for employees. A typical generative AI policy says something like this:
Don’t share confidential or customer data.
Only use approved tools.
Review AI output before using it.
Don’t publish anything sensitive without sign-off.
All reasonable. The trouble is that a policy describes the behavior you want without changing the conditions that produce the behavior you’ve got.
Picture a store manager who has read the policy. To follow it, she still has to pay for her own AI subscription, dig the latest SOP out of an email thread, paste chunks of it into a chat window, write a prompt from scratch and guess which model is best for the job. Or she can skip most of that and get something good enough in two minutes. You can guess which one happens on a Saturday afternoon.
An AI policy tells people what they should do. AI governance makes the right behavior easy to follow.
The policy still matters. It just needs a system behind it.
The 5 Biggest Risks of Uncontrolled AI Use
Good AI risk management starts with knowing what you’re actually worried about. For franchisors, it usually comes down to five things.
1. Sensitive data ends up in unapproved tools
Customer details, internal pricing, supplier terms, employee records, franchise agreements. Once that information goes into a personal AI account, you’ve lost track of where it lives and how it might be used. It’s also expensive when it goes wrong: breaches involving shadow AI averaged $5.39 million in IBM’s 2026 report, against a $4.99 million global average.
2. Locations publish off-brand content
AI writes quickly, but it doesn’t know your brand voice, which offers are live, what legal won’t allow or how marketing rules differ from one state to the next. The result is content that sounds fine and is quietly wrong.
3. AI gives confident answers that are incorrect
A new manager asks a chatbot, “What’s our refund policy?” It answers instantly and clearly, based on what refund policies usually look like on the internet. Not yours. Nobody notices until a customer does.
4. Every location reinvents the same workflow
Fifty locations each work out their own way to write review replies, job posts, social captions and customer emails. That’s fifty versions of the same work, at fifty levels of quality, when a handful of shared automations for franchisors would cover most of it.
5. HQ can’t measure adoption or ROI
You may know AI is being used. You probably can’t say how many people use it, which locations rely on it, which workflows save real time or where the risks are. Without that, it’s hard to invest in AI with any confidence, and even harder to defend the spend.
The Franchise Questions to Take to Your Attorney
Most AI governance advice assumes you employ everyone you’re governing. Franchisors don’t, and that changes what HQ can actually require. None of this is legal advice. These are the questions worth putting in front of your franchise counsel before you roll anything out.
Can we require a specific AI tool? It depends on the franchise agreement. Many include a technology clause covering required systems, software and technology fees. Plenty were written before generative AI and are vague about it, so mandating a platform may mean an amendment or waiting for renewals.
Who owns the data a franchisee pastes into a chatbot? Customer lists, reviews and sales data often sit in a gray zone between franchisor and franchisee. Whose data it is shapes who carries the risk if it leaks.
Are we exposed when a location’s AI gets it wrong? If a franchisee publishes a false pricing claim or a discriminatory job ad written by AI, the complaint may name the brand alongside the franchisee. How much control you exercise over that content affects how strong that argument is.
How far can we go before it looks like joint employment? This is the tension that makes franchisors hesitate. The more tightly HQ dictates how franchisee employees do their daily work, the stronger a joint-employer argument becomes. Governing brand standards and data is different from directing someone’s job, and that line deserves careful drafting.
Does a required platform change our FDD? A new mandatory system or technology fee usually has to be disclosed to prospective franchisees. Ask counsel what needs updating and when.
Regulation adds another layer, and it’s still moving. The EU AI Act treats AI used in hiring and employment decisions as high-risk, which matters for brands with European locations. New York City already requires bias audits for automated hiring tools. Colorado went further and repealed its 2024 AI Act outright: in May 2026 it replaced it with SB 26-189, a narrower law covering automated decision-making technology that materially influences decisions such as hiring. It takes effect January 1, 2027, so any franchise system using AI to screen or rank Colorado applicants has a real date to prepare for, even if enforcement waits on the attorney general’s rules.
What an AI Governance Framework Should Look Like
An AI governance framework doesn’t need to be a 40-page document. Formal standards like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and ISO/IEC 42001 are worth knowing about, but for most franchise systems, governance comes down to six building blocks.
1. Approved AI tools
Decide which models and platforms people can use, then give them access so they don’t need personal accounts. The goal is fewer random logins, not fewer people using AI.
2. Approved company knowledge
Give AI controlled access to the material it should draw on: SOPs, policies, training documents, brand guidelines, product information and internal FAQs. That’s what fixes the refund policy problem.
3. Reusable, approved prompts
HQ builds prompts once for the work every location repeats: replying to a negative review, drafting a local promotion, summarizing feedback, writing a job post, turning an SOP into a checklist. For marketing teams, prompts with built-in approval rules keep speed and brand control together.
4. Role-based access
Not everyone needs everything.
Role
What they can access
HQ
Company-wide knowledge, settings and reporting
Regional manager
Knowledge and reporting for their region
Franchisee
Operational resources, brand assets and approved workflows
Location employee
A small set of everyday workflows
5. Human review for high-risk tasks
Pricing claims, legal responses, hiring content and anything regulated shouldn’t go straight from AI to the public. The flow is simple: AI drafts, a person reviews, someone approves, then it’s published.
6. Usage monitoring
Track active users, the most-used workflows, usage by location and time saved. That’s how you find the wins worth scaling and the gaps worth fixing.
How the pieces fit together
Each risk from earlier maps to a building block, and each block maps to a function in the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Risk
Building block that addresses it
NIST AI RMF function
Sensitive data in unapproved tools
Approved tools, role-based access
Govern
Off-brand content
Approved prompts, human review
Manage
Confident but wrong answers
Approved company knowledge
Manage
Every location reinvents workflows
Approved prompts
Manage
No visibility into adoption or ROI
Usage monitoring
Measure
NIST’s fourth function, Map, is the Discover step in the plan below: understanding where AI is already in use before deciding what to control.
How to Control AI Without Slowing Franchisees Down
This is the part that decides whether governance works or becomes one more thing people route around.
Make the approved option the easiest one. If the approved tool gets a usable answer faster than a free chatbot, convenience does most of the enforcing.
Standardize repeatable work, not every thought. Lock down customer replies, promotions and hiring content. Leave brainstorming alone.
Give teams freedom inside guardrails. Franchisees know their local market better than HQ does. Let them experiment with ideas and tone, and draw firm lines around sensitive data and what gets published.
Keep one source of truth. When every location keeps its own copy of the brand guidelines, some copies are out of date. One shared, current source means AI answers from the right version.
Match approvals to the risk. Brainstorming subject lines and publishing a pricing claim shouldn’t go through the same process. If they do, people start skipping it for both.
Centralize the guardrails. Decentralize the creativity.
From AI Policy to a Governed AI Setup
Today, a typical franchise employee’s AI setup is a personal ChatGPT account, brand guidelines in Google Docs, an SOP buried in their downloads folder and a few favorite prompts in a notes app. HQ can see none of it.
A governed setup pulls those pieces together: approved models, AI that answers from company knowledge, shared prompts and agents, permissions by role and visibility into usage. Some franchisors build this with an internal team. Others bring in a partner to build and run it. Either way, that’s where governance stops being theoretical. A policy on paper can’t change what someone does at 6 p.m. on a Friday. A setup where the right knowledge and prompts are already waiting can.
A Simple 5-Step AI Governance Plan for Franchisors
You don’t have to solve everything at once. Here’s a practical order to work in.
Step 1: Discover. Find out what’s already happening. A short, anonymous survey works well: which tools are teams using, what for and what information goes into them? Expect the answers to be broader than you’d guess.
Step 2: Define. Set the basics: approved tools, prohibited data, acceptable uses and which tasks need human review. Run it past counsel using the questions above, and keep it short enough that a store manager will read it.
Step 3: Centralize. Bring company knowledge, prompts and AI assistants into one controlled environment. Plan the switchover for franchisees already paying for ChatGPT or Claude: give them a cutover date and decide whether HQ covers access from then on, so nobody pays twice.
Step 4: Enable. Train franchisees on workflows that help them, not just on the rules. Franchise networks have a real edge in AI adoption because one good workflow can roll out to every location. Show a manager how to answer three reviews in five minutes and you’ll get more buy-in than any policy memo.
Step 5: Measure. Track adoption, time saved, workflow usage, location participation and output quality. Then adjust. Governance isn’t a one-time project.
How Weam Helps Franchisors Put AI Governance in Place
Weam is an AI implementation partner for franchise and multi-unit businesses. Instead of handing HQ another tool to configure, the Weam team designs, builds and maintains the governed setup for your network. The product views in this article are illustrative mockups of the kind of setup Weam builds. It includes:
Prompt libraries, training and governance guidelines built around your brand, so every location uses AI the same way
AI grounded in your operations playbook and brand standards, so answers come from your documents
Model choices reviewed and approved with your legal or operations team during setup
Role-based permissions across HQ, regions and locations
Usage tracking that shows which teams use AI and which tasks save the most time
That covers the operational side of governance. It doesn’t replace your franchise counsel, a model-level risk assessment, the audit logs a regulator may ask for, your data retention and deletion policy or due diligence on the AI vendors themselves. Those still need an owner at HQ, and naming them early saves a scramble later.
Once the guardrails are in place, the next step is putting AI to work where locations lose the most time and money. Our guide to 10 AI workflows that stop revenue leaks picks up from there.
Want to see what a governed AI rollout could look like across your locations? Book a demo call.
Final Takeaway: Don’t Fight AI Adoption. Govern It.
Franchisees using AI isn’t the problem. They found tools that save them time, and that’s a good thing. The problem is AI use that nobody can see, guide or measure.
So the goal shouldn’t be to stop people from using AI. It should be to give them a faster, safer, company-approved way to use it.
The organizations that get AI governance right won’t be the ones with the longest AI policies. They’ll be the ones where the approved way to use AI is also the easiest way.
FAQs
What is AI governance for franchisors?
It’s the set of policies, permissions and processes a franchisor uses to control how AI is used across HQ and franchise locations. It covers approved tools, data rules, access by role, human review and usage monitoring, shaped around what the franchise agreement allows.
Can a franchisor require franchisees to use a specific AI tool?
It depends on the franchise agreement. Many include a technology clause covering required systems and fees, but older agreements may not mention AI. Check with franchise counsel, and remember that a new required platform may need to be disclosed in the FDD.
What is shadow AI?
Shadow AI is the use of AI tools without the company’s approval or visibility, such as pasting internal documents into a personal chatbot account. It’s usually driven by convenience, not bad intent.
What should a franchise AI policy include?
At minimum: approved tools, data that must never be shared, allowed use cases, when human review is required and who to ask when something’s unclear. Keep it short and use real examples.
How can a company stop employees from using unapproved AI tools?
Bans rarely work on their own. Offer an approved option that’s faster and more useful, with company knowledge and ready-made prompts built in, then monitor usage and follow up where gaps show.
What is an AI governance framework?
It’s a structured approach to managing AI use. A practical one covers approved tools, approved knowledge, reusable prompts, role-based access, human review for high-risk tasks and usage monitoring. Those map onto the Govern, Map, Measure and Manage functions of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Focus Experiential’s Greenscreen Glambot and Rebrand Introduction
The Glambot has become instantly recognizable for one thing: dramatic, slow-motion camera movement that makes its subject look like they have stepped onto a red carpet.
Now, an experiential version of the technology is pushing that concept beyond the physical event space with virtual production.
Focus Experiential’s Greenscreen Glambot combines robotic camera capture with green screen production and custom digital environments, giving brands the ability to place event guests inside campaign-specific virtual worlds while producing finished video content onsite.
The concept borrows from virtual production workflows, but packages them into an attendee-facing brand activation.
Instead of filming a guest against the ballroom, convention floor or physical backdrop surrounding the camera, the Greenscreen Glambot captures them against a controlled green screen environment. That footage can then be composited into a digital scene built specifically around the campaign.
The result is a Glambot experience where the physical venue no longer determines what appears in the final video.
Moving the Glambot Beyond the Red Carpet
A traditional Glambot relies heavily on what is physically around the subject.
Lighting, set design, event décor and the surrounding environment all become part of the shot enhancing the virtual production.
That approach works particularly well for premieres, award shows and red-carpet environments where the setting is already part of the visual appeal.
The Greenscreen Glambot changes the equation.
By separating the guest from the physical background, brands gain significantly more control over the world appearing around them.
A camera may still be operating inside a convention center or event venue, but the finished video could make the guest appear inside a futuristic city, beside an oversized product, on a racetrack or within an entirely fictional campaign environment.
That makes the activation less dependent on what can physically be fabricated onsite.
It also creates an opportunity for the content itself to carry substantially more of the campaign’s visual identity.
Turning Event Guests Into Campaign Talent
The more interesting shift may be what happens to the attendee.
They are no longer simply posing in front of the branding.
They can become part of it.
A guest steps onto the green screen set while the robotic camera moves around them to capture the dramatic motion associated with a Glambot. The green environment is then replaced with campaign-specific creative, positioning the guest inside the final visual.
In practice, this begins to blur the line between an event activation and a miniature content production.
The brand provides the vision.
Focus Experiential provides the digital world.
The technology provides the camera movement.
The attendee becomes the talent.
And instead of the finished content looking like documentation of someone attending an event, it can look more like a piece of creative produced for the campaign itself.
That distinction is particularly relevant as marketers increasingly design physical activations with social distribution in mind.
An event may reach the people physically standing in the venue.
The content created there can reach everyone those people share it with afterward.
Virtual Environments Open Up New Creative Options
Green screen itself is not new technology.
What changes the creative possibilities is combining it with controlled robotic camera movement and designing the virtual environment around that movement.
A static camera can hide many of the spatial relationships between a subject and a digital backdrop.
A camera moving around the subject creates a different challenge.
The digital environment has to support the perspective and motion of the shot so that the finished content feels intentional rather than like a subject was simply placed over a background.
That allows experiential teams to think beyond flat branded graphics.
A digital environment might include dimensional scenery, moving objects, products, environmental effects or other visual elements that respond to the camera’s movement and reinforce the illusion that the guest exists within the scene.
For brands, this also opens up an interesting alternative to physical fabrication.
A campaign concept that would be difficult, expensive or impossible to physically construct for a short event can potentially exist entirely in the final video.
A product can become larger than the guest.
An environment can transform around them.
A scene can ignore the physical limitations of the venue.
The event footprint stays in the real world while the creative output does not have to.
Greenscreen Glambot Experience for Brand Activations and Experiential Events!
One Capture, a Completely Different World
That separation between capture and environment also creates flexibility.
The same robotic camera system can be used while the digital creative changes around it.
For a sports campaign, the guest might be placed inside a high-speed competitive environment.
For an entertainment launch, the content could borrow visual cues from the world of the film or show.
A technology company might build a futuristic digital space around a new product.
An automotive campaign could create a virtual environment where the guest appears alongside the vehicle without requiring the entire scene to be physically constructed around the activation.
The core interaction remains understandable to the attendee: step in, pose and perform for the camera.
The technology operating afterward is what transforms the result.
From Capture to Shareable Content
Speed matters at an activation when it comes to virtual production.
Producing an impressive video several days after the event may be useful for a recap, but it changes the value of the experience for the person who just participated.
The Greenscreen Glambot is designed around onsite processing and digital delivery, allowing the guest to access the finished content while the event is still happening.
That creates a relatively short journey between participation and distribution:
The guest enters the set.
The robotic camera captures the performance.
The green screen is replaced with the branded digital environment.
The finished video is processed.
The attendee receives the content for viewing and sharing.
For marketers evaluating a glambot rental, that content pipeline may ultimately be as important as the robotic camera itself.
The visible technology attracts attention onsite.
The finished asset for virtual production is what has the opportunity to travel beyond it.
A Different Kind of Experiential Production
Focus Experiential positions the Greenscreen Glambot as an evolution of the standard Glambot experience, designed for campaigns that require more control over storytelling, product integration and the visual environment.
It also reflects a broader shift in experiential technology.
Physical activations are increasingly being designed not only around what the attendee experiences in the room, but around the media that interaction produces.
That changes how an event footprint can be evaluated.
A green screen area and robotic camera may occupy a relatively defined physical space.
The environment visible in the finished video can be virtually unlimited.
And the guest standing in front of the camera is no longer simply someone attending the campaign.
For a few seconds, they become part of the campaign itself.
What good is a phone that can’t keep up with the average person’s day-to-day needs?
Karlis Dambrans/Shutterstock
You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on an Android phone, even if it’s brand-new. You can find plenty of great cheap Android phone options for $300 or less, if you know what to look for. And that’s the biggest thing to consider: knowing what features are crucial to have and where you can make concessions. Paying less for a phone that doesn’t have a sleek titanium frame, for example, is totally fine; you probably will (and should) put a case on it, anyway. But getting a phone with insufficient RAM, horrible battery life, poor cameras, a bad processor, or a small screen is where you want to draw the line.
In some cases, what you’re willing to sacrifice is an individual decision. If you’re a casual content creator, for example, the cameras need to be at least above average. But if you’re getting a secondary phone for basic messaging, you may be fine with just decent cameras. Nonetheless, there are some non-negotiable limits that anyone seeking out a cheap Android phone should focus on, no matter how you plan to use it.
Screen and RAM minimums
Ivan-balvan/Getty Images
Remember when phones had tiny screens? The original iPhone’s 4.5-inch screen seemed groundbreaking at the time, but by today’s standards, that just doesn’t cut it. A phone should have at least a 5.6-inch screen, though most nowadays are at least 6.1 inches. This allows you to enjoy a comfortable experience when holding the phone and typing two-handed while still being able to clearly see the content on it. That screen should also be an AMOLED panel with HD resolution and a decent peak brightness of at least 1,000 nits, so it’s viewable in direct sunlight.
Memory is another factor to consider. You’ll want at least 6GB RAM; otherwise, multitasking, video streaming, and casual gaming could be slow or inconsistent, and the phone won’t respond quickly enough to your demands. If you play a lot of mobile games, consider even going up to 8GB. Also, if there’s no expandable storage (which is a rarity nowadays), 128GB is the minimum you should consider. For peace-of-mind, go with at least 256GB. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a “phone full” message before you know it, and you’ll be forced to clear out the device or sign up for cloud storage.
Finally, the processor matters. While you might not need the best, fastest, most up-to-date processor, you don’t want one that’s slow as molasses. Check the age of the processor, as well as reviews for its performance, and factor this into your decision. There’s no value in getting a cheap device if it’s slow and laggy when you want to stream a movie, and a great processor is vital for gaming on an Android phone.
Don’t skimp on the battery and cameras
Nuva Frames/Shutterstock
Battery life and cameras are also important. A battery that’s at least 4,500mAh is sufficient, especially if the phone doesn’t handle heavy AI processing. But 5,000mAh is a better starting point nowadays to keep you going all day, even with moderate use. With cameras, you want a phone that can at least take photos that are good enough for sharing on social media and keeping for posterity. This means having at least a 32MP sensor for the rear camera, but also a large sensor that can capture more light and yield better photos overall, even if the megapixels are lower in one camera versus another. Don’t discount the front sensor and resolution as well, as this is what you’ll use to take selfies. Look for at least a 12MP front camera with, again, a good sensor size.
Consider other basics like NFC for tap-to-pay and more recent Bluetooth versions for reliable connectivity to headphones and speakers. For older models, confirm that there’s at least a few years left of software and security support. This sounds like a lot, but you’ll find plenty of devices that fit, like Samsung’s Galaxy A series phones (see our review of the Samsung Galaxy A17, for example) and phones from brands like Nothing and Motorola.
Even older-model Google Pixel phones can fit the criteria. You can find a renewed Google Pixel 8a for just over $300 nowadays, and it comes with just about every vital feature mentioned previously. Ideally, wait for seasonal promotions to find a decked-out mid-range phone for the price of a budget one. You’ll have to make compromises to go cheap, but there are many phones in the $300 range that meet or exceed non-negotiable features and specs.
An unannounced Star Wars and Marvel shooter in the works at Epic Games has been delayed, and its creators instructed to take an “AI first” approach to development. Staff were advised of the pivot last week, according to a Bloomberg report, with the project delayed indefinitely from its (unannounced) March 2027 release.
That “AI first” approach seems pretty comprehensive: the instructions per Bloomberg are to “implement an ‘AI first’ production model using tools such as Anthropic’s Claude”. Art will be “generated with full AI workflows”, according to the same set of instructions.
Shortly after Bloomberg’s report was published, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to X to share his own thoughts:
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On AI use at Epic Games in general: “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration,” he said. “The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.”
On Epic ‘not reading the room’ when it comes to consumer attitudes towards generative AI: “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. Our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be. Personally I’m optimistic about it and see it as empowering for creators.”
On whether Epic will “accelerate an IPO”: “Our more modest aim is to survive the AI revolution, help other developers do the same, and come out on the other end making better code and content faster.”
On potential improvements to development time offered by AI: “Right now it’s highly variable, from 20% in some areas (like the most technical areas of UE [Unreal Engine] dev) to 5x for other areas (like web dev). By this time next year I expect very little will be less than 3x of January 2026 efficiency.”
On AI’s effects on game design in general: “The biggest change will be much faster time from having an idea to playtesting it. This will be great for gameplay, as most of the recent AAA failures can be attributed to game systems going through far too much of their development process without being able to playtest.
Epic Games laid off over 1,000 employees in March, citing the decline in console sales, Epic’s ongoing legal disputes with Apple and Google, and difficulty in delivering “consistent Fortnite magic with every season”.
Are projects like Epic Games’ Star Wars x Marvel crossover inevitable? Will we just have to cope?
Shaun Prescott
Let’s be honest: a Marvel and Star Wars crossover shooter made by Epic Games, predominantly utilising generative AI and AI workflows, will be a pretty fascinating experiment to behold. It’s such a rich intersection of exhaustingly ubiquitous pop culture touchstones that there’s every possibility its AI origins will be less detectable than they might otherwise be.
Because AI slop already mostly looks like Fortnite, Star Wars and Marvel. Add Pixar (which Fortnite looks like), and you basically have slop Mount Rushmore. This is the abyss staring back into the abyss.
Sweeney’s quote about audiences wishing they were still in 2016 is telling. The AI industry loves to frame uptake of the technology as an inevitability that detractors / luddites will just need to cope with, or at least, they do when they’re not loudly worrying that the technology might kill us.
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Still, terrible things that no one likes do have a way of bleeding inescapably into our everyday lives. Tech companies own platforms best equipped to make us tolerate things we innately abhor. People hated Facebook’s rollout of “likes”—now most of us “like” things with our mouths firmly closed. People hated it when social media feeds stopped being feeds, so that, for example, weird videos about putting various objects through meat grinders are now mainstream. The transformation from “way to catch up with friends” into “ruinously addictive habit” wasn’t appreciated, but it’s the norm now anyway.
In other words, the tech industry knows that it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not: you’ll get what you’re given.
Every design decision needs a trade-off: “Good, fast, cheap – just pick two.” In reality, it goes beyond the engineering work. This is a challenge as it must be understood how cost, performance, and speed can be integrated throughout the lifecycle of a product.
Teams in engineering ensure that trade-offs are seen as vital in business decisions and not just in technical details. It considers how designs work in the stages of prototyping, how they will scale for production, and how fast they reach the target market. Experts in the field of engineering guidance ensure that it helps the teams make smart decisions. Cad Crowd partners and connects with companies that have specialized freelance engineers who can review the work and check the risks before proceeding with companies that will spend a significant amount of money.
This is the cost to make each unit of a product. It consists of the bill of materials (BOM), the manufacturing labor, and the tooling costs that cover the production. If unit cost is optimized, the trade-off will be needing higher tooling or longer development time.
Development cost and time
This includes the non-recurring engineering (NRE), prototyping, testing, design work of the products, and the time that is needed to bring the product into the market. Teams may prioritize speed by making use of existing components and standard modules, even if these choices result in an increase in the final cost of the unit.
Technical performance
Technical Performance is the functional envelope of a product design services. It refers to how well a product works with its function, reliability, durability, accuracy, as well as with the user’s firsthand experiences. The trade-off in optimizing technical performance is the need for premium materials and a lot of testing. By improving any of the factors, it greatly affects others. One instance is when using a premium material might improve performance, yet it can also increase the unit cost.
The right decision depends on the size and number of units a company expects to have. An important aspect in the trade-off analysis is the anticipated production volume. This centers on having the same design decision; while being optimal for a prototype run of 100 units, it might be ineffective in producing 100,000 units.
Production Context
Typical Design Bias
Low volume prototypes or pilot runs
As Unit Cost being higher, it favors speed and flexibility
High volume production
To reduce unit cost, it is crucial to invest in custom tooling or have the components be optimized
High time pressure
Utilization of off-the-shelf modules to accelerate the launch
Performance critical products
Apply reliability and functionality, despite increase in cost and development time
When there is a high production volume, engineers focus on decreasing the cost of the unit. Having a small reduction in the bill of materials can have a great effect, which is by saving a lot across a thousand units. When the pressure of high time comes, the teams are choosing off-the-shelf modules as it reduces the risks and the time. It can also increase BOM cost, as products reach the market quickly.
Concrete trade-off pairs
Common trade-off pairs ensure that the engineers are comparing the two competing priorities. One option can offer a reduced upfront cost, save time, and some options offer improvement in performance, scalability, and long-term profitability. Selecting the option for the trade-off must include the best choice that can create a balance for the specific project.
An off-the-shelf module reduces the time of development and risks that could happen, as it is already proven, and components are pre-certified. On the other hand, Custom PCBs reduce the unit cost and optimize the size or the production volume. Yet, this might require validation and a lot of NRE. This trade-off is usually seen in electronic design services. One example is that a pre-made Wi-Fi module can speed up the launch of a connected consumer device. In order to lower BOM costs and enhance integration, the company may redesign the electronics into a custom PCB after demand has been verified.
Aluminum prototype tooling vs. production steel
Aluminum Tooling centers on offering a low upfront cost and fast lead times. This offer is suitable for prototypes and short production runs. Steel tooling, on the other hand, does require a larger initial investment; however, it produces better durability and consistency and offers a lower cost per part for high-volume production. This trade-off takes place in manufacturing and in injection molding. For example, a startup can use aluminum tools for the production of 300 test units. If the product becomes big, it can scale up to 30,000 units; production steel tooling must be utilized for a better long-term economic choice.
Tighter tolerances vs. manufacturing yield
Tighter tolerances can improve the precision, performance, and product fit. Reduced scrap rates and increased manufacturing yield are two benefits of tighter tolerances. Tolerance in design is the amount a part’s size can be slightly different from the intended measurement and still work properly. If there is a need for precision in the assembly of mechanical design parts, it may require tight tolerances for proper operation. On the other hand, giving non-critical features needless precision can lengthen the machining process and lower yield without improving customer value.
Of course, a larger battery also means that it has a higher capacity to store a larger amount of battery, but it comes with a larger size and weight. Although a smaller battery can reduce the product’s size, making it more compact, the trade-off is lower capacity and shorter usage time. This is commonly seen in smartphones, gadgets, or any portable devices. An example of this is how a product can be a comfort as it does not consume or take a lot of space. A wearable device that is designed to be comfortable needs a smaller battery. While sensors used in industry prioritize a long battery life even if the product size is big, it can also offer better convenience.
Design debt: the hidden cost of compromises
Some of the trade-offs can be permanent, and some are not. Every design decision can have its own effect on various aspects of products. Some compromises create design debt, which mainly is focused on the decisions that solve the problem and make the improvement more challenging and expensive to solve. Trade-offs are unavoidable, and the long-term effects are frequently overlooked until the product has been introduced in the market, when the states and the expenses go.
Choosing a quick and temporary fix will result in an expensive and harder solution later on. An example of design debt includes using a temporary module, which in the later stages makes the integration challenging. Choosing a material that does not meet the requirements, such as durability. As well as adding features without considering how it will affect production. Producing more versions can be expensive and time-consuming due to design debt, as teams may need to redesign some parts of the product. By identifying the design debt, companies can have information and decide more clearly rather than spending a lot due to redesigning.
With the use of a simple decision matrix, teams can compare the design options. A simple decision matrix makes it possible to help the product teams have design options in an organized and clear way. Rather than relying on guesswork and assumptions, the teams evaluate the options using the same set of criteria and priorities. Suppose that the team is comparing the two design options for the electronic design product. The team scores each option on a scale of 1 to 5. A score of 5 means the option performs well on a specific criterion.
Criteria
Weight
Option A
Option B
Unit Cost
40%
3
5
Development Speed
30%
5
2
Performance
20%
4
5
Scalability
10%
2
5
How the weighted score works
The weight indicates the significance of each criterion. A higher weight indicates a greater influence on the final decision.
Option A calculation
Weighted score
Unit cost: 3 × 0.40
1.20
Development speed: 5 × 0.30
1.50
Performance: 4 × 0.20
0.80
Scalability: 2 × 0.10
0.20
Total
3.70
Option B calculation
Weighted score
Unit cost: 5 × 0.40
2.00
Development speed: 2 × 0.30
0.60
Performance: 5 × 0.20
1.00
Scalability: 5 × 0.10
0.50
Total
4.10
Interpreting the results
Option A shows that it scores higher in development speed; thus, it is better when the top priority is the time-to-market.
Option B calculation provides a score that is higher in unit cost, performance, and scalability. Thus, it is a better option for production that has a high volume.
The higher total scores recommend that the option must match the weighted priorities.
How to use it in practice
To be able to carry it out, it is vital to understand the things involved so that the flow will be easier to get by. Identifying required criteria: Start by familiarizing yourself with the specific choice and decide what factors matter for the product.
Assign weights: Give more weight to factors that are most essential to the product’s goal. Ensure that the weights add up to 100%.
Score each option: Use a consistent rating scale, such as 1 to 5, to avoid confusion. 1 is the lowest, and 5 is the highest score.
Calculate weighted scores: After getting the score, multiply each score by its weight.
Compare overall score: In choosing the best option, the stronger option is the one with the higher weighted score.
When to adjust the weights?
Adjusting the weights in the decision matrix should be done when the priorities of the projects change. It is important to note that the weight tells how crucial each factor is. This means that a higher weight will result in a factor that has a bigger influence on the final decision. Always check the project’s priorities as they might change, and it will be easier to adjust the weights. By making sure that the weights are adjusted carefully, the teams can guarantee that the decision matrix recognizes and reflects the real goals of the projects, which will then support the engineering design trade-off decisions.
The presence of a decision matrix does not automatically mean that it provides a decision. But it helps the teams have discussions about the trade-offs in a clearer and more organized way. Discussion often includes showing why one option is better than the other. With this kind of reasoning, it will be easier to comprehend what the reason is behind the final decision.
If a startup needs to launch a product quickly, it may instantly assign a higher weight to the development speed. When a product is expected to be selling in massive volumes, the teams can assign a higher weight to scalability and unit cost. By weighting and scoring the options, it will be easier to have the teams create trade-offs, making it more transparent, and provide solutions that are best in supporting the goals of the products.
Where experienced engineering judgment creates value
Decisions in trade-offs are vital, especially when the experienced engineer makes them. It becomes really valuable. An experienced engineer can recognize problems and identify questions such as: will the choices become a bottleneck at a higher production volume? Could a higher NRE reduce long-term unit cost significantly? Does the design choice provide an avoidable design debt? While a less experienced team can merely focus on the cost savings, freelance engineering experts can make a great impact that could change and uncover the underlying issues, which can result in a better solution.
Cad Crowd provides a value that is beyond what a platform and a marketplace can do. The product design trade-offs are in need of engineers who could help ease and evaluate the whole system. This system includes technical requirements, processes in manufacturing, cost drivers, business goals, as well as supply-chain constraints. With the use of Cad Crowd, companies can actively engage with the professionals and experienced freelance engineers who could help in targeting the design review, manufacturing assessments, analysis of technical feasibility, as well as with the studies in cost optimization.
Cad Crowd offers experienced engineers who can evaluate trade-offs, identify hidden risks and issues, and recommend practical design strategies before making a big decision and commitment. By allowing companies to connect with experts in areas such as PCB design services, mechanical engineering, and product development, Cad Crowd makes it possible for teams to have better information on trade-offs. Instead of having the task be completed, the results are more comprehensive in the product strategy, and it balances cost, performance, and speed. Cad Crowd is a great extension of help as it will be much more efficient to have a decision that is clearly understood.
Having experienced engineering guidance, teams can easily validate guesswork and assumptions, reduce design debt, and have a decision that supports the long-term success of the product. Cad Crowd does not just connect; it offers partnership as well, and it gives companies access that could help in design trade-offs by providing a perspective on both technical and commercial aspects.
Engineering trade-offs are necessary in the process of product design; it is completely normal to have them. The product teams must guarantee the balance of the unit cost, technical performance, development cost and time, while still thinking of the market pressure that is seen as well as the production volume. Successful teams communicate and evaluate the trade-offs thoroughly and choose the best option that provides a strong overall value not just for the product but also for the business.
Wrapping it up
The presence of Freelance product engineering experts guidance is valuable, especially in making decisions on the trade-offs. It can uncover risks that can also solve the problem. Cad Crowd connects with companies that have specialized engineers who can provide the suitable insights where decision-making matters. It is not all about choosing the cheapest, fastest, or the highest performing option, but decisions must be made in a way that creates options and provides the strongest value for the business. Product teams can lower risk, avoid expensive redesigns, and produce products that are competitive in the market, feasible to manufacture, and positioned for long-term success by strategically addressing trade-offs.
Making the right engineering decisions can have a major impact on a product’s cost, performance, development time, and long-term success. Cad Crowd connects businesses with vetted engineers and design professionals who can evaluate design options, identify potential risks, and provide practical guidance throughout product development. Whether you need support with PCB design, mechanical engineering, prototyping, DFM, product development, or cost optimization, Cad Crowd can help you find professionals with the expertise needed for your project. By getting experienced engineering input before making major design commitments, you can reduce costly redesigns, avoid unnecessary design debt, and make better-informed decisions that balance performance, speed, and cost. Contact Cad Crowd today for a free quote and find the right expertise to help move your product forward with confidence.
MacKenzie Brown is the founder and CEO of Cad Crowd. With over 18 years of experience in launching and scaling platforms specializing in CAD services, product design, manufacturing, hardware, and software development, MacKenzie is a recognized authority in the engineering industry. Under his leadership, Cad Crowd serves esteemed clients like NASA, JPL, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies, empowering innovators with access to high-quality design and engineering talent.
As AI factories grow from megawatts to gigawatts, building them takes more than advanced computing. Open standards are helping the industry scale AI infrastructure faster, more efficiently and more reliably.
At the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit, taking place in the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, NVIDIA announced new partnerships and contributions aimed at creating a common foundation for next-generation AI infrastructure.
NVIDIA contributed key NVIDIA Vera Rubin rack and compute tray designs to OCP through the open NVIDIA MGX architecture, giving system builders a common foundation for developing next-generation AI factory infrastructure.
Together, these efforts span the AI factory itself, the utility grid that powers it and the rack-scale architecture at the heart of modern accelerated computing.
NVIDIA and Partners Announce Open Architecture Advances
At the OCP event, NVIDIA and partners made a handful of announcements:
NVIDIA and hyperscalers published open standards for next-generation AI factories, including AI factory design standards and grid resilience.
NVIDIA launched new open source software components for NVIDIA DSX AI Factory.
Meta and NVIDIA advanced open AI networking with NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet SuperNIC and Spectrum-6 innovations.
Visionbayintroduced an 800V DC AI factory design for the Vera Rubin era.
NVIDIA and Cisco announced the Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable (USFP) standard, the industry’s first module for 400Gb/s-based networking fabrics.
NVIDIA and Google announced Falcon Transport support on future NVIDIA ConnectX-10 SuperNICs and BlueField DPUs.
Before a packed audience, Ian Buck, vice president of hyperscale and high-performance computing at NVIDIA, discussed how open infrastructure is becoming a critical ingredient for scaling AI factories worldwide.
The news at OCP spotlights how NVIDIA’s extreme codesign combined with open standards is accelerating deployment, improving power efficiency and driving tokens-per-watt performance.
Vera Rubin AI Factories Advance With MGX Rack Contributions at OCP 🔗
NVIDIA joined industry leaders in contributing to the third-generation MGX AI data center reference design through OCP’s Open DC Initiative.
Combined with open liquid-cooling technologies such as MQD and MQDB, the effort helps turn proven AI factory designs into industry standards that others can adopt, manufacture and scale.
For NVIDIA Vera Rubin AI factories, the updated MGX 1.2 specification extends the open architecture for AI factories with rack-scale blind-mate liquid cooling, interoperable rack-scale interconnect infrastructure and a liquid-cooled 5,000A busbar designed for higher-power AI systems. It also adds native 19-inch equipment support and higher-density rack designs.
MGX 1.2 further expands modularity with configurable I/O bays, fanless liquid-cooled compute trays, standardized power and cooling interfaces, and a common infrastructure that helps ecosystem partners build interoperable accelerated computing platforms. It improves assembly, test and service times to streamline manufacturing and field service to enable faster and more efficient infrastructure buildout. The architecture supports rack deployments up to 250kW while simplifying serviceability, deployment and infrastructure reuse.
The Vera CPU rack design specification extends the NVIDIA MGX open architecture beyond accelerated computing, providing a purpose-built platform for the growing agentic AI era. While Vera Rubin NVL72 serves as the foundation for large-scale training and inference, the NVIDIA Vera CPU rack is designed to support tool calling, orchestration and sandboxed execution, helping AI agents interact with applications, data and services in real time.
Built on the third-generation NVIDIA MGX rack architecture, the Vera CPU rack shares the same rack-scale design principles that unite compute, networking, power and cooling into a common modular platform. This approach enables partners to deploy specialized infrastructure while benefiting from a shared ecosystem, simplified integration and a consistent foundation for next-generation AI factories.
NVIDIA Launches New Open Source Software Components for DSX AI Factory 🔗
NVIDIA DSX AI factory platform applies extreme codesign to unify computing, networking, power, cooling, facilities and software, helping AI factories operate as a single optimized system, maximizing AI output within available infrastructure constraints. At the center of this unified system is DSX OS, the open operating layer that turns the DSX architecture into coordinated, repeatable operations at scale.
At OCP, NVIDIA expanded DSX OS with open source components for configuring networks, validating clusters, managing racks and provisioning bare metal:
NVIDIA Config Manager: Automates switch configurations at scale, allowing customers to deploy, validate and maintain consistent AI factory network fabrics with minimal to zero manual intervention/
NVIDIA Cluster Readiness Engine: Helps eliminate costly job crashes by stress-testing GPU clusters with real workload simulations to guarantee hardware health before training begins
NVIDIA Rack Management Service: Offers a rack hardware abstraction and operations solutions that treats racks as first-class units for improved AI factory scale firmware management.
Developed from NVIDIA’s experience running NVIDIA DGX Cloud, these open source components enable cloud providers and software partners to integrate AI factory capabilities directly into their multi-tenant platforms.
Developers can visit the DSX AI Factory Github page to explore and contribute to both the new and existing open source software components from NVIDIA DSX AI Factory platform.
NVIDIA and Hyperscalers Publish Open Standards for Next-Generation AI Factories 🔗
For AI infrastructure to scale globally, it needs more than advanced hardware — it needs a common foundation that the entire industry can build on.
At OCP, NVIDIA joined AMD, Google and Meta to publish a new open specification that establishes that foundation. The Open Data Center Specification v0.7 defines a unified blueprint for next-generation AI factory facility design — from power architecture to cooling infrastructure to physical layout.
The OCP Grid Resilience Specification, published by Google, Meta, Microsoft and NVIDIA, establishes how large-scale AI infrastructure should behave during utility grid disturbances: staying connected, responding automatically and restoring to near-full load within less than two seconds.
With these standards now open, manufacturers around the world have a common target to build for. Equipment makers, colocation providers and data center operators can begin designing, fabricating and delivering the infrastructure layer that powers AI factories under construction globally — without waiting for proprietary specifications from individual customers.
Being NVIDIA DSX reference design-compatible, these specifications provide a validated, deployable implementation of both specs, from facility layout and power architecture to the software that monitors and responds to grid signals in real time. For operators building Vera Rubin AI factories, there’s now a straight line from open community standard to a running system.
Visionbay.ai Designs 800VDC AI Factory for the Vera Rubin Era 🔗
As AI factories grow larger and more powerful, one challenge looms over them all: delivering enough power to the accelerated computing systems driving the next generation of AI.
At OCP, Visionbay unveiled plans for K-1, a next-generation AI factory platform designed around an 800 VDC architecture and built with future NVIDIA Vera Rubin deployments in mind. The project combines NVIDIA’s 800 VDC reference architecture with power and thermal technologies from Vertiv to create a scalable foundation for high-density AI infrastructure.
The design addresses a growing industry challenge. As AI training, inference and reasoning workloads expand, rack power densities continue to rise. Traditional low-voltage power distribution becomes increasingly difficult to scale, requiring more copper, more cabling and more power-conversion equipment.
By adopting NVIDIA’s 800 VDC architecture, K-1 creates a path toward higher-density AI infrastructure while preserving flexibility for existing deployments. Rather than requiring a complete transition on day one, the platform is designed to phase in 800 VDC distribution where it delivers the greatest benefit, helping operators prepare for future generations of accelerated computing without extensive facility redesign.
The architecture is designed around cluster-level power centers that centralize AC-to-DC conversion and distribute 800 VDC closer to compute resources. The approach simplifies downstream power delivery, supports modular expansion and creates repeatable building blocks for future AI factory growth.
K-1 also reflects the system-level design philosophy behind NVIDIA AI factories, where power, cooling and computing are engineered together. With support for liquid-cooled infrastructure, scalable power distribution and future Vera Rubin-class deployments, the project demonstrates how ecosystem partners are translating NVIDIA’s AI factory architecture into deployable infrastructure designed for the next era of accelerated computing.
At the event, Meta and NVIDIA announced that Meta is adopting NVIDIA Spectrum-6 102.4Tb/s Ethernet switches to build larger, higher-performance NVIDIA Vera Rubin AI factories on open networking.
Spectrum-6 delivers twice the switching capacity and per-lane bandwidth of Spectrum-4, and provides a lossless Ethernet AI fabric at 200G per lane, with high effective bandwidth and performance isolation that keeps one job’s traffic from slowing another’s.
Meta’s Spectrum-6-based switch, N-IceCube, slots into IcePack, Meta’s 100T, liquid-cooled rack. N-IceCube runs the Facebook Open Switching System (FBOSS), Meta’s open source network operating system that contributed to OCP to support efficient networking at hyperscale.
FBOSS is built on the Switch Abstraction Interface, an OCP standard NVIDIA helped develop, providing a vendor-independent way of controlling switch hardware. Together, these technologies support agentic AI factories of more than 100,000 GPUs that train and serve massive mixture-of-experts models.
The announcement marks the next step in a collaboration that combines Meta’s experience operating AI infrastructure at hyperscale with NVIDIA’s networking technology.
At the heart of this collaboration is Spectrum-X Multiplane technology, enabled by Spectrum-6 switches and ConnectX-9 SuperNICs. Multiplane distributes GPU traffic in hardware across up to eight independent network planes, enabling AI factories to scale beyond 100,000 GPUs with fewer switch tiers and lower infrastructure costs. Multiple paths between GPUs improve network utilization and resilience: when a component fails, traffic shifts to the remaining planes, keeping GPUs productive and AI applications running, even at reduced bandwidth.
Meta and NVIDIA worked together to strengthen that resilience through deployment experience and rapid engineering iteration. The teams validated improvements across on-premises and cloud environments.
“We are excited about our close partnership with NVIDIA in making multiplane fabrics operationally scalable and performant, a critical requirement both for our own infrastructure builds and for our joint cloud partners,” said Omar Baldonado, senior director of data center and AI networking at Meta. “Extending FBOSS to Spectrum ASICs means we can run that same software stack across our fabrics, and Meta’s new Spectrum-based switch, N-IceCube, brings that into Icepack – our liquid-cooled 102.4T network rack for scale-out that connects upcoming generations of accelerators in our fleet.”
Together, Meta and NVIDIA are developing an architecture and operational playbook that other AI infrastructure operators can adopt, turning lessons from demanding production workloads into more scalable, resilient and efficient AI factories.
With USFP, NVIDIA and Cisco Reinvent Pluggable Optics for AI Factory Scale 🔗
As AI factories scale to support larger models and surging inference demand, every component of the infrastructure stack must deliver more performance, efficiency and simplicity — right down to the network connection itself.
At OCP, NVIDIA and Cisco announced plans for USFP, a new optical pluggable transceiver module form factor designed to help AI factory builders scale next-generation AI fabrics while improving bandwidth density and power efficiency.
With approximately the same footprint as the widely adopted 200Gb/s-per-lane OSFP form factor, USFP will provide a path to 400Gb/s-per-lane networking and will extend a transceiver-based deployment model already proven across generations of data center networks. Packing 16 full-duplex lanes with plans to scale up to 32 lanes, USFP will deliver four times the bandwidth density of traditional 200Gb/s-per-lane pluggable optics.
The result is the ability to connect more compute resources without adding network tiers that can increase latency, power consumption and complexity.
The new form factor is designed for the scale and efficiency demands of next generation AI factories, supporting higher-bandwidth fabrics while preserving the flexibility and serviceability that have made pluggable optics a mainstay of modern data centers. It also will deliver roughly 1.3x greater power efficiency, helping operators move more data with less energy.
To help drive an open ecosystem, NVIDIA and Cisco are collaborating with TE Connectivity and Amphenol on cages, connectors and modules, with plans to advance USFP through a community-led, multi-source effort. Together, the companies are laying the foundation for more scalable, efficient and interoperable AI factory networking.
Google Falcon Transport Supports NVIDIA ConnectX-10 for Interoperable AI Networking 🔗
NVIDIA and Google also announced Falcon Transport support on future NVIDIA ConnectX-10 SuperNICs and BlueField DPUs, helping improve network efficiency for large-scale AI infrastructure.
Falcon is a transport protocol designed to deliver data reliably over Ethernet networks, which can otherwise drop packets under congestion. It supports AI and storage workloads through multipath load balancing, programmable congestion control, hardware loss recovery and per-connection security.
This collaboration combines NVIDIA hardware acceleration with DOCA software to implement Falcon and extend NVIDIA networking to Google’s data center transport. NVIDIA and Google NICs can communicate over a common transport while applications retain standard RDMA programming interfaces.
By distributing traffic across paths, adapting to congestion, recovering dropped packets and protecting connections, Falcon helps workloads make better use of available bandwidth and maintain predictable performance as Ethernet fabrics scale.