• Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, is taking a temporary medical leave.
• Simo is seeking treatment for postural tachycardia syndrome, or POTS.
• POTS is a disorder that can cause heart palpitations, lightheadedness, and fainting.

OpenAI executive Fidji Simo is taking a temporary medical leave to treat postural tachycardia syndrome, or POTS.

The company said in an internal memo to OpenAI staffers on Friday that Simo would leave to pursue treatment and would return in several weeks.

Simo, who cofounded the Complex Disorders Alliance and the Metrodara Foundation, was diagnosed with POTS in 2019. She was initially misdiagnosed by doctors, including one who credited her health issues to being a “tired mom.”

“I was fainting constantly, I was feeling weak,” Simo told Fortune in 2021.

POTS affects the autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke said people with POTS often have orthostatic intolerance, which is a set of symptoms that occur when a person stands up and are relieved by lying down.

“Symptoms of orthostatic intolerance, which often include dizziness or fainting, happen because not enough blood flows back to the heart when the person moves from a lying down or seated position to standing up,” the agency said.

Through her organizations, scientists are conducting research and trying to find cures for disorders like POTS.

Who is most likely to get POTS?

Although anyone can be diagnosed with POTS, the disorder mostly affects people between 15 and 50 years old. POTS is more common in women than in men.

“POTS commonly begins after a pregnancy, major surgery, puberty, trauma, or a viral illness. Some people report an increase in episodes of POTS right before their menstrual periods,” the National Institute of Health said.

People with a family history of POTS are at a “higher risk.”

What are the symptoms of POTS?

A “classic” symptom of POTS is a fast heartbeat, but the disorder can also cause dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting, and heart palpitations that occur when standing up.

“Some people may have blurred vision or tunnel vision, weakness in the legs, chest pain or other pain, fatigue, sleep problems, digestive issues, shortness of breath, and difficulty concentrating,” the agency said.

Over time, POTS symptoms can improve, but some may remain or persist for a long time.

Why is POTS hard to diagnose?

The agency said scientists aren’t sure what exactly causes POTS.

“Doctors typically begin by reviewing a person’s medical history and discussing their symptoms,” the agency says. “They may also measure heart rate and blood pressure and observe how the body responds to changes in position, such as standing up quickly.”

How is POTS treated?

Treatment for POTS is focused on managing issues with blood flow and low blood volume.

Some medications can offer short-term relief, but scientists are still determining their long-term effectiveness. Lifestyle changes can help lessen symptoms, including increasing salt intake and staying hydrated.

How does COVID-19 impact POTS?

Some people with long-term COVID have developed POTS, but scientists are still determining why, according to the agency.

People with POTS symptoms related to COVID-19 can also experience anxiety, depression, cognitive issues, brain fog, and sleep problems.

• AI is transforming the consulting industry with new tech startups in Silicon Valley.
• These startups aim to help companies manage data and optimize technology using AI.
• These four companies have collectively raised over $300 million.

AI is upending a business that hasn’t changed in generations.

Over the past year, a new wave of consulting tech startups has emerged in Silicon Valley. These companies are helping clients manage their data, make better decisions, and optimize their technology, all through the use of AI.

While some on the list are not shy about their ambitions to eventually take a slice of business from the Big Four or the MBB, others are looking to complement the established players’ work.

Business Insider asked a handful of investors to identify a few of the most promising startups to watch in this emerging category of consulting tech. Here are five AI-powered consulting startups to watch.

PromptQL

Total funding: $136 million

What it does: PromptQL is an enterprise platform that aims to automate some of the work of a typical consultant, like surfacing insights and generating reports. It helps clients build custom AI analysts by integrating their internal data with the foundation models they already use.

Once deployed, these AI analysts can perform tasks typically handled by data scientists or engineers — and continuously learn and adapt to their environments over time.

PromptQL also offers access to its team of expert engineers, who help companies operate their AI analysts and shape broader AI transformation strategies — at a rate of $900 an hour.

Tanmai Gopal, PromptQL’s CEO and founder, told Business Insider that the platform’s “killer feature” has been its capacity to provide “AI accuracy at scale without requiring messy data to be prepped or moved elsewhere.”

Why it’s good: “For us, the bet here is simple: there’s an overconfidence crisis in AI,” Gaurav Gupta, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, told Business Insider. “We believe 95% of AI companies will fail, and history will show that hallucinations were a major reason why. We think PromptQL is best positioned to solve this for enterprises.”

Aily Labs

Total funding: $101 million

What it does: Founded in 2020 by former Novartis executive Bianca Anghelina, Aily Labs builds an AI-powered “decision intelligence” platform designed to help Fortune 500 companies make decisions by consolidating data.

“I experienced firsthand how decisions are slowed down because of siloed data,” Anghelina said. Traditional corporate decision-making is often delayed by “processes that take weeks or months” and “data owned by different functions” without “one source of truth,” she said.

Aily’s “AI brain” aims to tackle these challenges by combining off-the-shelf and proprietary large language models, with data, to surface insights and recommendations “in a matter of minutes rather than weeks,” she said.

Unlike typical consulting firms, Aily isn’t focused on one-off projects, but on embedding “an always-on AI brain” into a company’s operations, she said.

Why it’s good: “Everyone’s capturing information, but the question is: how are we actually using it to drive better decisions and efficiency?” Pegah Ebrahimi, the cofounder and managing partner at FPV Ventures, which led Aily’s latest $80 million funding round, told Business Insider.

Aily is like an “executive partner that surfaces the top insights and risks relevant to your specific role — whether you’re head of supply chain in Brazil or head of sales for North America,” she added.

Profound

Total funding: $58.5 million

What it does:

In the AI era, companies are no longer agonizing about search engine optimization; they’re fretting about how to get mentioned in generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

GEO, also known as generative engine optimization, is the process of optimizing content to boost its visibility in AI-driven searches.

Profound helps companies manage their geo strategy, including how they’re mentioned in generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT. They also advise on how agents interface with a company’s website and digital content, and analyze real-time search data to understand how consumers are working with generative AI chatbots.

Why it’s good:

Thomson Nguyen, cofounder and managing partner at Saga Ventures — which invested in Profound’s Series B round — told Business Insider by email that chief marketing officers at companies once hired brand consultants and marketing consultants to run focus groups to research and understand how their brand ranked among competitors.

Now, Profound offers a way to automate that work, Nguyen said.

Max Altman, another cofounder and managing partner at Saga, told Business Insider by email that “Profound is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, and clear category leader.”

Dialogue

Total funding: $6 million

What it does: Dialogue AI, an AI-powered market research platform, aims to speed up the way companies conduct research — from designing studies and recruiting participants, to conducting interviews.

The company was founded by Benjamin Lo, Justin Hoang, and Hubert Chen — all of whom overlapped at Nextdoor, a social networking platform for neighborhoods.

The aim is to cut the turnaround time of a typical market research study from weeks to just a day, Lo previously told Business Insider.

“Maybe you’re a designer or an engineer or a consultant, and you can basically conduct research independently with best practices. I think that’s one of our visions — can we almost democratize market research?” Hoang previously told Business Insider.

Why it’s good: “Market research as we know it is ripe for disruption,” Faraz Fatemi, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, which lead Dialogue’s seed round, said in a press release announcing its new funding.

“Dialogue understands that teams across an organization, not just researchers, need fast, meaningful insights to do their jobs well. What they’ve built is both technically impressive and deeply thoughtful: a way to talk to customers at scale, without sacrificing depth or quality.”

Larridin

Total Funding: $17 million

What it does: Larridin is a measurement and analytics company focused on how AI is actually used inside organizations.

Its product, Scout, helps companies understand “what’s actually happening in your org with AI.”

Russell Fradin, a cofounder of the company, said its goal is to give companies visibility into the usage and impact of AI.

Scout can be used to answer questions like “what’s actually happening in your org with AI, what’s working, what’s not working, what’s making your employees more productive,” Fradin said.

It can also help answer questions around cost optimization, which typically falls into the realm of consulting firms. “How much more productive is this tool actually making your employees? Should you spend more on it? Should you cancel it? Should you double down?” he said.

Fradin said Larridin isn’t trying to replace consulting firms. Instead, it wants to provide data they can use.

“We’re just trying to build a very large measurement company,” he said.

Why it’s good: “AI is moving faster than any technology revolution in history, and like the internet, it needs independent measurement to prove value,” Alex Rampell, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, which led Larridin’s Series A round, told Business Insider. “Larridin identified this gap early and built the right solution, Larridin Scout, at exactly the right time. Every CIO we know is asking how to measure the impact of AI. Now they have an answer.”

• Debris from a missile struck Oracle’s offices in Dubai on Saturday, city officials said.
• The city government called it a “minor incident” that didn’t result in any injuries.
• Iran earlier threatened to target US companies in the region.

Falling debris from an intercepted missile has damaged the Dubai office of American tech giant Oracle, city officials said on Saturday.

“Authorities confirm that they responded to a minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City. No injuries were reported,” the Dubai Media Office said on X.

Iran has threatened to strike US-owned companies in the Middle East in retaliation for the US-led war that has now dragged on for six weeks. In a statement published on Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps advised US workers to avoid their offices.

In response, Dell told employees not to travel to the Middle East for work until mid-April, and advised staff based in the region to work from home. In an internal note, the company said it was prioritizing team member safety.

Amazon said in March that several of its cloud computing facilities had been struck since the war began.

The US has urged its citizens to reconsider travel to much of the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, “due to the threat of armed conflict and terrorism.”

The war, which began after the US and Israel launched strikes on Tehran on February 28, has upended the global economy as fuel prices skyrocket and travel through parts of the Middle East is rerouted.

President Donald Trump has said the war is intended to weaken what he has called the “imminent threat” of Iran’s ballistic missiles, alleged nuclear weapons program, and its proxies in the Middle East.

Trump on Saturday doubled down on his earlier demand that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, by April 6 or face consequences. The US, meanwhile, has moved thousands of troops into the region in recent weeks.

• I left my career at 38 to stay home with my child.
• I struggled with guilt, identity loss, and my changing relationship with money.
• Over time, I found purpose and connection through shared experiences.

At 38, I faced the toughest decision of my career: whether I wanted to continue working.

I had been working since I was a teenager and had never considered not doing so.

When my husband and I got married, we discussed what our future would look like with children, and I naively thought it would all work out seamlessly. That I would balance my career and motherhood with ease.

Then reality hit.

I decided to stay home

As first-time parents, it was soon evident that the balancing act was an illusion. We decided that I would stay at home with our son during his early years, a decision that left me grappling with a weight I never saw coming.

The sleepless nights and endless diapers, those topics get talked about. What blindsided me were the invisible battles.

On paper, we could make it on my husband’s income alone, but life isn’t as tidy as a piece of paper. I went in knowing that our lifestyle would change, becoming a one-car family, thrifting more, and eating out less, but what I didn’t anticipate was the way my relationship with money would change.

I felt guilty when I spent money

After two decades of working, I was used to making and spending my own money. I never felt bad about my monthly manicures, grabbing dinner with friends, or buying my husband a birthday gift.

Now, every time I wanted to purchase something a wave of guilt swept over me and I felt as though I was spending someone else’s money.

While my husband constantly assured me that it was our money, memories of my mom and step-dad arguing over who made more and therefore who was more “valuable” haunted me.

Eventually, I found ways to earn a small income outside a traditional 9-to-5, from freelance writing to mystery shopping, until I took on a part-time work-from-home job, which gave me a sense of financial autonomy.

My résumé didn’t matter anymore

Over the course of my career, I had built up an impressive résumé of experience, industry certifications, and specialized knowledge. When I became a stay-at-home mom, none of it mattered.

My days were filled with changing diapers, cleaning up spit-up from the oddest places, and all the other day-to-day responsibilities that come with parenting. I was left wondering if I was wasting everything I had worked so hard for.

What I wish I could have told myself back then was that my time in the professional world, combined with my time as the primary caregiver, would provide me with the insights and opportunities I now have.

But in the moment, I was too far in the trenches and simply felt as though I had let myself down. And the loss I felt went beyond my career. It was about who I was becoming.

My identity shifted

When I became a mom, I knew my identity would shift, but I didn’t fully appreciate how much it would impact me and how others would view me.

No longer was I greeted with, “How are you doing, Laura?” Now it was “How are you doing, mama?”

The identity of being a mom overshadowed all the other components of me.

Who was I now that I didn’t have an official title, now that I wasn’t receiving recognition for my contributions, and now that my biggest accomplishment was reaching the end of the day wearing the same shirt I started with?

I felt untethered. The old me no longer existed, the new me was in survival mode, and the future me was still being formed.

I felt so guilty

During my career break, there was a faithful companion by my side: guilt.

The guilt took many forms, from feeling guilty that I didn’t enjoy every moment to feeling guilty that I wished I worked outside the house.

I grappled with it alone until I found a group of women who understood. Some had taken a career break because they had always wanted to; others because it made financial sense.

When I finally said my feelings out loud, I felt understood, supported, and most importantly, seen. While it didn’t erase the guilt or my struggles, I was reminded I wasn’t alone.

Today, I have the privilege of working with women as they wrestle with these same emotions.

It turns out the journey that once felt like losing myself became the path to finding my purpose.

Imam Cagdas has been making baklava the same way since 1887: entirely by hand, without any automation. The Gaziantep shop is now in its fifth generation of ownership, with Burhan Cagdas carrying on the craft his forefathers passed down to him. As food influencers and culinary tourists from around the world make the pilgrimage to try the famous baklava, the family isn’t changing a thing. We visited the kitchen to see how this legendary shop keeps a 139-year-old tradition alive.

• A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

The US jobs report on Friday was surprisingly strong. That’s not the only part of the job market that’s doing better than expected.

Tech job openings have rebounded sharply in 2026, challenging the popular narrative that AI is wiping out engineering roles.

Data from TrueUp, a tech hiring analytics firm, shows more than 67,000 software engineering job openings, the highest level in over three years. Listings have roughly doubled since a trough in mid-2023.

The most striking number for me: So far this year, the number of open roles has jumped about 30%. TrueUp tracks jobs at tech companies (rather than all types of businesses that may need tech workers), so the impact of AI should be felt even more strongly in this data.

“A lot of the ‘AI is replacing engineers’ narrative isn’t grounded in job posting data — at least not so far,” Amit Taylor, founder of TrueUp, told me this week.

Check out this chart, which shows open software engineering roles globally. The chart starts in late 2022, when ChatGPT emerged and started the generative AI revolution. The line goes the opposite way you would expect, given all the hand-wringing over AI lately.

The recovery follows a steep correction in 2022 and early 2023, when tech companies slashed hiring after over-expanding during the pandemic boom. Rising interest rates and a shift toward profitability forced companies to freeze hiring and cut staff. Now, hiring is rebounding as firms invest heavily in AI, which, ironically, requires large numbers of engineers.

TrueUp’s dataset tracks more than 260,000 open roles across 9,000 tech companies, focusing on startups and public tech firms rather than the broader economy. Within that universe, demand for software engineers remains strong, while AI-related roles are “exploding,” Taylor said.

So why does the situation feel so dire for some candidates, especially recent graduates? There are still entry-level tech jobs, but the pool of available talent is much bigger now.

“Way more people have pursued computer science,” TrueUp founder Amit Taylor told me this week. “The jobs haven’t disappeared, but competition for them is dramatically higher than it was even five years ago.”

How might the tech job market evolve, as AI weaves itself through the economy?

“Maybe AI compresses some roles entirely. Or maybe it makes great engineers so leveraged that companies fight even harder over them,” Taylor said. “Right now, the demand for top talent is strong, but maybe that continues for a while until things suddenly flip.”

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.