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It's tax season, and at Lifelock, we know you're tired of numbers, but here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it. Guaranteed. One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com specialoffer for the threats you can't control. Terms apply if you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant. You know having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why, hands down, you count on Grainger for auto reordering. With on time restocks, your team will have the cut resistant gloves they need at the start of their shift, and you can end your day knowing they've got safety well in hand. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. AI is starting to close its jaws around traditional tech From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Ben, ashore in for David Brancaccio. Software companies are in trouble. Or at least their stocks are. Salesforce helps businesses with software for sales and marketing and customer service. Its Stock is down 25% this year and it is barely February. In Intuit, they make software to help with accounting and taxes. Their stock is down 31% this year, and software stocks in general, according to an S and P index, are down 17%. The reason for all of this? Artificial intelligence. The startup Anthropic just released a new automation tool that investors fear could make many software companies obsolete. Marketplaces NovaSafo has has more Organizations with a lot of operational balls in the air use enterprise software from the likes of Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow and others. These are companies that are just at the heart of every business worldwide today. That's Rishi Jaluria, managing director of software research at rbc. Now comes Anthropic's new plugins for Claude Cowork, designed to automate functions in sales, legal and financial analysis, among other things. Key domains for for enterprise software Many software investors believe the actual value of the software industry is going towards zero. Brent Thill Jefferies analyzes tech companies. He thinks the market's concerns are overblown, though. You're not going to see massive banks that are regulated. Insurance companies that have the data and process workflows are unlikely to fully rip out these systems going forward. Consequently, software companies have time to integrate AI into their offerings. So why then are markets reacting so negatively now to developments in agentic AI? Analyst Arun Chandrasekharan at Gartner researches AI's impacts. I think people are just surprised by the sheer pace of innovation, I would argue, in this ecosystem, which is a way of saying, I thought this was going to happen in 2027, and I can't believe that it's happening in 2025 or 2026. So it's hard to know when more disruption is coming and how long software companies have to adapt. I'm NovaSafo for Marketplace. It is not just software stocks that are on a rickety ride. Bitcoin is tanking. It is under $70,000 now, lost nearly half of its value since last October. Other cryptocurrencies are also down. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genser explains what is going on. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were supposed to be a safe haven investors turn to during turbulent times, but instead traders are flocking to old standbys like gold. Crypto also hasn't taken hold as a currency used to buy and sell things. So crypto trades remain speculative, more like a gamble. And they have competition from sports gambling platforms and prediction gambling sites. Some crypto traders were also spooked by the downturn in tech stocks. All kinds of cryptocurrencies are cratering. Alternatives to bitcoin like Ether and Solana are also hitting lows. I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace. If you're an H Vac technician and a call comes in, Grainger knows that you need a partner that helps you find the right product fast and hassle free. And you know that when the first problem of the day is a clanking blower motor, there's no need to break a sweat. With Grainger's easy to use website and product details, you're confident you'll soon have everything humming right along. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This Marketplace podcast is supported by Wealth Enhancement who ask do you have a blueprint for your money? Wealth Enhancement can help you build the right blueprint for investing, retirement, tax, and more. With offices nationwide, there's an advisor who's ready to listen and craft a blueprint for your future. Find out more@wealthenhancement.com build if we wanted to know exactly how the labor market was doing, we would normally just look it up at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that data was delayed because of the partial government shutdown. So we have to snoop around elsewhere for clues. We do know that job openings fell sharply in December. Layoffs rose in January, according to Challenger Grand Christmas and payroll processors like ADP are reporting weak job growth marketplaces. Mitchell Hartman reports on how this job market is playing out for small and mid sized employers. Jim Piper runs a sheet metal fabrication company, Kelair Dampers, outside Chicago. He's got about 30 full time employees and he says hiring is not an issue that I'm deeply worried about right now. Unfortunately, he's more worried about bringing in enough work. It's been a tough start to the year. The fundamentals aren't great. Costs are up, demand's down. Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum are pushing up the prices he pays suppliers. Meanwhile, customers aren't ordering as much of the airflow control equipment that the company makes because regulation of factory emissions is being rolled back over the last year as a few employees have voluntarily left the company. We're simply not backfilling those positions. Across the country in Olympia, Washington, Chris Knudsen owns three restaurants, a brew pub and two Italian restaurants. I asked him how's business right now? Not awesome. It's always a little bit slow in January, especially on the brewery side. Blame dry January for that. But this January's been slower than last. With inflation biting into consumers paychecks, he sees diners going out less, ordering less extravagantly. We have to sort of keep the staff low because costs keep rising and volume's not there. We're probably between 45 and 50 employees right now, and if we were firing on all cylinders, we'd probably be closer to 60 to 65. In Kansas City, Missouri, Emily Bordner is busy with her growing retail and wholesale jewelry business, EB Co, which has four brick and mortar stores and 16 employees. We came off of a year of going viral in 2024. Sales boomed after Taylor Swift was spotted wearing one of Border's rings while cheering Travis Kelce in the stands. Last year, Border expanded, but also tariffs cut into her margins and consumers pulled back. When we opened up two more stores, we have to staff them, but we're definitely doing it as bare bones and as minimally as possible. These business owners say it's not as hard to hang on to workers as it was a few years ago. And Jim Piper says for his metal fabrication shop, gone are the days of scrambling to find skilled trade workers. When we have banner years, I need to hire four, five, six welders. That's when it becomes a challenge. That's not an issue today. I wish that was an issue again, but for that, he'd need business to pick up. I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace. And in New York, I'm Sabri Benishore with the Marketplace Morning Report from APM American Public Media. Have you ever kept a financial secret from a partner? I'm Marie Mag Reis, and this week on this Is Uncomfortable. I sit down with a divorce lawyer who shares some pretty extreme cases of financial secrecy. They had a forensic account, went through the numbers, and they calculated that he spent $250,000 in a year on strip clubs. And I also chat with a couples counselor about how financial issues in a relationship are often really about trust and power. I find that, like, a lot of dudes typically are like, I know how to spend the money the right way. I should be the one that has all the control over it. And you, with your girl brain, don't understand. Listen to this Is Uncomfortable on your favorite podcast app.