BUSINESS

As generative AI matures from a novelty into a workplace staple, a new friction point has emerged: the “shadow AI” or “Bring Your Own AI (BYOAI)” crisis. Much like the unsanctioned use of personal devices in years past, developers and knowledge workers are increasingly deploying autonomous agents on personal infrastructure to manage their professional workflows.”Our journey with Kilo Claw has been to make it easier and easier and more accessible to folks,” says Kilo co-founder Scott Breitenother. Today, the company dedicated to providing a portable, multi-model, cloud-based AI coding environment is moving to formalize this “shadow AI” layer: it’s launching KiloClaw for Organizations and KiloClaw Chat, a suite of tools designed to provide enterprise-grade governance over personal AI agents.The announcement comes at a period of high velocity for the company. Since making its securely hosted, one-click OpenClaw product for individuals, KiloClaw, generally available last month, more than 25,000 users have integrated the platform into their daily workflows. Simultaneously, Kilo’s proprietary agent benchmark, PinchBench, has logged over 250,000 interactions and recently gained significant industry validation when it was referenced by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his keynote at the 2026 Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, California.The shadow AI crisis: Addressing the BYOAI problemThe impetus for KiloClaw for Organizations stems from a growing visibility gap within large enterprises. In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Kilo leadership detailed conversations with high-level AI directors at government contractors who found their developers running OpenClaw agents on random VPS instances to manage calendars and monitor repositories. “What we’re announcing on Tuesday is Kilo Claw for organizations, where a company can buy an organization-level package of Kilo Claws and give every team member access,” explained Kilo co-founder and head of product and engineering Emilie Schario during the interview.”We can’t see any of it,” the head of AI at one such firm reportedly told Kilo. “No audit logs. No credential management. No idea what data is touching what API”. This lack of oversight has led some organizations to issue blanket bans on autonomous agents before a clear strategy on deployment could be formed. Anand Kashyap, CEO and founder of data security firm Fortanix, told VentureBeat without seeing Kilo’s announcement that while “Openclaw has taken the technology world by storm… the enterprise usage is minimal due to the security concerns of the open source version.” Kashyap expanded on this trend:”In recent times, NVIDIA (with NemoClaw), Cisco (DefenseClaw), Palo Alto Networks, and Crowdstrike have all announced offerings to create an enterprise-ready version of OpenClaw with guardrails and governance for agent security. However, enterprise adoption continues to be low.Enterprises like centralized IT control, predictable behavior, and data security which keeps them compliant. An autonomous agentic platform like OpenClaw stretches the envelope on all these parameters, and while security majors have announced their traditional perimeter security measures, they don’t address the fundamental problems of having a reduced attack surface. Over time, we will see an agentic platform emerge where agents are pre-built and packaged, and deployed responsibly with centralized controls, and data access controls built into the agentic platform as well as the LLMs they call upon to get instructions on how to perform the next task. Technologies like Confidential Computing provide compartmentalization of data and processing, and are tremendously helpful in reducing the attack surface.”KiloClaw for Organizations is positioned as the way for the security team to say “yes,” providing the visibility and control required to bring these agents in-house. It transitions agents from developer-managed infrastructure into a managed environment characterized by scoped access and organizational-level controls.Technology: Universal persistence and the “Swiss cheese” methodA core technical hurdle in the current agent landscape is the fragmentation of chat sessions. During the VentureBeat interview, Schario noted that even advanced tools often struggle with canonical sessions, frequently dropping messages or failing to sync across devices. Schario emphasized the security layer that supports this new structure: “You get all the same benefits of the Kilo gateway and the Kilo platform: you can limit what models people can use, get usage visibility, cost controls, and all the advantages of leveraging Kilo with managed, hosted, controlled Kilo Claw”.To address the inherent unreliability of autonomous agents—such as missed cron jobs or failed executions—Kilo employs what Schario calls the “Swiss cheese method” of reliability. By layering additional protections and deterministic guardrails on top of the base OpenClaw architecture, Kilo aims to ensure that tasks, such as a daily 6:00 PM summary, are completed even if the underlying agent logic falters. This is critical because, as Schario noted, “The real risk for any company is data leakage, and that can come from a bot commenting on a GitHub issue or accidentally emailing the person who’s going to get fired before they get fired”.Product: KiloClaw Chat and organizational guardrailsWhile managed infrastructure solves the backend problem, KiloClaw Chat addresses the user experience. Schario noted that “Hosted, managed OpenClaw is easier to get started with, but it’s not enough, and it still requires you to be at the edge of technology to understand how to set it up”. Kilo is looking to lower that barrier for the average worker, asking: “How do we give people who have never heard the phrase OpenClaw or Claudebot an always-on AI assistant?”.Traditionally, interacting with an OpenClaw agent required connecting to third-party messaging services like Telegram or Discord—a process that involves navigating “BotFather” tokens and technical configurations that alienate non-engineers. “One of the number one hurdles we see, both anecdotally and in the data, is that you get your bot running and then you have to connect a channel to it. If you don’t know what’s going on, it’s overwhelming,” Schario observed.“We solved that problem. You don’t need to set up a channel. You can chat with Kilo in the web UI and, with the Kilo Claw app on your phone, interact with Kilo without setting an external channel,” she continued. This native approach is essential for corporate compliance because, as she further explained, “When we were talking to early enterprise opportunities, they don’t want you using your personal Telegram account to chat with your work bot”. As Schario put it, there is a reason enterprise communication doesn’t flow through personal DMs; when a company shuts off access, they must be able to shut off access to the bot.Looking ahead, the company plans to integrate these environments further. “What we’re going to do is make Kilo Chat the waypoint between Telegram, Discord, and OpenClaw, so you get all the convenience of Kilo Chat but can use it in the other channels,” Breitenother added.The enterprise package includes several critical governance features:Identity Management: SSO/OIDC integration and SCIM provisioning for automated user lifecycles.Centralized Billing: Full visibility into compute and inference usage across the entire organization.Admin Controls: Org-wide policies regarding which models can be used, specific permissions, and session durations.Secrets Configuration: Integration with 1Password ensures that agents never handle credentials in plain text, preventing accidental leaks.Licensing and governance: The “bot account” modelOther security experts note that handling bot and AI agentic permissions are among the most pressing problems enterprises are facing todayAs Ev Kontsevoy, CEO and co-founder of AI infrastructure and identity management company Teleport told VentureBeat without seeing the Kilo news: “The potential impact of OpenClaw as a non-deterministic actor demonstrates why identity can’t be an afterthought. You have an autonomous agent with shell access, browser control, and API credentials — running on a persistent loop, across dozens of messaging platforms, with the ability to write its own skills. That’s not a chatbot. That’s a non-deterministic actor with broad infrastructure access and no cryptographic identity, no short-lived credentials, and no real-time audit trail tying actions to a verifiable actor.”Kilo is proposing to solve it with a major change in organizational structure: the adoption of employee “bot accounts”. In Kilo’s vision, every employee eventually carries two identities—their standard human account and a corresponding bot account, such as scott.bot@kiloco.ai. These bot identities operate with strictly limited, read-only permissions. For example, a bot might be granted read-only access to company logs or a GitHub account with contributor-only rights. This “scoped” approach allows the agent to maintain full visibility of the data it needs to be helpful while ensuring it cannot accidentally share sensitive information with others.Addressing concerns over data privacy and “black box” algorithms, Kilo emphasizes that its code is source available. “Anyone can go look at our code. It’s not a black box. When you’re buying Kilo Claw, you’re not giving us your data, and we’re not training on any of your data because we’re not building our own model,” Schario clarified.This licensing choice allows organizations to audit the resiliency and security of the platform without fearing their proprietary data will be used to improve third-party models.Pricing and availabilityKiloClaw for Organizations follows a usage-based pricing model where companies pay only for the compute and inference consumed. Organizations can utilize a “Bring Your Own Key” (BYOK) approach or use Kilo Gateway credits for inference.The service is available starting today, Wednesday, April 1. KiloClaw Chat is currently in beta, with support for web, desktop, and iOS sessions. New users can evaluate the platform via a free tier that includes seven days of compute.As Breitenother summarized to VentureBeat, the goal is to shift from “one-off” deployments to a scalable model for the entire workforce: “I think of Kilo for orgs as buying Kilo Claw by the bushel instead of by the one-off. And we’re hoping to sell a lot of bushels of of kilo claw”.

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The hotel industry has spent decades perfecting the loyalty program, the turndown service, and the complimentary breakfast buffet for you. None of that seems to be working for younger travelers, who are increasingly walking away from traditional hotels in growing numbers every year.A new NerdWallet survey just revealed a clear generational split in how Americans choose their lodging, and the findings should worry every hotel executive. The shift goes deeper than sticker shock, touching on how younger generations travel, who they travel with, and what they value in a stay.If you are planning a trip this summer, these numbers could change the way you think about booking your next accommodation entirely.More than half of Americans now prefer vacation rentals over hotelsAbout 51% of Americans said they would rather stay in a vacation rental than a hotel if given the choice while traveling, according to the February NerdWallet survey conducted by The Harris Poll. That slim majority tells only part of the story, because the generational breakdown reveals a much sharper divide between older and younger travelers.The preference for vacation rentals declines steadily across generations, with younger Americans far more likely to skip hotels entirely. Gen Z and millennials are driving the shift, while baby boomers remain the most loyal hotel customers, according to the survey results.Related: What Mexico’s civil unrest means for your cruise, vacationGen Z and millennials are driving the shift, while baby boomers remain the most loyal hotel customers, according to the survey results.This is not just a passing trend driven by one viral TikTok video about a charming Airbnb cabin in the mountains somewhere. The global vacation rental market was valued at roughly $174.84 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $195.45 billion in 2026, Fortune Business Insights reported.Gen Z and millennials are traveling more without their parentsYounger travelers are not just choosing different places to sleep; they are taking fundamentally different kinds of trips than older generations do. Gen Z and millennials are more likely to travel with friends, go solo, or attend events such as concerts and weddings this summer.Gen Z respondents were the most likely age group to say they would travel for a bachelor or bachelorette party this summer season. These group-oriented trips naturally favor vacation rentals that offer shared kitchens, living rooms, and multiple bedrooms under one roof, the survey found.Group travel favors rentals over hotel roomsWhen six friends split the cost of a four-bedroom beach house, the per-person cost often drops below what a single hotel room would charge. Hotels simply cannot compete on that math for group trips, because you are paying per room rather than per property with rentals.More Travel:The world fires back on Trump’s new travel banLow-cost airline adds 5 new flights to popular beach destinationsAmerican Air launching 15 new summer routes between U.S. citiesThe shared-space factor matters just as much as the cost savings for many younger travelers who want to cook together and hang out. Traditional hotel rooms were designed for couples or solo business travelers, not for groups of friends splitting a bachelor party weekend somewhere.Parents with young children much prefer rentals over hotel staysThe generational shift gets an extra boost from families with kids, as parents of children under 18 prefer vacation rentals at a rate of 65%. That number drops sharply to 45% among adults without children under 18 living at home, the NerdWallet survey found.The appeal to parents is straightforward when you consider what traveling with young children requires of your lodging setup. You want a kitchen to prepare snacks, a living room where kids can play, and walls between rooms so everyone can sleep.Hotels struggle to match the family-friendly flexibility of a rental homeHotel suites can offer some of these features, but they typically cost two or three times as much as a standard room per night. A vacation rental with two bedrooms and a full kitchen often costs less than a single hotel suite in the same destination neighborhood.The noise factor also matters considerably, because parents with young children worry about disturbing other hotel guests during late-night crying sessions. A standalone rental property removes that anxiety entirely and gives families more freedom to relax on their own schedule.Price alone does not explain the hotel-versus-rental decision for most travelersYou might assume vacation rentals win purely on cost, but the pricing comparison between hotels and rentals is more complicated than that. Hotels are actually cheaper than comparable one-bedroom Airbnb rentals in 38 out of 50 popular travel destinations worldwide.“For many travelers, vacation math can hit differently… In the moment, it might just be $200 more for an ocean view or $40 extra for that seat upgrade, but multiplied across all the meals, tours, and transit over a week or two, your vacation budget can easily balloon,” Smart Travel Podcast host Sally French told NerdWallet. “The trick is planning a trip that feels meaningful without the debt.” Hotels also offer loyalty programs with free nights, room upgrades, and the ability to pay with points earned through co-branded credit cards. Vacation rentals lack those systematic reward structures, though splitting costs among a group can close that gap very quickly in practice.

Americans are gearing up for a costly summer as travel demand rebounds and vacation budgets reach record highs in 2026.Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

Summer 2026 travel spending is surgingAbout 45% of Americans plan to take a summer vacation in 2026, and the average expected cost for flights and lodging comes to $3,940 per person. That translates to more than 120 million travelers spending over $475 billion on summer travel alone, NerdWallet’s 2026 Summer Travel Report estimated.Younger travelers would rather skip a vacation than book budget lodgingAbout 42% of Americans say they would rather skip a vacation entirely than book budget airfare and lodging for their summer trip plans. That all-or-nothing mentality is even stronger among younger travelers who grew up with Instagram-worthy travel expectations and curated travel content.Half of Gen Z respondents and 47% of millennials would rather stay home than settle for budget accommodations, compared to just 36% of boomers. This partly explains why younger travelers gravitate toward rentals that feel unique and personal rather than generic hotel rooms.How to save money on lodging this summer, regardless of which option you pickWhether you choose a hotel or a vacation rental this summer, there are practical strategies to lower your total lodging costs. About 32% of 2026 summer travelers plan to use credit card points or miles to cover expenses, the NerdWallet survey found.Smart strategies for hotel bookingsSign up for hotel loyalty programs before your trip, because even entry-level members often get discounted rates and free perks.Use a co-branded hotel credit card to earn points that can cover free nights, room upgrades, or late checkout during your stay.Book directly through the hotel’s website rather than third-party sites, since hotels typically offer best-price guarantees only on direct bookings.Travel midweek instead of weekends when hotel occupancy is lower, which often means significantly reduced nightly rates for you.Smart strategies for vacation rental bookingsSplit the cost among your travel group to bring the per-person price below what individual hotel rooms would cost.Book well in advance for peak summer dates, since rental prices tend to surge as availability drops closer to your travel dates.Look for properties with full kitchens so you can cook meals instead of eating out for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner on vacation.Check the total price, including cleaning fees, service fees, and taxes, before committing, because those extras can add 20% or more to the bill.Half of Americans say travel rewards programs are complicated Hotels still hold one massive advantage over vacation rentals through their loyalty programs, but most Americans are not taking full advantage of them. About 48% of Americans say travel points and miles programs are too complicated to navigate effectively, according to the NerdWallet travel report.That complexity gap represents a real opportunity for you if you are willing to invest a few hours learning how your preferred hotel program works. Understanding how to maximize points can turn a $200-per-night hotel stay into a free one, potentially saving you thousands over a lifetime of travel.The loyalty gap gives hotels a path to win younger travelers backHotel chains that simplify their rewards programs and market them effectively to Gen Z and millennial travelers could recapture some of this demographic shift. The challenge is that younger travelers often prioritize unique experiences over brand consistency, which plays to vacation rental strengths.Travel does not have to be luxury to be impactful, and no vacation should follow you home as credit card debt on your monthly statement. Before committing to any reservations, decide what actually matters most to you about the trip, French Sally French, a NerdWallet travel expert, advised.What this generational shift means for your next booking decision this summerThe data point to a travel market that is splitting along clear demographic lines, with younger travelers and families increasingly choosing vacation rentals. Hotels are not disappearing, but their grip on the accommodation market is loosening as alternatives become more accessible and affordable.Your best move is to evaluate each trip on its own merits rather than defaulting to one lodging type out of habit or loyalty alone. A solo business trip might still call for a hotel, while a friend group beach weekend might be perfectly suited to a rental house.The key is matching your accommodation to the specific type of trip you are taking, the people you are traveling with, and your budget. With summer 2026 travel spending projected at nearly $4,000 per person, making the right lodging choice could save you hundreds of dollars.Related: American Airlines makes chic change some travelers will appreciate

Oil is back above $100, and the move now looks more like a sustained supply-risk trade than a short-lived geopolitical jolt. Recent price action has been driven by the same Iran conflict that has rattled energy markets for weeks, but the market’s focus has shifted toward how long disruptions could last and how much physical supply could stay constrained.The Iran war has already triggered the biggest upward revision on record in its monthly oil-price poll, Reuters reported this week. Analysts now expect 2026 Brent to average $82.85, up sharply from $63.85 in February, while the same report said oil benchmarks have climbed about 60% since the conflict began on Feb. 28.Oil above $100 is becoming a longer-running storyFront-month Brent traded at $104.63 in early April, while front-month WTI traded at $102.34. Brent finished March with a 64% gain, the biggest monthly increase since at least 1988, which shows how quickly traders have repriced supply risk.The market is reacting less to day-by-day fear and more to the possibility of a prolonged disruption through the Strait of Hormuz. That route normally handles about 20% of global oil and LNG transport, which helps explain why prices have stayed elevated even as traders continue to watch for diplomatic openings.Oil by the numbersUsing Brent at $104.63 in early April as the current reference point, the latest rally looks much larger in historical context. Weekly Brent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that prices were materially lower three, six, and 12 months ago.3 months ago: Brent was at $62.18; it’s now up about 68.3% at $104.63.6 months ago: Brent was at $69.22. That means the move to $104.63 is an approximately 51.2% increase.12 months ago: Brent was at $74.35, making the current $104.63 a 40.7% jump.The big oil names are still part of the tradeIf crude stays above $100, the names most likely to be looked at are still Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), and Occidental Petroleum (OXY). Exxon and Chevron remain the cleaner mega-cap oil trades, while Conoco and Occidental offer more direct upstream leverage and usually move harder when crude trends persist.More OilSurging Chevron stock has more going for it than just higher oil pricesExxon stock jumps as today’s oil rally meets a bullish chartJim Cramer sends curt oil and interest rate warningOil’s $30 whipsaw just put Buffett’s biggest energy bet back on screenThe longer-term backdrop for each stock is also different. Exxon still has Guyana and Venezuela in focus, Chevron has fresh exploration moves in Libya and Greece, Conoco is trying to cut $1 billion in capital and costs after integrating Marathon Oil, and Occidental remains centered on debt reduction and balance-sheet repair.How the big oil stocks have movedBased on March 31, 2026, closing prices and the month-end closing prices from Dec. 31, 2025, Sept. 30, 2025, and March 2025, the recent run in the group still looks substantial even after Tuesday’s pullback. Exxon closed at $169.66, Chevron at $206.90, ConocoPhillips at $132.00, and Occidental at $65.00.Exxon Mobil (XOM): closed at $169.66 on March 31
Versus $119.54 on Dec. 31, 2025

$111.03 on Sept. 30, 2025

$114.98 on March 31, 2025

That works out to gains of about 41.9% over 3 months, 52.8% over 6 months, and 47.6% over 12 months.
Chevron (CVX): closed at $206.90 on March 31
Versus $150.93 on Dec. 31, 2025

$152.09 at the end of September 2025

$163.46 at the end of March 2025

That works out to gains of about 37.1% over 3 months, 36.0% over 6 months, and 26.6% over 12 months.
ConocoPhillips (COP): closed at $132.00 on March 31
Versus $93.61 on Dec. 31, 2025

$94.59 at the end of September 2025

$103.28 at the end of March 2025

That works out to gains of about 41.0% over 3 months, 39.6% over 6 months, and 27.8% over 12 months.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY): closed at $65.00 on March 31
Versus $41.12 at the end of December 2025

$46.98 at the end of September 2025

$48.54 at the end of March 2025

That works out to gains of about 58.1% over 3 months, 38.4% over 6 months, and 33.9% over 12 months.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Crude can spike on fear and fade quickly. The move above $100 is holding because the market is treating supply disruption as a continuing issue, not a short-term shock. Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental have already had strong runs because of that, leaving investors weighing two questions at once.How long will the supply risk last?How much of the higher-for-longer oil story is already priced into the group?Related: The world’s biggest gas field matters just as much as oil right now

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Hedera (HBAR), up 3.6% from Tuesday, was also among the top performers.

Labor-market growth concentrated in few industries, and further impact from the oil shock could lie ahead.

Nestlé has found itself in an unusual spotlight just ahead of Easter after thieves stole a truck carrying 12 metric tons of KitKat bars in Europe. The shipment containing 413,793 bars was traveling from central Italy to Poland when it disappeared. The truck and its cargo were still missing when the company disclosed the theft.The story took off quickly because of the timing. A large candy theft in late March is almost guaranteed to raise questions about Easter shelves, seasonal demand, and whether a widely recognized brand is dealing with a bigger supply problem than it first appeared.What happened to the missing KitKats?Nestlé said the shipment vanished while moving between production and distribution points in Europe. The company did not publicly specify where the truck was lost, but it said the route began in central Italy and was meant to end in Poland.Because the cargo was a full branded shipment, the theft immediately carried more visibility than a typical freight loss. Once Nestlé confirmed the missing load was tied to one of its best-known candy brands, the story started to draw wider attention.More Retail News39-year-old grocery chain closing 17 stores in 202687-year-old retail grocery giant lays off 100s in store closingsCoffee company files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, faces liquidationWhy Nestlé went public with the theftNestlé did more than confirm the heist. It also warned that the missing bars could surface through unofficial sales channels across Europe, which helps explain why the company chose to discuss the theft publicly rather than handle it quietly. Each bar can be traced through a unique batch code, and the company said anyone who identifies a matching product will receive instructions on how to report it.The company also used the episode to highlight a wider problem. In its public comments, they said cargo theft is becoming a more common and more sophisticated issue for businesses, suggesting the bigger concern may be less about one stolen truck and more about the growing vulnerability of consumer-goods supply chains.

Anadolu / Contributor Getty Images

The Easter angle got attention for a reasonEarly coverage and an initial company release helped fuel the idea that the theft might affect Easter candy availability, which turned the story from a quirky crime report into something with real seasonal consumer interest.Nestlé later corrected that early framing and said the incident would not affect supply or trade. Nestlé’s update pulled the story out of the shortage lane and put the attention on cargo theft, brand control, and where the missing product could resurface.Nestlé also turned the KitKat story into a PR momentThe company’s tone helped push the story even further. KitKat joked that thieves had taken its “Have a break” slogan too literally, and that response quickly spread online and drew playful reactions from other brands. What could have stayed a dry freight-crime story turned into a broader public-relations moment.That response doesn’t change the underlying problem, but does show how major consumer brands now handle unusual supply-chain incidents in public. Nestlé kept the tone light without losing control of the facts, which may be one reason the story traveled so quickly.The bigger story goes beyond candyThe missing KitKats made headlines because the image is instantly memorable. A truckload of chocolate disappearing across Europe is the kind of story that feels strange enough to go viral on its own.The more lasting issue may be what the theft says about cargo crime itself. Nestlé used the incident to point directly at a broader rise in freight theft and fraud, a trend that affects companies far beyond candy. The chocolate made the story famous, but the real warning may be for every brand relying on long, cross-border supply chains.Related: Nestlé brings bold new product line to U.S. grocery stores