Publications of Learning Archives

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2025 Top 100 Electrical Distributors by Jim Lucy

William Attardi on June 9, 2025

Top 100 distributors are divided over the direction of the 2025 economy, but they are still making major capital investments in their companies to position them for growth. It’s tough to pinpoint exactly why Top 100 distributors are all over the map with their economic expectations, especially when outside of the uncertainty over tariffs and concern over the size of the national debt, the overall U.S. economy is still growing at a steady if unspectacular rate. Unemployment is currently not growing at a dangerous rate, inflation has not hit the danger zone, and while the expected real GDP growth rate of less than 2% for Q2 2025 will elicit plenty of yawns, it’s still expected to land on the positive side of the ledger for this quarter. The Top 10:

Wesco International
Sonepar USA Holdings Inc.
Graybar Electric Co.
Rexel Holdings (Rexel USA)
CED
Border States Electric
City Electric Supply Co.
Elliott Electric Supply Inc.
McNaughton-McKay Electric Co.
S. Electrical Services

Electrical Wholesaling’s 2025 Top 100 Electrical Distributors | Electrical Wholesaling

How I Turned AI Into a Teammate, Not Just a Tool — and How You Can, Too by Aytekin Tank

William Attardi on May 28, 2025

One of the biggest missed opportunities of casual AI dabblers is using it sporadically instead of systematically. With just a little bit of upfront time investment, AI has the capacity to streamline nearly every aspectof your daily workflow. These days, even those without any coding knowledge can easily build customized AI assistants designed to lighten the load of repetitive tasks. From Claude’s “Project” to Gemini’s “Gem,” these platforms enable users to store data like detailed instructions and tone guidelines to keep from having to write the same prompt over and over. Vague prompts beget vague answers. But with clear direction, including the tone, structure and style you want, you’ll unlock much more powerful results. My advice? Start small. Choose one recurring task — something low-lift but time-consuming — and assign it to your AI assistant. Give it structure, test it out and offer feedback as you go. Before long, these automated assistants will start to feel like invisible team members working behind the scenes to keep you focused on what matters most. How I Turned AI Into a Teammate, Not Just a Tool — and How You Can, Too

I Quit Google Search for AI—and I’m Not Going Back by Joanna Stern

William Attardi on May 28, 2025

Ads and search-optimized junk made a mess of the go-to engine. Now ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude—and even Google’s own AI—do it better.

Key Points

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity provide clear, human-sounding answers to search queries, eliminating the need for scrolling through sponsored links and clickbait.
AI search excels in providing concise information, product recommendations, and how-to guides, while Google Search remains superior for accessing specific webpages and accurate local information.
While AI chatbots offer convenience, it’s crucial to verify information by clicking on source links to support trusted sources and maintain the open web.

I Quit Google for ChatGPT and Other AI Search—and I’m Not Going Back – WSJ

AI Changes Search Game for Marketers

William Attardi on May 12, 2025

In a matter of months, artificial intelligence has begun to change how people search for things online in ways that alarm some marketers. Consumers who use traditional search engines like Google and Bing are now greeted atop their search results by AI-generated summaries of the topics at hand. OpenAI said last month that ChatGPT will soon roll out a shopping button that redirects users to a merchant’s website, where they can buy the product they were researching. OpenAI says ChatGPT now processes roughly one billion searches a week, but Google handles 5 trillion searches each year, or around 100 times that total, according to its most recent figures. “This is not big for us yet, but it could be,” Joy Howard said of LLM searches. Q1i1BlXWfajcTTkzC3B2-WSJNewsPaper-5-12-2025.pdf

Google to Fund NECA Training Program

William Attardi on May 2, 2025

Google is announcing a new paper and support for an effort to train 100,000 electrical workers and 30,000 new apprentices in the United States. This is Google’s news release: AI presents the United States with a generational opportunity for extraordinary innovation and growth. The deployment of AI will grow the American economy, create jobs, accelerate scientific advances and more. Fully realizing these opportunities requires an effort to rapidly increase the capacity of the nation’s existing, sometimes antiquated energy system. This in turn requires accelerating innovation and investment in advanced energy technologies; optimizing use of the existing grid and unlocking construction of new transmission infrastructure; and developing the labor force needed to build new energy infrastructure. Through shared public and private efforts to introduce and support training programs like this one, the U.S. can develop a model for training the next generation workforce. Google to Fund NECA Training Program – electrifiED

Cultivating Healthier Spaces Through Lighting Design by Grant Kightlinger & Lauri Tredinnick

William Attardi on April 21, 2025

How designers are using breakthroughs in biologically effective lighting to mimic natural light cycles and improve human health at home and at work. Circadian lighting — and biologically effective lighting more broadly — is an exciting frontier in the design industry with immense potential to improve occupants’ quality of life. These strategies focus on creating lighting conditions that harmonize with our biological clock, improve alertness, and support hormonal balance. The ongoing exploration of light’s effects on health is paving the way for significant advancements in biologically effective lighting design. Innovations such as simplified controls, adjustable spectrum luminaires, and artificial daylight solutions can help create environments that not only meet aesthetic and functional needs but also enhance well-being. As we continue to refine our approaches, the potential for cost-effective circadian lighting solutions that align with our biological rhythms becomes increasingly feasible, ultimately fostering healthier living and working environments. Breakthroughs in Biologically Effective Lighting Design | EC&M

Eye on the Storm by Tim Kridel

William Attardi on April 16, 2025

The new ANSI/NEMA C137.10 standard is designed to keep streetlights on during extreme weather. But in normal times, it also creates opportunities in the smart cities market. By the end of this decade, the North American smart city market will be worth close to $1 trillion, a roughly fourfold jump from 2024, Grand View Research A new standard from NEMA’s Lighting Systems Division should help electrical contractors and electrical design firms grab a share of that burgeoning market by leveraging upgrades aimed at bolstering outdoor lighting resiliency. ANSI/NEMA C137.10-2024 creates a vendor-agnostic format for data produced by sensors installed on light poles along roadways and pedways. That standardization enables municipalities, utilities, and other lighting infrastructure owners to have a mix of hardware and software vendors without risking data incompatibility. ANSI/NEMA C137.10 Standard and Lighting System Interoperability | EC&M

Say Hello to Your New Colleague, the AI Agent By Marc Benioff

William Attardi on April 7, 2025

I’ve been part of many waves of technology in my 25 years at Salesforce—from cloud computing to mobile, social and the early stages of AI. But nothing compares to the transformation we’re seeing now. While much of the AI conversation is about large language models, the real revolution is happening in AI-driven digital labor: autonomous, intelligent agents. Because such agents act on their own, collaborate and continuously learn and improve, companies of any size can scale beyond human limits. Today’s CEOs are the final generation of executives leading exclusively human workforces. Going forward, we’ll need to learn how to manage human workers and digital labor to work together to deliver efficiency and productivity. Integrating AI agents into daily operations will become a leadership skill that separates companies that thrive from those that fall behind. Mr. Benioff is Chair and CEO of Salesforce. iq4POgFJIwS2n9NdKvjD-WSJNewsPaper-4-4-2025.pdf

Data Centers: More Power to Them by Jim Lucy

William Attardi on April 1, 2025

2025’s surge in data center construction will be fueled by the greater demands of AI (artificial intelligence) for electrical power. The explosive growth in data center construction and the related increases in demand for the electrical system installation and supply and logistical services they require is quite unlike anything the electrical business has ever seen. Over the years there’s been booms in speculative office construction, energy-efficient lighting retrofits and the installation of power quality industrial automation products. But the dollars being spent on new data centers – and the electrical construction materials that help power them – may very well be unmatched. This all means big business for electrical contractors, design engineers and other electrical professionals involved with data center construction. Data Centers: More Power to Them | Electrical Wholesaling