TNB Tech Minute: GM Navigates Smaller EV Market

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Countless companies invest in AI tools without tying them to tangible business outcomes. Join McKinsey later to learn how leaders rewire their organizations for sustained impact and value.

**Julie Chang** (0:15)
Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, July 21st. I'm Julie Chang for the Wall Street Journal. General Motors is facing a significantly smaller EV market. On a call with analysts, its CFO said that and discontinuing smaller, less profitable models plus tighter dealer inventory reduced global deliveries by 7.2% to roughly 1.43 million vehicles during the most recent quarter. GM has spent the past few years restructuring its EV unit to match cooling demand and regulatory changes, incurring $2.3 billion in incremental charges during the latest quarter for a total of $10.9 billion since the second half of 2025
Still, strong demand for pickups and SUVs led GM to boost its full year earnings outlook. Looking ahead, the company says it'll focus more on domestic manufacturing and defense.
We exclusively report that trade technology provider Altana announced today its acquiring Servo AI, a platform that uses agentic AI to automate the time-consuming manual task of drafting customs entries from import documents. Altana says Servo will speed up customs brokerage operations amidst shifting tariff and trade policies. Altana, which uses AI to map supply chains and track compliance risks on its digital trade network, said the deal could be worth over $100 million based on performance milestones. The acquisition comes as US retailers and manufacturers navigate an increasingly complex trade environment and shares of Coinbase Global jumped today after a key crypto bill cleared a major hurdle. The White House and a group of senators reached an agreement on an ethics provision in the Clarity Act on Monday. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Significant obstacles still remain. The bill would need some Democratic support to get the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate. It has already passed the House. Shares of Coinbase, the country's largest crypto exchange, are up over 10 percent. Stablecoin Company, Circle Internet Group, is up nearly 8 percent. And Bitcoin recently traded above $66,000, up more than 1 percent on the day.
And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. We'll have another Quick Tech Update in the morning.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:39)
AI transformation is more than a tech initiative. It requires a broader rewiring of human skills and ways of working. Here's Dan Swann, senior partner at McKinsey.

**Dan Swann** (2:48)
One of the biggest unlocks we see is the human being capabilities around the technology. Whereas before, you may need to be really good at analysis. Now, the skill might be how do you prompt these tools to get the right answers and outcomes. And so for us, it's a really big priority to help companies to understand how do you need to change the operating model of your organization and change the underlying capabilities of the people that are interacting with the technology. And when you see that all humming together, it can be really, really special.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:19)
Discover how McKinsey helps organizations rewire to out-compete with AI at mckinsey.com/techmoves.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:26)
This content was created by Custom Content from WSJ, a unit of the Wall Street Journal Advertising Department.