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The consumer price index, a measure of inflation, rose 3.4% on an annual basis in August, unchanged from July, according to data issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"You've got a lot of shocks that are pushing up inflation and making it uncomfortably high," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's.

The Iran war, tariffs and artificial intelligence are among the factors putting upward pressure on consumer prices, economists said.

"The shocks, we keep hoping they fade away into the background," Zandi said. "But they're not going away. They're still plaguing us with these big increases."

The CPI report comes as yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have jumped to their highest levels in years, raising borrowing costs for consumers seeking certain types of debt like mortgages and auto loans.

Some economists said Friday's relatively hot inflation reading makes it likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its policy meeting next week in order to cool the economy and help bring the U.S. inflation rate down to its 2% annual target. Inflation has been above that target for more than five years.

The trajectory of interest rates is still somewhat uncertain, though, economists said.

"There's a lot riding on this CPI report as far as the Fed is concerned," said Thomas Ryan, a North America economist at Capital Economics.

Inflation risks seem "definitely skewed" to the upside, Ryan said.

"We're not really convinced we're heading back to 2%, at least over the next six months or anytime soon," Ryan said.

Iran war and the impact on gasoline, diesel, fuel prices

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The Iran war has a lot to do with the current high inflation, economists said.

The war has severely restricted the flow of oil through a key Middle East corridor for energy trade, reducing global energy supplies and raising prices, economists said.

"The conflict is a major energy shock to the global economy," said Joe Seydl, a senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

"If the conflict never happened this year, I don't even really think we'd be talking about inflation with much interest," he said.

Global oil prices jumped back over $100 per barrel this week for the first time since mid-May as hostilities flared in the Middle East.

Initially, oil flows were restricted through the Strait of Hormuz, a key choke point for maritime energy trade. The fighting has broadened and threatens supply through other key trade routes such as the Strait of Bab el Mandeb, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The war, at the margin, "continues to get worse and not better," Seydl said.

The oil supply shock has raised prices for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other fuels refined from crude oil.

Gasoline prices were up nearly 4% in the month of August and more than 27% from August 2025, according to Friday's CPI report. Prices averaged about $4.30 per gallon at the pump on Friday, up from $3.19 a year ago, according to AAA.

Gasoline accounted for more than a third of the monthly increase in the consumer price index in August, according to the BLS.

However, economists said they're more worried about price increases for other fuels like diesel. That's because the global economy relies on these fuels for essential functions like transporting food and other goods to stores.

Diesel prices hit $6 per gallon on Friday, a record high.

This dynamic will put upward pressure on inflation in the medium term "because it impacts the cost of hauling and trucking and farming equipment, which eventually flows through supply chains and finds itself in higher prices on the shelves for food, broader goods," said Ryan of Capital Economics.

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Meanwhile, a run-up in the cost of jet fuel has lifted airline prices for consumers, economists said.

Airfare was up nearly 3% in the month of August and up more than 23% since August 2025, according to CPI data.

Large volumes of fertilizer also transit the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to push up global food prices, economists said.

Economists said that it's unclear to what extent the energy shock might flow through to other parts of the economy. It largely depends on the length of the war, which passed the six-month mark at the end of August.

Impact of AI and tariffs

Energy isn't the only factor putting upward pressure on inflation, economists said.

The AI build-out is also a contributor, they said.

That's because it has increased demand for — and scarcity of — the computer chips used in AI data centers. Manufacturers use those chips in all types of consumer electronics, including in laptops, video game consoles and newer cars, economists said.

For example, in June, Apple announced higher prices for MacBooks and iPads, citing surging memory and storage costs. Microsoft said shortly afterward that it's increasing the price of Xbox game consoles for a similar reason.

"This is starting to feed through to higher prices for households, too, not just data centers," Ryan said.

Tariffs levied by the Trump administration also "feel like they're still bleeding through" into higher prices for consumer goods, Zandi said.

However, tariffs don't seem to be the primary driver of inflation anymore, said Seydl.

The Supreme Court struck down a central piece of Trump's tariff policy in February. While that gave U.S. businesses and consumers a reprieve from the import taxes, the administration is trying to achieve a similar result by using different legal pathways to levy tariffs, economists said. %!s()

Days prior, Ceva Logistics, a subsidiary of CMA CGM, reported a data breach that affected numerous companies and leaked their customers' personal information. Weeks before that, Coca-Cola's dairy brand Fairlife was hit by a ransomware attack, prompting the company to temporarily suspend its US operations.

Concerns around supply chain hacks are only growing, "as we do more and more intelligent things with these computers and as more and more they're becoming the brain of an autonomous system," Said Ouissal, the founder & CEO of the edge-computing software company ZEDEDA, told Business Insider.

Warehouses and plants are adopting AI technologies like trackers on trucks and forklifts, cameras and temperature sensors inside facilities, laptops and tablets, and GPS systems. As they do, they're becoming more vulnerable to cybersecurity incidents, said Bart Bullard, the chief technology officer of Source Logistics, a warehousing, fulfillment, and transportation provider.

It's a catch-22: the very technologies that supply chain operators use to stay competitive are also "vectors of entry" for hackers to gain access to company systems, Bullard said.

As supply chain executives grapple with this increasingly common challenge, they're also finding that AI can be a part of the solution, Ouissal said.

What's at stake in a supply chain cyberattack

When a data breach occurs, companies will shut down their systems until they can identify the source of the issue. That can take an average of 247 days, according to an IBM report this year.

Supply chain attacks are particularly problematic because a data breach that suspends operations can disrupt the timing of the entire supply chain. Production is delayed and products could expire, Bullard said.

That's what happened when Jaguar Land Rover was hit by a cyber attack last fall. Production halted for six weeks. During the shutdown, suppliers lost work, and some small companies went out of business, said Liz James, a managing security consultant at cybersecurity firm NCC Group.

Attacks also occur within the software supply chain, Ouissal said. A bad actor hacks a piece of software, which then gets distributed to multiple businesses operating robots. The result is malware running the bots.

This type of attack was disclosed last month by CloudSEK and Hudson Rock. The groups revealed that a software supply chain attack poisoned the open-source tool LiteLLM in March 2026. The data breach exposed cloud keys, credentials, and terabytes of data across more than 2,500 organizations.

Preventing cyberattacks and responding with AI

Fighting cyberattacks in the supply chain requires both preventing and responding to them — often with the assistance of AI-enabled tools, as well as human training and expectation-setting, Ouissal said.

Companies use AI to scan software and detect hidden vulnerabilities that humans haven't noticed. AI tools are programmed to detect oddities that deviate from standard patterns. If there's an unexpected issue, the company can immediately deploy a patch to prevent hackers from exploiting the vulnerabilities.

Bob Krohn, a partner and manufacturing practice co-leader at consulting firm ISG, said it's important to train employees on cybersecurity best practices, from the C-suite and white-collar supervisors to the shop floor. Workers should be trained to spot phishing scams, and employees with critical system access should use password managers, Bullard said.

"Everyone in an enterprise must become AI-security forward thinkers," Bullard said. He added that detecting attacks is increasingly challenging, as deepfake videos and voice calls become more sophisticated, and AI becomes more convincing at emulating behavior. The usual tells of a phishing scam — like odd grammar and misspelled words — disappear with the help of AI, Bullard said.

Cyber attacks in the supply chain are also changing how businesses approach supplier contracts and audits, James said.

Twenty years ago, many businesses were accustomed to buying the same parts from the same suppliers for decades, according to Krohn. Now, companies tend to have diversified suppliers to manage risks like tariffs. Each time they work with another business, they have to consider new cyber threats, since these entities can view business data and inventory levels, Krohn said. While firewalls exist, there are still gaps that a bad actor could exploit.

"You are opening yourselves up to cyber risk in an exponential way," Krohn said. He added: "Choose your supply chain partners carefully. Make sure that they have the same sort of emphasis on cyber policies as you do."

That said, not all attacks can be proactively prevented. "All our C-suite clients recognize that they are going to get hacked," Krohn said. That's why executives are focused on having plans in place to respond to a cyberattack.

Battling cyberattacks with the help of AI is critical because hackers using AI can mine software code for vulnerabilities much faster than a human can, said Bullard.

"Fighting AI with AI is the only real avenue," Bullard said.

Shefali Kapadia

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Shefali Kapadia is an award-winning business journalist. In addition to Business Insider, her work has appeared in the Financial Times, Forbes, Industry Dive, and more.  Shefali is a sought-after speaker and has moderated panels with executives from C.H. Robinson, PepsiCo, and Uber. She was also featured in a Discovery Channel documentary series on supply chains. Shefali enjoys traveling, cooking, and defending her home state of Delaware. She lives in Washington, DC.

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The letter, shared with the Guardian ahead of being sent to the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) on Friday, is signed by the Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and the Republican congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The row dates back to January 2025, when the Home Office served Apple with a technical capability notice under the Investigatory Powers Act, which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence. The UK government demanded that Apple provide a mechanism to access encrypted iCloud backups worldwide, a call the company met by withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection encryption feature from UK users the following month. Apple’s challenge to that order at the IPT was later thrown out after the Home Office withdrew the original notice and issued a narrower one targeting only British users’ data.

“It is wholly inappropriate for a foreign executive body to attempt to dictate the distribution of powers within the US government, nor should it be permitted to use secrecy directives under the Investigatory Powers Act to frustrate Article I powers under the US Constitution,” the pair wrote.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

In August this year, Apple lodged a fresh complaint at the tribunal challenging the government’s power to issue such notices at all, with a case-management hearing on how that claim will proceed now listed for this month – the very hearing the new letter is aimed at.

Wyden and Davidson also signed an earlier letter to the tribunal in March 2025, alongside other lawmakers, pressing for the case to be heard in public. That intervention appears to have had an effect: weeks later the IPT rejected the government’s attempt to keep the case entirely secret, ruling that the “bare details” of Apple’s claim, including the identities of the parties, could be made public after receiving representations that, the tribunal noted, “strongly argued in favour of open justice and against the proceedings taking place in secret”.

In the new letter, Wyden and Davidson write that Congress “is not only a co-equal branch of government, it is the First Branch”, and argue that no government can be allowed to place “its demands beyond the reach of legislative inquiry”. They accuse the Home Office of trying to use a foreign secrecy order to override the constitutional powers of the US legislature, after Apple told Congress it had been permitted to brief only the attorney general, the vice-president and their staff – but not lawmakers – about the dispute.

They argue that Britain’s own constitutional traditions hold that no government can place its actions beyond the reach of legislative scrutiny – the same principle, they say, the Home Office is now violating.

“The UK government,” they write, “cannot champion legislative oversight at home while using administrative gag orders to kneecap the constitutional authority of the US Congress.”

GTA 6's Vice City setting is, of course, based on the very real Miami, Florida, and Rockstar is looking to capitalize on that. Arguments against the move touched on the violence of the Grand Theft Auto series, which, as stated by Commissioner David Suarez, allows players to "steal cars, deal drugs, commit robberies, murder civilians, and assassinate police officers."

"That's their right. They can make it, they can sell it, and they can advertise it, but that doesn't mean that the city of Miami Beach has to help them do it," Suarez argued. "We ask our police officers every day to put themselves in harm's way, protecting this community. We spend enormous resources fighting drugs, violent crime, and disorder, and we've spent over a million dollars over the past three years on a spring break marketing campaign trying to move Miami Beach away from an image of chaos and lawlessness.

"Now, we're going to take our beaches, one of the most recognizable symbols of this city, and turn them into a space for Grand Theft Auto. What kind of message are we sending to the world?"

Later, Suarez added, "I don't think that this is worth what they're offering. I don't think it's worth really anything." Commissioner Matteo-Salinas fell on the other side of the fence. Her vote to approve Rockstar's GTA 6 marketing campaign came from her desire to represent gamers – herself included.

"I play GTA," Matteo-Salinas said. "I played it in 1997 when the first game, the Vice City version, came out, and I'm going to play it again when this one comes out, and I'm not going to play the game and then go on a crime spree. That's not what this is about."

Commissioner Joseph Magazine agreed, arguing that, although "Grand Theft Auto isn't for everyone" and "there are certainly aspects of the game we likely don't want associated with the values" of Miami Beach, "we also have to deal with reality." He added, "I can walk and chew gum at the same time."

"This will be the biggest and most anticipated video game launch in global history, and whether we embrace this partnership or we reject it, millions and millions of people around the world are already going to experience a fictionalized version of Miami Beach through this game. We have no control over that. That spotlight's coming."

How exactly GTA 6 will take over Miami Beach in October was not revealed. However, commissioner Laura Dominguez did tease some of what's on the table.

Rockstar will not plaster logos on city property, such as lifeguard stands or in "iconic public spaces." She said Grand Theft Auto will be advertised "discreetly" with the city's marketing partner, the Boucher Brothers. As mentioned by X/Twitter user @GTAVI_Countdown, the Boucher Brothers is a company Rockstar has parodied before, with its in-game spin instead called "Sol Sisters."

Dominguez added that, through the October – December marketing window, Miami citizens will spot things like "Vice City or 'VI'" on things like chairs and umbrellas. It suggests the words "Grand Theft Auto" won't be visible in any official capacity, with the commissioner also saying that Rockstar will not be permitted to advertise GTA 6 during the city's Art Basel, which is scheduled to take place the weekend of December 4.

"I think the city has done our part to make sure that our brand is protected but still keeping with the importance of the massive global reach that gaming has today, and the city is going to be receiving a couple million dollars," Dominguez said.

She added with a smile, "If there's wiggle room to negotiate more, let us know."

Dominguez mentioned that the deal with Rockstar will give the City of Miami Beach money that is "critical." How exactly the $3 million will be dispersed was not detailed, but Commissioner Tanya K. Bhatt expects the total benefits to produce a number closer to $4 million. She said, "[GTA 6] is coming to Miami Beach with or without us, and to pretend that it isn't is a missed opportunity."

One item on Bhatt's mind when the money comes in is Florida's Flamingo Park. Rockstar's financial support could "in and of itself" pay for a Flamingo Park Memorial Football Field renovation project that is currently slated for next year but lacks proper funding.

"Our city manager and those of us who have engaged have been very clear that this is not to be an in-your-face marketing campaign," she added. "It is very discreet, understated, [and] mostly the Roman numeral six, which most people won't even understand. They'll go around calling it 'V' or 'VI,' probably."

GTA 6's release date falls directly in its Miami Beach marketing window with a November 19, 2026, launch. It will be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. IGN recently got in touch with Rockstar to learn more about how its new take on the series will be worth the wait, resulting in an interview and preview following its big Netflix extended look reveal.

Some fans have recently argued that Rockstar's latest almost looks too realistic for its own good. Others are mostly just concerned with making sure they're able to grab one of the new limited edition PS5 controllers.

Michael Cripe

Freelance Writer

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe). %!s()

Supply chain pressures are increasing, but there are barriers to deploying AI.

The pressures facing supply chains today are increasingly complex and interconnected. Trade policies continue to shift, tariffs are putting pressure on margins, regulatory requirements are expanding and geopolitical conflicts are disrupting established trade flows. At the same time, supply chain leaders are being asked to manage this growing complexity and deliver more, often without additional headcount. That’s why Gartner predicts 60% of supply chain disruptions will be resolved without human intervention by 2031. However, there are significant barriers to AI implementation.

The primary obstacles to effective AI adoption are insufficient data quality, an inability to manage organizational change and a lack of structured data integration across different departments. Eighty-five percent of executives said their data is at least somewhat fragmented, making it difficult to scale AI, according to a recent benchmark study by Pymnts Intelligence. Companies must also realize that AI adoption is a major organizational change, not simply a software installation. And only 21% of organizations are pursuing holistic, multi-tier network visibility, according to Inspectorio’s “State of Supply Chain Report 2026,” based on responses from nearly 200 supply chain professionals.

Clearly, there’s room for improvement.

Here are four pillars for successful AI implementations.

Organizations that are successfully deploying AI today focus on four pillars: starting with business outcomes, ensuring data readiness, aligning outcomes with AI user cases and leading with organizational change. Here’s a closer look:​

1. Start with business outcomes, not technology.

Companies that successfully implement AI begin by identifying three to five business processes that are clearly inefficient, for example, labor-intensive supply chain mapping or costly product inspections. They then set well-defined, measurable outcomes, such as an 80% reduction in manual reviews. Companies are gradually focusing on large-scale, complex use cases, but even projects with limited scope can produce significant ROI.

2. Ensure that data is AI-ready.

This means that supplier and product data is centralized, not siloed in different systems, emails and spreadsheets. Quality and compliance records must be digitized and consistently structured, and historical audit and inspection data must be easily accessible for AI training. Data must be accurate to ensure that AI outputs can be trusted. AI readiness is critical; Gartner predicts that organizations will abandon 60% of AI projects that do not have AI-ready data by the end of 2026.

3. Align outcomes with AI use cases.

This involves four phases:

• Context: Building high-quality data based on a company’s core processes and industry best practices

• Prediction: Leveraging historical process data and the resulting outcomes, in order to optimize operations

• Automation: Defining roles and processes where there is an opportunity to shift from individual, manual management to oversight of AI

• Evolution: Monitoring AI-augmented processes and continually identifying opportunities for refinement

By following these steps, one company made measurable improvements to address corrective actions by its suppliers, realizing a 33% improvement in first responses, 32% improvement in time to close and savings of 100,00 labor hours annually.

4. Lead the organizational change.

Inspectorio’s survey found that 25% of respondents weren’t sure if AI was integrated into their supply chain operations. That’s a failure of executive sponsorship. Organizations with strong executive sponsors are seeing measurably higher AI adoption success. Companies should identify internal champions for AI who can communicate AI wins, build internal credibility for AI and allay any fears that AI will replace tasks, not people.

Follow this road map for the first 90 days.

Where can companies start? Here’s a road map for the first 90 days:

• Days 1–30: Begin by identifying the AI executive sponsors and assessing the areas of the businesses where AI can initially be applied. Next, discover your data foundation and quality gaps, and establish an internal communication plan and messaging for the AI initiatives.

• Days 31–60: Select one “quick win” use case for AI automation, keeping in mind that it must have measurable outcomes. Identify two to three internal advocates and get their commitment to the project, then establish the baseline metrics to track success.

• Days 61–90: Measure the results of the initial project, comparing them to the initial baseline, and clearly document the return on investment. Then decide how to replicate success in other areas: Which outcomes with similar datasets should be considered next? Project leaders should share the wins internally to build organizational momentum. Finally, after completing the initial project, companies will have the experience they need to draft a framework for AI governance and measurement.

A disciplined approach is essential.

AI requires a disciplined, outcome-driven approach, and careful preparation is essential. It’s well worth it, though. Brands that treat AI adoption as a well-designed, thoughtful journey, with buy-in throughout the company, will be the companies that can overcome today’s supply chain challenges and create a lasting competitive advantage.

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