This is CBS, I on the World.

I'm John Batchel.

I welcome my good friend and colleague, Gene Marks, the small business columnist for the Guardian newspaper and for the Philadelphia Inquirer and other distinguished publications.

We begin with Gene in Las Vegas at the curb waiting for a cab. And this is the

famous Gene Mark's metric for how the economy is doing. Gene, a very good evening to you. Whenever

I see you in Vegas, I think, uh-oh, we're going to get a reversal of fortune. What did you find out

this time? Good evening to you. John, I got out of the plane.

There was not a single person in line for a row of taxi cab. I jumped in a cab, took me to the

hotel, the Cosmopolitan. Now, granted, it was about 10 o'clock at night, but there was not a single

person in line checking in to the hotel. So I went right in, checked in, I went right to my room now. The casinos seemed pretty busy, you know. I mean, the place was, you know, was active. But yeah, I don't see it very offered in Vegas where there's no lines for the cabs, no lines for check-in. Like, that's, well. Was it check-in AI or human? Well, that's it. It was a mobile check-in? Like, that's, well, was it, was a checking AI or human? Well, that's it. It was a mobile

check-in that I attempted, where it would give you a mobile key, and of course, it didn't work,

John. Yeah. And then, of course, you could flash a QR code and have it print out a key,

and guess what? That didn't work either. so I wound up having to go to the actual

check-in person and you know like the human to check me in so like all technologies like AI

it looks like they're in version 1.0 in their mobile check-in process right now and you were there

to speak to the farm equipment manufacturers association that's big time are they are they are they

a ii conversation no this was not an a i conversation this was just an overall conversation about

the economy and the workplace and the overall environment uh taxes things like that that they need to be

aware of this is a group that i mean by their name they sell equipment into ag you know they you to be aware of. This is a group that, I mean, by their name, they sell equipment into ag, you know,

they, you know, all sorts of farm equipment that's needed.

Now, they also sell equipment into other areas of the economy,

but obviously the agricultural sector is their big part that they sell into.

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