Brands
New York wine bar welcomes AI dates for Valentine’s dinner
Same Same Wine Bar’s experiment mirrors rising interest in AI companionship
NEW YORK: As Valentine’s Day approaches, a wine bar in New York City has offered an unconventional seating option: a place at the table for artificial intelligence.
At Same Same Wine Bar, diners are invited to bring their AI chatbots along for what organisers describe as “AI-assisted dinners”. Phones and tablets are placed opposite wine glasses, allowing guests to converse with virtual companions while eating and drinking.
The initiative is backed by EvaAI, a service that offers AI-generated characters for text and video interaction. Users can choose from pre-built avatars or customise digital partners, shaping personalities, appearance and conversational style.
On the opening night, patrons largely dined alone, their attention fixed on animated faces flickering on screens. The audience included technology enthusiasts, media observers and long-time users of AI companion apps, suggesting curiosity rather than novelty-seeking alone.
EvaAI positions its products as tools for the single, the curious or those seeking to practise communication skills. Yet the timing is telling. Surveys and online forums point to growing interest in AI companionship, particularly among younger adults navigating loneliness, dating fatigue and digital-first lives.
As AI seeps from screens into social spaces, experiments like this one suggest that artificial relationships are no longer confined to private chats. They are edging, cautiously, into the public square.
Brands
Lululemon picks former Nike executive to be its next chief
Heidi O’Neill, who helped grow Nike into a $45 billion giant, will take the top job in September
CANADA: Lululemon has found its next chief executive, and she comes with serious credentials. The athleisure giant named Heidi O’Neill as its new CEO on Wednesday, ending a search that has left the company running on interim leadership since earlier this year. O’Neill will take charge on September 8, 2026, based out of Vancouver, and will join the board on the same day.
O’Neill brings more than three decades of experience across performance apparel, footwear and sport. The bulk of that time was spent at Nike, where she was a central figure in one of corporate sport’s great growth stories, helping take the company from a $9 billion business to a $45 billion global powerhouse. She oversaw product pipelines, brand strategy and consumer connections, and played a significant role in shaping how Nike spoke to athletes around the world. Earlier in her career, she worked in marketing for the Dockers brand at Levi Strauss. She also brings boardroom experience from Spotify Technology, Hyatt Hotels and Lithia and Driveway.
The board was unequivocal in its enthusiasm. “We selected Heidi because of the breadth of her experience, her demonstrated success delivering breakthrough ideas and initiatives at scale, and her ability to be a knowledgeable change and growth agent,” said Marti Morfitt, executive chair of Lululemon’s board.
O’Neill, for her part, was bullish. “Lululemon is an iconic brand with something rare: genuine guest love, a product ethos rooted in innovation, and a global platform still in the early stages of its potential,” she said. “My job will be to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world.”
Until she arrives, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini will continue as interim co-CEOs, before returning to their previous senior leadership roles once O’Neill steps in.
Lululemon is betting that a Nike veteran who helped build one of the world’s most powerful sports brands can do something similar for an athleisure label that has genuine love from its customers but is still chasing its full global potential. O’Neill has done it before at scale. The question now is whether she can do it again.
