Top Innovations
Google’s ad network has begun showing advertising within the flow of conversations with chatbots operated by AI startups
Google’s ad network has begun…
JPMorgan Chase completes the first settlement of tokenized treasury trade on Ondo’s public blockchain; moving away from its long-held private blockchain model
JPMorgan Chase has been steadily…
Fiserv Clover debuts Checkless Payments which allows enrolled diners to leave at will; diners initiate experience by a Live Check sent via SMS message
Clover is continuing to actualize…
Amazon is testing short-form audio product summaries on product detail pages, featuring AI-powered experts discussing key features
Amazon is testing short-form audio…
Key News
Neema’s Dynamic Routing uses multiple real-time routes between countries and instantly analyses exchange rates, speed, and reliability for every cross-border transaction to identify the optimal route
Neema launched Dynamic Routing, an…
Digital receipts help retailer Longchamp drive customer engagement going beyond a simple proof of purchase by offering tailored recommendations, brand content and customer language preferences
Leather goods house, Longchamp has…
Modern Treasury’s AI agent for enterprise payment operations only takes action when it’s approved to do so, doesn’t let third-party model providers train on company data, is auditable by design and delivers verifiable results
Modern Treasury, the payment operations…
Visa invests in Stablecoin infrastructure platform BVNK that processes more than $12 billion annually for companies like Ferrari and Rapyd
Stabelcoin infrastructure platform BVNK received…
Groq became an official inference provider on Hugging Face’s platform, potentially exposing its technology to millions of developers worldwide. The Hugging Face integration extends the Groq ecosystem providing developers choice and further reduces barriers to entry in adopting Groq’s fast and efficient AI inference. Groq’s assertion about context windows — the amount of text an AI model can process at once — strikes at a core limitation that has plagued practical AI applications. Most inference providers struggle to maintain speed and cost-effectiveness when handling large context windows, which are essential for tasks like analyzing entire documents or maintaining long conversations. Independent benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis measured Groq’s Qwen3 32B deployment running at approximately 535 tokens per second, a speed that would allow real-time processing of lengthy documents or complex reasoning tasks. The company is pricing the service at $0.29 per million input tokens and $0.59 per million output tokens — rates that undercut many established providers. Groq offers a fully integrated stack, delivering inference compute that is built for scale, which means we are able to continue to improve inference costs while also ensuring performance that developers need to build real AI solutions. The technical advantage stems from Groq’s custom Language Processing Unit (LPU) architecture, designed specifically for AI inference rather than the general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) that most competitors rely on. This specialized hardware approach allows Groq to handle memory-intensive operations like large context windows more efficiently. By becoming an official inference provider, Groq gains access to the vast developer ecosystem of HuggingFace with streamlined billing and unified access. Amazon’s Bedrock service leverages AWS’s massive global cloud infrastructure, while Google’s Vertex AI benefits from the search giant’s worldwide data center network. Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service has similarly deep infrastructure backing. However Groq says, “As an industry, we’re just starting to see the beginning of the real demand for inference compute. Even if Groq were to deploy double the planned amount of infrastructure this year, there still wouldn’t be enough capacity to meet the demand today.”
Deepgram has announced the general availability of its Voice Agent API, a single, unified voice-to-voice interface that gives developers full control to build context-aware voice agents that power natural, responsive conversations. Combining speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and LLM orchestration with contextualized conversational logic into a unified architecture, the Voice Agent API gives developers the choice of using Deepgram’s fully integrated stack or bringing their own LLM and TTS models. It delivers the simplicity developers love and the controllability enterprises need to deploy real-time, intelligent voice agents at scale. Deepgram’s Voice Agent API provides a unified API that simplifies development without sacrificing control. Developers can build faster with less complexity, while enterprises retain full control over orchestration, deployment, and model behavior, without compromising on performance or reliability. Deepgram’s Voice Agent API also provides a single, unified API that integrates speech-to-text, LLM reasoning, and text-to-speech with built-in support for real-time conversational dynamics. Capabilities such as barge-in handling and turn-taking prediction are model-driven and managed natively within the platform. This eliminates the need to stitch together multiple vendors or maintain custom orchestration, enabling faster prototyping, reduced complexity, and more time focused on building high-quality experiences. The platform enables model-level optimization at every layer of the interaction loop. This allows for precise tuning of latency, barge-in handling, turn-taking, and domain-specific behavior in ways not possible with disconnected components.
Zencoder has announced a public beta for Zentester, its new end-to-end UI testing AI agent. Zentester imitates how humans behave when interacting with web applications, such as navigating the layout, and identifying and using interactive elements. It does this by combining images (screenshots) with DOM (snapshot) information. As it runs through test scenarios, it generates test artifacts that capture the actions performed and the expected visual and functional outcomes. According to the company, these tests are designed to be maintainable over time and less prone to having issues when an application changes. It also automatically follows end-to-end testing best practices, such as proper wait strategies, error handling, and test isolation.
Cybersecurity compliance startup Vanta has launched Vanta AI Agent, a new agent designed to handle end-to-end workflows autonomously across a company’s entire compliance program. The new agent contextually guides organizations through key tasks, accurately identifies issues and inconsistencies humans might miss and proactively takes action on their behalf, while keeping governance, risk and compliance teams informed and in control. The agent uses program context to offer timely support and surface issues before they become costly errors. It reduces human error by taking on manual, time-consuming tasks and, in doing so, frees teams to focus on higher-value work that builds trust while strengthening their security and compliance posture. In addition to its core functions, Vanta AI Agent also generates clear and actionable policy change summaries, streamlining the process of updating compliance documentation during annual reviews. The result reduces the need for manual input, allowing teams to focus on strategic decision-making. Other features of the agent include the ability to proactively detect inconsistencies between policy-defined service level agreements and the outcomes of continuous testing. When mismatches occur, the agent flags them and suggests fixes, helping teams address issues before they escalate into audit risks. Vanta AI Agent further simplifies information retrieval by answering policy and compliance-related questions in real time. Teams can quickly access critical details such as password requirements, vendor risk management information and compliance with standards like Service Organization Control 2 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Data protection provider Commvault Systems announced a new partnership with information technology consultancy Kyndryl Holdings to help customers recover faster, advance cyber resilience and navigate the evolving regulatory landscape. The partnership between the two companies will see Commvault augment Kyndryl’s portfolio of cyber resiliency services, encompassing Incident Recovery Services, including Cyber Incident Recovery, Managed Backup Services and Hybrid Platform Recovery. The services from Commvault and Pure Storage provide a modular, four-layer architecture designed to assist with compliance and accelerate recovery across hybrid cloud environments. Commvault and Pure Storage bring to the table the Cyber Resilient Vault, an isolated and immutable data vault based on zero-trust principles that protects backup data from unauthorized access and corruption, as well as the Clean Recovery Zone, a secure space for forensic analysis, backup validation and staged recovery. The architecture also features Production Rapid Restore for fast and reliable restoration of large datasets using Pure Storage FlashBlade, enhanced with immutability via S3 Object Lock and SafeMode. Additionally, Immutable Snapshot Recovery offers application-consistent snapshot replication through Commvault IntelliSnap and Pure Storage FlashArray, enabling rapid restoration of Tier-1 workloads.
Software supply chain security company Kusari unveiled Kusari Inspector, an AI-based pull request security tool that provides security risk analysis early during the pull request process and address them before code integration. In addition to core supply chain analysis, Kusari Inspector adds real-time pull-request inspection and clear “safe to merge” guidance. Using the tool, developers receive instant, annotated reports with inline explanations, plus step-by-step remediation instructions that flag exposed secrets, misconfigurations, risky licenses and typo-squatted dependencies. Kusari Inspector prioritizes risk by ranking vulnerable or low-trust dependencies, both direct and transitive against trusted sources such as Common Vulnerability Scoring System, Exploit Prediction Scoring System and the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The idea is that by filtering out non-exploitable issues, the tool cuts alert noise and keeps teams focused on the threats that matter most. The AI model used by Kusari Inspector continuously learns from each codebase to refine its recommendations. Engineers can chat with the assistant to clarify findings, customize security standards and receive precise coding fixes that accelerate approvals. Additionally, it generates Software Bill of Materials data to support compliance and bolster software supply chain resilience from development through deployment.
Cybercriminals are exploiting the popularity of DeepSeek-R1, a popular artificial intelligence chatbot, to distribute a sophisticated new malware strain targeting Windows users. The malware, known as “BrowserVenom,” targets users’ browsing infrastructure and establishes persistent network monitoring capabilities. The campaign begins with a malvertising campaign that places fraudulent websites at the top of Google search results when users search for “deepseek r1”. The malware reconfigures all browser instances to route traffic through an attacker-controlled proxy server, allowing cybercriminals to intercept, monitor, and manipulate network communications. The infection process demonstrates sophistication through its multi-stage deployment and social engineering components.
A new paper from researchers at Princeton University and the Sentient Foundation found that certain agents—AI systems that can act beyond the realm of a chatbot—could be vulnerable to memory attacks that trick them into handing over cryptocurrency. Targeting agents created with the platform ElizaOS, the researchers were able to implant false memories or “malicious instructions” that manipulated shared context in a way that could lead to “unintended asset transfers and protocol violations which could be financially devastating.” They wrote that the vulnerabilities point to an “urgent need to develop AI agents that are both secure and fiduciarily responsible.” Tyagi said the paper focused on ElizaOS because it’s “the most popular open-source agentic framework in crypto,” and on cryptocurrency because its traders have most readily embraced these types of autonomous agentic payments. While these agents do protect against basic prompt injection attacks—inputs designed to exploit the LLM—more sophisticated actors might be able to manipulate the stored memory or contexts in which these agents operate. The researchers designed a benchmark to evaluate the defenses of blockchain-based agents against these types of attacks. They also argued that the vulnerabilities extend beyond just cryptocurrency-based or even financial agents: “The application of AI agents has led to significant breakthroughs in diverse domains such as robotics, autonomous web agents, computer use agents, and personalized digital assistance. We posit that [memory injection] represents an insidious threat vector in such general agentic frameworks.”

What follows is a look at the Gen Z-focused offerings from Navy Federal and four other banks and fintechs. 1) Navy Federal Credit Union recently adopted a consumer-permissioned data reporting product through a partnership with fintech Bloom Credit. The credit union said it has integrated Bloom’s product as a checking account feature as part of a handful of updates to its offerings. The partnership gives Navy Federal’s customers the option to report up to five existing payments, including rent and utility payments, from their checking accounts to TransUnion, one of the three main credit reporting bureaus. Justin Zeidman, vice president of strategy at Navy Federal, told that through this product, rent payments can be treated as credit history in a way similar to mortgage payments. “It allows the credit bureaus to see and track the responsible behavior of consumers who would have otherwise been completely invisible to the bureaus,” Zeidman said. He added that this product is especially relevant for Navy Federal’s users — people who are serving or have served in the armed forces — because many enlisted military members join at a young age, before they have developed a credit history. 2) Jack Dorsey’s payments and commerce company Block is hoping to expand its peer-to-peer payments platform Cash App to more Gen Z consumers, while at the same time increasing the penetration of its small-dollar lending product, Cash App Borrow. Gen Z consumers are an important segment of Block’s customer base and one that it has also targeted with its buy now/pay later product, Afterpay. The FDIC’s decision to allow Block to originate and service its own loans, which are made through its Square Financial Services unit, doubled the total addressable market of customers on its network it can offer its loans to and improved unit economics, according to the company.
British digital bank Monzo grew during its fiscal year 2025 as customers adopted more of the growing number of financial services it offers. Compared to its previous fiscal year, Monzo increased its revenue by 48% to 1.2 billion pounds (about $1.6 billion), its customers by 25% to 12.2 million, and its customer deposits by 48% to 16.6 billion pounds (about $22.5 billion). The company’s revenue growth was seen across its business, especially in business banking, CEO TS Anil said. Anil said that the revenue growth has been supported by more business and personal customers bringing “more and more of their financial lives to us,” as evidenced by the growth in customer deposits and the fact that 33% of Monzo’s customers used it as their primary bank. Monzo launched more new products than ever before during its most recent fiscal year. These include accounts for Under 16s (U16), or children aged 6 to 15, which are linked to a parent’s or guardian’s account; pensions; and new subscription plans that offer a range of added benefits.
Slash is a fintech company that offers business banking accounts tailored to specific entrepreneurs’ needs. The company provides business checking accounts with funds held at FDIC-insured banks, detailed spending analytics dashboards, free or low-cost wire and ACH transfers, easy access to lending options, and unlimited virtual cards. These cards can be configured with specific spending limits, merchants, and merchant categories to prevent unauthorized or erroneous employee purchases. Slash also offers add-ons built for particular industries, such as an app store for banking, designed to address the unique pain points of different types of businesses. For example, marketing agencies can create virtual accounts for each client, allowing both parties to see the remaining balance and trigger automatic billing for more marketing funds. Slash also enables businesses to restrict cards to fuel purchases and ties each transaction to a specific driver or vehicle. The company also offers an API for custom dashboards, trigger payments through internal systems, or automatically transfer funds to vendors when goods are sold.
Monzo is still synonymous with its neon debit cards, extensive use of emojis, and free spending abroad. But it’s no longer just trying to be cool; it’s trying to become a major financial institution. That shift, from an upstart fintech beloved by millennials into a mature, sustainable business, is what makes this year a likely turning point. Despite signs that Monzo is preparing to go public – along with new reports that something is in the works – Monzo CEO TS Anil wouldn’t confirm that Monzo is listing this year. He suggested the building blocks are in place, though: profitability, product breadth, and just the right amount of AI. The numbers help tell the story. Monzo posted its first annual profit last year. In its 2024 annual report, it claimed 9.3 million personal account holders and more than 400,000 business customers. It’s also no longer reliant on interchange fees and overdrafts; lending, subscriptions, and business banking are now meaningful revenue streams. All this comes after a period marked by regulatory scrutiny and leadership turnover, developments that forced the company to grow up fast. It has also become more disciplined about its growing product lineup. Monzo’s customers can now invest in mutual funds powered by BlackRock, for example, and track their existing mortgages from other lenders in their Monzo app. When questioned about U.S. expansion and the competitive landscape, Anil downplayed the challenge. “I think there are a few universal truths that apply,” he said. “Most people feel anxiety about their money, and that anxiety is independent of affluence . . . The second thing that holds true is that the incumbent industry has been built off of arbitraging customers and leveraging, in some fashion, customers’ ignorance. Those are the insights that are helping us create the best features that would make sense in the U.S.; that’s the way we intend to double down.”
Jenius Bank has surpassed $2 billion in deposits by focusing on “evolved banking” — providing personalized financial insights through account aggregation while eliminating fees to help customers gain financial confidence and make better decisions. John Rosenfeld, President of Jenius Bank, a division of SMBC MANUBANK said, “We developed two concepts within a paradigm, if you will, where there’s core banking, which is what every bank does, allows you to put money with them, allows you to go online, see how much you have, see how much you’re earning, allows you to move money in and out, review your statements, read your terms and conditions, all that stuff that every bank does. We call that core banking. We developed the concept of evolved banking, which encompasses everything beyond core features that not every bank offers. And we grouped all this into something we call the Jenius views. So, if you download our mobile app, you’ll find this tab at the bottom. And within this space, you’re able to link your accounts from other banks, other brokerages. You can view credit cards and your entire financial picture in one place. Again, this allows the consumer to give us access to their other information, enabling us to consolidate and provide them with valuable insights. While there are some banks that are doing this, what we call aggregation services, many of them are doing it to gain a view of the customer’s financial situation and then potentially use that information to try to figure out what else they can sell them. We took a different approach. We said, what if we used all that information to actually give customers insights and help them avoid fees, making smarter and more confident financial decisions? Now, why would a bank do such a thing that’s not necessarily going to bolster their profits? We thought about this and concluded that if we could establish a new level of trust with consumers, the next time they have a financial need, we hope they’ll come back to us first. The idea that money is such an emotional driver that it has nothing to do with how much you make or don’t make, but rather whether you are making good decisions. With the capabilities that are evolving in the data space and analytics and machine learning and AI, if a consumer gives someone full access to every penny that they have and not access to move the money, but access to the information, think of how much you can do with technology to identify those things that you may not have noticed. The lack of fees on our savings or a loan product was really driven by wanting to create something better and more compelling than what’s available in the industry. We created a bank that’s incredibly efficient because we don’t have buildings, we don’t have paper, we don’t mail things. So, we don’t spend any money on postage. The target was really what we call high-potential digital optimizers. And we call it that because high potential means they’re going somewhere and are ambitious. They want to progress in building a better lifestyle and achieving more.
Dots.eco, a platform for real-world environmental rewards, has emerged as a for-profit company that can help game companies grow their audiences through a common interest in saving the environment. Through the real world rewards program, players can plant trees, protect wildlife, clean oceans, and more, just by reaching milestones, purchasing game items, making website purchases, or completing game missions. The game becomes the conduit for doing good, said Nadav Grosz, CEO of Dots.eco. Dots.eco is a partner in The Playing for the Planet Alliance, an initiative facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Dots.eco platform exposes an API to over 250 vetted global environmental projects that are constantly monitored, including by satellite imagery analysis, images from the grounds, and reports, analysed by inhouse AI technology. Dots.eco can integrate naturally with many game themes, as it supports a wide range of animal species, habitats and subjects that are present in almost every game. Games integrate the API, or the Dots.eco Unity SDK, and incentivise in-game milestones, or In-App-Purchases. For example, you will save a sea-turtle, or buy 10ft2 of land for wildlife, protect your game hero animal, for downloading the game, reaching a certain level, buying a skin or removing ads. By integrating into games and other apps, the company is building the world’s largest community of impact makers and collectors and are dedicated to converting daily actions into transformative impact for a sustainable future. Players will be able to contribute to real-world restoration projects by progressing through storylines, completing missions, or making purchases, all seamlessly integrated into each game’s theme and mechanics. Past campaigns using Dots.eco’s platform have boosted revenues by over 10%, increased first-time payers by 20%, and increased session time by 25%, all while earning the highest sentiment scores some studios have seen.
Supermicro introduced its Data Center Building Block Solutions, designed to simplify the deployment of liquid-cooled AI infrastructure. The offering includes servers, storage, networking, racks, liquid cooling systems, software, services, and support. As an expansion of Supermicro’s System Building Block Solutions, DCBBS adopts a standardized, yet flexible solution architecture, vastly expanded in scope to handle the most demanding AI data center training and inference workloads, enabling easier data center planning, buildout, and operation – all while reducing cost. “Supermicro’s DCBBS enables clients to easily construct data center infrastructure with the fastest time-to-market and time-to-online advantage, deploying as quickly as three months,” said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. “With our total solution coverage, including designing data center layouts and network topologies, power and battery backup-units, DCBBS simplifies and accelerates AI data center buildouts leading to reduced costs and improved quality.” DCBBS offers packages of pre-validated data center-level scalable units, including a 256-node AI Factory DCBBS scalable unit, designed to alleviate the burden of prolonged data center design by providing a streamlined package of floor plans, rack elevations, bill of materials, and more. Supermicro provides comprehensive first-party services to ensure project success, starting from consultation to on-site deployment and continued on-site support. DCBBS is customizable at the system-level, rack cluster-level, and data center-level to meet virtually any project requirements. Along with DLC-2 technology, DCBBS also helps customers save up to 40% power, reducing 60% data center footprint, and decreasing 40% water consumption, all of which leads to 20% lower TCO. Solutions from Supermicro include up to 256 Liquid Cooled 4U Supermicro NVIDIA HGX system nodes, each system equipped with 8 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs (2,048 GPUs in total), interconnected with up to 800Gb/s NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand or NVIDIA Spectrum X Ethernet networking platform. The compute fabric is supported by elastically scalable tiered storage with high-performance PCIe Gen5 NVMe, TCO optimized Data Lake nodes, and resilient management system nodes for continuous uninterrupted operation.
Data analytics platform Coralogix nearly doubled its valuation to over $1 billion in its latest funding round, co-founder and CEO Ariel Assaraf told as AI-driven enterprise offerings continue to pique investor delight. Coralogix raised $115 million in a round led by California-based venture growth firm NewView Capital. The fundraise comes three years after Coralogix’s previous external funding in 2022, where it raised $142 million. Valuations have faced downward pressure since then, as investors continue to sit on dry powder amid elevated interest rates and geopolitical tensions. Coralogix’s revenue increased seven times since 2022, Assaraf told. Coralogix also unveiled its new AI agent “olly,” aiming to simplify data monitoring via a conversational platform. “Olly makes deep observability data accessible to every team. Whether you ask, ‘What is wrong with the payment flow?’ or ‘Which service is frustrating our users the most?’ Olly translates those questions into detailed, system-level answers,” the company wrote on its blog.
CData Software announced an expanded partnership with Palantir Technologies that integrates CData’s connectivity technology deeply into Palantir’s analytics platforms. The deal lets Palantir customers connect to data sources ranging from traditional databases to enterprise applications and development platforms without the need to learn individual application program interfaces or formats. CData’s technology provides a standardized SQL interface and consistent metadata layer across all connections. Palantir is licensing the technology across its Foundry, Gotham and Artificial Intelligence Platforms. Foundry is a data integration and analytics platform for commercial and industrial use. Gotham is primarily used by government and defense agencies. AIP is used to build and manage AI applications. CData says its approach is based on two architectural pillars: open standards and uniform behavior. Each of its connectors operates like a virtual database, translating SQL into native API calls under the hood. This abstraction not only simplifies development but also improves reliability and performance across platforms, Sharma said. The partnership will also extend Palantir’s AI ambitions. Using CData’s technology in its AIP allows AI models to query structured and unstructured data sources in real time using SQL. “We’re powering the data layer of their agent infrastructure,” Sharma said. “AI needs access to trusted, secure data, and that’s what we provide.”
RavenDB, a high-performance NoSQL document database trusted by developers and enterprises worldwide, has launched its new feature, bringing native GenAI capabilities directly into its core database engine, eliminating the need for middleware, external orchestration, or costly third-party services. RavenDB’s new feature supports any LLM (open-source or commercial), allowing teams to run GenAI tasks directly inside the database. Moving from prototype to production traditionally requires complex data pipelines, vendor-specific APIs, external services, and significant engineering effort. With this feature, RavenDB removes those barriers and bridges the gap between experimentation and production, giving developers complete control over cost, performance, and compliance. The result is a seamless transition from idea to implementation, making the leap to production almost as effortless as prototyping. What sets RavenDB apart is its fully integrated, flexible approach: developers can use any LLM on their terms. It’s optimized for cost and performance with smarter caching and fewer API calls, and includes enterprise-ready capabilities such as governance, monitoring, and built-in security, designed to meet the demands of modern, intelligent applications. By collapsing multiple infrastructure layers into a single intelligent operational database, RavenDB’s native GenAI capabilities significantly upgrade its data layer. This enhancement accelerates innovation by removing complexity for engineering leaders. Whether classifying documents, summarizing customer interactions, or automating workflows, teams can build powerful features directly from the data they already manage, with no dedicated AI team required.
Bigeye announced the industry’s first AI Trust Platform for agent data usage, defining a new technology category built for enterprise AI trust and governance. Bigeye is enabling safe adoption of agentic AI by developing a comprehensive platform that supports the governance, observability, and enforcement of AI systems interacting with enterprise data. Without visibility into agent behavior, lineage between data sources and outputs, or controls over sensitive data access, organizations are left exposed to compliance risks, bad decisions, and reputational damage. Delivering on this framework requires a new approach to managing and securing AI agent data. An AI Trust Platform meets these requirements and includes three foundational capabilities: Governance: Enforceable policies that control how AI agents access and use high-quality, sensitive, and certified data. Observability: Ensure the quality, security, and compliance posture of your data before it powers critical AI decisions through real-time lineage, classification, and anomaly detection. Enforcement: Monitor, guide, or steer every agent’s data access based on enterprise policy. Bigeye’s AI Trust Platform brings these capabilities together to give enterprises complete control over how agents access and act on data. The first version will be released in late 2025.

1Password announced a strategic collaboration agreement with AWS that puts the firm in position to capitalize on surging enterprise demand for security tools designed for AI and cloud-native environments. Monica Jain, 1Password’s head of go-to-market partnerships, told that the AWS collaboration has delivered explosive growth over the past 18 months. Contracts sold through AWS average four times larger than typical deals, with win rates exceeding 50 percent across all customer segments from small businesses to large enterprises. As part of the expanded partnership, 1Password introduced a new secrets syncing integration with AWS Secrets Manager. The integration allows organizations to consolidate secrets management, enforce role-based access controls, and embed secure credential handling directly into development workflows including command-line interfaces, continuous integration pipelines, and AI-powered automation. The technical integration addresses a critical pain point for developers who traditionally have struggled to manage secrets securely without slowing down development velocity. By embedding secure access directly into existing workflows, the platform eliminates the trade-off between security and productivity that has plagued many organizations. 1Password now secures more than 165,000 businesses and millions of consumers, with 75 percent of revenue coming from business customers compared to just 25 percent from consumers — a dramatic shift from the company’s consumer origins. The AWS partnership accelerates 1Password’s evolution from a password manager into what the company calls an Extended Access Management platform. This new category addresses security gaps that traditional identity and access management, identity governance and administration, and mobile device management tools cannot reach.
Remote privileged access management company Cyolo Ltd. announced a major update to its Cyolo PRO, or Privileged Remote Operations, platform, introducing new capabilities designed to improve visibility, security and operational agility in industrial and cyber-physical system environments. Leading the list of new features is Third-Party VPN Control, a capability that allows organizations to enforce access policies and gain real-time visibility over vendor-managed virtual private networks and direct connections without requiring changes to existing production infrastructure or vendor workflows. The new version of Cyolo PRO also introduces Instant Collaboration Link, a browser-based, onetime-use secure link that allows session owners to invite external participants, such as vendors, auditors and engineers, into live Remote Desktop Protocol, Secure Shell or Virtual Network Computing sessions. Another new feature, called Secure Remote Assistance, allows organizations to deliver secure technical support for both user-initiated and helpdesk-initiated sessions, all while maintaining operational governance and control. Cyolo Pro also now includes a new Asset Access Hub that presents a unified, contextual view of assets based on both business and technical attributes.
Permissions management startup AuthZed announced new support for retrieval-augmented generation and agentic artificial intelligence systems, expanding its authorization infrastructure to address security challenges in enterprise AI. The expanded support is designed to give engineering teams the tools they need to ensure that AI systems respect permissions, prevent data leaks and maintain complete audit trails. AuthZed uses its open-source permissions system, SpiceDB, to support RAG and agentic AI. SpiceDB, based on Google’s internal permission system, Zanzibar, was built for scale and complexity and can scale to trillions of access control lists and millions of authorization checks per second. AuthZed says that supporting AI is a natural evolution for the system. AuthZed ensures that only authorized data is retrieved, embedded and displayed to users throughout the RAG process. Using AuthZed, teams can enforce access control by filtering documents before embedding them, post-filtering vector search results to exclude restricted content, and synchronizing permissions in real time with platforms such as Google Workspace and SharePoint. The controls allow organizations to build secure, high-performance RAG systems that minimize the risk of data leaks. On the agentic AI front, AuthZed’s Agentic AI Authorization Model is designed to manage what agents can do by aligning their capabilities with the permissions of the users they act on behalf of.
Marie Austenaa, the head of digital identity at Visa has described the upcoming EU Digital Identity Wallet (eID) is as a “gamechanger” for payments and banking, describing the move as a “present on a silver plate” for the sector, with the eID Wallet acting as a crucial new tool for regulatory compliant account opening. By 2026, each EU member state will need to deliver at least one version of the Wallet. The IDs are expected to be fully operational by 2027, with service providers mandated to accept them during the same year. Austenaa explained that the ID will make it much easier to open a bank account in another country and expand across borders. The head of digital identity said the upcoming ID will be used as an authentication credential in a person’s wallet, where a bank can rely on it rather than their banking app, while it can be presented to a merchant to perform authentication in “a way that everyone can trust.” She described it as an opportunity to separate the identity process from banks. The identification process will be done by another entity, she said, but proof will still be shared with the financial institution. Austenaa added that the eID would provide opportunities in other areas such as verification of IBAN, or proof of income, but she said that this is “going to take time”. “[It is an] opportunity for the banks, having a trusted digital identity that is fully digital with a great user experience, the member states taking responsibility for the identity itself, that’s kind of cool,” she continued, adding that the ID will create economic wealth all around the EU, with further opportunities around driving trust and innovation, and reducing fraud.
NiCE announced a strategic collaboration with Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, to unlock the full value of customer interaction data by enabling seamless, secure data sharing across the front, middle and back office through Snowflake Secure Data Sharing. This collaboration combines NiCE CXone Mpower’s AI for customer service automation with Snowflake’s easy, connected, and trusted platform, enabling joint customers to seamlessly access and update data to automate customer service at scale. By working with Snowflake, the two companies will be able to deliver immediate value for customers and unlock new opportunities across the enterprise landscape. NiCE selected Snowflake for its ability to power secure, governed data collaboration and its shared commitment to eliminating operational silos. As a core component of every CXone Mpower bundle, Snowflake provides the foundation for the CXone Mpower data lake, centralizing all interaction data from across the platform and enabling that data to be merged with associated data beyond the front office. This extends the depth and breadth of CXone Mpower, enabling customers to leverage reporting, dashboarding, analytics and AI, from a single, trusted and ecosystem-wide source of truth. By expanding the reach of CX data into middle and back-office systems, organizations will be able to automate processes such as service fulfillment, billing, claims handling, and account updates, dramatically improving speed, accuracy, and efficiency. Customers can leverage CXone Mpower’s built-in integration with Snowflake to securely share and activate customer interaction data across their enterprise, either as part of their current CXone Mpower bundle or through expanded enterprise automation initiatives. With CXone Mpower analyzing hundreds of customer attributes per interaction, Snowflake provides the secure, scalable foundation to store, share, and activate this rich data across the enterprise. This collaboration empowers enterprises to operationalize interaction data at scale, integrate it seamlessly into enterprise ecosystems, and accelerate the development of AI-driven CX innovations.
Logitech’s new Flip Folio makes it easier than ever to turn your iPad into a comfortable, portable workstation. Logitech’s new Flip Folio fuses portability with adaptability. Its case combines a Bluetooth keyboard with a magnetic folio, making it perfect for anyone who wants the freedom to work the way they like. This is especially great if you want to place your iPad on a higher surface than your keyboard to reduce neck strain while working. Logitech also gives you the option to work in portrait mode — perfect for Pages projects. The kickstand adjusts to multiple angles, allowing you to find the perfect position for writing, watching videos, making FaceTime calls, and more. When it’s time to pack up, the Bluetooth keyboard magnetically attaches to the Folio, making it a breeze to stash it in a bag or carry it with a single hand. Unlike Apple’s Magic Keyboard, there’s no passive charging; in fact, there’s no charging at all. The included Bluetooth keyboard is powered by four replaceable coin cell batteries, which Logitech says should last for two years, assuming two hours of daily use.
Apple previewed a slick new software design and powerful software updates, including new features coming to its next-generation operating systems across devices that will receive a unified version 26. The new design features a new material called Liquid Glass, which creates a translucent effect similar to water that sits atop the display, refracting content below it and allowing colors to flow through. The company says this will bring greater focus to content, deliver a new level of quality to controls and keep users more attuned to what’s happening on screen. The new design extends across Apple’s entire device ecosystem, including iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Ventura 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26. The company said the idea was to “harmonize” the user experience across all devices so they could expect every device to look and feel the same. It will affect buttons, switches, sliders, text and media in the user interface and shift dynamically according to user needs. Controls, toolbars and navigation within apps have been redesigned with rounded corners and they “float above” content so that they stay out of the way and avoid interrupting content. They also shift into thoughtful groupings, allowing users to find the controls they need. The Preview app, which originally comes from macOS, is coming to iPadOS 26. Preview is a dedicated app for creating a quick sketch, as well as viewing, editing and marking up PDFs and images with Apple Pencil or by touch.
Google is adding real-time captions to Gemini Live. After ending a Gemini Live session, you already get a text transcript of the conversation. Google is now adding captions so you can read Gemini’s responses in real-time. The top-right corner of the fullscreen Gemini Live interface is gaining a transcript button. (Google is using the same rectangular icon as Android’s Live Caption capability.) Tapping presents a translucent overlay at the center of the screen. At the moment, Gemini Live does not let you start a conversation if the volume is muted or too low. There might be occasions where you can briefly speak to your phone, but can’t have audio playing out loud (like when you are without headphones). The new transcript allows you to go Live in those situations, while some prefer reading instead of listening to responses. For other people, this will be faster. The upcoming Search Live, which is also powered by Project Astra, has a prominent “Transcript” button in the UI to read responses as they come in. Captions started rolling out to Gemini Live on Android earlier this week with more reports today, but it’s not yet widely available.
Meta is pushing deeper into AI-generated advertisements in a bid to make it cheaper and simpler for marketers to craft their messages. Meta announced an updated image-to-video ad tool, which lets marketers use artificial intelligence to turn product pictures into multi-scene video ads. Advertisers can upload as many as 20 images to create the videos, which come complete with music and overlaid text. Meta has made AI a key focus of its advertising business, which accounts for roughly 98% of annual revenue. Most of Meta’s advertisers are small businesses, and the cheaper it is for them to produce marketing material, the more money they have to spend promoting those messages on Facebook or Instagram. Generative AI is becoming a larger part of that business. Meta also lets advertisers use text prompts to create ad images, and announced in October that marketers could turn images into AI-generated GIFs for ads. The company is also building a text-to-video tool for general consumers, called Movie Gen, that it debuted for the first time last fall. The new ad features were announced in conjunction with the Cannes Lions advertising festival, which is happening this week in the south of France. TikTok also introduced new AI-powered tools for advertisers, including video generation for ads.
Chick-fil-A is continuing its dominance in the quick-serve sector when it comes to customer satisfaction, topping the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) Restaurant and Food Delivery Study for the 11th year in a row, with a steady score of 83 out of 100. However, the list-topping performance comes as Chick-fil-A is experiencing slow growth amid increased competition. U.S. sales only grew 5.4% in 2024, providing openings for popular chicken brands like Raising Cane’s and Wingstop. KFC dropped 5% to 77 as it faces competitors who are adapting to shifting preferences more quickly. Popeyes was up 4% to 75. Other notable score changes include Panda Express (up 4% to 80), which jumps into a second-place tie with Starbucks (unchanged). Little Caesars, up 3% to 77, improved its ratings for food and service quality. Five Guys and Sonic both fell 4% to scores of 75 and 73, respectively, in the most recent ACSI report. Last-place McDonald’s dropped 1% to an ACSI score of 70. As a whole, the customer experience for quick-service restaurants is similar to last year’s report, with every aspect receiving a score of 81 or higher. Accuracy of food order and quality of mobile app lead the way at 85, both down 1% year over year. Mobile app reliability is 1% lower at 84, matching beverage quality, staff courtesy and helpfulness, food quality and website satisfaction (the only metric to increase in 2025).
Nurix Labs, the developer of custom AI agents for enterprise customers, launched an interactive voice platform NuPlay that will allow meaningful automated human-like voice interactions using AI agents. NuPlay will bridge the gap between dry business operations and customers by providing meaningful interactions and allowing businesses to scale up automated customer service. According to the company, its voice-enabled AI agents offer exceptional interruption handling for complex calls, immediate resolution, 99% accuracy, personality-driven agents that reflect brand tone, and multiple integrated enterprise software systems such as CRM, booking and support platforms. NuPlay is enabling people to interact with AI agents in the same way they would with a sales rep or customer support team, fostering genuine engagement, gathering information and accelerating decision-making seamlessly within enterprise operations.
Adobe announced Adobe LLM Optimizer, a new enterprise application that enables businesses to gain new relevance in an environment where consumers are embracing generative AI-powered interfaces to engage their favorite brands. Now with Adobe LLM Optimizer, teams can stay ahead of shifting consumer behaviors and remain top-of-mind in the AI era. A suite of features will enable businesses to monitor AI-driven traffic and benchmark brand visibility, while receiving recommendations that can be quickly deployed on their digital properties to improve discoverability, engagement and conversion. Adobe LLM Optimizer enables brands to: Monitor and increase AI-driven traffic: LLM Optimizer will be able to identify owned content (details on a website for instance) that is being leveraged by AI-powered interfaces to deliver responses to user queries. Optimize content to improve discoverability: A recommendation engine will detect gaps in brand visibility and suggest improvements across both owned and external channels—based on attributes prioritized by LLMs including high-quality, informative content from authoritative sources. An attribution capability also connects AI visibility to user behavior and business performance, enabling teams to demonstrate the effect on engagement, conversion and downstream traffic metrics.

Flinks, a financial data connectivity and Open Banking solution provider, has announced a partnership with Trask Solutions. Trask helps data recipients build data-in infrastructure more efficiently, delivering business solutions that fully leverage Open Banking data. Data recipients can use Trask’s Data-In Connector that has been successfully deployed for numerous clients across Europe and that is now fully localized for use in Canada. The solution supports the FDX standard and comes pre-integrated with Flinks. Trask provides assets, accelerators, and platforms that use Open Banking data for digitizing banking products and services such as: online loans, transaction-based loan adjudication mechanisms, online account opening for retail and commercial clients, mortgage process automation, financial management and advisory, investment dashboards and multi-banking. With Trask’s technology stack, European financial institutions have already achieved significant benefits, including: Full rollout of data-in capabilities in just three months; Delivery of new digital banking products in as little as eight months; Loan approval time reduced from days to seconds; Increased the quality of new-to-bank loans to be on-par with the loans to existing clients; Processing cost of invoice factoring lowered to almost zero enabled factoring offerings to SMEs; Doubled conversion rates and increased sales by 30% by offering hyper-personalized offers to both existing and new clients, leveraging Open Banking data sources.
Postman Inc. is rolling out a suite of AI-driven features aimed at transforming API development. The company’s latest introduction, Agent Mode, automates API design, testing, documentation, and monitoring through natural language inputs. This feature acts as a fully capable execution agent, streamlining development workflows and reducing manual effort. Beyond Agent Mode, Postman is enhancing real-time API observability, enterprise-ready integrations, and support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which standardizes the way AI agents interact with third-party tools. Developers will soon have the ability to create their own AI agents and deploy them in their workspaces, improving efficiency in both daily engineering tasks and broader operations. One standout addition is Postman Insights, which provides real-time tracking for API usage, failure patterns, and proactive debugging. The Repo Mode feature further simplifies testing, allowing developers to reproduce API failures for easier troubleshooting. Meanwhile, integration with the Model Context Protocol enables APIs to function as callable agent tools, generate MCP servers, and connect with Postman’s newly launched MCP server network. The company is also introducing workflow integrations designed to accelerate API delivery and shorten development cycles. The integration with GitHub enables real-time collection synchronization and branch-based governance, while Jira supports context-aware issue tracking. Postman is strengthening collaboration among developer teams by linking its platform with Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Postman Inc. is rolling out a suite of AI-driven features aimed at transforming API development. The company’s latest introduction, Agent Mode, automates API design, testing, documentation, and monitoring through natural language inputs. This feature acts as a fully capable execution agent, streamlining development workflows and reducing manual effort. Beyond Agent Mode, Postman is enhancing real-time API observability, enterprise-ready integrations, and support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which standardizes the way AI agents interact with third-party tools. Developers will soon have the ability to create their own AI agents and deploy them in their workspaces, improving efficiency in both daily engineering tasks and broader operations. One standout addition is Postman Insights, which provides real-time tracking for API usage, failure patterns, and proactive debugging. The Repo Mode feature further simplifies testing, allowing developers to reproduce API failures for easier troubleshooting. Meanwhile, integration with the Model Context Protocol enables APIs to function as callable agent tools, generate MCP servers, and connect with Postman’s newly launched MCP server network. The company is also introducing workflow integrations designed to accelerate API delivery and shorten development cycles. The integration with GitHub enables real-time collection synchronization and branch-based governance, while Jira supports context-aware issue tracking. Postman is strengthening collaboration among developer teams by linking its platform with Slack and Microsoft Teams.
South African agri-tech startup SwiftVEE has partnered with Nedbank Agribusiness to streamline access to agricultural inputs through embedded finance. Farmers using PrysWys, SwiftVEE’s online input marketplace, can now access finance directly from Nedbank through the platform. This move signals a growing shift in South African agriculture, where traditional value chains are being reengineered through tech platforms that connect farmers to finance, suppliers, and better pricing. PrysWys allows farmers to request quotes, compare prices, and purchase essentials like fertiliser, livestock feed, seed, and fuel online. The partnership aims to improve affordability and access, particularly for underbanked farmers, as input costs continue to rise. The partnership aligns with broader efforts to digitize and decarbonise agriculture, reducing transport inefficiencies and streamlining procurement. Farmers who use PrysWys through this new model can expect: Access to wholesale input pricing; Platform-based finance options through Nedbank; National delivery and fulfilment; Support from PrysWys’ procurement team.
Sidekick, a new UK digital wealth platform built to serve six-figure earners who’ve outgrown basic financial products but don’t have the millions needed to access private banks, has launched. Sidekick is one of a number of entrants targeting the mass affluent market, using technology to offer products and services once reserved for the super rich. Among Sidekick’s offerings is access to private equity-style investing for just £10,000. Eligible individuals can get access to a regulated Long-Term Asset Fund, which allows clients to invest in high-growth private companies through a professionally managed fund without needing the six-figure minimums usually required. Beyond investments, users get access to an account that automatically spreads deposits across a panel of UK-regulated banks behind the scenes, enabling up to £255,000 of FSCS protection – all through a single interface. And, for higher target returns, its Smart Cash product invests short-term funds into actively managed money market instruments, designed to outperform traditional savings rates while keeping funds accessible.
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) launched a new behavior-based “Competency Model,” a digital self-assessment and learning tool designed for financial planning professionals of all backgrounds. It is meant to help advisors develop their skills across six critical areas — interpersonal impact, client communication and care, critical thinking, leadership, professionalism and advancing the profession. The model’s tiered structure further develops these areas across career stages in foundational, intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency. Ben Lewis, chief communications officer for the FPA said, “The goal is to promote continuous learning, so the model is built around observable behaviors at foundational, intermediate and advanced levels. This offers a clear structure for development over time.” Although participation in the model is optional and not a requirement for FPA membership, Lewis said the learning tool is relevant for planners who wish to deepen client relationships and grow as professionals. Though the model is brand-new, it’s already garnering positive reactions. Melissa A. Caro, an FPA member and founder of the platform My Retirement Network, a digital media company, said because the learning modules emphasize the behavioral and interpersonal side of planning — in other words, the exact types of conversations that impact client trust, understanding and follow-through. The model brings clarity to the often-intangible skills that make a great planner and offers a roadmap for growth at every career stage, said Gregory Furer, who is also an FPA member and the founder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Beratung Advisors.
Zocks announced a direct integration with eMoney Advisor (eMoney), provider of technology solutions and services that help people talk about money. This marks the first AI-powered, bi-directional integration between a client intelligence platform and eMoney’s financial planning solutions, aimed squarely at eliminating manual data entry and accelerating the planning process for financial advisors. Zocks automatically creates and maintains structured data from conversations, emails and CRM records for contacts. The integration’s bi-directional data sharing enables Zocks to use that information to populate and update ‘Facts’ data in eMoney, eliminating manual data entry. In return, relevant facts and plan data from eMoney can be utilized by Zocks’ AI Agents to support smarter meeting preparation and email responses. Luke White, Manager, Group Product Management, eMoney said “By reducing time spent on data entry, advisors can spend more time focusing on building meaningful client relationships and delivering high-quality financial plans.” Drew DiMarino, Chief Revenue Officer at Zocks said “By syncing structured data into and out of eMoney, we’re removing the burden of manual entry and giving advisors more time to engage meaningfully with clients, whether that’s uncovering new planning needs, preparing for complex reviews, or simply staying ahead of key life changes.”
FINNY the AI-powered prospecting and marketing platform built specifically for financial advisors, has launched Intent Search, a feature that allows advisors to identify and engage with prospects actively seeking financial guidance. Powered by 1.8 billion proprietary intent signals that are updated daily, it enables advisors to surface high-intent prospects based on real-time online behavior. Advisors can select keywords related to their services. FINNY identifies prospects who have recently researched those topics, pinpointing what they’re interested in and when they were actively searching. FINNY has also released its Prospect Enrichment and AI Voicemails features. Prospect Enrichment enables advisors to upload external contacts and automatically matches them to FINNY’s database. Meanwhile, AI Voicemails allow advisors to deliver ringless, personalized voicemails at scale. They can select from multiple voice options to suit their preferences, and messages are able to circumvent spam filters. Each voicemail can be paired with a follow-up email to create efficient outreach that retains a human touch. Since its launch, the Prospect Enrichment feature has already led to the upload and enrichment of more than 8,000 prospects, signaling strong demand and immediate value.


PayPal plans to make the PayPal USD stablecoin available on the Stellar network pending regulatory approval by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). By potentially expanding to Stellar, PYUSD leverages the network’s speed, low transaction costs, and ease of integration to enhance its utility for real-world payments, commerce, and micro-financing, offering an additional option to Ethereum and Solana. PYUSD on Stellar can be used for fast, affordable cross-border payments and expanded access to essential financial services while bridging the digital and physical world with a vast array of on and off ramps. Users may also benefit from improved daily payment options and financing solutions such as working capital and business loans – use cases already thriving on the Stellar network – ultimately enabling a more seamless flow of value across global markets. An expansion on Stellar would give PYUSD users access to its vast network of on and off ramps, providing additional access through digital wallets, and connected to local payment systems and cash networks. Access to extensive Stellar infrastructure will enhance how people can use PYUSD in their everyday financial activities, from payments to remittances to merchant services. PYUSD on Stellar can also enhance liquidity and financing opportunities through Payment Financing or ‘PayFi’, an emerging innovation in digital finance. Small and medium-sized businesses that face delayed receivables or pre-funding requirements would be able to access new sources of real-time working capital, disbursed in PYUSD. This capital can be used to pay suppliers, manage inventory, or address other operational needs – with instant settlement on Stellar. Liquidity providers can fund these opportunities and earn potential, sustainable benefits from real-world economic activity.
PayPal announced that PayPal Credit can now be used everywhere with the introduction of a new physical card, issued by Synchrony. This expands its popular digital PayPal Credit offering to use both online when checking out with PayPal and in-store and everywhere Mastercard® is accepted. When using the new physical card, customers will also have access to a limited-time offer to pay for travel purchases over six months with promotional financing and no minimum spend1. This gives account holders a more manageable way to pay for qualifying travel purchases like flights, hotels, cruises, and ride shares, which can be spread over time to best suit their budget and needs. This is PayPal’s next flexible payment innovation that caters to customers looking to take PayPal Credit everywhere. In addition to the limited-time travel offer, customers can continue to enjoy six-month promotional financing on PayPal purchases over $149. Customers looking for flexibility at checkout can also apply for a PayPal Buy Now Pay Later loan which lets them break purchases into smaller payments over weeks or months. The physical card will be rolling out in the coming weeks to US customers.
In late 2024, the popular Chrome extension Honey was exposed for shady tactics including simply not doing what it was promised to do, with uninstalls following suit and Honey now dropping down to 15 million users from a peak of over 20 million. An exposé from YouTube channel MegaLag previously highlighted two things about PayPal-owned Honey. The extension had dropped down to 16 million users as of March 2025. As of this week, Honey has now dropped to 15 million users, down from over 20 million users at its peak prior to the exposé. This drops Honey well below the “17+ million members” that it advertises on the Chrome Web Store, though it’s still very possible the extension has a couple million more members across browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Firefox. Mozilla shows around 460,000 Honey users on its browser, while Apple doesn’t show a figure. Microsoft says Honey has 5,000,000 users on Edge, though that number may be inflated by Microsoft’s own questionable tactics with Edge copying Chrome when installed on the same machine. Regardless, it’s clear that these numbers are dropping. The impact of the MegaLag video has passed, with roughly 3 million views on that video since January. Google has implemented restrictions on extensions following the debacle, which led to Honey making changes to some of its biggest abuse of affiliate codes.
Webull, an online investment platform, announced its collaboration with VISA on the Webull US platform. Visa Direct facilitates account funding as well as the movement of funds directly to eligible cards, bank accounts, and wallets. By integrating with Visa Direct, Webull users based in the United States can quickly transfer money between their Webull brokerage account and external bank accounts. The collaboration with Visa Direct allows Webull to implement a “Deposit” feature, which enables fast access to the market and empowers users to seize investment opportunities. While Automated Clearing House (ACH) and other common methods of moving money may take several days, Visa Direct gives users access to their funds in under a minute. Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, SVP, North America Head, Visa Direct said, “With Visa Direct, Webull can give their customers the speed, flexibility and protection they want with real-time payments[1], and deliver a simple, digitized experience to securely manage their funds, so they can confidently invest and trade.”
PayPal and Circle, two U.S. firms that are trying to build what are called financial super apps, are making stablecoins a major piece of how users link to other functions. Both companies made recent deals to expand usage of their own stablecoins while easing access to other financial services. PayPal and Circle are both positioning themselves to capitalize on the increasing popularity of stablecoins as a means to power their super apps. PayPal recently expanded its partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to power free conversions between PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin and traditional money. Coinbase will offer PYUSD to PayPal’s merchant network, making it easier for the stablecoin to be used at the point of sale. It also can drive PayPal’s super app strategy, a long-standing initiative to enable a mobile app to shop at millions of merchants, make payments, access a debit card, use installment credit, pay bills, invest, make P2P transfers, receive paychecks and dozens of other services. The addition of the Xoom remittance and Venmo transfer app, PayPal’s PYUSD and support for stablecoin and cryptocurrency investments at Venmo and PayPal add to that super-app potential.
Google has announced that its most powerful Gemini 2.5 models are ready for enterprise production while unveiling a new ultra-efficient variant designed to undercut competitors on cost and speed. The announcements represent Google’s most assertive challenge yet to OpenAI’s market leadership Two of its flagship AI models—Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Flash— are now generally available, signaling the company’s confidence that the technology can handle mission-critical business applications. Google simultaneously introduced Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, positioning it as the most cost-effective option in its model lineup for high-volume tasks. What distinguishes Google’s approach is its emphasis on “reasoning” or “thinking” capabilities — a technical architecture that allows models to process problems more deliberately before responding. Unlike traditional language models that generate responses immediately, Gemini 2.5 models can spend additional computational resources working through complex problems step-by-step. This “thinking budget” gives developers unprecedented control over AI behavior. They can instruct models to think longer for complex reasoning tasks or respond quickly for simple queries, optimizing both accuracy and cost. The feature addresses a critical enterprise need: predictable AI behavior that can be tuned for specific business requirements. Gemini 2.5 Pro, positioned as Google’s most capable model, excels at complex reasoning, advanced code generation, and multimodal understanding. Gemini 2.5 Flash strikes a balance between capability and efficiency, designed for high-throughput enterprise tasks like large-scale document summarization and responsive chat applications. The newly introduced Flash-Lite variant sacrifices some intelligence for dramatic cost savings, targeting use cases like classification and translation where speed and volume matter more than sophisticated reasoning.
Apple has made the smallest update to Visual Intelligence in iOS 26, and yet the impact of being able to use it on any image is huge, and at least doubles the usefulness of this one feature. Visual Intelligence involved pointing your iPhone camera at whatever you were interested in. What Apple has done with iOS 26 is take that step away. Everything else is the same, but you no longer have to use your camera. You can instead deploy Visual Intelligence on anything on your iPhone’s screen. This one thing means that researchers can find out more about objects they see on websites. And shoppers can freeze frame a YouTube video and use Visual Intelligence to track down the bag that influencer is wearing. There is an issue that this means there are now two different ways to use Visual Intelligence, and they involve you having to do two different things to start them. The new version is an extra part of Visual Intelligence, not a replacement. Visual Intelligence is replete with different ways to use it, one of which provides a very different service to the rest. Yet being able to identify just about anything on your screen is a huge boon. And consequently Apple increased the usefulness of Visual Intelligence just by not requiring the step where you point your iPhone camera at anything.
Apple overhauled the Shortcuts app in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe, and there are now Apple Intelligence options that users can take advantage of. The app supports Apple Intelligence models for things like summarizing PDFs, generating recipes, answering questions, and more. Here’s what Apple offers, along with the descriptions: Morning Summary – Use Model to describe the day ahead of you. Action Items From Meeting Notes – Use Model to grab action items from meeting notes. Summarize PDF – Use Model to summarize the open PDF in Safari. Is Severance Season 3 Out? – Use Model to find out if something has been released. ASCII Art – Use Model to draw you some ASCII art. Document Review – Use Mode to help you compare and contrast documents. Reminders Roulette – Use Model to punt an unimportant reminder to tomorrow. Get Started With Language Models – A tutorial for Use Model with examples. As the last pre-made Shortcut suggests, you can create your own shortcuts that incorporate Apple’s AI model, and Apple’s offerings serve as examples. When you go to create a Shortcut, there’s a new Apple Intelligence section. You can opt to use an on-device model, a cloud model that takes advantage of Private Cloud Compute, or ChatGPT. There are some pre-determined options, so you can do things like open Visual Intelligence or generate an image with Image Playground. There are several Writing Tools features for adjusting the tone of text, proofreading, creating a list from text, summarizing text, or rewriting text. When you tap on Cloud, On-Device Model, or ChatGPT, there’s an open-ended prompt where you can write in what you want to do. You need to work within the confines of the model that Apple provides, pairing it with other functionality in Shortcuts. You can pull in data from the Weather app, your Calendar, and Reminders, then ask the model to prepare a summary, for example. AI models can be incorporated into any Shortcut.
With the introduction of the Phone app on macOS, you can now take and place calls directly from your Mac. The macOS Phone app takes many of the cues from the updated iOS Phone app. The new Unified view is recreated on the bigger screen, with the default appearance being a list of recent calls and favorite callers on the top. These all take advantage of contact photos and posters, if other contacts have employed them. Selecting a recent call will bring up a larger version of the contact poster, along with more information about that person. There’s also an option to Manage Filtering, which on an iPhone would bring up the Settings app with options on how to handle unknown or spam callers. An Edit button lets you change your Favorites list or to select multiple logs in a list for mass deletion. The onboard voicemail function of the iPhone is also accessible from the macOS Phone app. If there is a voicemail recording and transcript available on the connected iPhone, these can be heard and read from the Mac directly. When you place a call by pressing the relevant icon or using the on-screen keypad, or receive a call, a box will appear in the top right corner of your Mac’s display. The buttons on the box offer extra features, including a compact keypad for menu systems. One brings up options for enabling Call Recording, Live Translation, Hold Assist, and Screen Sharing.
Apple is introduceing App Store Tags — labels that highlight specific features and functionalities found in an app. These tags will initially be generated by Apple’s LLMs using various sources, like the app’s metadata. They’ll then be human-reviewed before being applied to apps on the App Store. Apple customers will be able to use these tags when searching for apps on the App Store, where the tags appear alongside the categories on the search page and the apps that appear in the search results. Apple says the new tags will help surface information that’s often buried in app listings, like the app’s App Store description, category, metadata, or even in its screenshots. The tags will help users more easily find the apps that offer the functionality they’re looking for, while also giving developers a better idea about how their apps are being discovered. When App Store users tap on one of the new tags, they’ll be taken to a new page offering a curated collection of all the apps and games that offer similar features or functionality — an extension to the App Store’s existing feature that points users to apps they “might also like,” found at the bottom of individual listings. Developers will also be able to create custom product pages that appear when a user searches for apps using particular keywords.
iOS 26 has an updated Phone app with several new functions. When you tap into a voicemail from an unknown number, you’ll see a new “Report Spam” button that you can tap if it is a spam call. Tapping on option sends the voicemail to Apple, and you can either report the message as spam and keep it, or report it and delete it. The Call Screening option in iOS 26 intercepts calls from numbers that are not saved in your contacts list, and asks the caller for more information like a name and reason for calling before forwarding the call along to you. The Messages app also has a refined spam reporting workflow in iOS 26. Messages that Apple detects are spam are sent to a specific Spam folder, which is now distinct from the Unknown Senders folder. Messages from numbers that aren’t in your contacts, such as 2FA messages, go in Unknown Senders. Scam messages are sent to the spam folder. Messages from unknown senders and spam messages are both silenced and you won’t get a notification for them, but you will see a badge at the top of the Messages app. You can disable these features in the Messages section of the Settings app, if desired. There is no automatic filtering of spam voicemails, but that is a feature that Apple could use in the future after receiving enough voicemails that people flag as spam.
Apple announced iOS 26, and the upcoming software update includes several new features and changes for CarPlay in vehicles. Liquid Glass Design: When you are using CarPlay with an iPhone running iOS 26, the new Liquid Glass design extends to the CarPlay interface. Like on the iPhone, the new look includes more shimmery app icons and translucent user interface elements. New Messages App Features: Starting with iOS 26, you can respond to messages with standard Tapbacks like a heart, thumbs up, or exclamation marks directly through CarPlay. Plus, you can now view your pinned conversations in the Messages app on CarPlay. Compact View for Phone Calls: CarPlay has a new compact view for incoming phone calls, so that you can still see other information on the screen, such as turn-by-turn directions. Live Activities: CarPlay’s Dashboard screen can now show Live Activities, letting you keep track of things like a flight’s arrival time at a glance. Widgets: The regular version of CarPlay now has a customizable widgets screen, for things like calendar appointments and HomeKit accessory controls.
iOS 26 introduces a new feature that allows users to know the estimated time it takes for their battery to charge when plugged in or on a wireless charger. This allows users to optimize their charging practices and determine the speed of a charger. The estimated time remaining until a full charge can be found in the Battery section of the Settings app. Apple has not yet added a new widget for this feature, but it could be added in the future. The iPhone battery charging estimates are available to developers in iOS 26, with the update expected to be released to everyone this fall.
Apple has introduced spatial widgets in its Vision Pro headset, allowing users to pin interactive elements like clocks, music controls, weather panels, and photo galleries directly into their physical space. These widgets are customizable in size, color, depth, and layout, and are meant to be part of the user’s space. The Vision Pro update marks a clear step toward persistent spatial computing, with widgets like Photos, Clock, Weather, and Music playing the role of physical objects. However, the experience of using spatial widgets raises questions about how digital environments are changing the way we relate to physical ones. While Vision Pro is still shown in cozy, furnished homes, the integration of digital objects into physical spaces could lead to a different reality. The visionOS 26 update is currently available in developer beta, with a public release expected in fall 2025. As more developers build spatial widgets, the headset might feel useful in quiet, everyday ways. The end goal of AR/VR is to augmentation of reality, overlaying digital things on analog reality. However, Apple is not pushing this path for now, as it would be crucified if it did. The company has a decent track record for a corporation, despite the potential for a dystopian future where technology works against us.
Apple has announced that developers will soon be able to access the on-device large language models that power Apple Intelligence in their own apps through the Foundation Models framework. This will allow third-party apps to use the features for image creation, text generation, and more. The on-device processing will allow for fast, powerful, privacy-focused AI features that are available without an internet connection. Apple has also announced plans to expand the number of languages its AI platform supports and make the generative models that power it more capable and efficient. The company’s move comes as the company continues to make its intelligence systems accessible to third-party apps.
Apple announced several updates to its operating systems, services, and software, including a new look called “Liquid Glass” and a rebranded naming convention. However, the company was notably quiet on a more personalized, AI-powered Siri, which was first introduced at WWDC 24. The company’s SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, only briefly mentioned the Siri update during the keynote address, stating that the work needed more time to reach high-quality standards. The delay in the AI era suggests that Apple won’t have news about the Siri update until 2026, a significant delay in the AI era. The more personalized Siri is expected to bring artificial intelligence updates to the virtual assistant built into iPhone and other Apple devices. Bloomberg reported that the in-development version of the more personalized Siri was functional, but it was not consistently working properly, making it not viable to ship. Apple officially announced in March that the Siri update would take longer to deliver than anticipated.
Personalized spatial widgets: Apple’s widgets, now integrated into your space with visionOS 26, offer personalized information at a glance. Users can customize widgets to size, color, and depth, and add features like customizable clocks, weather adapters, quick music access, and photos that can transform into panoramas. Adding depth to 2D images: Apple has updated its visionOS Photos app with an AI algorithm that creates multiple perspectives for 2D photos, allowing users to “lean right into them and look around.” Spatial browsing on Safari can also enhance web browsing by hiding distractions and revealing inline photos, and developers can add it to their apps. Talking heads: Apple has introduced Personas, an AI avatar for video calls, on the Vision Pro. The new avatars, created usingvolumetric rendering and machine learning technology, are more realistic and accurate in appearance, including hair, eyelashes, and complexion. They are created on-device in seconds. Immerse together: VisionOS 26 allows users to collaborate with headset-wearing friends to watch movies or play spatial games. This feature is also being marketed for enterprise clients, such as Dassault Systèmes, which uses the 3DLive app to visualize 3D designs in person and with remote colleagues. Enterprise APIs and tools: Apple has introduced visionOS 26, a new operating system that allows organizations to share devices among team members and securely save eye and hand data, vision prescription, and accessibility settings to iPhones. The system also includes a “for your eyes only” mode to restrict access to confidential materials. Additionally, Apple has introduced Logitech Muse, a spatial accessory for Vision Pro, allowing precise 3D drawing and collaboration. The company plans to add more APIs for app development.
Apple has released a new version of its app development suite, Xcode, which integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT for coding, document generation, and more. Developers can use API keys to bring AI models from other providers to Xcode for AI-powered programming suggestions. The new AI integrations allow developers to generate code previews, iterate on designs, and fix errors. ChatGPT can be accessed without creating an account, and paid users can increase rate limits. Apple also launched the Foundation Models framework, allowing developers to access on-device AI models with just three lines of code. The company chose ChatGPT over a vibe-coding software in partnership with Anthropic.
Apple Wallet is enhancing its travel capabilities with the introduction of a digital passport and new features for boarding passes. The digital passport is not a replacement for a physical passport but can be used in apps requiring age and identity verification and at TSA checkpoints. The boarding pass feature now includes links to terminal maps, making it easier to find the gate or baggage claim. Additionally, users can track the progress of their AirTag luggage using the Find My link.
Apple is introducing Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence, for Messages, FaceTime, and Phone calls. Live translation can translate conversation on the fly. The translation feature is “enabled by Apple Built models that run entirely on your device so your personal conversations stay personal. In Messages, Live Translation will automatically translate text for you as you type and deliver it in your preferred language. Similarly, when the person you’re texting responds, each text can be instantly translated. When catching up on FaceTime, Apple’s translation feature will provide live captions. And on a phone call — whether you’re talking to an Apple user or not — your words can be translated as you talk, and the translation is spoken out loud for the call recipient. As the person you’re speaking to responds in their own language, you’ll hear a spoken translation of their voice.
Apple has changed its operating system names at WWDC 2025, introducing the year as part of the name. All systems will be called iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, tvOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26, aiming to make the naming process clearer and more consistent across all platforms. This change aligns with rivals Samsung and Microsoft, making it easier for users to understand and identify the latest updates. The design overhaul, known as “Liquid Glass,” features a transparent interface.
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New findings from the 2025 Pocket Money Index, analysing data from over 350,000 Rooster Card users, show that kids are building their understanding and confidence around saving, earning and spending with regular goal setting and a variety of income streams. While overall income has fallen by 1% to £9.13 a week, parents are stepping up and rewarding more for chores and hard work. The findings show kids on average are spending more and saving less, as sticky inflation continues to rack up prices. Overall, kids managed to set aside £30.38 of their annual income on average over the year, which shows savings as a percentage of annual income have fallen by 33% since last year and almost half (48%) since 2022. Age factors into kids’ savings significantly, with older kids tending to spend more of their income, in turn, resulting in less being saved. Whereas their younger counterparts are more inclined to save, with six-year-olds still having on average 31.4% of their income stashed away at the end of the year. Although older kids save less than their younger counterparts, they’re continuing to demonstrate great money skills by setting goals and completing chores to work towards their wants and needs. Practicing these healthy money habits regularly all helps towards building their money confidence and gaining that extra independence. Yet despite facing a tricky economy, kids continue to demonstrate budgeting skills, making sure to put their money aside for the things they really want. 54% of savings through the year were put into pots for specific goals, such as saving up to buy a computer game, or for an upcoming holiday. Although kids’ overall income – which includes pocket money as well as payments for additional chores, and one-off rewards – has fallen since last year, parents are generously upping the price for chores, incentivising kids to work harder and earn more. The data also shows that tooth fairy visits are beating inflation as the price for a lost tooth has increased by 5.25% to £4.21.
Peer to peer car sharing startup Zevo has raised $6 million in funding as it looks to expand across more major U.S. cities. Co-founder Hebron Sher says Zevo has “the secret sauce on how to make car sharing very lucrative for the host and very affordable for the renter. We very intentionally raised private capital. We rejected VC capital for that reason. I didn’t want to be on a 12-month to 18-month runway of ‘spend, spend, spend, spend,’ which is how corporate America likes to do things in this world.” Bootstrapping Zevo allowed Sher to gather good engineers, develop a strong go-to-market strategy, and cause “true disruption,” he said. By keeping things focused, Sher said Zevo is able to send more money to the vehicle owners than they’d get on platforms like Turo. Sher also talked up Zevo’s “contactless” process, which allows owners and renters to share a car without having to hand over keys or key cards. Zevo’s contactless nature is front-and-center because the service only uses EVs, which tend to be more technologically capable and therefore easier to integrate in a smartphone app. This connectivity also makes it easier to integrate other important pieces of the car-sharing equation, like commercial insurance. The result of all this is that, in the early going, Zevo is seeing a median rental of around 80 days. Hosts, meanwhile, can make back between 35% and 65% of the cost of their car in just a year, according to Sher. Since 90% of the vehicles on the platform are Teslas, that has Sher feeling pretty confident that he’s been able to find a different way to deliver on Musk’s promise from 2019.
Paragon Bank has partnered with Moneyhub to launch ‘Spring’, a Paragon savings app designed to help UK consumers maximise their savings. This collaboration leverages Moneyhub’s data and insights platform to provide seamless Account Information Services (AIS) and Payment Initiation Services (PIS), enhancing the app’s capabilities and user experience. Spring aims to address the issue of “current account coasting”, where over 29 million UK adults leave their money in low or zero-interest accounts, missing out on billions in potential interest. Spring offers a competitive interest rate of 4.30% AER, significantly higher than typical rates available from Big 6 banks, without the need to switch current account provider. Spring uses Moneyhub’s Open Banking technology, allowing it to connect effortlessly with a customer’s existing current account. This integration enables customers to view their current account balance in the Spring app and seamlessly move money between accounts, providing users with full control over their savings. The app also offers features such as savings pots and unlimited withdrawals, all without hidden fees or restrictions. This partnership has proven to be highly effective, marking the beginning of a journey focused on long-term vision and data utilisation to enhance financial outcomes for Paragon’s customers.
Bain & Company, a leading global management consulting firm, announced a strategic partnership with Terralytiq, a supply chain decarbonization intelligence solutions provider with a mission to reduce one billion tons of industry emissions by 2030. The partnership pairs Bain’s deep industry expertise in strategic advisory and business transformation with Terralytiq’s ability to deliver advanced decarbonization analytics, as companies around the world contend with how to lower emissions, particularly Scope 3, and achieve 2030 near-term targets. Together, Bain and Terralytiq will jointly support clients and co-develop a set of enhanced offerings backed by Terralytiq’s AI-driven Scope 3 intelligence platform and decarbonization copilot. This will provide companies with the capabilities needed to identify emissions reductions at a granular level, create supplier- and facility-specific product carbon footprints based on procurement data, and automate supplier outreach and eliminate months of manual data collection, reducing the time needed between planning and execution. Torsten Lichtenau, senior partner and global head of Bain & Company’s Climate Change and Decarbonization solution. “Scope 3 emissions are notoriously difficult to both measure and abate. This strategic partnership will give our clients access to enhanced analytics tracking capabilities backed by Bain proprietary benchmarks and strategic insight, turning raw data into board-ready cases aimed at informing business leaders who are working to crack Scope 3 and beyond.” “Early adopters of our solutions have been known to cut Scope 3 data-collection time by up to 70% while identifying multimillion-dollar cost and risk savings,” said Alexander Pfeiffer, co-founder & CEO at Terralytiq.
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