A new set of consulting firms is leveraging AI to challenge the classic consulting model. Xavier AI describes itself as the world’s first AI strategy consultant. Filipe said Xavier AI has its own proprietary reasoning engine that is tailor-made for business use cases and can provide detailed sources without the hallucination you might find with other chatbots. He said Xavier can provide both strategy recommendations and actionable plans for implementation. “We created Xavier AI so that anyone could have the power of a consulting firm at their hands when they need it.” Consulting IQ positions itself as an AI-powered boutique consultant dedicated to the needs of SMBs. Once a user registers on the platform, they provide a few basic details about their business — who they are, where they operate, and their challenges. Then they’ll see a list of over 5,000 preloaded prompts in topics ranging from branding to business strategy to sales. Users can converse with the tool for insights on how to optimize their operations. Perceptis aims to help smaller and midsize firms compete with bigger industry players by using AI to streamline some of the more tedious processes in consulting, like proposal writing. Genpact, a professional services company that expects to generate $5 billion in revenue this year, has made a major push over the past year to position itself as a leader in AI strategy. Last year, Genpact launched “Client Zero,” an initiative to design, test, and refine AI solutions in-house before rolling them out to its 800-plus clients. SIB specializes in helping clients like restaurant groups, hospitals, universities, and government agencies find savings in fixed costs — expenses that remain static regardless of how much a company produces. SIB CEO Shannon Copeland told that these are often found in areas that “escape scrutiny,” like fees for telecommunications, utilities, waste removal, shipping, and software licenses. Monevate focuses on pricing strategy for software-as-a-service and high-growth tech companies. It also works with private equity firms to assess the commercial viability of potential investments. James Wilton, Managing Partner said clients usually turn to Monevate when they’ve hit a wall with their current strategy because their product has changed or the market has evolved. Keystone is a strategy consulting firm that advises technology companies, life science companies, governments, and law firms. While many consulting firms are embracing generative AI, which is often used to automate day-to-day work like writing emails or reviewing documents and contracts, Keystone is focusing more on operational AI.. Fusion Collective is an IT consulting firm that offers a range of consulting services to clients, including strategy and management advice, cloud transformation, and AI alignment. Founder Blake Crawford, said that in her experience, clients are seeking AI advice from consulting firms before they’re ready.. Slideworks isn’t necessarily going after consulting firms’ business, though it focuses on something many of the big guys are known for: making powerful slides. Slideworks offers what it calls “high-end” PowerPoint templates and “toolkits” created by former consultants for Bain, BCG, and McKinsey. The idea is to offer access to a library of slides and spreadsheets for areas including strategy, supply chain management, and “digital transformation.” Unity Advisory: Some top UK executives from Ernst & Young and PwC are joining forces to launch a new firm called Unity Advisory. The firm will be chaired by Steve Varley, and led by CEO Marissa Thomas.
Alibaba’s Memp provides agents with procedural memory – a task‑agnostic loop that turns trajectories into reusable scripts and traces, filters and reflects on failures to continually improve long‑horizon reasoning
A new technique from Zhejiang University and Alibaba Group called Memp, provides agents with a “procedural memory” that is continuously updated as they gain experience, much like how humans learn from practice, a key requirement for reliable enterprise automation. Memp is a task-agnostic framework that treats procedural memory as a core component to be optimized. It consists of three key stages that work in a continuous loop: building, retrieving, and updating memory. Memories are built from an agent’s past experiences, or “trajectories.” The most critical component is the update mechanism. Memp introduces several strategies to ensure the agent’s memory evolves. As an agent completes more tasks, its memory can be updated by simply adding the new experience, filtering for only successful outcomes or, most effectively, reflecting on failures to correct and revise the original memory. This focus on dynamic, evolving memory places Memp within a growing field of research aimed at making AI agents more reliable for long-term tasks. Memp targets cross-trajectory procedural memory.” It focuses on “how-to” knowledge that can be generalized across similar tasks, preventing the agent from re-exploring from scratch each time. By distilling past successful workflows into reusable procedural priors, Memp raises success rates and shortens steps. One of the most significant findings for enterprise applications is that procedural memory is transferable. For example, memory created by a powerful model like GPT-4o can be used by a smaller model like Qwen2.5-14B, significantly boosting its performance and reducing task completion steps. This makes it possible to train using high-end models and deploy with more cost-effective ones. Overall, Memp supports continual learning and mastery, making AI agents more reliable and scalable for enterprise automation.
Crypto becomes a primary gaming payment rail as near‑instant settlement, lower costs, wallet-based anonymity and borderless access beat bank rails, with casinos rapidly adding coin and stablecoin options
In recent years, gamers have increasingly chosen cryptocurrency for transactions. This payment format is rapidly strengthening its position and becoming a familiar part of the online gaming industry. Top platforms, including Wazamba casino, integrate popular tokens and stablecoins into their work, expanding the capabilities of users. This has led to the fact that cryptocurrency has gradually turned from an additional option into the primary payment method. Cryptocurrency opens up a wide range of opportunities for gamers that are not available using traditional payment methods. It is not surprising that an increasing number of casino players choose this method of replenishing and withdrawing winnings. Here are the main advantages of cryptocurrency in the context of the online gambling industry: High speed of transactions. Cryptocurrency transactions are processed much faster than bank transfers. Deposits and withdrawals take only a few minutes. Blockchain technology eliminates the need to disclose personal banking information. This is especially important for players who value privacy. Minimal fees. Unlike banks and e-wallets, cryptocurrency transfers often take place without significant fees. Sometimes they are absent. Protection from blocking. Digital currencies do not depend on the work of specific banks or restrictions from payment providers. This ensures uninterrupted transactions. Accessibility from anywhere in the world. Gamblers can use cryptocurrency without being tied to a country or currency.
Zelle launches “When it Counts” campaign, highlighting its emergence as an essential and embedded tool for Americans, supporting meaningful moments big and small
Zelle is launching a new brand platform and campaign: “When it Counts.” The campaign, which goes live on September 2, shows everyday payments – to a babysitter, a roommate, or a loved one far from home – as quiet acts of care that power the people-to-people economy. “With more than $1 trillion dollars sent last year and thousands of local banks and credit unions in our network, Zelle has become an essential and embedded tool that is helping Americans show up when it matters most,” said Andrea Gilman, Chief Marketing Officer at Early Warning, the company behind Zelle. “When It Counts” reflects how people rely on one another and shows how Zelle supports those meaningful moments, whether it is a big life event, an everyday gesture or splitting an essential living expense with a roommate.” The launch of the new brand platform comes as Zelle surpassed $1 trillion in total payment volume in 2024, the most ever sent by a person-to-person payments service in a single year and processed more than 3.6 billion transactions over the course of the year. The brand’s continued growth reflects a simple truth: behind every Zelle payment is a story of human connection and of Americans showing up for one another in their own communities. What sets Zelle apart is how those stories are shared: through a network of more than 2,300 banks and credit unions, each deeply embedded in the communities they serve. The unique structure of Zelle enables reliable, fast money movement between two bank accounts, without the need for a separate app or digital wallet. The campaign launches during a season of transition – back to school, back to work, and back into the financial juggling act that comes before the holidays. In these moments of emotional and financial complexity, families and communities lean on one another more. Zelle is there making that support possible. “When It Counts” will run across connected TV, online video, YouTube, Meta, and owned channels.
Citi readies bank‑grade stablecoin infrastructure: custody for reserve assets, tokenized deposit rails, and instant blockchain USD payments
Citigroup is transforming from gatekeepers of the old order to architects of the new, as stablecoins emerge as a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized ecosystems. The market cap of stablecoins is projected to hit $750 billion by 2026, representing a $1.5 trillion opportunity for institutions that can secure, scale, and innovate. Citigroup’s entry into this space is anchored in three pillars: custody, payment infrastructure, and tokenized deposits. Citigroup is positioning itself to safeguard high-quality collateral backing stablecoins, a service currently dominated by crypto-native custodians like Coinbase. By leveraging its expertise in treasury and cash management, Citigroup can offer institutional-grade security while complying with the GENIUS Act, which mandates stablecoin reserves be held in safe assets. Citigroup’s blockchain experiments, such as tokenized USD transfers between New York, London, and Hong Kong, highlight its ambition to disrupt cross-border payments. Citigroup’s rumored stablecoin issuance is not just a gimmick; it’s a strategic play to tokenize deposits, blending the trust of traditional banking with the efficiency of blockchain. This mirrors JPMorgan’s JPM Coin and could position Citi as a leader in tokenized asset management, a sector projected to grow exponentially as institutional demand for programmable money rises. Citigroup’s stablecoin initiatives represent a strategic inflection point for investors, as it can monetize fintech’s pain points while mitigating the risks of a fragmented regulatory landscape.
M0’s universal stablecoin infra uses decoupled design to separate stablecoin reserve management from programmability; hence regulated entities can manage assets like cash and Treasuries while developers control token logic and app‑specific behavior on chain
M0 Foundation, a platform building infrastructure for crypto apps and protocols to create application-specific stablecoins, has raised $40 million in early funding to allow developers to deploy custom digital currencies. M0 aims to offer developers the opportunity to create their own applications using a stablecoin, without the need for a centralized issuer. The platform provides infrastructure that allows them to launch application-specific digital currencies. To do this, M0 separates stablecoin reserve management from programmability. When stablecoins are created, they must be backed by assets held by the issuer, such as U.S. dollars or government bonds, that support the stablecoins in circulation. This reserve acts as collateral, allowing users to redeem the stablecoin for the underlying asset and provides confidence in the coin’s stability. Using the platform, developers can do more than place their own apps on top of another stablecoin, Prosperi said. It allows them to create and manage their own digital money by giving them the building blocks to specialize according to their business and application needs.
M0’s universal stablecoin infra uses decoupled design to separate stablecoin reserve management from programmability; hence regulated entities can manage assets like cash and Treasuries while developers control token logic and app‑specific behavior on chain
M0 Foundation, a platform building infrastructure for crypto apps and protocols to create application-specific stablecoins, has raised $40 million in early funding to allow developers to deploy custom digital currencies. M0 aims to offer developers the opportunity to create their own applications using a stablecoin, without the need for a centralized issuer. The platform provides infrastructure that allows them to launch application-specific digital currencies. To do this, M0 separates stablecoin reserve management from programmability. When stablecoins are created, they must be backed by assets held by the issuer, such as U.S. dollars or government bonds, that support the stablecoins in circulation. This reserve acts as collateral, allowing users to redeem the stablecoin for the underlying asset and provides confidence in the coin’s stability. Using the platform, developers can do more than place their own apps on top of another stablecoin, Prosperi said. It allows them to create and manage their own digital money by giving them the building blocks to specialize according to their business and application needs.
GPU virtualization for private AI: Broadcom and AMD enable shared inferencing, trusted model sharing, vector DB and model manager atop VMware Cloud to meet SLAs and cut latency
Broadcom Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., are engineering infrastructure purpose-built for private AI with GPU virtualization at its core. Running on AMD’s latest processors and GPUs, the joint platform is designed to deliver an open, streamlined stack that meets enterprise demands for both scale and trust, according to Kumaran Siva, corporate vice president of strategic business development at AMD. The partnership is enabling advanced virtualization across AI workloads. GPU virtualization allows multiple application servers to access trusted models and inference engines simultaneously, improving scalability across the AI private cloud, according to Paul Turner, vice president of products, VMware Cloud Foundation Division, at Broadcom. “We are building an ability for our inferencing engine,” he said. “You can actually do shared inferencing at the same model. We already have model sharing that we can actually manage as trusted models that you share across your enterprise. Now you’re going to be able to deploy them onto your GPUs and actually have multiple application servers actually share those.” The partnership is also developing a streamlined software stack to simplify private AI deployment. With components such as a vector database and model manager, the system supports GPU virtualization for rapid deployment and improved workload performance in the AI private cloud, according to Siva. A key goal of the collaboration between Broadcom and AMD is to help enterprises extract more value from their hardware. With AI workloads running at scale, virtualization is essential to meeting SLAs, reducing latency and ensuring dynamic workload placement. These capabilities are foundational to a responsive private cloud environment, according to Turner. The companies are also focused on optimizing the hardware-software stack for enterprise AI. Deep integration between AMD hardware and VMware Cloud Foundation enables seamless workload mobility and high concurrency across AI models. That level of infrastructure harmony is only possible with GPU virtualization at the core, according to Siva.
SBA orders over 5,000 lenders to end politicized debanking, reinstate denied clients, notify affected applicants, and file compliance evidence
The Small Business Administration has ordered more than 5,000 lenders in its network to immediately end what it calls “politicized or unlawful banking practices,” following President Trump’s executive order requiring banks to end debanking. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler framed the order as a reversal of policies under previous Democratic administrations, often dubbed Operation Chokepoint and Chokepoint 2.0, which conservatives argue aimed to cut off right-leaning organizations from banking access. Lenders that do not comply could lose their SBA standing and face punitive measures. “Since the Obama Administration, financial institutions have — both independently and at the direction of federal regulators — weaponized the banking system against Americans who refused to bend the knee to a partisan ideology. Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, whose own family and businesses were debanked, those days are over,” said Loeffler, who was previously CEO of crypto software-as-a-service provider Bakkt. “Any bank that retaliates against otherwise eligible customers on the basis of reputational, religious, ideological, or political beliefs will be held to account,” Loeffler continued. “The SBA is committed to protecting access to financial services for small businesses, and we are grateful to President Trump and other federal regulators for working together to end this wrongful practice.” Under the new rules, lenders must flag any current or past policies that encouraged politically motivated withholding of services to certain companies, reinstate previously excluded customers, and notify those who may have been denied services on political or ideological grounds. The directive, which was released Tuesday, also covers payment processing services. Institutions have until Dec. 5, 2025, to implement these steps and must file compliance reports with the SBA by Jan. 5, 2026, to remain in good standing with the agency. The push to stop “debanking” — the denial of financial services to a particular entity, often from controversial industries — gained momentum in Washington last year. Fueled by GOP outrage over an Obama-era policy that discouraged banks from working with disfavored industries like arms dealers, the second Trump administration’s financial regulators have moved to rein in bank supervisors’ oversight of which industries banks may serve, removing reputational risk as a factor in bank examinations. However, skeptics of the debanking narrative argue banks have a variety of nonpolitical reasons for being selective about who they do business with, including anti-money-laundering compliance. The SBA argues that in addition to discouraging banks from doing business with right-leaning industries, the Biden administration pressured banks to engage with industries traditionally allied with left-leaning causes, like fighting climate change. The SBA touted its recent move to end the SBA’s Green Lender Initiative and other “partisan programs that funneled taxpayer dollars to pick winners and losers at the expense of qualified small business owners.” Military credit union advocates praised the SBA’s order, saying it demonstrates that past policies of discouraging relationships between banks and certain industries will not be tolerated under the current administration. “This decisive action sends an unmistakable message: in America, access to banking must be based on merit and law — not ideology,” said Anthony Hernandez, the president and CEO of the Defense Credit Union Council. “We applaud the President’s leadership in targeting unlawful and politicized ‘debanking’ practices that have no place in our financial system.”
Affirm’s card, blending features of traditional debit cards and credit cards, helps it end fiscal year on a high note- active cardholders grew 97% and 0% APR GMV more than tripled, making up about 14% of all GMV on the card
Affirm’s stock soared Friday on the heels of better-than-expected fiscal earnings that saw the buy now/pay later hit its highly anticipated profitability target it set out a year ago. The company’s stock jumped as much as 19% in morning trading in New York Friday before paring some of those gains in the afternoon. As of 1:48 p.m. ET, shares of Affirm were trading at $88.60, an increase of 12.1% or $9.55, from market open. Revenue and net income for the quarter ending June 30 beat analysts’ expectations, according to S&P CapitalIQ. Revenue landed at $876.4 million, an increase of 33% year over year and ahead of analysts’ estimates of $837.1 million. Net income hit $69.24M, or 20 cents per share, ahead of an expected $39.8 million, or 11 cents per share. Affirm’s fiscal Q4 marked the first time that the company achieved operating income profitability, CEO Max Levchin said in his letter to shareholders. This time last year, Affirm’s stock surged nearly 30% after its quarterly earnings pointed to a faster path to profitability, a milestone that investors have since been anticipating. “We consider Affirm the best-positioned BNPL provider in a burgeoning market, poised to take share through better user experience and transparent pricing, manifested through a superior underwriting model,” William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey said in a research note. Active customers hit 23 million, an increase of 23% from the same period last year, and active merchants grew 19% to almost 380,000. Delinquencies landed at 2.3%, a decrease of 10 basis points. Gross merchandise value hit $10.4 billion, an increase of 43% compared to the same period last year, driven largely by 0% APR installment loans and the company’s direct to consumer business, including the Affirm Card. The Affirm Card, which has been a greenfield for the lender, continued on its growth trajectory. GMV tallied $1.2 billion, an increase of 132% year over year. Active cardholders grew 97% and 0% APR GMV on the Affirm Card more than tripled, making up about 14% of all GMV on the card. Affirm also set out fiscal 2026 guidance that surprised investors. The company expects GMV to be greater than $46 billion, and revenue to be about 8% of GMV, or $336 million. “At a high level, we have no weaknesses to report to investors, whether assessing consumer demand, borrower profile, credit performance, product mix, merchant marketing spend, funding outlook, or operating leverage,” Citizens Bank analyst David Scharf said in a research note. “We are typically reluctant to resort to the cliché of ‘firing on all cylinders,’ yet the results and the company’s initial FY26 (June) guidance point to this conclusion.” Mizuho analyst Dan Dolov called the guidance “amazing” on the call Thursday night. And JPMorgan Securities analyst Reginald Smith said Affirm has a history of “beating raising guidance throughout the year. We note FY25 and FY24 GMV ended up coming in 9% (~$3.2bn) and 11% (~$2.6bn) ahead of guidance first provided on the F4Q call,” Smith said. Commenting on hitting the company’s profitability targets, Levchin addressed buy now/pay later naysayers in his letter to shareholders. “Only a few moments ago it was a matter of some debate (outside our walls, of course) whether Affirm would so much as survive the rising Fed funds rate, let alone turn a profit,” Levchin said. “And a few before that, whether it was possible to make money in consumer lending without the profit pools afforded by late fees and compounding interest. And a little earlier still, whether anyone would even trade the sloppy ease of revolving credit for the binary precision of individually underwritten transactions.”