Prudent AI launched Prudent AI Upfront, a one-touch pre-qualification platform designed to improve lender sales funnels. The company claims the product is the mortgage industry’s first of its kind and allows lenders to process more applications, reduce fallout and capture more business. Upfront boosts sales funnel efficiency through three outcomes designed to eliminate manual intervention: 24/7 document submissions, real-time insights and loan recommendations, and evaluating borrower repayment ability in minutes instead of hours. Prudent AI claims that lenders who implemented Upfront reported a 60-70% reduction in document review time while expanding their sales pipelines and a seamless integration into their existing tech stacks. The platform is especially helpful for processing self-employed, Non-QM borrowers, company officials said. “The Non-QM market has long struggled with pre-qualification bottlenecks,” commented Paul Gigliotti, chief growth officer. “Upfront eliminates these barriers. Lenders can confidently serve this multi-trillion-dollar segment with unprecedented efficiency.”
Amazon’s newest AI tool is designed to help merchants improve their listings automatically suggesting product titles, attributes, descriptions, and missing details
Amazon said Thursday it is releasing a new generative AI-powered tool to help merchants improve their listings with missing details or attributes. Sellers often have hundreds of products listed on Amazon, and they need to update information related to them from time to time, which can be a cumbersome task. The e-commerce tech giant wants sellers to use its new AI-powered tool, called Enhance My Listing, to make the chore easier. The tool automatically suggests product titles, attributes, descriptions, and missing details to sellers based on seasonal trends. Sellers can accept, reject, or modify these suggestions before updating the product listing in Amazon’s catalog. Amazon said it uses its own Amazon Bedrock service for generative AI models to get insights from customer engagement on the platform. Enhance My Listing is rolling out to select sellers in the U.S. starting today, with an expanded rollout scheduled for the coming weeks. The company introduced generative AI tools for sellers starting in 2023 with a feature that helped them write product descriptions. In March 2024, Amazon added a tool that allowed sellers to create a listing by inserting a product URL from their websites. That feature also lets sellers upload a single image or write a few words to generate a listing. Amazon said that over 900,000 sellers have used its generative AI tools to date. The company added that over 90% of the time merchants accept AI-generated content without any edits.
That’s not necessarily an endorsement of the tools’ accuracy, to be clear — it could be that some sellers aren’t reviewing the outputs closely.
Airbnb’s new feature lets travelers to book and add services across 10 categories like getting a massage or chef-prepared meal and experiences in 19 categories such as cultural tours and art workshops
As part of a broader app update, Airbnb introduced a new feature that allows travelers to book services and experiences, like getting a massage, haircut, or chef-prepared meal, or taking part in some activity. These new offerings can be added to your stay, but they can also be booked independently, Airbnb says. The move is meant to capitalize on the traffic Airbnb’s site already receives. Initially, Airbnb will allow users to book services across 10 categories and services will be offered in 100 cities worldwide across eight countries. While users can take advantage of services where they’re staying, they will typically have to travel to a venue for the experiences. Initially, experiences will include cultural and museum tours; outdoor, watersport, and wildlife experiences; food tours and cooking classes; art workshops and shopping experiences; and workout, wellness, and beauty experiences. The company is launching experiences in 19 categories across 1,000 cities in the world. Airbnb is also launching exclusive experiences on its platform called Airbnb Originals, which involve celebrity partnerships. Judson Coplan, VP of Product Marketing at Airbnb believes that Airbnb Experiences may inspire people to travel and take a trip they might not have thought about. Plus, he thinks the new offerings can lead to people discovering new things to do in their own town. Airbnb will take a 15% cut from services and a 20% cut from experiences. However, users will just see one price when searching for or booking either category. The company says hosts in these categories will go through verification and quality checks that include their experience, online presence, education, and required licenses. In turn, Airbnb hopes this could lead people to want to travel more and use its platform to do so.
Nintendo’s second store to offer guests an “immersive shopping experience”, photo opportunities and feature demo stations, giant gaming screen and multi-character artwork products including statue replicas, stationery items and bags
Nintendo has opened its second store in the United States – two decades after making its debut. The San Francisco Union Square location offers guests an “immersive shopping experience” for all ages, where they can browse exclusive products including accessories, apparel and home goods. The San Francisco store offers plenty of photo opportunities, including with “larger-than-life statues” of Nintendo characters from franchises such as Super Mario, Splatoon, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon and more. In addition, the store boasts several interactive features, including demo stations where visitors can play their favorite games on the Nintendo Switch system or discover new ones. Visitors also have an opportunity to play on a giant gaming screen located on the lower level, which will also be used to air future Nintendo Direct livestreams. Highlights of the new store include the following: 1) The merchandise assortment includes special multi-character artwork products including statue replicas, stationery items and bags, as well as exclusive Nintendo San Francisco-branded apparel. 2) The hardware customization kiosk display lets customers create their very own customized Nintendo Switch – OLED Model system. They can choose from different Joy-Con, wrist strap and dock colors for a customized system that will be ready for them to take home the same day. 3) Visitors can check in at the My Nintendo kiosk with their Nintendo Account information to get an exclusive sticker for visiting Nintendo San Francisco, plus 50 My Nintendo Platinum Points.
Google backed Glance AI-native commerce platform encourages discovery through visual inspiration- by simply uploading a selfie photorealistic looks are tailored precisely to body types, skin tones, and personal styles.
In a move poised to transform the way people shop online, Glance, a consumer technology company backed by Google, has introduced its latest innovation: an AI-native commerce platform that emphasizes inspiration over traditional searching. The platform, called Glance AI, harnesses years of data, neural visualization, and advanced predictive intelligence to deliver hyper-realistic, personalized shopping experiences across devices worldwide. Unlike conventional e-commerce stores that bombard users with product listings or require them to type searches, Glance AI encourages discovery through visual inspiration. By simply uploading a selfie or an image, users are immersed in a virtual world where AI-generated, photorealistic looks are tailored precisely to their body types, skin tones, and personal styles. These realistic images are created in real-time using sophisticated diffusion models and geometry modeling, making the experience feel both natural and engaging. At the core of Glance AI’s innovation is its deep tech architecture, built on three interconnected layers. First is the Commerce Intelligence Model, trained on more than two decades of global market data, which helps it anticipate emerging trends and consumer preferences. Next is the GenAI Experience Model generates hyper-realistic visualizations based on thousands of parameters, such as ethnicity, body shape, and seasonality. Finally, the Transaction Journey Model acts as an intelligent shopping assistant, predicting what users are likely to want and pairing their visualized looks with matching products from a catalog of over 400 brands worldwide. What truly sets Glance AI apart is its cross-platform accessibility. Built on open architecture, it integrates seamlessly into mobile lock screens, smart TVs, third-party apps, and brand websites, ensuring consumers can discover, visualize, and purchase anytime, anywhere. Users maintain control over their data, with options to save, share, or set their personalized styles as wallpapers, fueling social sharing and virality. Since its U.S. launch in early 2025, early results have been impressive. The platform has attracted over 1.5 million active users within weeks, with nearly half returning weekly. Users have generated more than 40 million style requests, and 50% of them have shared or downloaded their personalized images. Additionally, 40% of users who explore styles proceed to shop, establishing Glance AI as a leader in engagement and retention in the AI-powered commerce space.
Akool’s Live Camera uses AI that simulates human presence dynamically, analyzing live audio/visual inputs to generate responsive avatars, translate video calls and swap faces in real-time
Akool Live Camera uses AI to capture human movement and mimic that movement with a generated virtual avatar in real time. Akool can also translate speech in real time during a virtual meeting and also provide instant face swapping during a call. The AI technology listens to conversations in one language and instantly translates them into the selected target language, providing real-time, synchronized audio that matches the avatar’s lip movements and facial expressions. The company also offers lip-syncing for avatars in real time, where the avatar lip movements can match the words being spoken by a person in real time. This Akool Live Camera tool is a part of the Akool Live Suite, a first-of-its-kind collection of products that features live, real-time video generation with minimal delay. The suite includes live avatars, live face swap, video translation, and real-time video generation. Akool Live Camera sets a new standard in AI-powered video generation technology, going well beyond scripted, text-based prompts. This opens up a new array of possibilities for virtual meetings and live streams, especially when connecting with international audiences. Akool Live Camera is an interactive engine that simulates human presence dynamically, analyzing live audio/visual inputs to generate responsive avatars with expressions and contextual awareness. The combination of Akool’s AI and intuitive design empowers creators, educators and enterprises to connect more authentically and efficiently than ever. Key capabilities of Akool Live Camera include: Unmatched live interaction, Real-time multilingual translation, Dynamic expression and gesture mapping, Cross-platform versatility, Privacy-forward design,` and Market- and audience-specific customization.
Ad-enabled BNPL Zilch partners Visa to launch its first physical payments card to capture latent opportunity in transaction volume by irregular usage of mobile wallets by ~80% UK adults
BNPL firm Zilch is launching a physical card as part of a partnership with Visa. The card will work across Visa’s global network that reaches over 150 million merchant locations in 200+ countries and territories. Customers will have the ability to shop anywhere in the world that Visa is accepted, online or offline with the same flexible repayment options. Available to existing customers from September, Zilch hopes the card will see the 50% of active customers who currently only use it for online shopping make the offline leap. Philip Belamant, CEO, Zilch, says: “By partnering with Visa – a global leader in payments – we’ve plugged our AI-driven engine into a network that touches over 150 million merchants worldwide. This move will allow us to fully deploy our ad-enabled payments technology across both digital and physical retail, bringing measurable savings to consumers and margin efficiencies to merchants.”
Solidroad reinvents customer service with AI that coaches, not replaces- transforms insights into actionable improvements through individualized training simulations for human agents and refinement recommendations for AI systems
Solidroad, an AI startup that promises to solve one of customer service’s most persistent problems, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding to expand its platform that automatically trains customer service representatives and improves AI agents. Solidroad’s platform operates as what Hughes calls “an aggregation layer” that sits atop existing customer communication channels, analyzing every interaction between companies and their customers. Unlike AI solutions that attempt to replace human agents entirely, Solidroad focuses on making both human representatives and AI systems more effective. The platform automatically reviews 100% of customer conversations across multiple channels, applying AI-powered quality assurance that traditionally required manual review of just 1-3% of interactions. More critically, it transforms these insights into actionable improvements through individualized training simulations for human agents and refinement recommendations for AI systems. The system generates personalized training scenarios based on actual conversation patterns and identified skill gaps, creating targeted coaching at scale without adding process overhead or additional staff. Early customer results suggest the approach delivers measurable improvements. Crypto.com, the cryptocurrency exchange, used Solidroad to reduce average handling time by 18% while simultaneously improving customer satisfaction scores from 87% to 90% — a 3-percentage-point increase that represents significant improvement in the customer service industry. Marketing automation platform ActiveCampaign reported saving the equivalent of a full year of manual coaching time, which the company reinvested into higher-leverage training initiatives and faster feedback mechanisms. Customer engagement platform Podium cut new hire ramp time in half by embedding Solidroad’s AI simulations into their onboarding process.
Walgreens to access LiveRamp’s data “clean room,” to conduct granular campaign measurement across offsite publishers and walled gardens (closed networks such as Google)
Walgreens is providing participants in its retail media network with faster, more transparent access to first-party data and analytics through a partnership with data collaboration platform LiveRamp. Walgreens seeks to enhance measurement of first-party data (information it directly collects from customers) across all advertising channels, including programmatic, connected TV, social, search, and buy- and sell-side platforms. In addition, using the LiveRamp data “clean room,” Walgreens can enable advertisers to conduct granular campaign measurement across offsite publishers and walled gardens (closed networks such as Google). Walgreens intends to improve WAG’s personalization capabilities, provide advertisers access to data at scale, and deliver real-time campaign performance insights. Expected benefits include: Expanded collaboration based on Walgreens’ national customer base; Self-service access to syndicated and custom audience creation for more personalized targeting across the customer journey, using Walgreens’ data combined with brands’ desired media channels; Activation at greater speed and scale across programmatic, walled garden, connected TV, social, search, and buy- and sell-side platforms; Consolidated measurement to optimize the performance of managed and self-service campaigns with more accurate and granular insights; Enhanced interoperability, flexibility, and data governance to minimize the movement of data while collaborating with partners.
Albertsons to deploy in-store large-format premium digital displays in high traffic areas at selected touchpoints to enhance shopping experience and gain insights for direct sales attribution and sales lift
Albertsons Media Collective retail media arm is partnering with shopper engagement solution provider Stratacache to deploy a fleet of digital screens that will support in-store advertising in its stores. The in-store digital display network pilot will launch during summer 2025 in select Albertsons Companies stores in two key regions, featuring large-format premium displays in high traffic areas at selected touchpoints throughout the store, such as store entry and the produce department. Albertsons expects this initiative will enhance the shopping experience for customers while also providing insights through advanced measurement capabilities for brand partners, allowing for proof of play, direct sales attribution and sales lift. In-store digital ads are designed to reach customers throughout their shopping journey, encouraging them to add items to their cart with engaging content on digital screens, including meal or snack inspiration, product usage and lifestyle and health benefits. For a full store immersion, brands can enhance this experience with in-store audio and promotional offers. Albertsons Media Collective participating advertisers can also deploy offsite display and social video campaigns to bring their brand message to life in the store.