Walmart Inc. is effectively managing millions of mentions per year across disparate social media networks. Part of the volume is generated by local Walmart store pages on Facebook, where the retailer wants the customer experience to match that of their neighborhood store. Walmart turned to AI-based business process improvement platform provider HGS to help improve its end-to-end social customer care, brand-building, and customer engagement. HGS provided Walmart with AI and automation technology for filtering and tagging social media mentions, analytics, a crisis management solution coordinated with a public relations firm, and a customizable social media management platform to reply to and engage with more customers online. In addition, Walmart was able to leverage a team of HGS social brand ambassadors, and a social media playbook. As a result, Walmart saved more than $12 million by filtering non-actionable mentions via enhanced automation and AI. The retailer also obtained more than 1.2 million customer insights, removed more than 220,000 spam mentions (such as hate speech and bullying), engaged 180,000 customers with personalized responses across four social media platforms, and generated 200,000 e-commerce site visits from reactive comments.
Afterpay claims its customers are being asked to close BNPL accounts by banks to qualify for a mortgage and later offered a credit card upon qualification in a bid to protect decline in interest-yielding credit card debt
Some customers of Australia’s Afterpay have been asked to close buy-now-pay-later accounts to qualify for a mortgage and offered a credit card upon qualification, the BNPL provider said, underscoring fierce competition in the consumer finance sub-sectors. Afterpay claimed banks were capitalising on a perception of BNPL users as riskier than traditional borrowers to protect a declining lending category. Australian interest-accruing credit card debt is down 30% in half a decade as borrowers seek cheaper options. The company added that its survey found BNPL users had credit scores and on-time repayment records broadly in line with credit card users. The BNPL model has avoided regulation under Australian consumer credit laws so far as it doesn’t involve interest. However, “if it looks and acts like credit, then it should be regulated as such,” the Australian government had said last year. New legislation requiring BNPL firms to run credit checks on borrowers kicks in on Tuesday, which, Afterpay’s Head of Public Policy Michael Saadat hopes, would improve transparency around user creditworthiness. The main reason Afterpay customers close their accounts is because their lender or broker told them to, and “this should not be something that is driven by misperception of the regulatory requirements,” Saadat told.
Ratio is the only platform that combines embedded BNPL with a fully integrated Quote-to-Cash system for B2B subscription businesses
Ratio announced the launch of its Custom Payment Terms feature, which enables sellers to tailor financing options to match each buyer’s cash flow needs—without sacrificing upfront revenue. This release comes as Ratio reports over 800% growth in the past 12 months and adds Taxwell (also known as Drake Software) as a marquee customer. Ratio is the only platform that combines embedded Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) with a fully integrated Quote-to-Cash system for B2B subscription businesses. Ratio enables Taxwell to configure fully customized payment terms that align with the needs of its customer base—primarily SMBs—while maintaining full control over billing, renewals, and revenue collection. By integrating Ratio into its sales and finance workflows, Taxwell can manage deals end-to-end with greater speed and accuracy, reduce operational friction, and improve both buyer experience and cash flow. Ratio’s new Custom Payment Terms solution includes: Fully configurable schedules – Offer monthly, quarterly, deferred, or custom terms; Upfront cash flow – Sellers receive full contract value immediately; Modular Quote-to-Cash process – Unified quote-to-checkout-to-subscription experience inside CRM and billing workflows, configurable as a complete end-to-end flow or as a modular layer within your existing stack.
Starbucks is rolling out OpenAI-powered gen AI assistant to help baristas with quick and accurate answers to questions such as making an iced shaken espresso or troubleshooting equipment errors
Starbucks is set to roll out a generative artificial intelligence assistant, “Green Dot Assist,” to 35 locations in the US and Canada as part of its strategy to simplify baristas’ jobs and speed up service in its cafes. The technology, developed with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform, will be used by baristas to answer questions such as making an iced shaken espresso or troubleshooting equipment errors. The company’s CEO, Brian Niccol, has emphasized the importance of quick, accurate answers to barista questions to help revive its sluggish US sales. Starbucks is expanding its relationship with Microsoft after the tech giant’s CEO, Satya Nadella, stepped down from the board of directors. The company’s partnership with Microsoft includes a grounding engine to ensure the accuracy of the information provided. Other restaurant companies have also been exploring AI to simplify their workers’ jobs and improve operations, such as Yum Brands partnering with Nvidia for AI order-taking and restaurant performance assessments.
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.
DoubleVerify unveils new partnership to authenticate Lyft ads for viewability, fraud verification, in-geo alignment and attention measurement
DoubleVerify announced a partnership with Lyft. The partnership will leverage DV’s media verification capabilities across Lyft’s advertising platform, giving brands greater transparency and confidence in their campaigns. Through the Open Measurement SDK, DV provides brands full transparency into the quality of ad campaigns across Lyft ads in North America. With this release, advertisers will benefit from DV’s key post-bid measurement capabilities, including: Viewability Authentication: DV provides comprehensive viewability measurement, offering clarity into whether an ad has the opportunity to be seen and shedding light on its impact. Fraud Verification: For advertising to perform, it must be seen by a real human being. DV identifies and helps to protect advertisers against fraud and invalid traffic (“IVT”) – from hijacked devices to bot manipulation. In-Geo Alignment: Ensure that your ads appear in the intended geographic location. Attention Measurement: DV Authentic Attention® provides near real-time data — from the impact of an ad’s presentation to key dimensions of consumer engagement –– empowering brands to evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising. Brands can access measurement data and insights through DV Pinnacle®, DoubleVerify’s unified service and analytics reporting platform, to monitor the quality of their Lyft ads campaigns.
Talkdesk introduces a new ”operating system for customer experience”—built on multi-agent AI orchestration and Data Cloud, that unifies structured and unstructured data across every customer interaction, channel, and system of record
Talkdesk upended the customer experience (CX) market with the launch of Customer Experience Automation (CXA)—a new software category and platform purpose-built to automate the full complexity of modern customer journeys. The Talkdesk CXA platform introduces a new operating system for customer experience—built on multi-agent AI orchestration and fueled by the Talkdesk Data Cloud, which unifies structured and unstructured data across every customer interaction, channel, and system of record. By turning transcripts, call recordings, messages, and case notes (combined with customer data points from multiple CRMs and specialized systems) into actionable knowledge, the Data Cloud gives AI agents the context they need to solve real business problems intelligently, autonomously, and at scale. Talkdesk CXA deploys a network of specialized AI agents—each with a clear role, shared context, and the ability to collaborate in real time. This makes it possible to automate complex, cross-functional processes that span the front and back offices with precision, speed, and adaptability. Talkdesk CXA is also built for speed. With preconfigured use cases, low- and no-code tooling, and both industry-specialized and general-purpose AI agents, organizations can go live fast and start seeing value quickly. A unique differentiator of the platform is the AI Gateway that enables Talkdesk CXA to sit on top of any third-party contact center, whether on-premises or cloud-based. This allows businesses to seamlessly integrate Talkdesk AI-driven solutions.
Luxury resale model melds Rebag’s inspection and verification process with Amazon’s shopping experience and fast shippinge
Rebag is offering a curated assortment of nearly 30,000 pre-owned luxury items, including designer handbags, jewelry and watches, in collaboration with the Luxury Stores at Amazon online store. The collection will include brands such as Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Cartier, offered with Amazon’s shopping experience and fast shipping and Rebag’s inspection and verification process. Charles Gorra, CEO & founder of Rebag. “This collaboration enables us to connect with a broader audience and meet the growing demand for sustainable luxury fashion in a way that’s convenient and trustworthy.” Rebag has been launching a variety of new partnerships in the past year, including a collection available on Walmart Marketplace and an initiative that made a curated selection of more than 2,500 designer handbags, watches and jewelry available on Bloomingdales.com. In addition, more than 500 items will be featured in five select Bloomingdale’s stores. Rebag has also entered a partnership with online resale platform ThredUp that allows customers to sell items via ThredUp for Rebag shopping credit and also enables ThredUp customers to shop select Rebag inventory directly on the ThredUp site.
Applicant trust platform Snappt offers automated, reliable verification of an applicant’s rent payment history delivering 25x more coverage than credit bureaus and over 80% verification success
Snappt, a leading platform for applicant trust in multifamily housing, has announced the addition of Verification of Rent (VOR) powered by Trigo. The platform also includes enhanced Verification of Assets (VOA) and bank account linking, supported by a new partnership with Mastercard’s open banking platform, Finicity. VOR enables property managers to automatically and accurately verify applicant rental payment history, eliminating the need for manual outreach to landlords. With less than 5% of rental history available through traditional credit reporting, VOR delivers 25x more coverage than credit bureaus and achieves over 80% verification success. Key features of Snappt’s Applicant Trust Platform: Verification of Rent (VOR): Automated, reliable verification of an applicant’s rent payment history. Bank Account Linking: Reduce friction for applicants by offering the option of instant verification and speed up application processing. Verification of Assets (VOA): Approve creditworthy applicants with significant assets who may not meet traditional income requirements, directly improving occupancy rates and NOI. Industry-Leading Fraud Detection: Snappt’s proven AI-driven detection technology and fraud forensics team have analyzed over 13 million documents, ensuring accurate results. Connected Payroll: Direct integration with 90% of US payroll providers instantly verifies income and employment status in real-time. ID Verification: Best-in-class biometric technology, complete with 30+ checks on an ID and the ability to scan 4,600+ global ID types.
Autobook integrates Fundbox’s embedded capital infrastructure tech into its platform to enable small business owners to apply for and access funds without ever leaving their banking app
Autobook has launched Autobooks Capital, powered by Fundbox, the embedded capital infrastructure for small businesses. This new offering adds fast, flexible funding directly within the Autobooks platform—no redirects, no extra accounts—just seamless access to capital where businesses already manage their finances. By layering in embedded capital infrastructure from Fundbox, financial institutions can offer small businesses a seamless way to access working capital, right when and where it’s needed. Because Autobooks Capital is embedded directly within digital banking, small business owners can apply for and access funds without ever leaving their banking app. This direct-to-account experience simplifies cash flow management and reinforces the financial institution’s position as the primary operating hub for small businesses. Fully integrated into the Autobooks platform, Autobooks Capital offers fast underwriting, competitive rates, and flexible repayment options—allowing businesses to apply for and receive funding without ever leaving the platform. Whether it’s restocking inventory, expanding operations, or navigating cash flow challenges, capital is now just a few clicks away. Autobooks Capital compliments traditional lending programs by giving business owners convenient access to short-term working capital for everyday needs. This enables financial institutions to better retain primacy of the customer relationship and compete more effectively with online lending providers — delivering modern capital access without pushing business customers to third-party platforms.