We-Connect has launched the We-Link API, a unique solution for SaaS platforms to integrate advanced LinkedIn automation directly into their software. This allows vendors to offer additional services and a built-in LinkedIn outreach solution, transforming the way SaaS platforms approach LinkedIn automation. Key features of We-Link API include: Comprehensive LinkedIn automation in your solution: Enable users to send connection requests, manage messaging, schedule follow-ups, and engage seamlessly with leads—all within your existing product. Enterprise-level security: Features like IP whitelisting and user activity randomization ensure LinkedIn compliance and protect users’ accounts. Comprehensive admin panel: Vendors can monitor, manage, and customize API usage with a user-friendly admin interface.
Adobe’s agentic Brand Concierge, is is designed to guide users through personalized journeys, helping them find what they need with minimal friction
AI is playing an increasingly central role in shaping how companies engage with customers, but many of the most impactful innovations are designed to operate quietly in the background, according to executives from Louis Vuitton, Verizon and Adobe. For Louis Vuitton, the use of AI in stores is focused on supporting client advisors — representatives that engage with, sell to and develop relationships with customers. Laura Krittian, the luxury brand’s vice president of global retail excellence and development, said AI helps advisors identify which clients to contact, what to say and when to reach out. The French retailer is piloting a program that uses generative AI to create bespoke “thank you” messages with a tone tailored to each client’s preferences and profile while staying true to the Louis Vuitton brand and culture. Verizon Chief Digital Officer Kris Narayanan said the telecom giant is investing in AI-driven tools that empower service and sales reps by streamlining workflows and making relevant customer insights available in real time. For instance, Verizon now uses sentiment analysis — drawing on data from calls and digital interactions — to display red, yellow or green indicators of a customer’s emotional state. This helps reps adjust their approach and avoid missteps. Verizon, meanwhile, focuses on reducing cognitive load and designing tools that are easy to adopt without extensive training. Narayanan said Verizon is testing systems that allow customers to manage tasks like billing and account changes through simple voice or search commands — and eventually, AI agents may be able to anticipate and act on customer needs without explicit prompts. At Adobe, AI is being used to dramatically accelerate the pace of marketing campaigns and personalize customer journeys. Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe’s enterprise division, described how AI tools embedded in Adobe products allow marketers to conduct segmentation, testing and content generation in days rather than weeks. Adobe’s agentic AI platform, Brand Concierge, is another example of how companies are aiming to make digital interactions more conversational and tailored. Modeled after a luxury hotel concierge, the AI assistant is designed to guide users through personalized journeys, helping them find what they need with minimal friction.
Lily AI’s solution audits each SKU and delivers enriched data fields, optimized alt-text and on-page content for every product creating AI-ready structured data to boost discoverability within AI-driven search platforms
Lily AI has launched a new solution designed to empower marketers to enhance their product content for optimal visibility and discoverability within traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and emerging Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) contexts. The introduction of new content optimization capabilities ensures products are not only found in Google search but also deeply understood by modern search engines such as Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, driving unprecedented eCommerce performance. Lily AI’s new offering addresses the challenge of “Being Found to Be Sold” by leveraging its proprietary AI and deep understanding of product data assets and consumer intent. The solution automatically enriches, standardizes, and optimizes product content across ecommerce websites, ensuring product listings are not only comprehensive but also precisely aligned with how consumers search and how AI interprets product information for personalized recommendations, conversational commerce, and relevant search results. Key features and benefits include: AI-Ready Structured Data; Full-Funnel Query Intelligence & Bulk Content Refresh; and Shopper-Friendly Language.
EV carmaker Rivian’s retail store doubles down as a boutique, offering collective experience that blends reading, craft and play, and outdoor mini-adventure with shopping
Rivian, the electric car maker opened its first reimagined retail space in New York City’s Meatpacking District, transforming a street-level space into a boutique with the feel of a reading room and a play space, for kids and adults alike. Buyers can shop for a car, immerse in the Rivian lifestyle or just browse the brand and become more familiar with it. Rivian brought a new approach to the showroom idea from the very beginning, starting with its flagship space in Venice, California, as well a repurposing a theater in Laguna Beach, California and a gas station near Yosemite. Originally, Rivian showrooms, with the R1S and R1T center stage, allowed customers to explore the vehicles, accessories, merchandise and related lifestyle elements in a leisurely way. So the company took a new approach to how its spaces would embody that mission and redesigned a new flagship, the Rivian Space in NYC. In addition to books and guides intended to inspire journeys, Rivian Space is filled with experts, videos and information on making those trips happen in an EV, from how and where to charge to trip planing, itineraries with embedded charge stops and insights into Rivian’s proprietary charge network, which is focused on parks and popular outdoor destinations. Guests can sign up for a test drive that is more like a mini-adventure. The idea is to get the full feel of driving a Rivian R1T or R1S, through the city and into nature, to develop confidence driving an electric car and to experience how Rivian frames the world a bit differently. Buyers can explore new accessories for off-roading, or simply find branded gifts like shirts and hats. Through panel discussions and events everyone can learn more about local destinations, sustainability efforts or simply, get up to speed on new innovations from Rivian’s engineers.
Self-serve commerce company Cantaloupe’s acquisition to enable 365 Retail Markets to offer a seamless unattended retail platform across the globe with frictionless payments, software services and self-checkout technology
Self-serve commerce company Cantaloupe is set to go private in an $884 million deal. The company announced that it would be acquired by 365 Retail Markets, maker of unattended retail technologies and a portfolio company of private equity group Providence Equity Partners. Cantaloupe’s and 365’s complementary strengths will enable the combined company to offer a seamless unattended retail platform for customers around the globe, from hardware to software, and payment processing technology to data analytics. Cantaloupe’s offerings in delivering frictionless payments and software services combined with 365’s innovation and focus in self-checkout technology primarily for foodservice operator (FSO)-centric, enterprise-focused customers are expected to help expand the combined company’s customer base, product suite and vertical reach. The combined company will have a strong financial foundation and the transaction is expected to unlock meaningful synergies to fuel further investment in the business and customer benefits. These synergies include customer cost savings, cross-sell opportunities, and growth through new product rollouts, increased software adoption, and payments expansion. Together, the two companies say they will be better positioned to serve food service, convenience, retail, hospitality and sports/entertainment providers across North America, Latin America and Europe.
Pinterest to launch shoppable ads by leveraging Instacart’s first-party audience data built from real-world retail purchase behavior for targeting high-intent consumers with more precision
Instacart and Pinterest are enhancing brands’ Pinterest campaigns by providing high-intent audiences powered by Instacart data. In the initial phase of the partnership, select brands advertising on Pinterest will be able to advertise their products to Instacart first-party audience segments—built from real-world retail purchase behavior—to reach high-intent consumers with more precision. A second phase is expected to introduce closed-loop measurement, which would tie Pinterest ads to actual product sales across the Instacart Marketplace of over 1,800 retailers, and help prove campaign impact with real purchase data. Pinterest ads will become directly shoppable via Instacart, giving Pinterest users the ability to complete a purchase in just a few clicks. Imagine pinning a cocktail recipe and being able to instantly order the ingredients, or discovering a new clean beauty brand and getting it delivered to your door in as fast as 30 minutes. Pinterest advertisers will also gain a new way to leverage first-party audience data from Instacart. This means the ability to target and reach Instacart consumers based on actual purchase behaviors, like fans of gluten-free snacks or low-sugar beverages on Pinterest.
Startup Alta’s AI stylist makes outfit recommendations and lets users try on those looks with their personalized virtual avatar by uploading their closet photos or dressing themselves in clothes they are looking to buy
Startup Alta has announced an $11 million seed round led by Menlo Ventures. The product is indeed an AI stylist and personal shopper that makes outfit recommendations and lets users try on those looks with their personalized virtual avatar. Users upload their closet by either taking photos, forwarding purchase receipts, or searching what is already in the Alta database. People can also dress themselves in clothes they are looking to buy, mixing and matching with clothes already in their closet. Alta has already struck a partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) to offer Alta to its membership base. There are others playing around in the AI styling space, such as Whering and Cladwell, all trying to recreate the magic of that iconic scene in “Clueless,” where Cher plans an outfit from her closet using computer technology. Founder Jenny Wang considers herself to be part of the new wave of consumer technology, looking to make styling and shopping more effective. “There are existing players like Google Shopping and Pinterest who are also experimenting with AI,” she continued. “But the experiences that consumers will crave and use in the future will need to be built with new technical architectures and new user interfaces.”
Walmart leads in SNAP shopper spend, capturing nearly a quarter (24%) followed by Kroger (8%), Costco (6%) and Amazon (5%); nearly one-in-three (29%) of lapsed 2021 SNAP households say they are putting money into savings
According to a new report from Numerator, Walmart leads in SNAP shopper spend, capturing nearly a quarter (24%). The retail giant is followed by Kroger (8%), Costco (6%), Amazon (5%) and Sam’s Club (4%). Walmart, Amazon, 7-Eleven, Dollar General and Dollar Tree all over-index with SNAP users compared to all shoppers. For the 52-week period ending March 30, 2025, SNAP shoppers shifted their CPG and general merchandise share towards Costco (+2.0%), Walmart (+1.2%), Amazon (+0.8%), Sam’s Club (+0.5%) and Target (+0.3%). SNAP usage is down compared to a few years ago. About one-in-five (19%) of U.S. households regularly utilized SNAP benefits in May 2022, compared to 15% of U.S. households in February 2025. Households that used SNAP in 2021–2022 but no longer use it in 2025 are more likely to have a household income of over $80,000, live in a suburban area, have a four-year or graduate degree, have four to five persons in their household, and be Gen X. Nearly one-in-three (29%) of lapsed 2021 SNAP households say they are putting money into savings. Almost a quarter (23%) of current SNAP households have a household income of $80,000 or more (+6 points vs. 2020), while more than half (53%) have an income between $40k–80k (+4 points). Twenty-three percent have an income of less than $40k (-10 points).
Klarna allows callers to provide feedback and suggestions about its products to “AI-Sebastian,” who has been trained using the real CEO’s voice, personal insights and experiences
Klarna has introduced an AI-powered hotline, enabling customers to engage directly with a digital version of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski for product feedback. This initiative places technology at the centre of customer communication, enabling a more streamlined and efficient feedback process.This innovative approach allows callers to provide feedback and suggestions about Klarna’s products to “AI-Sebastian,” who has been trained using the real CEO’s voice, personal insights and experiences. The deployment of this technology aims to transform the way customer input is gathered and integrated into product development. The new service is initially rolling out in Sweden and the US. By leveraging advanced AI, Klarna’s customers can now submit ideas, ask questions and provide feedback simply through a regular phone call. This eliminates the need for traditional, often cumbersome methods of data collection. Each conversation is analysed and transcribed in real time using AI. This ensures that all customer interactions are captured and processed efficiently, providing immediate insights into customer sentiments and requirements. Upon completion of a call, the technology generates a summary which is immediately forwarded to an internal information flow, where it is assigned to Klarna’s product and development teams. This rapid dissemination of information ensures that relevant departments can quickly address customer feedback. Customer feedback, depending on the nature of the issue or suggestion, can lead to tangible product improvements within 24 hours. This rapid response capability highlights the agility and responsiveness enabled by integrating AI into the customer feedback loop. Klarna seeks to challenge conventional standards by offering customers a faster and more interactive way to contribute to the improvement of its products and services. The AI-driven hotline is designed to overcome the limitations of traditional feedback methods, ensuring a more engaging and insightful customer experience. The introduction of the direct line to “AI-Sebastian” builds on Klarna’s ongoing efforts to leverage AI for increased efficiency and improved customer experience. Klarna’s AI chatbot now handles two-thirds of all chats, representing over 1.3 million customer cases each month, and the work of 800 full-time employees. Simultaneously, the average handling time has decreased from 12 minutes to under two, while maintaining customer satisfaction. The company has recently replaced over 1,200 external SaaS solutions with a proprietary technical infrastructure. By implementing AI throughout the organisation, revenue per employee has increased by 152%, approaching $1m per employee per year.
Startup focused on Indian diaspora to expand beyond remittances into verticalized financial services through platform for paying rent and utilities, foreign currency fixed deposit accounts and full-stack banking account
Aspora (formerly Vance) is trying to build a verticalized financial experience for the Indian diaspora by keeping convenience at the center. While a lot of financial products are in its future roadmap, the company currently focuses largely on remittances. Now it also allows customers to invest in mutual funds in India. The company has raised $50 million in Series B funding, co-led by Sequoia and Greylock, with Hummingbird, Quantum Light Ventures, and Y Combinator also contributing to the round. The startup said this round values the company at $500 million. The startup has raised over $99 million in funding to date. The startup is also set to launch in the U.S. Plus, it plans to open up shop in Canada, Singapore, and Australia by the fourth quarter of this year. In the next few months, the company is launching a few products to offer more services. This month, it plans to launch a bill payment platform to let users pay for services like rent and utilities. Next month, it plans to launch fixed deposit accounts for non-resident Indians that allow them to park money in foreign currency. By the end of the year, it plans to launch a full-stack banking account for NRIs that typically takes days for users to open. While these accounts can help the diaspora maintain their tax status in India, a lot of people use a family member’s account because of the cumbersome process, and Aspora wants to simplify this. Apart from banking, the company also plans to launch a product that would help NRIs take care of their parents back home by offering regular medical checkups, emergency care coverage, and concierge services for other assistance.