Treasure Data, the Intelligent Customer Data Platform (CDP) built for enterprise scale and powered by AI, has released its MCP Server, a new open-source connector that allows AI assistants like Claude, GitHub Copilot Chat, and Windsurf to interact directly with your Treasure Data environment. Powered by the open Model Context Protocol (MCP), this solution gives data teams a new superpower: the ability to explore and analyze customer data in an easy and effective way, using plain language and a conversation window. With the Treasure Data MCP Server, teams can query parent segments and segments, explore tables, and analyze data using natural language, making data insights more accessible than ever. The MCP Server acts as a local bridge between your LLM-enabled tools and the Treasure Data platform. Once configured, it allows AI agents to securely interact with your CDP through structured tool calls. Instead of spending an hour writing multi-step SQL and debugging joins, the AI does it for you, writing, refining, and executing the query directly within Treasure Data. The MCP Server handles the permissions, safely limits results, and ensures your API keys and environment variables are managed securely. For most enterprises, the biggest barrier to using AI effectively isn’t the model, it’s the data. If an LLM can’t access high-quality, governed data, it can’t generate useful insights. The Treasure Data MCP Server removes that barrier. The AI accesses the CDP directly, securely and intelligently, so teams can finally start having productive conversations with their customer data.
Walmart’s AI architecture rejects horizontal platforms for targeted stakeholder solutions, each group receives purpose-built tools that address specific operational frictions
Walmart continues to make strides in cracking the code on deploying agentic AI at enterprise scale. One of the retailer’s primary objectives is to consistently maintain and strengthen customer confidence among its 255 million weekly shoppers. Walmart’s AI architecture rejects horizontal platforms for targeted stakeholder solutions. Each group receives purpose-built tools that address specific operational frictions. Customers engage Sparky for natural language shopping. Field associates get inventory and workflow optimization tools. Merchants access decision-support systems for category management. Sellers receive business integration capabilities. The segmentation acknowledges the fundamental need of each team in Walmart to have purpose-built tools for their specific jobs. Store associates managing inventory need different tools from merchants analyzing regional trends. Generic platforms fail because they ignore operational reality. Walmart’s specificity drives adoption through relevance, not mandate. Walmart’s Trend to Product system quantifies the operational value of AI. The platform synthesizes social media signals, customer behavior and regional patterns to slash product development from months to weeks. The system creates products in response to real-time demand rather than historical data. The months-to-weeks compression transforms Walmart’s retail economics. Inventory turns accelerate. Markdown exposure shrinks. Capital efficiency multiplies. The company maintains price leadership while matching any competitor’s speed-to-market capabilities. Every high-velocity category can benefit from using AI to shrink time-to-market and deliver quantifiable gains. Walmart’s approach to agent orchestration draws directly from its hard-won experience with distributed systems. The company uses Model Context Protocol (MCP) to standardize how agents interact with existing services. Walmart leverages decades of employee knowledge, making it a core component of its growing AI capabilities. The company systematically captures category expertise from thousands of merchants, creating a competitive advantage no digital-first retailer can match. The strategic advantage compounds. Walmart’s 2.2 million associates represent proprietary intelligence that algorithms cannot synthesize independently. Their framework applies across industries. Financial services organizations balancing customer needs with regulatory requirements, healthcare systems coordinating patient care across providers, manufacturers managing complex supply chains are all facing similar multi-stakeholder challenges. Walmart’s approach provides a tested methodology for addressing this complexity.
Wirex launches institutional-grade stablecoin payments on Fireblocks digital asset platform- issuing fully stablecoin-backed Visa debit cards, opening stablecoin checking accounts, and managing high-volume treasury and payments
Wirex Pay Chain is now officially supported on Fireblocks, the leading digital asset and payments infrastructure platform. This integration enables Fireblocks’ institutional clients to easily access Wirex Pay’s self-custodial stablecoin payment infrastructure, offering a secure and scalable gateway to stablecoin innovation. Through this support, Fireblocks customers can now issue fully stablecoin-backed Visa debit cards, open stablecoin checking accounts, and manage high-volume treasury and payments — all while retaining complete control over their assets. Wirex Pay redefines enterprise-grade finance with a focus on control, flexibility, and regulatory alignment: Retail App – Stablecoin Checking Accounts: Open stablecoin-backed current accounts with a Visa debit card, enabling instant global payments and yield on balances. Business Banking – Corporate Stablecoin Accounts: Manage fiat and stablecoins with built-in treasury, corporate cards, and real-time settlement—all fully self-custodial. Stablecoin BaaS – Stablecoin Infrastructure APIsStablecoin Infrastructure APIs: Embed stablecoin accounts and card issuing into any fintech or wallet product using modular APIs and smart contracts. Pavel Matveev, Co-Founder of Wirex said, “This unlocks a powerful new chapter in institutional stablecoin adoption — bringing together security and programmable payments infrastructure to Fireblocks’ digital asset network. Now, institutions can launch stablecoin-backed card programs and checking accounts at speed, with full control and built-in compliance.”
Universities athletic departments enter partnerships with PayPal to enable institutional payments for student-athletes in new revenue sharing model
PayPal announced multi-year agreements with the Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences that will modernize the distribution of institutional payments from universities to student-athletes in a new revenue-sharing model. The new institutional payments initiative enables athletic departments to seamlessly dispense payments through PayPal, ensuring a secure, efficient, and transparent way to distribute funds to payees. With the funds in their wallets, students will have the option to access all the benefits of PayPal’s commerce ecosystem, from seamlessly buying tickets to a sporting event or purchasing their books for the year at the university bookstore. The recent court decision, which allows colleges and universities to share revenue directly with student-athletes, stands to revolutionize college sports. This partnership helps make that real by distributing those funds to student-athletes in a fast, simple, and secure way. Venmo is doubling down in its focus on younger consumers by expanding its position as a cornerstone of campus life and commerce. Venmo will be the presenting partner of the first-ever Big Ten Rivalry Series, spanning football, men’s and women’s basketball, embedding the brand in some of the most iconic matchups in college sports. With the Big 12, Venmo will serve as the official partner of the Big 12 Conference across Big 12 football, basketball, and Olympic sports championships for both men and women. Venmo will also be seen across all 16 institutions’ athletic events. Venmo is accelerating the expansion of its commerce capabilities, introducing even more ways to use a Venmo balance beyond peer-to-peer, from everyday purchases on campus to earning rewards in-store and online 1 with the Venmo Debit Mastercard. Venmo will be working with the Big Ten and Big 12 to enable acceptance for real-world campus spending, including at bookstores, for ticketing, concessions, and merchandise, giving students more flexibility to shop and pay with the app they already use every day. Students who use the Venmo Debit Card can for a limited time unlock up to 15% cash back at select national brands with added features like tap-to-pay when added to a mobile wallet, automatic transfers to top up your balance, and the ability to shop internationally anywhere Mastercard is accepted with no foreign transaction fees.
Audos offers a methodology for identifying promising everyday entrepreneurs and matching their unique expertise with viable AI business opportunities aligning personal strengths with business opportunity
Audos announced $11.5 million in combined Pre-Seed and Seed funding. Audos helps solo entrepreneurs quickly turn their expertise into business opportunities through a unique combination of AI tools, human support, and capital. Audos’ Program focuses on four key pillars: The Million-Dollar Business Model: A codified methodology from successful entrepreneurs to identify promising everyday entrepreneurs and match their unique expertise with viable AI business opportunities using a proprietary framework that aligns personal strengths with business opportunity. The result is a focus on founder-market fit, profitability, sustainability, and solving real problems from day one. Rapid Market Validation Through Doing: Helping entrepreneurs offer real services immediately instead of just testing concepts, handling technical implementation and customer acquisition so entrepreneurs can focus on relationships. The Audos Program: An all-in-one system combining human expertise with AI tools. Based on success patterns from the founders’ dozens of successful start-ups, the program helps entrepreneurs discover their business concept, identify and target customers, and create AI applications that operate 24/7 across multiple channels. The program’s agentic capabilities unlock a business’s potential through features including automated customer service, actionable insights, autopilot functions, and strategic iterative updates based on growth opportunities and customer data. Aligned Capital & Support: A model where Audos succeeds only when entrepreneurs succeed, providing flexible financing capital, support, and shared upside within a community of founders. The approach provides day-one resources with no personal risk through a revenue-sharing system, allowing entrepreneurs to grow at their own pace.
Levelpath’s AI agents unify model grounding, context management, orchestration and identify the relevant business context to solve real procurement challenges such as sourcing event creation, supplier onboarding, and risk assessments
AI-native procurement platform Levelpath announced $55+ million in Series B funding led by Battery Ventures, bringing the total raised to $100 million. At their core, Levelpath’s AI Agents are designed to act autonomously and proactively on behalf of users, solving real procurement challenges such as sourcing event creation, supplier onboarding, and risk assessments to drive exponential productivity. These AI Agents do not simply support rigid and fragile task automation; they deliver smarter workflows, faster deployment, and predictable outcomes from day one. With preconfigured agents available out of the box, teams can immediately benefit from enhanced decision-making and operational efficiency without the need for complex IT support. Powered by Hyperbridge, Levelpath’s AI-native architecture, these AI Agents unify model grounding, context management, and orchestration while ensuring secure, compliant data handling. By identifying the relevant business context, routing queries to the most suitable large language models, and tailoring outputs to specific organizational needs, Levelpath empowers procurement teams to achieve greater efficiency and impact, with fewer resources. This foundation enables organizations to benefit from rapid AI innovation without the need for constant due diligence on the models or integrations themselves.
Pay-by-bank solution provider Trustly’s total payment value increases by 54% year over year in 2024 to $85 billion driven by new products and strategic partnerships in North America and Europe
Pay-by-bank solution provider Trustly reported that its total payment value increased by 54% year over year in 2024, driven by new products and partnerships in North America and Europe. The firm’s total payment value reached $85 billion, up from $55 billion in 2023. “Strategic partnerships have been critical for Trustly,” Trustly Group CEO Johan Tjärnberg said. “In Europe, our ongoing collaboration with [His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)] strengthens our public sector leadership. In North America, expanded engagements with financial institutions and gaming providers highlight the strength and adaptability of our risk engine.” Trustly processed 1.3 billion HMRC payments totaling 4.7 billion pounds (about $6.4 billion) in January. The company’s collaborations in North America include BNY’s Bankify, Newline by Fifth Third, Coinbase, IGT, Light & Wonder, and an expanded partnership with Cross River Bank that now includes the FedNow® Service in addition to the RTP® network. On the product front, Trustly launched its artificial intelligence-powered recurring payments solution in June 2024, saying that a single integration enables merchants to accept repeat transactions directly from customers’ bank accounts. “By eliminating friction in repeat transactions, we’ve enabled merchants to better serve their customers and capture more revenue,” Tjärnberg said. “Similarly, our proprietary data engine, Azura, is driving higher engagement and conversion — proof of our innovation’s tangible impact.”
Sezzle BNPL’s new budgeting and checkout tools simplify the repayment process for consumers through a pre-loadable digital wallet and auto-prompts shoppers to earn rewards and save with available coupons
Sezzle has introduced features it says are designed to help customers weather increased financial pressure. “With record-low consumer confidence — the Conference Board’s index recently plunged to its lowest level since May 2020 amid fears of tariffs and recession — the current climate makes budgeting tools more essential than ever,” Sezzle said. Among the new features are Sezzle Balance, designed to simplify the repayment process for consumers through a pre-loadable digital wallet. There are two additional products in beta: “Express Checkout,” described as a “streamlined flow that reduces friction for returning shoppers,” and Browser Extension, a tool that automatically prompts shoppers to earn Sezzle Spend and save with available coupons. “When shoppers see real savings, they come back — it’s that simple,” said Charlie Youakim, Sezzle Chairman and CEO. “That’s why we’re focused on delivering value at every touchpoint, whether it’s through smarter discovery, seamless checkout, or transparent pricing. The more we help consumers feel in control and save money, the more they trust and choose Sezzle as their go-to way to shop.”
Volcano Exchange’s financial RWA digital asset leverages blockchain tech to transform high-threshold private banking services into divisible and tradable digital assets lowering the entry barrier for retail investors
Volcano Exchange (VEX), a global digital trading platform for Real World Assets (RWA), today announced the official launch of its first financial RWA digital asset–HL (Morgan Stanley Private Wealth RWA Token). Backed by the future returns of Morgan Stanley Private Bank’s premium wealth management products, HL has a total issuance of $20 million, corresponding to 200 million HL tokens, with an initial subscription price of $0.1 per token. This issuance marks a deep integration of traditional finance and blockchain technology, offering global investors more transparent, efficient, and flexible digital asset trading and staking services. HL is VEX’s first RWA digital asset underpinned by the revenue rights of a traditional financial institution, with its value directly pegged to the future earnings of Morgan Stanley Private Bank products. Leveraging blockchain technology, VEX transforms high-threshold private banking services into divisible and tradable digital assets, lowering the entry barrier for retail investors while maintaining the stability and compliance of traditional finance. With a total supply of 200 million tokens, HL is available for subscription on the VEX platform at an initial price of $0.1 per token. After the subscription period concludes, HL will be officially listed for trading, becoming VEX’s first RWA digital financial trading pair. Holders can freely trade on secondary markets or participate in value-added services such as staking and lending through VEX’s digital finance sector, maximizing asset liquidity. The launch of HL represents a major milestone in the RWA space. By digitizing traditional financial assets through blockchain technology, we enhance their liquidity and composability. Moving forward, VEX will continue to onboard premium assets from top-tier institutions, building a global RWA financial infrastructure.
Morgan Stanley research shows Apple Intelligence platform has been downloaded and engaged with by 80% of eligible U.S. iPhone owners in the last six months and has an above average NPS of 53
Consumers’ perception of Apple’s AI platform is more favorable than that of investors, Morgan Stanley said in a research note. Morgan Stanley said it found that the Apple Intelligence platform has been downloaded and engaged with by 80% of eligible U.S. iPhone owners in the last six months, has an above average net promoter score of 53, and is characterized by iPhone users as “easy to use, innovative, and something that improves their user experience.” “While much of the public critique of Apple Intelligence is warranted, and investor sentiment and expectations on Apple’s AI platform couldn’t be lower, our survey of iPhone owners paints a more positive picture,” Morgan Stanley said in the note. Since September, the share of iPhone owners who believe it is extremely or very important to have Apple Intelligence support on their next iPhone rose 15 points to reach 42%. Among iPhone owners who are likely to upgrade their device in the next 12 months, the percentage saying that about the AI platform rose 20 points to reach 54%, according to the note. Morgan Stanley also found that consumers are willing to pay more for Apple Intelligence than they were in September. Those who have used the AI platform are now willing to pay an average of $9.11 per month for it, a figure that’s 11% higher than the $8.17 average seen in September, per the note. While we don’t expect Apple to put Apple Intelligence behind a paywall until the platform is more built out, the potential long-term monetization of an Apple Intelligence subscription could reach tens of billions of dollars annually when considering a 1.4B global iPhone installed base, 32% (and growing) of US iPhone owners have an Apple Intelligence support iPhone, and users are willing to pay up to $9.11/month for Apple Intelligence,” Morgan Stanley said in the note.