FICO has signed a new strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to bring more organizations worldwide the power of AI-driven, automated decision workflows with FICO Platform, which runs on AWS, and FICO will broaden its participation in AWS partner programs to accelerate client adoption of FICO Platform. FICO solutions will also be available through AWS Marketplace Private Offers. The first of these solutions, FICO Decision Modeler, is now available in AWS Marketplace. FICO Decision Modeler is the advanced decision management system that powers greater flexibility, ease of use and decision accuracy, and is at the core of FICO Platform. Many financial institutions are already using FICO Platform on AWS to drive successful business initiatives, such as Westpac NZ, one of New Zealand’s largest retail banks. “With FICO Platform, which supports transformation at scale on AWS, we’ve been able to shift from focusing on individual decisions we make on a customer’s account, to thinking strategically about how we manage customers across all of their accounts and throughout their lifetime with the bank,” said Regan Goble, Risk Analytics senior manager at Westpac NZ. “FICO’s decision management solutions provide customers with powerful tools for making data-driven financial decisions,” said Scott Mullins, managing director, Worldwide Financial Services at AWS. “Making these solutions available in AWS Marketplace simplifies procurement for our customers while providing the security, scalability, and performance benefits of AWS.
Vibe coding: Superblocks AI agent addresses security and privacy risks by turning NL prompts into secure, production-grade applications optimized for building any user interfaces; Google launches Stitch, a platform that designs UIs with one prompt
DayZero Software Inc., a maker of secure software development tools that does business as Superblocks, has raised $23 million in a Series A venture capital round extension, bringing its total funding to $60 million. The company is addressing a problem caused by generative artificial intelligence: vibe coding. It involves using AI tools to generate software quickly based on natural language prompts, often without a deep understanding of the underlying code. While great for rapid prototyping, vibe coding carries the risk of errors, security holes and inadvertent disclosure of proprietary information. Superblocks’ answer is Clark, an AI agent that turns natural language prompts into secure, production-grade applications written in React, a JavaScript library optimized for building user interfaces that can also support production-grade applications. “React is the largest front-end framework in the world so you can build pretty much any user interface with it, and most of the modern web is on it,” Superbocks co-founder and Chief Executive Brad Menezes said. Clark routes requests through a cadre of specialized AI agents covering design, security, quality assurance and IT policy. That mimics how a real internal development team operates. Superblocks is betting that the volume of homegrown software in use in enterprises will grow as generative AI lowers barriers to entry. Clark uses an assortment of popular LLMS that are trained using “unique, enterprise context on the company’s design system,” Menezes said. “When you build an application in Superblocks, you know it has the right audit logging, permissions, private data and integration.”
Mastercard launches Small Business Navigator a new curated offering of digital education, insights, protection, and planning tools to help entrepreneurs
By uniting data, digital tools and offers across three core areas, Small Business Navigator is built to help small businesses work smarter, stay safer, and grow stronger.
Knowledge and insights: Business owners get information they need to make smarter decisions, including:
An AI-powered chatbot that acts as a mentor by answering questions and guiding small businesses through their most pressing business challenges
Access to actionable insights and data from The Mastercard Economics Institute and Mastercard SpendingPulse™ reports with state-level consumer spending trends
Educational content from Mastercard and partners such as Square, covering cybersecurity, marketing, and digital tools like tap-on-phone payments
Security and protection: Small businesses can stay ahead of threats with simple, practical, powerful cybersecurity tools:
Access to My Cyber Risk powered by RiskRecon, providing prioritized guidance to help small businesses strengthen their defenses3
A personalized report with recommendations tailored to each business based on their individual Cybersecurity Assessment Quiz results
PlainID’s Policy Management for Agentic AI allows organizations to define dynamic, fine-grained policies that apply adaptable controls to every AI Agent interaction with data, APIs and services
PlainID, global provider of Identity Security, introduces Policy Management for Agentic AI. Policy Management for Agentic AI enables organizations to define granular policies that control what data AI agents can access, how they process it, and which actions they may take—ensuring that every AI-driven workflow abides by corporate and regulatory mandates. Key capabilities include: Identity-aware control – Enforce access based on human and non-human identity (NHI). Dynamic, fine-grained policies – Apply adaptable controls to every AI Agent interaction with data, APIs and services. Centralized policy management – Manage and govern all policies in one unified, standardized interface. Seamless integration – With popular AI platforms and orchestration frameworks Zero Trust Alignment – Ensure AI operations align with enterprise security and compliance frameworks, by design. Auditability – Gain full visibility into AI decision chains, access attempts, and policy outcomes. “As enterprises accelerate AI initiatives, PlainID empowers teams to govern AI data and decisions without compromising innovation. Through policy management and access enforcement, we ensure every AI interaction is secure, compliant, and policy-aware,” said Gal Helemski, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of PlainID.
Discord’s new virtual reward system allows users to redeem exclusive digital items from Discord’s Shop using the rewards earned by watching product videos or playing games
Discord is experimenting with a new virtual reward system aimed at encouraging more users to engage with its interactive ads. This new feature, called “Orbs,” comes on the heels of the company preparing for a potential IPO. Users can earn Orbs by completing “Quests,” Discord’s ad format where advertisers incentivize users to watch product videos or play games by rewarding them with virtual items. The addition of Orbs gives users the chance to redeem exclusive digital items from Discord’s Shop, including Nitro credits, profile badges, avatar decorations, profile effects, and items from main collections. The goal of Orbs is to encourage more interaction with Quests as Discord seeks to demonstrate to partners that it can offer a scalable ad business. The Orbs experiment may also entice users who don’t have a subscription to try Nitro, as they can spend Orbs on credits instead of using a payment method. For instance, users need 1,400 Orbs to get three free days of Nitro, which typically costs $10 per month.
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.
Velocity’s Stablecoin Payment Account allows businesses to seamlessly manage fiat and stablecoin transactions in one place, eliminating the need for parallel systems or complex integrations
Velocity announces a $10M pre-seed funding round and emerges from stealth to launch the Stablecoin Payment Account. Traditional financial systems were not designed for a multi-asset economy, limiting the seamless integration of digital assets into existing infrastructure. Velocity bridges this gap by providing a platform where businesses can manage fiat and stablecoin transactions in one place, eliminating the need for parallel systems or complex integrations. Velocity’s Stablecoin Payment Account provides enterprises with a frictionless way to move and manage capital across banks, blockchains, and borders. Designed for seamless integration, the platform combines the speed and programmability of stablecoins, with the rigour and reliability of traditional finance —- solving real-world challenges in cross-border settlement, liquidity management, and treasury operations.
More Americans say they might need BNPL just to keep up, to help them manage household expenses in the next six months; report says
The latest CivicScience data show that both usage and intent in Buy Now, Pay Later have risen steadily since before the 2024 holiday season. As of May 27, 37% of those aware of BNPL use these services, up from 32% in Q3 2024. The percentage of those who are planning to use BNPL has also increased, ticking up to 12% from 9% in Q4 2024. Notably, usage and intent have also increased among high-income households ($100K+), with experience rising five percentage points since late last year. Users and intenders are particularly leery of looming tariffs – 84% of users and 83% of intenders are at least ‘somewhat’ concerned about the impact of tariffs and trade policies on their household expenses, outpacing non-users by at least eight percentage points (75%). While consumers are turning to BNPL for discretionary purchases, such as live events or food delivery, additional data finds that a noteworthy percentage of Americans worry they’ll have to utilize BNPL just to get by. More than one-third (36%) of consumers who don’t currently use a BNPL service are at least ‘somewhat’ concerned they might need to turn to a Buy Now, Pay Later program to help them manage household expenses in the next six months. This concern is most common among households earning under $50K, but notably, 19% of those expecting to make $100K also share this anxiety.
Apple’s LLM for Siri with 150 billion parameters equals the quality of ChatGPT’s recent releases but shows higher levels of hallucination
A new report claims that internally, Apple has already been testing Large Language Models for Siri that are vastly more powerful than the shipping Apple Intelligence, but executives disagree about when to release it. Apple is said to be testing models with 3 billion, 7 billion, 33 billion, and 150 billion parameters. For comparison, Apple in 2024 said that Apple Intelligence’s foundation language models were of the order of 3 billion parameters. That version of Apple Intelligence is intentionally small in order for it to be possible to run on-device instead of requiring all prompts and requests to be sent to the cloud. The larger versions are cloud-based, and in the case of the 150 billion parameter model, now also said to approach the quality of ChatGPT’s most recent releases. However, there reportedly remain concerns over AI hallucinations. Apple is said to have held off releasing this Apple Intelligence model in part because of this, implying that the level of hallucinations is too high. There is said to be another reason for not yet shipping this cloud-based and much improved Siri Chatbot, though. It is claimed that there are philosophical differences between Apple’s senior executives over the release.
Microsoft proposes GenAI Intent-based routing (IBR)- Customer Intent Agent discovers and manages intents, while IBR uses those intents to route conversations, connecting customer needs to the right support resources with speed and precision
Intent-based routing (IBR) is a generative AI-powered capability that routes customer queries based on real-time intent recognition and dynamic user group assignment. It is enabled by the Customer Intent Agent, which autonomously discovers and manages customer intents by analyzing past interactions and builds an evolving intent library. Customer Intent Agent discovers and manages intents, while IBR uses those intents to route conversations, connecting customer needs to the right support resources with speed and precision. Once an intent and its group are identified, IBR routes the conversation to the appropriate user group based on the mapped intent group. Next, IBR assigns it to the best-suited support representative within the group, based on their capacity, presence, and other routing attributes. This enables faster, more accurate resolutions. By turning intent from a passive insight into an active, intelligent routing decision, IBR becomes the operational backbone of an intent-driven contact center. Subsequently, this results in better assisted and self-service experiences. Implementing intent-based routing in your contact center can offer numerous benefits: Enhanced precision and personalization; Dynamic intent discovery; Streamlined routing configuration; Smarter workforce management and load handling; and Scalable and adaptable.