Graph AI provider Graphwise announced the availability of GraphDB 11. With MCP protocol support, V11 offers swift integration of data in agentic AI ecosystems and enables AI platforms like Microsoft Copilot Studio to tap directly into their enterprise knowledge. GraphDB 11 introduces powerful new features designed to bridge the gap between LLMs and structured knowledge so enterprises can build more intelligent and context-aware AI applications, including: Broad LLM Compatibility & GraphRAG: The new features expand support for a wide range of large language models, including Qwen, Llama, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Mistral—plus the ability to deploy local or custom models. The improved Talk to Your Graph feature empowers GraphRAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), enabling natural language access to enterprise knowledge graphs helps businesses reduce hallucinations, improve accuracy, and drive more reliable AI-driven decisions. MCP Support for Enterprise Agentic AI Integration: This grounds AI in domain data, turning it from a generic tool into a strategic asset. By leveraging GraphDB’s structured knowledge and GraphRAG capabilities, organizations benefit from AI that delivers accurate, context-aware insights—reducing risk, improving decision quality, and driving measurable efficiency across workflows. Precision Entity Linking for Reliable Insights: By connecting language to meaning. Its advanced entity linking accurately maps terms and phrases to the right concepts or entities in the knowledge graph—eliminating ambiguity and improving how information is retrieved and applied. This enhances GraphDB’s Graph RAG capabilities, ensuring outputs are not just fast, but precise, relevant, and grounded in an organization’s data. GraphDB 11 delivers core platform capabilities that make it easier and more cost-effective for organizations to build and scale intelligent applications that fully leverage graph data across multiple use cases. These include: Native GraphQL Support: Enhancements aimed at making life easier for developers to easily use GraphQL to query their rich graph data, making data access straightforward and speeding up the creation of AI-powered applications in a secure, scalable, and reliable environment. Performance at Scale: Improvements boost database performance including high availability, strong security, and flexible multi-tenancy to simplify common operational tasks and development efforts. Optimized Performance for AI-Driven Knowledge Hubs: The advanced repository caching dramatically speeds up operations to ensure the scalability and responsiveness users demand from knowledge hubs that support multiple use cases and projects coming from one knowledge hub.
Gemini Live to natively support Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 flip phone’s external screen with support for the multimodal elements and camera mode, allowing for easy answers without having to flip it open or hold the device in one hand
Google is announcing some big changes to how Gemini works on flip phones today, starting with Samsung’s all-new Galaxy Z Flip 7. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is the first flip phone that allows for easy access to Gemini Live from its external screen, complete with support for the multimodal elements of Google’s voice assistant. In addition to basic conversations, Gemini Live on Flip 7 supports camera mode, which, when paired with the phone’s form factor, allows for easy answers without having to flip it open or hold the device in one hand. It’s not a wholly unique idea; this year’s Moto Razr lineup was also big on utilizing a clamshell in tabletop mode for hands-free AI commands, though I’d hazard a guess that Gemini Live integration will outperform Motorola’s in-house AI toolset. But again, this partnership with Samsung’s latest hardware sounds like the launching point for Gemini Live on cover screens — I wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature expand to the Razr in the coming weeks and months. Google is also adding support for additional “device apps,” starting with pre-installed Samsung services like Calendar, Notes, and Reminders, before eventually rolling out to other OEMs
Kira is an end-to-end, stablecoin-native infrastructure abstracting the complexity of DeFi and giving businesses a turnkey solution to launch embedded products
Kira, a next-generation fintech infrastructure startup, has officially emerged from stealth mode, announcing it has hit $3 million in revenue in its first year of operations. Kira is building the first all-in-one infrastructure to launch embedded fintech products — supercharged by Vertical AI Agents and stablecoins. By abstracting the complexity of DeFi, Kira gives businesses a turnkey solution to launch embedded products, such as cross-border remittances, treasury automation, currency trading, import/export payments and global payroll solutions. Kira’s platform is the first of its kind: an end-to-end, stablecoin-native infrastructure built for scale. It includes: Universal Payment Gateway: Abstracts away complex rails into a single, AI-driven interface. Accept payments via cash, debit, ACH, or SWIFT through a white-labeled payment link; AI-Powered Treasury & Wallet Infrastructure: Let vertical agents manage yield-bearing wallets and optimize treasury across stablecoins and U.S. Treasuries — generating up to 7% yield; Agentic Compliance: Automate onboarding and regulatory workflows — from KYC/KYB to AML, VASP, and sanctions screening — with integrated APIs and customizable agent sessions; AI-Managed Instant Global Payouts: Autonomous agents can initiate global payouts in seconds — using localized payment methods that deliver directly into bank accounts in 35+ countries.
Nymbus core system integrates Bud Financial’s transaction data enrichment and AI-driven insights tech supporting real-time affordability checks and dynamic risk profiling by analyzing actual income and spending behavior
Nymbus, a full-stack banking platform for U.S. banks and credit unions, has announced an agreement with Bud Financial, a leading provider of transaction data enrichment and AI-driven insights for the financial services industry. Nymbus will integrate Bud’s market-leading suite of personal financial management (PFM) widgets into the Nymbus Banking Platform, enhancing the digital banking experience and enabling smarter, more contextual customer engagement. The integration will provide customers with a clear and intuitive view of their finances, deliver proactive content and financial tools through Bud’s widgets, and tailor experiences across digital channels with categorized, contextual data. Nymbus Engage, a new customer engagement solution, will help community banks and credit unions activate data in smarter ways and drive more meaningful, long-term relationships. Bud has been a pioneer in applying AI to financial data since 2015, helping institutions turn raw transaction streams into structured, actionable insights. Engage – Personalized PFM: Banking clients embed Bud’s enriched data into their apps via widgets to deliver real-time, hyper-personalized financial experiences. Use cases include “left-to-spend” balances that account for upcoming bills, visualizations of spending habits such as weekend spikes or predicted future spending, and personalized nudges or actions like suggesting savings transfers or setting budgets around overspending categories. These insights are powered by Bud APIs combined with large language models (LLMs) to provide contextual, automated intelligence tailored to each customer journey. Drive – Portfolio Analytics & Marketing: Drive aggregates individual-level insights across the entire customer base, enabling banks to perform behavioral segmentation, detect deposit activity triggers, and identify churn risks. These insights integrate seamlessly with CRM systems such as Salesforce or Braze to enable data-driven marketing and relationship management. Assess – Credit & Cashflow Underwriting: Bud’s technology supports real-time affordability checks and dynamic risk profiling by analyzing actual income and spending behavior. This enables more accurate credit decisions and reduces default rates by grounding assessments in real cashflow data rather than static credit scores.
Kroger customers with loyalty card can grab printed flyer near the entrance of stores and scan a barcode on the flyer at checkout to download all the digital coupons at once without the need for app or internet
The Kroger Co. is giving its loyal shoppers easier access to digital deals. The national supermarket chain recently started adding paper flyers mirroring its weekly digital deals near the entrances of its stores. Kroger customers with a loyalty card can grab a printed handout when they enter the store to find out about the weekly digital deals. Then at checkout, shoppers scan a barcode on the flyer to download all of the digital coupons at once. Each coupon can be used up to five times in a single transaction. Using the printed flyer means that shoppers don’t have to go online or use the Kroger app to download each individual coupon. The Northeastern supermarket chain Stop & Shop also recently issued a brand-wide rollout of its innovative Savings Station. The in-store kiosk allows customers to quickly and easily activate all weekly circular digital coupons, as well as personalized offers – no smartphone, internet access or computer required. These in-store efforts from Kroger and Stop & Shop are finally helping to address digital discrimination in grocery. Seniors who aren’t tech-savvy and low-income families without smartphones could wind up paying higher prices, since they can’t easily access grocers’ digital deals.
Verizon created the role of dedicated Customer Champion, agents who will handle customer inquiries from start to finish, reducing the exasperating transfer process that plagues call centers
Verizon is trying to alleviate a persistent pain point by giving consumers a single point of contact, reducing the exasperating transfer process that plagues call centers. In an innovative idea that not many companies have implemented, Verizon recently created the role of dedicated Customer Champion, agents who will handle customer inquiries from start to finish. Under the plan, every customer service call will be assigned a champion, who will work on resolving the issue and updating the customer as the sole Verizon contact. The concept is creative, potentially very useful for customers and service teams alike, as are the specifics: the Verizon champions will update customers on progress through the channel of the customer’s choosing. Verizon’s overall focus on customer experience is laudable, yet the customer champions initiative stands out most of all. Research shows that being transferred from agent to agent is a particular source of customer frustration. People who get in touch often have a complaint from the start, and having to get new agents up to speed slows resolution times and can impact customer satisfaction scores. By eliminating transfers, the initiative will reduce customer frustration and increase satisfaction, while improving customer trust that the brand has their back. Dealing with a single agent may even trigger an emotional connection between customer and company, potentially leading to more memorable customer experience moments. Verizon is empowering agents to provide continuity and take personal ownership of issues, which could promote accountability and pride within service teams. The result? Higher employee satisfaction and a better employee experience. It will also give agents more productive things to do. With fewer phone calls to answer, company representatives can spend more time tracking the results of their interactions with individual customers, learning from how the issues were resolved, and perhaps even preventing future occurrences of the same problem.
QR Codes make a splash in the real time payments pool – X9 payment QR code standard introduces a common language for encoding payment data, so single QR code can work across multiple networks, such as FedNow, ACH, and TCH RTP
QR code payments have taken a big step towards becoming not only a mainstream payment option but also one that can accelerate the adoption of real-time payments. Late last week, the technology was used to facilitate a transaction over the FedNow network using the X9 standard. The demonstration transferred funds in one second from a credit union to a Top 4 bank in the United States. During the test, a bill was presented to a payer with a merchant-generated QR code. Upon scanning the code, the payer authorized the transaction via the payer’s credit union’s mobile app. Assisting in the transaction was technology from Matera, a fintech specializing in instant payments and QR code technology. Also involved in the transaction were Tyfone Inc., a digital-banking and -payments platform provider, and real-time payments provider Payfinia Inc., a Tyfone company. Key to making the transaction possible was the X9 payment QR code standard. Developed by the Accredited Standards Committee X9, the X9 standard introduces a common language for encoding payment data in “a secure, structured, and extensible way,” according to Matera. As a result, a single QR code can work across multiple networks, such as FedNow as well as the automated clearing house and The Clearing House’s RTP network. It can also work with different banks. The standard also supports multiple use cases, such as consumer-to-business, business-to-business, and peer-to-peer payments. Matera chief executive and co-founder Carlos Netto said “It opens the door to a broad range of use cases, bill payments, in-store payments and ecommerce, all initiated by QR code and settled in real time. Ultimately, this payment QR Code can accelerate the adoption of instant payments.”
Hackers are resorting to brand impersonation to steal information or install malware by delivering logos and names to victims through PDF attachments in emails and persuading them to call “adversary-controlled phone numbers”
Hackers are reportedly impersonating brands like PayPal and Apple to steal information and send malware, according to recent research by Cisco Talos on a surge of instances in which victims call the scammers on the phone, responding to a request regarding an urgent transaction. “Brand impersonation is a social engineering technique that exploits the popularity of well-known brands to persuade email recipients to disclose sensitive information,” the researchers wrote. In these phishing scams, “adversaries can deliver brand logos and names to victims using multiple types of payloads. One of the most common methods of delivering brand logos and names is through PDF payloads (or attachments).” Many of these emails persuade victims to call “adversary-controlled phone numbers,” employing another popular social engineering tactic: telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD), otherwise known as callback phishing. Victims are told to call a number in the PDF to settle an issue or confirm a transaction. Once they call, the attacker pretends to be a legitimate representative and tries to manipulate them into sharing confidential information or installing malware on their computer.
Instacart’s rewards debit card lets its contract employees get free, automatic payouts of their earnings directly in their Shopper Rewards bank account for free after every batch they complete
Instacart has launched a rewards debit card for its contract “shopper” employees. The Instacart Shoppers Rewards Card, which debuted July 1 in partnership with workforce payments platform Branch, lets these workers get free, automatic payouts of their earnings. “We’re doubling down on our dedication to shopping excellence by empowering and rewarding shoppers who consistently deliver exceptional service to customers,” Daniel Danker, chief product officer at Instacart, said. “Instacart shoppers are shopping experts, and they balance efficiency, empathy and skill to serve their communities every day. Through the Cart Star refresh and the new Shopper Rewards Card, we’re recognizing and supporting their incredible work, while providing valuable resources to help shoppers thrive both on and off the platform.” The program lets shoppers have their earnings deposited directly in their Shopper Rewards bank account for free after every batch they complete. If these employees choose to use a different bank account, they’ll be charged $1.50 for the Instant Cashout service. Instacart will roll out the card to its U.S. shoppers in two phases, first in October, and again in April of next year. The card is part of Instacart’s Cart Star program
One Big Beautiful Bill Act offers advisors an avenue to be really proactive with their clients by sharing their thoughts and opinion on the bill’s massive impact on the rules for federal income taxes and estate planning
After President Donald Trump’s Republican allies raced to meet their July 4 deadline to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the legislation is on its way to be signed into law. Financial advisors and their clients can now take the rest of the year to plan for 2026 and beyond. The legislation extends and expands many provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and will have a massive impact on the rules for federal income taxes and estate planning, alongside other Trump administration priorities such as defense and border security appropriations, work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries and an increase to the debt ceiling. Trillions of dollars in additional federal debt as a result of the newly passed legislation pose further questions for investors. Over the next decade, the bill will expand deficits by $3.2 trillion, after savings of $1.4 trillion on the overall cost of $4.6 trillion, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Beyond the political upshot and inevitable arguments around the economic impact of the legislation, advisors and their clients will likely want to prepare for an array of new tax rules coming into effect as early as this year. No matter their political bent or opinion on the law, it is “exciting that they can take advantage of something like that,” said Mike Byrnes, founder of advisor growth firm Byrnes Consulting. Since clients will no doubt be asking advisors’ thoughts, it makes a great topic for, say, a client or prospect event, he noted. “It just gives advisors another thing to be really proactive with their clients about,” Byrnes said. “Whether the client leans left or leans right, I think it’s a great opportunity to strengthen their relationship and just be in front of them.”