SimpleTalk, a sales automation technology company, has launched a customizable AI sales automation system for businesses across the United States. The system provides fully integrated voice AI agents and messaging tools designed to replicate human sales interactions across phone calls, texts, emails, and social media platforms. SimpleTalk develops and deploys custom AI agents based on each client’s sales process, brand tone, and preferred CRM. These agents don’t just read scripts—they sound and converse like real people. The AI’s human-like voice is virtually indistinguishable from an actual sales rep on live phone calls, creating authentic, natural conversations that build trust with prospects & make sales. This rollout addresses the growing demand for lead engagement and conversion automation—tools that work 24/7 to qualify leads, answer questions, and turn interest into booked appointments without adding more staff. By automating conversations in real time across voice, text, email, and social channels, SimpleTalk turns more leads into booked revenue while maintaining the warmth and authenticity of human interaction. This solution provides businesses the access and ability to grow and service more clients without the increase of traditional staffing complexity. SimpleTalk’s AI now places over 2.5 million live calls each month and has booked more than 100,000 sales appointments since early rollout.
Candescent’s Terafina adds configurable onboarding templates that shift optional steps post account ‑opening; boosting conversion while preserving compliance
Candescent has introduced a major advancement in its account opening and onboarding platform, Candescent Terafina. The platform allows banks and credit unions to have unprecedented control over the entire account opening experience. With nearly one in four consumers opening a new financial account at least once per year, offering fast, intuitive account opening capabilities is crucial. The Terafina Account Opening flexible templates allow institutions to minimize initial input requirements and move optional actions like debit card selection and online banking enrollment to when the account is live. This modernized flow boosts successful account opening rates and elevates experience without compromising compliance or back-office efficiency. The new capabilities include pre/post account workflow control, smarter joint applicant support, modern compliance automation, built-in security with name matching, and customized user roles for back-office staff. Candescent’s Terafina platform is more than a technology solution; it’s a strategic enabler, enabling banks and credit unions to deliver a frictionless, member-centric journey and strengthen their digital foundation.
Samsung’s tri‑fold UI reportedly enables true three‑app, side‑by‑side multitasking on the main screen, refining continuity with a two‑page outer‑to‑inner homescreen transition
Ahead of Samsung’s launch which is supposedly sometime later this year, One UI 8 has revealed some new details about the Galaxy Z TriFold, including the ability to run three full apps at once. Samsung’s One UI can display three apps at once on larger displays, including the one on Galaxy Z Fold 7. But, this doesn’t work in the way you might want it to. One app runs across the width of the display, taking up the top or bottom half, while two other apps split the other half of the display, each ending up with their own quadrant. It works well enough, but the form factor of a tri-fold device presents some interesting opportunities. Samsung is planning to allow users to run three apps at once in a side-by-side configuration on the Galaxy Z TriFold’s main display. Or, at least that’s what some icons seem to suggest. We’ll have to wait to see this one in action, but it certainly makes sense. Beyond that, the TriFold will apparently morph your outer screen’s homescreen into a wider two-page layout on the main display, as is the case on Galaxy Z Fold 7. This doesn’t really come as a surprise, but it’s nice to see that Samsung isn’t going to throw three pages onto the main display.
Artificio debuts AI generative forms that build context‑aware, user adaptive, multi‑branch workflows in seconds, with embedded validations and compliance logic for regulated industries
Artificio Products has launched its newest innovation: AI Generative Forms, a groundbreaking feature that instantly creates sophisticated, context-aware data submission forms—many so complex and adaptive that they’d be nearly impossible for humans to design manually. This feature leverages Artificio’s proprietary generative artificial intelligence to create dynamic form structures, including intricate branches, validations, and conditional logic that surpass traditional design limits. Key Differentiators & Benefits: Instant Form Creation: Transform concepts into fully functional forms within moments, dramatically reducing development time from days to seconds; Humanly Unfeasible Complexity: Generates deeply adaptive forms with sophisticated logic and branching that manual design could not realistically handle; Scalable Across Industries: Ideally suited for regulated sectors including finance, insurance, healthcare, and government, where complex data workflows are essential; Consistent & Error-Minimized: Built-in AI logic ensures form integrity and business-rule compliance from creation; Intelligent Automation: Forms automatically adapt based on user responses, creating personalized experiences; Enterprise-Grade Security: Maintains highest standards of data protection and compliance requirements. The technology has significant implications across multiple sectors: Healthcare: Streamlining patient intake processes, medical history collection, and treatment workflow management; Financial Services: Automating loan applications, compliance documentation, and risk assessment forms; Government: Enhancing citizen service delivery through intelligent application processing; Insurance: Optimizing claims processing and policy application workflows; Education: Improving student enrollment and administrative processes.
Qualified unveils a video‑avatar sales superagent that carries context across web and email, monitors intent signals, and engages leads throughout the funnel with configurable guardrails
Qualified.com Inc. unveiled new capabilities for its AI sales development representative that evolve it into a sales “superagent.” The new features enable it to conduct face-to-face conversations via a digital human avatar and carry context over between website interactions and email responses. The company said the update expands the agent’s scope to cover every stage of the lead nurturing process from qualifying inbound leads to managing prospects across the sales funnel. Chief Marketing Officer Maura Rivera described the highlight of the new feature set as the video avatar called “Piper” that “looks like a human and sounds like a human.” The AI agent is now also able to engage prospects earlier in the sales cycle than previous versions, which were oriented mostly toward likely buyers. Piper’s avatar is based on a Qualified staffer named Blake, who was the company’s highest-performing sales representative. Qualified recorded Blake in a studio and trained the underlying generative AI model on an assortment of sales material and best practices. Customers can use Qualified’s default personas or create their own with a studio session and retrieval augmented generation training. The service currently integrates directly only with Salesforce Inc.’s customer relationship management system but has more than 30 connections to go-to-market systems and email-engagement tools such as those from Outreach Corp. and Salesloft Inc. Qualified combines OpenAI’s commercial large-language-model inputs with its own training, orchestration and integrations. Customers can customize the agent with their collateral, website content, case studies and guardrails so it hews to approved messaging and avoids topics such as pricing unless configured otherwise.
Hyper‑personalized ecommerce moves past age and gender by using real‑time behavior AI and AR to tailor search to buy journeys virtual try‑ons and stylist‑grade picks
Consumers are increasingly seeking a personalized shopping experience, with hyper-personalization being a key factor in this trend. Hyper-personalization goes beyond demographics and basic buyer information, focusing on the unique traits, history, and experiences of a consumer to make their shopping more fulfilling and exclusive. Companies that invest in hyper-personalization can better anticipate customer needs and engage, excite, and convert customers. Some clever customization approaches for ecommerce sites include distilling the “search” to “buy” navigation journey, offering a personal attendant for every buyer, and providing the chance for customers to test merchandise at home. Companies like Dungarees, Sephora, and Stitch Fix have adopted these strategies to improve customer experience and stay ahead of the curve in the individualized casual and work apparel market Dungarees uses smart style navigation to narrow searches based on specific features, while Stitch Fix uses generative AI to spot design possibilities based on internet trends. Additionally, Stitch Fix uses augmented reality (AR) and AI to help shoppers place furniture in their spaces before buying, making it easier for consumers to determine the product’s size, color, texture, etc. Ikea is an AR leader, while Sephora uses facial recognition software and AI to help customers choose the correct makeup for their individualized face shape, skin color, and personal style. hyper-personalization is helping brands gain momentum by treating customers as individuals and making it easier to compete in the online shopping landscape. By mastering the art of hyper-personalization, companies can gain momentum and continue to provide a personalized shopping experience for their customers.
Google Pixel 10 update elevates screenshots with read‑aloud narration and NotebookLM suggestions for relevant content, complementing chrome’s listen mode and on‑device AI upgrades
With the Pixel 10 update, Google introduced a convenient “Read aloud” feature for the Screenshots app. When you take a screenshot of an article and open it, there’s a new “Read aloud” chip. This opens a fullscreen player with the article’s full text, which is highlighted as you progress, with the app already saving URLs at capture time. Pixel Screenshots notes how long the article is and lets you thumbs up/down. Controls at the bottom let you play/pause and go to the previous/next line. Screenshots’ Read aloud capability is available on the Pixel 9 (with last week’s update) and Pixel 10 series. Both generations also get NotebookLM integration for relevant content. Chips appear both in the corner preview and the screenshot page. Version 1.25.242.10 also introduces some Material 3 Expressive tweaks, like how the FAB (floating action button) on the homepage is now a rounded square. Otherwise, it’s a less drastic redesign compared to other Pixel apps.
Apple News+ interactive game challenges users to guess movie titles, popular phrases, or news headlines using emojis as clues
Apple News+ has introduced the ‘Emoji Game’, an interactive game designed to entertain users while they read news. The game challenges users to guess movie titles, popular phrases, or news headlines using emojis as clues. The casual and fun game enhances user retention and encourages subscribers to spend more time within the app. Apple News+ aims to differentiate itself by blending informative content with interactive features, aligning with its strategy to make news consumption more dynamic, personalized, and enjoyable. The game appeals to a broad audience, including news junkies and casual users who appreciate gamified content. Since its launch, the game has garnered positive reactions from subscribers, with social media buzz indicating growing enthusiasm for the feature. Apple plans to expand the game’s content themes and introduce new challenges, seasonal puzzles, and reward systems to maintain subscriber interest.
Cognigy conversational and agentic AI will be enriched with NiCE’s purpose-built CX AI models to make agents smarter, deployments faster, and outcomes more impactful
NiCE announced the successful closing of its acquisition of Cognigy, following receipt of all required regulatory approvals. This brings together two AI industry leaders, each with a proven track record of market leadership, innovation, and customer impact to accelerate AI adoption in customer experience across the front and back office. By bringing together Cognigy’s AI and NiCE’s award-winning CXone Mpower CX AI platform, organizations of all sizes will transform how they deliver AI-powered customer experience. Cognigy conversational and agentic AI will be enriched with NiCE’s purpose-built CX AI models leveraging decades of CX intelligence, making agents smarter, deployments faster and outcomes more impactful. With this unified power, organizations can scale agentic and conversational AI at speed across CXone Mpower, delivering seamless, intelligent experiences across every customer touchpoint, from the contact center to enterprise-deep workflows. Scott Russell, CEO, NiCE, said, “With the completion of this acquisition, we are bringing together two AI market leaders to redefine the future of customer experience. Together, we are accelerating AI adoption and value realization for global enterprises by delivering one of the industry’s most powerful and comprehensive customer experience platforms leveraging CX models and agentic and human agents powered by decades of CX purpose-built data and insights.
Gemini drag handle overlay brings back shortcut to open full app on Android
After removing earlier this year, the Gemini overlay on Android is bringing back a shortcut to quickly open the full app. It takes the form of a drag handle at the top of the Gemini overlay. Just swipe up and let go to open the Gemini app for chat history, Gems, and settings. The full prompt bar lets you access the Video, Deep Research, and Canvas chips. The ‘plus’ menu is the same, though the design differs. (Last week, Gemini on the web gained an “Image: Generate with Imagen” chip. It’s not available on mobile yet.) Google last updated the overlay in January, with the previous design being taller. This shortcut saves you from having to place the app icon on your homescreen. This overlay shortcut to access the full Gemini app is widely rolling out with version 16.27 (stable) and 16.28 (beta) of the Google app. Force stop if you’re not seeing it yet. It follows the Gemini overlay going right-aligned on tablets and foldables with the launch of Samsung’s latest devices. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for Google to widely roll out the four-color glow.