Lead Management: AI Automation with Impact
Zapier analyzed 10,000 AI‑powered workflows and found nearly one‑third designed for lead management. These Zaps automate capture, enrichment, routing, and follow‑up, using AI to extract data from unstructured sources and score prospects. The broader study also highlighted AI use in messaging, content creation, and data extraction, showing how automation evolves from shortcuts to business‑critical infrastructure. Zapier’s new Agents and MCP tools aim to scale these agentic systems while providing governance.
Meta Rolls Out New Features for Scam Protection
Meta introduced AI-driven tools to identify brand and celebrity impersonators and flag deceptive links across its platforms. The company also added user alerts for suspicious friend requests on Facebook, device‑link warnings on WhatsApp, and suspect‑account warnings on Messenger. Additionally, Meta...
Publicis CEO: 'Competitors Living in a Dream' About AI Replacing People
Publicis marks its 100‑year anniversary as CEO Arthur Sadoun warned that rivals are “living in a dream” by assuming artificial intelligence can replace people. Sadoun argued that AI should be used to augment creative talent rather than eliminate jobs, criticizing...
Architects and Engineers Among Professions Most Automatable by AI According to Anthropic
Anthropic’s new labor‑market study finds that up to 70 % of architecture and engineering tasks could theoretically be completed twice as fast using large language models, yet real‑world AI exposure in those fields remains close to zero. The research contrasts "theoretical...
The Future of Agentic AI and Secure Connectivity: A Conversation with Aeris
At MWC Barcelona 2026, Aeris CPO Jon Connet outlined how the company is turning Agentic AI into a core part of its IoT platform, moving customers from static dashboards to adaptive, workflow‑driven interfaces. The firm announced a strategic integration with...
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Zambia Tests AI-Powered Learning in Schools
Zambia’s Ministry of Technology and Science and local tech firm Obrizum Group have signed an MoU to pilot AI‑powered learning, initially in secondary schools and later in TEVET institutions. The project, launching next month, aims to personalize instruction, boost learning...
The Invisible Interview: How AI Is Reshaping Employer Brand
Generative AI now answers candidates’ first questions about a company, often before they view a careers page or read reviews. Over half of recent hires used AI tools during their job search, and AI draws its narratives from owned sites,...
Netcracker CTO: Achieving High Value with AI Is Telecom’s Next Inflection Point
At MWC26 Netcracker CTO Bob Titus warned that AI marks a critical inflection point for telecoms, promising new revenue, cost reductions, and superior customer experiences. He emphasized that operators must upgrade talent, build robust, governable AI architectures, and prioritize high‑value...
UK Government Hires Google to Develop AI Planning Tool to Make "Near-Instant Decisions"
Google Cloud has secured a £6.9 million contract from the UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to build an AI‑driven planning tool. The system is designed to halve processing times for planning applications, aiming for near‑instant decisions on straightforward...
InformationWeek Podcast: When Do Smaller AI Models Make Sense?
The InformationWeek podcast hosted by João‑Pierre Ruth explores when smaller AI models make business sense. CEO Pierre DeBois of Zimana Analytics and former Insight Enterprises CTO Amol Ajgaonkar discuss trade‑offs between large language models and compact alternatives, including performance, cost,...
Manulife Moves AI Agents Into Core Financial Workflows
Manulife is rolling out a runtime platform for agentic AI that can execute tasks across its internal systems, moving AI from isolated pilots to core financial workflows. The insurer expects the initiative to generate more than $1 billion in value by...
POET Demos Hybrid Laser and Next-Gen High-Power External Light Source for AI at OFC
At OFC 2026 in Los Angeles, POET Technologies showcased its hybrid laser Blazar and next‑generation external light source Starlight. Blazar, a wafer‑level integrated multi‑channel laser, promises higher output power, multi‑wavelength operation and lower manufacturing cost compared with traditional DFB lasers....
Seedtag Launches Liz Agent, the Agentic AI Platform for Faster, Smarter Media Strategy
Seedtag unveiled Liz Agent, an agentic AI platform that fuses its proprietary Neuro‑Contextual intelligence with large language models to automate media planning and campaign activation. The conversational interface lets brands move from brief to execution in a single dialogue, delivering...
Your Face Is Your Hospital ID Under Mount Sinai's New Clear Scanning Contract
Mount Sinai Health System has signed a system‑wide contract with Clear Secure to deploy facial‑recognition scanners across its seven hospitals and roughly 400 outpatient clinics, serving about five million patient visits annually. The technology, already used in airports and major...
Albanian-Finnish Startup Bliss Raises €232.4k to Build “AI that Understands the Cultural Layer of Mental Health”
Albanian‑Finnish startup Bliss secured €232.4k in angel funding to build culturally intelligent AI for mental health therapy. The capital, led by Keiretsu Forum, Finest Love VC and Plug and Play, will fund the launch of therapist‑trained digital companions and expansion...
AI Voice Agents Poised to Revolutionise SA’s Digital Customer Service
AI voice agents are set to transform South Africa’s digital customer service, moving beyond traditional IVR by combining locally hosted high‑speed speech‑to‑text engines with large language models and retrieval‑augmented generation. 1Stream’s CEO Bruce von Maltitz says the technology can handle...
Hirevue Acquires Hireguide Technology to Accelerate Agentic AI Hiring
Hirevue announced the acquisition of Hireguide's agentic AI technology, aiming to embed conversational AI agents into its hiring platform. The first product rollout will be a voice‑based AI Interviewer that evaluates candidates earlier than traditional resume screening. By combining Hireguide's...
Thrive Expands Managed AI Services with Model Agnostic AI Workspace
Thrive, a global technology outsourcing firm, launched its Managed AI Workspace, a secure platform offering access to over 58 major AI models in a single governed environment. The service expands Thrive’s Managed AI portfolio with an AI Adoption Model that...
Pulsar International Board to Consider Venture Into Precision Farming
Pulsar International’s board will review a proposal to extend its Smart Agri Solution into AI‑driven Internet of Things (IoT) precision farming. The plan calls for integrating AI analytics, IoT sensors and drones to fine‑tune fertilizer, water and other inputs while...
Pity the Developers Who Resist Agentic Coding
Agentic coding tools like Claude Code are dramatically reshaping software development, delivering productivity gains of ten‑ to hundred‑fold by turning weeks‑long tasks into minutes. The author celebrates this speed, describing personal experiences of building projects in hours and debugging in...
AI Agents and a Real-Life Business Use Case
Procurement leaders are moving beyond reactive chatbots to deploy autonomous AI agents that execute end‑to‑end tasks. A leading media‑telecom firm rolled out four agents—contract analysis, deal memo drafting, an Ask‑Me‑Anything guide, and supplier‑insights—within 18 months. These agents automate contract review,...
Studying the Properties of Large Language Models: An Interview with Maxime Meyer
Maxime Meyer, a second‑year mathematics PhD at NUS, studies why large language models (LLMs) lose accuracy on very long prompts. He has derived analytical formulas that predict a model’s maximum reliable input length using only a few core parameters. These...
Freedom Telecom International and Nokia Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement to Begin Joint Innovation Work
Freedom Telecom International (FTI), a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Nokia to launch an Innovation Lab on Nokia’s Sunnyvale campus. The lab will design next‑generation AI data‑center blueprints, run feasibility studies in Kazakhstan...
Canal+ to Deploy Google Cloud AI Tech; Successful 2025
Canal+ has entered a multi‑year partnership with Google Cloud to roll out the latter’s generative AI suite across its European and African app markets starting in June. The AI tools will automate video indexing, create a multimodal content database and...
Why AI Grading Tools Are Changing the Game for K-12 Teachers
AI grading tools have moved beyond simple multiple‑choice checks to sophisticated language‑model systems that many K‑12 teachers now rely on daily. A Gallup‑Walton survey shows 60% of U.S. public‑school teachers use AI grading, saving roughly six hours per week, while...
What Comes After the AI Coding Boom
Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing, predicts that evaluating and training AI models will become the world’s most common job, requiring millions of workers across industries. Turing, originally a remote developer marketplace, pivoted in 2022 to supply AI training data after...
OpenCFO Bags $2 Mn To Scale Agentic AI-Powered B2B Finance Platform
Fintech startup OpenCFO secured $2 million seed funding, led by Endiya Partners, to accelerate its AI-driven B2B finance platform. The solution automates accounts payable, receivable, and treasury functions for mid‑market companies with multinational operations, integrating ERP, banks, and payment rails. OpenCFO...
Digest: Anthropic Sues US Defence Department; Meta’s Deepfake Moderation Falling Short; Barb Adds Pre-Campaign Functionality
Anthropic has filed two lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Defense after being labeled a “supply chain risk,” alleging the designation infringes its First Amendment rights. The company maintains its willingness to work with the government on national‑security AI projects...
And the Winner of Science’s 2026 ‘Dance Your Ph.D.’ Contest Is …
Sofia Papa, a physics graduate student and professional dancer, captured the top prize in Science’s 2026 Dance Your Ph.D. contest with a choreography that dramatizes the piezoelectric effect and her research on wearable ultrasound transducers. The performance, featuring red and...
11 AI Tools That Ad Creatives Can’t Stop Using Now
The article surveys eleven AI-powered solutions that have become staples for advertising creatives, highlighting how these tools are reshaping concept development, strategic planning, and production. Creative leaders across agencies shared the single AI application that most transformed their workflow, ranging...
New AI Project Aims to Detect and Predict Ocean Plastic Drift From Space
The ADOPT project combines Sentinel‑2 optical imagery with daily high‑resolution PlanetScope data and artificial intelligence to locate floating plastic debris and forecast its short‑term drift. By training a machine‑learning model on GPS drifter records, the system corrects biases in conventional...
NEW in SparkToro: Uncover the AI Prompt Topics Your Audience Is Using in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Claude, and More
SparkToro has launched a new feature that reveals the AI prompt topics audiences use across platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Claude. The tool pairs known search keywords with audience data, runs them through large language models, and returns...
Drapers Launches AI Intelligence Tool
Fashion industry news outlet Drapers has unveiled Ask Drapers, an AI‑powered intelligence tool that answers user queries using its own editorial archive. The platform taps more than 68,000 fact‑checked articles covering retail trends, data, and analysis, delivering instant, summarized insights....
It’s an AI Boom, Not a Bubble…, but Is that True at Microsoft?
Recent Menlo Ventures research shows AI enterprise spending surged to $13.8 billion in 2025, a six‑fold increase from 2023, indicating a shift from pilot projects to core business execution. Adoption now spans coding, sales, HR and verticals, with 76% of solutions...
Wednesday Briefing: From Missing Billions to Nonexistent Datacentres, Inside Britain’s AI Drive
Recent Guardian investigations reveal that the UK’s multi‑billion‑pound AI push is built on phantom investments and missing infrastructure. The flagship supercomputer touted to boost the economy is still a scaffolding yard, and promised datacentres have not materialised. These discrepancies cast...
OpenAI Is Hosting ‘Startups Week’ Events for Founders in Sydney
OpenAI is organizing a three‑day “Startups Week” in Sydney from March 18‑20, featuring workshops and builder lounges for startup founders. The events, co‑hosted with Square Peg, Side Stage Ventures, Relevance AI and innovation hub Stone & Chalk, will showcase OpenAI’s latest frontier models, multimodal updates and...
Hub71 Startup Skipr Raises $2m to Build ‘Autonomous Trust Fabric’ for AI
Abu Dhabi‑based startup Skipr closed a $2 million seed round, valuing the company at $10 million. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its autonomous trust fabric, a sovereign‑grade infrastructure that secures AI‑to‑AI communication across borders. Skipr’s platform combines cryptographic identities, policy‑driven...
Thales Launches SkyDefender: The Integral Air and Missile Defence Dome With Artificial Intelligence
Thales unveiled SkyDefender, an AI‑enabled air and missile defence dome that spans land, sea and space. The system combines long‑range early‑warning radars and satellite sensors with medium‑ and short‑range interceptors, all managed through the SkyView command platform. Its open, modular...
First NHS Hospitals Roll Out Ambient Voice Tech
University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire have become the first NHS organisations to jointly deploy AI‑powered Ambient Voice Technology (AVT). The rollout introduces Accurx Scribe for over 10,000 clinicians, automatically capturing consultations and drafting notes, summaries, and...
Time-Saving AI Praised by Prime London Agency
Jefferies London’s in‑house AI assistant, J.E.S.S.E., is now handling all inbound and many outbound sales calls for its Prime Central London brokerage. Since September 2025 it has processed more than 11,000 buyer enquiries, averaging about 1,863 calls per month and...
Healthy Growth In The Age Of AI
Thorne’s Chief Growth Officer Mary Beech reports that AI engines now drive roughly 5% of new customer discovery, up from zero a year ago. To capitalize on this shift, she has reorganized the marketing function into a "growth laboratory" that...
Artificial Intimacy: Prescribing Robots to Combat Loneliness
The Financial Times podcast explores a growing trend of prescribing AI companion robots, such as ElliQ, to alleviate loneliness among seniors and vulnerable groups. Real‑world pilots in New York and other jurisdictions are testing live‑in chatbots that remind users to...
What Leaders Lose When They Hide Gen AI Truths
Leaders who conceal challenges in generative AI projects risk eroding employee trust and slowing adoption. The article argues that transparent communication of milestones, setbacks, and outcomes creates a shared narrative that engages staff as active partners. Real‑world examples—from a consumer‑goods...
How to Build a Self-Designing Meta-Agent That Automatically Constructs, Instantiates, and Refines Task-Specific AI Agents
Developers can now use a meta‑agent framework that automatically designs, configures, and runs AI agents from a simple task description. The system parses the task, selects appropriate tools, memory architecture, and a ReAct‑style planner, then instantiates a fully functional runtime...
The Future Belongs to AI-Driven IT
The article highlights a shift in CIO responsibilities toward AI‑driven IT, emphasizing the need to embed automated decision‑making into core business outcomes. It references a recent webinar where Sidney Madison Prescott of ZLabs outlined a framework for building AI‑capable infrastructure...
Best Buy Wants to Be the Hub for AI-Powered Hardware Like Glasses, Laptops
Best Buy is repositioning itself as the go‑to retailer for AI‑powered hardware, from glasses to AI‑enhanced PCs, as its fiscal‑year revenue held steady at roughly $42 billion. CEO Corie Barry highlighted flat market share but pointed to rapid growth in emerging categories such...
I Work at Meta's Superintelligence Labs and Used to Be at OpenAI. Here's What the Job Is Like — and...
Prakhar Agarwal, an applied researcher who moved from OpenAI to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, describes the day‑to‑day rhythm of frontier AI work. Projects revolve around tight 10‑month milestones, with intense focus on model evaluations, failure analysis, and rapid code iteration. Unlike...
What Is ChatGPT Pro—And Is It Worth It in 2026?
ChatGPT Pro is OpenAI’s $200‑per‑month tier targeting power users who exceed the limits of the $20‑per‑month Plus plan. It grants unlimited access to the newest models, a 128 K‑token context window, and expanded control over reasoning time with Light and Heavy modes....
AI Could Help Increase Access to Legal Assistance, ABA President Says in Podcast Appearance
American Bar Association President Michelle Behnke told the Legal Services Corporation’s “Talk Justice” podcast that artificial intelligence can expand access to legal assistance, especially in underserved “legal deserts.” She stressed the ABA’s duty to educate lawyers on AI’s limitations, confidentiality...
Top 10 AI-Assisted Software Development Companies in Europe in 2026
AI‑assisted software development has moved from experimental pilots to an operational standard across Europe, accelerating delivery and lowering maintenance costs. The article outlines why the continent’s talent pool, GDPR‑driven data governance, and government AI programmes make it a hub for...