TAPP Engine’s 9Squid Launches Private Markets Platform for Credit Unions and CFIs
TAPP Engine’s subsidiary 9Squid Private Markets has launched an AI‑driven platform that lets credit unions and community financial institutions (CFIs) securitize loan portfolios. The solution embeds modern asset‑liability and liquidity management tools, turning securitization into a repeatable balance‑sheet strategy rather than a one‑off transaction. With roughly $2.4 trillion in credit‑union assets and $6 trillion in CFI assets, the platform targets a market that has historically faced high costs and size thresholds. An initial pipeline of five credit unions is already in place, with broader roll‑out planned.
Qatar LNG Shutdown Sends Global Gas Markets Into Turmoil
Qatar Energy declared force majeure on its LNG exports, halting production at the Ras Laffan plant amid the escalating U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The shutdown, which affects roughly 20% of global liquefied natural gas, is expected to last at least...
Defense Metals Conditionally Approved for Canadian Infrastructure Funding
Defense Metals received conditional approval for C$1.88 million from Canada’s Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund to build a 60‑km transmission line delivering up to 35 MW of hydroelectric power to its Wicheeda rare‑earth project in British Columbia. The Wicheeda deposit holds 25.5 million tonnes...
SAP Integrates SmartRecruiters with SuccessFactors
SAP has integrated the SmartRecruiters hiring platform, acquired last September, into its SuccessFactors HCM suite, creating a unified talent architecture. The integration provides end‑to‑end hiring with embedded AI, bidirectional data flow, single sign‑on, and combined AI assistants Joule and Winston....
This Week’s Comings & Goings
This week’s hospitality news is dominated by a series of senior‑level appointments across hotels, resorts, and related service firms. Trailborn Hotels & Resorts named Paul Eckert COO, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts hired Amit Sripathi CFO, and Westgate Resorts added Jared...
From Culture to Contactless: How Alliants Is Transforming Hospitality
Alliants CEO Tristan Gadsby and VP Gareth Fraser discussed how the company’s people‑first culture fuels its hospitality technology strategy. The firm emphasizes automating routine tasks with AI while empowering staff to deliver exceptional, contactless guest experiences, exemplified at Resorts World...
Singer to Step Down as Senior Vice Provost for Faculty
Judith D. Singer, Harvard's senior vice provost for faculty since 2008, will step down on June 30. She pioneered a centralized hiring portal, standardized promotion processes, and comprehensive work‑life policies that have become models for elite universities. Singer also expanded...
The Best Playbook for Investing During a War Is Usually Doing Nothing
The New York Times argues that the best response to the Iran‑Israel conflict‑driven market turbulence is to stay the course. While short‑term speculation in energy, defense stocks, gold or Treasuries can appear tempting, academic research shows that most investors achieve better...
What Builders Need to Know About E-Verify in 2026
Builders face a new compliance landscape as E-Verify becomes a prerequisite for most federal construction contracts in 2026. While the system can streamline hiring by confirming employee eligibility, it also exposes firms to government scrutiny of their workforce data. Errors...
From Skateboarding to 11 Locations: How Neen Williams Built NADC Burger
Neen Williams, a professional skateboarder turned strength coach, turned his online health‑focused content into NADC Burger, a fast‑casual chain now operating 11 locations. He first launched a line of spice blends to build audience trust, then partnered with Michelin‑starred chef...
Brokers Note Rising Middle East Demand Following Outbreak of War
Cargo charter brokers report a surge in enquiries after the US‑Israel missile strikes on Iran triggered the grounding of major Gulf carriers. Qatar Cargo, Emirates SkyCargo and Etihad Cargo have largely halted scheduled flights, prompting shippers to seek ad‑hoc charters....
Introducing PageSense 3.0 - Agency Edition
Zoho unveiled PageSense 3.0 – Agency Edition, a new experimentation platform tailored for digital agencies, CRO consultants, and growth partners. The solution adds a centralized dashboard, isolated data environments, flexible visitor‑quota management, and real‑time usage alerts to simplify multi‑client testing. Core...
NYC's Expanded Leave Law Goes Into Effect
Mayor Brad Lander’s administration has enacted an expansion of New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, raising the mandatory paid leave entitlement to 80 hours per year. The rule, effective immediately, applies to private employers with five or...
Gulf Oil and Gas Crisis Sparks Calls for Renewables Investment
The war between the United States, Israel and Iran has disrupted oil and LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz, halting Qatari LNG production and sharply raising global energy prices. About one‑fifth of world oil and LNG passes the strait,...
Business Central AI Forecasts Now Drive Planning Parameters with Enhanced Forecasting Worksheet
Insight Works has extended its Enhanced Forecasting Worksheet to link Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central AI forecasts directly to item planning parameters such as safety stock, reorder point, and maximum inventory. Users can create expressions that combine forecast quantities, historical...
Episode 139 - The Art of Content: Did We Lose the Plot with Blogs?
Episode 139 of the Content, Briefly podcast, titled "The Art of Content: Did We Lose the Plot with Blogs?", examines the waning influence of traditional blog posts in modern marketing. Host Jimmy Daly highlights declining engagement metrics, the rise of...
What to Expect at This Year’s Lumenia ERP HEADtoHEAD™ This March
Lumenia Consulting’s ERP HEADtoHEAD™ will take place on 24‑25 March 2026 at Birmingham’s Eastside Rooms. The two‑day event uses a fast‑paced, immersive format where 14 ERP vendors demonstrate identical business scenarios, allowing side‑by‑side comparison. Keynote sessions and panels will address...
Google Ads Status Dashboard Flags Ad Manager Reporting Issue
Google flagged a reporting disruption on the Google Ads Status Dashboard affecting Google Ad Manager. The incident started at 13:49 UTC on March 4, and by 13:54 UTC Google confirmed that some users could access Ad Manager but were seeing stale or mismatched...
RightRev Releases AI Platform for End-to-End Revenue Accounting Automation
RightRev unveiled Revi, an AI‑powered revenue automation platform, on March 4 2026. The suite embeds two AI agents—a Contract Review Agent that extracts terms and generates audit‑ready checklists, and an Anomaly Detector Agent that flags revenue schedule variances. Revi also includes a...
Google Merchant Center Adds “Build to Order” For Vehicle Listings
Google Merchant Center introduced a new availability value called “build to order,” enabling vehicle dealers to flag cars that are not physically on the lot but can be customized and ordered. Sellers must update both their structured data and Merchant...
Stranger Things Meets Cybersecurity: Lessons From the Hive Mind
The commentary likens modern cyber threats to the "hive mind" of Stranger Things, highlighting how botnets and APTs such as Salt Typhoon exploit default IoT credentials to create sprawling, often unseen attack surfaces. It stresses that telemetry—network traffic, logs, and user‑behavior data—combined...
VCCP New Biz Machine Crushes All to Top $1bn in Billings
VCCP announced it ended 2025 with over $1.027 billion in new client media billings, topping the global creative‑agency rankings. The growth was driven by a landmark US win with telecoms giant Spectrum and major UK contracts for British Gas, Direct Line,...
Making Lean, Agile and Digital Twins Work in Custom Jobs
The signage industry, traditionally a craft‑focused, custom‑joinery market, is adopting agile, digital‑twin, and lean methodologies to streamline production. Scrum‑style sprints replace rigid scopes, enabling rapid client feedback and faster approvals. Digital twins and 3D‑printed prototypes give customers realistic visualizations before...
Typeface Launches Marketing Orchestration Engine
Typeface unveiled its Marketing Orchestration Engine, a unified operating layer that synchronizes people, AI agents, and enterprise systems throughout the marketing lifecycle. The platform rests on three pillars: a living brand‑intelligence graph (Arc Graph), governed AI‑driven workflows (Arc Agents), and closed‑loop performance...
Mara Blue Launches Feasibility Study for Ireland’s First Marine Biorefinery in Castletownbere
The Mara Blue initiative has launched a feasibility study for Ireland’s first full‑scale marine biorefinery on Dinish Island near Castletownbere. Led by Munster Technological University in partnership with Pure Ocean Algae and the Castletownbere Fishermen’s Co‑op, the study is co‑funded...
This Former CHRO Helps Benefit Leaders Work Successfully with the C-Suite
Cynthia Burks, former Genentech CHRO turned executive coach and board chair, champions data‑driven benefits that move beyond one‑size‑fits‑all programs. She argues HR must sit at the C‑suite table, translating employee value into business language to boost engagement and talent retention....
Ghost of Yotei Star: 'Workers Need More Protections' In Game Development
At DICE 2026, Ghost of Yotei lead actor Erika Ishii accepted the Outstanding Achievement in Character award and used the platform to demand fair pay, better treatment, and stronger protections for game‑development workers. Ishii highlighted the industry’s “Wild West” labor environment, noting...
Enterprise AI Governance for Revenue Teams
Revenue teams are adopting AI features—email drafting, call summaries, forecasting—without a unified governance layer, leading to data leaks and compliance delays. The article outlines an operational framework: data classification, use‑case policies, platform controls, and regular review cadence. It emphasizes mapping...
Generate Your Own Cinematic Video Overviews in NotebookLM.
Google’s NotebookLM has rolled out Cinematic Video Overviews, a new AI‑driven video creation tool that replaces the previous slide‑based format with fully animated, story‑focused clips. The feature leverages Gemini 3 as a creative director alongside Nano Banana Pro and Veo 3 to craft visuals,...
Azure IaaS Series: Explore New Resources for Building a Stronger, More Efficient Infrastructure
Microsoft announced the Azure IaaS Resource Center, a centralized hub that aggregates guidance, demos, architectures, and best‑practice content for building and operating cloud infrastructure. The portal targets modern workloads—especially AI, data‑intensive, and globally distributed applications—by promoting a system‑level design across...
Use Canvas in AI Mode to Get Things Done and Bring Your Ideas to Life, Right in Search.
Google has rolled out Canvas in AI Mode to all U.S. users in English, turning Search into a dynamic workspace for planning, writing, coding, and building interactive tools. The feature pulls real‑time data from the web and Google’s Knowledge Graph...
Intapp's Celeste AI Aims to Automate Judgment-Heavy Tasks
Intapp unveiled Celeste, an agentic AI platform that leverages a firm’s entire data set to execute complex, judgment‑intensive workflows such as deal screening, conflict clearance, and revenue realization. The system uses firm‑specific "Playbooks" and modular "skills" to codify best‑practice methodologies...
Mutable Tactics Raises $2.1 Million for AI Drone Coordination in Satellite-Denied Environments
Mutable Tactics, a British AI startup, secured $2.1 million in pre‑seed funding to build software that lets swarms of military drones operate autonomously when satellite navigation and communications are unavailable. The round was led by Seraphim Space, with participation from the...
Turkish Mobile Developer Vento Games Secures $4m in Seed Round Funding
Google announced a major overhaul of its Play Store fee structure following its settlement with Epic Games. The standard in‑app purchase commission drops from 30% to 20%, with an extra 5% service charge applied in the EEA, UK and US....
Google Removes Accessibility Section From JavaScript SEO Section
Google has removed the “design for accessibility” section from its JavaScript SEO basics documentation, citing outdated information. The previous guidance warned that JavaScript could obscure content from search engines and assistive tools, but Google now confirms its rendering engine has...
Google to Disable Customer Match Uploads in Ads API
Google will disable Customer Match uploads via the Ads API for developers who have not used the feature in the past 180 days, effective April 1, 2026. Affected accounts will receive errors and must shift to the newer Data Manager API. The...
Your Customer Service Is Suffering—And Frontline Employees Say Understaffing Is to Blame
A Gallup Q3 2025 poll reveals that while 77% of U.S. frontline workers feel a strong duty to deliver excellent customer experiences, only 23% believe their companies can keep service promises. Insufficient staffing, cited by 37% of respondents, is identified as...
UnityAI Secures $8.5M to Scale Agentic AI for Healthcare Operations
UnityAI announced an $8.5 million Series A round led by Third Prime, bringing its total capital to $15 million. The startup deploys an agentic AI workforce that autonomously manages patient scheduling, referrals, and staff shift coordination across hundreds of care sites. It already...
AICPA Asks IRS to Give Tax Penalty Relief to Farmers Impacted by Form 8995 Changes
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has asked the IRS to grant penalty relief to qualified farmers affected by recent changes to Form 8995 instructions. The IRS delayed the revised form until February 23, 2026, compressing the window to file by the...
Ensuring People’s Well-Being Amid Fears of War Escalation
Rising tensions between Iran and Israel have revived concerns over the security of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for nearly one‑fifth of global oil shipments. Analysts outline three scenarios: a contained but prolonged missile exchange, a broader regional war...
93% OF AA & AAA STUDIOS SAY TODAY’S PRE-LAUNCH METRICS FAIL TO PREDICT SUCCESS
A FirstLook survey of over 250 senior AA and AAA studio leaders reveals that 93% cannot reliably forecast a game’s commercial success before launch, despite tracking extensive pre‑launch data such as wishlists and trailer views. The study shows a stark...
Return of the (Space) SPAC
Former investment banker Raphael Roettgen revived a space‑focused SPAC in early 2026 after a four‑year hiatus, raising about $230 million in trust to seek a merger with a space‑related company. The new vehicle, Space Asset Acquisition Corp., reflects a broader revival...
Barangay Skilled Workers Registry Act Gets Penultimate House Nod
The Barangay Skilled Workers Registry Act (HB 7719) cleared its second reading in the House, mandating every barangay to maintain a voluntary, free registry of local skilled workers. Championed by Rep. Jolo Revilla, the bill seeks to make community‑level labor...
Why Pay-for-Performance Programs Don’t Always Work
A new McLean & Co. study finds that while 69% of HR leaders view total compensation as critical, only a quarter feel truly effective at designing pay‑for‑performance programs. Employees who are satisfied with their overall pay are 1.8 times more...
Nvidia Global AI And DGX VP Hired By Google To Lead AI Infrastructure
Matthew Hull, former Nvidia Global AI Solutions VP, has joined Google as Vice President of AI Infrastructure Go‑to‑Market. Hull spent eight years at Nvidia, overseeing DGX platform sales, financial solutions, and data‑center partnerships. His move comes as Nvidia reported a...
US Activity Was Surging Ahead of Military Action
U.S. ISM surveys show the economy accelerating in early 2026, with the February services index climbing to 56.1 and overall business activity reaching 59.9, the strongest pace since May 2024. New orders and order backlogs also surged, supporting a projection...
CCCA Seeks New Path to Passage
Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall are seeking to attach their Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) to the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing bill, hoping to secure a Senate vote. The CCCA would require banks to provide merchants with...
AI Was Supposed to Help Her Launch. Instead, It Nearly Destroyed Her Business
Restaurant owner Rachael Smith used generative AI to draft The Salty Otter’s logo, an otter on a surfboard, then refined it herself. The AI‑origin sparked a wave of one‑star reviews from locals who felt the design was cheap and unauthentic....
EPI’s Updated Family Budget Calculator Shows that Higher Minimum Wages Are Needed in States Like Oklahoma to Afford the Cost...
The Economic Policy Institute’s updated 2025 Family Budget Calculator reveals that the federal‑state minimum wage of $7.25 is far below the hourly earnings needed to cover basic expenses in every U.S. county, with Oklahoma exemplifying the shortfall. In Oklahoma’s cheapest...
Tabnine Fills the Organizational Context Gap for Enterprise AI
Tabnine has unveiled the Enterprise Context Engine (ECE), a platform that injects structured organizational knowledge into AI coding agents. By continuously modeling software architecture, documentation, and engineering practices, ECE moves beyond simple retrieval‑augmented generation to enable agents to reason about...