Jira’s Latest Update Allows AI Agents and Humans to Work Side by Side
Atlassian introduced “Agents in Jira,” allowing AI agents to be assigned, tracked, and managed alongside human users within the Jira dashboard. The feature, now in open beta, lets teams assign tickets to AI, set deadlines, and monitor progress with the same visibility as human work. Atlassian’s chief product and AI officer says the goal is to boost productivity while containing the chaos often associated with AI automation. This rollout marks the first step in a broader plan to embed AI across Atlassian’s product suite.
Stay Here: The Now Is Where Complex Sales Actually Happen
George Brontén argues that complex B2B sales succeed when salespeople stay fully present in each interaction. By focusing on the current conversation, they better understand buyer needs, uncover hidden stakeholders, and co‑create a shared mental model. This present‑moment approach leads...
Precision Aircraft Solutions Becomes Sole Owner of Precision 321 Conversions
Precision Aircraft Solutions, an Erickson Group subsidiary, has acquired the remaining minority stake in 321 Precision Conversions from ATSG’s Cargo Aircraft Management, becoming the sole owner of the Airbus A321 freighter conversion business. The deal consolidates Erickson’s control over the...
Don’t Be Deterred by a Lack of Hard Data, Says ACCA Guidance on Sustainability Reporting
The ACCA has published a new guide, "Sustainability reporting: working with estimates," to help organisations produce ESG information when hard data are missing or uncertain. The report outlines practical methods such as using proxy data, integrating financial metrics, and applying...
How the OCC Is Handling Its Charter Application Workload
Bank charter applications surged in 2025, with 18 new OCC filings—equal to the total received in the previous four years combined. OCC chief Jonathan Gould frames the spike as a return to normal, emphasizing that new bank formation signals system...
Funds Slowly Lifting Wheat Postion
Managed‑money funds have begun easing their long‑standing short stance in wheat, reducing a net short of 97,370 contracts (13.2 million tonnes) after buying back 26,772 contracts in the week to February 17. The spring wheat market remains the most heavily shorted, with...
Scality RING Becomes Back-End Object Store for WEKA NeuralMesh
Scality and WEKA announced that Scality RING will serve as the back‑end object store for WEKA’s NeuralMesh high‑performance AI file system. The partnership leverages NeuralMesh’s SSD‑based front‑end with RING’s cost‑efficient, disk‑based object tier, delivering up to ten times faster performance than...
South Africa to Earmark R1.58 Trillion Towards Social Services
South Africa’s 2024 budget earmarks R2.67 trillion in total spending, with R1.58 trillion directed to social services. The largest allocations go to education (R527.2 billion), social development (R446.6 billion), health (R310.4 billion) and economic development (R283.9 billion). Peace and security receives R274.6 billion, funding police, defence and...
FHFA VantageScore Savings Sized up, FICO Expands in Mortgage
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) plans to adopt VantageScore 4.0 alongside FICO’s 10T score as part of a mandated modernization effort. A Deep Future Analytics study projects that competitive use of VantageScore could cut mortgage credit‑score fees by more than...
AI’s Big Payoff Is Coordination, Not Automation
AI’s most powerful economic effect is lowering the cost of translating disparate data and workflows, not merely automating prediction or creation. By extracting structure from unstructured sources, AI creates a shared, real‑time view that lets teams coordinate without agreeing on...
Side Letter: Here Be Zombies
Zombie‑style private‑equity funds are projected to manage roughly $1 trillion in net asset value by 2030, reflecting a surge in aging, ill‑liquid portfolios. The article outlines how managers must adjust to a “new era” where exits are scarce and capital recycling...
Paris Marriott Champs-Élysées Hotel Transforms with New Leadership and Couture-Inspired Renovation, Get the Details Here
Marriott International named veteran Henri Michel as General Manager of the Paris Marriott Champs‑Élysées effective February 1, 2026, shortly after completing a couture‑inspired renovation. The redesign, executed by Muza Lab, blends classic French elegance with contemporary design, delivering new guest rooms, suites,...
WAN-IFRA Introduces the NextGen AI Leaders Programme to Equip Emerging News Executives with Practical AI and Leadership Skills
WAN-IFRA has launched the NextGen AI Leaders Programme, a tuition‑free 12‑week initiative aimed at equipping 24 emerging news executives aged 25‑40 from Europe, the Middle East and Africa with practical AI and leadership skills. Backed by the Google News Initiative,...
Waaree Energies, Premier Energies Slip After US Announces 126% Duty on Solar Imports, Firms See No Material Impact
The U.S. announced a preliminary 126% counter‑vailing duty on certain solar imports from India, sending Waaree Energies and Premier Energies shares sharply lower—Waaree down 10% and Premier down 6%. Both companies said they have diversified supply chains and ongoing US...
Crowe Reports Global Revenue of $6.5 Billion in 2025
Crowe Global reported $6.5 billion in revenue for its 2025 financial year, marking a 12% increase over the prior period and continuing a 10% growth streak. The network posted strong regional gains, led by Europe at 21% and the Middle East...
TCN Secures Arum Approved Status for Operator Platform
TCN’s cloud‑based contact‑center solution Operator has earned Arum Approved System status after an independent assessment, confirming it meets rigorous operational, compliance and scalability standards for regulated credit and collections environments. The certification highlights Operator’s omnichannel capabilities, rules‑based automation and configurable...
Why Leave Management Faces Growing Compliance Risk
Regulators worldwide are tightening oversight of employee leave, and companies that stumble risk fines and reputational harm. A recent Pulpstream study shows only one‑fifth of organizations feel very confident in their leave‑management compliance, while roughly 70 % rate audit readiness at...
Why Leave Management Faces Growing Compliance Risk
New research from Pulpstream reveals that only one‑fifth of organizations feel very confident in their leave‑management compliance, while roughly 70% rate audit readiness at three out of five or lower. HR leaders face rising leave volumes driven by expanding state...
Firecircle Expands Award-Winning 5×5 Method with New Tourism Entrepreneur Guidebook
Firecircle, a digital training and mentorship firm for tourism entrepreneurs, has published a new guidebook titled "Firecircle 5×5 Method – The Definitive Guide to Igniting and Transforming Your Tourism Business" on Amazon. Authored by founder‑CEO Deneen Allen, the book delivers...
Philadelphia’s New Brand Platform Positions Cream Cheese as Kitchen Staple
Philadelphia Cream Cheese unveiled its biggest ever marketing push, the “Really Philly Good” platform, developed by Johannes Leonardo. The campaign introduces a cowboy‑esque brand character, Phillyboy, featured in 19 short spots across linear TV, streaming, YouTube, social and audio. Targeting...
Tariff Volatility Pushes Global Supply Chains Into Regional Reset in 2026
Genpact’s supply‑chain chief warns that escalating tariff volatility is driving firms to diversify suppliers and shift toward regionalized networks by 2026. Pandemic‑era investments in control towers and risk‑monitoring tools have equipped shippers to react quickly without external advisory projects. Companies...
Film Festival Alliance Appoints Mallory Martin Its Next Executive Director
Film Festival Alliance (FFA) announced Mallory Martin as its new executive director, succeeding Barbara Twist. Martin was chosen from a pool of 250 candidates and will assume the role on March 9, 2026. She brings more than 15 years of festival leadership, most recently serving...
Japanese Chemical Firms Pivot From China to India
Japanese chemical giants such as Mitsui Chemicals and Sumitomo Chemical are scaling back their China operations and redirecting capital to India. Investment in China dropped 46% year‑over‑year in 2024, while the number of Japanese sites in India rose to 5,205,...
Why Social Media Demands a Strategic Rethink
Social media has moved from a peripheral branding tool to the core of product discovery, trust building, and direct sales. Brands like American Eagle demonstrated the impact, gaining 790,000 new customers in six weeks and boosting denim sales 34%. The...
Kinfolk Closes $7M Seed Round for AI-Driven HR Platform
London‑based Kinfolk announced a $7.2 million seed round led by AlbionVC, bringing its total capital to $8.5 million. The startup offers an AI‑native HR workforce‑operations platform that combines agentic AI, Slack/Teams integration, request management, lifecycle automation, and analytics. Kinfolk positions the solution...
Careful With Google Business Profile Verification Flow
Google has revamped the Google Business Profile verification flow, requiring merchants to choose from five specific business type options. Selecting the wrong category can disqualify a listing—especially the “online only” choice—or flag it for compliance review, raising suspension risk. The...
Corporate Report: Statement of Excesses 2024-25
HM Treasury released the Statement of Excesses for the 2024‑25 financial year on 25 February 2026. The 16‑page document asks Parliament to approve any departmental outlays that exceeded the original estimates. It details spending that fell outside the plans set...
SolveAI Raises $50M to Help Employees Build Their Own Enterprise Software
London‑based SolveAI announced a $50 million funding round – $45 million Series A led by GV and a $5 million pre‑seed from Accel – to scale its AI‑driven no‑code platform. The solution lets employees across functions generate fully compliant enterprise applications using natural‑language prompts,...
One in Five Employers Say They Have No Clear Objectives for Their Employee Benefits
CIPD’s 2026 Reward Survey reveals that 22% of UK employers offer employee benefits without any defined objectives, hampering their ability to gauge impact. While 77% link benefits to at least one goal—most often retention (44%) and engagement (37%)—only 31% connect...
Proven Ways UKG Pro WFM Can Improve Healthcare Scheduling
UKG Pro Workforce Management (WFM) offers a structured, data‑driven approach to healthcare scheduling, tackling the sector’s chronic staffing volatility. By enabling early offers of open shifts through advanced scheduling, organizations can pre‑empt gaps, lower overtime, and align skill sets with patient...
Streem and Ermewa Shape Their Corporate Direction
Streem has appointed Peter Reinshagen to spearhead sector‑related initiatives and broader development in European rail freight, leveraging his experience as Ermewa’s Managing Director. Within Ermewa, Deputy Managing Director Cyrille Guyon steps up as Managing Director, providing continuity after a decade...
Press Release: Finastra Teams up with CargoX to Further Adoption of Digital-at-Source Electronic Trade Documentation
Fintech leader Finastra announced a strategic partnership with blockchain document‑transfer platform CargoX to embed electronic trade documents (eTD) into its Trade Innovation solution. The integration, delivered via Finastra's open API and Trade Innovation Nexus, supports over 65 eTD types and...
Elizabeth Arden Taps Leighton Meester to Front First Perfume Launch in Eight Years
Elizabeth Arden has introduced its first perfume in eight years, unveiling Eternal Aura with actress Leighton Meester as the campaign face. The floral‑amber fragrance, co‑created by perfumers Natasha Côté‑Mouzannar and Anne Flipo, launches at $69 alongside a $47 body balm. The global rollout...
Dentsu Woos Back Robinson as First Chief Growth Officer
Dentsu UK&I has appointed Amy Robinson as its first Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, tasked with uncovering new market opportunities for the agency and its clients, including prospects such as Tapestry, Vodafone, BMW and Comic Relief. Robinson returns from Publicis,...
Private Equity Still Vital to CalPERS’ Strategy Under TPA: CEO
At NEXUS 2026, CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost announced that the pension fund’s revitalized private‑equity program will operate with a degree of independence from its newly adopted total‑portfolio approach (TPA). The move signals a renewed commitment to private‑equity as a core return...
Budget 2026: Godongwana Talks up AI, Data Infrastructure
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana used the 2026 budget launch to declare data and artificial intelligence infrastructure as critical as electricity, ports and transport. He announced plans to expand data‑centre capacity, citing 55 existing facilities and R50 billion of investment expected over...
Australia Ships LNG 16,000 Miles to Canada as Asia Demand Slumps
Australia’s Gorgon‑linked LNG exporter sent a cargo aboard the Maran Gas Hector to eastern Canada, covering roughly 16,000 miles – the longest route for Australian LNG to date. The move reflects a sharp slowdown in Asian demand, where shipments to...
Accounts in Transit: MKTG Sports Lands Agassi Sports Entertainment
MKTG Sports + Entertainment, part of dentsu, has been appointed the agency of record for Agassi Sports Entertainment, overseeing brand positioning, product launches, earned media and executive visibility for the racquet‑sports innovation firm. The partnership coincides with ASE’s rollout of...
How This Startup Is Showing that Voice-First AI Can Scale in Clinical Care for Root Cause Analysis
O-Health, an 18‑month‑old clinical AI startup, has built a voice‑first operating system that turns doctor‑patient conversations into structured clinical intelligence in real time. The platform runs on an edge‑first, sovereign AI stack with in‑house medical ASR and small language models,...
Valuedynamx Appoints Eileen Peacock, SVP, General Manager, Valuedynamx U.S. to Lead on Market Expansion
Valuedynamx, a Collinson Company specializing in purchase‑reward solutions, has appointed Eileen Peacock as SVP and General Manager of its U.S. operations. Peacock brings over three decades of experience across financial services, travel, retail and loyalty to steer business development and...
Fewer Guests, Looming Debt Weigh on Six Flags' New CEO's Agenda
Six Flags Entertainment, the largest regional amusement‑park operator in North America, is confronting a sharp decline in attendance across its 26 theme parks and 15 water parks. The company’s debt has ballooned to $5.1 billion, tightening its financial leeway. New CEO...
Unlocking Programmatic Performance: The Demand Gen Report Interview with StackAdapt’s Yang Han
StackAdapt’s CTO Yang Han says artificial intelligence has graduated from a feature to the connective intelligence layer that links creative, data and optimization in programmatic advertising. Marketers investing meaningfully in AI are already seeing a 20‑point performance gap, with dynamic...
Sauce Labs Launches Industry’s First Programmable Mobile Device Cloud for the AI Era
Sauce Labs announced the Real Device Access API, the first programmable mobile device cloud designed for the AI era. The API lets developers control real Android and iOS devices through HTTP, issuing ADB or xcrun commands, streaming video, and accessing...
Harvard Study Shows AI Stock Trading Rivals Many Picks Made by Fund Managers
A Harvard Business School working paper finds that artificial intelligence can predict about 71% of mutual fund managers’ trade directions, and for some senior managers in less competitive categories the prediction rate approaches 100%. Predictability is higher for managers with...
This AI Note-Taking Startup Thinks It’s Building the ‘Steering Wheel’ for Chatbots
Granola, a London‑based AI note‑taking startup founded by former Socratic CEO Chris Pedregal, is positioning its real‑time transcription tool as the "steering wheel" for large language models. Unlike competitors that record audio or deploy bots, Granola overlays editable notes on...
IQVIA Signs Agreement to Acquire Drug Discovery Assets From Charles River Laboratories, Expanding End-to-End Drug Discovery Capabilities
IQVIA Holdings announced an agreement to acquire five drug discovery service sites from Charles River Laboratories, adding in‑vitro capabilities, New Approach Methodologies and a small‑molecule AI platform. The assets, built on more than 20 years of data, have helped launch...
State of AI: Widely Used for Planning -- Drives the Business at Just 25% of Firms
AI adoption remains uneven, with only a quarter of surveyed firms naming AI as a primary driver of business strategy by the end of 2025, though that share more than doubled from early 2025. Fifty‑five percent say AI influences strategic...
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'Richter Scale' Model Measures Magnitude of OT Cyber Incidents
The Operational Technology Incident (OTI) Impact Score, unveiled at the S4x26 conference, offers a Richter‑scale‑style metric for gauging OT cyber‑attack consequences. It combines severity, reach, and duration into a single figure, with assessments delivered via an online portal within 12...
Hayward Holdings Reports Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results and Introduces 2026 Guidance
Hayward Holdings reported a strong fourth‑quarter FY2025, with net sales of $349.4 million, up 7% year‑over‑year, and a gross margin of 48.5%, a 160‑basis‑point improvement. Operating income rose 14% to $87.3 million, delivering a 25% operating margin, while net income increased 25%...
Bot Auto, Ryan Transportation Partner on Driverless Freight Between Houston and Dallas
Bot Auto announced a strategic partnership with Ryan Transportation to launch driverless freight operations on a 200‑mile overnight corridor between Houston and Dallas, slated to begin this spring. The route, traditionally hard to service due to tight delivery windows and...