affable.ai aims to revolutionize the industry with Skye, an innovative solution that combines state-of-the-art AI technology with influencer marketing expertise!

affable.ai, a leading innovator in the marketing technology industry, today announced the launch of Skye – the world's first AI companion specifically designed for influencer marketers. Skye empowers marketers with cutting-edge AI capabilities to streamline and optimize their influencer marketing campaigns.

In today's fast-paced digital media landscape, influencer marketing has become crucial for brands to engage with their target audience. Started five years ago, affable.ai is one of the fastest-growing platforms in the influencer marketing space. affable.ai caters to over 5,000 marketers from global brands and agencies running active influencer campaigns. The platform helps marketers find the right influencers, build collaborations, run campaigns, and track reports – all under one roof. affable.ai now aims to revolutionize the industry with Skye, an innovative solution that combines state-of-the-art AI technology with influencer marketing expertise.

To elevate the AI capabilities of Skye, affable.ai is tapping Google Cloud’s Vertex AI PaLM API to bring you cutting-edge technology in influencer marketing. This collaboration paves the way for enhanced influencer campaign performance and success.

Skye offers a seamless and efficient solution to accelerate and scale influencer marketing efforts. Influencer marketers can expect a whole new level of ease and precision.

• Magic Search: To Find The Perfect Influencer Match: Users discover the most accurate influencers for their campaign with Skye's Magic Search. They can achieve this by simply typing in their search criteria across 100+ languages or uploading an image or mood board if they’re looking for a particular aesthetic.
• Lookalike Recommendations: To Expand Marketers’ Influencer Network Easily: Skye's Lookalike Recommendations feature allows users to effortlessly expand their influencer network. With a click of a button, Skye instantly provides a list of influencers similar to their chosen influencer, saving them time and effort while broadening their reach and potential collaborations. They can further engage in conversations with Skye to gain insights and recommendations to refine their influencer discovery.
• Automated Email Generation: To Streamline Collaboration Effortlessly: Users save valuable time with Skye's automated email generation feature. Skye types out personalized influencer collaboration emails on the users behalf, ensuring a professional touch and expediting the collaboration process. Users spend less time on administrative tasks and more time building meaningful partnerships.
• Brand Consistency and Risk Management: To Protect Brand Reputation: Skye acts as a brand’s vigilant assistant, reviewing influencer-uploaded content to ensure brand alignment. It also monitors the comments section of influencer posts, proactively alerting users of any negative comments that may require immediate attention to safeguard the brand's reputation.

CRO Jeff Lundal brings decades of experience from Oracle and Experian Marketing to guide the company through its next period of explosive growth

Validity, the leading provider of data quality and email deliverability solutions, announced the addition of a new Chief Revenue Officer, Jeff Lundal, to its leadership team. This strategic leadership addition comes on the heels of recent momentum including key product announcements and integrations, positioning Validity to continue offering best-in-class SaaS solutions for today’s data-driven world.

Lundal has over 20 years of experience at companies including Oracle and Experian Marketing. He is an expert in transforming businesses and driving growth by setting vision and strategies, building high performing teams, moving stakeholders to a common goal, and delivering value to customers. In his new role, Lundal will work to support the Validity team’s mission to define and lead the sales and marketing industry with a new class of SaaS solutions purpose-built for today’s complex, data-driven business needs. In turn, this will enable customers to build stronger relationships with more stakeholders.

“Jeff’s arrival at Validity represents an exciting turning point in the company’s history,” said Mark Briggs, CEO of Validity. “We are thrilled to have his vision on the leadership team as we look towards our future growth. I feel confident that Jeff’s experience leading all facets of the customer experience at high-growth SaaS companies will transform our go-to-market process for the better.”

Lundal will oversee the sales, marketing, and account management teams. In the coming months, he will focus on further developing them as the best teams in the market, drawing from his experience executing similar programs at category-leading companies. He will take on the task of rallying the entire organization on a shared sales process and go-to-market playbook.

“I’m excited to join Validity and apply my experience to develop an unrivaled go-to-market function and team that consistently delivers positive experiences and powerful industry solutions to our customers and prospects,” said Jeff Lundal, CRO of Validity. “Validity has built the most powerful data management solution and the highest value email deliverability solutions. These solutions solve major issues for sales leaders and marketers and are required more than ever in today’s environment.”

Drawing Top Talent from Tech & Advertising Industries To Further Deepen Agency’s Expertise

Manifest, an award winning content experience agency and two-time agency of the year, with offices in New York, Phoenix, DC and Chicago, announced today two key hires to fuel the firm’s continued strategic growth and innovation. Josh Druding joins Manifest as Group Director of Social Media and Ali Ladak comes on board as the agency’s VP of Intelligence, Analytics Lead, previously driving marketing sciences innovation at tech leader Meta.

“We pride ourselves on creating a challenging and fulfilling work experience that attracts top industry talent, and these hires are evidence,” said Melissa Bouma, CEO of Manifest. “Ali and Josh are high caliber individuals who bring with them a wealth of expertise that will make both our agency and client service better as we continue to show how content can do more than drive the marketing funnel, but change behaviors and reveal what modern brands are made of.”

Druding will take the reins of the agency’s social media practice, assuming responsibility for building and leading a high-performing team, driving social-first strategy and seamlessly integrating social channel experiences with omnichannel content campaigns for Manifest’s portfolio of B2B and B2C clients. He most recently led social strategy at Mekanism for flagship Molson Coors brands, including Miller Lite and Coors Light, as well as Patrón, Kraken Rum, Cricket Wireless, Franzia, Amazon Fire TV, Sling TV and Alaska Airlines.

“Josh has led multiple award-winning campaigns, including being recognized by the Effies, the One Show, and Shorty Awards,” said Krysti Roush, VP Performance Marketing at Manifest. “We couldn’t be more excited to have him driving our social discipline.”

Ladak joins Manifest in a newly created leadership role that represents the agency’s deep commitment to data-driven strategy and creativity and remaining on the front lines of effectiveness. He has over 15 years of data and analytics experience with stops in consulting, agency, and tech. Prior to joining Manifest, Ladak spent 10 years at GroupM and Meta where his focus was on pushing forward measurement strategies, advising on creative best practices, and building Marketing Mix and MTA Models for Fortune 500 clients.

“Adding Ali to our roster allows us to immediately go deeper into some of our clients’ highest-level data & analytics needs such as true ROI attribution, brand lift effectiveness, marketing mix and other types of modeling,” said Geoffrey Director, SVP Intelligence at Manifest.

Josh and Ali both look forward to building on the solid foundation already in place for the social strategy and analytics practice and to evolving both disciplines at Manifest.

SG Analytics, a leading Global Insights & Analytics firm, is thrilled to announce the opening of its state-of-the-art office in Wroclaw, Poland. This strategic move solidifies the company's unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional client experiences and fostering a growth mindset.

Nestled amidst Wroclaw's bustling business district and elegant townhouses, SG Analytics' new office will catalyse nurturing robust partnerships with key strategic accounts and exploring emerging market opportunities. The cutting-edge facility, provided by Business Link, will be a collaborative space where our dynamic teams, specialising in data solutions and analytics, can engage closely with our esteemed clients. Together, we will ideate, innovate and create scalable solutions to drive impactful outcomes.

Building on the success of last year's expansion into Berkeley Square Park, London, led by Simran Wadhwa, Partner at SG Analytics, the addition of the Wroclaw office further propels the company's global growth strategy. Simran, a visionary in business development, spearheaded the establishment of our New York office, showcasing her relentless dedication to client-centricity.

Expressing her enthusiasm about the Wroclaw office, Simran, the Managing Member, stated, “Our new office strategically positions us at the epicentre of our business activities. Proximity to our global strategic clients empowers us to forge stronger relationships and deliver innovative solutions tailored to their evolving needs. As a thriving organisation, we are primed to make a resounding impact, enabling faster, value-driven decision-making.”

Sid Banerjee, CEO of SG Analytics, remarked, “The opening of our new office in Poland is another significant milestone in our global expansion plans. As our business continues its rapid growth trajectory, Europe and the UK remain integral to our long-term strategy. We are committed to strengthening our connection with clients, comprehending their requirements and providing unmatched value through our engagement.”

The report shows payment app fraud and the theft of personal documents increasing along with the rise of AI voice cloning scams

IDIQ®, a leader in identity theft protection and credit monitoring featuring the flagship IdentityIQ® brand, today released a proprietary report reviewing identity theft trends from last year as well as the newest scams on the rise, the IdentityIQ 2022 Scam Report.

This report explores key findings based on IdentityIQ member-reported data and found significant jumps in two major types of scams: peer-to-peer payment apps utilizing platforms such as Cash App, Zelle and Venmo, surging more than 58%, and scams stemming from the theft of personal documents, increasing by 44%. The report compares member-reported data from 2022 to the previous year.

The report also highlights the rise of AI voice scams as a significant trend in 2023. AI voice technology enables scammers to create remarkably realistic voices and convincingly imitate family members, friends and other trusted individuals.

“AI voice cloning scams are the scariest thing I have seen in the last 20 years,” said Scott Hermann, CEO of IDIQ and a cybersecurity and financial expert.

Hermann said, with just a short voice clip usually taken from social media, a scammer can clone a loved one’s voice and call a victim pretending to be that person. The scammer deceives the victim into thinking their loved one is in distress to get them to send money, provide personal information or perform other actions.

“AI voice technology has gotten to the point where a mother can’t tell the difference between her child’s voice and a machine – and scammers have pounced on this in order to commit crimes,” he said.

The report shares ways the public can help protect themselves from these scams, including:

• Being cautious of unsolicited offers, requests, and calls
• Always verifying identities, including having a family “password”
• Using strong cybersecurity practices, including unique passwords, multi-factor authentication and VPN
• Protecting and monitoring personal information
• Educating themselves on the latest scams and trends as new scams continue to arise

Scammers are also taking advantage of peer-to-peer payment platforms lack of protection, convenience and limited refund policies to steal from victims as part of Cash App, Zelle and Venmo scams. Fraudsters use the lure of a cuddly puppy in pet deposit scams or offer to help invest and “flip” money with huge returns in cash flipping scams. Being aware of these scams – and never sending money through these apps as a deposit to someone you don’t know – helps consumers avoid fraud.

The report indicates that, while online threats are increasing, consumers must continue to protect their personal information that can be found offline as well.

“While consumers should be concerned about their online presence, they shouldn’t overlook data vulnerabilities presented by paper documents,” Hermann said.

As for the offline threats, mail theft, lost or stolen wallets and “shoulder surfing,” in which a scammer peers at documents with personal information unbeknownst to the victim, were the most prevalent forms of personal document fraud.

“We hope the information from the report keeps the public aware of and safe from the biggest scams we are seeing today,” Hermann said. “As new trends emerge, we will continue to help consumers protect themselves and their families.”

This is the second report focusing on identity theft trends that IDIQ, through its IdentityIQ brand, has released this year. In May, IDIQ joined the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nationally-recognized nonprofit organization established to support victims of identity theft, to release the 2022 Trends in Identity Report.

Global leader in no-code process automation ensures security and data privacy for its cloud-based solution--

Pipefy, the global industry leader in no-code process automation, today announced that it received the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/IEC) 27001:2022 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS) to securely support global customers using its business process automation platform. In addition, it achieved ISO/IEC 27701-2019 and ISO/IEC 27018-2021 certifications.

"No-code tools like Pipefy enable teams to easily automate and optimize business processes, and information security is critical to maintaining and protecting the privacy of information between IT and business departments,” said Alessio Alionço, Founder and CEO of Pipefy. “By achieving these ISO security and data privacy certifications, Pipefy assures its customers the highest levels of security at scale, shielding them from cybersecurity risks.”

ISO 27001 standard is the internationally recognized best practice framework for an Information Security Management System (ISMS). To achieve ISO 27001 status, Pipefy passed a series of standards to ensure business controls and management processes running on its platform are adequate and proportionate for information security threats.

In addition to the ISO 27001:2022 certification, Pipefy received these ISO certifications:

ISO/IEC 27701-2019: A data privacy extension to ISO 27001, it is the international standard that provides a framework for data privacy management.

ISO/IEC 27018-2021: Code of practice for protecting personally identifiable information (PII) in cloud computing services.

By adhering to these standards, organizations of any kind can manage the security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted by third parties.

In its new avatar, Gathr will now offer a unified experience for building ML-powered applications for data at scale.

Gathr is now the world’s first and only zero-code platform for building ML-powered, data-to-outcome applications for data at scale. Bringing data integration, machine learning, analytics and insights, and process automation capabilities over a single platform, Gathr will significantly shorten the data-to-outcome journeys for enterprises.

The platform provides a unified experience for data collection, transformation, insights, predictions, recommendations, and actions, helping enterprises reach outcomes faster than ever. It will eliminate the need for various point solutions, break data silos, and drive cost efficiencies across the data life cycle, enabling faster time-to-value for enterprises.

“The need for better, simpler, and efficient ways to harness data-at-scale is more acute than ever. Gathr not only meets such evolving needs but also ensures enterprises remain future-ready with its open and extensible architecture. The platform will enable them to accelerate innovation and achieve transformative growth. As per our experience and internal assessments, we can say that enterprises can easily achieve up to 50x faster outcomes on data with Gathr, cutting all the grunt work and hassles of multiple tools,” said P.C.Kiran Kumar, CEO, Gathr.

Gathr also offers several ready-to-use apps for Data Ingestion, ETL/ELT, MLOps, DevOps, Cloud Cost Control, Process Automation, and more. The platform retains its self-service core with a drag-and-drop UI, 300+ pre-built connectors and operators, and automated pipelines and workflows – all of which make application development easier for enterprise teams with different skills. As a result, the platform is poised to enhance further collaboration between data engineers, data scientists, ops engineers, and business users.

Gathr has been rated highly as a comprehensive data platform by leading analysts and market experts, including Gartner and Forrester. The new platform builds upon Gathr’s recent merger with Klera. With advanced machine learning capabilities, ready-to-use apps and templates, and self-service, no-code UI, the platform will democratize application development across enterprises. As a one-of-its-kind offering, Gathr’s value proposition resonates well with customers’ expectations; it bypasses complex, overlapping products and accelerates data-to-outcome journeys.

Worlds come alive across billions of devices with Unity Sentis while Unity Muse supports creators with powerful AI-assisted workflows to accelerate development of real-time 3D games and experiences

Unity, the world’s leading platform for creating and growing real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today launched Unity Sentis and Unity Muse, two new AI platforms designed to make creators more productive and their RT3D experiences more engaging. Unity Sentis is a cross-platform runtime inference engine that helps deploy AI models in any Unity project, and Unity Muse consists of tools used to accelerate creation of RT3D content. Together, both Unity Muse and Unity Sentis leverage AI to enhance the interactivity of gameplay and RT3D powered experiences, while accelerating creative workflows. Unity today also launched a dedicated marketplace on the Unity Asset Store with a collection of Verified Solutions that accelerate AI-driven game development. Today’s announcement marks a significant leap forward for developers, of any skill level, to create immersive and interactive experiences for multiple audiences across any supported device in the Unity ecosystem.

“We expect AI to revolutionize gaming, much like the transformative impacts we’ve seen from 3D, mobile, and the internet,” said John Riccitiello, CEO, Unity. “We believe that Unity’s new AI platforms will be powerful for creators and artists as we expect Unity Muse to make them 10 times more productive while Unity Sentis will help them bring their creations to life with interactive intelligence in a way never before possible.”

Harnessing the power of Unity’s Runtime, Unity Sentis delivers on-device AI model inference and allows creators to deploy neural networks across any platform supported by Unity. This allows creators to imagine and deliver the most interactive, dynamic experiences without the need to worry about high cloud compute costs or latency. Specifically, Unity’s Sentis Runtime expands the possibilities of interactive game play and digital twins beyond what’s possible today from “smart” Non-Playable Character to predictive factory floors.

Unity Muse encompasses AI solutions that accelerate the way creators make RT3D content for games, applications and digital twins. The platform consists of tools accessible in the Unity Editor and on the web for developers who want to create assets and animations faster, without interrupting their workflows. One of the first tools available now is Unity Muse Chat which speeds up troubleshooting and access to information, anywhere in the Unity workflow, just by typing into the Muse Chat prompt. Over the coming weeks, additional functionality will be introduced to Unity Muse, making it easier to create assets and animations with just a text prompt or a doodle.

“We believe that every object, every system, every pixel in every game will be touched by AI at create time, helping creators at every step be more productive and ultimately more creative, and at runtime, AI will bring worlds and characters alive, allowing for experiences that just can't be done today,” said Marc Whitten, President, Create, Unity. “Unity’s Sentis and Muse will help automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and generate high-quality output with remarkable speed and accuracy, without replacing human creativity and expertise. Our focus is to make these capabilities available, easy, and powerful on every device that creators want to target.”

Unity also launched a dedicated AI marketplace on the Unity Asset Store, including Verified Solutions for AI-driven game development. The AI marketplace allows creators to harness the power of AI and generative AI to accelerate how they create RT3D content and experiences in gaming and beyond. Verified Solutions are professional caliber third-party tools, plug-ins, and SDKs, tested for compatibility and supported by Unity.