A new report from Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT) shows that social media is taking center stage in marketing strategies for 2025, with CMOs reallocating significant portions of their budgets from traditional channels to digital platforms.

The 2025 Impact of Social Media Report, based on insights from 1,200 marketing leaders worldwide, found that 80% plan to divert funds into social, with 87% boosting paid social, and more than 80% expanding influencer and organic social budgets. Talent investment is rising too, with three-quarters of leaders planning to grow their social teams.

ROI Pressure and Data Gaps

Despite rising investment, many leaders lack confidence in their teams’ ability to prove social’s business impact. Only 44% rate their social teams as “expert” at tying activity to outcomes like revenue and efficiency. Instead, most teams still rely on engagement (68%) and conversions (65%) as primary metrics, while executives increasingly expect revenue-driven ROI reporting.

“Social media is rapidly capturing a larger share of marketing budgets, driven by its unmatched ability to deliver results that other channels struggle to achieve,” said Scott Morris, CMO of Sprout Social. “As social delivers stronger ROI, enhancing data literacy will be critical so brands can harness insights for transformative impact across the organization.”

Social Search and New Talent Priorities

One of the most significant shifts is the rise of social search, fueled by Gen Z behavior. Eighty-one percent of leaders are moving budget away from traditional SEO toward social search optimization (SOSEO), with SOSEO specialists now the top role marketing leaders are hiring for. Over half of brands already have a SOSEO strategy, while 43% are actively experimenting.

Platform Impact and Content Strategies

• Top Platforms: Facebook (70%), YouTube (68%), and TikTok (64%) dominate overall impact. For B2B, LinkedIn leads (70%), while B2C brands still lean on Facebook (67%).

• Content Volume: A disconnect persists between leaders and managers. While 69% of CMOs want more posting, only 50% of managers agree. Data shows engagement actually increased 20% in 2024 despite reduced publishing volumes.

• Cross-Functional Value: Social insights are underutilized outside of marketing. Less than half of teams integrate data into CRM systems, despite leadership demand for customer care, business development, and CX applications.

As Shirley Tat, Global Head of Social at Canva, noted, brands are now embedding social into product and business strategies: “We launched all of our new products this year based on user feedback. We’ve come a long way in thinking about how social media shifts the business forward.”

The report makes clear: in 2025, social media isn’t just a channel—it’s the engine driving customer acquisition, loyalty, and revenue growth.

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MCI USA is giving its Jade AI agent a voice—literally. The company today announced that Jade, its AI-powered event support assistant, now offers voice interaction within OneSystem Plus, MCI USA’s flagship registration and housing management platform.

For event organizers drowning in logistics, exhibitors chasing leads, and attendees just trying to find the right session, the update promises fewer headaches. Jade’s voice functionality lets users simply ask their questions—“What’s my balance due?” or “Can you resend my confirmation?”—and get instant answers in any of 57 languages. More complex issues still escalate to human agents, but for routine inquiries, Jade is now a 24/7 multilingual concierge.

Jeff Moore, MCI USA’s VP of technology and innovation, pitched it this way: “Jade Voice is one more way we’re removing friction from the housing, registration, and lead collection process.” Translation: Fewer jammed call centers, less inbox overload, and faster resolutions for users.

Why It Matters

The event tech market is getting increasingly crowded with AI-driven assistants, from Cvent’s AI tools to Hopin’s integrations. By layering voice on top of chat and email, Jade positions itself as a more complete contact center solution—especially important in a post-pandemic landscape where hybrid and international events demand round-the-clock, multilingual support.

MCI USA isn’t just relying on voice gimmicks. Launched in 2024, Jade already powers predictive analytics, session recommendations, exhibitor matchmaking, AI content creation, and lead tracking throughout the event lifecycle. In short, it’s not just helping registrants check their balance—it’s designed to keep organizers, sponsors, and attendees engaged well past the check-in desk.

If the AI arms race in martech has taught us anything, it’s that speed and scale matter. A human agent can answer one person at a time. Jade can talk to thousands, in 57 languages, at 3 a.m.—and still escalate the tough stuff when needed. For event organizers facing thinner margins and higher attendee expectations, that may be the killer feature.

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Search pros can take a breath—SEO isn’t dead, it’s just evolving. That’s the message from Olga Zarr, AI SEO consultant and founder of SEOSLY, who issued a data-backed reality check on the future of search this week.

Her advice? Stop panicking over buzzwords like AIO (AI Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), or LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization). According to Zarr, these are nothing more than SEO with extra letters slapped on.

“The core principles of SEO haven’t changed,” she told her audience. “It’s still about helping machines understand your content so users can actually find it. That’s more important than ever.”

Google Still Runs the Table

The numbers back her up. While AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude have made headlines, they’ve barely dented Google’s dominance. Google still commands over 90% of search market share, with search volume growing 21% in the past year. The combined traffic of the top 10 AI chatbots? Less than 3% of total search traffic.

Put bluntly: the “AI search revolution” already happened, and Google won—by baking AI into its own search experience through AI Overviews and AI Mode. For SEOs, the real challenge isn’t fighting off chatbots but adapting to Google’s new AI-driven layers.

Same Pillars, New Playbook

Zarr frames it like this: the four pillars of SEO—Content, Authority, Technical, and UX—are timeless. But the tactics to uphold them must evolve.

• Content: Write in modular, “chunked” formats that AI can easily pull into Overviews.

• Authority: Forget just backlinks; brand mentions across forums, social, and media matter because AI “reads” them all.

• Technical: Prep sites for new AI crawlers and implement schema markup with precision.

“We’re not throwing out the rulebook,” Zarr says. “We’re adding new, critical chapters.”

Turning Panic Into Opportunity

To bridge the gap, Zarr has launched presales for a new course, AI SEO Expert, aimed at giving practitioners a practical, data-driven framework for AI-era optimization. Her pitch: less hype, more application.

“I created this course to turn the AI ‘threat’ into a professional opportunity,” she said.

In other words, AI isn’t making SEO obsolete—it’s just reshaping the battlefield. For marketers who adapt, the game is far from over.

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Risk models haven’t aged well. For decades, financial advisors have leaned on bell curves and backward-looking models that underestimated the true chaos of global markets—until crises like 2008 and Covid-19 exposed just how fragile those assumptions were.

Now, Amplify Platform is offering a rewrite. The firm today unveiled QuantumRisk™, an AI-powered risk analysis engine built to help advisors and clients navigate the kind of market tail events that textbooks tend to gloss over.

The Fat Tail Advantage

At the core of QuantumRisk is the work of Dr. Ron Piccinini, a specialist in “fat tail risk” modeling. Instead of assuming markets behave neatly, QuantumRisk leans on high-performance computing and GPUs to simulate millions of potential outcomes in real time—scenarios that reflect both likelihood and severity of extreme events.

“Legacy risk tools were built for a market that no longer exists,” Piccinini said. “We designed our engine to reflect how markets actually behave, not how theory says they should.”

That means risk scores aren’t an abstract exercise anymore—they’re tied directly to real-world volatility.

A New Risk Score for a New Era

QuantumRisk assigns portfolios and securities a risk score from 0 to 1,000, calibrated against the historical tail risk of the S&P 500. The higher the score, the higher the exposure. The goal: give advisors a clear, standardized measure of portfolio fragility that works across asset classes.

For clients, that translates to more transparency and fewer vague warnings about “volatility.” For advisors, it’s a potential competitive edge: a tool to demonstrate clarity and control when markets inevitably misbehave.

Features Built for the Frontline

Key features of QuantumRisk include:

• Proprietary Simulation Engine: Runs millions of outcomes in under a second—no correlation matrix required.

• Greater Transparency: Differentiates risks across conservative portfolios and leveraged strategies alike.

• Visual, Client-Ready Outputs: Delivers graphic-rich reports that advisors can use in client meetings.

As Vickie Lewin, Amplify’s Chief Growth Officer, put it: “QuantumRisk is more than an upgrade. It’s about enhancing client trust. We’re embedding a modern risk score across the client journey so advisors can build resilience, set expectations, and foster confidence.”

Industry Context: Catching Up to Reality

Risk analytics has been one of fintech’s lagging categories. While AI is reshaping areas like customer personalization and trading strategies, risk models have largely stayed stuck in 20th-century math. Amplify’s move is part of a broader trend of fintechs leveraging AI-native architectures to modernize core financial infrastructure.

If QuantumRisk delivers on its promise, it could push rivals like BlackRock’s Aladdin or MSCI RiskMetrics to rethink their approach—or risk being seen as outdated in a market where volatility no longer looks like a gentle curve.

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Small-cap investors aren’t usually known for betting early on enterprise AI—but ECGI Holdings, through its investment arm Uplist Ventures, is doing just that. The firm announced a strategic investment in AuraChat.ai, an AI-driven sales and marketing automation platform that’s been quietly building momentum with real-world deployments.

The timing is deliberate. AuraChat is preparing to launch AuraConnect™ 2.0 in September 2025, a competitive-intelligence upgrade designed to arm businesses with sharper market insights and expand into sectors like automotive, real estate, and retail.

From Customer Service to Competitive Intel

AuraChat isn’t another chatbot. The platform uses 25+ proprietary AI models to power voice, video, and messaging agents capable of handling human-quality customer interactions in more than 50 languages. Its toolkit includes lead follow-ups, appointment scheduling, and around-the-clock service—already familiar ground in AI customer engagement.

What sets AuraConnect 2.0 apart is its competitive-intelligence layer. By monitoring more than 250 data points across rivals, it promises to give clients a deeper read on acquisition and retention strategies. For sectors like automotive sales—where AuraChat is already gaining traction in Latin America—such intelligence could mean the difference between closing deals and losing ground.

A Startup on the Rise

In less than a year, AuraChat has grown to nearly $400,000 in annual recurring revenue, up 22% since July. It also landed on the UCLA Anderson School of Business Top 10 Startups list, a nod to both its early traction and its leadership team, which includes alumni of Amazon, Microsoft, and Warner.

The addressable market is substantial: $65 billion in automotive sales alone, ballooning to $460 billion across targeted verticals like travel, retail, and e-commerce.

Why Uplist Is Buying In

For Uplist Ventures, this isn’t just about riding the AI hype wave. “Our focus is building a portfolio of early-stage companies that demonstrate strong execution today and are positioned for significant future growth,” said Simon Yu, CEO of ECGI Holdings and Managing Director of Uplist Ventures.

That lines up with AuraChat’s trajectory. As CEO Enrique Partida put it: “This investment supports our expansion into new markets and helps us scale our AI solutions to empower businesses to grow faster, smarter, and more competitively.”

Industry Context

AuraChat enters a crowded field where conversational AI startups often compete against enterprise incumbents like Salesforce, Zendesk, and HubSpot—all racing to bolt generative AI onto their platforms. Its differentiator: a blend of customer service automation and real-time competitive intelligence, a hybrid that could help it punch above its weight as it scales into U.S. markets.

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Trimble is entering 2026 with a fresh leadership slate. The company announced that Chief Accounting Officer Julie Shepard will retire after more than 18 years with the firm, handing the reins to Kenny Bement in September 2025. At the same time, Trimble is adding a new role to its C-suite: Chief Information Officer, appointing Jim Palermo to steer its IT infrastructure and digital transformation strategy.

A Seamless Transition in Finance

Shepard will remain at Trimble through early 2026, helping with the company’s auditor transition and ensuring continuity during the handoff. Over nearly two decades, she played a pivotal role in shaping Trimble’s financial backbone—including guiding its move from perpetual licensing to a subscription model, a transition that aligned the company with the broader SaaS-driven economy.

Her successor, Kenny Bement, arrives with a résumé tailor-made for modern finance. Beyond his CAO stints at Conservice, Vista Outdoor, Ancestry, and Gopuff, he also worked at Alphabet and Raytheon. Perhaps most notably, during his time at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), he was the primary author of ASC 606, the revenue recognition standard that redefined how SaaS and tech companies report earnings. That experience is particularly relevant as Trimble continues its SaaS evolution.

A CIO Role Built for Scale

The addition of Jim Palermo as CIO reflects Trimble’s broader “Connect and Scale” digital transformation strategy. Palermo previously served as CIO at Red Hat, where he managed global IT teams and guided the company through a major SaaS business model transition. His background also includes leadership roles at Cisco and Nortel.

By carving out a standalone CIO role, Trimble signals its intent to modernize IT infrastructure in lockstep with its product and business model transformation—an increasingly common move for industrial tech companies doubling down on digital services.

CFO’s Take

“I want to thank Julie for her significant contributions to Trimble over the past 18 years,” said CFO Phil Sawarynski. “Her leadership and dedication have left an imprint on the company, including the role she played in implementing our migration from perpetual to subscription licensing models. I am excited for Jim and Kenny to join the team and continue our efforts to simplify and focus the company to deliver on our Connect and Scale strategy.”

Context: Tech Companies Bet on SaaS Experience

Trimble’s dual appointments highlight a broader industry trend: finance and IT leaders with SaaS and subscription-first expertise are increasingly in demand. As industrial technology firms like Trimble shift from hardware-plus-licenses toward service-based revenue streams, aligning finance reporting with IT infrastructure becomes less optional and more mission-critical.

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The trades are getting a tech-and-training boost. Ferocious Media LLC, a digital marketing agency built for skilled trades, has struck a strategic partnership with The Blue Collar Success Group (BCSG), the coaching and business development organization serving contractors across North America and Australia.

The collaboration merges BCSG’s leadership and operational training with Ferocious Media’s local SEO, paid media, and web design expertise. The idea: give trade businesses a clearer, unified path to growth in industries often underserved by modern marketing platforms.

Why This Partnership Matters

Contractors in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other residential services often juggle two challenges: building operational efficiency and standing out in crowded local markets. BCSG has long addressed the first problem through its leadership academies and training systems. Ferocious Media now plugs into the second, layering digital-first strategies on top of operational playbooks.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Blue Collar Success Group,” said Rodney Edenfield, Managing Partner at Ferocious Media. “By combining their proven training and leadership systems with our marketing solutions—SEO, paid ads, content, and custom web design—we’re helping members dominate their markets and drive sustainable growth.”

What Members Get

The partnership promises a set of perks designed to make growth tangible:

• Unified Strategy – Integrated operational + marketing roadmaps.

• Exclusive Benefits – Special pricing on digital services, plus private workshops and strategy sessions.

• Co-Developed Education – Trainings focused on conversion-driven web design, lead attribution, and digital ROI.

Industry Context

The move reflects a growing trend in the trades: pairing business coaching with digital marketing. Where national chains and tech-driven marketplaces have begun eating into local market share, trade professionals are increasingly looking for end-to-end solutions that combine operational discipline with digital visibility.

For contractors navigating both rising customer expectations and tighter margins, the Ferocious-BCSG partnership may offer more than just leads—it could provide the structural and marketing backbone to scale competitively in 2025 and beyond.

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In a digital marketing landscape where agencies come and go, Nashville’s JLB has proven it has staying power. The firm announced it has landed on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies for the sixth time, cementing its reputation as one of the Southeast’s most consistent performers in web design and digital marketing.

The Inc. 5000, often seen as a scorecard for entrepreneurial grit, recognizes private companies that have achieved significant revenue growth over the past three years. For JLB, the milestone highlights not just expansion, but the durability of its business model: offering clients an end-to-end, in-house digital solution—from award-winning web design and SEO to hosting, web security, and ongoing support.

A One-Stop Digital Shop

“Our mission from day one has been to eliminate the fragmentation in online marketing services,” said Ken Royer, CEO of JLB. “To be named to the Inc. 5000 for the sixth time is an incredible honor and a testament to the trust our clients place in us, the hard work of our team, and the results we deliver year after year.”

It’s a pitch that resonates in a market flooded with specialized agencies. By consolidating web design, SEO, hosting, and security under one roof, JLB positions itself as a single accountable partner—something many businesses find increasingly attractive as digital ecosystems grow more complex.

Deep Roots in Nashville, Broad Reach Nationwide

JLB (short for Joy, Life, Business) has been around for more than 20 years and now manages over 1,100 clients across industries. Its client list includes names familiar to locals and beyond: Nashville International Airport, Fisk University, Boys & Girls Club, Peg Leg Porker, Nissan Stadium, and Star Physical Therapy.

The firm has also been voted the #1 Best Web Design Company in Williamson County four times and holds Google Partner status, adding credibility to its growth story. Veteran-owned and built on what it calls accountability and transparency, JLB has become a go-to shop for Nashville businesses aiming to sharpen their digital edge.

Context: Consistency in a Crowded Market

The digital agency market is notoriously crowded, with new players spinning up overnight and consolidation reshaping the field. JLB’s repeated Inc. 5000 recognition suggests it has cracked a formula for sustainable growth—balancing local trust with national scalability.

In an era where many businesses feel like they’re juggling a dozen different vendors for SEO, ads, design, and hosting, JLB’s pitch of a fully managed, single-provider model seems less old-school and more like the simplification companies have been waiting for.

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