Leveraging Privacy Enhancing Technologies, the company's ZeroReveal 5.0 software enables secure data usage and collaboration at scale

Enveil, the pioneering Privacy Enhancing Technology company protecting Data in Use, today announced the broad release of an enhanced version of its flagship ZeroReveal^® Search software. With ZeroReveal 5.0, Enveil streamlines usability, improves performance, and delivers an enriched customer-driven user experience to further differentiate the company's market-leading capabilities for secure and efficient data usage, analysis, alerting, and collaboration.

Leading the transformative category of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Enveil's award-winning ZeroReveal^® solutions change the paradigm of how and where organizations can securely and privately leverage data to unlock value. Data can be securely utilized across silos and organizational, jurisdictional, and security boundaries in ways that were not previously possible to reduce risk and accelerate the timeline for extracting value from data, including third-party and commercial sources. ZeroReveal is deployed and operational at scale today, validating the substantial impact of PETs for business and mission users.

"The release of ZeroReveal 5.0 signifies the continued advancement of our groundbreaking capabilities, allowing customers to tap into the power of Privacy Enhancing Technologies for an even broader range of use cases," said Dr. Ellison Anne Williams, Founder and CEO of Enveil. "In this data-driven era, leading organizations must be able to unlock value from data sources across silos and boundaries at the speed of business or mission while protecting their interests. We change the game by allowing users to integrate our leading, PETs-powered capabilities into existing workflows to immediately leverage data in ways that are otherwise not possible."  

ZeroReveal 5.0 Highlights
Powered by breakthroughs and efficiencies in the utilization of homomorphic encryption (HE) and secure multiparty computation (SMPC), both pillars of the Privacy Enhancing Technology category, notable features of this 5.0 release include:

• Best in class performance to deliver encrypted query results at speeds unmatched by any other product in the market. The processing gains delivered in this version allow ZeroReveal^® to process over a gigabyte of data per second per thread as part of an encrypted search; on most commodity hardware, this means the speed of encrypted searches is now constrained by the memory bandwidth of the system, not by the overhead of homomorphic encryption a milestone in the market.
• Improvements to data source integration that make it faster, easier, and more efficient to integrate with additional data sources.  
• Expanded feature set for Enveil's User Interface, ZeroReveal^® Slate, including customized results pages, widget-based data feeds, standard workflow templates, and improved workflow customization offerings that enable customers to quickly personalize their user experience and speed time to value extraction.
• Continued optimizations that support customer-driven requirements for performing encrypted searches and watchlisting in limited-bandwidth and resource-constrained environments.
• Workflow enhancements related to specific use cases including geospatial search, secure mission planning, and Space Situational Awareness.

"I am incredibly proud of the progress of our ZeroReveal solution suite, especially the performance benchmarks achieved with this 5.0 release," said Dr. Ryan Carr, CTO and VP of Engineering at Enveil. "Our world-class engineering team is harnessing the power of Privacy Enhancing Technologies to make what was once impossible look easy."  

At its core, Enveil ZeroReveal^® is a two-party software system protecting Data in Use by ensuring the content of the search, analytic, or machine learning model and its corresponding results are never exposed. Beyond encrypted search, Enveil's suite of products also deliver Secure AI capabilities that enhance decision making, protect privacy, and combat broader legal, societal, and national security risks.

3 new widgets will enhance upsell and cross-sell on Tapcart mobile apps

Fast Simon, the leader in AI-powered shopping optimization, announced today that they have introduced three new widgets for Tapcart’s mobile app builder: visually similar products, shop the look and personalized cross-sell recommendations. Using Fast Simon’s AI technology, these features will enhance upsell and cross-sell with personalized AI recommendations on merchants' mobile apps powered by Tapcart.

According to a recent report, 91% of consumers made online purchases using their smartphones in 2023, and mobile commerce sales are expected to reach $710 billion by 2025, making an optimized mobile app essential for both businesses and consumers. Tapcart lets eCommerce merchants easily turn their online store into a mobile app. Fast Simon, a Tapcart Elite Status Technology Partner, is letting merchants further optimize their Tapcart apps to surface more relevant products that are likely to convert.

"Search, merchandising and personalization are critical elements for merchants to get right in 2024. Shoppers want experiences that guide them on their shopping journey and help them find products that they truly love,” said Eric Netsch, Tapcart CEO. “We've seen a direct link in the personalization we offer in-app with an increase in AOV and shopper loyalty. We are doubling down on this by partnering with Fast Simon to offer several new, and deeper, integrations that will power merchants' apps."

The three new widgets are available via Tapcart’s new custom app blocks interface. They are:

• Visually similar products widget suggests products in the same cut, color or style as what’s being viewed.
• Shop the look widget suggests other products displayed in the image, like shoes and a purse to complement a dress being viewed.
• Personalized cross-sell recommendations widget shows items that the shopper may be interested in based on search, click and purchase history, as well as what other shoppers with similar interests viewed.

“Fast Simon harnesses the power of AI to provide a tailored and engaging shopping experience for Tapcart customers,” said Zohar Gilad, CEO of Fast Simon. “These new widgets, designed specifically for Tapcart mobile apps, let merchants enhance their customers’ shopping experience and boost sales.”

Half (49%) also think government bodies should be solving issues of fraudulent content online, and over a third (36%) think the same of third-party experts

Bazaarvoice, Inc., the leading platform for full-funnel authentic user-generated content (UGC) and social commerce solutions, today released its latest study based on a survey of more than 8,000 global shoppers and over 400 brands. The results revealed that fake reviews are something that weigh heavily on people’s minds when they are shopping, and they want brands to take action in order for them to feel confident in the content they’re consuming online.

“Fake reviews undermine confidence in online content, dissuading shoppers and negatively impacting the online sales of brands and retailers,” said Andy Chakravarty, VP of Research at IDC Retail Insights. “Validating authenticity of product reviews improves the customer experience, giving shoppers peace of mind as they make informed purchasing decisions.”

Global survey highlights include:

• Consumers are concerned about all types of fake UGC: 75% are concerned about fake reviews, 69% are concerned about fake images, 68% are concerned about fake videos, 66% are concerned about fake questions and answers and 69% are concerned about fake social media content.
• They want brands to take care of it: The majority of respondents (63%) think the brand’s website they’re visiting should be solving issues of fraudulent content online, followed by governmental bodies (49%) and a third-party expert (36%). 
• Brands think they’re on top of it: While consumers want them to do more, 94% of brands and retailers said that they rate the importance of maintaining online content authenticity in e-commerce business high, and the majority (76%) are confident in their current strategies and tools for detecting and preventing fraudulent or counterfeit content within their online channels.
• However, consumers are doing a lot of work to verify the legitimacy of online stores: Using trusted online shopping platforms (63%), researching the brand online (58%), checking for secure website indicators (e.g., padlock symbol), (51%), reading customer reviews (47%), and recommendations from a friend or family member (46%) are the most common ways they do so. 
• Consumers would trust a third-party authenticator to do the work for them: When asked if they would trust an industry-leading third-party authentication provider to verify the trustworthiness of the content for all of the sites they visit, 70% said they’d trust it. When asked if they would trust a website to verify its own content, less than half (47%) said they’d trust it.
• They’d be happy with a trustworthy symbol: When asked if they would have confidence in a ‘trust signal’ (i.e. lock, checkmark, symbol) that shows each rating and review has been verified by an independent third party, 73% said they’d trust it. Almost as many (66%) said the same about a trust signal for social media content, and 60% said the same about a trust signal for influencer content. 
• Brands are interested in incorporating trust signals: 78% said they’d consider adding one to verify ratings and reviews, 73% said the same about shopper photos, and 71% said the same about shopper videos. 

“This study underscores the absolute necessity of user-generated content (UGC) being authentic,” said Zarina Lam Stanford, CMO at Bazaarvoice. “Brands and retailers need to ensure that their customers trust the content they consume online. If shoppers can’t trust UGC, it loses all of its value, and companies will lose out on sales. Trust signals like the Bazaarvoice Trust Mark is a symbol of a company’s dedication to authentic consumer feedback on its products. It’s also a signal to consumers that the content they’re consuming is protected by a neutral third party with sophisticated fraud detection technology and industry-leading best practices.”

Latest report, “Designing a Better Ad Pod,” shares key considerations for publishers on how to structure their ad breaks in terms of length, architecture and frequency.

Among the key findings: Ad breaks of two minutes or less can improve brand impact and ad experience.

Today, FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the television advertising industry, released new findings from its Viewer Experience Lab initiative. The report, Designing a Better Ad Pod, explores how publishers can optimize the quantity and frequency of ads in an ad pod to improve viewer experience and brand results.

The new findings come at a time when content continues to fragment across streaming platforms, making it imperative for content owners to focus on improving the ad experience to maintain viewers’ attention and favorability. Developed in partnership with MediaScience, this is the first research of its kind to provide insights on how to best optimize ad pods.

“When we launched this initiative at Cannes, we committed to driving it forward through research and innovation in order to understand how consumers feel and react to ads and how we can improve their overall viewing experience,” said Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel. “With so much choice for consumers on how and where they engage with content, it’s more important than ever that platforms prioritize the viewer. This research provides practical considerations for publishers to make the ad experience better and limit subscription churn, while giving brands the best environment to connect with viewers.”

In the study, 700 viewers participated in at-home or in-lab viewing environments and were shown programming with varied ad pod lengths, ad durations and frequency. They were then surveyed in real-time to understand their perception of the ad experience and test their recall of ads within the content.

The FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab and MediaScience then analyzed their responses to create a report that provides research-backed insights that can be used to design optimal ad pods and a positive viewer experience:

• Pod Length: Ad breaks of two minutes or less can improve brand impact and ad experience.
• Pod Architecture: Grouping consistent ad lengths within individual pods can improve ad sentiment and make breaks feel shorter.
• Frequency: Capping the frequency of each ad at two to three per program can positively impact ad recognition and brand purchase intent.

"This is ground-breaking research that empowers media planners to best capitalize on their investment,” said Dr. Duane Varan, CEO, MediaScience. “By applying a research-based approach to a commonsense problem, the findings finally give due regard to key characteristics of the ad pod, while also optimizing the ad environment for viewers. It’s win-win all around."

Designing a Better Ad Pod is part of ongoing research from FreeWheel to help the TV industry improve the ad environment for viewers across all premium video platforms. The goal of the Viewer Experience Lab is to educate the industry and inspire innovation to address this important and complex topic. Further custom research studies across the other core areas, Quality and Relevance, are expected to launch later in 2024.

Joint landmark Oxford Economics/Cognizant study predicts generative AI will affect 90% of U.S. jobs, underscoring the critical need for strategic reskilling to maintain economic growth

In partnership with Oxford Economics, Cognizant today revealed findings from its new economic impact study New Work, New World, which predicted that 90% of jobs will be disrupted in some way by generative AI (gen AI), setting the stage for a profound shift in how we approach work, productivity and economic growth. The study also found that the technology's impact will be influenced by the rate of business adoption and how quickly individuals can adapt to new ways of working.

"Our study aims to lift the curtain on the effects generative AI may have on our global workforce," said Adrian Cooper, CEO at Oxford Economics. "The research findings showcase just how quickly this technology might disrupt the trajectory of the U.S. economy, offering invaluable insights for leaders to harness its potential and adapt swiftly."

Generative AI offers the potential to improve operational efficiency, create new revenue streams, innovate products and services, and ultimately redefine businesses. To quantify generative AI's potential impact on productivity and the future of work, Cognizant partnered with Oxford Economics to create an economic model that explores three scenarios of U.S. businesses' generative AI adoption. This model considered 18,000 tasks that drive the U.S. economy, and carefully examines the impact Generative AI may have on the jobs that ladder up to these tasks. While focused on the U.S. workforce, the general themes that emerged from the findings can be applied globally. The research unveiled key insights, including:  

• AI adoption will skyrocket over the next decade before settling into maturity: Businesses are in the experimental phase of adoption for AI capabilities. However, the findings reveal that adoption could leap from 13% to 31% in just four to eight years. After the 15-year mark, the findings predict that adoption may slow but will continue to grow for at least 15 more years.
• Economic advancement could soar: Generative AI technology could boost U.S. productivity by 1.7-3.5% and grow the U.S. GDP between $477 billion and $1 trillion in annual value over the next 10 years, based on business adoption rates.
• Simultaneously, the job market could be disrupted: Half of all jobs (52%) are predicted to significantly change as generative AI is integrated to automate job tasks. As a result, approximately 9% of the current U.S. workforce may be displaced, with 1% potentially struggling to find new employment based on historical economic shifts.
• Jobs with higher levels of knowledge work may be most affected: In the past, technology advances and automation have impacted mainly manual labor and process-centric knowledge work. Generative AI is poised to do the opposite, having a higher disruption on knowledge work. Additionally, jobs involving credit analysis, computer programming, web development, database administration, and graphic design already have a theoretical maximum exposure score of about 50%. By 2032, as technology advances, some jobs' exposure scores may climb to 80%.
• Even CEOs will feel an impact: The data found that C-Suite executives even CEOs could see a theoretical maximum exposure score (the degree to which a job's tasks are prone to being automated by generative AI) of more than 25%, as they begin using gen AI for everything from competitive assessments to strategic decision-making.

"Generative AI has already astonished us with its capabilities across industries, but the true impact of its integration in our daily business operations has just scratched the surface," said Ravi Kumar S, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant. "To apply the technology's potential to amplify our productivity, we must understand its full influence on the future of work and come together to create the best opportunities for people to grow alongside it."

Reskilling The Workforce as AI Advances

While the timeline of this research spans more than a decade, Cognizant believes that leaders across all sectors of society should work together today to establish a new trust compact that will enable businesses, workers, and economies to thrive in the age of generative AI. As this technology becomes commonplace in the workforce, new employee skills will be in demand to support areas including business strategy and AI management. Reskilling programs, once seen as a tactical add-on to an employee's career path, will become an essential part of the workday, with time allocated for training and education.

In line with this vision, Cognizant recently launched its Synapse initiative, designed to revolutionize and rebalance the landscape of tech education and workforce development by redefining opportunities for more than one million individuals worldwide. Drawing on Cognizant's deep expertise and long history as a tech reskiller, the initiative aims to create a new, employable talent pool for the expanding digital economy by 2026.

Partners can earn revenue share from day one when creating on Wix Studio, further enriching the financial advantages of the Wix Partner Program

Wix.com Ltd., the leading SaaS website builder platform to create, manage, and grow a global, digital presence, today announced a new revenue sharing plan for Partners creating on Wix Studio, the ultimate creation platform built for agencies and freelancers. The new revenue share plan is part of the exclusive Wix Partner Program which is a loyalty-based program with benefits such as priority support, a Partner success manager, eligibility to join the Wix Marketplace, advanced features, and collaboration opportunities within the Wix community. These benefits are designed to empower professionals and fuel their business growth.

Agencies and freelancers can now apply to join through the Wix Studio Workspace, a dashboard designed for agencies and freelancers to manage all of their projects seamlessly. From the moment they join the new program, Partners can start earning revenue share on Wix Studio sites they've created.

The revenue-sharing program includes:

• Rev Share on Wix Studio Sites: Partners will receive a 20% rev share on every new Studio site created in 2024, subject to the Wix Partner Program eligibility conditions. All Partners in the highest level of the program will enjoy 30% revenue share for their Studio sites created in 2024 along with 20% for Wix sites.
• Payment Volume Earnings Based on Client Sales: Partners can earn a revenue share of the client sales on client sites processing with Wix Payments.
• Enhanced Enterprise Benefits: Both new and existing Partners are eligible for a 50% revenue share for Enterprise packages signed during 2024, including renewals.
• Diversified Types of Revenue Shares: The expanded revenue sharing program extends beyond website revenue to build a multifaceted income stream. Partners can now earn revenue shares for a variety of packages, including the Branded App, Wix Logo Maker, Google Ads, mailboxes and more.

"Wix Partners play a critical role in the Wix ecosystem and we're thrilled to significantly broaden earnings opportunities to reflect our commitment to them," said Michal Bignitz, VP of Partners at Wix. "The new program is designed to empower Partners to start earning on day one, through a lifetime partnership with multiple growth opportunities. We look forward to continuing to develop our thriving ecosystem where every Partner can achieve their business goals."

To qualify for the new revenue sharing program, Partners must be the first owner of the Wix site and the program applies exclusively to new yearly plans, sites, and packages. Participants in the program are subject to a retention condition, requiring the generation of at least one Wix premium or Wix Studio premium site per year to qualify for the revenue share and the Partner program's benefits. The terms of the program are subject to change.

The new revenue sharing plan is open to Partners globally subject to the limitations that apply to the Partner Program.

There’s a shift in the way Microsoft Teams users communicate, and Clerk Chat, a leading conversational messaging platform, is at the forefront of this technological advancement. Clerk Chat enables native integration into Microsoft Teams for SMS text messaging and WhatsApp.

Microsoft Teams, with over 271 millions users, serves as both a leading collaboration platform and a unified communications powerhouse. Embraced by more than 15 million companies daily, it excels as a UCaaS platform, particularly for remote work, functioning as a virtual workspace. The platform offers robust calling and productivity features, including chat, audio/video calls, virtual meetings, and real-time document sharing.

However, one area where Microsoft Teams falls short is not providing a native SMS texting solution, and when many companies transition from Zoom Phone, RingCentral, 8x8, Dialpad and other VoIP providers, they find themselves hand-tied when they cannot text.

And now, with Clerk Chat’s ability to natively integrate with Teams, users can finally make both calls and send SMS to people outside of their organization, whether it be clients or customers, using their existing business phone number. There is no more need to choose multiple providers for texting and calling - Clerk Chat, through its Operator Connect partnership with Tier1 telecom providers, is able to provide seamless communication services. Clerk Chat’s solution is powered by Bandwidth, the main carrier for Microsoft Teams calling, which allows you to avoid lengthy and messy porting processes. In fact, customers can bring their existing Teams phone numbers with absolutely no disruption to calling.

Bringing messaging to Microsoft’s calling customers allows businesses to tap into the most popular channels of communication: SMS and WhatsApp. Companies can confirm appointments, schedule automated messages, and dominate voice or text-based customer service - all while ensuring compliance¹ due to Clerk Chat’s SOC2 Type2 certification.

From an outside perspective, Clerk Chat appears to be effortlessly building the future of communication. “We enable a multi-channel approach that allows businesses to speak to their customers via their channels of preference,” said Igor Boshoer, Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of Clerk Chat. “The telecommunication component, integrating within Operator Connect, is really the backbone of powering those channels in a really elegant way for those businesses - we’re able to meet the most rigorous compliance standards by encrypting the messages as well.”

Integrating Clerk Chat into Microsoft Teams for SMS and voice streamlines communication, saving time and eliminates channel-switching. And, with Operator Connect, which revolutionizes connectivity, businesses simplify PSTN integration directly in Teams, gaining access to Clerk Chat's technical expertise, secure products and services, and its reliable infrastructure all while still receiving capabilities of Microsoft’s software support.

“We're really trying to be at the forefront of defining a secure digital landscape as a company,” said Will Chertoff, Vice President of Engineering and Co-Founder of Clerk Chat. “It’s integral for businesses to feel confident and be able to trust their sensitive data with a reputable messaging provider.”