The fully automated identity verification solution is optimized for greater speed, scalability, and conversion

Veriff, a global identity verification (IDV) provider, today announced significant updates to its fully automated IDV product. The solution uses advanced machine learning to enable a 100% automated identity verification process with zero human involvement.

With the enhanced IDV solution, customers have access to a fast method for validating user identities while providing more in-depth insights related to the session to enable organizations to make better-informed onboarding decisions. The solution has been optimized for decision speed, providing an output in five seconds, and the highest conversion rate for onboarding new customers, making the solution a great fit for risk-tolerant businesses. 

Building on the earlier iterations, the new solution has a faster response time, and each verification session has a decision, decision score, and more insights. These insights show in detail what happened in the verification session, providing information points that customers can use to build their own onboarding decision-making.

"This solution is ideal for businesses that require the fastest speed, highest conversion, and detailed session insights to provide their customers an extra layer of security," said Suvrat Joshi, Senior Vice President of Product at Veriff. "The great news for all our customers is that the automation advancements made to the fully automatic solution also enhance Veriff's core identity verification offering."

To better serve their customers' unique needs, Veriff offers two approaches to Identity and Document Verification: a fully automated solution or a hybrid solution. The automation advancements made to the core IDV technology enhance both fully automatic as well as the hybrid offering further benefiting all our customers. The hybrid option is highly automated but unlike the fully automated solution, it is supported by the reassurance of highly trained verification specialists. It has greater flexibility and offers higher fraud prevention and accuracy as well as more risk insights.

Forethought attains AWS Conversational AI Competency

Forethought, the AI-first customer support automation platform, today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN), a global community of AWS Partners that leverages programs, expertise, and resources to build, market, and sell customer offerings.

Additionally, Forethought is now available in the AWS Marketplace, making it easier than ever for businesses to leverage its advanced generative AI technology to enhance their customer service operations, simplifying the procurement process for Forethought's services and extending the reach of its powerful AI-driven support solutions.

“Working closely with AWS is a significant milestone for the Forethought team,” said Aaron Verstraete, Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Forethought. “By joining APN and AWS Marketplace, we are now able to bring Forethought’s services to more businesses and look forward to building these new relationships to further customer support efficiencies globally.”

Forethought is proud to be a part of the ISV Accelerate program, reinforcing the company's dedication to enhancing customer support, and the AWS ecosystem as a whole. The ISV Accelerate program offers Forethought valuable resources and support to better serve its growing customer base.

As part of this milestone, Forethought has achieved the prestigious AWS Conversational AI Competency distinction. This recognition underscores Forethought's commitment to delivering innovative, cloud-based solutions that empower organizations to provide exceptional customer support. The AWS Conversational AI Competency distinction demonstrates Forethought's success in delivering AI-driven customer support and its commitment to advancing the field of conversational AI.

Forethought's cloud-native solutions have been built on AWS, ensuring the highest levels of performance, security, and scalability for its customers. As an AWS Partner, Forethought looks forward to delivering even more innovative solutions to help businesses improve their customer support operations. With Forethought now available in the AWS Marketplace, customers can seamlessly integrate Forethought's solutions into their existing AWS infrastructure, simplifying the procurement process.

Following a decade of cord-cutting, that has seen pay-TV subscribers churning to paid online video services, Omdia expects 2024 to bring a new stage of market evolution, with users of paid online video services moving to free online video.

Omdia is tracking several market developments that are driving this pay-to-free (P2F) trend. The clampdown on password sharing by streamers, for example, has created a welcome subscription boost for them. But Omdia sees this as a short-term phenomenon, with that segment of the streaming customer base vulnerable to P2F churn in 2024, particularly as industry strikes and the cutting back on programming budgets will start to affect content quality.

The ongoing cost-of-living crisis will also lead to some pressure towards P2F churn. This is something that will become even more apparent as the streamers increase their prices to improve profitability while, at the same time, the attractiveness of free (Advertising Video on Demand/Free Ad Supported TV) alternatives grows.

And, while Omdia encourages streaming services to offer advertising options to maximize revenue, this step needs to be implemented as non-intrusively as possible, so the viewing experience is not significantly impacted by too many advertisements.

Maria Rua Aguete, Senior Research Director, in Omdia's Media and Entertainment practice, said: "We are expecting that streaming companies will manage ad loads in a sensible way, and so Omdia is still forecasting good growth for paid online video in 2024. The movement from free to pay will happen, although there will still be room for the paid services to continue to thrive. But all of the factors we have highlighted mean that the balance is quite precarious, and the poor implementation of advertising, or the imposition of price increases too quickly and too steeply, could well threaten that expected growth."

Boosts third-party integrations with Canva and FullStory–enabling organizations to amplify business results and further quantify UX impact

UserTesting, a leader in experience research and insights, today unveiled a series of enhancements to the UserTestingⓇ Human Insight Platform which includes new capabilities that simplify the process of reaching niche, hard to find audiences, new product integrations with Canva and FullStory that help organizations maximize the value of human insight, and a new Insights Services offering that gives organizations the ability to outsource research to UserTesting experts for time- and cost-efficient research and support delivery.

Features in this product update include:

Niche Audience Recruitment

• UserTesting’s Niche Audience Recruitment feature unlocks invaluable insights from distinctive and traditionally hard-to-reach groups. Users are able to quickly identify crucial audiences with UserTesting’s advanced tools, access unique viewpoints from previously elusive contributors, and maintain confidence in the quality by leveraging insights from rigorously vetted and trusted contributors. UserTesting’s advancements significantly streamline the path to insightful audience management. By honing in on target audience needs, businesses are better positioned to craft solutions that bolster their objectives.

UserTesting Insights Services

• Part of UserTesting’s professional services offerings, Insights Services allows organizations to cost-effectively outsource research to UserTesting’s in-house experts through customized research solutions for business growth and informed decision-making. UserTesting’s Insights Services help teams add research capacity and deliver turnkey insights faster. It also ensures data security, risk mitigation, and efficient research management.

New Integrations with Leading Third-Party Platforms

• FullStory Integration allows users to link UserTesting user feedback with FullStory’s high fidelity user session details to best prioritize digital optimizations and changes that create the biggest impact on the buyers’ journey.
• Canva Integration allows users to embed video-based insights from UserTesting in Canva assets to promote, elevate, and evangelize key insights across the organization for a shared understanding of the customer.

Additional updates include:

• UserTesting University Updates
  The various learning academies have been combined into UserTesting University to simplify customers’ learning experience. This includes UserTesting, UserZoom, UserZoomGo, and EnjoyHQ courses and product documentation. All courses are available in UserTesting University effective immediately.

“FullStory’s platform combines rich analytics, robust visitor session detail, and collaboration tools to help answer critical questions, understand issues, and uncover new conversion opportunities,” said Will Schnabel, SVP Alliances and Partnerships at FullStory. “By integrating with UserTesting’s Human Insight Platform, teams can delve deeper into customer journeys, gain a holistic understanding of their audiences, and make data-driven decisions that significantly impact the business.”

“Companies are building products and experiences for broader audiences than ever. As a result, we are seeing an increasing demand from businesses to be able to connect with niche audiences with unique specificities as a means to stay in-step with changing customer attitudes and behaviors,” said Marco Crolla, Chief Audience Officer at UserTesting. “We bring specialized experience to audience recruitment. Between our own and our vetted partner networks, we have the ability to find the most highly-targeted audiences, helping customers to locate the audiences they need to address their business imperatives—from international compliance challenges to accessibility considerations.”

Growth capital to expand market reach and harness generative AI to expedite innovation, as Telcos migrate legacy core communications networks to the cloud

Alianza, Inc., the leading cloud communications platform for service providers, today announced it raised $61 million in new growth equity and debt financing. The latest round reflects a 70% increase in valuation for the company since March 2021. The equity round is supported by a syndicate of undisclosed institutional investors, as well as strategic partners. The debt financing was provided by Texas Capital Bank.

Third quarter 2023 marked nine consecutive years of quarter over quarter revenue growth for Alianza. Future market opportunities remain substantial for the company with more than 100 million voice lines in North America nearing end-of-life and primed for transition from legacy TDM and softswitch infrastructure to the cloud. Alianza will allocate new funding to:

• Expand its sales team 400% to further penetrate current market opportunities.
• Accelerate delivery of its previously announced commitment to invest $200 million in research and development to empower cloud communications innovation for service providers.

Urgency to transform network infrastructure has only increased in the past 12 months as the gap between legacy network capabilities and over-the-top competitors continues to grow – increasingly leaving communications service providers on the sidelines, rather than competing for valuable services revenue. The cloudification of core communications networks is foundational for service providers to offer innovative retail solutions, as well as a prerequisite to leverage the future benefits of generative AI.

"As the industry rises to face new market dynamics and rapidly evolving innovations in technology, recent investments in Alianza mark another milestone for the company, reinforcing the power of our full-stack capabilities to enable service providers to meet the future from a position of strength," said Brian Beutler, founder and CEO of Alianza.

"Service providers are seeking next-gen voice and unified communications solutions as their existing infrastructure reaches end-of-life, and they look to improve their positioning in an increasingly competitive market," said Brent Kelly, Principal Analyst in Omdia's Digital Workplace practice. "In order for service providers to thrive, they must become more than broadband network operators. They must reduce their cost-of-service delivery while improving the end-user customers' experience. They need to transform from telcos to tech-cos. Alianza is well positioned to help service providers as they navigate this transition."

Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and In the Know video content will be brought to Xperi’s in-cabin entertainment platform, DTS AutoStage Video Service, Powered by TiVo™

Today, Yahoo announced a partnership with Xperi Inc., to bring Yahoo video content from Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and In the Know to Xperi’s DTS AutoStage Video Service, Powered by TiVo. Xperi’s entertainment platform will first be deployed in the all-new BMW 5 series and future BMW models, bringing Yahoo content to the in-car entertainment experience for the very first time.

“From taking a break between errands to sitting in line at school pick-up, drivers spend a significant amount of time idle in their vehicles,” said Lara Davis, Chief Strategy Officer of Yahoo. “Through this partnership with leading automotive entertainment platform Xperi, we are now able to offer snackable content in a way that fits seamlessly into people’s daily routines, where they already spend time.”

BMW drivers in the United States, United Kingdom, Korea, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany will have access to Yahoo Finance Video-On-Demand, Yahoo Sports video podcasts, and In The Know video stream content at the touch of a button.

“Xperi provides a best-in-class in-car connected entertainment experience for BMW drivers,” said Jeff Jury, senior vice president and general manager of connected car, Xperi. “Through partnerships with content providers like Yahoo, we can deliver free premium content across news, sports, and entertainment and offer consumers a personalized viewing experience tailored to their interests.”

With growing consumer demand for premium content on the go, Yahoo aims to reach its audiences no matter the time or place. From game updates on Yahoo Sports to the latest market news on Yahoo Finance, Yahoo keeps customers up to speed with the information that’s most important to them.

• 88% believe stronger regulation of AI is essential, but majority (61%) believe it won’t solve AI risk

• Survey reveals leaders’ 2024 plans: cautious investment, return-to-office mandates, and hiring

New data reveals artificial intelligence is challenging organizations in significant ways, with only 15% of global tech leaders reporting they are prepared for the demands of generative AI and 88% saying stronger regulation of AI is essential, according to the 25^th annual Digital Leadership Report, the world’s largest and longest-running annual survey of technology leadership, published by Nash Squared, parent company to Harvey Nash.

The global study of more than 2,000 technology leaders found that despite the explosive predicted market growth of AI, it isn’t yet widely used: only 1 in 10 U.S. organizations report having large-scale implementation of AI but almost half (48%) are piloting or conducting small-scale implementation. Concerns around the effective application of AI are significant, with almost 9 in 10 global leaders saying stronger regulation of AI is critical, yet 61% say it won’t be effective, compared to 54% in the U.S. who say the same. Compounding these challenges, AI is the number one reported tech skills shortage in the U.S.

“Despite the attention around AI, the application and adoption of AI is really in its nascent stage,” said Jason Pyle, President of Harvey Nash US & Canada Market. “What our survey findings reveal is that the technology behind AI is moving faster than the strategies and policies to support it, and tech leaders are finding themselves squeezed in the middle. As we look ahead to 2024, we expect tech leaders to focus on a few key areas within AI: developing more guidelines around the use and application of AI, putting safety and privacy front and center, and demonstrating its ROI and metrics.”

Tech Leaders Plan for Cautious Investment

After the hypergrowth of 2021 and 2022, the recent slowdown, and aggressive monetary tightening, digital leaders are still optimistic about 2024 growth. Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. tech leaders expect an increase in their budgets (almost identical to 44% of global tech leaders who say the same) and almost half (46%) of U.S. leaders expect to increase headcount, similar to 50% of global leaders who say the same.

Salary changes have been impacted by the economic slowdown and high inflation. Sixty-two percent (62%) of tech leaders report that the rising cost of living is making salary demands unsustainable. About half report salary has either stayed the same (42%) or decreased (7%) year-over-year. Twenty-nine percent (29%) received a salary increase of 5%, and any larger salary increases drop off significantly after that.

Return-to-Office Mandates Result in Fewer Female Tech Workers

The survey found that when there is a high number of mandated days in the office, fewer females choose to be part of the tech team there. For companies without mandated in-office days, 28% of global tech new hires in the last two years are female. That number drops to 22% at companies with a mandated five days in the office.

Almost half (48%) of U.S. companies surveyed require some level of in-office time. The most popular number of required in-office days is overwhelmingly three, with 51% setting that expectation, compared to 15% requiring five days, 15% requiring two days, 11% requiring one day, and 9% requiring four days.

In general, female representation on tech teams remained the same year-over-year, globally at 23% and slightly higher in the U.S. at 27%. Women in leadership roles stalled, remaining at 14% year-over-year globally and dropping from 21% to 20% in the U.S. since last year.

Skills Shortage Eases Slightly

Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. tech leaders shared the skills shortage is preventing them from keeping pace with change. While this is down from 69% in 2021 and 59% in 2022, this year’s number is primarily a result of the slowing market and reduced overall hiring.

Artificial intelligence, technical architecture, big data/analytics/data engineering, enterprise/solution architecture, and project management are the top five skills in demand in the U.S. The same skills shortages are found globally, with the only exception that AI did not make the global top five needed skills.

In recent years, cybersecurity skills have occupied the top three most scarce skills, but this year it’s seen one of the largest falls in demand. In the U.S., the number of tech leaders struggling to find cybersecurity talent has dropped sharply from 43% to 18%.

A Board Seat Helps Outperform the Competition

Over two thirds (68%) of global tech leaders are members of the operational board/executive management team, the highest level since 2017 (71%).

When technology leaders are given a seat at the top table this delivers advantages over the competition, including a 20% uplift in adopting new technology and a 24% advantage in attracting and retaining talent.

Salsify and It'sRapid announced a strategic partnership to address the challenges of creating ecommerce images at scale

In response to the growing demand for Mobile Ready Hero Images in the ecommerce space, It'sRapid, a leader in workflow optimization, is thrilled to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Salsify, a pioneer in Product Experience Management (PXM). This collaboration introduces the It'sRapid Mobile Ready Hero Image Workflow, built on Salsify's platform extensions, an innovative solution designed to address the challenges of creating these images at scale.

As Mobile Ready Hero Images become indispensable in ecommerce, the complexity of creating them at scale has posed significant challenges. Customization with specific product images, adherence to retailer specifications, and the need for constant updates during product refreshes have hindered efficiency. The traditional design process, often slow and manual, diverted valuable creative resources.

In a bid to revolutionize this process, It'sRapid, known for its commitment to workflow enhancement, has partnered with Salsify to unveil the Mobile Ready Hero Image Workflow. Integrated seamlessly with the Salsify PXM platform, this solution accelerates image creation by allowing users to select products for which they want to create mobile ready hero images directly within the Salsify interface. The workflow connects to It'sRapid for image generation, ensuring a fully integrated experience. Custom adjustments can be made effortlessly in the It'sRapid UI.

"Our partnership with Salsify marks a significant leap forward in streamlining ecommerce workflows," said David Feinleib of It'sRapid. "The It'sRapid Mobile Ready Hero Image Workflow is poised to revolutionize how brands and retailers create and update product images efficiently."

"Partnering with It'sRapid reflects our dedication to offering cutting-edge solutions in the ever-evolving ecommerce landscape, via the Salsify PXM platform," stated Joe Gaudreau, VP of Corporate Development at Salsify. "This collaboration will empower brands utilizing Salsify and It'sRapid to navigate the complexities of online retail with agility and smart automation."