Uberall, the global trailblazer in location marketing, celebrates a decade of groundbreaking innovation while unveiling the awaited Fall release that ushers in a new era of AI-driven location-based growth.

In this latest release, Uberall introduces a game-changing platform enhancement, featuring cutting-edge AI-powered features set to redefine how local businesses connect with their customers. Here are the key highlights of Uberall's Fall 2023 Release:

• Meet the Message Assistant: Your ultimate solution for supercharging customer engagement through the magic of conversational intelligence. The newly unveiled Message Assistant taps into a vast array of knowledge sources to deliver rich, precise, and captivating responses across various messaging platforms, from Google and Facebook to Instagram and web chat. It harnesses the power of information by expanding the chatbot  knowledge base beyond location data to new horizons including website frequently asked questions, inventory, help articles and much more ensuring top-notch customer interactions. Moreover, it boasts expanded language support, enabling to effortlessly converse with customers in over 100 languages, no setup required, making multilingual interactions a breeze.
• Meet the Review Assistant: Your new trusty companion for managing online reviews with ease. The new review assistant excels in providing creative, context-sensitive, and linguistically spot-on responses with unmatched speed and efficiency. This AI-driven marvel simplifies response creation, offering suggestions that solve creative fatigue helping brands respond to hundreds of reviews in a unique way. It takes into account the review's sentiment, rating, business particulars, customer insights, and even the review's language, enabling the generation of tailor-made responses with a single click.

Florian Huebner, the CEO and co-founder of Uberall, reflects on this significant moment, saying, " "A decade ago, we embarked on a simple mission: to connect consumers with local businesses and empower them to thrive in their communities. It's been a journey that leaves me both humbled and excited for what comes next. At Uberall, we're all dedicated to harnessing the power of AI. We created an intelligent platform layer deeply integrated with our infrastructure and its unique ecosystem position. It already leverages our data expertise and user-friendly interfaces and empowers clients to intuitively supercharge their efficiency and capabilities – and overall boost their performance. Our AI vision focuses on enhancing every customer interaction and unlocking our clients' full potential. It's all about scaling authentic customer relationships"

The Uberall AI vision will set the future standard of location marketing with improved consumer experience and stronger performance of location-driven growth strategies. 

AidenAI will optimize and accelerate the design, development, and modernization of digital landscapes for enterprises

AidenAI, a global provider of AI-powered digital services, today announced the launch of its Digital Acceleration Platform. AidenAI will leverage AI and Unqork's leading codeless platform to accelerate clients' digital transformation goals and amplify enterprise potential. The collaboration between AidenAI and Unqork will bring businesses, especially financial services providers, the unmatched ability to orchestrate and automate complex business processes while at the same time delivering custom consumer-grade experiences. This will enable enterprises to rapidly transform by scaling human productivity with AI-powered solutions.

With operations spanning across the US, Canada, Australia, and India, AidenAI is strategically positioned to serve businesses on a global scale, specializing in AI-led digital and cloud transformation, driving velocity by rewiring monoliths, eliminating technical debt faster, and nurturing people productivity.

Leveraging its digital consulting and platform expertise, AidenAI's services include:

• Consulting & Advisory: Experts provide strategic guidance in codeless integration & API strategy, along with pathways for modernization that enable enterprises to stay ahead.
• Tech Modernization: Specialize in the implementation and modernization of systems using the Unqork platform to build tech stacks that are agile, efficient, and future-proof.
• Digital Acceleration Platform: AI-led displacement platform is designed to revolutionize data, process, and logic for enterprises, driving efficiency and innovation.
• Industry Frameworks: Lightweight industry solutions cater specifically to the financial services and insurance sectors, providing tailored, ready-to-deploy frameworks.

AidenAI was founded in 2023 by Srinivas Kamadi (Srini) with the goal to accelerate digital outcomes for global clients with AI and codeless platforms. Srini has over 25 years of experience in leading complex change initiatives and digital transformation for Fortune 500 clients globally. He brings to AidenAI experience from having taken direct responsibility for a billion-dollar business delivering enterprise integration and services, where he led over 15,000 consultants as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Enterprise Applications and Services.

"Business leaders know they must prioritize digital transformation for sustained growth, but complexity and costs often hinder progress," said Srini Kamadi, CEO and founder, AidenAI. "AidenAI's AI-powered Digital Acceleration Platform, combined with Unqork's codeless architecture, simplifies and accelerates this transformation by providing predictable outcomes, better cost-effectiveness, and future-proof IT systems."

Unqork created the codeless architecture standard to reshape how organizations create, manage, and run mission-critical software. By eliminating the need for custom coding and subjective programming languages, codeless architecture frees enterprises from the pitfalls of technical debt. Unlike conventional no-code platforms, Unqork uses data – not code – to describe applications, allowing companies to cut operating costs and build applications that can be easily upgraded as technology evolves. Unqork serves many large organizations and provides industry-tailored solutions for customers in financial services, insurance, healthcare, and the public sector.

"AidenAI's embrace of our codeless platform is a testament to the growing appeal of codeless technology and the maturing ecosystem around Unqork", said Gary Hoberman, CEO and founder, Unqork. "I've been able to witness the passion of the full leadership team when they created their previous billion-dollar business. There, it was clear to see their excitement around Unqork's codeless technology, and I can't wait to see what they will soon achieve with AidenAI."

• Early discounts, inventory alerts, Amazon-trusted gift giving are highlights of Sitecore's third-annual report analyzing holiday shopping

• Spending habits are mixed this year with an equal number of consumers (nearly 1 in 3) saying they'll spend more (29%) or less (26%) money this holiday season

• Shoppers are concerned about product availability this year with 3 in 4 (78%) shoppers wanting brands to list product inventory levels and availability

Sitecore, a global leader in end-to-end digital experience software today released the results of its third annual U.S. Holiday Report. The 2023 report revealed that nearly 1 in 3 American shoppers will spend more money this holiday shopping season (29%) and have already started spending and shopping earlier this year (28%). Retailers who got an early start to delivering gift-giving experiences and building targeted content that meets the desires of potential customers are well-poised to thrive and survive this holiday season.

However, given the shaky economy, a near equal number of shoppers (26%) are more cautious about their purchasing this year and plan to spend less. In fact, almost half (43%) say they've already started saving to afford the holiday. Therefore, it's more important than ever for brands to build profiles of their customers to better understand concerns and avoid any cases where promoted products aren't relevant to shopper needs.

To make the holiday more affordable, consumers are looking for ways to cut back their expenses and subscriptions (55%), taking on side gigs (28%) and selling items they own to make extra money (23%). One in five (19%) will even re-gift items, and nearly 3 in 4 will buy cheaper (74%) and fewer (69%) gifts this year. When it comes to determining how (and where) they'll spend their money with brands this holiday season, shoppers will prioritize early discounts and deals (68%), online-only discounts and deals (59%) and exclusive pre-sale deals for loyal customers (38%). Promotional content needs to reflect the economic realities by offering targeted discounting, lower-price alternatives and – even – curated vintage items.

"While we expect many consumers will spend less as they're still reeling from the financial impact of inflation, we do expect to see higher spending this year compared to last year," said Hannah Grap, interim CMO at Sitecore. "But this increased spending doesn't come without strings attached for brands. Consumers will do their homework to keep tight control over their spend and will be selective in what and who they spend their money with this season. Brands must understand their purchasing habits and preferences to win over buyers – and they must build content and experience strategies that reflect these preferences."

Grap adds, "Offering up discounts on big ticket luxury items won't be appreciated by customers tightening their belts. In fact, doing this may even be brand damaging. Time-poor and cash-strapped consumers will shop with the retailers who showcase the things they want at the price-points they need through an online experience that is intuitive, easy-to-engage with and exciting. Sitecore's 2023 U.S. Holiday Report reveals that the customer experience matters and things like showing shoppers item availability, offering free shipping and implementing direct-to-purchase options on social media could give brands an edge over competitors."

Additional findings from the report include:

• Free Shipping or Bust – Two in three (67%) won't purchase an item that doesn't offer free shipping and 84% will fill carts to meet minimum free shipping requirements.
• Inventory Frustration and FOMO – Two in three (67%) have purchased items only to be told after their purchase it isn't available – and that doesn't sit well with shoppers. When shopping this season, 78% say they want to see inventory levels to understand what products are available. If they know an item is low in stock, it will lead them to purchase it right away (43%) or put it in their cart (26%).
• A Tik Tok and Instagram Inspired Holiday – Two in five (41%) say they're influenced by holiday ads to decide what and where they purchase gifts. Of those who say they are inspired by social media, Tik Tok (62%) and Instagram (67%) are the top channels of inspiration to decide the gifts they'll purchase this year. Consumers are also just as likely to trust Amazon gift recommendations (43%) over recommendations made by family and friends (48%). The trust in gift recommendations from Amazon aligns with shopping habits as nearly three in five (58%) consumers say they'll shop from Amazon the most this season compared to purchasing directly from a brand's website (34%).
• Functional, Experiential and Sustainable – Americans' top gift choices this year will be functional (81%), sustainable (75%) and experiential (54%). Additionally, subscriptions (39%) and learning experiences (33%) will be popular gift choices. 
• Online Shopping Is Still King – Just 1 in 5 (20%) plan to do more of their holiday shopping in-store. While consumers plan to do more online shopping this season (47%), they do plan to visit stores in-person to research and browse for items (38%).
• Black Friday Is Bigger This Year – Two in three (66%) plan to holiday shop on Black Friday, which is a higher number of people who shopped in 2022 (56%). Nearly half will shop online only (45%) and 2 in 5 (38%) will shop online and in-store. Beyond the fact that it's just fun to shop on Black Friday (48%), most shoppers (86%) say it's more financially advantageous to shop during Black Friday and it helps them avoid last-minute shopping (34%).

Carbon management solution provides emission insights into complex supply chains

JAGGAER, the global leader in Autonomous Commerce, has announced its collaboration with carbmee in pursuit of its aim to help clients better identify and mitigate supply chain risks through partnerships with information providers. The Berlin-based company’s Environmental Intelligence System EIS™ gives organizations carbon transparency throughout their complex supply chains, with a specific focus on Scope 3.1 and 3.4, enabling them to identify carbon hotspots and engage with suppliers to reduce emissions. Scope 3 takes all indirect emissions into consideration, including materials production, manufacturing processes, distribution and other activities in the supply chain, to provide complete transparency into a company’s total carbon footprint.

“Procurement will make a huge contribution to the global drive to net zero emissions over the coming years and carbmee helps to automate the carbon accounting process. This will further support JAGGAER customers in their sourcing decision-making and give them a boost in their carbon management and reporting,” said Dawn Andre, Chief Product Officer, JAGGAER.

“Participants at our upcoming REV2023 conference will learn more about how to take sourcing decisions that consider the broad spectrum of ESG factors. I am delighted that carbmee will be present in person to demonstrate how their software solution will help JAGGAER customers gain the insights needed to hit their emission reduction targets,” Andre added.

Carbmee’s co-founder Robin Spickers commented: “We’re proud to partner with JAGGAER, combining our expertise to enhance procurement processes with deep ESG integration. By leveraging carbmee’s EIS™ platform and JAGGAER’s Autonomous Commerce capabilities, we’re not just streamlining data collection but truly unlocking carbon reduction potential. This isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about empowering businesses to make profound, sustainable decisions, driving efficiency and competitive advantage in their industries.”

Clients saw an average of 21% improvement In commerce-marketing performance

Independently owned, global commerce marketing practice The Mars Agency this week unveiled the newest generation of its Marilyn^® Commerce Marketing Technology platform, which has been re-designed to give clients full visibility into the total business impact of their commerce-marketing activities.

The measurement methodologies available to commerce marketers have long been inconsistent in breadth, depth, and even taxonomy, making them woefully inadequate for optimizing investments across the retail landscape.

The upgraded Marilyn platform solves those issues by giving clients a clear, consistent view of  commerce marketing on brand growth, moving measurement beyond campaign-specific performance metrics like ROAS, or even ROI to evaluate the full financial contribution being made to the bottom line of their businesses.

The impact has been impressive: Companies using the Marilyn platform have leveraged the richer insights they gain to optimize investments and improve their commerce marketing performance by an average of 21% year-over-year.

"We've taken Marilyn's industry-leading capabilities to an even higher level with new solutions that not only provide a complete understanding of performance, but also make it easier for clients to access the information they need," said Jake Berry, EVP, General Manager of The Mars Agency and team lead of the Marilyn platform. "The results aren't just changing the go-to-market strategies of our clients — they're changing the perception of commerce marketing in their organizations."

The refreshed Marilyn platform is driving Total Business Impact through four key solutions:

• Data Management: Marilyn delivers the proverbial "single source of truth" for commerce-marketing performance by aggregating and normalizing data from all of a company's numerous sources. The platform has saved clients countless hours of work by putting all the necessary data at their fingertips while delivering the real-time transparency needed to make more informed, timelier decisions.
• Measurement & Intelligence: Marilyn's core offering is an unmatched ability to consistently pinpoint the incremental ROI and sales lift from commerce marketing by accurately segmenting out base sales, the effect of other marketing activities such as trade promotion and advertising, and other macroeconomic and environmental factors. The platform lets brands understand the Total Business Impact of their omnichannel programs at multiple levels, including retailer, program, and tactic.
• Planning Optimization: This unprecedented transparency into performance eliminates ineffective and inefficient spending, thereby improving productivity and accuracy and increasing profitability. Clients are able to maximize their investments by shifting dollars to the brands with the greatest growth potential and the retailers, programs, and tactics that are best able to drive that growth. 
• Insight & Analytics Hub: Marilyn's cutting-edge, user-friendly dashboards are designed to serve as "home base" for clients' complete commerce-marketing needs by providing a seamlessly integrated ecosystem for data analysis, media planning, and financial accounting that incorporates all required internal and external data sources.

"Brands can't afford to rely on inconsistent, vendor-reported data, and they can't be satisfied measuring their performance by ROAS," said Berry. "They need a single ecosystem that will help them standardize results, measure the Total Business Impact of their spend, and make smarter decisions. That's exactly what we've designed the new Marilyn platform to do."

Technology and services industry veteran joins leadership team

Coalfire, an industry-leading cybersecurity services and solutions company, today announced the appointment of Ashley Hart as chief marketing officer.

In her new role as chief marketing officer, Ashley Hart will lead Coalfire's brand management, communications, and marketing efforts. With a distinguished career in marketing products and services in the technology sector, Ashley has held key global leadership roles at such enterprise industry leaders as Oracle and Microsoft. Prior to her tenure at Oracle, she was the global chief marketing officer at Infor.

Tom McAndrew, chief executive officer of Coalfire, expressed his enthusiasm for this significant addition to the team, stating, "We are thrilled to welcome Ashley Hart to Coalfire. Ashley brings with her a track record of driving results and leading cross-functional teams in the technology and services sector, from scale-up to global enterprises. I am confident that her leadership and demand generation expertise will prove invaluable to Coalfire."

Ashley Hart also shared her excitement about joining Coalfire, saying, "Coalfire is an extraordinary opportunity, and it's at the forefront of the cybersecurity evolution. I am thrilled to join one of the most respected and trusted cybersecurity companies in the industry."

Groundbreaking AI-generated media detection platform closes round and adds Explainable AI, Real-Time Call Detection for clients.

Reality Defender, the premier deepfake and AI-generated media detection platform, today announced it has raised $15 Million in Series A funding. The round was led by DCVC, with participation from Comcast, ex/ante, Partnership Fund for New York City, Rackhouse Venture Capital, and Nat Friedman's AI Grant.

Founded in 2021, Reality Defender provides enterprises, content platforms, and governments with bleeding-edge solutions to proactively detect deepfake and AI-generated content across audio, video, images, and text. In just two years, the company has partnered with enterprises, governments, and platforms to detect millions of deepfakes, deflect state-sponsored attackers, stop disinformation, and prevent advanced voice fraud in real time.

"Our incredible team built the only platform capable of stopping the most advanced threats of our time," said Ben Colman, CEO and Co-Founder of Reality Defender. "Our new partners at DCVC not only believe in our platform and our team, but share our vision for growing Reality Defender to fully address the innumerable AI-enabled problems of tomorrow. We're thrilled to work in lockstep with a group so equally passionate about our mission of stopping dangerous deepfakes and GenAI content for good."

"While Generative AI has already created massive productivity boosts for products and companies, it has also significantly reduced the cost for bad actors to create fake news, media, voice, and even fake organizations to target individuals, institutions, banks and whole societies," said DCVC General Partner Ali Tamaseb. "In the face of this dire threat—a whole new cybersecurity category—Reality Defender's best-in-class technology is leading the delivery of an absolute civil necessity: the ability to distinguish between what's real and what isn't."

In addition to fundraising, Reality Defender has launched Explainable AI on the platform's web application. Available today for all clients using Text Detection, Explainable AI enables clients to scan a document and see color coded paragraphs of AI-generated text. Explainable AI for audio, video, and image detection will continue to roll out on the Reality Defender platform in the coming months. The company has also launched real-time voice deepfake detection to select clients, allowing call centers and anti-fraud teams to detect the use of manipulated or fabricated media as it happens.

Popular ChatCSV app provides intelligent insight into imported data

Flatfile, the pioneer of AI-assisted data exchange, today announced the acquisition of AI start-up Chatcsv Inc. With breakout growth in just a few months since its release, ChatCSV already has thousands of users. From global enterprises such as Procter & Gamble and McKinsey to technology companies such as Zapier, Quora and Vimeo, companies rely on ChatCSV for quick, contextual insight into CSV files and spreadsheets. The AI-powered app acts as a personal data analyst and allows users to "chat" with their CSV files, asking pointed questions to extract textual and visual insights from data, eliminating the tedious and error-prone process of navigating complex datasets manually.

The acquisition closely follows the recent release of the Flatfile Data Exchange Platform, an industry-first, extensible, API-driven platform for file-based data import. With the addition of ChatCSV's capabilities, Flatfile enriches its existing features and significantly strengthens its leadership in AI-assisted data exchange.

A Unifying Vision for AI-Enabled Data Interaction

"With the acquisition, Flatfile is doubling down on its AI capabilities to provide a unified, intuitive data import experience that does all the heavy lifting for the end user," said David Boskovic, founder and CEO of Flatfile.  "I was incredibly impressed with founder Sam Barrowclough, and am excited to have him join Flatfile to help us shape the future of AI-enabled data exchange, setting a new industry standard for what's possible."

Data is everywhere and often resides in files managed by individuals, vendors, customers, agents, remote offices, or partners. These files are highly variable in data quality, formats, and structure. It is imperative for every business that such data is available at the right time and is accurate, up-to-date, and secure. As companies race to build more intelligent and automated systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence are dramatically increasing the stakes of data accuracy and rapid availability.

Flatfile's robust API-driven platform coupled with ChatCSV's intuitive technology ensures that developers can provide an unparalleled data import experience for their users. ChatCSV aligns seamlessly with Flatfile's mission to simplify and accelerate the process of importing diverse data files from various sources.