TDI is strengthening its leadership bench as geopolitical risk and regulatory complexity push demand for sharper intelligence. The advisory and risk insights firm has appointed Vanessa Sussman as Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer, reporting directly to the CEO. Her mandate: elevate TDI’s global brand and align marketing with the firm’s commercial ambitions as it expands into new markets.

The appointment comes at a moment when risk intelligence firms are racing to differentiate amid rising demand for due diligence, investigations and geopolitical analysis. TDI aims to use marketing as a strategic lever, not a support function, as it broadens its mix of advisory services and software-driven solutions.

A CMO Built for Complex Markets

CEO Jay Truesdale said Sussman’s background makes her a natural fit. “She brings a strategic mindset and a unique background at the intersection of global affairs, marketing, and communications,” he noted. “Her ability to distill complex issues into clear, compelling narratives will be essential as we grow and continue to help clients navigate an increasingly challenging geopolitical and regulatory landscape.”

Sussman’s résumé spans more than 25 years across corporations, advisory firms, media organizations and nonprofits. Most recently, she served as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, where she helped the brands cut through noise in a crowded geopolitical insights market. Before that, she led private markets communications at Nuveen, following senior roles at Morningstar. Her earlier experience includes Group SJR, Council of the Americas, Foreign Policy, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Her track record reflects fluency in translating global complexity into digestible stories—an increasingly valuable skill as companies across industries confront political volatility, fragmented regulation and heightened operational risk.

Strengthening TDI’s Global Position

At TDI, Sussman will oversee global brand strategy with a focus on scaling visibility among decision-makers in corporate, financial, and government sectors. She will also align messaging and go-to-market initiatives with the firm’s expanding portfolio, which now includes software tools designed to streamline due diligence and risk monitoring.

The firm’s growth ambitions extend across regions and sectors where geopolitical intelligence is becoming a competitive advantage. Sussman’s role will be central in sharpening how TDI communicates that value.

Beyond her professional background, Sussman remains active in civic and educational communities. She serves on the board of City Year New York and sits on the communications advisory board for the Museum of American Finance. She holds degrees from Johns Hopkins SAIS and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

With Sussman joining the leadership team, TDI signals a more assertive go-to-market stance—one built on clarity, credibility, and sharper global storytelling.

8x8 has added another award to its shelf. The business communications provider has earned Gold in the User Experience Design – Business category at the 2025 London Design Awards for 8x8 Engage, its mobile-first workspace built for customer-facing teams. The win highlights a broader industry shift: CX tools are finally being re-engineered for the way modern teams actually work.

Solving the Fragmented CX Tool Problem

Most service teams operate across chaotic workflows. They bounce between channels, switch devices, and loop in subject-matter experts across billing, HR, IT, and finance. Yet their tools rarely keep up. Disconnected apps slow reaction times, fracture context, and create the kind of inconsistency customers notice immediately.

8x8 Engage tackles that pain head-on. The platform unifies voice, video, SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Viber into a single, intelligent workflow supported by AI. The design centers on mobility and collaboration, two needs that frontline workers can’t compromise on. The result is a workspace built around speed, clarity, and continuity rather than patchwork communication.

Why the Award Matters

The London User Experience Design Awards prioritizes products that reduce friction and elevate accessibility. Winning Gold in this category signals that 8x8 Engage is not only functional, but also built on thoughtful design decisions that reflect how frontline and expert teams behave in real conditions.

“User experience is a business differentiator,” said Dhwani Soni, Global Vice President of Product Design and User Experience at 8x8. She emphasized that the solution was shaped for both mobile field teams and the experts behind the scenes. By reducing cognitive load and simplifying information flow, 8x8 Engage improves resolution times, strengthens collaboration, and boosts customer satisfaction. In CX, those improvements translate quickly into measurable performance gains.

A Core Pillar of the 8x8 Platform for CX

8x8 Engage sits inside the broader 8x8 Platform for CX, which merges contact centre capabilities, unified communications, and APIs into one scalable ecosystem. This architecture allows organisations to standardise their communication stack, accelerate adoption, and eliminate the operational drag that comes with juggling multiple vendors.

More importantly, it extends consistent workflows to every customer-facing role, even those outside the traditional contact centre. That’s a notable contrast to legacy platforms that often limit advanced tools to agents alone. As industries confront rising customer expectations and shrinking patience, aligning every team around the same communication backbone becomes a strategic advantage.

The Bigger Picture

The recognition for 8x8 Engage arrives at a moment when CX software is being reshaped by user-centric design, AI-powered context, and mobile-native workflows. Competitors across unified communications and contact center software are racing to deliver similar experiences, yet few platforms unify such a wide range of channels without adding operational complexity.

For organisations facing higher service demands with fewer resources, solutions like 8x8 Engage point to a future where UX isn’t a cosmetic feature but a performance driver. When communication flows without friction, teams spend less time hunting for information and more time resolving issues. In today’s market, that efficiency is what customers remember.

Comviva is pushing enterprise marketing into its next major upgrade. The company has introduced a GenAI-powered version of MobiLytix Real Time Marketing (RTM), a platform built to help marketers move faster, personalize better, and edge closer to autonomous campaign orchestration. In a market racing toward AI-first tools, this launch signals an aggressive step beyond traditional marketing automation.

The revamped MobiLytix RTM aims to reduce manual work across the entire campaign lifecycle. Marketers can generate content variations, tailor messages to different audiences, and turn analytics into actionable insights using conversational prompts. This shift transforms complex reporting into straightforward guidance, sparing teams from spreadsheet acrobatics and accelerating campaign deployment.

Comviva also highlights speed as a core advantage. With AI-driven decisioning and a library of pre-built templates for high-impact use cases, teams can take campaigns from concept to launch in a fraction of the time. The platform’s flexibility gives marketing teams greater independence, reducing reliance on slow-moving operational cycles.

The most compelling addition, however, may be what comes next. Comviva has laid the groundwork for autonomous AI agents—systems designed to learn from performance data, optimize creative and offers in real time, and operate within marketer-defined governance. It’s a glimpse at the industry’s emerging direction: intelligent agents that don’t simply automate tasks, but continuously optimize the entire marketing engine.

Manish Singhal, Head of MarTech Solutions at Comviva, framed it bluntly: marketing is shifting from automation to autonomy. “Tomorrow’s marketing teams won’t just run campaigns; they will command an intelligent ecosystem of AI agents that plan, optimize and execute in real time,” he said. According to Singhal, the new MobiLytix RTM gives marketers the tools to increase conversions, lift retention, and sustain long-term growth—without losing control over strategy or brand governance.

Under the hood, MobiLytix RTM brings scale. The platform integrates more than 120 predictive and prescriptive AI models, tied together with a modern decisioning engine and a live, 360-degree customer profile. It supports multiple business lines and channels simultaneously, enabling granular personalization at enterprise velocity.

A redesigned UI and modular architecture round out the update. Marketers gain an improved journey-building workspace, faster collaboration tools, and real-time optimization capabilities. The platform’s design reflects the needs of digital-first businesses where campaign cycles are short, data volumes high, and customer expectations unforgiving.

Comviva’s credentials back the launch. MobiLytix already serves more than 300 million customers globally, supported by two decades of Customer Value Management expertise. With GenAI woven through the latest release, the company is positioning itself against modern marketing clouds and next-gen AI orchestration platforms that are rapidly entering the market.

The real story here is the shift in marketing operations. As enterprise marketers face rising pressure to personalize at scale, reduce costs, and prove revenue impact, tools like MobiLytix RTM are becoming less optional and more foundational. Comviva’s latest release suggests that autonomous marketing—once a buzzword—is starting to take shape in real deployments.

Digital Silk is ending the year with a visibility boost. The award-winning digital agency announced that its Founder and CEO, Gabriel Shaoolian, has been featured in a Forbes Agency Council Expert Panel exploring the services clients value most heading into 2026. The article, published on November 5, 2025, draws insights from 20 agency leaders across the U.S., reflecting the shifting priorities of brands navigating an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

The Forbes piece highlights a clear trend: clients aren’t just looking for incremental improvements—they want foundational shifts. Shaoolian’s contribution centers on website redesign, a service he believes plays a defining role in shaping user experience, site speed, conversion journeys, and long-term digital performance. In an era where digital channels drive the bulk of revenue, a site refresh can influence everything from paid visibility to organic search strength.

Industry Recognition That Signals a Broader Shift

Forbes’ Expert Panels are curated to surface perspectives from verified members of the Forbes Agency Council. They offer a concise view of what agencies are prioritizing and where brands are placing their budgets. In this case, topics ranged from digital strategy and branding to analytics and media performance, underscoring how multidimensional digital operations have become.

Shaoolian’s insight aligns with a growing reality: a modern website is no longer a static asset. It operates as the central hub of an organization’s digital ecosystem. Improvements to structure, messaging, navigation, or checkout flows ripple outward—enhancing campaign performance, strengthening SEO outcomes, and improving return on ad spend.

His commentary appears alongside leaders specializing in branding, creative development, and integrated strategy, supporting a broader narrative: brands want partners who can connect creativity, data, and performance.

Expert Panels as a Foundation for Deeper Thought Leadership

Forbes notes that Expert Panels often serve as a starting point for extended editorial contributions. Digital Silk plans to publish additional pieces that dive deeper into web performance strategy, experience design, and the rising expectations enterprise brands now place on digital platforms.

These upcoming articles aim to build on the themes introduced in the panel, offering more detailed guidance for organizations evaluating their digital priorities for 2026.

Verified Trends From Across the Agency Landscape

The panel surfaces several themes shaping client demand:

• Website redesign as a performance lever

• Clearer brand positioning for competitive markets

• Improvements in user experience and conversion flow

• Data accuracy, analytics hygiene, and attribution modeling

• Digital channel trends reported across agencies

Together, these focus areas form a roadmap for brands looking to strengthen their digital operations while responding to new consumer expectations.

Leadership Perspective

“We appreciate the opportunity to contribute to discussions that reflect the evolving needs of today’s brands,” Shaoolian said. “Expert Panels offer a collective view of what clients are prioritizing and where agencies can support them. We look forward to expanding on these topics in future editorial contributions.”

The Forbes Expert Panel featuring Shaoolian is now live on Forbes.com, offering a snapshot of how agencies are realigning service offerings to meet client needs. Readers can explore the full article or visit Digital Silk’s website for insight into the agency’s approach to strategy, design, and performance.

New data from Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey offers a sharper view of how Americans use social platforms and how these patterns continue to shift across age, gender, education, and political lines. While the dominant networks remain familiar, the underlying behaviours look increasingly fragmented. Because of this, marketing teams need smarter segmentation and more adaptive content strategies. This article breaks down key findings and translates them into practical steps for brand leaders.

Platform Dominance and Shifting Attention

YouTube and Facebook still dominate the social landscape. YouTube reaches 84% of US adults, while Facebook maintains 71% penetration. Only Instagram joins them above the 50% threshold. Meanwhile, TikTok, WhatsApp, Reddit, and Snapchat sit slightly behind. Their audiences remain smaller but highly valuable due to their depth of engagement.

Marketers should not ignore this distribution. Instead, they should align media budgets with proven reach while still experimenting with emerging channels. YouTube and Facebook deserve continued investment. However, Instagram and TikTok should anchor vertical video strategies aimed at younger and more mobile-first audiences. Reddit and WhatsApp continue to grow, so they offer useful opportunities for segmented or community-driven campaigns.

Where Growth Is Actually Happening

Although Facebook and YouTube remain massive, their reach has stalled. Growth is happening elsewhere. TikTok use rose sharply from 21% in 2021 to 37% in 2025. WhatsApp climbed from 23% to 32%. Reddit jumped from 18% to 26%. This shows where cultural momentum sits.

Brands targeting younger or digitally dynamic audiences should increase their visibility on TikTok and Instagram. Because WhatsApp and Reddit support interest-led behaviour, they provide useful environments for conversational marketing or community engagement. Although reach alone does not guarantee relevance, growing platforms often produce the strongest early ROI when brands act before competition peaks.

Age Still Determines Where People Spend Time

Age remains the most powerful predictor of platform choice. Younger adults use Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Reddit at far higher rates. Eighty percent of adults aged 18–29 use Instagram compared with only 19% of those 65 and older. Only YouTube and Facebook manage to cut across every age bracket.

Marketers should tailor channel selection accordingly. Gen Z and millennials respond well to authenticity, humour, and rapid storytelling. Meanwhile, Gen X and Boomers prefer value-driven, straightforward content on Facebook and YouTube. Because daily behaviour differs across generations, brands need audience-specific content formats rather than one-size-fits-all strategies.

Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Education Shape Platform Habits

Gender gaps persist. Women favour Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, while men gravitate toward Reddit and X. Differences across race and ethnicity are equally meaningful. Hispanic, Asian, and Black adults use Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp more than White adults. Education also plays a role, with highly educated segments using Reddit, WhatsApp, and Instagram at above-average rates.

Marketers should adjust both format and messaging. Instagram and WhatsApp matter for multicultural targeting. Reddit can support deeper, more technical conversations with male or highly educated audiences. Gender-informed and culture-informed strategies are increasingly necessary for performance outcomes.

Politics and Platform Preference

Political identity continues to influence platform choice. Democrats lean toward WhatsApp, Reddit, TikTok, Bluesky, and Threads. Republicans prefer X and Truth Social. Although X’s user base has shifted over the years, it retains a unique position in political discourse.

Brands must approach political segmentation with caution. This is especially important for organisations working in finance, healthcare, energy, or other policy-adjacent sectors. Platform choice can shape perception, so alignment with audience tendencies matters.

Daily Use and Engagement Frequency

Daily behaviour highlights where users show real dependency. Half of US adults visit Facebook and YouTube every day. Facebook, however, leads in intensity, with 37% returning several times per day. TikTok sees 24% daily use, mostly from younger audiences. X trails far behind at 10%.

Always-on content strategies should align with this activity. Facebook and YouTube offer consistent reach for evergreen posts and longer-form storytelling. TikTok demands fast, trend-led content built for quick bursts of attention. Older Facebook audiences expect fewer but more meaningful posts, while younger TikTok users reward rapid, reactive updates.

What Marketing Leaders Should Do Now

The 2025 social landscape requires agility. Digital behaviour is splitting along demographic, cultural, and political lines. Because of this, brands must diversify their channel mix and avoid relying on a single dominant platform. They should segment audiences more precisely, test emerging channels such as Threads and Bluesky, and refine content formats by age group.

Short-form video remains critical for younger consumers. Meanwhile, value-centric and educational content resonates with older ones. These demographic differences represent strategic opportunities. Brands that adapt quickly will gain relevance and long-term digital resilience.

The global home theatre market is entering a new expansion phase, driven by rising consumer investment in premium entertainment systems and rapid advancements in smart, connected device technology. New projections from SNS Insider show the market’s total value reaching USD 23.52 billion by 2033, nearly doubling from USD 11.92 billion in 2025, with an expected CAGR of 8.90% from 2026 to 2033.

As consumers rethink how they experience media at home, the shift toward smarter, wireless, and AI-enhanced audio-visual ecosystems is reshaping the entire category.

Smart, Connected Systems Accelerate Global Growth

The strongest driver of market expansion is the rapid adoption of smart home entertainment systems. As households integrate more IoT-enabled devices, users increasingly expect seamless streaming, multi-room setups, and smarter sound systems that adjust automatically.

Modern home theatre systems now feature voice control, wireless connectivity, and AI-powered sound tuning, enabling a highly personalized experience. These capabilities help transform the living room into a connected entertainment hub capable of delivering cinema-level audio and video quality without complex installations.

The rise of smart homes is also fueling demand for interoperable devices. Consumers want systems that work fluidly with Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, and other ecosystems, increasing pressure on manufacturers to innovate in wireless standards, app interfaces, and cross-platform compatibility.

Rising Consumer Spending Boosts Premium Audio and Visual Products

A continued increase in household expenditure on entertainment products is another key contributor to market growth. Consumers are prioritizing high-fidelity audio systems, 4K/8K projectors, immersive soundbars, and modular speaker setups as they create personalized media environments.

This shift accelerated during the post-pandemic period as hybrid work patterns led people to spend more time at home. As a result, customers are more willing to invest in advanced systems that deliver premium experiences for movies, gaming, music, and sports.

Manufacturers are responding with improved product design, better material quality, and flexible configurations that fit living spaces of all sizes.

Wireless and AI Technologies Redefine Home Entertainment

The demand for wireless devices—such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-enabled speakers, modular soundbars, and streaming boxes—remains high. The elimination of cables, combined with more compact form factors, makes modern home theatres both aesthetically appealing and easier to install.

Meanwhile, AI-driven features are elevating the listening experience. Systems equipped with real-time audio calibration can analyze room acoustics and adjust sound output automatically. This level of intelligence, once limited to high-end studios, is now becoming mainstream.

These trends set the stage for manufacturers to develop even more refined systems with adaptive audio profiles, content-specific tuning, and automated device orchestration across home networks.

What’s Next for the Home Theatre Market?

As the market expands, competition will intensify among established brands and new entrants. Companies focusing on AI-enabled sound systems, ultra-high-definition projectors, low-latency wireless tech, and smart home integrations will lead the next growth wave.

The rising popularity of gaming, especially cloud gaming and e-sports, will also push manufacturers to build high-performance systems supporting ultra-low-latency audio and high-refresh-rate displays.

With consumers demanding more immersive, connected, and user-friendly experiences, the home theatre market is poised for sustained innovation through the next decade.

Vodacom Group has entered a major collaboration with Google Cloud to fast-track its digital transformation and roll out next-generation AI-powered services across Africa. The pan-African telecom giant will integrate Google Cloud’s data analytics and generative AI stack — including Gemini, Veo, and Imagen — to modernize its infrastructure and develop new digital products for consumers and enterprises.

The partnership centers on using Google Cloud’s scalable infrastructure to unify Vodacom’s extensive data landscape. By consolidating critical data platforms onto Google Cloud’s data cloud and BigQuery, Vodacom aims to achieve real-time insights, stronger governance, and a single source of truth to support large-scale AI deployments.

“This collaboration is more than a technology upgrade; it is a deep commitment to Africa’s digital revolution,” said Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom. He added that the move will help deliver AI-powered services that address the continent’s unique challenges and unlock new opportunities for millions of users.

Maureen Costello, VP for UKI and SSA at Google Cloud, said the company is "proud to support Vodacom in accelerating AI across Africa," emphasizing the value of generative AI models like Gemini in enabling new capabilities and services.

A Three-Pillar Strategy to Build Africa’s AI Future

1. Data Modernization & Unification
Vodacom will migrate its data systems to Google Cloud, integrating BigQuery to improve analytics, governance, and speed — essential for deploying advanced AI models at scale.

2. Accelerated AI Adoption
Using Vertex AI and Gemini, Vodacom will embed AI across its operations. Early focus areas include network optimization, personalized customer service, fraud detection, and automated support.

3. Product Innovation for the African Market
The collaboration will also fuel new fintech solutions to drive financial inclusion, enterprise-grade digital services, and enhanced consumer experiences in content access and education.

The initiative builds on the existing partnership between Vodafone (Vodacom’s parent company) and Google Cloud, reinforcing a shared push to expand secure, scalable AI innovation globally.

Alibaba reported its financial results for the quarter and six months ending September 30, 2025, revealing strong momentum in its AI and cloud businesses but significant pressure on profitability as the company enters an aggressive investment cycle.

CEO Eddie Wu said the company is doubling down on “long-term strategic value” across AI technologies, cloud infrastructure, and a unified consumption platform integrating e-commerce with daily life services. Cloud Intelligence Group remained the standout performer—revenue jumped 34% year-over-year, driven by surging enterprise demand for AI tools. AI-related products posted triple-digit growth for the ninth straight quarter.

In its consumption business, Alibaba continued scaling quick commerce, improving unit economics and pushing rapid growth in monthly active users on Taobao. CFO Toby Xu noted that Alibaba has deployed roughly RMB120 billion in capex over the past four quarters to strengthen AI and cloud infrastructure, while cautioning that profitability will fluctuate in the near term.

Quarterly Performance: Revenue Up, Profit Down

Alibaba posted quarterly revenue of RMB247.8 billion, up 5% year-over-year, or 15% on a like-for-like basis excluding divested units Sun Art and Intime.
But income from operations fell 85% to RMB5.4 billion, weighed down by a 78% drop in adjusted EBITA due to heavy investment in quick commerce, user experience enhancements, and technology development.

Net income attributable to shareholders came in at RMB21.0 billion, down 53% from the prior year as operating income contracted sharply.
Free cash flow flipped to an outflow of RMB21.8 billion, compared to a RMB13.7 billion inflow last year, reflecting major spending on cloud infrastructure and commerce expansion. Alibaba ended the quarter with RMB573.9 billion in cash and liquid investments.

Six-Month Results: Modest Revenue Growth, Margin Pressure Continues

For the six-month period, revenue rose 3% to RMB495.4 billion, or 12% on a like-for-like basis. Income from operations dropped 43% to RMB40.4 billion, with adjusted EBITA declining 44% year-over-year.

Net income held up comparatively better, slipping 7% to RMB63.0 billion, supported by mark-to-market gains on equity investments, lower impairments, and gains from the disposal of Trendyol’s local consumer services unit.

However, free cash flow again swung into negative territory, with an outflow of RMB40.7 billion, driven by elevated capex for cloud expansion and quick commerce initiatives.

Alibaba emphasized that while its AI + Cloud and consumption businesses are delivering strong growth, it expects continued volatility in profitability as it reinvests heavily in future-focused infrastructure and next-generation services.