Customer experience outsourcing is entering a new phase—one where AI augmentation, global talent networks, and governance frameworks must work together rather than operate as separate strategies.

Atento, a major provider of customer experience (CX) and business transformation outsourcing (BTO), is leaning into that shift with a new three-way collaboration aimed at reshaping how global CX delivery is built and scaled.

The company announced a strategic partnership with Sanas, a provider of real-time speech understanding technology, and Thrivin, a Kenya-based impact sourcing platform focused on developing high-quality talent pipelines. Together, the companies say they are creating a unified delivery model that blends AI-enabled communication tools with a disciplined outsourcing framework and a rapidly growing African workforce.

The move reflects a broader industry trend: outsourcing providers are increasingly combining artificial intelligence with distributed global talent pools to meet rising enterprise demand for scalable, high-quality customer engagement.

Atento describes the approach with a simple premise: CX augmented by AI but driven by people.

A New Operating Model for BTO

At the core of the collaboration is a unified business transformation outsourcing model that integrates governance, AI enablement, and workforce development.

Atento will act as the orchestrator of the overall framework, overseeing security, compliance, performance management, and enterprise transformation processes across the delivery network.

Within that structure, the other partners contribute specialized capabilities.

Sanas provides an AI layer designed to improve communication in voice-based customer interactions. Its real-time speech understanding technology helps agents overcome accent barriers and communication friction, making it easier for international support teams to interact with customers in markets like the United States.

Thrivin contributes a talent pipeline built around highly educated, English-proficient professionals in Kenya, a country increasingly recognized as a rising hub for digital services and outsourcing.

By combining these capabilities under Atento’s governance framework, the partners aim to create an outsourcing model that supports global expansion while maintaining enterprise-grade operational standards.

The Rise of AI-Augmented Customer Experience

Customer experience outsourcing has traditionally been driven by geography—companies moved operations to lower-cost regions while attempting to maintain service quality.

But the equation is changing as enterprises adopt AI technologies that can enhance agent performance, automate repetitive tasks, and improve communication across global teams.

Sanas’ technology plays a key role in that transformation.

Its speech understanding system works in real time during voice interactions, helping reduce misunderstandings between agents and customers. By smoothing communication barriers, the technology allows companies to expand support operations internationally without sacrificing customer experience consistency.

In practice, this means organizations can tap into broader talent pools while maintaining the clarity and responsiveness customers expect from voice-based support.

The approach aligns with a growing industry trend toward AI-augmented agents, where human representatives remain central to service delivery but operate with AI tools that enhance speed, accuracy, and communication.

Operationalizing Impact Sourcing

Another major element of the partnership is impact sourcing, a workforce development model that prioritizes creating economic opportunities in emerging markets while delivering enterprise-quality services.

Thrivin specializes in building talent pipelines across Africa, focusing on recruiting and training professionals who meet the technical and linguistic requirements of global enterprises.

Through the collaboration, Thrivin’s talent network will integrate directly into Atento’s global delivery framework, operating under the same governance and performance management standards used across the company’s existing operations.

This approach allows enterprises to expand into new delivery geographies without the operational uncertainty that can sometimes accompany new outsourcing locations.

It also reflects the increasing strategic importance of Africa in the global outsourcing market.

Countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa have invested heavily in digital infrastructure and education programs aimed at positioning the region as a competitive destination for business services and technology operations.

Total Experience as the Organizing Principle

The partnership is also built around the concept of Total Experience (TX)—an operational model that aligns customer experience, employee experience, and operational efficiency.

Rather than treating customer satisfaction, workforce engagement, and cost management as separate priorities, the TX framework attempts to optimize them together.

Within this model:

• Customer experience improves through AI-enabled communication tools and trained support agents.

• Employee experience benefits from structured career pathways and performance frameworks.

• Operational efficiency increases through standardized governance and automation.

By aligning these elements, Atento aims to create a delivery model that is both scalable and sustainable over the long term.

Africa’s Growing Role in Global CX Delivery

Africa’s emergence as a new outsourcing frontier is a key element of the strategy.

The continent has one of the world’s youngest populations, along with a rapidly expanding pool of digitally skilled, English-speaking professionals. For global companies seeking to diversify their support operations beyond traditional outsourcing hubs, this workforce represents a significant opportunity.

However, scaling operations in new regions also requires strong governance and operational frameworks—areas where established outsourcing providers like Atento play a crucial role.

By integrating Thrivin’s local talent development capabilities with its own transformation methodologies, Atento aims to create a model that balances expansion with operational discipline.

Enterprise Governance Still Takes Center Stage

Even as AI and new talent markets reshape the CX outsourcing landscape, governance remains a critical factor for enterprise buyers.

Large organizations must meet strict requirements around data security, regulatory compliance, and performance management—particularly when customer interactions involve sensitive personal or financial information.

In the new collaboration, Atento maintains responsibility for those enterprise-grade standards.

The company’s global delivery framework ensures that all participating partners operate within established security and compliance guidelines, giving enterprise clients confidence that expansion into new geographies won’t introduce unnecessary risk.

Industry Shift: From Cost Optimization to Transformation

The partnership also reflects a broader shift underway across the outsourcing industry.

For decades, business process outsourcing was largely defined by cost savings. Companies moved operations to lower-cost locations while attempting to maintain service quality.

Today, the conversation is increasingly about transformation rather than cost reduction.

Enterprises want outsourcing partners that can help them modernize operations, integrate AI technologies, and deliver better customer experiences.

By combining AI augmentation, workforce development, and governance frameworks, Atento is positioning its new model as an example of that evolution.

Brent Bush, executive vice president of sales and business development at Atento, said the collaboration brings together complementary strengths across technology, talent, and operational expertise.

“Together, we’re creating new opportunities to deliver AI-augmented customer experience at scale while helping enterprises expand into new markets with the governance, performance, and quality they expect from Atento,” Bush said.

Chris Condon, president and general manager of Atento’s U.S. Nearshore operations, added that the approach demonstrates how responsible global expansion can coexist with enterprise performance standards.

“By integrating AI-enabled voice technology with a disciplined, governed impact sourcing delivery model, we’re demonstrating that global expansion, operational rigor, and workforce development can coexist within a high-performance BTO framework,” he said.

The Future of CX Outsourcing

As customer expectations rise and AI technologies reshape service delivery, outsourcing providers are under pressure to rethink how their operations work.

The next generation of CX delivery models will likely rely on a combination of:

• AI-enhanced agents

• globally distributed talent networks

• enterprise-grade governance frameworks

• integrated customer and employee experience strategies

Atento’s partnership with Sanas and Thrivin represents an early attempt to bring those elements together into a single operating model.

If successful, it could provide a blueprint for how outsourcing firms evolve in an era where AI and human expertise are increasingly intertwined.

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Customer service agents today often spend as much time navigating software as they do helping customers. With enterprise tech stacks growing increasingly fragmented, agents frequently jump between CRM dashboards, messaging platforms, ticketing tools, and internal knowledge systems just to resolve a single inquiry.

Conversational AI provider LivePerson is trying to eliminate that friction.

The company announced the launch of LivePerson Sync, a new integration framework designed to pull CRM data, workflows, and automation directly into the agent workspace. Built in partnership with enterprise integration specialist Coral Active, the new capability aims to create a unified environment where agents can access customer information and manage conversations without constantly switching applications.

The release underscores a broader industry push to simplify customer service operations while layering in AI-powered automation.

“LivePerson Sync is the answer brands have been looking for to improve agent productivity and experience by providing agents with the customer information they need in a single view,” said John Sabino, CEO of LivePerson. “By further connecting our agent workspace with critical information from across systems, we’re removing the friction of disconnected systems.”

The Growing Problem of Fragmented Contact Center Tech

Modern customer service operations rely on a patchwork of tools.

Agents might handle conversations through messaging platforms while referencing customer records in CRMs, updating tickets in service management systems, and checking order histories or billing information in separate databases. Each step adds time and complexity to the interaction.

For enterprises handling thousands—or millions—of customer conversations each month, those inefficiencies can translate into higher operating costs, longer handle times, and frustrated customers.

The rise of digital channels has only intensified the problem. Messaging, social media, and AI-powered chatbots now sit alongside traditional phone support, increasing the number of platforms agents must manage.

LivePerson Sync targets that operational gap by bringing key systems together inside the company’s Conversational Cloud platform.

Instead of toggling between multiple screens, agents can view and act on CRM data, service tickets, and conversation history from within a single interface.

A “Single Pane of Glass” for Customer Conversations

At the center of LivePerson Sync is a concept many enterprise software vendors have been chasing for years: the “single pane of glass.”

The idea is simple but difficult to execute—consolidate multiple operational systems into one unified workspace where users can access everything they need without leaving the environment.

LivePerson Sync integrates with major enterprise platforms including Salesforce, Microsoft applications, and ServiceNow. The system synchronizes customer data and workflows in real time, allowing agents to see relevant records, update cases, and trigger automated actions during conversations.

This integration layer is powered by an event-driven architecture that treats each customer interaction as a trigger for downstream workflows.

For example, a customer conversation could automatically pull up the corresponding CRM profile, update service tickets, or initiate follow-up actions based on the content of the interaction.

That orchestration layer becomes particularly valuable when combined with conversational AI systems that generate summaries, extract insights, and automate routine updates.

Four Deployment Models for Different Enterprise Workflows

LivePerson Sync introduces four primary deployment models designed to accommodate different enterprise environments and workflows.

CRM in LivePerson

In this configuration, CRM functionality is embedded directly within the LivePerson agent workspace. Agents can access customer profiles, update records, and manage leads or service tickets without leaving the conversation interface.

The integration also supports bidirectional data synchronization, ensuring that updates made in either system are reflected across both platforms.

LivePerson in CRM

For organizations that prefer to keep their existing CRM as the central workspace, LivePerson offers the inverse deployment model.

Here, conversational capabilities are embedded directly within the CRM desktop. Agents can handle messaging conversations inside their familiar CRM interface while still benefiting from LivePerson’s AI-driven capabilities.

This approach also provides a pathway for organizations transitioning from older chat connectors or legacy integrations.

Context Synchronization

Context synchronization allows enterprise teams to automate how customer records appear during live conversations.

When an agent switches between customer chats, the relevant CRM record can automatically appear on a secondary monitor or dashboard. That reduces the time agents spend searching for the right customer profile or case history.

AI Enrichment and Automation

The final model focuses on post-conversation automation.

After a conversation ends, LivePerson Sync can automatically ingest transcripts, generate summaries, and update CRM records using AI-powered workflows. That eliminates the manual documentation tasks that typically follow customer interactions.

For high-volume support operations, those automated updates can significantly reduce after-call work.

A Partnership Built Around Contact Center Integration

LivePerson developed Sync in partnership with Coral Active, a company that has specialized in contact center integrations since 2011.

Coral Active’s technology focuses on simplifying agent workspaces by connecting CRMs, legacy systems, and modern customer engagement platforms. By combining that integration expertise with LivePerson’s conversational AI infrastructure, the two companies aim to streamline how enterprise agents interact with multiple systems.

The partnership reflects a broader shift in the contact center industry toward interoperability.

Instead of replacing existing enterprise software, many modern platforms are designed to act as orchestration layers that connect and automate workflows across existing systems.

Event-Driven Architecture Meets Conversational AI

Technically, LivePerson Sync operates through an event-driven orchestration model.

Every customer interaction—whether it’s a message, chatbot conversation, or escalation to a human agent—generates an event that can trigger workflows across integrated systems.

That architecture enables automation scenarios such as:

• Updating CRM records in real time during conversations

• Triggering service tickets when certain customer intents are detected

• Automatically summarizing conversations and logging them in enterprise systems

• Launching follow-up workflows based on customer sentiment or issue type

This event-driven model is becoming increasingly common in enterprise software because it allows organizations to connect multiple systems without building custom integrations for every use case.

Why Agent Experience Is Becoming a Competitive Priority

While much of the customer experience conversation focuses on automation and chatbots, many enterprises are now turning their attention back to human agents.

The reason is simple: even as AI handles routine inquiries, complex issues still require human expertise.

Improving the tools available to agents can have a direct impact on both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

If agents spend less time navigating software and more time resolving issues, companies can reduce handle times and improve service quality simultaneously.

LivePerson’s strategy reflects that shift. Rather than focusing solely on AI automation, the company is positioning its platform as a bridge between conversational AI and human support workflows.

The Bigger Picture: Simplifying the Enterprise AI Stack

LivePerson Sync arrives at a time when many enterprises are reassessing their customer engagement technology stacks.

Over the past decade, companies have layered messaging tools, CRM platforms, chatbot frameworks, analytics systems, and automation engines on top of each other. The result is often a fragmented environment that requires complex integrations and custom workflows.

As AI adoption accelerates, organizations are looking for ways to consolidate and orchestrate those systems more effectively.

Platforms that can unify customer conversations, enterprise data, and automation workflows are increasingly attractive to CIOs and customer experience leaders.

By positioning Sync as an integration layer between conversational AI and enterprise systems, LivePerson is betting that the future of customer service will depend as much on orchestration as it does on automation.

Availability

LivePerson Sync is available immediately for organizations looking to modernize their customer service operations, unify agent workflows, and reduce handle times through AI-powered automation.

As enterprises continue to balance automation with human expertise, tools that simplify how agents interact with complex tech stacks could become a defining feature of the next generation of customer engagement platforms.

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Enterprise marketing platforms are entering a new phase—one where content isn’t just published on websites but discovered across AI assistants, search engines, social feeds, and marketplaces long before a customer reaches a brand’s digital property.

That shift is forcing marketing teams to rethink how content is created, governed, and personalized at scale. Against that backdrop, enterprise digital experience vendor Sitecore is highlighting a wave of industry recognition that suggests its AI-led platform strategy is resonating with both customers and the broader marketing technology ecosystem.

The company announced that it swept all eight categories it was nominated for in the 14th Annual CMS Critic Awards, including Best Enterprise CMS, Best Headless CMS, Best Digital Experience Platform (DXP), Best Content Marketing Platform (CMP), Best Digital Asset Management (DAM) System, Best Customer Data Platform (CDP), Best e-Commerce Solution, and Best AI Solution.

The recognition adds to a broader run of accolades for the company’s AI platform, SitecoreAI with Studio, which also received a Two-Star Technology DaVinci Award and landed among G2’s 2026 Best Web CMS Products rankings.

For enterprise marketing teams evaluating long-term technology stacks, such recognition often serves as an early signal of which platforms are gaining real traction—and which are merely riding the hype cycle.

Why These Awards Matter in Today’s MarTech Landscape

Awards don’t make a product successful—but they can reflect momentum.

In this case, the recognition comes from three different directions: practitioners, customers, and industry experts.

The CMS Critic Awards rely on community voting from developers, marketers, and digital practitioners who build and manage customer experiences every day. G2’s annual rankings, meanwhile, are based on verified user reviews and market presence data across more than 179,000 software vendors, with just 0.63% making the final award lists for 2026.

The DaVinci Awards, judged by a global panel of technology experts, evaluate enterprise platforms on factors such as architectural maturity, integration capabilities, and business impact.

Taken together, those perspectives provide a multi-angle snapshot of how a platform is performing in the market—from real-world usability to enterprise readiness.

For Sitecore, the results reinforce a broader message: that its AI strategy isn’t just experimental—it’s becoming embedded across the marketing technology stack.

A Platform Play Across the Entire Content Lifecycle

The eight award categories Sitecore won align with the core systems that modern marketing teams rely on.

Those include:

• Enterprise content management systems

• Headless content delivery architectures

• Digital experience platforms

• Content marketing platforms

• Digital asset management systems

• Customer data platforms

• Commerce infrastructure

• AI-driven content and personalization tools

In other words, nearly the entire lifecycle of digital experience delivery—from content planning and creation to customer data activation and omnichannel engagement.

That breadth is significant because enterprise marketing stacks have grown increasingly fragmented over the past decade.

Organizations often juggle separate tools for content creation, analytics, personalization, and customer data management. Vendors that can unify those capabilities into a single platform—or at least orchestrate them effectively—are gaining attention from CIOs and CMOs looking to simplify their technology ecosystems.

Sitecore’s pitch is that AI acts as the connective tissue across those systems, helping marketing teams automate workflows, generate and personalize content, and optimize campaigns based on real-time customer signals.

The Rise of AI-Driven Content Operations

The timing of Sitecore’s recognition also reflects a broader industry trend: the rapid adoption of AI in marketing operations.

Brands are increasingly experimenting with generative AI for everything from content creation to customer segmentation. But many early experiments have remained isolated pilots rather than production-ready systems.

Mary Ellen Grom, executive director of global marketing and corporate communications at AFL, said her organization initially faced that exact challenge.

“Like a lot of companies, we were testing AI adoption in several areas of our global business,” she explained. “But without governance and executive buy-in it remained experimental.”

The company turned to Sitecore to operationalize those experiments into repeatable marketing workflows.

According to Grom, the platform now allows teams to build personalized content, test performance, and scale marketing output while maintaining oversight and quality control.

That governance layer is becoming a critical differentiator as enterprises move from AI experimentation to full operational deployment.

Expansion Signals Global Demand for Enterprise AI Platforms

Recognition is arriving alongside Sitecore’s continued global expansion.

Since launching SitecoreAI in late 2025, the company says major global brands—including G4S, Nord Anglia, Colt Data Centre Services, Beyond Now, and PulteGroup—have adopted the platform.

In March 2026, Sitecore also announced sovereign deployments of SitecoreAI in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Those deployments allow organizations to run AI workloads and cloud services within national borders, helping companies meet increasingly strict data residency and regulatory requirements.

For multinational enterprises operating in regulated sectors—such as finance, telecommunications, and government services—that capability can be a deciding factor when selecting cloud and AI platforms.

It also reflects a broader shift in enterprise infrastructure, where regional data sovereignty has become a top priority for CIOs.

The “Answer Moment” and the New Discovery Layer

Another factor driving enterprise interest in AI-enabled content platforms is the changing nature of online discovery.

Customers increasingly research products through AI assistants, search engines, and social feeds before ever visiting a brand’s website.

Godard Abel, co-founder and CEO of G2, described this shift as the rise of the “answer moment”—when software buyers rely on AI-driven platforms to surface recommendations instantly.

“As buyers increasingly shift to AI-driven research to discover software solutions, being recommended in the ‘answer moment’ must be earned with credible proof,” Abel said.

Because many AI search tools rely on structured data and verified customer reviews when generating responses, recognition from platforms like G2 can directly influence how vendors appear in AI-generated results.

That dynamic creates a feedback loop: strong user reviews and industry validation increase visibility in AI answers, which in turn drives further adoption.

Agentic AI and the Next Phase of Marketing Automation

At the technical level, SitecoreAI’s architecture emphasizes agentic AI workflows—systems that can execute marketing tasks autonomously while still operating within governance frameworks.

Annabelle Whittall, chief operating officer of the DaVinci Awards, said that capability played a role in the platform’s evaluation.

“The submission clearly articulated how agentic AI workflows and governed extensibility can deliver meaningful operational gains for global enterprises,” she noted.

The judges were also impressed by the platform’s integration within existing cloud ecosystems, a factor that has become increasingly important as enterprises try to embed AI into complex IT environments rather than replacing them entirely.

From Awards to Real-World Results

Recognition may boost credibility, but ultimately enterprise buyers want measurable outcomes.

Some early adopters report tangible performance gains.

GoTo Technologies, for example, has reported a 78% increase in organic trial conversions and expects 60–70% reductions in infrastructure costs after implementing Sitecore’s platform.

While individual results vary, metrics like those highlight the potential business case for AI-driven content orchestration.

And for large enterprises managing thousands of content assets and customer segments, even incremental improvements in efficiency or personalization can translate into substantial revenue impact.

The Bigger Picture: A Consolidation Moment for MarTech

The broader marketing technology industry is currently navigating two major shifts at once.

First, generative AI is rapidly transforming how marketing content is created and distributed. Second, enterprises are under pressure to simplify their sprawling technology stacks.

Platforms that combine content management, data orchestration, and AI-powered automation are increasingly positioned as the solution to both challenges.

That dynamic has fueled competition among major enterprise vendors—including Adobe, Salesforce, and Sitecore—to define the next generation of digital experience platforms.

Sitecore’s sweep at the CMS Critic Awards doesn’t settle that competition. But it does highlight how quickly AI-led experience platforms are gaining ground with enterprise marketing teams.

As digital discovery moves beyond traditional websites and into AI-driven channels, the platforms that can orchestrate content, data, and personalization across those environments may define the next era of marketing technology.

For now, Sitecore is signaling that it intends to be among them.

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European private equity firm Omnes Capital is upgrading its investment and investor relations infrastructure with the adoption of Intapp DealCloud, the relationship intelligence platform from Intapp.

The move signals the firm’s push to standardize data, streamline fundraising operations, and give investment teams better visibility into deals and investor relationships—an increasingly important capability as private capital firms manage complex portfolios and global LP networks.

With more than €6.7 billion in assets under management, Omnes focuses heavily on investments tied to the energy transition, an area seeing rapid growth as institutional investors seek exposure to climate-focused infrastructure and sustainable technologies.

Building a Unified Data Infrastructure

According to Omnes, one of the primary goals behind the implementation was consolidating fragmented systems used across investment, marketing, and investor relations teams.

Private equity firms often operate with multiple tools for managing deals, tracking investor interactions, and maintaining contact databases. Over time, those systems can create inconsistent data and limited visibility across teams.

DealCloud aims to solve that by providing a centralized environment where firms can manage fundraising activities, investor communications, and deal pipelines within a single platform.

“We were looking for one solution that would help us standardize data and processes across our investment and investor relations teams,” said Wael Ilahi.

“DealCloud gives us a unified platform to manage fundraising and LP interactions as well as marketing and communications needs—helping us consolidate and better use our data,” Ilahi said.

AI-Powered Relationship Intelligence

At the core of DealCloud is Intapp’s governed AI framework, designed specifically for professional services firms operating in highly regulated industries such as private equity, investment banking, and legal services.

The platform aggregates firmwide data—including emails, contact details, documents, and shared files—into a centralized relationship intelligence layer.

This enables professionals to:

• Track and forecast deal pipelines
• Monitor investor relationships and engagement
• Identify new fundraising opportunities
• Access real-time insights into industry trends

By combining these insights with automation tools, the platform aims to help investment professionals spend less time managing administrative tasks and more time executing deals.

Automation Reduces Manual Work

A significant part of the platform’s value comes from its automation capabilities.

DealCloud uses automated data capture and signature-scraping technology to collect and organize contact information from emails and communications. The system continuously updates relationship records by integrating data from external systems and internal collaboration tools.

The result is a dynamic relationship map that provides investment teams with a current view of interactions across their network of limited partners, advisors, and industry contacts.

For firms managing large investor ecosystems, keeping that information up to date manually can be a significant operational challenge.

Supporting Growth in Energy Transition Investing

Omnes Capital’s adoption of DealCloud also reflects the growing complexity of fundraising and investor engagement in sectors like energy transition.

As institutional investors increasingly allocate capital toward sustainability-focused funds, private equity firms must manage more sophisticated LP relationships, reporting expectations, and market intelligence.

Rudy Saad says the platform is designed to support these evolving requirements.

“Our AI-powered DealCloud platform enables firms to manage relationships seamlessly while driving targeted fundraising in specialized sectors such as energy transition,” Saad said.

Technology Becomes Core to Private Capital Operations

Across the private equity industry, firms are investing heavily in digital infrastructure to gain better visibility into deal pipelines, investor relationships, and market opportunities.

Platforms like DealCloud are increasingly becoming a central operating system for private capital firms—combining CRM, relationship intelligence, and analytics into a unified environment.

For Omnes Capital, adopting such infrastructure is part of a broader effort to modernize operations and ensure teams have real-time access to the information needed to evaluate opportunities and engage investors effectively.

As competition for capital intensifies across global private markets, firms with stronger data capabilities may find themselves better positioned to identify opportunities, strengthen LP relationships, and close deals faster.

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AI-powered content platform Flam is ramping up its communications push in the United States, appointing integrated communications firm Velocitas as its Agency of Record (AOR).

The partnership will see Velocitas lead Flam’s strategic communications, brand amplification, and media outreach across the U.S., as the company seeks to build visibility around its AI-native approach to interactive brand storytelling.

For Flam, which focuses on immersive digital experiences designed to deepen audience engagement, the move signals a broader effort to position itself at the center of emerging conversations around AI-driven advertising and content innovation.

A Communications Strategy for the AI Content Era

Under the agreement, Velocitas will oversee Flam’s national media strategy, executive thought leadership programs, and broader brand communications efforts.

The agency will work closely with Flam’s global marketing team to elevate the company’s messaging around AI-native content creation and next-generation digital experiences for brands.

Founded in 2002, Velocitas has built a reputation for integrated communications strategies spanning public relations, digital strategy, branding, and executive positioning.

“Pioneering AI-native content, Flam is on a mission to redefine the dialogue between brands and their audiences,” said Karthik Raman.

“We needed a communications partner who understands innovation, speed, and scale,” Raman said. “Velocitas brings the strategic insight and execution strength to help tell our story at the right level and at the right time.”

Building Momentum Through Brand Partnerships

Flam has already collaborated with several high-profile brands as it expands its footprint in interactive advertising.

Recent campaigns have included partnerships with companies such as Don Julio, The ReefLine, Google, and Samsung, alongside other global brands and Fortune 500 organizations.

These initiatives showcase Flam’s platform capabilities, which focus on creating immersive, AI-powered brand experiences designed to capture consumer attention in increasingly crowded digital environments.

Interactive campaigns built on the platform often combine storytelling, real-time engagement, and AI-generated elements to create experiences that go beyond traditional digital advertising formats.

Spotlight at SXSW 2026

As part of its expanding thought leadership efforts, Flam executives are scheduled to appear as keynote speakers at SXSW 2026.

The session—titled “AI, Advertising, and the Attention Economy”—will explore how emerging AI technologies are reshaping the relationship between brands, content, and consumer engagement.

Industry discussions around the attention economy have intensified as marketers struggle to capture audience focus across fragmented media channels and algorithm-driven content feeds.

Flam’s technology aims to address that challenge by turning passive content consumption into interactive experiences.

Positioning for the Next Wave of Brand Engagement

Velocitas President Patricia Beitler says the partnership reflects the growing importance of immersive storytelling in modern marketing.

“Flam’s AI-powered storytelling doesn’t just change how audiences consume content—it transforms how they experience it,” Beitler said.

The agency will help scale Flam’s brand visibility while shaping broader industry conversations about the future of AI-driven engagement.

The Bigger Shift Toward Interactive Marketing

The collaboration arrives at a time when marketers are increasingly exploring AI-driven content experiences to stand out in an overcrowded digital landscape.

Traditional ad formats are losing effectiveness as audiences become more selective about where they spend their attention. As a result, brands are investing in interactive formats that blend storytelling, technology, and real-time engagement.

Platforms like Flam aim to sit at the intersection of AI, creativity, and immersive media, helping brands create experiences that feel less like advertising and more like participation.

With Velocitas now guiding its communications strategy in the U.S., Flam is positioning itself to play a larger role in defining how brands engage audiences in the AI-powered attention economy.

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Customer data platform provider Hightouch is expanding its presence in Australia and New Zealand, appointing Aidan Lynch as Country Manager for ANZ as the company doubles down on regional growth.

The move signals increasing investment in the Asia-Pacific region as enterprises modernize marketing technology stacks and seek more efficient ways to activate customer data across their organizations.

For Hightouch, the expansion comes amid rising interest in warehouse-native customer data platforms and agentic marketing technologies, which allow companies to use existing data infrastructure without duplicating information across multiple systems.

Building on Growing Demand in the Region

With Lynch leading regional operations, Hightouch aims to strengthen its on-the-ground presence to support organizations deploying modern data and marketing architectures.

The company says the expansion reflects strong organic growth across APJ markets, where businesses are increasingly prioritizing data-driven marketing, personalization, and real-time customer engagement.

Under Lynch’s leadership, the company plans to deepen regional engagement and provide local support for enterprises seeking to activate customer data across marketing, sales, and customer experience teams.

That includes helping organizations integrate Hightouch with their existing technology ecosystems while maintaining governance over sensitive data.

A Warehouse-Native Approach to Customer Data

Hightouch’s platform is designed around a warehouse-native architecture, meaning companies can activate customer data directly from cloud data warehouses instead of copying it into separate systems.

The approach aligns with the broader modern data stack movement, which emphasizes centralized data storage combined with composable tools layered on top.

Hightouch integrates with major data platforms such as:

• Snowflake

• Google BigQuery

• Databricks

By working directly within these environments, marketing teams can build audiences, orchestrate campaigns, automate workflows, and deploy AI-driven marketing actions without moving data between platforms.

The result is a system that reduces operational complexity while enabling faster experimentation and personalization.

The Rise of Agentic Marketing

A growing part of Hightouch’s strategy centers on agentic marketing, a concept that embeds AI agents directly into marketing workflows.

Rather than simply analyzing data, these AI agents can help automate tasks such as:

• Audience segmentation

• Campaign orchestration

• Customer journey optimization

• Workflow automation

According to Lynch, this evolution is attracting enterprises that want to scale personalization without sacrificing data governance.

“What attracted me to Hightouch was its founder-led culture and sustained pace of innovation,” Lynch said.

“The platform was built on a strong data foundation and has continued to evolve toward agentic marketing, embedding AI directly into governed marketing workflows.”

For organizations managing large customer datasets, the ability to combine automation with strong governance controls is becoming a key requirement.

Recognition in the CDP Market

Hightouch’s expansion in ANZ follows another milestone: its first appearance as a Leader in the 2025 Magic Quadrant for Customer Data Platforms from Gartner.

The recognition highlights the rapid evolution of the CDP market, which is shifting away from monolithic platforms toward composable architectures integrated with cloud data warehouses.

Industry analysts have increasingly pointed to warehouse-native CDPs as a new generation of marketing infrastructure, allowing businesses to leverage existing data investments while enabling more flexible marketing operations.

For Hightouch, the recognition reflects how enterprise marketing teams are evolving.

“Organizations want to activate their complete data, move faster without replication, and use AI to continuously improve performance,” Lynch said.

Local Leadership for a Global Platform

Lynch’s appointment reflects a broader trend among global martech vendors: strengthening local leadership as regional markets adopt advanced data infrastructure.

While marketing technology platforms are often built for global deployment, enterprises typically require localized support when implementing complex data systems and cross-channel customer engagement strategies.

By expanding its ANZ team, Hightouch aims to combine global product innovation with local market expertise—helping companies modernize their marketing and data capabilities while maintaining governance and compliance.

As enterprises across Australia and New Zealand continue investing in modern data platforms and AI-powered marketing tools, the company is betting that warehouse-native architectures will become a foundational layer of the next-generation marketing stack.

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Automotive marketing tech providers COOPABLE and Lotlinx have announced a new partnership aimed at removing one of the biggest administrative hurdles in dealership marketing: accessing manufacturer co-op funds.

The collaboration allows auto dealers using Lotlinx’s inventory marketing platform to apply eligible OEM co-op funds toward their campaigns through COOPABLE’s managed service. The result is a streamlined process designed to help dealerships launch VIN-specific digital marketing programs faster—and ultimately move vehicles off the lot more efficiently.

For dealers accustomed to navigating complex co-op reimbursement programs, the partnership promises a simpler, largely automated experience.

Removing the Administrative Burden of Co-Op Marketing

OEM co-op funds are widely used by auto manufacturers to subsidize dealership marketing campaigns. But accessing those funds often involves detailed compliance rules, extensive documentation, and manual approval processes that can slow down campaign execution.

Under the new partnership, COOPABLE will manage the entire co-op lifecycle on behalf of dealerships, including:

• Co-op eligibility approvals

• Claim submissions to OEM programs

• Compliance documentation and audit requirements

• Reimbursement tracking through manufacturer channels

By handling these tasks behind the scenes, COOPABLE eliminates the manual paperwork and follow-up typically required from dealership marketing teams.

“The co-op process can be time-consuming and nuanced, especially across different OEM programs,” said Mark W. Baruth.

“Our partnership with Lotlinx removes that burden from the dealership. COOPABLE handles the approvals, submissions, and compliance on the dealer’s behalf,” Baruth said.

Combining Co-Op Funding With VIN-Level Targeting

The integration is designed to complement Lotlinx’s core technology, which uses machine learning and automotive data intelligence to help dealerships identify inventory risk and promote specific vehicles.

Instead of running generic promotions, Lotlinx campaigns focus on VIN-specific marketing, targeting vehicles that need to move based on factors such as:

• Time on lot

• regional demand signals

• inventory turnover risk

• pricing competitiveness

By pairing that targeting capability with easier access to co-op funds, dealerships can potentially scale these campaigns without increasing their out-of-pocket marketing budgets.

Dealers will still launch campaigns through Lotlinx as usual, but COOPABLE will manage the documentation and reimbursement process required by OEM programs.

Expanding Access to Co-Op Programs

Lotlinx already participates in turnkey co-op programs with select manufacturers, where campaign approvals and reimbursements are integrated into the platform.

The new partnership expands that capability to additional OEM programs where dealerships typically handle submissions and compliance themselves.

This could be especially useful for dealerships that have struggled to secure co-op approvals for certain marketing vendors under manufacturer guidelines.

As a result of the partnership, Lotlinx dealers can now use COOPABLE to submit VIN-specific digital advertising spend for co-op reimbursement across more brands and programs.

Reducing Friction in Automotive Retail Marketing

Automotive dealerships operate in one of the most complex marketing ecosystems in retail, balancing manufacturer requirements, inventory pressures, and digital consumer expectations.

Simplifying co-op access could help dealers deploy marketing dollars more efficiently—particularly at a time when inventory management and demand forecasting are increasingly data-driven.

“At Lotlinx, we’re focused on helping dealers move inventory efficiently,” said Kerri Wise.

“Making co-op easier to access is a practical way to support our clients and remove friction from their VIN targeting efforts,” Wise said. “Co-op dollars are available, and with this partnership, it makes it faster and easier for our clients than ever.”

The Bigger Picture for Auto Marketing Tech

The partnership also highlights a broader trend in automotive retail technology: platforms are increasingly combining data-driven marketing tools with financial and operational services that help dealerships execute campaigns more easily.

Rather than simply offering advertising technology, vendors are building ecosystems that simplify the full lifecycle of dealership marketing—from campaign planning to funding and compliance.

For dealers, the appeal is straightforward: less paperwork, faster campaign launches, and a clearer path to turning inventory into sales.

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Global adtech firm Affle is doubling down on product innovation in the AI era, appointing veteran adtech executive Martin Price as Vice President of Products at its U.S. subsidiary.

In the new role, Price will lead product strategy and innovation for Affle’s 3i verticalized AI platform, with a mandate to accelerate growth of the company’s consumer intelligence and mobile advertising ecosystem.

The hire comes as Affle expands its footprint in developed markets and looks to scale its AI-driven advertising platforms amid intensifying competition across the mobile adtech sector.

A Veteran of the Mobile Advertising Industry

Price brings more than two decades of experience across the digital advertising ecosystem, having previously held senior product leadership roles at companies including Liftoff, Vungle, Yahoo, Vdopia, OpenX, and BidMachine.

That background spans mobile advertising networks, programmatic platforms, and large-scale digital media ecosystems—experience Affle says will help guide the next phase of its product development.

Price’s immediate focus will be expanding Affle’s AI-led consumer platform, which combines data-driven audience insights, mobile advertising technology, and generative AI capabilities to deliver personalized marketing experiences for brands and advertisers.

Driving the 3i Strategy

At the center of Affle’s technology roadmap is its “3i” strategy, which emphasizes innovation, impact, and intelligence across its AI-powered marketing platforms.

According to Charles Yong, Price’s appointment is intended to translate that strategy into market-ready products with stronger vertical integration of data and AI capabilities.

Yong also pointed to the company’s intellectual property portfolio—39 unique patents covering roughly 300 enforceable patent claims—as a key foundation for future product innovation.

The company believes that combining proprietary technology with AI-driven product leadership will help it unlock new opportunities across advertising and consumer engagement.

Expanding in Developed Markets

The appointment also reflects Affle’s broader expansion push across developed markets under Sameer Sondhi, CEO of North America and Chief Strategic Investments Officer.

Sondhi said Price’s track record building scalable products in the adtech ecosystem made him a natural fit for the company’s next growth phase.

“Martin brings a powerful combination of strategic vision, deep industry knowledge, strong market understanding, and execution discipline,” Sondhi said.

His experience developing high-impact advertising platforms will help the company strengthen its presence among brands and advertisers in mature digital markets, where competition among adtech providers is particularly intense.

AI and the Future of Mobile Advertising

Affle’s platforms focus on AI-powered consumer intelligence, enabling advertisers to optimize targeting, personalize engagement, and maximize marketing ROI across mobile channels.

The company combines proprietary data, audience insights, and generative AI technologies to help brands connect with users throughout the mobile marketing journey.

Increasingly, that means moving beyond traditional automation toward adaptive AI systems capable of responding to user behavior in real time.

Price says that shift is reshaping the industry.

“Affle is uniquely positioned at the intersection of AI-driven consumer intelligence and performance-led marketing,” he said.

His priority will be maintaining an innovation-driven product strategy while delivering measurable business outcomes for advertisers and partners.

The Next Phase of AdTech Platforms

The global adtech sector is undergoing rapid transformation as generative AI and machine learning reshape everything from ad creation to campaign optimization.

Platforms that once focused primarily on media buying and programmatic infrastructure are now evolving into end-to-end intelligence engines capable of predicting user behavior and influencing marketing outcomes.

Affle’s strategy reflects that broader shift.

By strengthening its product leadership and expanding its AI platform capabilities, the company is aiming to position itself as a key player in the next generation of mobile marketing technology.

And with Price now guiding product development, Affle is betting that deeper AI integration—and smarter consumer intelligence—will define the future of digital advertising.

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