Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) has announced a new integration with Azure AI Foundry, marking a major step toward improving observability and performance monitoring for agentic AI applications and large language models (LLMs). The partnership aims to help developers and site reliability engineers (SREs) build, monitor, and optimize intelligent agents more efficiently while ensuring system reliability and compliance.

Real-Time Visibility for Agentic AI

As enterprises race to deploy AI-driven agents across mission-critical environments, operational blind spots are emerging. Many face challenges like uncontrolled token usage, latency bottlenecks, and compliance risks that limit scalability. Elastic’s integration directly tackles these issues through pre-built dashboards that provide unified, real-time insights into model performance, costs, and content filtering.

With Elastic’s observability tools layered into Azure AI Foundry, developers can visualize performance metrics, identify inefficiencies, and apply cost controls—all without switching platforms.

Guardrails and Performance Insights

“Agentic AI is only as strong as the models and infrastructure that power it,” said Santosh Krishnan, General Manager of Observability & Security at Elastic. “With Elastic and Azure AI Foundry, developers and SREs gain clear visibility into how their agents perform, understand cost drivers, and fix performance bottlenecks in real time. That means they can scale AI applications faster without compromising reliability, compliance, or budget.”

The integration adds built-in safeguards that monitor token consumption, latency, and operational expenses, helping teams maintain control over production environments.

Microsoft Strengthens Azure’s AI Ecosystem

The move also aligns with Microsoft’s push to make Azure AI Foundry a comprehensive hub for building and managing AI workloads. “This integration with Elastic delivers real-time visibility into token usage, latency, and costs, with built-in safeguards for any model hosted in Azure AI Foundry,” said Amanda Silver, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Azure CoreAI. “Developers can now build and scale agents on Azure AI Foundry with the operational clarity and control they need to succeed in production.”

Why It Matters

The integration underscores a growing trend in the AI infrastructure landscape—where visibility, governance, and efficiency are becoming just as critical as model innovation. As agentic AI expands beyond experimental phases into production-grade systems, observability will play a defining role in maintaining trust and performance across workloads.

Elastic’s observability suite, combined with Azure’s compute and model hosting capabilities, positions the partnership as a significant advantage for enterprises investing in large-scale AI transformation.

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Canva, the world’s leading visual communication platform, has unveiled its most ambitious evolution yet—the Creative Operating System (Creative OS). This all-in-one platform merges more than a decade of innovation into a unified suite that redefines how teams create, collaborate, and scale their brand presence.

The launch represents a major leap in Canva’s mission to make design accessible and intelligent for everyone. Built on the company’s proprietary Design Model, Creative OS connects every stage of the creative process—from brainstorming and design to publishing and performance tracking—powered by a deep layer of artificial intelligence that amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it.

With over 260 million monthly users, $3.5 billion in annualized revenue, and a $42 billion valuation, Canva is rewriting the rules of enterprise design and marketing. Its customer base now includes 95% of the Fortune 500, among them Stripe, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snowflake.

Entering the “Imagination Era”

“As knowledge becomes more accessible, we believe we’re moving from the Information Era to the Imagination Era,” said Melanie Perkins, Canva Co-Founder and CEO. “Our Creative Operating System empowers teams to thrive in this new era. From video and email tools to AI-driven design intelligence, we’re giving users everything they need to bring their ideas to life faster than ever.”

Supercharged Visual Suite

At the core of Creative OS is an upgraded Visual Suite, expanding Canva’s capabilities across new creative formats such as video, email, forms, and code.

• Video 2.0 introduces a reimagined editor combining professional-grade tools with Canva’s signature simplicity. The new Magic Video tool generates polished, on-brand content from a single prompt, while AI-assisted editing automates trimming, syncing, and layering.

• Email Design brings email creation directly into Canva, allowing marketing teams to build and export branded campaigns in minutes—no coding required.

• Forms enables users to collect feedback or data seamlessly inside Canva, integrating responses into Canva Sheets for real-time tracking.

• Canva Code Meets Sheets connects design and data, allowing users to build interactive dashboards, calculators, or learning tools that auto-update as data changes.

World-First Design AI

Canva’s AI revolution comes to life through its Design Model, the world’s first model trained to understand design logic. It analyzes layout, hierarchy, and style to generate fully editable, brand-consistent designs in seconds.

AI capabilities now appear everywhere across the platform. Users can instantly generate 3D graphics, textures, or videos with natural language prompts, while style-matching AI ensures cohesive brand aesthetics across all outputs. The new Ask @Canva assistant brings real-time feedback, copy suggestions, and smart edits directly within the design workspace.

The Future of Brand and Marketing

Canva’s Creative OS also doubles as an end-to-end marketing engine. The new Canva Grow platform lets teams create, publish, and analyze campaigns in one place. Powered by brand-aware AI, Canva Grow learns from performance data, helping marketers refine content and boost ROI.

Meanwhile, the Brand System integrates guidelines and assets—fonts, colors, logos—directly into the design environment. This ensures every output stays consistent, no matter the creator or channel.

To further bridge its ecosystem, Canva introduced Canva Business, a new plan for marketers and small teams seeking advanced AI tools, analytics, and scalability features—positioned between Canva Pro and Canva Enterprise.

Affinity Becomes Free—Forever

In a bold move, Canva has made its professional design suite Affinity free for all users. The toolset combines vector editing, image manipulation, and layout design into a single platform with a universal file type, seamlessly syncing with Canva for collaboration and publishing.

By merging Affinity’s professional-grade tools with Canva’s collaborative ecosystem, the company eliminates one of the last barriers between creative professionals and everyday designers.

A Redefined Creative Ecosystem

Canva’s Creative Operating System marks a pivotal moment in the design industry—one where AI augments human imagination rather than competing with it. By fusing creativity, data, and automation, Canva is transforming from a design tool into a creative infrastructure platform built for the next generation of visual communication.

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A recent audit by Denver-based digital marketing agency NEWMEDIA.COM has exposed a striking new visibility gap: while many Colorado businesses dominate Google search rankings, most remain invisible to artificial intelligence (AI) search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews.

Analyzing 200 Denver-area businesses currently ranking on Google’s first page for core keywords, the audit found that 87% failed to appear even once in AI-generated results. The findings suggest that the SEO playbook that defined online visibility for decades is rapidly becoming outdated.

The Rise of AI Search Discovery

The shift reflects a larger transformation in digital behavior. As consumers and B2B buyers increasingly use AI tools to find, compare, and evaluate providers, visibility within AI-generated search responses is emerging as a new measure of brand trust and relevance.

“AI models can’t interpret reputation the way humans do,” said a NEWMEDIA.COM spokesperson. “If your authority isn’t structured, validated, and publicly documented, you’re effectively invisible—even if you’ve been a top performer on Google for years.”

Unlike traditional search engines, AI-driven systems don’t rely solely on keywords, backlinks, or metadata. Instead, they prioritize citation-based trust signals—credible references that validate expertise and reputation. These include:

• Mentions in respected media outlets

• Structured case studies and thought leadership content

• Industry awards and third-party certifications

• Listings on verified directories like Clutch, Built In Colorado, and Expertise.com

Without this verifiable, machine-readable authority, even long-established firms risk being ignored by AI platforms.

Data Validity Now Drives AI Visibility

The audit uncovered that AI systems disproportionately rely on verified databases and editorial aggregators, rather than open web content. Businesses lacking entries on these sources had the lowest visibility rates in AI recommendations.

This trend poses a growing challenge for mid-market companies that have invested heavily in SEO but not in digital PR or structured data. According to data from Digital Strategy Review, 43% of professionals already use AI tools for research and vendor selection—a figure expected to grow rapidly through 2026.

One Denver marketing agency featured in the audit highlighted the risk firsthand. Despite ranking in Google’s top three for “Denver marketing agencies” for over a decade, the firm failed to appear in ChatGPT or Perplexity recommendations. Meanwhile, smaller competitors gained traction through public case studies and review platforms, leading to a 25% decline in inbound leads for the established firm within six months.

From SEO to Structured Authority

To help businesses adapt, NEWMEDIA.COM Denver has launched a free AI Visibility Assessment—a diagnostic designed to pinpoint where companies appear (or fail to appear) across leading AI platforms. The audit reviews citation sources, structured data, and authority signals, offering actionable insights to strengthen AI discoverability.

The firm emphasizes that improving AI visibility isn’t about manipulating algorithms—it’s about building authentic, verifiable proof of expertise.

“AI visibility isn’t the next SEO gimmick,” the NEWMEDIA.COM spokesperson added. “It’s about credibility in the machine-readable age. You’re not optimizing for search engines anymore—you’re optimizing for truth engines.”

As AI becomes the default interface for digital discovery, Colorado companies that once led in search rankings may find themselves starting over in a new kind of visibility race—one where trust, structure, and proof determine who gets seen.

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In a move that redefines productivity, HurumoAI — the world’s first AI-cofounded and led company — has unveiled Sloth Surf, an AI-powered platform designed to make procrastination productive.

While most productivity tools try to eliminate procrastination, Sloth Surf embraces it. The platform introduces “AI procrastination agents” that simulate your preferred distractions — social media, YouTube, Reddit, sports news, or celebrity gossip — and return concise, personalized summaries. The result: guilt-free downtime that refreshes focus rather than eroding it.

“We’ve cracked the procrastination problem by working with human nature instead of against it,” said Kyle Law, CEO and Cofounder of HurumoAI. “Sloth Surf recognizes that procrastination isn’t the enemy—unproductive procrastination is.”

How Sloth Surf Works

Users choose their procrastination mode and time duration—ranging from 15 minutes to “there goes the afternoon.” During that time, Sloth Surf’s AI agents explore the web on their behalf, transforming idle curiosity into digestible insights.

Currently in beta at sloth.hurumo.ai, the service is free for early adopters, limited to one procrastination session per day.

Redefining Human-AI Collaboration

HurumoAI is positioning itself at the frontier of what it calls “intelligence that adapts.” The company’s technology evolves alongside user behavior, working with human tendencies rather than trying to suppress them. Sloth Surf serves as the first real-world proof of this philosophy — using adaptive AI to harmonize with natural human rhythms.

As a pre-Seed stage startup, HurumoAI stands out not just for its innovation but also its structure. The company operates with AI at the leadership level — making it the first AI-cofounded and led enterprise globally. HurumoAI also documents its evolution through The Startup Chronicles, a podcast offering a behind-the-scenes look at building an AI-first organization from the ground up.

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OSG, a long-time leader in Customer Communications Management (CCM), is giving customer engagement a serious upgrade. At its Q4 Client Elevate event, the company unveiled two major innovations—both designed to bring personalization, precision, and digital transformation to the forefront of customer communications.

The headline act: JourneyConnect Acquire™, OSG’s next-generation, performance-based direct mail platform. It’s not your average print campaign—this system fuses data intelligence with physical and digital targeting, enabling marketers to deliver personalized acquisition campaigns that actually convert. In a world where inboxes are saturated and cookies are crumbling, smart direct mail is getting its comeback moment.

Alongside that, OSG introduced the JourneyConnect Digital Adoption Practice, a three-tier service framework designed to help enterprises transition from paper-heavy workflows to fully digital engagement ecosystems. The framework spans from Insight, a diagnostic assessment, to Blueprint, which introduces automated one-click consent journeys, and finally to Transformation, a full-service consulting and benchmarking solution.

“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to helping clients meet customers wherever they are,” said Dean Cherry, CEO at OSG. “Whether through performance-based marketing campaigns or digital engagement tools, we’re delivering structure and scalability to modern communication.”

The move comes as industries—from finance to utilities—push to balance efficiency with personalization. Digital adoption remains a sticking point: even with sophisticated tech, companies often struggle to motivate users to go paperless. OSG’s new framework aims to close that gap, offering both strategy and execution under one roof.

Gary Gregg, Chief Product Officer at OSG, summed it up: “Digital adoption isn’t just about tech—it’s about structure, behavior, and communication excellence.”

With these launches, OSG positions itself squarely at the crossroads of data-driven marketing and digital transformation, blending automation with human-centric strategy. Expect competitors in the CCM and martech spaces—think Quadient, Smart Communications, and OpenText—to be watching closely.

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Cimulate, the company transforming search and merchandising for agentic commerce, has been named a Cool Vendor in Gartner’s “Cool Vendors in AI for Marketing” report, published on October 27, 2025, by analysts Sandy Shen, Nicole Greene, Suzanne Schwartz, and Julian Poulter.

The report highlights the growing value of generative AI in marketing, urging digital leaders to explore new use cases that move beyond content generation. Cimulate was featured for one of those high-impact applications—LLM-driven product discovery, a field poised to reshape how consumers find products online.

AI That Simulates, Learns, and Sells

“We’re honored to be named a Cool Vendor by Gartner,” said John Andrews, CEO of Cimulate. “This recognition reinforces our mission to deliver AI that’s not just generative, but truly agentic—capable of simulating, understanding, and improving real-time product discovery.”

Andrews noted that Cimulate’s approach combines data science with brand experience, giving marketers tools that not only enhance discovery but also drive measurable growth.

Synthetic Data Unlocks Next-Level Personalization

Gartner’s report identifies synthetic data as a major enabler for personalized marketing, particularly in privacy-sensitive or data-scarce environments. Cimulate’s technology uses simulated shopping sessions to generate synthetic data, helping retailers and brands overcome the “data disadvantage” faced against larger eCommerce platforms.

This approach allows agentic models to learn continuously from real user behavior. These models then optimize outcomes such as revenue, engagement, and acquisition—while maintaining full transparency and control for merchandisers.

Preparing for the Age of Answer and Generative Engine Optimization

As Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) gain traction, the rules of digital discovery are rapidly evolving. Cimulate’s CommerceGPT platform is designed to help digital marketers adapt to these shifts by connecting with conversational search patterns and optimizing content for both AI agents and human users.

By enabling brands to “speak the language” of agents, Cimulate positions itself at the forefront of the new era of commerce—where discovery happens through conversation, not just clicks.

What’s Next for Cimulate

Cimulate plans to showcase its latest innovations at the NRF Innovation Zone, taking place from January 11–13, where attendees can explore live demos of its CommerceGPT platform and learn how agentic AI is redefining digital merchandising.

As AI reshapes marketing strategies across industries, Cimulate’s recognition by Gartner signals a broader shift toward intelligent, simulation-based personalization—one that could set the benchmark for the next decade of commerce technology.

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Lemon Seed Marketing, a top branding and marketing agency for the home service industry, has announced Skagit Plumbing of Mount Vernon, Washington, as the winner of its Great American Brand Story (GABS) contest. The agency unveiled Skagit Plumbing’s new brand, message, and website live at Service World Expo 2025.

Launched earlier this year, GABS recognizes standout home service companies that embody strong values, local commitment, and growth-driven leadership. Each year, one company receives a complete brand transformation designed to enhance visibility, credibility, and market impact.

Celebrating Community and Craftsmanship

Skagit Plumbing earned the award for its exceptional customer service, deep roots in Skagit County, and dedication to integrity and excellence. The company’s story stood out as a model for what a modern family-owned business can achieve when purpose meets professionalism.

“This brand refresh reintroduces Skagit Plumbing to the community it has proudly served for over 11 years,” said Crystal Williams, co-owner and lead strategist at Lemon Seed Marketing. “Mark Sommers and his team represent everything the GABS initiative stands for—authenticity, service, and community pride.”

A New Look Rooted in Local Pride

The revamped brand centers around a new logo inspired by Skagit County’s heritage and a tagline that captures its spirit: “Staked in Community. Built on Trust.” This identity underscores the company’s long-standing values and its promise of dependable service.

To extend that mission, Skagit Plumbing launched Skagit Cares, a quarterly giveback program supporting local nonprofits chosen by public vote—further proving its commitment to the community it serves.

A Life-Changing Opportunity for Growth

“We’ve always believed that great service begins with great people and love for the community,” said Mark Sommers, owner of Skagit Plumbing. “Working with Lemon Seed and the GABS partners has been life-changing. This experience gave us a clear identity, powerful tools, and the confidence to grow. Our new brand truly reflects who we are and what we stand for.”

$150K Brand Overhaul Powered by Industry Collaboration

Lemon Seed Marketing assembled a team of 10 professional service partners to deliver a comprehensive brand transformation valued at more than $150,000. The package included:

• Brand strategy and design by Lemon Seed Marketing

• Membership and coaching from Service Nation

• A new website developed by Online Access

• A five-week PR campaign led by Ripley PR

• Additional promotional support from industry vendors

“We couldn’t have done it without our partners,” said Emily Fleniken, creative director and partner at Lemon Seed. “Their combined expertise helped us create something meaningful and lasting for Skagit Plumbing. Together, we delivered a transformation that empowers them to thrive in a competitive market.”

Elevating Home Service Branding

The Great American Brand Story initiative reflects a broader shift within the home service industry—one that values authentic storytelling, community engagement, and purpose-driven growth as much as technical skill.

By turning everyday service providers into memorable local brands, Lemon Seed Marketing is setting a new standard for what modern trade businesses can achieve with the right story—and the right partners—behind them.

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DeltaStream, Inc., the company redefining stream processing, has announced the general availability of DeltaStream Fusion, its unified data streaming platform that merges streaming, real-time, and batch analytics into one serverless environment.

After an early-access phase validated by customer deployments, Fusion is now production-ready—and available on Microsoft Azure. The expansion gives enterprises greater flexibility to deploy analytics wherever their data resides, from the cloud to hybrid environments.

The platform’s newest iteration includes AI-driven pipeline creation, multi-engine orchestration, and enhanced support for GenAI applications and agents that depend on real-time data context.

Fixing the Fragmented Data Stack

Most organizations still rely on a patchwork of analytics systems—streaming for immediacy, batch for history, and real-time for operational dashboards. That fragmentation leads to fragile pipelines, higher costs, and stale data. Engineers spend more time tuning infrastructure than accelerating insights.

DeltaStream Fusion eliminates that complexity. The platform’s unified architecture allows users to handle all analytics workloads in one place—without provisioning servers or juggling multiple tools.

“Enterprises across verticals are struggling to stream data, but complexity and cost are holding them back from getting actionable, real-time insights,” said Hojjat Jafarpour, founder and CEO of DeltaStream. “Fusion eliminates tool sprawl, reduces operating costs, and enables every team to go from raw data to action in seconds.”

One SQL to Rule Them All

DeltaStream’s core innovation lies in simplicity. Teams can write queries once in SQL, while Fusion automatically chooses the optimal engine for execution across Apache Flink, Spark, or ClickHouse. This not only improves agility but also reduces dependency on specialized engineering expertise.

Additional highlights include:

• AI-assisted pipeline creation that converts raw data into insights within minutes.

• Serverless scaling, eliminating infrastructure management entirely.

• Cost optimization through efficient data movement and computation, helping reduce Snowflake and Databricks spend.

• Built-in observability and governance for enterprise-grade reliability.

Real-Time Data for the Age of AI

As enterprises race to make data usable for AI, BI, and business operations, DeltaStream Fusion aims to give them a competitive edge. The platform enables streaming-native intelligence that powers real-time personalization, dynamic decisioning, and autonomous systems.

“The next generation of data systems won’t be defined by how much data they store, but by how intelligently they turn it into insight,” said Yaroslav Tkachenko, founder of Irontools and a leading advocate for data streaming. “Platforms like Fusion represent the future—where real-time, batch, and analytics converge into one fluid experience.”

A Unified Vision for Data-Driven Enterprises

DeltaStream Fusion’s arrival on Azure marks a milestone for the company and for enterprises seeking to simplify modern data stacks. By collapsing data silos and automating performance optimization, DeltaStream promises a faster path to value—without the heavy lift of traditional infrastructure.

As real-time intelligence becomes a cornerstone of GenAI and modern analytics, DeltaStream’s unified platform is positioned to lead the charge toward a future where insight is instant, contextual, and effortless.

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