Builder.io is accelerating enterprise front-end development with AI-powered visual workflows, now available through Google Cloud Marketplace. The move combines Builder.io’s design-to-code platform with Google Cloud’s global infrastructure and Vertex AI, enabling organizations to modernize legacy systems, scale securely, and speed delivery cycles.

AI Meets Enterprise Development

By integrating with Vertex AI, Firebase, BigQuery, and Cloud Storage, Builder.io lets teams convert Figma designs and natural language prompts into production-ready code. Product managers, designers, and marketers can visually generate and iterate on experiences while engineers retain full control over the underlying code.

The platform is enterprise-ready, meeting SOC 2 and GDPR standards, with HIPAA-ready options where applicable, and runs natively across Google Cloud regions. This ensures global scalability, compliance, and security while supporting faster, AI-driven workflows.

Measurable Business Impact

Early adopters are seeing tangible results:

• Fabletics: Saved over $600,000 annually in development costs.

• Anheuser-Busch: Launched 20+ sites in under eight months.

• Storyblocks: Built new internal dashboards in under two hours.

Steve Sewell, Founder & CEO of Builder.io, emphasized the value for cross-functional teams: “Running on Google Cloud means we can give enterprises speed without compromise. It's AI-enabled, globally scalable, and backed by the security they expect.”

Dai Vu, Managing Director of Google Cloud Marketplace & ISV GTM Programs, added: “Bringing Builder.io to Google Cloud Marketplace helps customers quickly deploy, manage, and scale AI-powered visual development on trusted infrastructure, accelerating digital transformation.”

Why It Matters

As enterprises grapple with legacy frontends and development bottlenecks, Builder.io’s platform offers a no-compromise solution—delivering rapid, visually-driven, AI-enabled development while maintaining enterprise-grade compliance and control. This aligns with broader industry trends of design-to-code automation and AI-augmented software development, helping organizations stay competitive in an increasingly fast-paced digital landscape.

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When one of the world’s largest aircraft engine makers decides to overhaul its digital front door, the industry takes notice. CFM International has just launched its redesigned website on the SaaS version of Optimizely’s Content Management System (CMS)—a first for the EMEA region. The move signals not just a web refresh but a deeper embrace of cloud-first, marketer-friendly digital experience platforms.

Delivered in partnership with digital product agency Candyspace (an Optimizely Gold Partner), the project positions CFM as an early adopter in aerospace manufacturing’s ongoing digital transformation. The upgrade replaces legacy systems that were creaking under modern demands, offering faster performance, more flexibility, and a workflow that marketers can actually enjoy using.

Why It Matters

Optimizely has long pitched itself as a digital experience powerhouse, but until now, its SaaS CMS hadn’t broken ground in EMEA. With CFM as the launchpad, the company gains a marquee customer that can put its scalability and speed to the test. Aerospace firms aren’t exactly known for nimble digital operations—so CFM’s move could nudge others in the sector toward cloud-first platforms.

Features at a Glance

• Headless but human-friendly: Powered by Optimizely’s CMS and hosted on Vercel, the site delivers near-instant load times and modern, modular experiences. Unlike many headless CMS tools, this one doubles down on marketer usability with a Visual Builder and live previews.

• Marketer-first editing: No more queuing up developers for every text tweak. CFM’s marketing team can now publish updates on the fly, shaving days off content cycles.

• Built to scale securely: Optimizely Graph enables fast omnichannel content delivery while the SaaS model handles automatic scaling and security updates—meaning developers can stop babysitting servers.

The new site isn’t just a backend upgrade. Visitors—over 250,000 annually—will see richer content, smoother navigation, and handy features like event booking and integrated news feeds. For CFM, that means a better way to connect with partners, clients, and stakeholders.

The Bigger Picture

Optimizely is betting its SaaS CMS can differentiate itself from crowded rivals like Contentful or Adobe Experience Manager by striking a balance between developer freedom and marketer autonomy. By securing CFM as its first SaaS CMS customer in EMEA, the company is planting a flag in an enterprise-heavy region where digital transformation has often lagged.

Tom Thorne, CEO of Candyspace, called the rollout a “major milestone” for Optimizely in Europe, while Optimizely VP of Product Nazanin Ramezani emphasized its marketer-first approach: “This platform gives marketers the freedom to move fast with tools like Visual Builder and AI-assisted workflows, without compromising enterprise scale.”

For the aerospace sector, the message is clear: speed isn’t just for jet engines anymore—it’s for websites too.

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If you’ve ever been trapped in an endless loop with a chatbot that can’t grasp your intent, you know the problem: AI-powered support has been long on hype but short on results. Saison Technology International and Vectara think they’ve cracked the code.

The two companies announced a strategic partnership to bring conversational AI that feels more human, less robotic, and—most importantly—more accurate to enterprises worldwide. Their pitch: combine Saison’s muscle in global data integration with Vectara’s agentic retrieval augmented generation (RAG) platform to deliver AI agents that understand context, ground responses in real-time enterprise data, and don’t drift into hallucination territory.

Why This Matters

First-generation AI tools—rules-based chatbots or “co-pilot” assistants—often frustrated customers with rigid scripts and wrong answers. The result: slow adoption, poor user trust, and plenty of “let me speak to a human” moments. Vectara claims its end-to-end RAG platform solves this by delivering precision retrieval, advanced re-ranking, and real-time hallucination correction.

Layer that with Saison’s data integration expertise—connecting everything from dusty mainframes to modern pipelines—and enterprises get conversational AI that can actually pull from relevant, trusted sources.

A Powerful Pairing

• Saison Technology: Trusted by 10,000+ customers worldwide, with deep expertise in regulated industries, Saison specializes in unifying fragmented data across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments.

• Vectara: Language-agnostic RAG service with Guardian Agent enforcement, enterprise-grade security, and granular access controls. Designed to give enterprises explainable, accurate, and scalable conversational AI.

Together, they promise:

• Scalable customer support operations

• Faster issue resolution with higher case deflection rates

• Seamless multi-channel engagement

• Anticipatory user experiences grounded in real-time data

In short: fewer tickets clogging support desks, better KPIs, and AI agents that don’t leave customers yelling into the void.

The Bigger Picture

The partnership comes as enterprises wrestle with how to scale AI responsibly. While hyperscalers like Microsoft and Google have embedded AI copilots into their ecosystems, many organizations still struggle with fragmented data, compliance, and the unpredictability of generative AI. Saison and Vectara are betting their combined solution can bridge that gap—providing explainable, governed, and trustworthy AI at scale.

As Eva Nahari, Chief Product Officer at Vectara, bluntly put it: “Most modern AI chatbots hallucinate on a regular basis, negatively impacting brands and customer experiences.” Saison’s CEO Masa Maruyama echoed the sentiment, adding that enterprises need flexibility and control—not AI toys that can’t handle intent.

For enterprises, the message is simple: if you’re going to roll out AI agents, make sure they can actually solve problems, not create new ones. Saison and Vectara think they’ve built just that.

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Online marketplaces are about to get a shake-up. Ok.com, a platform owned by Servanan International, is rolling out a global, AI-powered classifieds service at the end of October—and it’s completely free.

The site launches across nine countries, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and covers the usual suspects: jobs, secondhand goods, housing, and vehicles. But unlike Craigslist, eBay, or Indeed, there are no posting fees, no commissions, and no hidden charges. For consumers navigating inflationary times, that’s a bold pitch.

The Free Model

Traditional platforms have long squeezed users with pay-to-post barriers and high commissions. Legacy job boards, for example, can charge $500 per hire. Major resale sites often take 12–15% per transaction. Ok.com ditches all of it. Sellers keep 100% of their earnings, while businesses get unlimited free job listings.

“The irony is that the platforms designed to help people save money are actually costing them thousands,” said Ok.com’s CEO. “In an economy where every dollar counts, keeping 100% of your sale proceeds or saving on a job posting shouldn’t be a luxury—it should be the standard.”

Where It Competes

• Jobs: Employers post for free, while AI-powered matching links candidates with relevant roles—from warehouse staff to finance pros.

• Goods: Sellers list without commission, supported by an escrow system for secure transactions.

• Vehicles: Buyers get transparency through integrated history reports, seller verification, and personalized AI recommendations.

• Housing: Renters skip costly broker fees with direct landlord connections, video tours, and remote property evaluations.

In short, Ok.com wants to undercut Craigslist, eBay, Indeed, and Zillow all at once.

The Market Context

Ok.com is launching at a time when consumers are cutting back. A recent survey found more than half of Americans have reduced essential spending. Free listings aren’t just a perk—they’re a survival strategy. If Ok.com can scale, it could force incumbents to rethink their fee-heavy models.

Of course, disruption is easier said than done. Craigslist has decades of user loyalty. eBay has global reach. And job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn thrive on network effects. Ok.com’s bet is that a fee-free, AI-augmented alternative will draw frustrated users looking for affordability and trust.

“When fees disappear, opportunity democratizes,” the CEO added. “Ok.com empowers smarter living by making daily transactions more affordable and convenient.”

The question now: will this model lure enough users to make a dent in the entrenched giants of classifieds—or will the incumbents just absorb the shock and keep cashing in?

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Threat data is everywhere—and that’s exactly the problem. Security teams are drowning in alerts, chatter, and false positives. Liferaft, best known for its open-source threat intelligence (OSINT) platform, thinks it has the fix: Liferaft iQ, a new AI-powered solution designed to cut through the noise and deliver only what matters.

The platform, unveiled this week, plugs directly into Liferaft’s existing OSINT suite and adds a layer of AI-driven automation. The goal is to surface high-priority alerts faster, letting security and intelligence teams spend more time making decisions—and less time chasing data.

Why It Matters

The digital threat landscape has ballooned, with everything from ransomware chatter on the dark web to disinformation campaigns on social platforms. Fortune 500 companies already rely on Liferaft for visibility across the surface, deep, and dark web. With iQ, Liferaft is pitching a way to manage that firehose of signals without overwhelming human analysts.

“Organizations are overwhelmed by the volume of signals across the digital landscape,” said Jonathan Graff, CEO of Liferaft. “Liferaft iQ uses AI to transform how teams detect and act on threats, enabling them to focus on decision-making rather than data chasing.”

What’s New in iQ

• AI-Driven Summaries: Condenses thousands of posts into clear, actionable insights.

• AI-Enhanced Search: Semantic, context-aware search results help analysts find the signal in the noise.

• Live Insights: Real-time flagging of suspect activity before it escalates.

• AI-Powered Reporting: Automated reports that answer key security questions instantly.

Taken together, these features aim to replace the reactive, alert-fatigue model with proactive intelligence.

The Bigger Picture

AI-powered threat detection isn’t a brand-new idea—rivals like Recorded Future and ThreatConnect are also layering AI into their platforms. But Liferaft’s move stands out because it integrates AI directly into a mature OSINT system already trusted by Fortune 100 clients. That gives it a head start in terms of data quality, customer trust, and operational integration.

The pitch is simple: better intelligence, less noise, and faster responses. Whether Liferaft iQ can hold its edge in an increasingly crowded market will depend on how well it continues to scale against the rising tide of global threats.

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When you’re managing nearly 20 retail brands—ranging from Reebok sneakers to Hush Puppies loafers—the last thing you want is a patchwork of outdated e-commerce systems slowing you down. That was the challenge facing Brand Collective, one of Australia’s largest retail groups, which decided in 2022 to tear down its digital silos and start fresh.

Its solution? Shopify.

Two years into the partnership, the results are hard to ignore: faster launches, higher conversion rates, dramatically reduced fraud, and a team that spends less time babysitting legacy systems and more time actually driving growth.

The Great Migration

Brand Collective, which also counts Canada Goose, Champion, Superdry, and Elka Collective in its portfolio, merged with PAS Group in 2022. That merger left the company juggling multiple platforms—none of them particularly nimble. Enter Shopify and digital agency DotCollective, who together helped migrate the company’s 19 direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands onto a single platform.

The shift cut launch times in half. What once took six months can now be done in three. And by leaning on reusable frameworks and shared themes, the group has managed to strike a balance between speed and consistency.

“We wanted to move faster, innovate more, and simplify how our brands go to market,” said Aaron Gard, Group GM of Digital and Ecommerce at Brand Collective. “Migrating our entire portfolio onto Shopify has given us that foundation.”

Checkout That Converts

Shopify’s checkout has long been one of its strongest selling points, and Brand Collective has tapped into that with Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, and one-page checkout. The results: smoother flows, a 15–25% boost in conversion rates, and a near-99% drop in fraud-related chargebacks thanks to automated prevention tools.

That’s not just a tech upgrade—it’s a bottom-line story. Year-over-year online sales are already up 10%.

From IT Headaches to Growth Mode

Legacy platforms can eat resources alive, and Brand Collective says migrating off them has reduced overhead by 60%. Instead of firefighting maintenance issues, the digital team now has bandwidth to focus on customer experience and growth initiatives.

Adding some future-proofing, Shopify’s AI assistant Sidekick is feeding insights that help the group iterate faster—an increasingly important advantage in retail’s test-and-learn environment.

Why It Matters

Shopify’s work with Brand Collective is less about a single flashy feature and more about proving scale. Multi-brand retailers often hesitate to consolidate, fearing that individual brand identities will get lost in the mix. Brand Collective’s success shows the opposite: consolidation can speed up execution without erasing what makes each label distinct.

It also underscores Shopify’s broader positioning. Once seen mainly as the go-to for startups and DTC insurgents, Shopify is making deeper inroads with established enterprises—territory traditionally dominated by Adobe Commerce (Magento), Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Oracle. For Shopify, the Brand Collective win is another case study that it can scale up without losing the agility it’s famous for.

The Bigger Picture

E-commerce today is as much about infrastructure as it is about product. The brands that win are the ones that can adapt quickly, roll out new offerings, and optimize every click from homepage to checkout. By choosing Shopify, Brand Collective is betting that simplicity, adaptability, and unified architecture will beat the sprawl of stitched-together legacy systems.

And if cutting fraud by 99% while lifting conversions 25% isn’t a compelling argument, it’s hard to know what is.

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For TrueDialog, the Austin-based provider of enterprise-grade SMS messaging, growth isn’t just about adding customers—it’s about scaling the right way. This week, the company doubled down on that strategy by promoting Amanda McGuckin Hager to the dual role of Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Revenue Officer.

It’s a move that underscores the convergence of marketing and revenue operations in B2B tech, where brand building and bottom-line impact are increasingly inseparable.

A Seasoned Operator Steps Up

McGuckin Hager isn’t new to the C-suite. She joined TrueDialog in 2024 as CMO, quickly building high-performing teams and aligning go-to-market strategies for traction. Her résumé spans 25 years and both worlds: enterprise heavyweights like Dell, Rackspace, and SolarWinds, as well as venture-backed startups such as BlackLocus, Infochimps, and YouEarnedIt.

In short: she’s equally comfortable steering billion-dollar companies and scrappy scale-ups.

CEO John Wright summed it up plainly: “Amanda has made an incredibly positive impact in the 12 months since she joined. She knows how to align sales and marketing for rapid and sustainable success.”

That alignment is increasingly a competitive differentiator in martech—especially for companies like TrueDialog that operate in the crowded SMS and mobile engagement space, where customer acquisition costs can balloon without tight sales-marketing coordination.

Why the Dual Role Matters

The CMO-CRO hybrid role is gaining traction across B2B SaaS and martech firms. For companies competing in saturated categories—SMS marketing platforms, chatbots, and conversational AI—splitting marketing from revenue strategy can create silos. TrueDialog’s move puts McGuckin Hager at the center of end-to-end execution: from pipeline generation to closing deals to sustaining customer value.

It’s not just title inflation. As SMS continues to be one of the most direct, high-engagement channels in enterprise communication, the stakes are high. A fragmented go-to-market motion could mean missed opportunities in a market that’s increasingly about scale, security, and deliverability.

McGuckin Hager herself framed it in customer terms: “I relate to the need for TrueDialog to ensure that text messages are being delivered successfully, securely, and at scale.”

A Company on the Move

TrueDialog isn’t promoting in a vacuum—it’s been racking up wins across industry recognition lists:

• MarTech Breakthrough Awards 2025: Best Overall Conversational Marketing Company

• Digiday Technology Awards Finalist: Best Mobile Marketing Platform

• G2 Leader: Grid Leader and Momentum Leader in SMS Marketing

• Inc. 5000 Debut: One of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

For a company competing with bigger names like Twilio, Sinch, and Bandwidth, these accolades provide proof points that TrueDialog is holding its ground—and carving out a reputation for customer-centric, enterprise-ready messaging.

New Leadership Bench Strength

The leadership shuffle doesn’t stop with McGuckin Hager. TrueDialog also announced three senior hires aimed at strengthening execution across customer success, marketing, and sales:

• Becky Banasik, VP of Customer Success (ex-TrendKite, DOSH)

• Erica Lanyon, VP of Marketing (ex-SailPoint, Eloqua, PlanView, SourceDay)

• Marc Vallido, Sales Leader (ex-8x8, Indeed, Rev.com)

Taken together, these appointments suggest a company gearing up not just for growth, but for scale. In enterprise SMS—where volume, compliance, and reliability separate the winners from the rest—that matters.

The Bigger Picture

The timing is significant. As enterprises reevaluate their customer engagement stacks, SMS remains a non-negotiable channel. Email still dominates for reach, but text messaging carries unmatched immediacy, often clocking open rates north of 90%.

That puts TrueDialog in a position to capitalize—but also under pressure to keep up with larger rivals that are layering AI, omnichannel orchestration, and compliance tooling into their platforms. The CMO-CRO appointment signals TrueDialog’s intent to punch above its weight by integrating growth strategy under one leader who knows both marketing psychology and revenue mechanics.

The takeaway: this isn’t just about promoting a proven leader. It’s about restructuring for the next chapter of martech, where speed, security, and unified execution will decide who wins in the noisy world of business-to-consumer messaging.

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Comcast is shuffling its leadership deck in the Midwest. The company has named Sonya Callahan regional vice president of residential sales and marketing for its Heartland Region, which spans Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky.

It’s a big role: Callahan will oversee Comcast’s direct and indirect sales channels, retail operations, and multi-family sales across a region that serves millions of residential and business customers.

A Familiar Face Steps In

Callahan isn’t a newcomer to the company—or the industry. She has nearly 25 years in telecommunications, with a decade at Comcast alone. Most recently, she served as regional VP of Comcast Business in the same Heartland Region, managing more than 200 employees and leading commercial sales, marketing, and operations.

Her resume is broad: before the business-side leadership role, she was senior director of Business Development for Comcast’s West Division, where she handled network expansion projects across 13 states. That mix of sales, operations, and engineering gives her a toolkit well-suited to balancing the demands of residential growth in a highly competitive broadband market.

Why It Matters

The Heartland Region is a strategic one for Comcast. With millions of households in three states, the region is a battleground for broadband, streaming bundles, and mobile add-ons—all areas where Comcast faces pressure from rivals like AT&T, Charter, and regional fiber upstarts.

Bringing in a leader with both enterprise and residential experience signals Comcast’s intent to unify sales execution across verticals while keeping a sharp focus on customer growth.

Regional SVP Kristee Cominiello put it bluntly: “Sonya’s deep industry expertise, strategic mindset, and passion for developing high-performing teams make her the ideal leader.”

Translation: Comcast expects her to not just steady the ship, but accelerate it.

Building on a Track Record

Callahan’s leadership has already delivered results on the business side. Now, she’ll be tasked with translating that success to the residential space, where customer acquisition and retention are both critical. With cable broadband growth slowing nationwide, providers like Comcast are leaning more heavily on bundling, retention offers, and value-added services such as home security and mobile plans.

That requires regional leaders who can execute across multiple channels, from door-to-door reps to retail stores to digital touchpoints. Callahan’s career trajectory—spanning sales, engineering, and network expansion—suggests she has the range to drive that kind of cross-channel strategy.

A Career of Leadership

Callahan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Colorado State University and is a graduate of The WICT Network’s Rising Leaders Program, a professional development initiative for women in media and tech. That background underscores her blend of technical know-how and leadership development—a combination Comcast seems eager to leverage as competition intensifies.

The Bigger Picture

For Comcast, regional leadership changes like this are more than internal HR notes—they’re signals about where the company is placing its bets. As broadband competition heats up and cord-cutting accelerates, growth increasingly depends on regional execution: how well local teams convert prospects, bundle services, and support customers.

Callahan’s appointment shows Comcast isn’t just playing defense—it’s putting a seasoned operator with deep local knowledge in charge of one of its most contested markets.

The coming quarters will show whether that bet pays off.

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