DIRECTV, The E.W. Scripps Company, LG Ad Solutions, Mediavine, Realtor.com, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros Discovery, and more join Yahoo Backstage, enabling a direct line to premium inventory

Fortune 500 brands and agencies like Starcom among those activating across Yahoo Backstage

Yahoo Advertising today announced advancements in its publisher-direct offering, Yahoo Backstage, including the integration of premium publishers, such as DIRECTV, The E.W. Scripps Company, LG Ad Solutions, Mediavine, Realtor.com, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros Discovery, among others. Nearly 40 of the over 100 premium publishers participating in Yahoo Backstage are Connected TV (CTV) publishers. This infusion provides advertisers with unparalleled access to a diverse range of quality media and advertising opportunities across multiple channels.

Available exclusively through the Yahoo DSP, Yahoo Backstage facilitates a direct line to curated, premium publisher inventory, enhancing engagement, brand visibility, and ROI.

Yahoo Backstage also offers a more sustainable buying practice by reducing the number of technology participants within a buy and supporting MFA-free inventory. Carbon emissions on MFA inventory are 26% higher than on non-MFA inventory, per a study from Scope3 and Eubiquity. Yahoo Backstage has recently been recognized by Jounce Media as the largest MFA-free supply source on the open Web.

We’re interested to test Yahoo Backstage to drive efficient and sustainable programmatic media,” said Kristy Conrad, Head of Programmatic at Starcom. “Premium inventory plays an extremely important role in the online experience we’re driving for our clients and customers, and Yahoo’s strong relationships with the industry’s top publishers helps us reach them effectively. It's great to see Yahoo making these strategic moves and we look forward to our continued work together."

“We know that Yahoo pays close attention to the needs of advertisers as reflected in our studies,” said Kevin Mannion, Chief Strategy Officer at Advertiser Perceptions. “Yahoo Backstage strikes us as a strong response to advertiser needs for premium, safe, and diverse inventory.”

"The growth and acceptance of Yahoo Backstage underline the impact SPO is having on the advertising industry,” said Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Chief Revenue Officer at Yahoo. “We’re committed to enabling buying choices and fostering strong partnerships with our advertiser, publisher, and SSP partners.”

As Yahoo Backstage accelerates, advertisers and publishers gain premium access to an unparalleled platform that amplifies their reach and drives optimal outcomes.

Quotes from Yahoo Backstage Publishers:

DIRECTV:
“The supply and demand technology is changing rapidly, and as advertisers look to have more of their investment go towards working media, direct integrations to supply are increasingly important,” said Matthew Jamison, Head of Sales Partnerships at DIRECTV Advertising. “Especially where the amount of truly premium CTV inventory is finite, we are excited to work with partners like Yahoo to help us work with brands and agencies to achieve these goals.”

Mediavine:
“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Yahoo as they transition their publisher-direct offerings to DSP only,” said Brad Hagmann, Mediavine SVP of Ad Tech. “As a longtime partner of Yahoo we look forward to our continued mutual success as Yahoo Backstage rolls out and connects advertisers with premium content in our network.”

Realtor.com:
“Yahoo has long been a partner that understands what publishers want and what advertisers need - from Yahoo ConnectID to Yahoo Backstage,” said Yi-Fang Yen, Senior Vice President, Digital Media at Realtor.com. “We’re thrilled to continue to partner and directly reach advertisers with fresh content and premier consumer engagement opportunities.”

TelevisaUnivision:
“As demand for premium CTV inventory grows, we’re looking for partners who can maximize our supply and create a trusted environment for media buys,” said Phil Lalonde, Senior Vice President, Ad Sales Operations at TelevisaUnivision. “We’re thrilled to see more partners investing in reaching the fast-growing Hispanic audience we serve and look forward to continuing our partnership with Yahoo Advertising to ensure more direct connections with Fortune 500 buyers while maintaining transparency and support."

Agreements delivered via WhatsApp are signed nearly 7x faster than those sent via email

Integration further demonstrates DocuSign's commitment to international expansion

DocuSign, the global leader in e-signature and intelligent agreements, today announced the launch of WhatsApp Delivery, allowing users to close deals faster by using the world's most popular messaging platform. The latest expansion in allowing customers to seamlessly reach signers through their preferred communication platforms, the DocuSign eSignature integration of WhatsApp sends users real-time notifications that link directly to agreements and enable quick, secure signing.

Consumers worldwide increasingly rely on their mobile devices for both personal and business communication. As consumer habits shift, speed and convenience is more important than ever before. Businesses must invest in modern, flexible solutions that expedite transactions and give signers choice in how they want to receive information and sign contracts.

"WhatsApp delivery for eSignature plays a pivotal role in DocuSign's mission to simplify the agreement process and truly enable our users to meet signers where they are, at virtually any time," said Mangesh Bhandarkar, GVP of Product Management at DocuSign. "In an era of evolving consumer preferences, DocuSign is the only provider that offers customers a true set of mobile multi-channel delivery mechanisms—whether SMS, email or messaging platforms like WhatsApp— demonstrating our commitment to create a frictionless, end-to end agreement experience that is tailored to the individual."

"At Meta, we envision a world where everyone can get business done right from their favorite messaging app. Bringing together the reliability and security of WhatsApp and the simplicity of eSignatures from DocuSign is an exciting extension of that vision," said Nikila Srinivasan, VP of Business Messaging at Meta. "We're meeting people where they are – on their phones and in their chats—and helping them to close the deals that matter most. Together with DocuSign, I'm confident that we'll be able to help people around the world get things done… faster, more securely, and better."

Key benefits of WhatsApp Delivery include:

• Increased Transaction Speed: Users can deliver real-time notifications to signer's mobile devices with a direct link to complete a document. In comparative analysis, agreements delivered via WhatsApp are signed nearly 7x faster than those sent via email.
• Expanded Reach: The addition of WhatsApp broadens the spectrum, ensuring that its more than 2 billion users in more than 180 countries can use DocuSign to connect with nearly any signer using the mobile messaging platform.
• Enhanced User Experience: By offering another mobile-friendly method to process agreements, we're giving users more choice and flexibility. Embedding alerts natively into the messaging application makes the signing process more convenient than ever.
• Prioritized Privacy: DocuSign protects highly confidential information by encrypting and making every document tamper-evident. WhatsApp's leading privacy features provide additional reliability, ensuring notifications are always delivered securely.

This announcement builds on DocuSign's multi-channel delivery strategy following the  introduction of SMS Delivery earlier this year. Many people are inundated with emails, resulting in slower turnaround times and lower response rates. Of all DocuSign eSignature agreements delivered via WhatsApp, more than 50% are completed in 15 minutes or less. Sharing agreements via alternate modalities can dramatically accelerate the speed of transactions, enabling signers to quickly open and electronically sign documents wherever they are.

Availability: WhatsApp Delivery will be sold globally as part of the Multi-Channel Delivery offering. This add-on will be available to eSignature customers in Standard and above.

• 95% of organizations are using GenAI tools in some guise

• 89% consider GenAI tools to be a potential security risk

• 23% of those using GenAI tools admit to having no monitoring in place

• IT teams, not general employees, emerge as the overwhelming force behind usage

New research from Zscaler, Inc., the leader in cloud security, suggests that organizations are feeling the pressure to rush into generative AI (GenAI) tool usage, despite significant security concerns. According to its latest survey, “All eyes on securing GenAI” of more than 900 global IT decision makers, although 89% of organizations consider GenAI tools like ChatGPT to be a potential security risk, 95% are already using them in some guise within their businesses.

Even more worryingly, 23% of this user group aren’t monitoring the usage at all, and 33% have yet to implement any additional GenAI-related security measures – though many have it on their roadmap. The situation appears particularly pronounced among smaller-sized businesses (500-999 employees), where the same number of organizations are using GenAI tools (95%), but as many as 94% recognize the risk of doing so.

"GenAI tools, including ChatGPT and others, hold immense promise for businesses in terms of speed, innovation, and efficiency," emphasized Sanjay Kalra, VP Product Management at Zscaler. "However, with the current ambiguity surrounding their security measures, a mere 39% of organizations perceive their adoption as an opportunity rather than a threat. This not only jeopardizes their business and customer data integrity, but also squanders their tremendous potential.”

The rollout pressure isn’t coming from where people might think, however, with the results suggesting that IT has the ability to regain control of the situation. Despite mainstream awareness, it is not employees who appear to be the driving force behind current interest and usage – only 5% of respondents said it stemmed from employees. Instead, 59% said usage was being driven by the IT teams directly.

"The fact that IT teams are at the helm should offer a sense of reassurance to business leaders,” Kalra continued. “It signifies that the leadership team has the authority to strategically temper the pace of GenAI adoption and establish a firm hold on its security measures, before its prevalence within their organization advances any further. However, it's essential to recognize that the window for achieving secure governance is rapidly diminishing."

With 51% of respondents anticipating a significant increase in the interest of GenAI tools before the end of the year, organizations need to act quickly to close the gap between use and security.

Here are a few steps business leaders can take to ensure GenAI use in their organization is properly secured:

• Implement a holistic zero trust architecture to authorize only approved AI applications and users.
• Conduct thorough security risk assessments for new AI applications to clearly understand and respond to vulnerabilities.
• Establish a comprehensive logging system for tracking all AI prompts and responses.
• Enable zero trust-powered Data Loss Prevention (DLP) measures for all AI activities to safeguard against data exfiltration.

watsonx.governance helps organizations:

• Manage AI to meet upcoming safety and transparency regulations and policies worldwide – a "nutrition label" for AI

• Proactively detect and mitigate risk, monitoring for fairness, bias, drift, and new LLM metrics

• Manage, monitor, and govern AI models from IBM, open source communities, and other model providers

IBM today announced that watsonx.governance will be generally available in early December to help businesses shine a light on AI models and eliminate the mystery around the data going in, and the answers coming out.

While generative AI, powered by Large Language Models (LLM) or Foundation Models, offers many use cases for businesses, it also poses new risks and complexities, including training data scraped from corners of the internet that cannot be validated as fair and accurate, all the way to a lack of explainable outputs. Watsonx.governance provides organizations with the toolkit they need to manage risk, embrace transparency, and anticipate compliance with future AI-focused regulation.

As businesses today are looking to innovate with AI, deploying a mix of LLMs from tech providers and open sources communities, watsonx enables them to manage, monitor and govern models from wherever they choose.

"Company boards and CEOs are looking to reap the rewards from today's more powerful AI models, but the risks due to a lack of transparency and inability to govern these models have been holding them back," said Kareem Yusuf, Ph.D, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Growth, IBM Software. "Watsonx.governance is a one-stop-shop for businesses that are struggling to deploy and manage both LLM and ML models, giving businesses the tools, they need to automate AI governance processes, monitor their models, and take corrective action, all with increased visibility. Its ability to translate regulations into enforceable policies will only become more essential for enterprises as new AI regulation takes hold worldwide."

IBM Consulting has also expanded their strategic expertise to help clients scale responsible AI with both automated model governance and organizational governance encompassing people, process and technology from IBM and strategic partners. IBM consultants have deep skills in establishing AI ethics boards, organizational culture and accountability, training, regulatory and risk management, and mitigating cybersecurity threats, all using human-centric design.

Watsonx.governance is one of three software products in the IBM watsonx AI and data platform, along with a set of AI assistants, designed to help enterprises scale and accelerate the impact of AI. The platform includes the watsonx.ai next-generation enterprise studio for AI builders and the watsonx.data open, hybrid, and governed data store. The company also recently announced intellectual property protection for its for IBM-developed watsonx models.

Accomplished Cybersecurity Executive to Drive Company Growth and Global Expansion

1touch.io, a pioneer in sensitive data intelligence, today announced Ashish Gupta as its new Chief Executive Officer and President. Gupta will also join the 1touch.io Board of Directors. Previously, he served as the CEO and President of Bugcrowd, where he successfully led the company's rapid scaling by transforming it into a multi-product, industry-leading platform. Zak Rubinstein, Cofounder of 1touch.io and its CEO since inception, will focus on expanding the company's growth through strategic partnerships as the Chief Business and Strategy Officer.

"We are thrilled to welcome Ashish as 1touch.io's new CEO," said Rubinstein. "His track record of scaling businesses profitably, along with his strategic leadership, business acumen, and product vision, make him ideal to lead our next stage of growth. Ashish is an exceptional leader of people who appreciates the value of culture and teamwork. I am confident he will continue building on our strengths in these areas as he guides 1touch.io into the future."

Gupta, an accomplished technology executive, brings over 20 years of experience in driving growth and innovation for startups and public companies in the fields of cybersecurity, data analytics, and enterprise infrastructure software. Before joining Bugcrowd, he held executive positions at high-growth technology companies including Infoblox, Actian, Vidyo, Microsoft, and Genesys where he led product strategy, built world-class marketing teams, and accelerated revenue growth.

"1touch.io is at the confluence of three of the highest priority business initiatives today―digital transformation, cybersecurity, and AI/GenAI―with our proven data lifecycle management platform. This platform offers contextual intelligence for protecting sensitive data and strengthening security postures," Gupta stated. "Conversations with customers have confirmed 1touch.io as a technology leader in its category, which is trusted by the biggest Fortune 500 brands for ensuring data privacy, compliance, and governance. I am honored to join the talented 1touch.io team, which is committed to driving innovation and prioritizing our customers."

1touch.io investor Nitin Chopra, Managing Director of Neotribe Ventures commented, "With extensive experience building high-tech companies and scaling them to more than $100 million in revenue, Ashish brings domain expertise in data, security, and cybersecurity. His vision and ability to execute are invaluable as we continue expanding our product line and customer base. We're thrilled to have Ashish at the helm to drive our next level of growth and to further establish 1touch.io's market leadership."

Cisco Study Reveals only 14% of Global Organizations Are Fully Prepared to Deploy and Leverage AI, with More than Half Admitting Serious Concerns about the Impact to Business if They Fail to Act in the Next 12 Months

News Summary:

• 97% of global organizations reported that the urgency to deploy AI-powered technologies has increased in their company in the past six months.
• Considerable gaps exist across six key business pillars — strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent, and culture — with 86% of companies not fully ready to integrate AI into their businesses.
• Companies are racing against time as 61% said they have a maximum of one year to deploy their AI strategy or else it will have a negative impact on business.
• Boards and Leadership Teams are the most likely to embrace the changes brought about by AI, with 82% of both groups showing high or moderate receptiveness. In contrast, 22% of middle management indicated only limited or no receptiveness to AI.

A mere 14% of organizations globally are fully prepared to deploy and leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered technologies, according to Cisco's inaugural AI Readiness Index released today. The Index, which surveyed over 8,000 global companies, was developed in response to the accelerating adoption of AI, a generational shift that is impacting almost every area of business and daily life. The report highlights companies' preparedness to utilize and deploy AI, showcasing critical gaps across key business pillars and infrastructures that pose serious risks for the near future.

The new research finds that while AI adoption has been slowly progressing for decades, the advancements in Generative AI, coupled with public availability in the past year, are driving greater attention to the challenges, changes and new possibilities posed by the technology. While 84% of respondents believe AI will have a significant impact on their business operations, it also raises new issues around data privacy and security. The Index findings show that companies experience the most challenges when it comes to leveraging AI alongside their data. In fact, 81% of respondents admit that this is due to data existing in silos across their organizations.

However, there is also positive news. Findings from the Index revealed that companies are taking many proactive measures to prepare for an AI-centric future. When it came to building AI strategies, almost one-third of respondents were categorized as Pacesetters (fully prepared), which indicates a significant level of focus by C-Suite executives and IT leadership. This could be driven by the fact that most (97%) respondents said the urgency to deploy AI technologies in their organization has increased in the past six months, with IT infrastructure and cybersecurity reported as the top priority areas for AI deployments.

"The race to AI Readiness is on, with organizations under intense pressure to shift from strategic planning to execution mode in order to capitalize on the transformative potential that AI represents," said Liz Centoni, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Applications and Chief Strategy Officer, Cisco. "To realize the benefit of AI-powered products and services, companies need solutions that secure and observe their AI models and toolchains to ensure performance, secure sensitive data and systems, and deliver trustworthy and responsible AI outcomes."

Key Findings

Alongside the stark finding that overall, only 14% of companies are Pacesetters (fully prepared), the research found that more than half (52%) of companies globally are considered Laggards (unprepared) at 4%, or Followers (limited preparedness) at 48%. Some of the most significant findings include:

• URGENCY: One year maximum before companies start to see negative business impacts. 61% of respondents believe they have a maximum of one year to implement an AI strategy before their organization begins to incur significant negative business impact.
• STRATEGY: Step one is strategy, and organizations are well on their way. 73% of organizations benchmarked as either Pacesetters or Chasers, and only 4% were found to be Laggards. Additionally, 95% of organizations already have a highly defined AI strategy in place or are in the process of developing one, which is a positive sign, but shows there is more to do.
• INFRASTRUCTURE: Networks are not equipped to meet AI workloads. 95% of businesses are aware that AI will increase infrastructure workloads, but only 17% of organizations have networks that are fully flexible to handle this complexity. 23% of companies have limited or no scalability at all when it comes to meeting new AI challenges within their current IT infrastructures. To accommodate AI's increased power and computing demands, more than three-quarters of companies will require further data center graphics processing units (GPUs) to support current and future AI workloads. In addition, 30% say the latency and throughput of their network is not optimal or sub-optimal, and 48% agree that they need further improvements on this front to cater to future needs.
• DATA: Organizations cannot neglect the importance of having data 'AI-ready.' While data serves as the backbone needed for AI operations, it is also the area where readiness is the weakest, with the greatest number of Laggards (17%) compared to other pillars. 81% of all respondents claim some degree of siloed or fragmented data in their organization. This poses a critical challenge as the complexity of integrating data that resides in various sources and making it available for AI implications can impact the ability to leverage the full potential of these applications.
• TALENT: There is a significant mismatch in leadership and employee expectations with respect to AI. Boards and Leadership Teams are the most likely to embrace the changes brought about by AI, with 82% of both groups showing high or moderate receptiveness. However, there is more work to be done to engage middle management where 22% have either limited or no receptiveness to AI and among employees where close to a third (31%) of organizations report employees are limited in their willingness to adopt AI or outright resistant. The need for AI skills reveals a new-age digital divide. While 90% of respondents said they have invested in upleveling existing employee skillsets, 29% expressed doubt about the availability of sufficiently skilled talent.
• GOVERNANCE: AI policy adoption's slow start. 76% of organizations report not having comprehensive AI policies in place, an area that must be addressed as companies consider and govern all the factors that present a risk in eroding confidence and trust. These factors include data privacy and data sovereignty, and the understanding of and compliance with global regulations. Additionally, close attention must be paid to the concepts of bias, fairness, and transparency in both data and algorithms.
• CULTURE: Little preparation, but high motivation to make a priority. This pillar had the lowest number of Pacesetters (9%) compared to other categories driven largely by the fact that only 21% have comprehensive change management plans for widespread AI adoption. C-Suite executives are the most receptive to embracing internal AI changes and must take the lead in developing comprehensive plans and communicating them clearly to middle management and employees who have relatively lower rates of acceptance. The good news is that motivation is high. Nearly eight out of 10 (79%) say their organization is embracing AI with a moderate to high level of urgency. Only 2% said they were resistant to change.

Cisco AI Readiness Index 

The new Cisco AI Readiness Index is based on a double-blind survey of 8,161 private sector business and IT leaders across 30 markets, conducted by an independent third-party surveying respondents from companies with 500 or more employees. The Index assessed respondents' AI readiness across six key pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, talent, governance, and culture.

Companies were examined on 49 different metrics across these six pillars to determine a readiness score for each, as well as an overall readiness score for the respondents' organization. Each indicator was assigned an individual weightage based on its relative importance to achieving readiness for the applicable pillar. Based on their overall score, Cisco has identified four groups at different levels of organizational readiness – Pacesetters (fully prepared), Chasers (moderately prepared), Followers (limited preparedness), and Laggards (unprepared). 

OfferFit Replaces A/B Testing with AI-driven Automated Experimentation.

OfferFit, the trailblazing marketing technology company empowering marketers to replace traditional A/B testing with automated experimentation, today announced its $25M Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures. Ridge Ventures joined the round, along with earlier investors Canvas Ventures, Harmony Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Carbide Ventures, and Burst Capital. Capital One Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Capital One, also participated in the round following Capital One's success with OfferFit. JP Sanday from Menlo Ventures has joined the board, with Alexander Rosen from Ridge Ventures joining as an observer.

OfferFit will use the funding to scale while also investing in product development.

OfferFit's reinforcement learning AI accelerates experimentation for lifecycle marketers, as it continuously learns and adapts in response to customer actions. Enterprises including MetLife, Foxtel Group, and Brinks Home have adopted OfferFit's AI to automate experimentation.

"Marketing is undergoing a tectonic shift," said JP Sanday, Partner at Menlo Ventures. "AI makes it easy to create content, but how do you measure what is effective? The real power comes from leveraging AI with automated experimentation. OfferFit is the torchbearer in this space, helping businesses leverage 1:1 personalization to optimize critical lifecycle marketing campaigns like cross-sell, upsell, retention, referral, and winback."

"Today, personalization is table stakes and leveraging AI-based experimentation platforms like OfferFit to automate learning is key to getting personalization right," said Aparna Sarin, Chief Marketing Officer for Business Cards & Payments at Capital One. "This enables faster generation of data-driven insights into our customer preferences, allowing us to create more tailored offers and content, and lifting engagement."

Companies recognize that loyal customers can be powerful advocates and create a flywheel effect. As costs to attract new customers skyrocket, referral sources and targeted campaigns that harness AI offer more efficient avenues for growth.

"We have invested in multiple successful AI companies, and we knew OfferFit had the potential to build a meaningful AI enterprise," said Mike Ghaffary, General Partner at Canvas Ventures, who led OfferFit's Series A round. "OfferFit is on pace to triple this year, and they've never churned a customer, with every existing customer either expanding or in active discussions to do so."

"We'll use this funding to continue to scale, of course," said OfferFit's co-founder & CEO, George Khachatryan. "But we'll also invest heavily in our product. We're making OfferFit quicker and easier to deploy, and giving marketers more tools to leverage the insights they gain from automating experimentation."