aytm (Ask Your Target Market), the leading agile consumer insights platform for some of the world's most notable brands announces the hiring of Johnny Caldwell as Client Director, EMEA & APAC. Caldswell's appointment signals aytm's continued expansion into global markets, Johnny will partner with internal stakeholders to grow teams throughout key strategic regions.

"Johnny has earned a renowned reputation throughout the global consumer insights industry," said Lev Mazin, CEO of aytm. "His decades of expertise combined with a relentless pursuit of client success makes him the ideal leader as we enter this exciting new phase of growth for aytm."

"Johnny brings thought provoking creativity to our Global CPG team here at aytm, his enthusiasm for the industry shines and offers face to face time with clients with focus on growing our European partnerships. Here we grow again!" said Lisa Santos, VP of Client Engagement.

Johnny Caldwell is an accomplished research business strategist and insights thought leader with over 33 years of experience in market research and online panel.  His accolades include being awarded a fellowship of the UK's Market Research Society in 2021, and have seen him play an integral part in launching several insights startups throughout the course of his career.

Most recently serving as Senior Director of Partnerships EMEA & US with Pureprofile, Caldwell has punctuated his track record by helping insights teams bridge the gap between traditional research and tech-enabled, always-on insights. He is based in London England and focused on growing aytm's presence across Europe and beyond.

"I'm excited to join aytm and lend my support as we continue to expand into international markets," said Caldwell. "The company is uniquely positioned to deliver revolutionary insights technology to teams globally, and I look forward to building an exceptional team  empowering our clients in these strategic markets."

Caldwell's hire comes on the heels of aytm's recent Insights Portal release, which allows insights seekers to streamline the process of combining and analyzing results from multiple tracking studies and concept tests—all in a single, convenient portal.

End-to-end automated ad platform starts with creator-led sponsored content ad reads on YouTube, attracting leading advertisers and top creators

Agentio, the first-of-its-kind AI-powered ad platform for sponsored creator content, launched today with $4.25M in seed investment funding. The round was co-led by Craft Ventures & AlleyCorp, with participation from additional institutional investors including Antler, Protagonist, and Permanent Capital.

Other strategic investors include Neal Arthur (Global CEO of Wieden+Kennedy); Cody Ko (Mega-creator); Rory Paterson (Global Vice President of Media, Expedia Group); Jeff Ragovin (Co-Founder Buddy Media /Salesforce); Michael Sugar (Academy Award-winning producer); Steven Galanis (Co-Founder of Cameo); and Elizabeth Cutler (Co-Founder, SoulCycle and Peoplehood) in addition to other leading creators and marketing leaders.

Agentio was co-founded by Arthur Leopold, former President and first employee at Cameo, who led all go-to-market functions and scaled the celebrity talent marketplace that drove $500M in sales, and Jonathan Meyers, a former engineer and manager at Spotify who led the Automated Content Marketing team that drove multi-million monthly active user outcomes using AI/ML. The duo has now launched the first automated ad platform for creator content, starting with YouTube creator-led sponsored content ad reads, leveraging the team's firsthand experience with the pain points that both creators and marketers face.

Until today, the process of connecting creators to marketers has been manual and labor intensive, and has largely been conducted offline at great expense to both sides. Agentio's platform now makes it as easy to buy sponsored content as buying Facebook and Google ads. By automating a previously unscalable process, Agentio aims to shift a meaningful percentage of the $300B digital ad spend market to highly-performant, creator-led ad reads. Agentio is launching with 30+ second creator-led ad reads on YouTube, capitalizing on an underpriced and under-monetized ad unit with abundant inventory from top creators. The team will then rapidly expand to other ad channels.

"Marketers need a performant and scalable ad channel more than ever, and we're unlocking humanized and authentic content, in a programmatic way through our first-of-its-kind technology," says Arthur Leopold, Co-Founder & CEO at Agentio. "We're thrilled to partner with leading VCs, marketers, and creators to finally scale this ad unit and drive real, measurable business outcomes through underserved and undervalued attention on YouTube."

The Agentio ad platform offers marketers direct access to a premium network of creators with bespoke and highly engaged audiences. Its patent-pending AI technology automates creator and brand matches relevant to a brand's audience by giving marketers a superhuman understanding of a creator. Agentio also offers more liquidity and revenue to creators, enabling them to list their inventory in real-time, so that brands can auto-bid on available ad inventory, in seconds. Agentio's first-of-its-kind technology enables brands to significantly scale their creator campaigns, without additional bandwidth constraints.

"Agentio's platform is an industry-first, utilizing predictive models to match creators and brands seamlessly," says Jonathan Meyers, Co-Founder & CTO of Agentio. "With access to first-party ad performance data and a machine level understanding of creator content, our product's ability to deliver authentic and performant ad reads through end-to-end automation, is highly-contrarian and will completely transform the way sponsored ad content occurs across various social channels."

"Creator-led marketing is one of the most effective ways to advertise, but the challenge is scaling these programs across platforms," said Bryan Rosenblatt, partner at Craft Ventures. "Agentio is building a standardized, scalable platform that combines the easy, modern ad buying experience marketers have come to expect with the magic of pairing the right creator with the right advertiser. This is something that many of our portfolio companies have been asking for, and that the broader advertising industry needs."

Agentio has already launched a beta-version of the platform with leading spenders of YouTube sponsored content and top creators. The funding will be used to accelerate Agentio's product development and go-to-market strategy with creators and brands.

"We are thrilled to back Agentio and firmly believe that the Agentio team is poised to reinvent how sponsored content is built, bought, and sold," says Susannah Shipton, Partner at AlleyCorp. "In the same way that DoubleClick revolutionized display advertising (and ultimately built the infrastructure for ad content on the internet), we expect that Agentio will build the new infrastructural engine for sponsored content – a far bigger market opportunity. Just as importantly, we believe that using Agentio will be a massive unlock for creators and marketers in terms of time and expense, meaning they can spend more time doing what they do best: creating enduring content that engages audiences around the world."

Certification demonstrates commitment to the highest standard of data security and compliance

OneSignal, the world's leading customer engagement platform, today announced the successful completion of its Type II System and Organization Controls (SOC 2) examination. This certification highlights OneSignal's commitment to ensuring the security and privacy of its users' data.

In line with its commitment to provide robust data security, the company also announced that its platform is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant and can provide a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to Enterprise Plan customers, ensuring the proper handling of protected health information.

"Maintaining the trust of our customers is one of our top priorities, so we take the privacy and security of our customers' data very seriously," said Nelson Cheung, Head of Data Security at OneSignal. "Achieving SOC 2 Type II certification underscores OneSignal's dedication to robust controls and processes to ensure the protection of our clients' data. Furthermore, the HIPAA certification ensures that OneSignal is equipped to handle sensitive healthcare data securely." 

These certifications underscore OneSignal's continuous effort to maintain the trust and confidence of its global user base, reinforcing the company's pledge to uphold the most stringent data protection practices. With over two million users currently on OneSignal's platform delivering over 12 billion messages daily, OneSignal recognizes the sensitivity surrounding data storage and utilization.

"OneSignal understands the importance of secure data management and the level of trust our users place in our platform," said George Deglin, CEO at OneSignal. "Obtaining the SOC 2 Type II certification not only validates our dedication to data security but also reflects our ongoing commitment to preserving our users' privacy."

The new capabilities are designed for today's modern workforce, leveraging AI to increase productivity regardless of location

Mural, the leading visual work platform for the Enterprise, today announced its integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot, which provides Copilot users with an AI-powered experience that can be used in conjunction with Mural. Mural is one of the first integrations with Microsoft 365 Copilot which became generally available (GA) today and is the only visual collaboration solution in the initial set of third-party integrations being offered. Alongside this integration, Mural is launching Mural AI, which includes the AI-powered features: actions, mind maps, and clustering. Mural is firmly committed to creating tools and developing partnerships that help teams harness the power of AI to solve the most pressing challenges faced by teams in the enterprise today. Through in-platform AI solutions and responsible, secure integrations with existing tools, Mural is giving teams across the enterprise the technology they need to work together better, faster, and smarter, for increased productivity and job satisfaction.

Integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot 
Microsoft selected Mural to be among a group of premier partners — as well as the only visual work platform — supporting Microsoft 365 Copilot at launch. With its Microsoft 365 Copilot integration, Mural is taking the next step to providing a seamless visual collaboration experience and saving organizations time as part of the central Copilot experience. With the integration, members can leverage simple, natural language prompts to streamline their daily tasks. Using Mural and Copilot, a sales representative can easily find the customer discovery mural for their account; a designer can quickly summarize a brainstorming mural with hundreds of sticky notes; and a product manager can efficiently retrieve a project kickoff mural template — and much more.

Mural AI Features
Mural's purpose-built AI features empower teams to kickstart their projects, broaden their horizons, and work more efficiently together. Mural AI features help teams automate redundant and routine tasks, quickly synthesize information, and generate new ideas so they can spend their time doing the higher-level thinking that humans do best.

• Mind maps: Mind maps are a great visual tool for following ideas and seeing where they lead. Mural AI can generate mind maps automatically from a single prompt and allow users to keep following the thread, empowering teams to create and develop great ideas faster and more effectively than ever before.
• Actions: Actions helps members save time and simplify workflows with natural language prompts to quickly and efficiently complete common tasks. Summarize a group of sticky notes, get ideas to jumpstart a brainstorming session, generate icebreakers and more from a single entry-point that's intuitive and easy to use.
• Clustering: When teams are generating ideas together, it can take a lot of time and energy to find those common threads that are critical to moving forward with confidence. Mural's AI clustering makes finding and sorting ideas a breeze, paving the way to new insights and enabling a smoother, faster-decision making process so teams can focus on the bigger picture.

Mural's product is built to streamline workflows and allow knowledge workers to focus on the work that matters.

"The new AI features in Mural are a brainstorming game changer. Pushing people to really dig deep to be creative can be challenging. The ability to quickly generate a mind map to jumpstart thinking will be very powerful. Using AI to quickly group ideas will cut significant time out of a workshop normally spent just 'organizing' thoughts. Now we can focus on creating thoughts." - Cindi P., Operations Lead, Professional Services Company

The Future of AI
A recent study carried out by Mural found that nearly two-thirds of all knowledge workers are excited and optimistic about AI's ability to help teams work together more effectively. Specifically, they recognize the power of AI to reduce repetitive tasks and automate processes. Managers are even more optimistic about AI than individual contributors (88% vs 74%). Mural's AI features, along with its Copilot integration, empower teams to kickstart their projects, broaden their horizons and work more efficiently together, all while ensuring thorough security and privacy from start to finish.

"We're thrilled to announce our integration with Microsoft Copilot, which brings AI-enabled collaborative tools to the ever-evolving workplace," said David Baga, CEO of Mural. "Mural is committed to developing innovative solutions that address the pain points of teamwork, and this integration represents a significant milestone in that regard. Over the years, we've had a great partnership with Microsoft, and we are delighted to be one of the first plugins available at launch for Microsoft 365 Copilot. The future of work is AI-enabled, and Mural is proud to be leading the charge with Microsoft to bring innovative ways to collaborate to the workforce."

"We are at a major inflection point where AI is reshaping work and transforming how we collaborate," said Srini Raghavan, VP of Product Management for Microsoft Teams Ecosystem. "Through our expanded integrations our customers will be leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot and Mural plugin, to improve efficiency, productivity, and collaboration within their teams."

Mural's products are built for the enterprise and take a proactive approach in addressing the security needs of its users when building and deploying its AI capabilities. The company maintains active SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications and complies with GDPR and CCPA regulations. In addition, Mural is Microsoft 365 Certified. Mural plans to continue to develop the Mural AI offering and further extend its integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve how teams work together today and in the future.

Cutting-edge AI & analytics tools put the "I" in "AI," redefining how enterprises can measure and improve digital conversations to achieve better outcomes

New turnkey managed services solution, LP 360, provides the fastest route to guaranteed performance outcomes

LivePerson, a global leader in conversational AI, today announced the launch of its Conversational Intelligence suite of capabilities, as well as its enterprise managed services solution, LP 360. Both new offerings allow businesses to empower their people, shift customer conversations to digital, and embrace AI and automation to drive better business outcomes.

Based on decades of expertise helping brands improve digital engagement — and informed by billions of real customer interactions — LivePerson's new offerings are the most advanced enterprise-class conversational intelligence tools and managed services on the market. They will debut with demos and keynotes from LivePerson AI experts at the company's November 14, 2023 Spark launch event.

Part of LivePerson's award-winning Conversational Cloud, the Conversational Intelligence suite consists of three solutions that leverage conversational data — the literal voice and words of the customer — to redefine how conversational AI drives business outcomes:

• Analytics Studio combines and converts voice and messaging conversations into actionable data that makes sense of your customers' behaviors, preferences, and signals across channels.
• Generative Insights applies cutting-edge large language models to your conversational data, meaning you can say goodbye to spending hours sifting through transcripts and spreadsheets. Just ask an open-ended question and receive instant insights from your customer conversations.
• Report Center aggregates reporting into a simple and configurable dashboard to measure the performance of your AI- and human-powered interactions.

"As the most scaled solution for messaging and automation in the world - and with one of the world's most extensive datasets for customer engagement - LivePerson sets the standard for turning conversational data into better business outcomes," said John Collins, Interim CEO of LivePerson. "Our Conversational Intelligence suite enables you to understand what customers want, measure your performance, and continuously improve. And that's just the beginning: beyond optimization and personalization, Conversational Intelligence even allows you to uncover new revenue opportunities that transform your business."

According to Forrester, "Insights from contact center conversations are driving enterprise-wide value. Companies are recognizing that the contact center is far more than operational overhead. In many cases, the only one-to-one interaction a company will have with its customers is through the contact center — these conversations represent a gold mine of business value."*

LivePerson's enterprise customers already use its analytics capabilities to solve problems and drive results, and the company's new Conversational Intelligence solutions are set to accelerate how they leverage data to better serve consumers.

"I've learned from my experience with LivePerson that the intent data we collect is a treasure trove for understanding our customers. Having access to what our clients are saying — and being able to surface that to drive business outcomes — is a massive opportunity," said Holly Carroll, Vice President of Client Services at The RealReal. "We're able to analyze real-time, verbatim feedback, which is something I personally do every single morning to understand our customers' wants and pain points."

Also set to launch at the November 14 Spark event, LP 360 is a turnkey managed services offering for enterprise conversations. This program aligns to pre-defined business outcomes — tying fees to your success — and provides the fastest route to outcomes, going from kickoff to launch in as little as four weeks.

• Performance: Based on industry benchmarks, LP 360 establishes a baseline and measures outcomes over time — based on the KPIs that matter most to your business: lead generation, conversion rates, reduced costs, revenue, or other goals.
• Platform: Using the Conversational Intelligence suite, LP 360 helps you understand what your customers want, then works with you to digitize and ultimately automate those intents. In addition to Conversational Intelligence, every capability on the Conversational Cloud platform is deployed to achieve your objectives.
• People: LivePerson hires, trains, and manages your agents, scaling as needed to meet your goals. LP 360 also provides dedicated strategy and implementation specialists from the LivePerson team, with verticalized expertise in financial services, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, automotive, retail, and more.

"Our managed services team has already delivered incredible results for some of the world's biggest brands, where we've successfully reduced operating expenses by 30% or more while simultaneously boosting Net Promoter Scores by 30+ points. The launch of LP 360 opens up this level of dedicated partnership to enterprises across the globe," said Nirali Amin, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at LivePerson. "Building, optimizing, and maintaining a contact center is costly. LP 360 unlocks everything you need — technology, labor, automation, and full end-to-end management — to achieve better outcomes as fast as possible."

LivePerson customer The RealReal worked with the LP 360 team to launch a seamless, luxury-level experience for consignors, buyers, and internal employees in just six weeks. Early results included reduced wait times (less than two minutes on messaging compared to three days on email), a 10% boost in customer satisfaction scores, and reduced costs in spite of increasing headcount. The LP 360 and The RealReal team also exceeded their goals for shifting contact volume to messaging, with 40% shifted in less than six months compared to their initial goal of 30%.

Americans think generative AI will most impact marketing (46.6%), cybersecurity (45%), customer service (42.5%), education (36.1%), healthcare (32.9%) and manufacturing (31.7%)

WEVO, the next-gen user experience (UX) research platform, today announced the results of a survey of 1,014 American consumers regarding the status and awareness of generative artificial intelligence (AI). The survey focused on how Americans perceive that generative AI will impact jobs and industries.

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, generative AI is making significant strides, and it's no secret that it likely will impact jobs across various industries. According to the survey data, 64% of Americans believe that AI will make their jobs easier to some degree but 38% are concerned it will negatively impact their job security. When asked whether they think generative AI will impact the job market and employment opportunities in the future, 87% believe there will be an impact on the job market, and 22% believe AI will eliminate some jobs without replacing them.

Respondents also expressed concerns that schools aren’t ready for AI and aren’t adequately preparing students for its impact on the job market. Seventy-four percent believe that traditional educational systems have a long road ahead to maintain pace with the changing career landscape that AI has created.

However, the story isn't only about generative AI's appetite for employment; it's also about its impact on various industries. The data reveals that the number-one industry where Americans think AI will be most useful and have the most impact is marketing (46.6%), followed by cybersecurity (45%), customer service (42.5%), education (36.1%), healthcare (32.9%) and manufacturing/supply chain (31.7%).

AI will help companies provide personalized customer experiences

Americans perceive that AI will be a marketing machine used to sell more, target more and pinpoint preferences. Fifty-nine percent say it is highly important for content and designs created by generative AI to appeal to specific and diverse customers. Forty-eight percent believe AI-driven insights will significantly reshape how companies approach user experience and digital asset testing for their marketing campaigns and products.

“As organizations increasingly deploy AI to revolutionize marketing, the need for responsible AI implementation becomes increasingly crucial. Organizations must market responsibly with AI while providing meaningful digital experiences that address people’s needs, and while minimizing bias, hallucinations and unintended consequences,” said Nitzan Shaer, CEO and co-founder of WEVO, a leader in UX research that underscores the importance of ethical and effective AI integration in marketing.

Shaer added, “Our mission at WEVO is to ensure that AI-enhanced marketing is done with the utmost responsibility and ethical consideration while also delivering personalized experiences based on the user's needs and preferences. Our platform provides brands with the insights needed to create exceptional user experiences. As AI becomes a driving force in marketing, WEVO's services become even more vital in helping brands adapt and thrive in this new era.”

The cloud-based solution harnesses the power of AWS, NVIDIA, and Unreal Engine to provide an immersive and personalized digital space to drive your business message and needs

Jugo, a technology company committed to redefining digital communication and collaboration, today announced Jugo spaces, its cloud-based communication platform that transforms the virtual meeting experience, moving beyond the traditional video conference to create immersive, multi-sensory environments that embrace the human presence – not just voice and two-dimensional visuals. Jugo spaces empowers businesses to create personalized, custom-branded, and authentic digital experiences, enabling every virtual interaction to be as unique as those in the real world.

Amid the ever-evolving digital landscape, Jugo spaces leverages 3D immersive technology and artificial intelligence to combat Zoom fatigue, ensuring that connections remain meaningful and impactful. Combining the power of AWS, NVIDIA, and Unreal Engine, Jugo spaces offers an unparalleled, one-click, no-download experience, eliminating the need for additional hardware or headsets.

“We are thrilled to introduce Jugo spaces, which marks a significant milestone in reimagining how we connect and communicate in the virtual world,” said Spencer Green, Founder and CEO of Jugo. “Because the current tools haven’t lived up to the expectations of employees, we’re seeing more companies adopt Jugo’s immersive communication technology, which brings authentic, sensory, and inclusive experiences into the workplace. Our revolutionary platform, Jugo spaces, integrates gaming, AI, and enterprise cloud technology to put human connection at the forefront, empowering brands and businesses to host dynamic one-on-ones or town halls effortlessly. Jugo spaces is critical for businesses striving to connect in a more human, engaging, and personalized way.”

The underlying technology incorporated into Jugo spaces brings spatial, audio, and mixed reality AI to enterprises at scale. The 3D capabilities of Epic Games' Unreal Engine, with advanced features such as Lumen Global Illumination, Nanite Virtualized Geometry, and Niagara Particle Effects, deliver stunning, lifelike visuals. NVIDIA, a leader in AI technology, ensures realistic and authentic interactions in the virtual arena. Streamed over the WebSocket protocol to enable a truly interactive event, attendees are active participants, engaging in real-time Q&A sessions, live polls, and emoji reactions. And to ensure everything runs smoothly and securely, AWS hosts the platform.

Key features of Jugo spaces include:

• Scalability: Adapts seamlessly to any audience size, from client meetings to town halls, ensuring interactions remain focused and effective.
• Branded communications: Prioritizes brand identity, enabling consistency across all interactions.
• Human connection: Designed to replicate real-world interactions, creating a genuine sense of presence.
• Immersive experience: Offers an engaging and deep user experience for all participants.

“Business communicators are always looking for ways to boost engagement with audiences online,” said Steve Vonder Haar, senior analyst tracking the “Intelligent Video” market segment for IntelliVid Research. “Jugo’s approach of blending presentation content with video feedback from audience members offers a platform that fosters more natural and authentic interaction between participants in one-to-many digital events.”

"Jugo spaces is unique because it makes you feel like you're in a real place with other people, encouraging true dialogue that enriches understanding,” said Dr. Kimberly Greene, University of Massachusetts Global's School of Education “This immersive space helps everyone learn and work better."

The SaaS platform for creative operations has announced a free solution to scale and review creatives with artificial intelligence.

Artwork Flow, Bizongo’s proprietary platform, has officially announced the launch of an all-new creative automation and proofing solution powered by artificial intelligence.

The new solution is aimed at helping fast-growing brands speed up their creative operations with a wide range of path-breaking tools. Artwork Flow is offering the solution with a lifetime free plan that allows teams to quickly create impactful content at scale and review creatives efficiently on the platform.

“As we continue to explore the growing capabilities of AI-led technologies for creative applications, we believe the possibilities are endless. Our goal is to empower every creator to become a one-person creative powerhouse and help brands accelerate their growth by addressing their requirements faster and smarter than ever before,” says Ankit Tomar, the CEO of Artwork Flow.

Artwork Flow’s new solution includes a number of powerful features, including:

• An automated design template scaling tool.
• A design template editor.
• An AI-powered creative library.
• An online proofing solution supporting 160+ file types, including videos.

Growing brands like Home Chef, Jones Dairy Farm, and LesserEvil have been using Artwork Flow to streamline collaboration and improve creative efficiency by up to 75%.

Artwork Flow remains focused on expanding its AI-powered suite with upcoming releases aiming to build upon core features and offer enhanced creative ops capabilities to its users.