Author: Art Ryan

Key Highlights: Europe is one of the markets across the globe where tech giants find themselves under heavy scrutiny from the European Commission. Meta, this time, has found itself in a spot of bother after introducing a WhatsApp policy that blocks third-party AI providers. Italy’s antitrust regulator asks Meta to suspend its WhatsApp policy that blocks third-party AI providers Earlier this month, the European Commission launched a separate investigation into this matter. At the time, the regulator announced that the probe will cover the entire EEA, except one country, Italy. That’s because Italy’s competition watchdog, theItalian Competition Authority (AGCM), launched the probe…

Key Highlights: If you use NotebookLM, this might be the news you wanted to hear for a long time now. NotebookLM is unarguably one of the best AI tools to exist at this point, but Google isn’t done with pushing even more upgrades. The company is reportedly working on another notable upgrade related to long-form audio learning behind the scenes. NotebookLM’s Lecture mode focuses on long-form explanations The news comes via Testing Catalog, which reported that Google is working on a new “Lecture” format for Audio Overviews that can provide AI-generated audio of up to 30 minutes long. To catch you…

Key Highlights: Google has been making massive strides to turn Gemini into a useful AI assistant that not only helps us with summarizing emails, generating images, and much more. Thanks to the growing list of features now associated with Gemini, Waymo appears to be exploring a new frontier for its robotaxis. Formerly the Google self-driving car project, Waymo is now looking to integrate Gemini AI chatbot as an in-car assistant. In a blog post, tech blogger and app researcher Jane Manchun Wong mentioned that while examining Waymo’s mobile app code, she uncovered the complete system prompt for its unreleased Gemini integration…

Snowflake is reportedly in talks to acquire Observe for about $1 billion to expand its range of artificial intelligence (AI) offerings. A deal would add Observe’s observability tools for monitoring applications, including AI apps, to Snowflake’s product portfolio that includes database technology and AI that handles IT tickets, customer service and other workplace tasks, The Information reported Wednesday (Dec. 24), citing unnamed sources. Reached by PYMNTS, Snowflake declined to comment on the report. Observe did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment. According to The Information, the companies already have close ties, with Observe using Snowflake’s database, Snowflake’s venture arm investing in Observe in 2024, and…

Amazon is moving quickly to contain a new threat to its eCommerce dominance as AI-powered shopping bots begin to reshape how consumers discover and buy products online. The company is blocking third-party artificial intelligence (AI) shopping tools from accessing its site even as it explores partnerships and builds its own AI-driven buying experiences, underscoring the high stakes for payments, commerce and customer ownership as automated purchasing accelerates. According to a CNBC report published Wednesday (Dec, 24), the rise of AI shopping agents has created what analysts describe as a “leader’s dilemma” for Amazon. New tools from AI companies allow consumers to search for products, compare prices and complete purchases inside a chatbot, bypassing…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly embedding itself into the core decision-making systems of modern businesses, from pricing and marketing to supply chain management and customer targeting. As AI tools move from experimental add-ons to operational infrastructure, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are focusing on how algorithmic decision-making could reshape competition, sometimes in ways that bypass traditional antitrust guardrails. The concern is no longer limited to whether companies explicitly collude, but whether AI systems themselves can produce market outcomes that look and feel anticompetitive. Those risks are outlined in a recent analysis by Steptoe, which examines how the expanded use of AI is…

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) reported that member firms’ use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing the controls, documentation and supervisory frameworks needed to manage the technology’s risks, based on examination findings detailed in its Annual Regulatory Oversight Report. The findings, drawn from FINRA’s regulatory programs, show uneven governance, limited transparency into AI outputs and growing exposure tied to vendor-provided tools. FINRA said it observed firms deploying large language models and similar tools across a widening set of business functions, including customer service, internal research, compliance support and content generation. While firms cited efficiency gains, regulators noted that many deployments lacked formal risk assessments, clear ownership or documentation sufficient to support supervision and accountability. Meanwhile, PYMNTS Intelligence…

From new multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) models to immersive storytelling spaces and agent-driven enterprise tools, Big Tech’s latest moves show AI becoming the connective tissue across products, experiences and business operations. Meta Prepares Mango and Avocado to Expand Its AI Arsenal Meta is developing a new image and video generation model code-named Mango alongside a new text-focused model called Avocado, according to The Wall Street Journal. The effort reflects Meta’s push to diversify its AI stack beyond a single family of large language models and toward more specialized systems tuned for specific tasks and modalities. Mango is designed to handle image and video…

The financial sector’s honeymoon phase with centralized, cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) is meeting a hard reality: The speed of a fiber-optic cable isn’t always fast enough. For payments, fraud detection and identity verification, the milliseconds lost in “round-tripping” data to a distant server represent more than just lag — they are a structural vulnerability. As the industry matures, the competitive frontier is shifting toward edge AI, moving the point of decision-making from the data center to the literal edge of the network — the ATM, the point-of-sale (POS) terminal, and the branch server. From Batch Processing to Instant Inference At the…

Artificial intelligence (AI) solution provider Seekr and Wayne, Pennsylvania-headquartered regional accounting firm Stephano Slack have partnered to build AI agents for financial auditing and advisory services. The collaboration started with advanced 401(k) plan auditing and financial data extraction, and it will grow across other core advisory and audit workflows, the companies said in a Tuesday (Dec. 23) press release. One of the solutions developed through this partnership and powered by Seekr’s generative AI platform, Seekrflow, automates the ingestion, validation and structuring of financial documents. This solution reduces the amount of time spent on manual extraction and reconciliation work from 50 hours to two hours, according to the release. In addition to accelerating this work, Seekr’s AI agents…

Trade finance platform Olea Global has raised $30 million in new funding. The company’s Series A round, announced by the Singapore-based startup last week, was led by BBVA and will help Olea invest in artificial intelligence (AI) driven analytics, Web3 readiness and expertise in areas such as embedded finance. ‘This funding marks an important milestone in Olea’s journey,” Amelia Ng, CEO of Olea, said in a news release. “The confidence shown by our new and existing investors is a powerful validation of the business we’ve built–institutional-grade, scalable, and ready for the next phase of growth. We are committed to building an efficient and accessible trade ecosystem…

American consumers spent more this holiday season while using cross-channel shopping and artificial intelligence (AI) tools for bargain hunting and convenience, according to separate analyses by Mastercard and Visa. Mastercard SpendingPulse found that U.S. retail sales excluding automotive increased 3.9% year over year from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21, according to a Tuesday (Dec. 23) press release. Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) reported that holiday retail spending increased 4.2% during the seven weeks from Nov. 1 through Dec. 20, per a Tuesday press release. Its analysis is based on retail merchants’ data, excluding auto, gasoline and restaurants. Both analyses include all payment types and figures that are not adjusted…

As peak holiday demand stretches supply chains to their limits, global retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target are leaning heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to move goods faster, reduce errors and protect workers from physically demanding tasks.  What was once experimental technology has become core infrastructure, reshaping how companies handle seasonal surges across warehouses, transportation networks and returns operations. AI Orchestrates Holiday Fulfillment For large retailers, holiday success increasingly depends on AI systems that can anticipate demand and coordinate thousands of moving parts in real time. At Walmart, an AI-driven orchestration network connects forecasting models, routing algorithms and decision agents to manage what the company described as its fastest holiday deliveries yet. The system continuously analyzes signals such as historical sales, local demand patterns,…

Bank of America expects artificial intelligence (AI) to have a growing effect on the economy next year and beyond. Speaking Monday (Dec. 22) with Bloomberg Television, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said that AI had an increasing impact this year and that it will accelerate in the coming years. Moynihan said this while sharing that Bank of America expects the U.S. economy to grow 2.4% in 2026, up from 2% this year, Bloomberg reported Monday. “AI is kicking in more and more, and so it’s not all attributable to AI, but that’s having a marginal impact that’s pretty strong,” Moynihan said, per the report. The…

Key Highlights: It’s not hidden anymore that AI browsers are slowly making their way into the market. Earlier this year, AI companies like Perplexity and OpenAI launched Comet AI browser and ChatGPT Atlas, respectively. The idea behind AI browser is quite fascinating but is it reliable enough to make users transition to these options for everyday web browsing is still a big question. Here’s how OpenAI is blocking prompt injection attacks in ChatGPT Atlas That’s especially true when the browser market is alone dominated by Google Chrome, which is already making strides by adding AI features. But, for AI-powered browsers that alone…

Key Highlights: Countries in the Middle East are increasingly working to bolster plans for future innovations in advanced technology, AI, and other areas. One such example is the UAE. The country is partnering with some of the top tech giants from the U.S., like Microsoft and OpenAI, to make it more efficient in the AI sector. More recently, Microsoft announced $15.2 billion investment in the UAE to expand its AI footprint in the country. That’s not all; the company is also aiming to build trust and make people aware of AI and turn the UAE into an AI-ready nation. Speaking of AI,…

Key Highlights: After demand from China soared high, followed by some leniency in the H200 chip export rule by the Trump administration, NVIDIA has once again found itself in a position where it has to adjust its AI chip strategy. However, the approval from the U.S. government isn’t straight-forward. The Trump administration has set a condition of 25% fee on each sale. After Trump eases China export rules, NVIDIA plans to ram-up production of H200 AI chips Last week, reports came in that NVIDIA reportedly has told Chinese customers that it was mulling over the idea of ramping up the production…

Key Highlights: Ever since AI picked up the hype, Microsoft has been one of the frontrunners in the race, alongside some of the big names, like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and more. At this point, the company has been pushing AI so much that Windows users have started feeling annoyed with everything Microsoft has to announce about Copilot. Last month, Windows chief Pavan Davuluri took to X and shared a post mentioning that Windows is evolving into an agentic OS. That very post didn’t sit well with already-frustrated Windows users, who called out the company under Davuluri’s post about forcing users…

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had earned another Game of the Year award by the Indie Game Awards last week, but the organization has since announced that the award would be retracted because developer Sandfall Interactive used generative AI during development. The Indie Game Awards also rescinded the Debut Game award given to Expedition 33. Here is the Indie Game Awards’ explanation, from an FAQ: The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI…

Agentic AI is often portrayed as a ‘wait-and-see’ game. As PYMNTS Intelligence data shows, CFOs have expressed their curiosity and a limited amount of trust, but they’ve yet to take their hands off the wheel.  And maybe some never will. But over the past week The Prompt Economy saw some new use cases in the financial services sector that are beyond “wait and see.” For example in a recent blog post, Amazon Web Services argues that agentic AI is moving financial institutions beyond experimentation and into practical, production-ready systems that outperform traditional generative AI for complex, regulated work. Citing a Moody’s study, AWS notes that financial firms are prioritizing AI…