AI adoption

Dallas – October 14, 2026 -- HighLevel, the AI-powered operating system for businesses, agencies and founders, has appointed Grubhub founder and former CEO Matt Maloney to its Board of Directors, adding a leader who spent 17 years scaling a technology marketplace.

Maloney led Grubhub from startup through its merger with Seamless and its multibillion-dollar acquisition by Just Eat Takeaway.com in 2021. He brings more than 20 years of experience building and scaling technology-enabled businesses.

HighLevel's three founders back Maloney's operating record

HighLevel's founding triumvirate of Shaun Clark, Varun Vairavan and Robin Alex said in a joint statement that Maloney's founder instinct and operating experience will be valuable as the company builds its technology and ecosystem. Maloney said he sees the same opportunity at HighLevel that Grubhub offered independent restaurants, but on a broader scale.

Chicago – October 14, 2026 -- Oversight and rework consume more than a quarter of expected productivity gains for 45% of B2B organizations running AI agents, according to G2's 2026 AI Agents Report, "Crossing the Agentic Chasm." The survey of 1,019 B2B decision-makers shows 86% of software buyers purchased AI agent software or services in the past year, up 25% from 69% a year earlier.

G2 calls the cost of operating agents under constrained trust the "Distrust Tax." Some 31% of buyers say employees spend at least 6 hours a week overseeing agent work, and 46% report higher-than-expected agent operating costs.

Fort Lauderdale – October 13, 2026 -- Dream Vacations won five 2026 Travel Weekly Magellan Awards, three Gold and two Silver, for its work in advisor education, AI adoption, search visibility and business growth.

Agent Directory, destination training and CLIA credits take three Gold awards

The franchise won Gold in Web Marketing/Advertising for its Agent Directory. The platform is integrated with TravelLeaders.com and optimized for both traditional and AI-powered search. It is designed to help advisors improve online visibility and connect with high-intent travelers.

A second Gold, in Business Strategy, went to its destination certification programs covering Alaska, the Caribbean and Hawaii.

Global – October 12, 2026 -- Whether autonomous AI agents free up customer success teams or just add noise depends on five conditions set before deployment, according to ChurnZero founder and CEO YouMon Tsang.

Tsang laid out the framework in an appearance on the Startup Builders and Backers podcast.

Agents need both facts and context to make useful recommendations

Tsang separates CS data into two layers. Facts are contract dates, pricing, ARR and points of contact. Information is the context around the relationship: call transcripts, email threads, and product and usage know-how. Agents fed both can produce more strategic recommendations. Agents fed only contract and usage data work with facts alone, which puts recommendation quality at risk.

Global – October 12, 2026 -- ChurnZero CEO You Mon Tsang predicts the average customer success manager (CSM) will gain 25-50% more bandwidth per day by the end of 2026 through AI, provided teams avoid the most common adoption error: automating the whole operation at once.

ChurnZero VP of Customer Success Lukas Alexander laid out the argument on the “Customer Success Talks” podcast. He cited two obstacles. The first is AI overreach, where handing too much decision-making to AI could damage long-term customer relationships. The second is balancing automation with a personal touch, because CS teams depend on lasting partnerships rather than the transactional relationships typical of sales and marketing.

Santa Clara – October 12, 2026 -- HCLTech has signed a Global Premier Partnership with Anthropic and will set up a dedicated Anthropic Business Unit with a Center of Excellence (CoE) to speed enterprise deployments of Claude, with a focus on safety, cybersecurity and governance in Agentic AI.

HCLTech's new unit will offer sandbox environments for Claude deployments

The unit will build Agentic AI solutions and provide secure sandbox environments for enterprise Claude deployments through FDEs. HCLTech's services teams will also build industry solutions and offerings powered by Claude, Cowork and Claude Code.

HCLTech will help clients adopt AI-native engineering practices, train their workforces and build the organizational capabilities needed to run Agentic AI safely at scale.

Plano, Texas – October 11, 2026 -- AnX Robotica said its NaviCam ProScan AI reading technology cut mean small-bowel capsule endoscopy review time by 88.6% in the study underlying its FDA De Novo clearance, against a 24.7% reduction reported for a competing AI-assisted platform cleared on September 25, 2026.

FDA names ProScan as primary predicate for the new clearance

The FDA's 510(k) clearance K254230 identifies NaviCam ProScan (DEN230027) as its primary predicate device. Both products assist clinicians reviewing small-bowel capsule endoscopy studies. ProScan received its De Novo decision on December 12, 2023.

Blue Bell, Pa. – October 08, 2026 -- Unisys (NYSE: UIS) has been named a Leader and Star Performer in Everest Group's 2026 Digital Workplace Services PEAK Matrix Assessment for North America, advancing from a Major Contender ranking in 2025.

Unisys becomes one of four Star Performers recognized for year-over-year market gains

Everest Group evaluated 29 providers of digital workplace services across North America based on market impact, vision and capability. The firm attributed Unisys' advancement to its AI-enabled smart workplace tools, an experience-led employee support model and a differentiated field-services approach.

San Francisco – October 07, 2026 -- Gusto has rolled out its most significant overhaul of Gusto Pro since 2021, alongside a new multi-client Model Context Protocol (MCP) and an expanded Partner Program, targeting the more than 23,000 accounting firms currently using its platform.

Gusto Pro gains AI-assisted workflows to cut manual payroll prep

The redesigned Gusto Pro platform now automates core payroll tasks end-to-end, including extracting hours from emails, surfacing changes since the last payroll run, and generating critical reports. Accountants retain final review and approval authority before any changes are processed. A new AI assistant, Pro Gus, gives accountants faster answers to client questions and multi-client visibility across their book of business.

New York – October 6, 2026 -- Lippincott, the global brand and marketing consultancy owned by Oliver Wyman, has agreed to acquire New York-based design studio Athletics, adding roughly 25 staff and a proprietary AI software platform called Sesame to its service lineup.

Deal closes November 2, 2026, folding a 25-person studio into Lippincott's network

The transaction is set to close November 2, 2026, at which point Athletics' team will join Lippincott while retaining its existing Brooklyn offices. Athletics, known for multidisciplinary work spanning identity, digital experiences and creative technology, has built brand systems for clients including Salesforce, IBM, Google, Amazon, MoMA and Major League Soccer.