Mastercard brings agentic payments to life in Singapore with DBS and UOB
Mastercard has completed its first live, authenticated agent-based payment transaction in Singapore, a milestone that advances autonomous AI commerce from proof of concept to everyday use. Announced on March 4, 2026, the transaction was carried out in partnership with DBS and UOB, two of Southeast Asia’s largest banks. In the demonstration, an AI agent booked a ride to […]
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AI insurance underwriting is past the pitch deck—Gradient AI just got the capital to prove it
AI insurance underwriting has been called the next frontier of insurtech for years. The difference now is that the money backing it has moved from venture bets into institutional conviction. On March 3, Boston-based Gradient AI securedgrowth capital financing from CIBC Innovation Banking, a lender with over 25 years of experience backing growth-stage technology companies and […]
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UK sovereign AI fund to build up domestic computing infrastructure
The UK sovereign AI fund intends to secure advantages by providing a domestic alternative to external computing infrastructure. Backed by a £500 million budget from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the unit formally launches on April 16th at 6pm GMT. James Wise, Partner at Balderton Capital, chairs the function to coordinate efforts across […]
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Google makes its industrial robotics AI play official–and this time, it means business
When Google folds a moonshot into its core operations, it’s not cleaning house. It’s placing a bet. On February 25, Alphabet-owned Intrinsic–which builds AI models and software designed to make industrial robotics more accessible–officially joined Google. The company will remain a distinct group within Google, working closely with Google DeepMind and tapping into Gemini AI models and […]
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AI adoption in financial services has hit a point of no return
AI adoption in financial services has effectively become universal–and the institutions still treating it as an experiment are now the outliers. According to Finastra’s Financial Services State of the Nation 2026 report, which surveyed 1,509 senior executives across 11 markets, only 2% of financial institutions globally report no use of AI whatsoever. The debate is […]
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Mastercard’s AI payment demo points to agent-led commerce
A recent demonstration from Mastercard suggests that payment systems may be heading toward a future where software agents, not people, complete purchases. During the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Mastercard showed what it described as its first fully authenticated “agentic commerce” transaction. In the demo, as reported by Times of India, an AI agent searched […]
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AI: Executives’ optimism about the future
The most rigorous international study of firm-level AI impact to date has landed, and its headline finding is more constructive than many expected. Across nearly 6,000 verified executives in four countries, AI has delivered modest aggregate shifts in productivity or employment over the past three years. The measured impact reflects the early phases of deployment […]
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Agentic AI drives finance ROI in accounts payable automation
Finance leaders are driving ROI using agentic AI for accounts payable automation, turning manual tasks into autonomous workflows. While general AI projects saw return on investment rise to 67 percent last year, autonomous agents delivered an average ROI of 80 percent by handling complex processes without human intervention. This performance gap demands a change in […]
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Barclays bets on AI to cut costs and boost returns
Barclays recorded a 12 % jump in annual profit for 2025, reporting £9.1 billion in earnings before tax, up from £8.1 billion a year earlier. The bank also raised its performance targets out through 2028, aiming for a return on tangible equity (RoTE) of more than 14 %, up from a previous goal of above […]
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AI Expo 2026 Day 2: Moving experimental pilots to AI production
The second day of the co-located AI & Big Data Expo and Digital Transformation Week in London showed a market in a clear transition. Early excitement over generative models is fading. Enterprise leaders now face the friction of fitting these tools into current stacks. Day two sessions focused less on large language models and more […]
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