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IBM Targets AI Edge with Power Server
IBM has bolstered its Power server portfolio with a new edge S1112 server and announced IBM Power Autonomous Operations, an AI agent that helps customers monitor Power systems and autonomously resolve issues to keep operations running smoothly. The new IBM Power S1112 is a one?socket Power11 server engineered for IBM i, AIX, and Linux.
Microsoft added two new Surface devices and a new mouse to its portfolio. The Surface Pro and Surface Laptop now come with Snapdragon X2 processors. The mouse adds haptics to Windows, and the new app is a whiteboard app with integrated AI.
Fortinet Aims for Firewall, SASE Convergence with New 1200G Series
Fortinet has expanded its firewall family with new high-speed boxes that, when combined with the vendor’s FortiSASE Outpost software, extend cloud-based SASE (secure access service edge) capabilities and policy enforcement to on-premises environments. The new midrange FortiGate 1200G series supports 10G, 25G, and 100G connectivity options and delivers 397 Gbps firewall throughput.
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AI Agents Get Better at IT Ops, but Only with Humans in the Loop
A study of nearly 150,000 real-world agent actions found AI increasingly handling low-risk IT tasks while human analysts iteratively shape and improve their actions. AI agents are performing roughly 1 in 3 actions in enterprise IT workflows (but that share is rising quickly), while human analysts are rejecting about one-quarter of AI-proposed actions (but that rate is falling), according to a new study of tens of thousands of human-AI interactions. Operational data, rather than underlying AI infrastructures, is often the culprit when things go wrong.
How Small FIs Can Reset to Keep pace with the AI Opportunity
This article states that policy groups and regulators increasingly see inaction on AI as a risk in itself. For smaller FIs, moving AI into production requires a new operating framework and philosophy that suits their business model, while also borrowing from the agile cultures of many startups. The articel offer these 4 tips: 1) Let Workflows Set the AI Agenda; 2) In the Long Run, Customization Can Reduce Costs and Risks; 3) Make Experimentation a Permanent Best Practice; and 4) Put the Burden of Proof on Your Partners.
This Complimentary Windows 11 Tool Can Rescue Your PC When Things Go Wrong
System Restore has been a key recovery feature in Windows for years. With this free built-in tool, you create snapshots that preserve the current state of your Windows environment. If a problem arises that impacts specific applications, settings, or Windows itself, you can revert your PC to a previous restore point before the problem occurred. This article take s adeep dive into System Restore.
What Accountholders Want from AI Is Anything but Obvious
New research from MX suggests that consumers remain highly selective about where they want AI to help — and where they do not want it to take over. Only 32% of consumers say they trust AI to help manage their finances, while 50% actively distrust it. Of course, Gen Z and Millennials are significantly more likely to use AI regularly, while Baby Boomers remain much less likely to do so. Their research concludes that consumers are currently relatively open to AI that delivers reminders, breaks down spending, categorizes transactions, provides personalized recommendations or offers basic financial advice.
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Cash Usage Trends in 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice
Consumers made an average of 47 payments per month in 2025, similar to 2024 levels. The total number of payments made with cards — both debit and credit — remained consistent with the previous year. As for cash they found these 4 trends: 1) Cash accounted for an average of six payments per month, representing 14% of total payments; 2) Four out of five consumers had used cash in the previous 30 days; 3) Ninety percent of consumers plan to continue using cash in the future; amd 4) Cash was the third-most-preferred payment instrument at 16%, behind debit and credit cards.
How to Handle End-of-Life ATMs, Kiosks?
What happens when kiosks and ATMs reach the end of their useful lives? In best case scenarios, units are returned to the manufacturer, taken apart and recycled for spare parts or e-waste. In worst-case scenarios, they end up in general commercial waste streams. Rather than replacing an entire kiosk, operators may install a new touchscreen, replace an aging PC with a compact industrial computer, upgrade the operating system or retrofit the unit with EMV-compliant payment hardware. In many cases, these upgrades extend the kiosk's life by several years while avoiding the expense of purchasing entirely new equipment. Many experts recommend that ATMs be taken to a security facility once taken off the market. From there, special care should be taken to remove any sensitive information, and owners should get a certificate of destruction to show that all sensitive information and parts were successfully destroyed.
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Why 6 GHz Wi-Fi Will Make or Break the Modern Enterprise
With up to 1,200 MHz of additional spectrum available in the U.S., 6 GHz Wi-Fi effectively triples wireless capacity compared with legacy bands. The author says that it's the first major innovation Wi-Fi has seen in years, and it should be on the radar for all industries. He concludes that the emergence of 6 GHz Wi-Fi, enabled by Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, is quickly becoming a cornerstone of enterprise modernization, and that without it, many of the next-generation experiences that IT and business leaders are planning simply will not scale.
Will Mobile Payments Replace Cash?
The mobile payments industry is a massive piece of the payments ecosystem. With billions of mobile phones in circulation worldwide, including 91% of the American population, it has shown massive growth, with one study reporting the U.S. market alone will reach $19.8 billion by 2035, at a compound annual growth rate of 18%. However, by some estimates 58% of merchants accept contactless payments, that still means there's a large number that do not have the right infrastructure in place, meaning customers have to take a physical card or cash when they travel to an unfamiliar store or place. One stumbling block is connectivity - in the event of outages at the storefront or data connectivity issues, customers will be unable to pay for goods. This is especially a big problem in rural areas with limited connectivity.
Mastercard Launches Wallet Pay to Scale Digital Wallets Worldwide
Digital wallets have rapidly evolved into robust, multi-service platforms, now serving over 4.3 billion users worldwide. With global usage set to top 6 billion by 2030, Mastercard is introducing Mastercard Wallet Pay, a global portfolio of solutions designed to foster interoperability and innovation for digital wallets across contactless (NFC), QR codes and online digital payments.
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Visa Launches Enhanced A2A Protect Innovations
Visa announced an enhanced version of A2A Protect, delivering real-time risk insights that help FIs stop account-to-account fraud before money leaves accounts. The expanded solution introduces a new unified fraud score—Visa’s first in-market integration of Featurespace technology.
7 Ways AI Can Be Used to Enhance Security Operations
AI has an almost unlimited number of applications, yet this article contends that none may be more important than its ability to strengthen enterprise security. It looks at 7 ways AI can help strengthen your attack resilience: 1) Enhancing network and user monitoring; 2) Providing deeper visibility into your security posture; 3) Streamlining the SOC; 4) Connecting the dots on otherwise unsuspicious activities; 5) Reducing data loss and management protection; 6) Providing security team relief; and 7) Uniting signals with intelligence.
Juniper Forecasts AI-Fueled Banking Fraud
Consumers and merchants may stand to benefit in many ways from agentic commerce and artificial intelligence, but fraudsters may also see what they consider plusses of the data-centric technology, with Juniper Research forecasting global fraudulent transactions in digital banking and money transfer surpassing 2.2 billion by 2031, influenced by the rise of AI-enabled attacks. Emerging agentic AI will allow scammers to coordinate multi-stage attacks and make dynamic adjustments as victims and controls respond to their threats, making it more likely the fraud could become more persistent, personalized, and difficult to identify, Juniper says.
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Why Authenticity in Marketing Beats Empty Polish in 2026
Some analysts contend that consumers have grown exhausted with AI-generated content that lacks soul. Online mentions of “slop”, describing lazy, generic marketing, surged 200% in 2025 as audiences rejected anything that felt synthetic. The concludes that the FIs that will win in 2026 will be those that: Pair human creativity with AI efficiency Empower employees as brand architects rather than spokespeople and Create real-world connections that build trust through micro-communities and in-person experiences rather than broadcast messaging alone.
How Transaction Data Supercharges Cross-Selling
The author points out that the next products an accountholder needs are usually visible in the last month of their spending. The problem is that just 38% of account holders at community FIs said their provider’s recommendations got more relevant over the past year, against 51% at online only providers and 50% at major national banks, according to a national study conducted by The Center for Generational Kinetics. She goes on to cover how these issues can be addressed in order to develop more successful offers.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
FedNow Eyes Expansion with Upcoming Discount Program
FIs pondering how FedNow, the real-time payment service from the Federal Reserve, might fit into their product sets will have a new incentive to factor in when the FedNow discount program begins Jan. 1. Eligible FIs could receive a minimum of a $5,000 discount when enabling FedNow receive capabilities. Participation in other Fed programs, such as enabling FedNow Receive and enrolling and participating in the FedACH Receipt discount program, could yield up to $20,000 in statement credits.
Visa Brings Onchain Lending into Everyday Payments
Visa announced a new approach to onchain credit designed to help stablecoin-linked card programs and fintechs access working capital using onchain lending infrastructure and Visa data. Onchain lending has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of digital finance. According to the Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard, since 2020, more than $694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans have been sent through onchain lending protocols, creating a global credit market that operates 24/7. Yet much of that activity remains concentrated within crypto markets and hasn’t meaningfully supported the businesses and payment experiences people use every day. Visa says that they want to help bridge that gap by combining VisaNet settlement data with onchain credit infrastructure.
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Is Your Cloud Security Strategy Ready for AI’s Looming Threat?
Cloud architectures designed to withstand human attackers are facing a new threat: AI agents that rewrite the rules on the pace and scope of attacks. Read this article if you want to learn about how agents change the cloud threat model, cloud complexity expands the attack surface and adapting cloud security operations.
Why the Future of Network Security Is the Convergence of SASE and Firewalls
The author states that there is no realt debate between a SASE-first cloud architecture and an on-premises firewall model. Instead, we are entering an era driven by the unavoidable convergence of firewalls and SASE into a single, cohesive framework. He concludes that in the old days, your IT infrastructure was either a “firewall shop” tied to legacy hardware or a modern “SASE shop” moving everything to the cloud, but the market reality is that organizations today need both working together.
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The Best Contact Centers Have Outgrown the Traditional Metrics. Here’s What They Measure Instead
Most contact centers have a plethora of metrics: wait times, staffing levels, quality scores, handle times, customer satisfaction, sentiment analysis, AI-generated insights, etc. The author is sure that most organizations measure activity, but that the very best measure causes, outcomes, and impact. He concludes that the best have become far more focused on the causes of demand than the volume of interactions.
Workforce Optimization's Two Biggest Blind Spots
When most contact center leaders hear the term workforce optimization (WFO), they think of forecasting, scheduling, quality monitoring, coaching and performance management. While important, the author points out what he calls are 2 importnat "blind spots": Blind Spot #1: Optimizing Work That Should Not Exist and Blind Spot #2: Customer Effort Beyond the Contact Center. He takes a deeper look at each issue in this article.
How to Take a Strategic Approach with Agentic AI for CX
Agentic AI is next-level automation, where tasks can be completed autonomously, without human intervention. This article states that there are three guiding principals to support your agentic AI strategy: 1) Start small and scale; 2) Focus on data quality; and 3) Measure everything.
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