The business of tech stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Visa is rolling out new fraud tools for business-to-business payments and starting a pilot where AI agents help handle them.
Read more: Visa adds fraud protection and tests AI helpers for business paymentsHomebase, known for staff tools for small businesses, has launched an AI assistant meant to keep working after hours so owners can step away.
Read more: Homebase adds an AI assistant to help owners run their shopsA group called CyberCartel reportedly used AI agents to hit more than 400 Latin American targets, a sign that fast, automated attacks on money accounts are here.
Read more: Hackers used AI helpers to break into Latin American banksAn Australian judge ordered Apple to let iPhones install apps from other app stores and websites from March 2027. Apple says it will appeal.
Read more: Australian court orders Apple to let iPhones use other app storesSpotify is asking Family Plan members to scan a QR code on the manager's phone within seven days, or risk losing their spot for a year.
Read more: Spotify Family Plan members must now prove they live with the manager1Password's new tool lets an AI assistant sign in to your accounts after you approve each login, so the assistant never sees your password.
Read more: 1Password lets AI assistants log in for you without seeing your passwordWalmart will let customers authorize AI agents to buy for them, with limits of $50, $100 or $200, or approval on every order. Here is how it works.
Read more: Walmart will let AI shop for you, with spending limits you setWyndham says AI now answers calls at more than 1,700 hotels and can book rooms through ChatGPT and Claude. Expect the same at hotels and small businesses you use.
Read more: Wyndham hotels now use AI to answer calls and take bookingsVercel Pro teams can now pick from sixteen web address endings for a free first-year domain, up from eight, but renewal comes at the regular price.
Read more: Vercel's free first-year domain now covers eight more endingsOrange Business is piloting voice AI that runs at several sites on its network, aiming for faster replies, backup if a site fails, and control over where calls are handled.
Read more: Orange tests AI phone helpers that run close to the callerOpening Bell Ventures released Shelly, an AI that interviews employees and customers, then tests their answers against company records. A phone demo is open to anyone.
Read more: New AI worker named Shelly phones your staff, then checks their answersSalesforce may soon charge businesses when outside AI tools like Claude read or change data in its apps. Companies that use both could see a new cost.
Read more: Salesforce plans to charge companies when outside AI like Claude uses its appsSB Energy, the SoftBank-controlled builder of OpenAI's planned Ohio data center, may go public in December or wait until next year, later than expected.
Read more: SB Energy, builder of OpenAI's Ohio data center, may delay its stock debutChicago robotics company Formic raised $50 million to let factories pay as they go for robots, which could lower the cost of automating a small plant.
Read more: Formic raises $50M to rent factory robots to manufacturersElon Musk says Tesla could sell 5 million cars a year by 2030, but sales have fallen two years running and the target needs about 25 percent growth every year.
Read more: Tesla says it will sell 5 million cars a year by 2030, but sales are fallingDatadog reportedly offered nearly $4 billion for Upwind, a cloud security startup, and the deal could change what your business software bundles and costs.
Read more: Datadog offers nearly $4 billion for cloud security startup UpwindThe Browser Company will shut down its Arc browser on December 22. Anyone who still uses it has about two months to move their tabs and saved data.
Read more: Arc web browser will shut down for good on December 22Riskified, a fraud-prevention company, now checks the identity of AI agents that shop for people, so online stores can tell helpful buyers from scam bots.
Read more: Riskified adds checks to tell which AI shoppers online stores can trustExtend has launched Verify, a tool that checks documents for forgery, including AI-made fakes, before a business pays an invoice or approves a claim.
Read more: New tool checks whether a document is fake before a business acts on itTwo serious flaws in KSMBD, the Linux kernel's built-in file-sharing server, are public, and the main kernel has no fix yet. Here is who should check.
Read more: Two serious flaws found in Linux file-sharing feature, no fix yetMore than half of US small firms buy from overseas, and currency conversion is still the biggest measured cost of paying suppliers. New card products give no prices yet.
Read more: Small firms buying from abroad still lose the most to currency feesOpenAI's CEO says mathematicians went from panic to acceptance in days. Many in the field tell a messier story, and it may preview what AI does to expert jobs.
Read more: Sam Altman says mathematicians have moved from panic to acceptanceOpenAI now lets businesses in Nigeria and South Africa advertise inside ChatGPT, with a $25 daily minimum that is billed in US dollars.
Read more: ChatGPT now sells ads to businesses in Nigeria and South AfricaGitHub added an Industry comparison view to its Copilot dashboard, so companies can see how their use of the AI tool stacks up against peers.
Read more: GitHub's Copilot dashboard now shows how you stack up against peers
