The crm, saas & automation stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Deepgram is buying Daily, maker of the free voice AI tool Pipecat, and says the tool will stay open to everyone. Here is what that means for businesses.
Read more: Voice AI company Deepgram buys Daily, maker of Pipecat, a free toolAmazon added more than 100 shopping abilities to Alexa, so you can change a subscription or delivery note by voice. Here is what to check before you try it.
Read more: Alexa can now manage your shopping lists, subscriptions and deliveriesServal raised $150 million at a $3 billion value to sell AI that handles office IT tasks, putting pressure on older help desk software like ServiceNow.
Read more: Serval's value triples to $3 billion with AI that handles office tasksResearchers found 83 attacks on 61 open source projects, using invisible text in GitHub posts to trick automated tools into handing over passwords and keys.
Read more: Hackers hid secret commands in GitHub posts to steal loginsAivo Asia, a Singapore company, plans a pay-as-you-use AI tool that answers customers on WhatsApp, live chat and the phone, with no IT staff needed.
Read more: Singapore firm offers small businesses an AI that answers customers by chat and phoneGarmin Messenger leans on text message codes to verify users, so a stranger who gets your old phone number may be able to reach your old chats.
Read more: Garmin Messenger may let new owners of a phone number see old chatsHims & Hers asked a judge to toss an FTC lawsuit over ad-data sharing and hard-to-cancel plans. It says its policies were clear. Here is what that means for users.
Read more: Hims & Hers fights FTC claims it shared health data and trapped subscribersGoogle is letting outside apps run inside Search and Gemini, so a business could serve customers without sending them elsewhere. Access starts small.
Read more: Google Lets Outside Apps Work Inside Its Search and Gemini AssistantStreaming services often give Black Friday deals only to new or returning customers, so canceling a service you barely use now could pay off later.
Read more: Cancel Your Streaming Services Now to Qualify for Black Friday DealsLegal software maker Legora says it uses OpenAI models, ChatGPT and Codex to speed up contract work, which could mean faster turnaround for people who pay lawyers.
Read more: Legal software company Legora uses OpenAI tools to speed up lawyers' workA Zoho blog post says goal tracking tends to fall apart around month three, and lists five habits that tie goals to live sales data to prevent it.
Read more: Five habits to keep your team's goal tracking alive after three monthsBanks are using AI voice agents to answer calls at any hour. A vendor guide explains how they work and why a quick handoff to a person still matters.
Read more: Banks are letting AI agents answer customer phone callsElevenLabs says its new Cue model lines up text with speech faster and more accurately than the tools it tested, which could mean fewer late subtitles.
Read more: ElevenLabs unveils Cue, a tool that matches every word to its exact momentAbout $100 billion in loans tied to software companies comes due in 2028 and 2029, and lenders are already nervous. Here is what that could mean for vendors.
Read more: Software companies owe about $100 billion that comes due in 2028 and 2029Mastercard published an infographic saying that joining fraud and cyber-security tools cuts fraud, but the details behind that claim are not yet available.
Read more: Mastercard says linking fraud and cyber checks cuts fraud lossesSupply'd, food business software, now has an AI that checks supplier invoices and suggests fixes, with human approval switched on by default.
Read more: Food business software adds AI that checks supplier invoicesVoice assistants are getting quicker and more lifelike, and firms from Amazon to ElevenLabs want them handling your calls, devices and daily tasks.
Read more: Voice assistants are getting faster and more human-soundingGitHub now lets AI helpers handle chores like sorting bug reports and updating documentation, with safety limits built in. Here is what it takes to use it.
Read more: GitHub Lets AI Helpers Handle Routine Software Chores AutomaticallyClaude now has add-ons for marketing work, including one that reads your HubSpot customer data. They need a paid plan, and one setting is worth checking first.
Read more: Claude add-ons can now handle your marketing tasks and company dataTwilio published a guide to AI agents that contact customers first about problems like a late order. Here is how it works and the consent rules to settle first.
Read more: How to build an AI agent that calls customers before they have to call youOura has confirmed a syncing bug on the Ring 4 and shared a workaround, so a ring that stopped updating in the app may be easy to fix.
Read more: Oura confirms Ring 4 sync bug and shares a simple workaroundMicrosoft says big companies are using AI to run real business tasks, and that its pricing is shifting toward charging for how much work the AI does.
Read more: Microsoft says big companies are putting AI to real workA Salesforce survey of 250 U.S. executives finds most AI use stays private, so teams repeat work and lose hours. Here is what it found and what to do.
Read more: Most Workers Use AI Alone, and Their Teams Miss Out on What It FindsPNC and ADP are building payroll and HR tools into PNC's digital banking, so small business owners may run both from one login.
Read more: PNC Bank Adds ADP Payroll Inside Its Small Business Banking
