Stacker Business & Economy

  The financial institutions many rely on are already using AI to handle some of their customer communications, and every message, from routine payment confirmations to fraud alerts, involves sensitive information. But how well AI handles these interactions doesn’t always depend on the AI itself. New research from Sinch, which surveyed over 500 financial services

  Last week (July 5-11) was defined by the transition from temporary, emergency U.S. surcharges toward a permanent, investigation-justified centralized trade architecture. The USTR’s launch of public hearings for the 60-nation forced labor tariffs signaled that Washington will lock in a new double-digit baseline duty structure before its temporary Section 122 fees expire. This unyielding

  For most businesses, energy is a line item that gets paid without much scrutiny. The bill arrives, it gets processed, and attention moves on to more pressing operational concerns. That approach is increasingly costly. Average commercial electricity rates rose 4.8% year over year as of early 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration,

  The AI notetaker has quietly become a coworker. One in 3 employed Americans (33.4%) say an AI notetaker or transcription bot, tools like Otter.ai, Fireflies, Zoom AI Companion, or Microsoft Copilot, has been present in their work meetings, according to a July 2026 survey of 500 employed U.S. adults commissioned by Kolmogorov Law and

  Most enterprise accounts payable (AP) teams have already automated parts of their invoice workflow, but the manual work that remains is rarely obvious until close week. The problem is that most automation covers the easy invoices. The messier ones, which are precisely where automation would deliver the most value, are still landing in human

  A recently released Warehouse Specialists Inc, LLC (WSI) survey of 306 supply chain, operations, and logistics leaders at U.S. manufacturing companies found that 75% agree their warehouse network evolved organically over time rather than being designed strategically. Another 73% say their current warehouse model was built for a different operating environment than the one

  With increasing reliance on interconnected systems, cloud services, and technologies like AI, organizations are operating in environments where trust must be continually validated. According to the most recent Vanta State of Trust Report, 77% of organizations say their stakeholders demand verified proof of compliance.‍ This increase in regulatory scrutiny puts mounting pressure on operational

  You’ve shopped with the same retailer for years. So why do their support agents still greet you like a stranger every time you start a conversation? Most of us have been there. The moment you switch from chat to phone, from chatbot to human agent, from one interaction to the next, many businesses lose

  Two patterns have shaped the fastest-growing software vendor spend in spring 2026. First, as foundation models fragment and turn over weekly, significant value is accruing to whoever routes between them. And second, as vibe coding moves from hackathon to enterprise workflow, the platforms that own where teams start will benefit. These trends rhyme: The

CheapInsurance.com compiled statistics on gas prices in the U.S. using data from AAA.