Gartner: 75% of Hiring Will Test AI Proficiency by 2027
At the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Orlando, analysts predicted that AI will shift from tool to "collaborative partner" — and hiring practices will change fast. By 2027, three-quarters of companies will include AI proficiency certification in recruitment. Meanwhile, GenAI and AI agents are triggering a $58 billion productivity software market shift. The message: AI literacy isn't optional anymore.
Read on InfotechLead →Crescendo's Multimodal AI Wins Best of Enterprise Connect 2026
Crescendo won both "Best Innovation for CX" and "Overall Best of Enterprise Connect" for its AI-native contact center. The key: multimodal AI that lets customers speak, type, and share images without losing context or switching channels. Instead of bolting AI onto legacy systems, Crescendo built from scratch — and judges noticed. One conversation, any channel, full context.
Read on MarTech Cube →Mastercard + Google Launch "Verifiable Intent" for Agentic Commerce
As AI agents start buying things on behalf of users, trust becomes critical. Mastercard and Google co-developed "Verifiable Intent" — a cryptographic trust layer that creates tamper-resistant proof of what users authorized when an AI agent acts for them. It's protocol-agnostic and aligned with Google's Agent Payments Protocol. The infrastructure for agentic commerce is being built right now.
Read on Mastercard →CommerceIQ Launches Retail AI Agents for Brands
CommerceIQ unveiled a suite of AI agents purpose-built for retail: sales agents, digital shelf agents, content agents, and retail media agents. Each handles high-volume operational tasks that marketing teams typically spend hours on — competitive monitoring, pricing decisions, content optimization, and ad spend allocation. The pitch: let agents handle the operational grind so humans can focus on strategy.
Read on Practical Ecommerce →Klaviyo + Shopify Deepen Integration for Global Commerce
Klaviyo and Shopify announced deeper integration to unify customer data across regions and deliver localized experiences worldwide. The new "Locale Aware Catalogs" automatically sync translated content, regional pricing, currency, and market-specific URLs into Klaviyo — no multiple catalogs required. For teams managing global campaigns, this removes a massive operational headache.
Read on BusinessWire →💡 My Take
Read this one: The Gartner predictions piece. The stat that 75% of hiring will test AI proficiency by 2027 should wake up any enterprise leader who's been treating AI adoption as "nice to have." The gap between AI-literate and AI-illiterate professionals is about to become a career-defining divide. Start building those skills now.