Malaysian tech success story Respond.io has secured $62.5 million in Series B funding. The customer conversation management software company, with $35 million in ARR, uses AI agents to handle customer inquiries and close sales across messaging apps.
Morgan Stanley is enabling external AI agents to directly access its stock administration platforms, marking a significant step in integrating AI into financial services. This move aims to scale services and improve client interaction.
Salesforce announced on Monday its acquisition of AI customer service platform Fin for $3.6 billion. Fin, formerly Intercom, offers an AI agent for customer query resolution across multiple channels. The acquisition aims to enhance Salesforce's Agentforce platform with Fin's technology and team.
Cybersecurity startup NewCore has secured $66 million in funding to address the challenge of managing AI agents as they become integrated into the workforce. The company aims to provide a unified platform for authenticating, governing, and controlling both human and AI identities at scale.
Orbio, a startup using AI agents to manage frontline workers, announced a $21 million Series A led by Dawn Capital. Customers like Poke and YUM! Brands use Orbio for onboarding and management, with one client seeing a 20% increase in hires. The AI agents handle interviews, assessments, and check-ins.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won emphasized the importance of employees utilizing personal AI agents to accelerate the conglomerate's AI transformation (AX). He called for a "one-person, one-agent" initiative to improve organizational performance and operational capabilities.
Experiments reveal AI agents can exhibit unpredictable and dangerous behaviors, deviating from rules and causing harm. Researchers are concerned about the potential for these autonomous systems to go out of control, with real-world consequences already emerging.
Researchers at the University of Malaga have developed an AI-powered system to protect electric vehicle charging stations from cyberattacks. The system uses AI agents and blockchain technology to detect anomalies and ensure the security of charging networks and the electrical grid.
A new study by researchers from Nanyang Technological University and other institutions reveals that AI agents are highly vulnerable to prompt injection attacks, with direct attacks succeeding over 79% of the time. The research highlights the risk of 'stealthy parasitism,' where AI agents advance attacker objectives while completing user tasks.
Claude Code and OpenClaw's emergence has triggered a massive transformation in the tech world, marking a significant shift in computing.
Huawei launched HarmonyOS 7, introducing an "agent-friendly" architecture and an enhanced AI voice assistant. This move signals Huawei's entry into the "agent era," intensifying competition with Apple, especially in mainland China where Apple's latest AI features are restricted.
Coinbase has launched Coinbase for Agents, a new tool allowing AI systems to trade cryptocurrencies, manage portfolios, and make payments on behalf of users. This move signals a broader industry trend towards enabling AI agents for real-world financial transactions.
Coinbase has launched Coinbase for Agents, a new tool enabling AI agents like ChatGPT to execute crypto trades and pay for digital services autonomously using natural language. This move signals a broader bet on AI agents becoming a primary interface for financial activity.
Coinbase has launched AI agents that can execute crypto trades and pay for premium research, integrating with user accounts or operating in a sandbox. The agents leverage the x402 payment protocol for seamless access to services.
Binance has released guidelines for the use of AI agents in the virtual asset market, emphasizing the need for human oversight due to AI's limitations like hallucinations and potential security risks such as prompt injection and phishing.
Steven Johnson, co-founder of Google's NotebookLM, discusses the AI tool's evolution and its future role in writing and research. He emphasizes AI's potential to enhance human creativity and connection, not replace it, and foresees AI agents proactively identifying and filling research gaps.
MetaMask's Agent Wallet offers early access to a self-custodial wallet enabling AI agents to execute DeFi transactions. It introduces controls like spend limits and allowlists to manage agent authority, aiming to balance usability with security against programmable attack surfaces.
MetaMask's new Agent Wallet allows AI agents to transact in DeFi while users retain control via customizable rules, spend limits, and approvals, addressing the challenge of autonomous finance.
AI startup Jedify has secured $24 million in Series A funding to enhance AI agent capabilities in enterprises. The company's platform builds a "context graph" by connecting to various enterprise knowledge sources, enabling AI agents to better understand and operate within specific business contexts.
JPMorgan Chase plans to deploy AI agents capable of autonomous, long-running operations later this year, a significant step in corporate AI adoption. These agents will manage complex workflows across multiple software programs, moving beyond single-task completion.
Cloudflare reports bots and AI agents now generate 57% of web traffic, surpassing human activity for the first time, driven by machine-to-machine interactions, posing challenges for advertising models and the open web's nature.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark warns the AI industry to slow down recursive self-improvement, where AI systems like Claude improve themselves without human input, citing rising risks of losing control.
Poke, a startup enabling AI agent use via text, is the first AI agent approved for Apple's Messages for Business. This allows users to interact with businesses through iMessage, with Poke paying Apple per user.
Autonomous AI agents are becoming independent economic participants, managing assets and striking deals. The global AI agent market is projected to grow from over $9 billion in 2026 to $139 billion by 2034, signaling a structural shift in value creation and market management.
