Digital Transformation

Charlotte, N.C. – September 13, 2026 -- Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) has completed full deployment of its AI Call Summaries tool across care centers, generating more than 4.5 million automated call summaries in the second quarter of 2026 alone and now covering over 70% of inbound client interactions.

Generative AI converts client calls into structured summaries within seconds

The technology, live since the third quarter of 2025, automatically documents client conversations, removing manual note-taking from teammate workflows. Truist's average care center call runs more than eight minutes, and the tool is designed to capture key themes, client needs and resolution outcomes in real time.

Atlanta – September 13, 2026 -- Middle-market M&A buyers are tightening acquisition criteria even as deal activity persists, with recurring revenue, cash conversion and AI exposure now central to valuation decisions, according to Bennett Thrasher, an Atlanta-based accounting and advisory firm.

The firm's Transaction Advisory Services practice, which supports deals ranging from $20 million to $250 million in enterprise value, identified five trends driving buyer behavior in the current cycle.

Vancouver, BC – September 13, 2026 -- Time Out and Rival Technologies have won a 2026 Esomar Award for Excellence in Global Research, announced at the Esomar Congress in Valencia, Spain.

Global City Survey engaged 18,500 people across nearly 60 countries

The award-winning project surveyed participants in 45 languages, generating approximately 1.6 million data points and an 86% completion rate. The research underpins Time Out's Best Cities ranking, a decade-long global editorial initiative built on resident feedback and Time Out's journalism.

Rival's conversational platform replaced traditional survey formats

Time Out partnered with Rival Technologies to shift the Global City Survey from a standard survey format to a mobile-first, chat-like research experience while preserving the scale needed for a global program spanning dozens of markets.

Redwood City, Calif. – September 13, 2026 -- The worldwide Network Security market reached nearly $8 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 18 percent year-over-year, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. Firewall growth accelerated sharply, climbing from 9 percent in the first quarter to 18 percent in the second, as enterprises pushed ahead with lifecycle refreshes, capacity additions, branch modernization, and virtual enforcement deployments.

Firewall refresh cycle doubles in pace within a single quarter

Mauricio Sanchez, Sr. Director for Enterprise Security and Networking at Dell'Oro Group, said firewall spending reaccelerated because customers had concrete drivers: aging infrastructure, higher throughput requirements, branch redesigns, and expanding private-cloud workloads. He characterized the activity as a targeted modernization cycle rather than an estate-wide replacement wave.

Atlanta – September 13, 2026 -- Apparel brand Comfrt attracted more than 2.3 times its projected number of college athlete participants in a recent marketing campaign run through NIL Club, the largest team-based NIL platform in college sports, reaching capacity faster than either company anticipated.

Athletes signed up faster than Comfrt or NIL Club forecast, filling the campaign ahead of schedule

Participating athletes selected a Comfrt hoodie and sweatpants set, produced an Instagram Reel depicting a real moment from their day, and received reimbursement for the apparel plus a 10 percent commission on every sale generated by their content.

Los Angeles – September 13, 2026 -- Vision Films will release the dystopian drama "Isolation" worldwide on Transactional VOD on September 22, 2026, through a distribution agreement with Legacy Distribution.

Deal expands independent film's reach across major streaming platforms

The film will launch on Amazon, Apple TV/iTunes, Google Play and most cable platforms in the US, Canada and UK on the same date. The agreement pairs Vision Films' VOD aggregation network, which handles over 800 titles, with Legacy Distribution's international programming and digital media distribution infrastructure.

Newport Beach, Calif. – September 13, 2026 -- Maksim Markevich, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of PVFARM, has been named a finalist in the Rising Star Individual category of the 2026 Platts Global Energy Awards, organized by S&P Global Energy. Winners of the 28th annual awards will be announced on December 3, 2026, following review by an independent panel of international energy experts.

Markevich is one of finalists selected from 36 countries, with more than 57% originating outside the United States. Other nations represented among finalists include Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Turkey and China, across 19 award categories spanning the global energy and chemicals value chain.