Digital Transformation

Hsinchu – September 24, 2026 -- Phrozen has launched the Sonic Mighty Revo 16K MAX, a 14-inch 16K large-format MSLA resin 3D printer priced at USD 1,600 and now available in the United States, targeting studios and print-service providers scaling into batch and production-grade resin work.

Dual heating system targets long-print failures in cold or high-viscosity conditions

The printer's dual-fan chamber heating brings the build chamber to 30°C, while an optional heated resin vat directly warms the resin to reduce thickening and improve layer consistency across long print runs.

2L resin vat cuts mid-print refill interruptions

The vat holds up to 2.5 standard 1 kg resin bottles, giving users enough capacity for overnight prints and full build-plate batches without pausing to refill — an approach Phrozen positions as simpler and less failure-prone than auto-feed pump systems, which can suffer clogs and leaks.

New Orleans – September 24, 2026 -- HOTWORX, the 24-hour infrared sauna fitness franchise, has surpassed 900 open studios worldwide and now serves more than 400,000 members, putting the brand on track to hit 1,000 locations by spring 2027.

Franchise Network Crosses 900 Studios Nearly a Decade After Launch

HOTWORX opened its first studio in Oxford, Miss., in 2017. The brand has since expanded across the United States, Canada, Ireland and Dubai, with 408,693 members recorded this year and new studios in development in Mexico and Kenya.

Member-to-Owner Pipeline Drives Majority of Franchise Growth

A majority of HOTWORX franchisees joined the system as members before converting to ownership, according to the company. Founder and CEO Stephen P. Smith said the model is working at scale, noting that most owners experienced the infrared workout firsthand before signing a franchise agreement.

Chicago – September 24, 2026 -- WovenX Health, a Chicago-based specialty care platform, has won the Industry Disrupter Award at 1871's 19th Annual Momentum Awards for its model expanding access to gastroenterology care.

National GI wait times average 40 days as two-thirds of U.S. counties lack a specialist

One in five Americans is affected by a gastrointestinal condition, yet the average wait for a GI consult has grown to 40 days nationally, according to the company. GI-related visits account for 10% of all emergency department visits, 86% of which WovenX says are avoidable with timely specialty access.

Arlington, Va. – September 24, 2026 -- Eagle Hill Consulting's new HR Technology and Service Delivery Survey finds that 51% of HR professionals spend at least half their workweek on routine, repetitive, or low-value administrative tasks, even as 86% say automation or AI improves the service they deliver to the business.

Fragmented systems undercut technology investment across HR functions

Ninety-one percent of surveyed HR professionals use two or more systems to complete a single task, and 43% rely on three or more. Seventy-eight percent regularly re-enter the same information across multiple platforms, while 68% turn to workarounds such as spreadsheets, shared drives, or manual tracking to get work done.

San Francisco – September 24, 2026 -- None of the 15 major institutions interviewed by Bitwise Asset Management reduced their crypto allocations during a roughly 50% market drawdown between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, with several increasing positions instead, according to the firm's new Institutional Crypto Adoption report.

Bitwise, a crypto asset manager overseeing $9 billion in client assets, conducted in-depth interviews with senior investment professionals at endowments, foundations, public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants, and public companies to determine what institutions hold, why, and what would trigger a sale.

Delray Beach – – September 24, 2026 -- The global Workforce Management (WFM) market is projected to grow from $10.6 billion in 2026 to $17.2 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 10.1%, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets. The market stood at $9.6 billion in 2025, with North America alone accounting for $3.4 billion of that total.

Analytics and optimization tools post the fastest segment growth

Within the market, workforce optimization and analytics is expected to expand at a 13.2% CAGR, the highest of any solution category, as enterprises push to use data for staffing decisions and labor planning. The broader solutions segment held the largest share of the market in 2025, while services are forecast to register the fastest growth rate as organizations outsource implementation, integration, and managed support for increasingly complex scheduling, timekeeping, and compliance systems.

Durham, N.C. – September 24, 2026 -- Avalara, Inc. unveiled Avalara Aviator, an AI agent hub designed to cut manual tax and compliance work from days to minutes, at its CRUSH customer and partner conference.

Avalara Aviator connects specialized AI agents to close gaps between automated compliance tasks

For years, tax software automated discrete steps such as calculations, filings, and exemption certificate management, leaving finance teams to manually bridge the gaps, chasing approvals, interpreting reports, and building business logic. Avalara says it is the first company to unify specialized AI agents, compliance workflows, and its trusted tax technology into one connected agent hub. Customers interact via Avi, an orchestrator agent that delegates to lead agents overseeing research, certificates, and returns, validating and executing work while leaving judgment-based decisions to humans.

Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 24, 2026 -- FlashGrid Inc. has released version 26.05 of FlashGrid Cluster and FlashGrid Server with support for Oracle AI Database 26ai, Oracle's next long-term support release, enabling enterprises to run the AI-native database platform on Oracle RAC across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Oracle AI Database 26ai brings over 300 new capabilities to enterprise workloads

Oracle AI Database 26ai integrates AI functions directly into the database engine, adding more than 300 new capabilities spanning artificial intelligence, developer productivity, performance, and mission-critical availability. Oracle designed the release to let organizations build AI-powered applications while retaining the security, governance, and transactional consistency standards of Oracle Database.

Shenzhen – – September 24, 2026 -- Lenovo has launched the ThinkVision P27UL-40 IJP OLED monitor, its first 27-inch UHD Thunderbolt docking display built for commercial and remote-collaboration environments, powered by TCL CSOT's inkjet-printing OLED panel technology.

Panel specs target color accuracy and text clarity for professional workflows

The 27-inch UHD panel runs at 120Hz with 3840 x 2160 resolution, 99% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, and carries VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. TCL CSOT's Real Stripe RGB pixel layout in the IJP OLED panel is designed to cut text color fringing, a longstanding OLED weakness in office and content-creation applications.

North America – September 24, 2026 -- EZ Texting has launched Rich Communication Services (RCS) Business Messaging across its platform, giving its base of more than 230,000 small and mid-sized business customers access to branded sender identities, verified badges and interactive chat tools previously limited to large enterprises.

RCS replaces anonymous numbers with verified brand identities

The upgrade allows businesses to swap generic phone numbers for branded sender profiles carrying verification badges, a shift aimed at increasing customer trust and message deliverability compared with standard SMS.

Interactive carousels let customers browse products inside the chat window

The platform supports up to 10 high-definition cards per carousel, enabling in-chat product browsing designed to cut friction in the sales process. HD media support extends to images and video files up to 100MB, exceeding the size limits of traditional MMS.