Digital Transformation

San Francisco/Philadelphia – September 22, 2026 -- Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) will add Gopuff to its Marketplace and deploy its Carrot Ads technology across Gopuff's digital storefront, giving more than 9,000 brand advertisers direct access to Gopuff's on-demand customer base in the U.S.

Gopuff will join over 2,200 national and local retail banners already on the Instacart Marketplace, offering Instacart customers delivery in as fast as 15 minutes from a catalog of thousands of groceries, snacks, beverages and household staples. Orders placed through Instacart will be fulfilled directly by Gopuff via its own network of micro-fulfillment centers.

San Francisco – September 22, 2026 -- Handshake, the career network for the AI economy, has launched AI Skills Studio, a free learning hub offering hands-on AI projects to more than one million employers on its platform. The tool was built with partners including Clay, Figma, Gamma, Google, Lovable, Notion, OpenAI, Replit, Salesforce, Southern New Hampshire University, and Vercel.

Job seekers complete AI 'missions' in 10 to 45 minutes using real practitioner tools

AI Skills Studio offers personalized, project-based missions that produce a tangible output, ranging from automated workflows to working software. An AI Skills Instructor guides learners through the process, and early users have built interactive games, data dashboards, personal portfolios, and sales and marketing tools.

The Woodlands, Texas – September 22, 2026 -- Astound Ventures, a collaborative investment fund founded by hoteliers Burt Cabañas, Alex Cabañas and Kirk Jones, has raised more than $8 million toward a $30 million target aimed at boosting net unit margin across hotel real estate operations.

Fund targets $30 million entirely from industry "smart money"

Unlike traditional venture funds backed by institutional allocations, Astound is raising its entire pool from operators, owners and brands within the hospitality sector. Chairman Burt Cabañas is founder of Benchmark Resorts & Hotels and co-chairman of Pyramid Global Hospitality; CEO Alex Cabañas is Pyramid's executive chairman and a Convene Hospitality Group board member; CFO Kirk Jones previously served as CFO of Benchmark and Capella Hotels.

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. – September 22, 2026 -- Marist University and IBM have launched an Innovation Incubator equipped with an IBM z17 mainframe, extending their five-decade partnership into university-wide artificial intelligence research.

IBM z17 mainframe brings enterprise-scale AI computing to Marist campus

IBM provided the z17 system to give students and faculty access to enterprise technology built for the performance, security and reliability demands of large organizations, enabling hands-on application development and testing.

Atlanta – September 22, 2026 -- Siemba has launched general availability of Siemba MCP, a Model Context Protocol server that lets security and engineering teams run penetration tests and generate finished security analysis by chatting directly with AI assistants, eliminating the need for a separate dashboard login.

Six packaged skills replace manual dashboard analysis

Siemba MCP ships as a single plugin containing a connector and six named skills: Test Analysis, Kill Chain, Critical Briefing, Remediation Plan, Attack Surface, and CISO Report. Test Analysis reads login screenshots to diagnose failed authenticated test runs caused by bad credentials or unexpected multi-factor prompts. Kill Chain maps individual findings into full attack paths, rating each chain by its weakest link rather than raw severity and naming the single fix that breaks the most chains at once.

New York – September 22, 2026 -- Pomelo Care presented new claims-based data at three major 2026 medical conferences showing its virtual maternity care model cut NICU-related costs per delivery by 63% and reduced average total episode costs by $9,038.

Prenatal engagement with Pomelo cuts NICU stays by 45%, ACOG data shows

At the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual meeting, Pomelo compared patients who enrolled prenatally against those who joined only after delivery. The prenatal cohort saw a 45% shorter NICU length of stay and a 63% reduction in NICU-related costs per delivery, alongside the $9,038 drop in average total episode cost.

Denver – September 22, 2026 -- Tres Picosos has launched its Tres Locos Mexican food brand in a self-service kiosk at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) Terminal 1, Concourse G, marking a new automated-retail partnership with airport vending operator Evolvending.

Kiosk delivers hot burritos and tacos around the clock at MSP

The Tres Locos kiosk at MSP, which serves the Delta Air Lines concourse, offers Bacon Breakfast, Chicken Fajita, Picadillo Beef and Pork Carnitas burritos alongside street-style tacos, giving travelers hot food access outside standard concession hours.

U.S. hot food vending market set to nearly double by 2036

Vending Times projects the U.S. and Canada hot food vending machine industry will grow to $9.6 billion by 2036, up from $5.5 billion in early 2026, a trend Tres Picosos says it intends to capture through additional airport placements planned in coming months.

Centreville, Va. – September 22, 2026 -- Just 17% of security leaders are extremely confident in their ability to detect identity-based threats, even though 82% now consider identity the new security perimeter, according to research from CIO Dive's Studio conducted in partnership with ID Dataweb. The same research found 43% of leaders cite fragmented identity systems as their top obstacle to defense.

ID Dataweb, an identity threat detection and risk mitigation provider, released a new buyer's guide, "Identity Threat Detection & Risk Mitigation," aimed at executive and senior security leaders navigating a fragmented vendor landscape. The guide argues that feature checklists and point-product comparisons no longer capture whether a security platform can function as a cohesive, end-to-end system.

Austin, Texas – September 22, 2026 -- Oracle has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Life Sciences R&D RWD/RWE for Data Platforms, Technology Solutions, and Consulting Services 2026 Vendor Assessment, according to a report published by IDC in August 2026 (Doc #US54122226).

IDC cites Oracle's four-decade track record in real-world data and evidence solutions

The MarketScape credits Oracle with delivering RWD/RWE solutions for over 40 years and aggregating real-world electronic health record data for nearly two decades through its health system network. Oracle expanded its RWD platform following its 2022 acquisition of Cerner and launched a next-generation AI-powered life sciences platform in 2026. The report states Oracle works with every major pharmaceutical company.

Fremont, California – September 22, 2026 -- Autel Energy cut the ribbon on a new North American Experience Center in Fremont, California, on September 22, 2026, expanding its footprint in the Bay Area's EV charging technology corridor and launching a two-day Partner Summit for its hardware, software and deployment ecosystem.

Autel Energy pairs facility launch with new Modal amenity-pod partnership

Alongside the opening, Autel Energy announced a partnership with Modal, a provider of modular, fully managed amenity pods for EV charging sites. The deal gives Autel Energy's distributors, resellers and network operators a route to build charging locations that combine high-power EV charging with driver-focused amenities on site.