Category: Technology

VISION 2026 Sets the Stage for AAEON to Demonstrate AI in Action

Taipei, Taiwan – Sept 30 AAEON (Stock Code: 6579), a leading provider of Edge AI and machine vision solutions, will present a range of live application demonstrations and static product introductions at Booth #8C19 of VISION 2026, held from October 6 to October 8, 2026.

Date: October 6 – October 8, 2026

Booth: #8C19

Venue: Messe Stuttgart, Germany

AAEON, which will be among a record number of exhibitors at this year’s show, will open its live demonstrations with a collaboration with partner Awentia, whose AVT Physical AI Core will be used with AAEON’s modular MEX-BTS System Box. The demonstration will show how machine vision is moving beyond smart cameras and into the realm of physical AI as a means of contextualizing the physics of materials inspected within AI-driven quality control systems.

AAEON will also present a scalable Al video management and analytics platform powered by Network Optix Nx Meta on the AION-S34-Q670A-A10-2L AI Workstation, built on the MAX-Q670A Micro-ATX motherboard. Using real-world video scenarios, this demonstration will illustrate how Al-powered analytics can enhance situational awareness, security monitoring, and operational efficiency across distributed environments.

From AAEON’s line of Compact Fanless Embedded AI Systems featuring NVIDIA Jetson Orin series modules, the BOXER-8652AI will be used to run Isarsoft Perception, an Al-powered video analytics solution for real-time road traffic measurement. Meanwhile, rounding off AAEON’s live demonstrations will be a contactless heart rate monitor comprised of the Intel Core Ultra-powered UP Xtreme i14 and a MIPI camera, which combines remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) with Edge Vision Al to measure visitors’ real-time heart rates without physical contact or a wearable device.

Throughout the show, AAEON will host a static lineup of products from across its single-board computer, embedded AI system, and developer board ranges, with a particularly notable inclusion being the MIX-PTLWV1, the company’s first Mini-ITX motherboard featuring Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Processors. Another AAEON first featuring the Panther Lake series will be the COM-PTHB6 COM Express Type 6 module, expected to enter mass production in H1, 2027.

Visitors are encouraged to join AAEON at Booth #8C19, where representatives will be available to discuss AAEON’s product roadmap and provide details of the demonstrations on display.

For more information about VISION 2026, or to register to attend, please visit the official exhibition website.

“Boring” B2B Videos Beat Almost Every B2C Ad With 28.7% Hook Rate

Marketers assumed B2B products were too dry for social video. Billo’s analysis of 88,000+ Meta ads shows the category outperformed nearly every consumer group.

September 30, 2026. A new analysis by social media marketing company Billo shows that B2B ads are often more watched than B2C ones. In an analysis of more than 88K Meta video ads, B2B posted a 28.7% hook rate (the share of viewers who kept watching past an ad’s opening seconds). The only category that showed better results was Toys & Games (28.8% hook rate).

Furthermore, in March, the B2B category hit 33%, the highest monthly hook rate any category recorded.

“B2B being too dry for social video is one of the most expensive assumptions in marketing, and the data just doesn’t back it up. B2B ads held attention better than almost every consumer category we tracked this year. It just takes a longer time for B2B videos to convert. B2B clients watch ads and come back weeks later once the budget clears, or a team signs off. And brands that misread this as a failure are missing their opportunities to earn,” said Donatas Smailys, co-founder and CEO of Billo.

Most visual categories fell behind

The product types traditionally seen as most suited to video were not the ones that held attention best. Apparel & Accessories and Electronics, two of the most visual categories in the dataset, stayed below the cross-industry average (25.44%) in all six months, at 22.9% and 22.2%.

Categories with little to put on screen moved the other way. B2B stayed above the cross-industry average every month, and in March it reached 33%, the highest any category reached in any month.

“Being easy to film isn’t the same as being worth watching. When every ad in a category opens on the same product shot, viewers scroll past all of them. B2B brands can’t lean on the product, so they have to open on the problem or the person, and this year that paid off,” said Smailys.

What B2B businesses can do

Treat video as a format that can earn attention, not one to skip. A few practical starting points:

• Show a real person, not only the product. B2B video requires less unboxing and demonstrating than consumer video, so the presenter often leads.
• A good hook still needs a good hold. The hook rate shows who stops scrolling, whereas the hold rate shows who continues watching after the video starts, a better indicator of whether the message is actually getting through.
• Skip the internal jargon. If the hook is built on an inside term or acronym, anyone outside the category loses interest within three seconds.
• Speak to more than one buyer. A B2B purchase usually needs sign-off from several people, so the video has to hold up even when it’s forwarded to someone who never saw the original pitch. 
• Keep the message consistent from hook to landing page. Having a strong opening gets attention, but if the offer or message changes once someone clicks through, the trust built in those first seconds is quickly destroyed.

Methodology

The findings are drawn from 88,329 sales-objective Meta video ads that ran between January and June 2026, each with more than 1,000 impressions. The dataset spans $122 million in ad spend and $212 million in purchase value across 14 categories defined by advertiser product type. More: https://billo.app/blog/h1-2026-video-ad-benchmarks/

AAEON Breaks Down Thermal Barriers with the New UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air

With AirJet^® solid-state active cooling technology, the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air is 35% thinner and 43% lighter while delivering Intel^® Core™ Ultra Series 3 performance.

Taipei, Taiwan – Sept 29: AAEON (Stock Code: 6579) today announced the release of the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air, a Panther Lake-powered Mini PC featuring Frore Systems’ AirJet^® solid-state active cooling technology. With this innovative thermal management, the Mini PC replaces conventional fan-based cooling with ultrasonic-frequency membrane vibration technology to generate high-speed pulsating airflow to provide high-capacity heat dissipation without the added height that comes with a heatsink.

Of particular note to developers and integrators alike will be the fact that because of the reduced space taken up by thermal management components, the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air is 35% slimmer and 43% lighter than the fan-cooled UP Xtreme PTL Edge, released earlier this year. Specifically, the new system’s height is listed as just 35.8mm and weighs in at 1.57 lb.

AAEON has positioned the system as an ultra-slim Mini PC suited for integration in space-constrained applications such as ultra-thin kiosk setups, low-clearance AMR housing, and compact mobile healthcare units. One feature that stands out for each of these verticals is its elimination of fan-induced vibration.

AAEON note that the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air operates at less than 21 dBA, resulting in it being a quieter, more stable platform for robotic controllers, actuators, sensors, and cameras. For robotics applications, AAEON state that combined, these features can reduce torque around moving joints and minimize mechanical disturbance for precision sensing equipment.

Like its counterpart, the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air is available with a choice of the Intel® Core™ Ultra X7 processor 358H, Intel^® Core™ Ultra 7 processor 356H, or Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 processor 325 from the Intel^® Core™ Ultra Series 3 processors lineup (formerly Panther Lake). Users will therefore be able to leverage the series’ integrated 12 X^e-core Intel^® Arc™ GPU and Intel NPU 5.0 for up to 180 TOPs of AI performance.

Despite its unique design, the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air sacrifices very little as a trade-off, with a 6% increase in power consumption and a narrower operating temperature range of -10°C to 45°C being the only downsides. However, the PC does provide the same I/O as its predecessor, comprised of four USB ports (two Type-C ports with USB 4.0 and two Type-A ports with USB 3.2 Gen 2 signals), dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, and two COM ports offering RS-232/422/485. Alongside these, the system provides two HDMI 2.1 ports and two DP 2.1 via its USB Type-C ports for four simultaneous displays.

Where expansion is concerned, the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air offers two M.2 2280 M-Key slots for NVMe, an M.2 2230 E-Key slot for Wi-Fi, as well as the 40-pin GPIO that has become synonymous with UP products.

“This is a very exciting product for us, particularly because it addresses real challenges that our customers have in integrating high-performance edge AI hardware into applications with space constraints,” said Irene Lin, Senior Product Manager from AAEON’s UP division. “I really believe that this will be a gamechanger for solution builders, and look forward to seeing the impact the UP Xtreme PTL Edge Air has on projects going forward,” Lin added.

Rohde & Schwarz Expands FSWX Analyzer With New Multi-Channel Pulse Analysis

ACI Worldwide and Cognizant Demonstrate Strong Card Processing Performance on Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS)

Second-Life Batteries Could Strengthen India’s Circular Energy Economy

As electric mobility and energy storage expand across India, the country’s battery ecosystem is increasingly looking beyond manufacturing and first-use applications. Experts have highlighted the importance of developing a strong second-life battery market to improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and build a more resilient energy storage ecosystem.

Under the second-life approach, batteries that are no longer suitable for demanding applications such as electric vehicles can potentially be refurbished and deployed in less intensive uses. This can extend their useful life before they eventually enter the recycling stream.

The approach could become increasingly relevant as the adoption of electric vehicles and battery-based energy storage grows.

Extending Battery Value Beyond Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicle batteries can retain useful storage capacity even after their performance falls below the requirements of automotive applications. Instead of immediately treating these batteries as waste, second-life applications can give them another productive use.

Such batteries could potentially support stationary energy storage, renewable-energy integration, backup power and other applications where performance requirements differ from those of electric vehicles.

This creates an additional stage in the battery value chain and can help maximise the economic value of batteries over their entire lifecycle.

Building a Circular Battery Ecosystem

A stronger second-life market can also contribute to India’s broader circular-economy ambitions.

Rather than following a linear model in which batteries are manufactured, used and discarded, a circular approach allows batteries to move through multiple stages of use, refurbishment and recycling.

This can reduce pressure on raw materials and create opportunities for businesses involved in battery testing, diagnostics, refurbishment, repurposing, collection and recycling.

New Opportunities for Industry

The development of a second-life battery ecosystem could create a wider industrial network around energy storage.

Battery manufacturers, electric-vehicle companies, energy-storage providers, recyclers, technology firms and specialised service providers could participate in the emerging value chain.

Standardised testing, battery-health assessment and reliable performance certification will be important for determining whether used batteries can be safely and economically redeployed.

Supporting Renewable Energy Growth

Second-life batteries could also find applications as India expands renewable energy capacity.

Solar and wind power generation can fluctuate depending on weather conditions and time of day. Energy storage can help manage this variability by storing electricity when supply is available and releasing it when required.

Repurposed batteries could potentially contribute to such stationary storage applications, subject to their technical condition, safety and economic viability.

From Battery Waste to Economic Value

The future of India’s battery industry will depend not only on producing more batteries but also on managing them throughout their complete lifecycle.

A mature second-life ecosystem could reduce premature disposal, create new business opportunities and improve the utilisation of resources already embedded in batteries.

For India, this could link electric mobility with recycling, renewable energy, manufacturing and the broader circular economy.

As battery adoption accelerates, developing systems for reuse, repurposing and recycling can become an important part of building a sustainable and resilient battery ecosystem.

Report: Companies Need a New Playbook to Unlock the Value of AI Agents

New York, September 24, 2026… As AI agents move beyond experimentation, companies must decide not just where to deploy them, but how work itself should change.

A new report from The Conference Board offers a five-stage framework for redesigning work around AI to produce measurable business value. The framework draws on interviews, focus groups, and hands-on research with senior HR, talent, and AI leaders.

The stakes are rising as AI investment accelerates. In The Conference Board C-Suite Outlook 2026, 43.6% of executives identified AI and technology as an investment priority, more than any other investment choice. But capturing value requires more than buying tools or launching pilots. Leaders must decide on the desired business outcomes, determine how work will be divided between people and AI, put the right governance in place, measure results, and decide how any gains will be used.

“AI agents can complete more and more work, but capability alone doesn’t create value,” said Allan Schweyer, Principal Researcher, Human Capital, The Conference Board. “Companies need to know what outcome they’re trying to improve, what the agent should—and shouldn’t—do, and whether the redesigned process actually performs better. Otherwise, more automation can simply mean doing the wrong work faster.” 

The report outlines five stages:

1. Start with the desired business outcome.

• Identify the outcome the organization wants to improve first, then determine where AI agents can add value.
• Avoid deploying agents simply because the technology is available.

2. Redesign and allocate work before deploying agents.

• Break workflows down task by task to determine what AI should handle, what people should handle, and where they should work together.
• Consider quality, judgment, accountability, the consequences of errors, employee impacts, and customer value.
• People should remain accountable for the results, even when agents perform work autonomously.
• Deliberately redesign the human role, including the skills, training, job level, and potentially compensation required for the work that remains.

3. Build the infrastructure, governance, and budget agents require.

• Leaders need to account for data, permissions, controls, monitoring, maintenance, and human supervision.
• The full cost of operating an agent can extend well beyond vendor or model fees. In one illustrative model, direct AI-model use represented just 9.4% of an agent’s recurring monthly cost.

4. Measure what people and agents produce together.

• Track whether redesigned work improves quality, speed, cost, or other business outcomes, not simply whether an agent completed a task.
• Time freed by AI should not automatically be counted as a financial gain; the organization should first demonstrate how that time was used and what measurable result it produced.
• The report recommends distinguishing among three types of gains:
• Cash savings: Spending that actually disappears, such as overtime, contractor costs, or other expenses.
• Avoided future costs: Planned spending or hiring that is no longer required.
• Higher-value work: Employee time redirected to other work that produces a measurable result.

5. Decide where the gains go.

• Verified gains can reduce costs, help organizations handle more work without equivalent hiring, support reinvestment, or deliver benefits to employees and customers.
• Leaders should clearly communicate how those gains will affect jobs, staffing, and employees.

Protect early-career talent pipelines.

• When AI takes over routine work, organizations risk eliminating tasks through which employees traditionally build judgment and experience.
• Leaders should replace that learning deliberately through mentoring, rotations, supervised practice, and progressively more complex work.

HR and IT need to work together.

• IT may own the technology, but HR should help shape roles, skills, staffing, training, and change management wherever AI alters how work gets done.

“Agentic AI is not simply an IT initiative, nor is it solely an HR initiative,” said Diana Scott, US Human Capital Center Leader, The Conference Board. “Business leaders need to own the outcome, technology needs to provide secure and dependable tools, finance needs to test the economic case, and HR needs to ensure roles, skills, staffing, and employee experience evolve along with the technology.”

This research was produced in collaboration with SkillsRight, a nonprofit organization that aligns workforce strategy, organizational capability, and change management to help employers translate skills-first commitments into scalable systems, practices, and talent pipelines.

AI Is Automating Work; Leaders Still Have to Lead People, Says Software COO

AMHERST, N.H., Sept. 24, 2026 — Artificial intelligence is rapidly automating tasks once performed by humans, but as technology takes over more of the work, the human side of leadership may become more important than ever. Don Gregori, COO of multinational software solutions provider First Factory, argues that empathy is no longer a “soft skill” for leaders, but rather, one of the most important skills during this time of AI disruption.

“Real empathy is operational. It means knowing employee capabilities, fears, motivations and what they need from you to move forward, especially in this rapidly changing landscape,” Gregori said. “That’s not a personality trait; that’s a skill you build. And it’s more important than ever.”

His 2026 Literary Titan Award-winning book, The Emergent Leader: A Guide to Brand Building, Leadership, and Self-Mastery, offers a practical framework for developing the human skills leaders need to guide employees through change and prepare them for decisions they will face in the future.

The book’s hyper-tactical architecture sets it apart. Gregori distills the lessons, frameworks and hard-won truths gleaned from 25 years of leading operational transformation across startups and Fortune 500 companies — as well as his unique background in theater and film — into 61 short, punchy chapters across six critical categories. Each chapter closes with a Take Away (the lesson distilled to one sentence) and a Take Action (one concrete, immediate step). Readers can move sequentially or jump directly to the current challenge they’re facing.

From start-up founders to new managers, experienced leaders and aspiring CEOs, The Emergent Leader is for any business professional hungry, capable and ready for a guide that respects their intelligence and cuts through the noise, especially in these unpredictable and disruptive times.

The book has earned advance praise from Barry Z. Posner, Ph.D., bestselling author of The Leadership Challenge, who calls it “the starting point for anyone serious about leveling up their leadership.”

“My goal was to give leaders at every stage, from first-time managers to seasoned COOs, a rapid-fire, honest guide to surviving, thriving and building a company that lasts. The Emergent Leader is that book,” Gregori said. “It’s a desk reference you can grab every day to keep building the habits that matter.”

The Emergent Leader: A Guide to Brand Building, Leadership, and Self-Mastery

Publisher: Torchflame Books

Release date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 978-1-61153-724-6 (paperback)

Available from https://www.amazon.com/Emergent-Leader-Building-Leadership-Self-Mastery/dp/161153724X in paperback, large print, eBook and audiobook formats

AI Is Missing the Senior Living Communities That Offer the Most Complex Care, Georgia Study Finds

Lucie Research’s first industry deep dive tested 57 Georgia senior living communities and operators. Just 3.5% reached the top tier.

ATLANTA, Ga., September 23, 2026 — New research from Atlanta-based Lucie Research finds that the Georgia senior living communities offering the most complex care are the least likely to appear when a family asks artificial intelligence for help. Families often need these communities most urgently. Communities offering independent living, assisted living and memory care together were retrieved in about 60% of tested AI scenarios. Independent living communities were retrieved every time.

The Lucie AI Visibility Index: Georgia Senior Living Study is the first industry deep dive under the Lucie AI Visibility Index. The Index — first released in August 2026 — measured whether AI finds and understands businesses across industries. This study goes further into a sector where the details are clinical: what kind of care a community provides, who it serves, and whether AI knows the difference.

Lucie Research evaluated 57 Georgia senior living entities: 51 individual communities and six multi-location operator brands. Just 3.5% (two of the 57) reached the study’s “Strong” readiness tier; 55 of the 57 fell below it. More than a third (35%) weren’t clearly linked to the type of care they actually provide. For families, the difference between independent living, assisted living and memory care determines whether a community can care for their loved one at all.

The timing is crucial. According to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), senior housing occupancy reached 89.5% in early 2026 as record demand met record-low new supply. Research from A Place for Mom found that two-thirds of family caregivers who found care secured it in 60 days or less, and a third had trouble identifying the right level of care. Meanwhile, BrightLocal found that 45% of consumers now use AI tools to find local businesses, up from 6% a year earlier.

“The families with the toughest decisions, a parent with dementia or a spouse who needs more help than last year, are asking AI the most challenging questions,” said Craig Lucie, founder and CEO of Lucie Content, which publishes the Lucie AI Visibility Index through its research division, Lucie Research. “Those are exactly the communities AI has the most trouble describing. And this isn’t about quality of care. Several of the communities that struggled are long-established, well-regarded organizations. What we measured is how AI reads them, and that’s fixable.”

Key Findings

• AI’s information is often thin. Nearly four in 10 of the 57 entities (38.6%) scored below 50 on knowledge credibility. That means the information AI holds about them is incomplete or poorly supported.

• Some never came up. Fourteen of the 57 did not appear in any tested AI answer. Eight more appeared but were rarely recommended to families.

• Location matters more than brand. One operator’s seven Georgia communities scored the same on technical readiness, on the same website framework. Four appeared in every tested scenario; three appeared in none.

• The most common failure is specific to AI. Sixty-one percent of the 57 entities failed the check for the machine-readable guidance AI systems use to interpret a website. The most basic conventional search signals passed at 95% or better.

• Budget isn’t the deciding factor. Nonprofit and single-site communities scored slightly higher on average than chain-operated ones.

“One operator had the same website framework across seven communities, and AI treated them like seven different businesses,” said Lucie. “That’s the lesson for every operator in this industry: each community is judged on its own signals, and a complex care model has to be explained plainly, level by level. This is not a budget problem.”

Two Georgia communities reached the Strong tier: Brandon Wilde, a life plan community in Evans, and Azalea Estates of Fayetteville, an assisted living and retirement community in Fayetteville. AI retrieved both consistently across repeated tests, and both showed comparatively strong signals on knowledge credibility and recommendation strength, the two areas where the sample as a whole scored lowest.

“We are not saying these two provide better care than anyone else on the list. We are saying AI describes them accurately and recommends them consistently, and that is a different thing,” said Lucie. “Neither one is the biggest or the best funded community in Georgia. They just do not make an AI system guess what kind of care they provide.”

Generative AI Is Adding a New Dimension to Corporate Reputation for UAE Brands, Says ROSA eSolutions

Dubai, UAE, 24 September 2026 –The growing use of artificial intelligence to research products, services and businesses is creating a new consideration for corporate reputation, as consumers increasingly encounter brand information through AI-powered platforms. 

According to ROSA eSolutions, a Toronto-based digital marketing firm with a regional presence in the UAE, businesses need to pay closer attention to the accuracy and consistency of information available about them across digital channels. 

The shift is particularly relevant in the UAE. Visa’s 2026 Stay Secure study found that 85% of UAE consumers surveyed had used AI to assist with shopping, including checking product reviews or ratings, comparing prices and finding gift ideas. 

Globally, Adobe’s 2026 AI and Digital Trends research found that around one in four consumers surveyed now cite AI-powered platforms such as ChatGPT among their top sources for researching information, making purchase decisions or finding recommendations, ahead of brand websites and online reviews. The study surveyed 4,000 consumers worldwide. 

Robert Shakir, Senior Marketing Consultant at ROSA eSolutions, said: “Consumers are increasingly using AI as part of the way they research products, services and companies. This means businesses need to consider whether the information available about them across digital channels is accurate, current and consistent.”

 As AI becomes more prominent in online research, outdated corporate profiles, inconsistent descriptions of services or old leadership information can create confusion around how a company is represented digitally. 

ROSA eSolutions said the development is broadening the scope of reputation management. Companies already monitor their websites, search presence, media coverage and social media channels. The growing role of AI creates another reason to ensure that key corporate information remains consistent across credible digital sources. 

“This is increasingly relevant to corporate communications and reputation,” Shakir added. “Companies may not control every AI-generated response about their business, but they can strengthen the accuracy and credibility of the information available across their digital presence.” 

The issue is particularly important for businesses operating across several countries and languages, where corporate information may appear across multiple websites, media outlets and business platforms. 

ROSA eSolutions recommends regularly reviewing company descriptions, executive profiles, products, services and other key corporate information to identify outdated or inconsistent material. 

Shakir concluded: “As AI becomes a more common part of how people research businesses and make decisions, maintaining accurate and credible information across digital channels will become an increasingly important part of managing corporate reputation.”