Marketing tech
fromBusiness Matters
1 day agoGoogle takes on Opentable with AI that books your dinner in seconds
Google has launched an AI tool for restaurant bookings, allowing users to secure tables directly from the search bar.
"The 2026 World Cup is no ordinary event, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to welcome all to experience Massachusetts. The tremendous demand during the first day of Boston Stadium Train ticket sales demonstrates that we needed to think outside the box to safely deliver unprecedented train service, carrying fans both near and far to the World Cup matches."
Netflix has added Jackbox Party Essentials to its gaming lineup, making three popular group games available for free to subscribers: Fibbage 4, Quiplash 3, and Drawful 2. Each game supports up to eight players, enhancing the interactive experience for families and friends.
Performance is a critical factor in user engagement, where even minor delays in loading can deter users. A clean and simple user interface also contributes significantly to user retention.
Restaurant owners like Panjwani are caught in the middle of a growing battle of new and established reservation platforms vying for their business. The two dominant players for more than a decade, OpenTable and Resy, are now facing a wave of fresh competition from high-end services and even delivery apps all trying to win lucrative bookings at exclusive establishments.
With brands increasingly looking to mixed reality (AR, VR, contextual) technology to create engaging event experiences, the inaugural ExM Live Forum brings together industry thought-leaders to share insights in an events sector ripe for digital transformation.
Riskified, a platform for ecommerce fraud prevention, has expanded its AI agent intelligence tool, wherein Riskified retrieves associated risk indicators and resolves an identity programmatically. Riskified acts as a trust agent, providing real-time risk intelligence directly into the shopping experience.
In London's iGaming sector, sportsbook platform features are usually discussed in practical terms rather than marketing ones. Operators dealing with UK-facing customers tend to frame software decisions around licensing, reporting and internal control, because regulatory constraints shape what is realistically possible day to day. A sportsbook, at this level, is less a product and more an operating business that happens to take bets.
Retail point-of-sale systems today offer a wide range of options for peripherals and hardware. Their technical specifications play a major role in selection, and big retailers often choose multiple vendors to reduce a single point of failure. This gives them an advantage to negotiate price or support as well. Technically, these peripherals also require updating with new models and may have new feature sets. This necessitates the redevelopment of point-of-sale applications, increasing development costs.
What football fans expect from sports sites has shifted completely. Dry match reports about yesterday's game don't cut it anymore. People want real-time numbers, instant updates, and analytics they can actually dig into. Site owners who want to keep visitors around have no choice - static pages need to become living information hubs, and data visualization tools make that happen. High-quality infographics are becoming just as important an element as original articles.
So another word about tickets. They did finally announce single-game tickets were going on sale, but only for games though June. It's not enough to keep season plans limited to those requiring fans to buy more tickets than they can use, feeding the secondary markets which the Mets also get a cut of, but "make-your-own-plan" fans like me who've reliably occupied seats for decades,
Personalization is a tried-and-tested way to boost engagement while gathering valuable information about existing audiences - and is proving to be a key driver for the sports industry, says Rawnet's Harry Daniel. For brands looking to score with digital marketing, personalization is a winning long-term business strategy. Personalizing the user experience (UX) via websites and apps keeps fans engaged and enhances brand loyalty. It can help brands to grow, by extending their reach to new users and unleashing untouched opportunities for victory.
Efficient business practices boost bottom lines, and finding the right balance begins with using the right productivity software tools. For entrepreneurs and small-business owners, time spent searching or navigating different tools could be better spent growing your company. Having the right productivity software in place isn't just convenient, it's essential for operational efficiency. The challenge many entrepreneurs face is balancing software costs with functionality.
Retail is no longer just about buying and selling products; it is about the experience. In a world where online shopping offers instant gratification, physical stores face the challenge of providing something the internet cannot: a personal, tactile, and efficient service. The checkout counter has traditionally been a point of friction, with long queues, slow card machines, and impersonal interactions. However, the modern Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) system has completely reshaped this dynamic.
The technology underpinning retail operations is under scrutiny in 2026 as fashion executives look to streamline systems with the aim to unlock efficiency, cut costs and meet consumer expectations for speed and personalisation in the shopping journey. At the retail event Lightspeed Edge on 12 January, Lightspeed - the unified point-of-sale (POS) and payments platform for SMEs such as Apricot Lane Boutique and Neal's Yard Remedies - convened industry leaders to explore the strategic imperative for integrated technology ecosystems over siloed systems.
At some point, the industry stopped arguing about whether content drives commerce and started living in the reality where the two are indistinguishable. "Content, commerce and technology are really coming forward in a special way and recognition that there aren't disparate separate systems any longer," says Cara Pratt, president of global retail and media at Circana. "There really is one connected, cohesive, intelligent ecosystem that is fueling discovery, fueling conversion and purchase."
At a time when digital channels increasingly define commercial success, online marketplaces have become essential tools for small and medium-sized enterprises to reach customers and drive revenue. For many SMEs, marketplaces offer a ready-made audience without the significant acquisition costs of standalone ecommerce sites, but the simple act of listing product ranges isn't enough to guarantee results. To succeed, businesses must approach their marketplace presence strategically, optimising every element of their listings for discovery, relevance and conversion.
Sales teams in the United Kingdom operate under intense pressure to balance responsiveness with resource efficiency. Customer expectations have shifted toward immediate engagement, while internal teams must manage increasingly complex pipelines and fragmented communication channels. Within this landscape, technologies designed to automate scheduling and lead engagement are no longer niche curiosities but strategic enablers of workflow efficiency. Systems such as AI Appointment Setter are part of that broader shift, representing tools that can reduce manual burden and streamline early-stage interactions between sales teams and potential clients.