Affirm founder and CEO Max Levchin has a few things flowing in his veins. One, an admirable work ethic that sees him pushing his own physical boundaries each day. Think working to near exhaustion (yes, for real, as the stories on Levchin are told). And two, financial services — which perhaps harkens back to Levchin arriving to the United States in 1991 from Ukraine as a teenager in search of the American Dream, with little money at first. “I came to the U.S. as a teenager, I had no credit… Source link

In a bid to help enterprises optimize customer service, Google Cloud is extending its Contact Center AI (CCAI) service with the ability to integrate with CRM (customer relationship management) applications in order to provide real-time insights and data analytics.  The extended service will be called the Contact Center AI (CCAI) Platform and is scheduled for general availability in August.  The CCAI Platform will include capabilities offered by the current service, such as DialogFlow… Source link

Google Photos is getting a pretty significant layout change that should make it easier to find the photos and albums you’re looking for in the library and sharing tabs. The update transforms the current library tab layout from a mishmash of albums, favorites, and on-device folders to a grid or list view that you can sort through by category. Meanwhile, the Photos sharing tab will now have sections specifically for partner sharing, shared albums, and conversations. Google says the… Source link

AMC (AMC) raised ticket prices for “The Batman” — an experiment that the company publicly declared it was testing in the U.S. as the theatrical experience gravitates toward a more premium one. But did elevated ticketing work, and could we see more higher prices as a result? According to box office analytics platform EntTelligence, AMC charged about $1 more than its average ticket price to see “The Batman” during the film’s opening weekend on March 4 ($14.50 vs. $13.66) with price increases… Source link

Robinhood (HOOD) is launching a Cash Card and banking on consumer spending trends to unlock its next growth opportunity. For each transaction, Robinhood Cash Card customers can decide whether to round up their change to the nearest dollar when they make purchases and they can then choose an investment asset to direct their spare change to. “The next generation has a high interest in investing, but it is out of reach for many because they’re caught up in the cycle of spending” Robinhood… Source link

Google now lets you link your Google Merchant Center account with your Google Analytics 4 property. Plus, Google added that you can now “see your conversions from free product listings by connecting your Merchant Center and Google Analytics property.” What is new. On February 1st, we reported that Google added auto-tagging to your free Merchant Center products for improved tracking not just on your paid product listings but also on your free product listings. This new… Source link

Panera on Wednesday officially entered the chicken sandwich competition. On March 30th, “Chef’s Chicken Sandwiches” will be available at Panera locations nationwide and via the company’s app. Diners will have two options: the “Signature Take” and the “Spicy Take.” Both include a quarter pound of all-white meat chicken breast filet, marinated and seasoned with the chain’s spice blend. Each filet is topped with a crunchy topping. The Signature version includes parmesan crisps and topped… Source link

Tesla’s (TSLA) Berlin Gigafactory is now live, and it will be super important to the EV giant’s future, analysts say. On Tuesday, the factory received CEO Elon Musk, who presented customers with the first Model Ys made at the facility. Tesla’s new factory is 20 or so miles southeast of the German capital and houses roughly 10,000 employees. The factory cost north of $5.5 billion to construct. “We view the opening of Giga Berlin as one of the biggest strategic endeavors for Tesla over the last… Source link

Arkady Yurievich Volozh seemed to be in good spirits. It was February 11, his birthday, and the 58-year-old billionaire CEO and cofounder of Yandex, the Russian tech behemoth, was in the sort of open, engaging mood that could be called privetliviy, after the casual Russian word privet for hello. He was speaking from his car in Tel Aviv, bragging about his father—an oil geologist in his eighties who had “discovered” oil in Israel, Volozh said—as we chatted about my upcoming trip to… Source link

Arkady Yurievich Volozh seemed to be in good spirits. It was February 11, his birthday, and the 58-year-old billionaire CEO and cofounder of Yandex, the Russian tech behemoth, was in the sort of open, engaging mood that could be called privetliviy, after the casual Russian word privet for hello. He was speaking from his car in Tel Aviv, bragging about his father—an oil geologist in his eighties who had “discovered” oil in Israel, Volozh said—as we chatted about my upcoming trip to… Source link