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Sun Life Essentials™ brings workplace savings plans to Canadian small and medium-sized employers 0

Sun Life Essentials™ brings workplace savings plans to Canadian small and medium-sized employers

Nearly eight in ten working Canadians (76%) want employers to play an active role in building their financial security Less than half are currently receiving workplace savings support at work (41%) Working Canadians list financial stability as the most important aspect of employment Toronto, ON (Jan. 21, 2026) – Sun Life is pleased to announce Sun Life Essentials™ and Sun Life Essentials Plus™, new digital-first workplace savings solutions designed specifically for small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs). The plans are built to be simple and accessible, helping business owners better support their employees in building long‑term financial stability and confidence. Amid rising uncertainty and cost pressures, building a stable and loyal workforce is a priority for businesses of all sizes. Workplace savings plans can be a practical way for employers to invest in their people without adding complexity. Recent research conducted by The Harris Poll for Sun Life, underscores why this support matters right now. More than a quarter of working Canadians say financial stress is impacting productivity and engagement at work. And 87 per cent believe employers that help workers save earn greater loyalty. “Small business owners are the backbone of our economy, and we know how much they’re carrying...

Cyber risk tops the list as businesses seek greater resilience: new Marsh business risk report reveals shift in priorities 0

Cyber risk tops the list as businesses seek greater resilience: new Marsh business risk report reveals shift in priorities

London, UK (May 11, 2026) – According to a new report by Marsh Risk, a business of Marsh, and the world’s leading insurance broker and risk advisor, cyber risk is, for the first time, the top concern among UK business leaders. It is cited as the leading concern for 46% of business leaders, up three percentage points from 2024, and up from 20% in 2023. Marsh Risk’s UK Business Risk Report – which surveyed more than 2,000 business leaders, from sole traders to businesses of with over 250 employees across the UK – provides industry level insight and practical recommendations to help organizations prioritize actions, allocate capital and engage with insurers more effectively. The report underscores the need for businesses to adopt flexible risk management approaches that can adapt as threats evolve and interact across domains. The top risks include cyber threats (46%); economic and financial (44%); compliance, legal and regulatory (40%); and people (39%). According to the report, high profile attacks, greater digitalization and supply chain vulnerabilities have elevated cyber risk to board level, due to widespread operational disruption, potential regulatory exposure and reputational harm. Respondents also highlighted the growing interconnectedness of threats, signalling a move by organizations to...

Canadians say they’re cautious about AI, but many are already letting it decide 0

Canadians say they’re cautious about AI, but many are already letting it decide

EY study shows adoption is outpacing sentiment as AI takes on greater responsibility 13% of Canadians are already using autonomous AI, allowing systems to act on their behalf AI is embedded in daily life, with up to 78% using it in energy and mobility and 67% in customer experiences Trust remains fragile, as 71% fear AI system breaches and only 39% trust companies to protect AI‑used data Toronto, ON (May 11, 2026) – Canadians may describe themselves as cautious about artificial intelligence, but new findings from the 2026 EY AI Sentiment Study suggest a very different reality. While concerns about security, accountability and control remain high, Canadians are already embedding AI into everyday decisions, often in ways that extend beyond simple assistance into early autonomy. “What we’re seeing is less about blind trust and more about conditional permission,” says Biren Agnihotri, EY Canada Chief Technology Officer. “Canadians are comfortable with AI in familiar, low‑risk moments, and that everyday experience is reshaping how trust actually develops.” A ‘meaningful minority’ is already letting AI decide The study shows 13% of Canadians have used autonomous AI in the past six months, systems that go beyond recommendations to act on a user’s behalf. While...

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Iran and Israel Trade Missile Attacks, Straining Peace Talks

Article 0 Comments Israel and Iran exchanged missile strikes on Monday despite President Donald Trump’s calls for both sides to stop fighting and give peace talks a chance. Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks just hours after firing ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday. Israel responded with strikes on military targets in western and central Iran, while Iranian state media reported multiple explosions in the capital, Tehran. Israel also struck Iran’s Karun petrochemical company in Mahshahr in a fresh offensive early Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Iran’s offensive is a rare example of Tehran coming to Hezbollah’s defense and the most serious challenge yet to a ceasefire that took effect on April 8, halting a war that began in February when the US and Israel started bombing Iran. The conflict left thousands of people dead across the Middle East, disrupted global energy flows and spurred a rally in oil prices that’s stoking fears of a surge in global inflation. The latest bout of violence continued despite Trump on Sunday warning that a renewed escalation could derail efforts by Tehran and Washington to secure a new, 60-day truce. That would pave the way for negotiations on a broader...

Messagepoint Announces MARCIEAssist™, First Agentic AI to Automate CCM 0

Messagepoint Announces MARCIEAssist™, First Agentic AI to Automate CCM

Messagepoint announces launch of MARCIEAssist™, the first agentic AI capability to automate the work of Customer Communications Management Toronto, ON (June 4, 2026) – Messagepoint, a leading customer communications management (CCM) solutions provider, is pleased to announce the launch of MARCIEAssist™, the first agentic AI capability that automates the work of customer communications management. With MARCIEAssist, Messagepoint is introducing a fundamentally new model for customer communications management (CCM)—one where users no longer need to manually execute complex tasks. Instead, users simply describe what they want to accomplish, and MARCIEAssist intelligently plans and executes supported actions across content, rules, data, and templates—while keeping users fully in control. Organizations operating in regulated industries face increasing pressure to deliver accurate, compliant, and highly personalized communications across channels—yet CCM platforms still rely on manual processes that are time-consuming, complex, and dependent on specialized expertise. MARCIEAssist was specifically designed to address these challenges by leveraging agentic AI to do the heavy lifting of CCM work, dramatically reducing the time and effort required to manage communications. The first release of MARCIEAssist supports three core functions in Messagepoint: Automating key content operations such as creating, editing, and refactoring content objects Providing insights into content, rules, and communications...

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Texas Children’s Hospital to Pay $10M as Part of Detransition Settlement

Article 0 Comments Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston has to create a detransition clinic for transgender patients later this year and keep a list of “potential” gender affirming care patients, according to new details released Monday by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. According to a 10-page list of settlement terms, requested by The Texas Tribune, Texas Children’s has 90 days from the effective date of the settlement to set up the detransition clinic. The attorney general announced the settlement two weeks ago but because a final settlement has not been signed there is no effective date agreed upon yet. The clinic must provide multiple services including access to endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry and psychotherapy. Also, the clinic must provide obstetrics and gynecological services to adults who have undergone gender transitioning procedures, although it’s unclear if all adult transgender people who want to seek these services must do so through the detransition clinic. The $10 million settlement, first announced on May 15, is the result of a 2023 investigation by the attorney general’s office into Texas Children’s. That same year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 14 that bars transgender children from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapies....

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Tech Update: WTW Launches Transformation Solution to Focus AI Implementation

Article 0 Comments Insurance broker WTW announced the launch of its AI Workforce Transformation solution which helps companies focus AI where it is expected to deliver productivity and growth gains through redesigned work, jobs and strong employee adoption. Addressing the imperative facing CEOs and boards to convert AI investments into productivity gains and competitive advantage, the solution is built on WTW’s extensive proprietary data on jobs, skills and work processes. The solution incorporates two of WTW’s AI-enabled diagnostic tools: Its WorkVue Agent provides clarity on the automation potential for all the jobs across an organization, while ChangeVue establishes the areas that are most ready for adoption, to pinpoint priority areas for AI implementation. The flexible AI Workforce Transformation solution allows multiple entry points to meet a range of client needs – identifying where AI will unlock the biggest productivity gains, redesigning jobs, aligning roles, skills and total rewards to accelerating enterprise-wide change adoption. Applying its WorkVue Agent to industry-wide job and skills information, WTW said it has uncovered powerful insights. For example, an analysis of 900 occupations highlights the scale and variability of potential automation across roles, including: 60-70% of tasks in highly structured roles like operations, administrative and clerical...

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US House Lawmakers Release Draft Bill to Prohibit State AI Rules

Article 0 Comments A bipartisan pair of U.S. House lawmakers released draft legislation on Thursday that would prohibit states from regulating the development of artificial intelligence models, a move praised by tech firms but criticized by consumer rights advocacy groups. The draft legislation, released by Democrat Lori Trahan and Republican Jay Obernolte, would bar states from laws “targeting artificial intelligence model development,” meaning states would not be allowed to pass laws requiring models undergo testing before AI firms release them to the public, according to the draft. But the draft also said it would not bar states from regulating how AI technology is used. It aims to create a “national framework that protects Americans, supports innovation, and ensures the U.S leads the world in shaping this technology,” the pair said in a joint statement. “We are releasing this draft to hear from stakeholders, experts, and the public so we can strengthen the legislation before it is formally introduced,” Obernolte said in a statement. Congress has struggled for years to pass legislation to address AI safety concerns. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, criticized the bill, saying it would leave “oversight largely to a federal government that has repeatedly failed to...

Introducing the IBM Bob Premium Package for Z 0

Introducing the IBM Bob Premium Package for Z

IBM is announcing a significant milestone in our strategy to help enterprises modernize mainframe applications, bringing new levels of efficiency, productivity and intelligence to the IBM Z application development lifecycle — By Michael Kwok, Vice President, IBM Bob; Canada Lab Director — IBM Z is a family of enterprise-grade mainframe computer servers designed by IBM. Known for their legendary reliability (the “Z” originally stands for “zero downtime”), they are the backbone of the global economy, processing roughly 70% of all financial transactions worldwide. These modern compute stacks are built for massive-scale, mission-critical operations where failure is not an option. — We are excited to introduce IBM Bob Premium Package for Z, which integrates and enhances the capabilities of IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z to deliver advanced features for enterprise-scale mainframe applications. IBM Bob Premium Package for Z is currently available in private preview. AI-powered tool for enterprise developers Modern developers expect a cutting-edge, agentic integrated development environment (IDE) experience and teams working on IBM Z applications can experience that with IBM Bob. IBM Bob is an AI-powered development tool for enterprise developers that can plan, execute, validate and govern multi-step modernization tasks across the software development lifecycle (SDLC). It...

Liberty Mutual Insurance Launches First-of-its-Kind Carrier-Backed Conversational AI Quoting App in ChatGPT for Auto Insurance 0

Liberty Mutual Insurance Launches First-of-its-Kind Carrier-Backed Conversational AI Quoting App in ChatGPT for Auto Insurance

App in ChatGPT allows users to get an accurate auto insurance quote in minutes Boston, MA (May 28, 2026) – Liberty Mutual Insurance, the seventh-largest auto insurer in the US, has launched a first-of-its-kind carrier-backed conversational AI auto insurance quoting application. The app allows ChatGPT users to obtain an auto insurance quote from Liberty Mutual in minutes through a conversational, chat-based interaction, rather than a traditional online form. Quotes are now available via the app in ChatGPT for drivers in seven states (Arizona, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, New Mexico, Utah and Wisconsin), and Liberty Mutual plans to offer conversational AI quoting in more than 40 states by the end of the year. “We are excited to extend access to our products and provide additional platforms for customers to find great coverage at a great price. Consumers have more choice than ever in how they choose to shop, including emerging channels like conversational AI and large language model (LLM) platforms,” said Tyler Asher, Liberty Mutual Chief Distribution and Marketing Officer, US Retail Markets. “As this shopping process continues to evolve, it’s beneficial to customers that we meet them wherever they are, leveraging the newest technology to simplify the buying experience and deliver...