MCP Apps (SEP-1865) extend the Model Context Protocol so AI agents can return full HTML/CSS/JavaScript interfaces instead of plain text. Backed by Anthropic and OpenAI jointly, they turn chat windows into application platforms with sandboxed iframes, bidirectional JSON-RPC, and 10 launch partners including Figma, Slack, and Salesforce.
Salesforce introduced the Agentic Work Unit (AWU) during its Q4 FY2026 earnings call, reporting 2.4 billion AWUs across Agentforce and Slack. The metric counts discrete agent tasks: records updated, workflows triggered, cases resolved. But analysts argue it measures machine exertion, not business value. Here is what AWUs actually track, why Salesforce needed a new metric, and what the criticism means for how enterprises measure agent ROI.
OpenAI pulled its Instant Checkout feature after onboarding just 30 merchants. Amazon’s Buy for Me agent scraped retailers without asking, triggering a backlash from 180+ brands. Shopify quietly positioned itself as the universal commerce backend for every AI agent. Then Amazon invested $50 billion in OpenAI. Here is how the agentic commerce platform war is actually playing out, who is winning, and what it means for merchants caught in the middle.
Anthropic announced partnerships with the Allen Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute to embed Claude AI agents directly into life sciences research workflows. Meanwhile, Ai2’s open-source Theorizer framework turns 13,744 scientific papers into 2,856 structured, testable theories. This is not AlphaFold for biology. It is something broader: AI agents that handle the 80% of research work that is data wrangling, literature synthesis, and experimental coordination.
81% of B2B buyers pick their vendor before ever talking to sales. Intent signals let you identify those buyers while they are still researching. Here is how the technology works, what it costs, and why most teams still get it wrong.
Anthropic published its 2026 Agentic Coding Trends Report identifying eight shifts across foundation, capability, and impact layers. Engineers use AI in 60% of their work but fully delegate under 20%. TELUS saved 500,000 hours. Rakuten cut feature delivery from 24 days to 5. The report’s honesty about delegation limits makes its production data more credible than most vendor whitepapers.
Function calling and MCP are not competitors. Function calling is how an LLM decides what tool to use. MCP is the infrastructure that makes that tool call portable across models and applications. One generates intent, the other handles execution. Here is the practical decision framework for when you need which.
A Comptroller’s audit exposed NYC’s failure to enforce its AI hiring law. Now the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is ramping up investigations and issuing real fines. One staffing agency already paid $18,000 for a single unaudited resume screener. Here is what changed, how fines accumulate, and what HR teams using AI tools need to do right now.
Shadow AI agents are not shadow IT 2.0. They are autonomous programs that chain actions across enterprise systems, process regulated data, and operate continuously without any IT oversight. 49% of employees already use unsanctioned AI, CISOs keep discovering tools they never approved, and the average cost is $412K per year. This post breaks down why shadow AI agents are fundamentally different, why detection keeps failing, and what actually works to govern them.
Amazon committed $200 billion in 2026 capex. Google followed with $175 billion. Meta said $115 to $135 billion. Microsoft is tracking toward $120 billion or more. Combined, the four largest hyperscalers are pouring roughly $650 billion into AI infrastructure this year, nearly doubling 2025 levels. Most of it goes to data centers, GPUs, and networking. This post breaks down where the money is going, why inference workloads are the real driver, and what this spending wave means for enterprises building AI agents.