2026 stories

US shoppers increasingly demand transparent sustainability data and are driving a boom in second-hand and resale as reCommerce goes mainstream.

Most organisations still cannot show pounds-and-pence returns on AI, with only 15% tracking its financial impact, a new report warns.

Big consultancies tied to higher failure risk in Australian public IT overhauls, as research links them to delays and cost blowouts.

Shoppers shun online baskets over high delivery fees and clunky checkouts as retailers plough cash into loyalty schemes and shiny AI tools.

Cyber premiums drop 11% as competition heats up, but Lockton warns maturing claims could spark a volatile pricing rebound by 2027.

Superloop has retained its crown as Australia’s fastest fixed network, winning Ookla’s Speedtest award for the second half of 2025.

Belfast tech firm SciLeads will create 60 fully remote roles over three years as it scales its life sciences market intelligence platform.

Bending Spoons unveils a EUR €1.5m fellowship, offering major scholarships and mentoring to top computer science students across Europe.

Regulation, soft plastics revival and cost-conscious shoppers are driving five packaging shifts set to reshape Australia by 2026.

CFOs shift from hiring to hardware, funnelling bigger budgets into tech, AI and sales while HR, headcount and pay growth lose momentum.

Camunda appoints Chris White as Chief Revenue Officer to drive sales and partner growth as demand for agentic AI orchestration accelerates.

AI is reshaping PR, but leaders warn the winners in 2026 will be those who keep strategic communications firmly human-led.

Smartphones now underpin criminal investigations worldwide, with 97% of cases drawing on mobile data as agencies race to keep pace.

AI data centre investment is starving Europe’s PC market of key components, driving sharp RAM and SSD price rises into 2026.

Brightcove maps 2026 AI push and major UX overhaul, promising faster innovation, richer accessibility tools and smoother video operations.

WD maps a path to 100TB-plus hard drives, unveiling faster, lower-power designs as cloud data centres scale storage for AI workloads.

Swiss startup Umanitek has unveiled Guardian Agent, a subscription tool to spot deepfakes, fake profiles and AI-driven impersonation online.

OpenAI will levy a 4% fee on Shopify merchants for sales made via ChatGPT’s integrated instant checkout from late January 2026.

Data Privacy Day warns AI and cloud adoption is racing ahead of data governance, as boards and regulators demand proof of control.

Forward Networks debuts Forward AI, a digital twin-powered agentic assistant promising safer, verifiable automation for network operations.