Retail News CRM

Tag: enterprise

  • Google’s New Ai Service Revolutionizes Retail: Woolworths First To Adopt Gemini Enterprise

    Google’s New Ai Service Revolutionizes Retail: Woolworths First To Adopt Gemini Enterprise

    Google has recently introduced its new Gemini Enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) service, designed to enhance the overall customer experience. Notably, one of the first companies to leverage this new technology is Woolworths.

    Introducing Gemini Enterprise

    The Gemini Enterprise service acts as a digital concierge for customers, offering recommendations, storing relevant information, and performing complex tasks on the user’s behalf. This state-of-the-art ‘shopping agent’ is capable of comprehending image, video, and voice inputs – eliminating the need for customers to type their queries or requirements into a search bar.

    Google representatives explain that whether an agent is cross-referencing kitchen electrical specifications to find a compatible induction range, or resolving a fulfillment error and issuing an instant refund, the new solution will provide a more streamlined experience for customers at every touchpoint.

    Global Impact on Retail

    This novel technology was announced at the NRF 2026 event. Amanda Bardwell, CEO and MD of Woolworths Group, lauded Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise for customer experience as a global game-changer for the retail industry.

    As the first Australian retailer to form a partnership with Google’s agentic platform, Woolworths plans to evolve their digital shopping assistant, Olive, into a proactive partner that anticipates customers’ needs. This includes planning meals based on individual preferences and identifying relevant specials based on the user’s budget.

    Bardwell also emphasizes the practicality and convenience of this innovation, explaining that it’s designed to do the heavy lifting for customers, making shopping easier and saving them precious time. Woolworths now stands alongside Kroger, Lowe’s, and Papa John’s as a global pilot business for Gemini Enterprise.

    Towards a New Era of Commerce

    Darshan Kantak, VP of applied AI at Google Cloud, notes that they are merging the best of Google Cloud’s AI and infrastructure with a business’s own institutional intelligence to power a truly agentic commerce journey.

    With this new technology, businesses can bridge the gap between sales and service to deliver premium, personalized experiences from the point of discovery to post-purchase support, enhancing customer satisfaction and fostering long-term brand loyalty.

    Furthermore, one of the key features of Google’s AI is its ability to add items to a customer’s cart and manage the checkout process, provided the customer has given their consent.

    Questions & Answers

    What is the purpose of Google’s new Gemini Enterprise service?
    The Gemini Enterprise service is designed to enhance the overall customer experience. It acts as a digital concierge for customers, offering recommendations, storing relevant information, and performing complex tasks on the user’s behalf.

    What unique capabilities does the Gemini Enterprise shopping agent have?
    The shopping agent can comprehend image, video, and voice inputs, eliminating the need for customers to type their queries or requirements into a search bar.

    How does Woolworths plan to utilize the Gemini Enterprise service?
    Woolworths plans to evolve their digital shopping assistant, Olive, into a proactive partner that anticipates customers’ needs. This includes planning meals based on individual preferences and identifying relevant specials based on the user’s budget.

  • AI-Driven Defense: Globe Business and Cyble Unite to Reinforce Enterprise Cybersecurity in the Philippines

    AI-Driven Defense: Globe Business and Cyble Unite to Reinforce Enterprise Cybersecurity in the Philippines

    Globe Business has forged a groundbreaking alliance with global cybersecurity powerhouse, Cyble, to launch an innovative AI-focused threat intelligence platform in the Philippines. This collaboration is designed to fortify enterprise cybersecurity and arm organizations with the tools necessary to proactively address emerging cyber threats.

    This strategic partnership emerges amidst an escalating rise in cyberattacks across the nation. During the initial quarter of 2025, it was uncovered that over 1.2 million Filipinos’ credentials had been compromised and found on the dark web. Furthermore, the Philippines continues to grapple with a significant influx of phishing and credential theft incidents, while the evolving use of malware-as-a-service has rendered conventional network defenses increasingly fraught.

    Leveraging AI for Threat Detection

    The partnership leverages Globe Business’s in-depth local enterprise knowledge and Cyble’s cutting-edge AI-driven risk intelligence to enhance early threat detection and response capabilities. The newly introduced platform will collate and scrutinize data from various internet strata, alerting organizations to potential attacks, data breaches, or instances of brand impersonation before they escalate into major crises.

    KD Dizon, the Head of Globe Business, noted:

    “The battle against cybercrime is a contest of intelligence and speed. Our alliance with Cyble is about democratizing that power. It’s about equipping Philippine enterprises with AI-driven foresight, enabling them to transition from merely reacting to breaches to proactively leveraging data-informed resilience.”

    Cyble’s platform employs agentic AI and its unique BlazeAI engine, which continually learns from emerging threat patterns. This system scans over 20 billion pages daily and monitors in excess of 15,000 cybercrime sources in real-time. This robust strategy allows security teams to identify exposed data, fraudulent domains, or network vulnerabilities at an early stage.

    Facilitating Secure Digital Transformation

    Beenu Arora, the Co-founder and CEO of Cyble, remarked:

    “The Philippines confronts some of the world’s rapidly growing cyber risks. By marrying the scale of AI with Globe Business’s local expertise, we aim to help enterprises always maintain a step ahead of attackers.”

    Globe Business emphasizes that this partnership underscores its commitment to facilitating secure digital transformation. It also highlights the increasing demand for AI-driven prevention strategies in cybersecurity, as these strategies offer wide-ranging support for various industries. Banks and financial institutions can identify compromised data early on and halt fraudulent activities, while retail and e-commerce companies can keep an eye on brand misuse and counterfeit products. Additionally, government agencies can also leverage this platform to detect signs of planned breaches or cyberattacks.

    Questions & Answers

    What is the purpose of the partnership between Globe Business and Cyble?
    The partnership seeks to strengthen enterprise cybersecurity in the Philippines by introducing an AI-native threat intelligence platform.

    What capabilities does Cyble’s platform offer to security teams?
    Cyble’s platform uses agentic AI to process over 20 billion pages daily and monitor more than 15,000 cybercrime sources in real time, allowing early identification of exposed data, fraudulent domains, and network vulnerabilities.

    How does this partnership benefit different industries?
    This collaboration supports a variety of sectors. Financial institutions can detect compromised data early on, retail companies can monitor brand misuse, and government agencies can detect signs of planned cyberattacks.

  • Biggest car rental company heading to Vietnam

    Biggest car rental company heading to Vietnam

    Vietnam is the first stop for Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Asia, after 85 locations in Europe and the Americas. The world’s largest car rental servicer, Enterprise Holdings, recently announced that its Enterprise Rent-A-Car service is now available in Vietnam. The move is part of Enterprise Holdings’ goal to expand its car rental services across the Asia Pacific region.

    Enterprise Rent-A-Car will operate in Vietnam through its Vietnamese franchise partner MP Logistics.

    Cuong Dang, general director of Enterprise Rent-A-Car Vietnam, said the company currently has 300 rental cars, from 5 to 47 seaters, available in Ho Chi Minh City. The service is scheduled to be expanded to Hanoi and central Da Nang City in the first quarter of 2019.

    Rent-A-Car’s initial strategy will be to grow a base of corporate customers, foreign employees of multinational companies with operations in Vietnam. The initial emphasis will be on long-term rentals with a chauffeur.

    Later, it will expand its services to include short-term, chauffeur-driven options, self-drive rentals and leisure hire at popular tourist destinations likes Da Nang.

    Cuong said he believes that there is great demand in Vietnam’s car rental market but inadequate supply, and that in the future, this market will thrive.

    There are two reasons Vietnam’s car rental market will grow, he said.

    First, FDI growth will be maintained for the next 10 years, which will attract an increasing number of foreign workers.

    Second, the middle class is seeing strong growth. The younger generation does not accord much priority to saving to buying luxurious cars and big homes, but tend to pay more attention to quality of life and experiences, and as such would be more willing to rent cars.

    However, Cuong noted that the Rent-A-Car model brought to Vietnam would take longer to recoup capital and profits than in the U.S.

    “The price of buying a car in Vietnam is twice that in the U.S., but the rental price is the same in both markets, so the business risk will be higher,” Cuong said.

    Todd Prister, regional director for the Enterprise Franchise Asia-Pacific said that the company is excited about the potential of Vietnam’s economy.

    “Vietnam not only has one of the highest growth rates in the world as well as attractive business markets, but also is a prominent destination in Southeast Asia. Combining these factors, Vietnam will be a brilliant opportunity for us,” said Todd.

    Enterprise is the largest car rental company in the U.S. and is the 13th largest private enterprise in the country.

    Todd Prister said Enterprise is also the largest car rental company in the world in terms of vehicles owned, employees and sales.

    The company is present in 85 countries, 10,000 locations, owns over two million vehicles and has an average annual turnover of about $22 billion.

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  • More than 14,000 enterprises established in Vietnam in two months

    More than 14,000 enterprises established in Vietnam in two months

    More than 14,450 enterprises were set up in the first two months of this year, with a total registered capital of over VND152.5 trillion (US$6.71 billion), up 3.9% in terms of number of enterprises and 35% in terms of registered capital over the same period in 2016, according to the Business Registration Management Agency.

    The average registered capital per new enterprise reached VND10.6 billion (US$466,000), an increase of 29.9% against the same period of last year.

    However, in February alone, more than 5,400 enterprises were established, with VND62.2 trillion (US$2.74 billion) worth of registered capital, a decrease of 39.3% in the number of enterprises and 31% in registered capital compared to January.

    The fall in number of newly established enterprises was due to a long Tet holiday in late January and early February.

    The first two months of this year also saw more than 7,900 enterprises resume their operations, up 7.6% compared to the corresponding period last year.

    In the meantime, about 2,500 enterprises were dissolved, up 14.9% compared to the same period of 2016, including more than 2,300 enterprises with a registered capital of less than VND10 billion (US$440,000) while more than 16,300 enterprises registered to suspend operations.

    The sectors that attract the participation of a large number of labourers include the processing and manufacturing industry, wholesale and retail sales, automobile and motorcycle repairs and construction, among others.

  • Two enterprise technology predictions for 2017

    Two enterprise technology predictions for 2017

    1. Retailers build competitive advantage through the Internet of Things

    With Hong Kong retailers still struggling in the face of falling tourist numbers, restricted spending from Mainland Chinese shoppers and fierce competition from e-commerce channels, I believe that bricks and mortar operations will focus on building competitive advantage through the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2017.

    Connected devices such as beacons and retail sensors are already helping some shopping mall operators to track footfall and visitor flow in order to determine optimal mall and store layouts, and to maximise rent yields.

    IoT technology also has the potential to enhance customer loyalty.  For customers that have opted in, there’s an opportunity for retailers to send personalised coupons or limited-time deals that bring more value to the traditional, in-store shopping experience.

    As more retailers explore the possibilities of IoT, consumers will no doubt take an interest in what personal data companies are accessing and how they plan to keep it safe. Already, there have been major news stories about security vulnerabilities in IoT devices.  Smart retailers will embed security protocols at the heart of their IoT services and processes to protect the data they harvest.

    As the need for IoT security emerges, businesses may also reconsider other cybersecurity vulnerabilities in terms of operations, finance and more. Many enterprises are not yet prepared for unexpected, malicious attacks, and might consider outsourcing cybersecurity management and adopting trusted cyber insurance solutions to stay one step ahead of the threats.

    2.  Blockchain drives financial service innovation

    In 2017, we can expect blockchain to firmly establish itself as a financial technology worth getting excited about, distinct from the hype – and the hitches – of bitcoin.

    Blockchain is a simple and elegant technology that can track the movement of money, authenticate transactions and validate ownership of financial assets. At its core, blockchain is a distributed database composed of blocks of transactional information, each one containing data about every transaction that came before, to form a chain. Fast and efficient, it’s also secure by design – a hacking event might affect one block, but the chain won’t be broken.

    In the coming year, I expect entrepreneurs – especially in the financial services industry – to look more closely at the type of businesses that can be built on blockchain.

    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is already leading the way with its FinTech Supervisory Sandbox initiative, announced in September 2016. By promoting an experimental space with less regulation, the HKMA is opening up new possibilities for Hong Kong innovators to spearhead pioneering fintech services. Commercial centres in Asia and worldwide are already positioning themselves to be at the forefront of fintech, making 2017 an important year for Hong Kong to assert its own leadership in this space.

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