Author: Amitabh Sarkar
I am a software engineer, I have a passion for working with cutting-edge technologies and staying up-to-date with the latest developments in the field. In my articles, I share my knowledge and insights on a range of topics, including business software, how to set up tools, and the latest trends in the tech industry.
Cognizant became a Global Premier Partner in Anthropic’s Claude Partner Network on July 27, 2026, with more than 30,000 associates already trained on Claude and 40,000 more professionals in the certification pipeline. The expanded partnership embeds Claude directly into Cognizant’s industry platforms for manufacturing, life sciences, and insurance clients. Cognizant, an IT services and consulting firm employing roughly 320,000 people, announced the deal through its newsroom, framing it as “helping clients close the gap between AI promise and business outcomes.” No financial terms were disclosed. The Scale: 10% of a 320,000-Person Workforce Cognizant’s 30,000 Claude-trained associates represent nearly 10% of…
OpenAI removed all rate limits on text chats for free ChatGPT users on August 6, 2026, and upgraded the free tier’s default model to GPT-5.6 Luna, with the rollout beginning the week of August 10. The change retires the previous free-tier cap of roughly 10 messages every 5 hours. OpenAI announced the upgrade for all free users of ChatGPT, which serves 1 billion weekly users, and requires no credit card. According to TechCrunch, the company also added a “Think” button that lets free users apply higher reasoning power to complex questions. What Free ChatGPT Users Get Free ChatGPT users get…
Notion released a new trigger on August 1, 2026 that fires Custom Agents automatically the moment an AI Meeting Note finishes, eliminating manual post-meeting steps such as copying summaries to project trackers, posting recaps to Slack, or creating tickets for engineering teams. “Custom Agents can now run right after an AI Meeting Note is finished, eliminating the need to manually update status trackers, post recaps to the project channel, or file tickets by hand,” according to the Notion changelog published August 1, 2026. The trigger works by connecting meeting intelligence — decisions, action items, and next steps — directly to…
Affinity, the AI-first CRM built for private capital firms, launched Affinity Ascend on July 21, 2026 — an agent platform that deploys three AI agents directly inside CRM workflows to automate data entry, warm introductions, and meeting preparation for investment professionals. The three launch agents are the Data Update Agent, which automatically updates CRM records without manual entry; the Warm Introductions Agent, which finds the most direct relationship path to a sourcing target; and the Meeting Prep Agent, which prepares investors with relationship context and deal history before conversations. All three draw from Affinity’s existing relationship intelligence database, which captures…
A roughly $500 reinforcement-learning fine-tune of a 9-billion-parameter open-source model beat every frontier model configuration tested — including GPT-5.5-pro and Gemini — on a real e-commerce catalog review workflow, according to a case study published July 27, 2026 by Fermisense. The fine-tuned specialist added roughly 23 points over its base model on the task benchmark and runs at about $0.50 per 1,000 listings, against roughly $19 per 1,000 for Gemini and $172 per 1,000 for GPT-5.5-pro — a 40× and roughly 340× cost gap. The study reached 218 points on Hacker News on July 28, making it one of the…
Fireflies.ai launched its AI Sales Suite on July 21, 2026, bringing enterprise-grade sales intelligence — meeting prep, real-time call coaching, CRM autofill, and deal analytics — to all 20 million of its users at a fraction of what legacy platforms charge. The suite writes directly into HubSpot and Salesforce, includes Sales Assist as a real-time in-call coach on web, Chrome extension, and desktop app, and reserves Deal Intelligence for Business ($19/user/month) and Enterprise plans. Fireflies, an AI meeting assistant used at 75% of Fortune 500 companies, is positioning the suite against Gong and Chorus, platforms that can cost $1,200–$1,800 per…
Saleoid launched an AI-powered CRM for small businesses on July 21, 2026, starting at $5 per month — billed every two years — with no per-seat fee. The platform combines lead management, AI-driven follow-up automation, appointment scheduling, contact management, and a sales pipeline, with 20+ optional add-on modules available at $1 per month each, according to MarTech Series and Saleoid’s product page. A 15-day free trial is included, with no minimum seat requirement. What Saleoid Includes Saleoid’s $5/month base plan covers 5 core functions: lead management, AI-powered follow-up automation, appointment booking, contact management, and a sales pipeline. The AI follow-up…
Cloudflare launched Kitesurf on August 6, 2026 — a headless browser built entirely in Rust and WebAssembly that runs inside V8 isolates on Cloudflare Workers, consuming 3–7× less CPU and memory than Chromium-based headless browsers used for AI agent workloads. Kitesurf is not a Chromium fork; it is a custom engine designed specifically for AI agents rather than human users. The browser is available free in beta through Cloudflare’s Browser Run API, and Cloudflare plans to open-source the engine. What Kitesurf Is Kitesurf is a purpose-built headless browser engine that runs inside V8 isolates on Cloudflare Workers. V8 isolates are…
Published: August 7, 2026 Echo, an AI inference system published by developer adam_rida at echo.tracerml.ai, routes each request across a pool of open-weight models and reached roughly Claude Fable 5-level aggregate quality at about one-third of the inference cost in the creator’s own evaluations, announced in a Show HN post on July 24, 2026. The post scored 402 points with 193 comments on Hacker News, making Echo one of the day’s most-discussed developer tools. How Echo’s Multi-Model Routing Works Echo decides per-request which open-weight models to use and how to combine their outputs, instead of sending every task to one…
OpenAI’s ChatGPT advertising 2026 rollout has now reached 40 countries: the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and — since August 18, 2026 — 31 European markets, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. That makes it the broadest AI-native ad channel open to any business without a minimum spend. The question for marketing budgets is whether it deserves a test. How ChatGPT Advertising Works in 2026 ChatGPT ads are labeled “Sponsored” placements that appear beneath AI responses for Free and Go plan users; Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education subscribers see no…