Dubai South Properties Unveils Its New Luxury Apartment Complex in the Residential District

The Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) launched a new campaign aimed at reinforcing the Kingdom’s position as a preferred GCC tourism destination. The promotion highlights a packed calendar of entertainment, cultural, sports, and family-focused experiences taking place across the Kingdom.

The campaign coincides with a diverse lineup of events being hosted in the country, including live concerts and theatrical productions in collaboration with Beyon Al Dana Amphitheatre. These will be held alongside festivals and entertainment activations such as the third edition of the Bahrain Summer Festival at Exhibition World Bahrain. Visitors can also enjoy family attractions, sports events, and shopping festivals across major malls and other tourist centers, creating a well-rounded tourism experience that combines entertainment, culture, and shopping in a single travel destination.

Ms. Sara Ahmed Buhiji, BTEA Chief Executive Officer said: “This initiative reflects the BTEA’s continued efforts to strengthen Bahrain’s position as a preferred destination for GCC families and other visitors by offering a unique tourism experience that brings together entertainment, culture, sports, shopping, dining, and family activities. It showcases the Kingdom as a destination that is easy to reach and rich in experiences, making it an ideal choice for weekend getaways and short holidays.”

She added that the program accompanying the campaign includes a variety of attractions catering to different interests and age groups, while reflecting the authentic Gulf hospitality that Bahrain is known for.

Buhiji added: “We look forward to welcoming GCC visitors to a vibrant season of events where families and friends can get together in a lively, enjoyable, and safe atmosphere, and in a country with an advanced tourism infrastructure that offers visitors a seamless and comfortable experience.”

The campaign will also feature travel packages and hotel offers developed in collaboration with hospitality and tourism sector partners, in addition to shopping promotions and diverse entertainment options, further enhancing the visitor experience and catering to GCC travelers seeking a nearby destination that combines familiarity with fresh and memorable attractions.

Starbucks SBUX 0.98%increase; green up pointing triangle is laying off 300 U.S. workers and closing several regional corporate offices in the latest move by Chief Executive Brian Niccol to turn the coffee chain around.

The company said Friday that chain leaders had been tasked with finding additional reductions beyond thousands of previous layoffs to streamline operations, lower costs and create a more sustainable business.

Australian luxury bag and accessories brand MAISON de SABRÉ  has unveiled The Trio Collection, a new handbag concept centred on personalisation, interchangeable styling and the brand’s signature bold use of colour.

The launch follows the highly successful launch of the brand’s Palais Collection, which marked a new chapter for MAISON de SABRÉ with its use of butter-soft calf leather, dual-tone carryalls and elevated craftsmanship designed to blend luxury with functionality.

Now, the brand is taking a more playful and customisable direction.

The Trio Collection centres around The Soft Trio, a softly structured leather crossbody crafted from a single piece of full-grain European leather using a stitch-free trifold construction.

The collection also introduces interchangeable accessories including The Utility Strap, The Twist Handle and the limited-edition Bow Padlock Charm, allowing wearers to style the bag in more than 720 different combinations.

At a time when luxury fashion houses are increasingly leaning into personal expression and collectability, MAISON de SABRÉ’s latest release feels designed for customers who want one bag to shift across moods, outfits and occasions rather than sit quietly in a wardrobe.

For the first time, the brand has also introduced its vivid dual-tone colour combinations across an entire collection, including new shades Daisy Yellow and Brick Red alongside pairings such as Dove Sky, Candy Plum and Daisy Matcha.

“The Trio Collection is designed as a system of infinite possibilities,” said Omar Sabré, co-founder and creative director of MAISON de SABRÉ.

“It’s crafted to adapt, to transform and to carry with purpose – crafting a new approach to longevity through design.”

The collection continues the brand’s sustainability focus, with every piece crafted using DriTan™ leather technology sourced from LWG Gold-Rated European tanneries, while several accessories incorporate upcycled leather offcuts.

Prices start from $109 AUD for the limited-edition Bow Padlock Charm and rise to $559 AUD for The Soft Trio carryall.

Founded in 2017 by brothers Omar and Zane Sabré, the Australian-born label has built a global following through its colour-driven leather accessories and collectible SABRÉMOJI™ charms, with celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep and Katy Perry among those seen carrying the brand.

There is an age-old debate on the generational divide when it comes to managing money. It often starts with familiar assumptions: the young are impulsive, the old play it too safe; the young are more tech-savvy, the old are not so plugged in.

But eToro shows a more nuanced picture, according to its latest UAE Retail Investor Beat survey data comparing investors aged 18-34 with those aged 35-62. 

The survey found that older investors are just as digitally savvy as younger investors. Both groups use social media for financial advice at almost the same rate, as 39% of younger investors and 38% of older investors do so. Trust in AI for investment recommendations is also nearly identical: 76% of younger investors and 75% of older investors have acted on a recommendation by an AI engine. Rather than being concentrated among the youth, social media and AI usage has risen across both age groups from August 2025, the last time the survey was conducted.

A sharper distinction lies in older investors being more likely to seek financial advice from online platforms or brokers (57% vs 52% of younger investors), while younger investors are more likely to consult family, friends, colleagues and industry peers (67% vs 60% of older investors), suggesting a more social and interpersonal approach to decision-making.

Differences in allocations

It may come as a surprise that older investors show higher exposure to crypto (56% vs 53% of younger investors), commodities (61% vs 52%), but also cash (50% vs 46%). Allocations to equities and bonds, both foreign and local, are broadly equal between both age groups. This suggests a more barbelled approach among older investors, who may be pairing higher-risk assets with typically less-volatile ones, rather than simply playing it safe. 

In terms of the sectors that UAE investors are currently invested in, the most popular ranking is the same across both age groups – financial services, followed by real estate and energy – but some sectors are more popular among one age group than the other. 

Younger investors have a greater preference for technology (36% vs 32% of older investors), healthcare (26% vs 23%) and renewables (26% vs 24%), whereas older investors prefer energy (42% vs 38%  of younger investors), financial services (51% vs 48%) and mining (28% vs 26%). This points to a younger investor base backing future-facing sectors linked to innovation and sustainability, while the more mature investors are more likely to support industries that are well established in the UAE.

Josh Gilbert, Market Analyst at eToro added: as they are earlier on in their investment journey, naturally younger investors are more likely to plan to invest in a wider array of sectors in the future to keep diversifying their portfolio. The sector they are most likely to invest in within the next three months is renewables (45%), while for older investors it is communications (40%).

Communications, including social media and telecoms companies, stands out as a point of equal conviction, with 27% of each age group currently invested and another 40% planning to invest in the next three months. While this feels almost instinctive among younger investors, its presence in older investors’ portfolios reflect the trust in the digital, social, and media ecosystems they are turning to for advice. 

Investment goals suggest financial independence first, fun on the side.

Likewise, the two groups share the same top three investing goals: to achieve financial independence, to supplement income, and to provide long-term security. However, there are still some divergences. Older investors are much more likely to invest to beat inflation (27% vs 23% of younger investors) and to supplement income (52% vs 44%). 

On the other hand, younger investors are more likely to invest for fun (15% vs 11% of older investors), to retire early (19% vs 15%) and to generate capital for a future payment (28% vs 25%). So despite choosing to invest for fun, younger investors are also balancing it out with long-term financial planning.

Still in the wealth-building phase of their investing journey, 59% of younger investors increased contributions to their portfolio over the past three months (vs 55% of older investors), and even more plan for increases in the next three (68% vs 62%). A small minority of each group (9% of younger investors, 8% of older investors) decreased portfolio values in the past three months, against the backdrop of recent geopolitical tensions in the region.

Settling the debate.

The data shows that old assumptions are becoming outdated. The tide has turned. Social media, artificial intelligence and crypto are no longer the territories of young investors alone. Older investors are part of the digital mainstream now.

What stands out is that both groups are leaning into markets right now, with both younger and older investors looking to increase portfolio exposure.  In an environment where markets have been anything but straightforward, with geopolitical noise, rate uncertainty and volatility a constant backdrop, it suggests investors are here for the long-term.  

Furthermore, younger investors are not simply impulsive, and older investors are not simply cautious. Both are adapting to a more digital, diversified investment landscape, just in different ways. 

Settling the debate, then, is recognising that age shapes investment behaviour in more nuanced ways than stereotypes allow. 

As the supply chain to support quantum hardware stabilizes, many experts anticipate that this emerging technology will be popularized and production-ready by the early 2030s. Some assume that means benefitting from quantum now is out of the question.

Enter quantum AI, a powerful approach involving running machine learning algorithms on existing quantum hardware. In practice, applying quantum AI can look like helping organizations accomplish hours-long tasks in minutes, or rendering problems once considered impossible to realize on existing hardware. It can also look like calibrating models to learn efficiently on less data, bolstering stability over time – and much more.

So, with all its potential benefits, what’s holding back organizations from greater investment?

Data and AI leader SAS surveyed more than 500 global leaders across industries on quantum AI. In the first installment of the survey in 2025, high cost of implementation ranked as the number one barrier to adoption, followed by lack of understanding or knowledge. That’s changed in 2026.

What are the top barriers to quantum AI adoption in 2026?

The greatest barriers to quantum AI adoption in 2026 ranked as follows among survey respondents.

1. Uncertainty around practical, real-world uses.
2. High cost of implementation. 
3. Lack of trained personnel.
4. Lack of knowledge or understanding.
5. Limited availability of quantum AI solutions.
6. Lack of clear regulatory guidelines.

What is quantum AI, and why do organizations want to use it?

SAS looks at classical and quantum computing as a spectrum: with proven classical computing on one end, and experimental and exponentially more powerful quantum computing on the other. Many industry and business problems fall somewhere in the middle, with a hybrid approach splitting workloads: quantum processing and classical processing each doing what they do best.

“Organizations of all sizes are eager to develop intellectual property – their original, patented approach to quantum AI – so they’ll be ready as the technology comes of age,” said Bill Wisotsky, Principal Quantum Architect at SAS. “Despite continued strong interest, leaders are understandably proceeding with caution, and they don’t want to go all-in on expensive quantum investments they fear may not result in worthwhile use cases and solved problems. 

“SAS is working to level the playing field, establishing real-world use cases for today, and ensuring that customers can get a piece of the quantum pie tomorrow.”

How can customers prepare for the quantum economy?

“This survey illuminates what SAS experts were already seeing in the market: that leaders are excited to use quantum, but the barriers to entry have been too high, and that requires a solution,” said Amy Stout, Head of Quantum Product Strategy at SAS. “SAS is excited to give a sneak peek of SAS Quantum Lab, a hands-on playground to learn and innovate for real-world ROI.”

What is SAS Quantum Lab?

Coming in Q4 to SAS Viya customers, SAS Quantum Lab is a launchpad for the quantum AI journey. It’s designed to be a complement to quantum experts on their existing work, and to empower users who may not be quantum physicists, but are ready to explore, test and validate their ideas. It significantly reduces the cost of quantum AI exploration and helps customers avoid false signals, all while exploring this powerful technology efficiently and credibly.

SAS Quantum Lab is currently being designed to include the following:

• The ability to compare, side-by-side, classical, quantum and hybrid results for industry use cases, letting users find the best solutions for their business problems.
• Performance-boosting capabilities, with current testing showing more than 100 times speedup and 99% cost savings.
• A virtual quantum AI tutor to accelerate learning by answering questions, offering sample code and suggesting next steps.

What could be possible with quantum AI?

At the conclusion of the survey, respondents had the option to answer a write-in question: if they were currently working on quantum, what use cases did they hope to achieve, or what business problem would they like to solve? Responses included the following.

• To enhance the accuracy of fraud detection systems in financial serves, enabling more efficient identification of complex transaction patterns.
• To optimize 5G network path traffic in real-time.
• To accelerate molecular simulation and the drug discovery process for new therapeutic candidates.
• For supply chain distribution and to optimize logistics problems.
• To improve machine learning workflows with a focus on predictive modeling for customer behavior.
• To train large language models for natural language processing tasks, reducing the time and resources for model optimization.

“If you’re ready to explore quantum AI, we’re ready to work with you,” added Wisotsky. “Bring your ideas, and our experts will help determine if and how quantum AI can be incorporated in ways that are valuable, safe and sensible.”

OpenAI allowed employees to sell up to $30 million worth of shares each in a recent financing, making them some of the earliest financial winners of the artificial-intelligence boom.

Top OpenAI executives have experienced even more of a windfall. President Greg Brockman holds equity worth about $30 billion, he said Monday during court testimony. Chief Executive Sam Altman has said he doesn’t own shares in the company, citing its nonprofit roots, though some investors expect him to receive equity if he prevails in a court battle with Elon Musk over OpenAI’s restructuring from a nonprofit into a for-profit company.

Innovations and the development of new business areas have made Bosch the technology leader it is today. To expand its innovation landscape further, the company is investing around 200 million euros in its subsidiary Bosch Business Innovations over the next five years. As a corporate venture builder, the unit develops new business ideas beyond Bosch’s current core business and builds startups from the early stages onward. The aim is to systematically bring these to market maturity and also to develop new leading business models for Bosch.

To this end, Bosch Business Innovations has defined business areas in line with the Bosch strategy in which investments are to be prioritized and in which the market dynamics are an optimal match for Bosch’s competencies and technological expertise. The first of these are software-controlled manufacturing, remote health monitoring, and the capture, use, and storage of greenhouse gases. Further business areas will be added over the next four years, with the goal of having 20 successful startups in operation by 2030.

“Innovative strength and technology leadership are an integral part of Bosch’s history,” says Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. “We have always continued to develop by identifying and investing in new technologies early and decisively – because innovation is our most important currency. We’re now significantly strengthening Bosch Business Innovations with financial resources so that new ideas have a home and the space to develop.”

Axel Deniz, CEO of Bosch Business Innovations, adds: “Our aim is to systematically develop new ideas beyond our current core business. To achieve this, we rely on Bosch’s strengths, in particular its technological expertise and patent power. We combine this structural advantage of a large company with the speed and flexibility of the startup world.”

Bosch Business Innovations accelerates market maturity with partnerships

To bring both worlds together in an optimal way, Bosch Business Innovations relies on a partnership model: it joins with experienced venture studios to build new business ideas from scratch and bring them quickly to market maturity. Bosch thus combines its own strengths – from technological expertise and patent power to industrial scaling – with the deployment speed and venture-building expertise of external partners. This creates a model in which opportunities and risks are deliberately shared and innovations are systematically put into implementation.

The focus is on the founders: Bosch Business Innovations is also open to external entrepreneurs in particular and gives them a crucial head start. They are involved in the company at an early stage, take on responsibility, and play an active role in shaping the startup from the very beginning. In addition, external investors are involved early on so as to tap into additional capital and market access. The approach is supported by specialized partners who contribute market and technology trends and facilitate access to international startup ecosystems.

Growth market for remote health monitoring

In the field of remote health monitoring, Bosch Business Innovations sees a rapidly growing market that has thus far remained fragmented. Bosch already has a strong healthcare ecosystem that includes the Robert Bosch Hospital and numerous hospital partnerships. This is complemented by Bosch’s technological expertise: among other things, the company is the global market leader for MEMS sensors, which are indispensable in remote health monitoring.

In software-controlled manufacturing, Bosch looks to its own industrial strength as well as its expertise in data, software, and AI. Targeted investments in startups are intended to create platform-based business models for software in manufacturing operations.

The third defined investment area is carbon capture, a strategic area of development. Bosch is examining ways in which industrial decarbonization and carbon capture from the ambient air can be translated into business models.

Bosch Business Innovations realigns existing portfolio

Bosch Business Innovations evolved from grow platform GmbH, a wholly owned Bosch subsidiary that developed internal startups within the company. The previous portfolio was restructured by Bosch Business Innovations. The aim is to create viable future prospects within or outside Bosch for all existing teams. For example, Bosch Advanced Ceramics achieved an important milestone at the end of 2025: the ceramic 3D printing specialist was successfully sold to Sintokogio, a leading provider of industrial equipment and manufacturing solutions.

Bosch Business Innovations is thus establishing itself as a further pillar of innovation activity at Bosch. The other pillars include, among others, the extensive research and development activities across the company and the existing venture capital unit, Bosch Ventures.

Today, we are announcing a major expansion of our partnership with OpenAI that brings frontier AI to the infrastructure millions of organizations already trust. Enterprises want to build with the most capable AI models and agents available. They also need the security posture, operational maturity, and data governance that production workloads demand. Starting today, we are bringing those together with three new offerings, all in limited preview:

• OpenAI models on Amazon Bedrock: the latest OpenAI models, available through the same Amazon Bedrock APIs and controls customers already use.
• Codex on Amazon Bedrock: OpenAI coding agent on Amazon Bedrock, for enterprise software development at scale.
• Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents, powered by OpenAI: an optimized experience for building production-ready AI agents with OpenAI frontier models on AWS.

Together, these launches give customers the choice and flexibility to use the best models for their use case, on the world’s most broadly-adopted cloud.

OpenAI Models on Amazon Bedrock

Amazon Bedrock is built on the principle that customers should choose the best model for every use case. We are excited to announce that starting today, the latest OpenAI models will be available on Amazon Bedrock. For the first time, AWS customers will be able to access OpenAI frontier models through the services they already use for model access, fine-tuning, and orchestration. This means customers can evaluate and deploy OpenAI models alongside models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, Amazon, and other leading providers, all through a single, consistent service with unified security, governance, and cost controls.

OpenAI models on Bedrock inherit the full set of enterprise controls customers already depend on: IAM-based access management, AWS PrivateLink connectivity, guardrails, encryption at rest and in transit, comprehensive logging through AWS CloudTrail, and integration with existing compliance frameworks. There is no additional infrastructure to configure and no new security model to learn. Customers can apply OpenAI model usage toward their existing AWS cloud commitments and consolidate AI spend alongside their broader AWS workloads. For organizations already managing significant cloud investments on AWS, this simplifies procurement and financial governance.

Codex on Amazon Bedrock

Codex is quickly becoming one of the best examples of how AI agents can do work inside the enterprise. More than 4 million people use Codex every week to automate coding work, write and refactor code, explain complex systems, generate tests, and accelerate software delivery. With Codex on Amazon Bedrock, enterprise teams can access the OpenAI coding agent within the AWS environments where they already operate at scale. Customers can authenticate using their AWS credentials, process inference through Amazon Bedrock infrastructure, and apply Codex usage toward their AWS cloud commitments. Codex on Bedrock is available through the Bedrock API, starting with the Codex CLI, the Codex desktop app, and Visual Studio Code extension.

Today’s most capable AI agents have shown what frontier reasoning models can do: perform complex, multi-step work with minimal human intervention. OpenAI frontier models and agentic capabilities represent the leading edge of what’s possible. However, production AI applications require more than intelligence, they also require the enterprise infrastructure, security, and operational foundation to run them reliably at scale. Additionally, they require memory that persists across sessions, skills that encode procedures, identity that enforces the right permissions, and compute options that are appropriate for the task. Today, teams build and assemble these components, which can be complex. To address these needs, we’re excited to introduce Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents, powered by OpenAI. Bedrock Managed Agents combines OpenAI frontier models and agentic capabilities with AWS’s global infrastructure, security, and the breadth of services that millions of organizations already depend on. With Bedrock Managed Agents, deploying production-ready OpenAI-powered agents on AWS is fast and straightforward, so you can focus on what your agents should do, not the infrastructure behind them.

Bedrock Managed Agents is optimized for OpenAI models on AWS. It is built with the OpenAI agent harness, which is engineered to unlock the full potential of OpenAI frontier models, delivering faster execution, sharper reasoning, and reliable steering of long-running tasks. Security and governance are built in from the moment you deploy: every agent operates with its own identity, logs every action for auditability, and runs inside your environment with all model inference on Amazon Bedrock. As customers scale to hundreds of thousands of agents across the enterprise, they benefit from the globally scalable AWS infrastructure, and proximity to the data, applications, and services they already rely on.

Box is the leading Intelligent Content Management platform, helping over 115,000 organizations fuel collaboration, manage their entire content lifecycle, secure critical content, and transform business workflows with enterprise AI. “Enterprises are currently looking to deploy agents to deliver solutions that take their organization into the next phase of AI,” said Ben Kus, CTO at Box. “With Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents, powered by OpenAI, developers can build optimized, production-scale AI applications that bring together the strengths and capabilities of OpenAI’s latest models with the scale, security, and infrastructure of AWS. That combination will result in agents that continuously learn what works over time, tailor responses to each user’s specific environment, and operate with the governance and auditability enterprises require, all running on the cloud we already trust.”

Bedrock Managed Agents and Bedrock Agent Core

Bedrock AgentCore is the open platform to build, connect, and optimize agents at scale using any model and framework. Bedrock Managed Agents is optimized for building agentic solutions with OpenAI frontier models and agentic capabilities. If you’re building on Bedrock Managed Agents, AgentCore is a natural complement. AgentCore provides the default compute environment for Bedrock Managed Agents, and as your agent footprint expands across your enterprise, AgentCore and Bedrock Managed Agents will provide additional capabilities such as authorization policy enforcement, agent and agent tool discovery, and observability and evaluation capabilities.

What comes next

This is the beginning of a deeper collaboration between AWS and OpenAI. As OpenAI pushes the frontier of reasoning and agentic capabilities, AWS and OpenAI will continue to bring the latest advances to Amazon Bedrock—so the models and agents you build with today continue to benefit from new breakthroughs as they arrive.

For years, companies have been looking to replicate the smooth conversational experience of ChatGPT with artificial-intelligence agents and chatbots on their websites. Now some are finding there might be value in cozying up to ChatGPT itself.

Anthropic is creating a joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs GS -2.21%decrease; red down pointing triangle and a handful of other Wall Street firms that aims to sell artificial-intelligence tools to companies, including those backed by private-equity firms.

Red Sea Global (RSG) is expanding access to The Red Sea destination for Eid Al-Adha by adding 32 extra flights between May 21–31 to meet rising holiday demand.

The enhanced schedule improves connectivity for both domestic and international travellers, with 46 flights from Riyadh, 18 from Jeddah, and eight each from Dubai and Doha, offering greater flexibility for holidaymakers and last-minute travel plans.

The increased capacity reflects growing interest in experience-led tourism within Saudi Arabia, as visitors seek premium short-haul escapes.

Consumer spending in Saudi Arabia recorded one percent increase, reaching SR150.1 billion during March 2026 compared to SR148 billion in the same month of 2025, an increase of SR2.1 billion.

According to the data released by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), sales through points of sale in Saudi Arabia increased by one percent in March 2026, reaching approximately SR66.1 billion compared to the same period in 2025. The data also showed that sales during March were conducted through 997.2 million transactions via 2.4 million devices.

Cash withdrawals from ATMs during March dropped by 11 percent, reaching SR48.6 billion, compared to withdrawals in March 2025. These cash withdrawals were made through 14,500 ATMs belonging to operating banks and the Saudi network, across 125.1 million transactions. The number of issued bank cards reached 66.9 million.

According to the data, e-commerce sales via Mada cards rose to SR35.4 billion during March 2026, a 28 percent increase compared to the same period in 2025. These sales were made through 200.3 million transactions. E-commerce sales include Mada card transactions used for payments and purchases through shopping websites and mobile applications.

Consumer spending in Saudi Arabia encompasses cash withdrawals, point-of-sale (POS) sales, and e-commerce sales via Mada. POS transactions represent consumer spending using debit and credit cards at major shopping centers, retail stores, pharmacies, and other outlets.

The rush to implement AI leaves organizations struggling to track its use, with the promise of increased productivity leading to overreliance on unproven AI without sufficient trustworthy AI safeguards. To bring order to the chaos, SAS® AI Navigator  will soon be available to help AI, data, compliance and risk leaders compile a complete AI inventory and align AI use cases with government regulations and internal policies. 

“AI governance is too often thought of as a compliance measure,” said Reggie Townsend, Vice President, SAS AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact. “It’s a growth driver. Instead of fears of shadow AI putting the organization at risk, AI governance empowers people to push the limits of AI within a structured, transparent and secure environment.”

An AI governance breakthrough solution comes at a critical moment

The use of AI agents and LLMs is outpacing trustworthy AI investments, per a study of trust in AI by SAS and IDC.  At the same time, Gartner predicts that by 2030 more than 40% of enterprises will experience security or compliance incidents linked to unauthorized shadow AI. 

Into this tumultuous environment comes SAS AI Navigator. Available in Q3 2026 on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, SAS AI Navigator is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that enables organizations to inventory and govern AI use cases, which are at the point of business impact. The governance extends to models and agents that power use cases, as well as the policies applied to them. For instance, companies using chatbots to interact with customers would not only be able to govern the underlying agent or model, such as Claude or Microsoft Copilot, but also apply policies to ensure it’s adhering to regulatory expectations.

Organizations don’t need to change how they build AI; SAS AI Navigator offers a unified view of whatever models and tools they already use, including LLMs, AI agents and open source or SAS models. It supports the full journey from experimentation to deployment through retirement, providing a unified view of all governed assets whether built in-house or purchased from third parties. SAS AI Navigator also makes it easy for users to apply internal policies and external regulations and frameworks to AI use cases.

Building on a five-decade legacy of responsible innovation

SAS AI Navigator expands an already well-regarded AI governance portfolio. SAS has 50 years of experience helping customers deploy transformational technologies in a responsible manner – expertise recognized by industry analysts. Chartis Research recently named SAS a category leader in the Chartis RiskTech Quadrant® for AI Governance Solutions, citing the SAS® Viya® platform’s “leading governance capabilities that extend classic machine learning, model risk management, explainability, bias detection, privacy protection and end-to-end monitoring to the broader enterprise AI environment.”

“By combining these capabilities with its deep expertise in regulated industries, SAS is in a position to demonstrate AI as a growth strategy for clients and prospects,” said Michael Versace, Research Director for Governance, Resilience and Compliance at Chartis.

What is AI governance?

AI governance is what organizations do to accelerate innovation, manage risk and ensure AI is trustworthy. It is an all-encompassing strategy that establishes AI oversight, ensures compliance and develops consistent operations and infrastructure within an organization. It begins with an organizational culture centered on human needs, then scales through robust operational tools for transparency, proactive regulatory compliance and consistent, systemic oversight.

Strong AI governance builds trust with customers, regulators and internal stakeholders such as boards of directors and employees. Organizations with robust AI governance frameworks are better positioned to strengthen trust in AI-driven decisions and confidently manage AI risks. Without AI governance, organizations face an increased risk of legal penalties, reputational damage from biased or opaque AI decisions, operational inefficiencies, and lack of stakeholder trust in their brand.

“The biggest risk to any AI governance program isn’t regulation; it’s a tool so complex that no one uses it,” said Townsend. “SAS AI Navigator was designed to make the path to responsible AI irresistible.”

How SAS supports AI governance

With decades of governance experience, SAS supports AI governance with capabilities embedded throughout SAS software and in a comprehensive product portfolio for all areas of governance, risk and compliance. Users can perform model risk management, model interpretability, bias detection and mitigation, data masking and more.

SAS AI Navigator is a standalone SaaS solution that works for SAS’ new or existing customers. It is the latest addition to a growing portfolio of SAS AI governance offerings designed to meet organizations where they are in their AI maturity. 

Global online marketplace eBay posted better-than-expected profit, sales, and gross merchandise volume for its first quarter.

For its first quarter ended March 31, eBay reported adjusted earnings of $1.66 a share, up 21%, on revenue of $3.1 billion, up 19%. That revenue figure includes $2.29 billion in gross profit.

Wall Street was expecting adjusted earnings of $1.25 a share on sales of $3.04 billion, according to FactSet. The gross merchandise volume for the first quarter beat the $21.7 billion expected.

The e-commerce giant reported 136 million active buyers, defined as those who paid for a transaction within the previous 12 months, above the 135.2 million analysts expected.

CEO Jamie Iannone called first-quarter results “a strong start to the year,” noting accelerated gross merchandise volume growth and better-than-expected performance. eBay’s Focus Categories, consumer-to-consumer business, and secondhand and refurbished “recommerce strategic priorities are driving broad-based momentum, and strengthening our position as the marketplace of choice for enthusiasts.”

Iannone said during Wednesday’s conference call that while consumers remain resilient in the U.S., “it’s a different story in Europe,” where consumers are more economically pressured. He said that more eBay customers are embracing pre-owned and refurbished offerings.

First-quarter highlights included eBay Live’s “The 30/30 Collection,” a Pokémon Day auction that showcased 30 years of iconic cards and memorabilia from top sellers; more than 30 million scans of an AI-powered card-scanning pricing feature; and a partnership with Meta Platforms that let users highlight eBay inventory directly on Facebook.

eBay’s Goldin set an all-time first-quarter gross merchandise value record, including a record $16.5 million sale of a PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card.

In the first quarter of 2025, eBay reported adjusted earnings of $1.38 a share on sales of $2.59 billion, including $1.89 billion in gross profit.

On Feb. 19, eBay announced it was buying Depop, a secondhand clothing site popular with Gen Z for its “pre-loved fashion,” from online marketplace Etsy for $1.2 billion in cash. Depop has 7 million active buyers and 3 million active sellers, the majority of whom are under 34. Depop acquisition is expected to close by the end of the third quarter, subject to certain closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

A week after that announcement, eBay said it was cutting about 6.5% of its global workforce, or roughly 800 employees, as part of a strategic restructuring.

“We remain committed to disciplined execution of our strategic priorities while continuing to allocate capital thoughtfully to drive long-term value and significant returns for our shareholders,” Chief Financial Officer Peggy Alford said.

eBay expects second-quarter revenue of $2.97 billion to $3.03 billion, which would be up 8% to 10% from the same time last year. It projects adjusted earnings of $1.46 to $1.51 a share.

The company said it returned $639 million to stockholders in the first quarter: $500 million through share buybacks of about 6 million shares and $139 million in cash dividends.

The company’s audit committee declared a second-quarter cash dividend of 31 cents a share, payable on June 12 to shareholders of record as of May 29.

eBay’s stock is up 19.2% this year through Wednesday’s close, and up 52% over the past 12 months.

Yaqoot, the digital platform from Zain KSA, a leading digital services provider, has formed a strategic partnership with Huawei, a global technology leader. The collaboration aims to upgrade Yaqoot’s Business Support Systems (BSS), enhancing operational efficiency and enabling a more advanced, integrated digital experience.

This partnership aligns with Yaqoot’s approach to redefine its digital infrastructure on more robust foundations by adopting next-generation BSS solutions. It will support a more agile operating model enabling faster response to evolving market demands. 

The collaboration will accelerate the development of digital products and services and reduce time-to-market, introducing greater flexibility and personalized offerings. It will also improve operational efficiency through enhanced automation and streamlined technical frameworks, while supporting advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making and sustained growth.

On the customer experience level, the upgrade will deliver deeper insights into user behavior, unlocking hyper-personalized offerings and enhancing the customer journey across all touchpoints. In parallel, users will gain greater control over their digital services through a seamless, fully integrated experience that supports satisfaction and trust.

Executive Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Zain KSA, Njoud bint Mohammed AlShehri, said: “This partnership is part of our ongoing commitment to developing an integrated, customer-centric digital experience that is more flexible and easier-to-use. Yaqoot is focused on building a modern digital model that keeps pace with our customers’ evolving expectations through strengthening our innovation capabilities and responsiveness and leveraging the latest technologies. We believe this collaboration will transform how we roll out digital services, accelerating digital transformation in the Kingdom, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.”

Huawei Software Vice President John Zhuang, said: “Huawei boasts profound expertise in the BSS domain, particularly in telecom rating and billing. With services covering over 2.5 billion subscribers worldwide and successful deployment of more than 200 OCS and Billing projects globally. Now, as AI reshapes the industry, intelligent charging and billing positioned as the core pillar for operators’ digital and intelligent transformation. Together with Yaqoot and Zain KSA, we’re pioneering next-gen monetization, jointly create new digital and intelligent industry value.”

Huawei Saudi Zain Account General Manager Marwan Aldaamseh, said: “Our nearly 20-year partnership with Zain KSA reflects a consistent track record of delivering impactful communications technology projects at scale. As we expand into the IT domain, we are focused on execution excellence and measurable outcomes that support Zain and Yaqoot’s digital and intelligent transformation. We are confident that this next phase will further strengthen our strategic partnership and unlock new avenues for growth and innovation.”