Security fences have been a crucial part of human civilization for centuries. From wooden palisades protecting early settlements to today’s advanced, technology-enhanced barriers, their development reflects the changing needs of societies. This article explores the history of security fences, their evolution, and the modern solutions used by companies to secure their properties.

The origins of security fences

Wooden palisades and medieval walls

The earliest security fences appeared in prehistoric times, when wooden palisades were used to protect villages from wild animals and hostile groups. Over time, these basic structures evolved into the stone walls and fortifications of the Middle Ages, safeguarding cities and castles from invasions.

Iron fences and the industrial revolution

During the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, iron fences gained popularity. Stronger and more durable than wood, they also offered an aesthetic appeal. These fences were commonly used to secure factories, railways, and other industrial sites.

Modern security fences: innovations and technology

Electronic security systems

Technological advancements in the 20th and 21st centuries have transformed security fencing. Many modern fences now feature sensors, cameras, and alarms that provide instant alerts during break-in attempts. These electronic systems add a level of protection beyond traditional fences.

Sustainable materials

The use of sustainable materials in fence construction is a growing trend. Recycled steel, bamboo, and composite materials are increasingly used to create environmentally friendly options that remain strong and durable.

The psychology of safety: why fences create a sense of security

Physical barriers and peace of mind

Fences provide both physical and psychological benefits. Acting as visible and tangible barriers, they deter intruders and offer a sense of safety to residents or employees. This psychological effect is rooted in human behavior and contributes to a secure environment.

The importance of aesthetics

While protection is the primary purpose of a security fence, its appearance is also important. A well-designed fence enhances the overall look of a property and creates a positive impression. For businesses, this can reinforce their brand and professional image.

Innovations in security fences: what does the future hold?

Smart fences and automated access systems

Smart technologies and automated access systems represent the future of security fencing. These solutions integrate physical barriers with digital technologies, such as facial recognition or mobile apps, to enhance efficiency and user convenience.

Integration with other security systems

Another emerging trend is the integration of fences with other security measures, including drones and AI-driven surveillance cameras. This comprehensive approach provides both proactive and reactive security solutions.

Case study: how a security fence prevented a major break-in

The situation

A logistics company facing repeated break-ins decided to protect its warehouse with an advanced fence system from Fenceweb. The losses caused by these incidents had become significant.

The solution

The company installed a security fence equipped with sensors and cameras. The system detected break-in attempts and sent real-time alerts to the security team, enabling swift responses and preventing further incidents.

Impact

By implementing this advanced security fence, the company not only safeguarded its property but also reduced insurance costs and restored customer confidence.

While a convenient way to send payments from one bank account to another, Zelle scams have been on the rise. In fact, according to the bank, “nearly 50% of scams reported to Chase originate on social media,” with many of these being Zelle scams.

As a result, Chase says it is taking action to crack down on those scams:

Alert, coming soon: For your protection, Chase will not allow you to send Zelle® payments identified as originating from contact through social media

The company explains further in its Zelle Service Agreement and Privacy Notice:

As a recipient or sender of any transfer using the Service, you acknowledge and agree that we may, in our discretion, (A) delay, block or cancel a payment, (B) put a hold on the amount of such payment to or from the Pay From Account or other account (as permitted by applicable law), or (C), charge back and/or claim a refund from you for the amount of such payment, for various reasons including, but not limited to, fraud, scams, suspicious or illegal activity, ineligible or improper payment, payment does not comply with our policies, network rules or terms of service, duplicate payment, incorrect payment (amount or recipient), or otherwise to meet our regulatory, network or other legal obligations. This may include, but is not limited to, payments identified as originating from contact made through social media, social media marketplaces, and/or social media messaging apps. For example, we may delay or hold your payment if we need additional time to verify your identity, the identity of the person sending or receiving the money, or details about the payment, or the payment may be delayed or held due to technical difficulties or circumstances beyond our control. If we delay or block a payment that you have initiated, we will notify you in your account online and/or through email or text message.

Chase’s measures illustrate the growing challenges involved in keeping consumers safe when non-traditional financial apps are in play.

DOGE has been targeting several government agencies, gutting them in an effort to rein in spending. The Internal Revenue Service appears to be its latest target, with The Washington Post reporting that DOGE is asking for broad access to IRS data, including highly sensitive taxpayer data and tax returns.

The data in question includes the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), which provides a mechanism for IRS employees to access the agency’s most sensitive and private taxpayer data. Access to IDRS is carefully regulated, with federal law only allowing access under very specific circumstances.

• Law enforcement can only access the data with a court order.
• IRS and Treasury Department employees can only access the data for purposes related to audits, collections, tax enforcement, revenue collection, and some administration functions.
• Even lawmakers cannot access the data.

According to The Guardian, the White House defended its efforts to give DOGE access under the guise of rooting out fraud.

“Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields. “It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.”

What the White House did not explain is how looking at taxpayers’ private data will reveal “waste, fraud and abuse,” as opposed to the agency’s policies, procedures, safeguards, and internal operations.

Despite the lack of a good reason for DOGE to be accessing IDRS, the Post reports that the agency “is considering a memorandum of understanding” that would give DOGE broad access.

The Legal Questions

One of the biggest questions many have is whether it is even legal for DOGE to access taxpayer data. Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren have written to Acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell demanding information regarding giving DOGE access.

As you are aware, tax returns and return information are subject to strong legal privacy protections under Sections 6103 and 7213A of the tax code.2 These laws were strengthened nearly 50 years ago with strong bipartisan majorities of Congress in response to President Nixon’s abuse of the IRS to target his political enemies. These reforms also included prohibitions on executive branch influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations. 3 These prohibitions have long prevented political appointees in previous administrations from accessing the private tax records of hundreds of millions of Americans, and allowing DOGE officials sweeping access these systems may be in violation of these statutes. Violations of these taxpayer privacy laws, including unauthorized access to or disclosure of tax returns and return information, can result in criminal penalties, including incarceration. In one recent example, a contractor working for the IRS who leaked taxpayer information was sentenced in 2024 to five years in federal prison.

While Section 6103 of the tax code prohibits any unauthorized disclosure of tax returns or information contained in tax returns, Section 7213A also makes it unlawful for any federal officer, employee, or authorized viewer to willfully inspect a return or return information for a purpose other than one specifically authorized by law, with inspection defined expansively, to include “any examination of a return or return information.”5 Therefore, improper inspection of tax return information is illegal, even if it has not been made public or disclosed to any unauthorized recipients.

Even if individuals affiliated with DOGE are employed by Treasury, their access to tax information may not be legal. For inspection of taxpayer information to be lawful, it must be made to or by an authorized person for an authorized purpose. While Treasury employees, such as IRS personnel, can access tax return information for their official duties involving tax administration, such as conducting audits or processing tax returns, they generally may not access them for reasons unrelated to those purposes. In addition, there are significant restrictions on access to tax return information for others in the employ of the federal government. There are serious statutory and regulatory restrictions on when employees outside the Treasury Department may gain access to tax return information. To date, no information on DOGE employees or any others executing orders on Musk’s behalf have revealed any clear, stated purpose as to why they need access to return information, whether they have followed all required laws to gain access to IRS systems, and what steps the IRS has taken to ensure that inspection of tax return is contained to authorized personnel and not disclosed to any unauthorized parties.

The two senators also directly address the legality of whether an executive order is enough to grant DOGE access.

No executive order requiring agency heads to provide DOGE personnel access to IRS records or information technology systems supersedes the federal tax code. Software engineers working for Musk seeking to gain access to tax return information have no right to hoover up taxpayer data and send that data back to any other part of the federal government and may be breaking the law if they are doing so. DOGE engineers also have no legal right to snoop around and inspect the tax returns of millions of American citizens unless expressly permitted under Section 6103.

The senators’ full letter can be read here and delves into greater detail regarding the legal implications.

Ethical Concerns

In addition to the strictly legal issues are the ethical questions raised by giving DOGE access. For example, the IRS’ own Taxpayer Bill of Rights assures taxpayers that this kind of scenario will not happen.

The Right to Privacy

Taxpayers have the right to expect that any IRS inquiry, examination, or enforcement action will comply with the law and be no more intrusive than necessary, and will respect all due process rights, including search and seizure protections and will provide, where applicable, a collection due process hearing.

Learn more about your right to privacy.

The Right to Confidentiality

Taxpayers have the right to expect that any information they provide to the IRS will not be disclosed unless authorized by the taxpayer or by law. Taxpayers have the right to expect appropriate action will be taken against employees, return preparers, and others who wrongfully use or disclose taxpayer return information.

Learn more about your right to confidentiality.

Given the number of government websites that have had information purged, below is a screenshot of the sections in question.

Conclusion

DOGE’s request to access Americans’ most private and sensitive data is a disturbing turn of events, one that has not been clearly explained and is likely in violation of the law. The revelation is even more concerning when considering previous reports that indicate DOGE is guilty of embarrassing lapses in cybersecurity, meaning its access to IRS data could open the door to an unprecedented avalanche of cybersecurity breaches.

Observers are also questioning why an administration that promised to reign in Big Tech has seemingly handed the keys of the kingdom to one of Big Tech’s most controversial executives and is now on the verge of handing over Americans’ most sensitive and private data to that same tech mogul.

Gnome Software is the software center for the Gnome desktop environment (DE), and is a popular option for other DEs that don’t have their own software center, such as Xfce. Gnome Software is especially front-and-center on Fedora Workstation, given the amount of overlap between Fedora and Gnome developers.

In a mailing list post, user tqcharm recently recommended that Gnome Software completely remove support for RPMs, the native format for apps in the Red Hat/Fedora world.

Since the consensus seems to be that RPMs should be at the end of the priority list, what about decoupling (removing) RPMs from GNOME Software completely?

This might seem to be a step back, but it would make GNOME Software more consistent between Workstation and Silverblue, and support Fedora in its goal to make Flatpaks the primary packaging option.

That would leave RPMs to be a choice of the more advanced users, who seem to prefer the powerful dnf over GNOME Software anyway.

With RPMs missing from GNOME Software, prioritizing package sources becomes easier too: be it Fedora Core > Flathub Verified (or Probably Safe) -> Fedora Extended -> Flathub Extended or similar.

Michael Catanzaro, a Red Hat engineer, as well as a prominent Fedora and Gnome developer, replied with the following:

Removing RPM applications is my long term goal, but I’m not sure how quickly we’ll be able to get there.

Flatpaks, as well as Snaps, are a containerized app format that bundles all the necessary dependencies within the app, rather than relying on the underlying system. This is similar to how applications work on macOS, and solve many of the dependency issues that can arise when trying to have the latest software on older, point release distros.

Despite the advantages they offer, Flatpaks still have some disadvantages. For example, Flatpaks are designed primarily with desktop apps in mind, and are not suited for command-line apps. Flatpaks can also take up more space than traditional apps, although this becomes less of a factor as more Flatpaks are installed, since Flatpaks can share dependencies among themselves.

In addition, many Linux users still prefer traditional app package formats, such as RPMs in the Red Hat/Fedora/openSUSE world and DEBs in the Debian/Ubuntu world. There is also the question of how Gnome Software would handle native packages on other Linux distros, such as Debian and Ubuntu-based distros.

Ultimately, Gnome developers have a longstanding reputation for removing functionality the vast majority of users consider important, such as maximize/minimize window buttons, desktop icons, and more. The philosophy has contributed to many users transitioning to KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, or Xfce, all of which maintain the traditional desktop paradigm.

If Gnome developers move forward with this plan, it’s a move that will likely alienate even more users.

A ban on TikTok went into effect on January 19—the day before President Trump’s inauguration—after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the company’s appeal. Despite initially pushing for a ban during his first administration, Trump vowed to try to save the company from the ban imposed by the Biden administration.

As part of his effort, Trump issued an executive order providing TikTok a 75-day reprieve and ordering the Attorney General to send letters to companies indemnifying them from any liability for continuing to provide access to TikTok.

I further order the Attorney General to issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during the above-specified period, as well as for any conduct from the effective date of the Act until the issuance of this Executive Order.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has received such a letter and reinstated TikTok in response.

The app can already be found on the App Store.

Arm designs the world’s leading mobile chips, serving as the basis for chips used by Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, MediaTek, Ampere, and more. Until now, Arm simply designed chips and then licensed those designs to customers. Depending on their license, companies could make various modifications to the designs to customize them for their specific needs. Apple, for example, has one of the most permissive licenses, allowing the company to heavily modify Arm’s designs to serve as the basis for its M-series chips.

According to Financial Times, via TechCrunch, Arm is implementing a major shift in strategy, with plans to make its own chip. Like other Arm-based chip companies, Arm plans to outsource chip manufacturing. The chip is expected to target the server and data center market, with Meta reportedly an early adopter.

Potential Fallout

The shift in strategy is a potentially dangerous one for Arm, and could ultimately backfire. Arm has a long and established reputation as the Switzerland of the semiconductor industry, selling its designs to any and all companies, while competing with none of them and showing favoritism to none.

With this new direction, however, Arm will likely find itself directly competing with companies it currently licenses designs to. What’s more, the company may face growing concerns among partners regarding whether it is holding back its best, most performant designs for itself.

Alternate Options

Should Arm alienate some of its partners, it could server to spur RISC-V adoption. RISC-V is an open semiconductor platform that was created to offer an alternative to ARM. Unlike Arm, however, no one company controls the semiconductor designs.

In fact, RISC-V International—the global non-profit that stewards the project—makes clear just how open the platform is on its website.

More than 4,500 RISC-V members across 70 countries contribute and collaborate to define RISC-V open specifications as well as convene and govern related technical, industry, domain, and special interest groups. RISC-V combines a modular technical approach with an open, royalty-free ISA — meaning that anyone, anywhere can benefit from the IP contributed and produced by RISC-V. As a non-profit, RISC-V does not maintain any commercial interest in products or services. As an open standard, anyone may leverage RISC-V as a building block in their open or proprietary solutions and services.

RISC-V does not take a political position on behalf of any geography. We are proud to see organizations from around the world working together in this new era of processor innovation. RISC-V was founded in 2015 as the RISC-V Foundation and is incorporated today as RISC-V International Association in Switzerland.

While RISC-V adoption has yet to pose a serious challenge to Arm, a few major players moving to it in response to Arm’s latest development could go a long way toward helping the open semiconductor platform go mainstream.

SELinux and AppArmor are the two most popular mandatory access control (MAC) systems for Linux, limiting what actions installed applications can take. MAC serves as an important security layer, limiting the damage a rogue or malicious application can do.

Tumbleweed has traditionally relied on AppArmor for its MAC implementation, but the distro is now moving to SELinux, as is the downstream SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) and openSUSE Leap 16.

“Users installing openSUSE Tumbleweed via the ISO image will see SELinux in enforcing mode as default option in the installer,” wrote SELinux Security Engineer Cathy Hu in an email announcement. “If the user prefers to use AppArmor instead of SELinux, they are able to change the selection to AppArmor manually in the installer.”

The project’s blog said existing users will be able to continue using AppArmor, and new users can still select it during the installation process, but SELinux is expected to bring a greater level of security.

Tumbleweed has used AppArmor as its default LSM. This marks a shift in the default Mandatory Access Control (MAC) system for new installations as SELinux replaces AppArmor as the default choice. SELinux will be enabled in enforcing mode by default only for new installations. Existing installations will not be affected by the change and will retain the option to select AppArmor during installation if they prefer.

The switch to install SELinux by default is going through implementation and aligns with a decision to grow adoption of SELinux for both SUSE and openSUSE. It’s expected to increase security by confining more services by default. SELinux is known for its rich security features and widespread use in enterprise environments.

The move is expected to bring tighter access controls to Tumbleweed. Users may encounter bugs or issues, but openQA tests for Tumbleweed have played a key role in identifying and resolving potential problems in the early adoption phase.

SELinux is traditionally used by Red Hat and derivative distros, while AppArmor is used by Debian, Ubuntu, and their derivatives. AppArmor is generally seen as easier to use, but SELinux has more configuration options, greater flexibility, and a higher degree of security.

openSUSE distros already have an outstanding reputation for security, with the the developers implementing several hardening options few other distros use. The change to SELinux will only improve that security even more.

NordVPN is one of the most popular and widely respected VPN companies. Like many top-tier providers, NordVPN has a no-logs policy, meaning the service maintains no logs of its users’ activity. This ensures that NordVPN cannot turn over any user browsing data to authorities, since such data should not exist. Of course, a no-logs policy only provides protection if users have assurance the company honors, which is where third-party audits come in.

According to the company, for its fifth audit, NordVPN tapped Deloitte Audit Lithuania to perform the audit. Deloitte had access to NordVPN’s servers for over a month, from November 18 to December 20, 2024. During that time, the researchers conducted an exhaustive analysis of NordVPN’s operations.

• A detailed analysis. The researchers interviewed our employees and inspected our server infrastructure and technical logs to complete the assessment procedure. The evaluation covered the configuration and deployment processes of standard VPN, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, obfuscated servers, and P2P servers.
• Current state assessment. Deloitte had access to our services from November 18 to December 20, 2024. During this period, it evaluated the systems and then provided insights. Deloitte conducted the assessment in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised) (ISAE 3000), established by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) with the aim of examining NordVPN’s IT system configuration and management.

“The trust we earn from our customers underscores everything we do in the cybersecurity industry. It’s a currency that’s hard to acquire and one we never take for granted. To maintain that trust, we not only strive each year to innovate and develop world-leading cybersecurity products, but we also fully commit to our promise not to monitor or record our users’ online traffic. Having this assurance reaffirmed by independent, globally respected researchers for the fifth time demonstrates that privacy isn’t just a buzzword at NordVPN — it’s in our DNA,” says Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN.

This latest audit builds on NordVPN’s previous audits in 2018, 2022, 2022, and 2023.

1. Not having a clear marketing strategy or plan

Moving forward with marketing tasks without having a clear strategy or plan is a recipe for failure. A plan is the compass that guides you toward your goal, while a strategy helps you get optimal results along the way. Without both of these essential components, your marketing dollars are not being optimally spent.

Start by creating SMART goals. These goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of aiming to “generate more website traffic” a better goal would be to “increase website conversions by 20% in the next quarter.” Traffic is easy to get, but it doesn’t guarantee sales. When your goal is to generate conversions, you’ll take a different set of actions that align with conversions, like running paid ads.

If creating a marketing strategy feels overwhelming, hiring a digital marketing agency will help. An agency will know how to reach your market and get them to buy from you. If you don’t have time to be your own full-time marketer, hiring it out is a good move.

2. Not understanding your target market

Not understanding your market will produce poor results. It’s crucial to understand your target market because your messages need to resonate to get engagement.

To be successful, create a detailed buyer persona, or avatar, of your typical customers. Once you do this, you can tailor your messages to address their specific needs and desires. To create your buyer personal, conduct thorough marketing research to identify the demographics, behaviors, and preferences of your potential customers.

3. Inconsistent branding

Where visual branding is concerned, it’s easy to create chaos by using inconsistent images, logos, and colors. You want people to quickly recognize your branding without having to think. Part of developing brand recognition involves repetition, and each time someone is exposed to your brand, you want them to see the same visuals.

To create consistency within your marketing materials, create brand guidelines that outline the proper use of visual elements on all platforms and in print. Your brand guidelines should include parameters for the tone and voice of your messages so they stay consistent and reflect your brand’s values.

4. Overlooking data analytics

Effective marketing relies on data-driven decisions, and ignoring analytics can be your downfall. Setting relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) makes it possible to assess the effectiveness of your efforts. Some fundamental marketing KPIs include:

·  Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): The total amount of revenue a customer brings your business over their lifetime.

·  Conversion Rate (CR): The percentage of people who perform a specific action, like watching a video, signing up for your email list, or making a purchase.

·  Click-through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your ad or links.

·  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): What it costs to acquire a new customer. For example, if you use PPC ads to generate leads, the cost per click would factor into your customer acquisition cost, along with your marketing expenses.

·  Return on Investment (ROI): The revenue generated by a particular marketing campaign compared to the cost of running the campaign.

You can use Google Analytics for tracking website data, and you should have access to analytics inside of the software you use for things like email marketing and customer relationship management. If you’re running PPC ads, each platform will have its own back-end analytics system.

5. Failing to adjust strategies based on data

Sticking with failing or low-performing strategies is a waste of resources. Reviewing analytics will enable you to make informed decisions regarding which strategies are working and which ones you need to improve or drop.

6. Neglecting customer feedback

Responding to customers online is an important part of maintaining good customer relationships. If you ignore engagement, it can lead to a decrease in loyalty and lost sales. Pay attention to what your customers are saying and take the opportunity to respond to feedback and reviews, whether negative or positive. You don’t need to respond to everyone if there are hundreds of comments, but don’t ignore everyone, especially when they have an issue.

Turn mistakes into opportunities

Marketing mistakes are inevitable, but they’re also an opportunity for growth. Nobody starts out with a perfect marketing strategy – it’s something you create and refine over time based on results. 

With consistency, the right KPIs, and data, you can increase the impact of your marketing campaigns to make them resonate with your audience and deliver measurable results.

Why is changing your mindset and becoming a customer-centric custom software company crucial? According to Deloitte, businesses that prioritize their customers make 60% more profit than their peers. The Economist Intelligence Unit states that 64% of C-levels who name customer centricity among their chief areas for investment are confident that they surpass their peers in profit. Other benefits of ensuring superb user experiences include improved retention, loyalty, and lifetime value of customers.

International IT company Andersen conducted an interview with Valentin Kuzmenko, Chief Commercial Officer and Vice President of Sales. In this article, he’s sharing practical advice on how to effectively harmonize a company’s vision with its customers’ aspirations, as well as explaining some common mistakes.

3 best practices for improved customer centricity

Interviewer: Valentin, directing every effort to deliver exceptional value to customers is a must for business growth. How do you achieve this?

Valentin: This can be done in three simple steps.

Firstly, the establishment of a customer-centric culture should start with top executives. Every specialist, from a helpdesk agent to a senior manager, should clearly understand what impact their activities have on customer success. 

How can this be implemented practically? The company’s budget should include acquiring software programs, holding events, and taking other measures that help improve customer experience. On the top level, decisions should be made to allocate funds to enhancing customer experience. 

Even though these investments don’t seem to have an immediate positive effect, they will pay off in the long run. Among their key benefits are increase in sales and customer loyalty rates along with higher employee engagement rates as your teams see their efforts being rewarded.

Your genuine interest in meeting customer needs on the management level can be expressed not only by financing customer-centric activities but also by taking customer opinions into account. Jeff Bezos, for example, symbolically left an empty chair in every meeting, which stood for his care for the users of Amazon’s products and the need to consider them when making decisions.

On other levels, we recommend democratizing company data as much as possible so that everyone is on the same page regarding your company’s projects and customer outcomes. It’s also a good practice to reward specialists who receive positive reviews and significantly contribute to customer success.

Secondly, every solution should be tailored to your customer’s unique business challenges. From receiving the customer’s initial contact form request to analyzing project requirements and actually building custom software or rendering services, every step of collaboration should be tailored to meet your customer’s unique business needs. To achieve this, we at Andersen frequently travel on business to visit our customers’ facilities in person, observe the production process, and better understand their pressing challenges.

Moreover, we make sure that our processes are of ultimate convenience for our prospects and customers. Signing the contract occurs in several clearly defined, transparent steps, and it takes about 10 business days from delivering the first CVs to assigning the chosen specialists to projects. Our enterprise-scale website, though complex, is clearly structured and boasts well-defined user journeys, impeccable performance, and visually appealing designs. Last but not least, we practice iterative Agile development, rapidly reacting to changing project requirements.

Thirdly, you should be continually soliciting feedback and acting upon it. Nurturing a customer-centric culture entails holding a continuous dialogue with your customers to carry out mutually beneficial projects. Customer feedback can come from various channels, including surveys, social media, and more. It’s also crucial to introduce robust analytics throughout customers’ decision-making paths to analyze your offers from the end-user’s perspective and personalize customer journeys. Based on these insights, companies should take action to adjust the ways they communicate and do business.

At Andersen, we went one step further in soliciting customer feedback and developed AI-fueled solutions that help its users improve the quality of customer interactions. Our AI Call Quality Assistant and AI Business Correspondence Assistant monitor employee adherence to scripts in real time, analyze tone and sentiment during communication and suggest improvements, measure customer satisfaction, and more.

3 traps a custom software company can fall into when ensuring customer centricity

Interviewer: What are the common hurdles that stand in the way of companies striving to become truly customer-centric?

Valentin: I’ll name three major challenges.

The first one is Insufficient resources. A software development company can fail to assign the necessary funds or appropriate specialists to a project for various reasons. For instance, its specialists aren’t properly trained, lack the needed qualifications, or don’t have the mastery of the latest technology stacks. As a result, customers might fall behind critical market trends and miss valuable opportunities.

The second one is delivery hurdles. When the responsibilities and roles on the developer’s and customer’s sides are explicitly outlined and there are solid communication channels and experienced project managers in place, teams are productive and deliver impressive results. Conversely, when these things are missing, delivering the required service becomes challenging.

Finally, the third one is flawed prioritization. This can happen when the company isn’t on the same page with the customer regarding strategic goals and product vision. The reasons may vary from inadequate analysis of business requirements and poor reporting to irregular communication and failure to adhere to Agile practices and be flexible to changes. As a result, the customer might fail to enter lucrative markets or earn substantial profits while their technology partner is busy solving less relevant issues.

Interviewer: What are the most effective solutions for these challenges?

Valentin: From my experience, a custom software company can solve the above challenges by having a robust discovery phase in place when the market situation and project requirements are thoroughly analyzed to set the right priorities. Furthermore, it must ensure its talent pool and qualifications are sufficient to address customer priorities through the chosen collaboration model – staff augmentation, product development services, or managed delivery. Ideally, the development should be carried out in iterations to ensure flexibility and customer approval of results at each step.

At Andersen, the company which I represent, we’re continuously improving to tackle challenges and make customer centricity the foundation of our daily operations, driving value and delivering tangible outcomes for our customers.

Apple has been working to catch up with Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others in the AI space, introducing its intelligence platform in 2024. Basic functionality relies on the company’s own AI models, while advanced functionality relies on OpenAI models.

According to The Information, via TechCrunch, Apple considered a deal with DeepSeek before rejecting it in favor of a deal with Alibaba.

As AppleInsider points out, Alibaba may have presented a better option for Apple, given the wealth of data the company has access to. Alibaba also has deep ties to the West, given its close relationship with Yahoo over the years. That connection may have made the comapny a more appealing prospect for partnership than a company like DeepSeek.

Either way, with this latest deal, Apple is signaling just how serious it is about competing in the AI space and making Apple Intelligence a major player in the market.

The UK alarmed lawmakers, security experts, journalists, activists, and more when it was revealed that it ordered Apple to provide access to iCloud backups for ALL iPhone users, not just those of British citizens. The order—which was issued in secret and is immediately legally binding—is viewed by virtually all as a massive overreach and a dangerous precedent that will weaken cybersecurity for all.

Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Andy Biggs have written a bipartisan letter to Director Gabbard, urging her to take immediate action to protect U.S. communications and the privacy of American citizens.

“If the U.K. does not immediately reverse this dangerous effort, we urge you to reevaluate U.S.-U.K. cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as U.S. intelligence sharing with the U.K.,” Wyden and Biggs wrote. “The bilateral U.S.-U.K. relationship must be built on trust. If the U.K. is secretly undermining one of the foundations of U.S. cybersecurity, that trust has been profoundly breached.”

The lawmakers go on to point out the shortsightedness of undermining end-to-end encryption (E2EE), especially in the aftermath of China’s Salt Typhoon attack, what Senator Warner described as the “worst telecom hack in” in U.S. history.

In the wake of the Salt Typhoon attack, both the FBI and CISA recommended that all users rely on E2EE messaging platforms to secure their communication and maintain privacy.

“Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here: Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication. Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible,” said Jeff Greene, an executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA.

If U.K. lawmakers get their way, the protection E2EE offers will be completely negated, leaving users vulnerable to cyberattacks and more. Because of the stakes, Wyden and Biggs are urging Director Gabbard to take extreme action, including reevaluating the U.S.-U.K. cybersecurity and data sharing agreements.

The lawmakers also point to Director Gabbard’s testimony during her confirmation hearings, in which she said that backdoors lead down a dangerous path that can undermine Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and civil liberties.” They also referenced her written statements that “[m]andating mechanisms to bypass encryption or privacy technologies undermines user security, privacy, and trust and poses significant risks of exploitation by malicious actors.”

The lawmakers are clearly hoping that Director Gabbard lives up to her testimony and sends a strong signal to the U.K. that weakening the very encryption that protects innocent users around the world is an unacceptable course of action.

The Lawmakers’ Letter

Wyden and Biggs’ letter is copied below in its entirety:

Dear Director Gabbard:

We write to urge you to act decisively to protect the security of Americans’ communications from dangerous, shortsighted efforts by the United Kingdom (U.K.) that will undermine Americans’ privacy rights and expose them to espionage by China, Russia and other adversaries.

According to recent press reports, the U.K.’s Home Secretary served Apple with a secret order last month, directing the company to weaken the security of its iCloud backup service to facilitate government spying. This directive reportedly requires the company to weaken the encryption of its iCloud backup service, giving the U.K. government the “blanket capability” to access customers’ encrypted files. This order was reportedly issued under the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016, commonly known as the “Snoopers’ Charter,” which does not require a judge’s approval. Apple is reportedly gagged from acknowledging that it received such an order, and the company faces criminal penalties that prevent it from even confirming to the U.S. Congress the accuracy of these press reports.

These reported actions seriously threaten the privacy and security of both the American people and the U.S. government. Apple does not make different versions of its encryption software for each market; Apple customers in the U.K. use the same software as Americans. If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers, undermining the security of Americans’ data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products.

The Salt Typhoon hack of U.S. telephone carriers’ wiretapping systems last year — in which President Trump and Vice President Vance’s calls were tapped by China — provides a perfect example of the dangers of surveillance backdoors. They will inevitably be compromised by sophisticated foreign adversaries and exploited in ways harmful to U.S. national security. As the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI confirmed last November, People’s Republic of China (PRC)-affiliated actors were involved in “copying of certain information that was subject to U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders.”

The risk does not just come from wiretapping systems — when sensitive data is stored by third parties, without end-to-end encryption, it is vulnerable to theft when those service providers are hacked. That is exactly what has happened in 2023, when PRC-affiliated hackers broke into Microsoft’s systems storing federal agencies’ emails. As the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board documented, the foreign spies “struck the espionage equivalent of gold,” enabling them to access “the official email accounts of many of the most senior U.S. government officials managing our country’s relationship with the People’s Republic of China” and “downloaded approximately 60,000 emails from State Department alone.”

After years of senior U.S. government officials — from both Republican and Democratic Administrations — pushing for weaker encryption and surveillance backdoors, it seems that the U.S. government has finally come around to a position we have long argued: strong end-to-end encryption protects national security. Indeed, in the wake of the Salt Typhoon hack, CISA released public guidance which recommended that high-value targets, including Members of Congress, solely use end-to-end encrypted communications tools, like Signal.

While the U.K has been a trusted ally, the U.S. government must not permit what is effectively a foreign cyberattack waged through political means. If the U.K. does not immediately reverse this dangerous effort, we urge you to reevaluate U.S.-U.K. cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as U.S. intelligence sharing with the U.K. As the U.K. Parliament’s intelligence oversight committee described in a December, 2023 public report, the U.K. benefits greatly from a “mutual presumption towards unrestricted sharing of [Signals Intelligence]” between the U.S. and U.K. and that “[t]he weight of advantage in the partnership with the [National Security Agency] is overwhelmingly in [the U.K.’s] favour.” The bilateral U.S.-U.K. relationship must be built on trust. If the U.K. is secretly undermining one of the foundations of U.S. cybersecurity, that trust has been profoundly breached.

You stated at your confirmation hearing that “backdoors lead down a dangerous path that can undermine Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and civil liberties.” And you wrote in response to a written question that “[m]andating mechanisms to bypass encryption or privacy technologies undermines user security, privacy, and trust and poses significant risks of exploitation by malicious actors.” We urge you to put those words into action by giving the U.K. an ultimatum: back down from this dangerous attack on U.S. cybersecurity, or face serious consequences. To inform ongoing Congressional oversight, please also provide us with unclassified answers to the following questions by March 3, 2025:

1. Was the Trump Administration made aware of this reported order, either by the U.K. or Apple, prior to the press reports and, if so, when and by whom?
2. What is the Trump Administration’s understanding of U.K. law and the bilateral CLOUD Act agreement with regard to an exception to gag orders for notice to the U.S. government?
3. What is the Trump Administration’s understanding of its obligation to inform Congress and the American public about foreign government demands for U.S. companies to weaken the security of their products, pursuant to the CLOUD Act?

Sincerely,

Ron Wyden
United States Senator

Andy Biggs
Member of Congress

CC: Mr. Peter Mandelson, British Ambassador

Canonical is one of the leading forces in the Linux space, providing some of the longest support options among the various Linux vendors, making it a popular choice for servers and workstations alike. The company already offers 12 years of support for Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support), and the company announced the same support term for distroless Docker containers in mid-2024.

In a blog post this week, the company announced it was expanding its LTS support to Kubernetes, beginning with Kubernetes 1.32.

The new release is easy to install, operate and upgrade, with best-of-breed open source networking, DNS, gateway, metrics server, local storage, load balancer and ingress services. Canonical Kubernetes enables customers to upgrade at their own pace, with new upstream releases every four months for organizations that prefer to move fast, and a 12 year commitment for organizations that need long-term supported environments.

“Constant Kubernetes upgrades are a drain on enterprise teams. Customers who deploy Canonical Kubernetes 1.32 LTS can focus on the future, because their clusters will receive security updates for 12 full years,” said CEO Mark Shuttleworth. “Combined with Ubuntu Pro , which covers the widest range of open source applications, the entire open source stack can now be operated with greater confidence and simpler compliance to hardening standards like FedRAMP. From the public cloud to the data center to the edge, on servers and workstations and connected devices, we are excited to deliver a simple ‘deploy-and-move-forward’ approach to enterprise grade containers that keeps the business focus on applications and innovation rather than infrastructure.”

Canonical says its Kubernetes LTS will help businesses smooth out the disruptions that come from the fast-paced Kubernetes development cycle.

The upstream Kubernetes release cycle is fast-paced, with a new version every four months and security maintenance provided for 14 months. Frequent Kubernetes version upgrades disrupt business continuity and require time-consuming and expensive maintenance. At the same time, the pace of innovation in Kubernetes makes newer versions attractive for developers and new deployments.

Canonical will provide interim releases of its Kubernetes packages every four months, aligned with the upstream Kubernetes release cadence and versions. These interim releases will be security maintained and supported for 14 months, with upgrade paths from release to release.

Canonical’s Kubernetes LTS cycle will mirror the same cycle the company follows for Ubuntu LTS releases.

Like Ubuntu, Canonical will release LTS packages of Kubernetes every two years, starting with Canonical Kubernetes 1.32 LTS. With an Ubuntu Pro subscription, these LTS releases will get CVE security fixes for at least 12 years. Thereafter, Canonical will continue to support and patch these releases of Kubernetes based on customer needs for extremely long-lived deployments in telecommunications and other critical infrastructure.

In this way, Canonical’s packaging and LTS commitment to Kubernetes enables both rapid acquisition of the latest upstream for fast-moving deployments and developers, and long term maintenance for production deployments that need to remain stable for many years.

Canonical’s announcement is good news for companies that rely on Kubernetes.

Huawei sold Honor in late 2020 after U.S. sanctions against the company made it almost impossible to continue to effectively in the smartphone market. As part of the sanctions against some Chinese smartphone makers, Google is prohibited from providing its software and services to such companies, including its Gemini AI.

According to AndroidCentral, Honor has found a solution, tapping DeepSeek to power its smartphone AI assistant, YOYO. The move is a natural development, given that DeepSeek is both China-based and open source. What’s more, the fledgling AI service is challenging established leaders, such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Honor’s decision, as well as DeepSeek’s emergence, continue to raise questions about China’s ability to compete in the AI space, as well as the effectiveness of U.S. efforts to stifle that competition.

Until now, users who purchased apps via the App Store could not transfer them to another account, leading to doubled-up purchases in many cases. This was especially true in cases where individuals created a new Apple account and wanted to move their purchases to the new one. Apple has finally addressed the issue, as outlined in a new support article.

You can choose to migrate apps, music, and other content you’ve purchased from Apple on a secondary Apple Account to a primary Apple Account. The secondary Apple Account might be an account that’s used only for purchases. You’ll need access to the primary email address or phone number and password for both accounts, and neither account should be shared with anyone else. Learn more about how to migrate purchases.

• At the time of migration, the Apple Account signed in for use with iCloud and most features on your iPhone or iPad will be referred to as the primary Apple Account.
• At the time of migration, the Apple Account signed in just for use with Media & Purchases will be referred to as the secondary Apple Account.

When the transfer occurs, payment methods from the secondary account migrate to the new account. All “apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books” also migrate to the primary account, as do any active subscriptions.

This feature is long overdue and a welcome improvement for many users.

Is your team equipped to adopt the communication innovations that are shaping the future of productivity?

This article explores key workplace communication trends shaping 2025 and the tools transforming how remote teams connect.  Work tracking is an innovation that helps teams navigate this shift with greater efficiency and insight.

Why Email Is Losing Ground

The landscape of remote team communication has evolved remarkably, shaped by the pursuit of swiftness, adaptability, and precision. Leaning exclusively on email risks depriving your team of the vibrancy and cohesion that contemporary platforms effortlessly deliver.

Here are some reasons why email is falling out of favor:

• Slower communication: Emails can go unread for hours or even days, delaying critical 

conversations.

• Overwhelming inboxes: Sorting through endless threads wastes time and distracts from productive tasks.

• Limited collaboration: Email is static and linear, making it hard for teams to work together in real time.

• Lack of integration: Modern workflows require tools that connect seamlessly across platforms, something email struggles to achieve.

Emerging Communication Trends in 2025

Research indicates that email is gradually losing its status as the dominant communication method in workplaces. In a recent survey, only 18% of respondents cited it as their preferred option, with just 25% of remote workers and a scant 10% of on-site staff favoring its use.

In its place, video calls and instant messaging are thriving, reflecting the increasing demand for faster and more engaging communication methods. 

These shifts are driving key communication trends that are transforming how teams connect and collaborate in 2025:

Real-Time Messaging Tools

Platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams are now indispensable in remote workplace communication, but their evolution in 2025 introduces features that redefine how teams collaborate. 

One notable trend is the incorporation of intelligent message triaging, where machine learning algorithms categorize conversations by importance and context, ensuring vital information is never overlooked. These platforms also support embedded task automation, allowing teams to initiate project updates or approvals without leaving the chat environment.

Additionally, threaded messaging and dynamic huddles are becoming increasingly popular, balancing asynchronous and synchronous communication. Slack’s Clips feature, offering bite-sized video or audio updates, has reduced dependence on traditional meetings. Microsoft Teams now supports real-time language translation, ensuring seamless collaboration across global teams. 

Such innovations amplify productivity, making these tools the nerve centers of modern work dynamics.

Asynchronous Communication

Asynchronous communication is becoming an essential part of distributed teams, enabling collaboration across time zones without disrupting workflows. A variety of tools are driving this shift, each offering unique features to enhance productivity.

• Loom allows team members to share recorded video updates, complete with built-in reaction options and timestamps for feedback, making reviews and discussions more efficient.

• Notion supports asynchronous collaboration with real-time document editing, inline comments, and automated notifications to keep everyone aligned.

• Miro provides a platform for collaborative whiteboarding, where team members can contribute ideas asynchronously and track updates with version history.

• Google Workspace continues to advance real-time collaboration with tools like shared documents and integrated notifications, ensuring seamless teamwork.

Together, these tools empower teams to work smarter and stay connected, regardless of location or schedule.

Integrated Collaboration Hubs

Platforms like Notion, ClickUp, and Asana are redefining how teams operate by consolidating essential workflows into unified systems. These tools now offer advanced capabilities that go beyond traditional project management. 

Notion, for example, supports intelligent document structuring, allowing teams to organize data hierarchically for easier navigation. ClickUp’s adaptive dashboards provide a panoramic view of project metrics, enabling leaders to pinpoint inefficiencies and make informed adjustments.

Asana is rolling out predictive workload balancing, which analyzes task allocation and suggests redistributions to prevent burnout. Deeper integrations with tools like Microsoft Teams and Jira ensure a seamless flow of information across platforms. Features like automated task sequencing and universal search further enhance efficiency. 

These hubs centralize communication, planning, and execution, creating a more cohesive remote work environment.

AI-Powered Insights

Artificial intelligence is reshaping workplace communication by introducing tools that simplify and enhance interactions. 

In 2025, platforms like Otter.ai and Fathom are setting trends with real-time transcription and action item detection during meetings. These tools not only create detailed meeting notes but also tag key decisions and follow-ups automatically, ensuring nothing important slips through the cracks.

Another innovation is AI-generated summaries of lengthy conversations or project updates provided by tools like Scribe. These summaries distill essential points, helping teams quickly align without sifting through dense information. Advanced sentiment analysis is also emerging, where AI evaluates the tone of messages or conversations to flag potential miscommunication. 

These features streamline collaboration, making communication sharper, faster, and less prone to errors.

Employee Monitoring Tools

Monitoring tools play a critical role in shaping these trends by providing insights into how communication tools are used. They help you understand what’s working and where improvements can be made. 

Here’s how they support these changes:

• Identify popular tools: Determine your team’s preferred platforms and optimize their usage.

• Track productivity: See how communication methods affect focus and efficiency.

• Analyze workflows: Understand how your team’s communication habits influence project outcomes.

• Foster accountability: Use data to ensure teams remain aligned and focused on goals.

Conclusion 

The communication tools defining 2025 range from real-time messaging and asynchronous methods to integrated collaboration hubs, AI-powered insights, and advanced monitoring platforms. These advancements are transforming teamwork by fostering more efficient and intuitive interactions. 

Embracing these solutions is about adapting to change and equipping your remote team to remain engaged, effective, and prepared to succeed in a rapidly shifting work environment.

Given that ad spending is projected to grow 7.61 percent annually through 2026, it’s clear that there’s still value in pay-per-click strategies, but it’s as complex a topic as ever. That’s why working with PPC management services are likely in your best interest.

The Benefits of a PPC Management Company

Pay-per-click advertising works well for all businesses, but developing a successful campaign takes a huge commitment. That means you’d have to juggle your time between managing it and the rest of your work responsibilities, unless you partner up with a PPC agency.

1. Good PPC campaigns require help

In the old days, it was as simple as throwing together a simple text advertisement and making sure it was online. But in today’s massive digital age, PPC has become much more complicated; it’s not the same DIY project that it used to be.

How do you know when text ads aren’t enough? What about tailoring your message to different target audiences? Working with a PPC management company ensures that all the big decisions don’t fall on your shoulders.

2. PPC management services know ad formats

To expand a bit on the ad format, PPC agencies know which types of text and video ads work depending on your goals. For example, different points of the campaign necessitate different tones and contexts when you’re trying to generate leads versus gain conversions.

All of this takes months to figure out, which you may not have free for yourself. That’s where hiring a PPC management company comes in; they handle this tedious task and let the experts determine the best format for the message.

3. PPC agencies know industry experts

When you outsource your marketing needs to a PPC company, you get access to a wide range of experts. In other words, when you partner with them, you’ll get matched with a team that already knows how to work within the scope of your industry and the kind of customers you want to bring in.

Together, this partnership results in a much more cost-effective and far-reaching campaign than the DIY route.

4. PPC managers can measure goals and conversions

The thing about marketing campaigns is that metrics like goals and conversions are hard to properly measure, even if you don’t have trouble getting through most the Google Ad process. This part of the setup isn’t for the faint of heart, but an expert at a PPC management company can easily get it done.

5. PPC companies have professional testers

Of course, all businesses of any size should have the capacity to conduct tests within their own marketing campaigns, but the data that is collected could easily be misinterpreted if it’s analyzed by someone who isn’t an expert in this field.

By working with a PPC company, you’ll get access to better results thanks to their ability to conduct more tests and better interpret deeper dives into data. More than ever before, it’s crucial have the best quality of information you can so that your business will experience better success.

6. PPC agencies can create perfect ad copy

The way you phrase things matters profoundly. What works for ad copy may not necessarily be ideal for a PPC campaign, and it takes some skill to know how to translate this call to action. It needs to not just grab attention but also generate leads and conversions.

This is yet another reason that working with a PPC agency is more cost-effective; simply throwing something together in the hopes that it’s good enough doesn’t work anymore, especially with increasing competition in every industry. The agency’s copywriters have extensive experience in this exact field.

7. PPC management services know the science of scaling up

Scaling up a campaign is much more complicated than you may think, requiring a well-orchestrated plan to hit just the right notes at just the right time.

Simply put, there’s a lot of danger in scaling up your campaign prematurely, so why not just let the experts handle it instead of spending money on trial and error? They will use relevant data points to know exactly the right moment to expand.

Finishing Thoughts

Anyone who is new to online advertising, who doesn’t have an in-house team, or who cannot otherwise effectively oversee this type of marketing campaign are the best candidates for working with a dedicated PPC management firm. These experts have significant experience in the field, and they can help you benefit with their established industry contacts.

As OpenAI has expanded and improved its AI models, the company has adopted a naming scheme that can leave even the most experienced tech user scratching their heads in bewilderment. In a post on X, CEO Sam Altman says the company is going to simplify its product roadmap.

Interestingly, Altman says the company will not ship its upcoming o3 model, instead incorporating o3 and other technologies in the upcoming GPT-5. In the interim, the company will release GPT-4.5, which Altman says will be its “last non-chain-of-thought model.”

In a reply to a comment, Altman revealed that users can expect GPT-4.5 in the coming weeks, while GPT-5 will be released in the coming months.

People who may not understand the complexities of the matters being discussed will need clear explanations that break things down to the heart of the matter. Lawsuits involving tech issues can be difficult for non-tech experts to understand. In fact, even people in the industry might struggle to make sense of the high-level details surrounding a tech squabble.

People who aren’t familiar with the lingo of the industry might be at a loss for words as tech terminology goes right over their heads. That’s one reason for expert witnesses.

If you’re called for jury duty for a case involving complex technology issues, your head might spin. Lawyers from both sides will use terms you don’t fully comprehend, but expert witnesses retained by either or both sides can help you do your job as a juror in these six ways.

1. Translating Complex Tech Concepts

Expert witness testimony is essential in explaining technical jargon so it’s clear and easily digestible.

If the men and women on the jury don’t understand what’s being discussed or what’s at stake, they won’t be able to make intelligent decisions. Jurors will have help making sense of complex concepts to ensure the integrity of the legal proceedings isn’t jeopardized.

2. Providing Context for Digital Evidence

Whether the issue is phishing, ransomware, botnets, malware, DDoS attacks, data breaches, source code, authentication, or something else, you’ll want to know what they mean. It’ll be hard to help render a fair verdict if you don’t understand what the lawyer or witnesses said.

Expert witnesses with tech-specific knowledge can explain how digital evidence was obtained, attest to whether or not the evidence is reliable, and explain what the evidence means.

3. Clarifying Industry Standards

Jurors hearing cases about data breaches, source code, cybersecurity, software development, or other areas in the tech industry must know about industry best practices and whether or not these industry best practices were followed or ignored.

Expert witnesses are uniquely qualified to explain the norm and if there were any deviations from what’s expected given the circumstances.

Understanding industry standards and what the parties did or didn’t do will help jurors understand what’s at stake. You’ll be more confident as a juror when expert witnesses clarify industry standards.

4. Evaluating Patents & Intellectual Property Disputes

Patent issues in the tech space can cause a lot of legal issues. Harvard Business Review previously reported that big tech businesses in the U.S. regularly violated smaller companies’ intellectual property. It added that the U.S. government had projected that Chinese businesses ignoring IP protections cost the American economy up to $600 billion annually.

Patents are a regular source of conflict and often lead to problems in the courtroom. When jurors are asked to decide who’s wrong in such cases, they need expert witnesses to explain software copyrights, patent validity, and if patents were violated.

5. Assessing Technical Fault or Liability

In court cases involving hacking or IT failures, expert witnesses can provide information that helps jurors figure out responsibility and if negligence factored into the matter.

6. Interpreting Digital Forensic Evidence

According to the National Institute of Justice, almost one in two jurors expect scientific evidence during court cases. Specifically, 46% of jurors anticipate scientific evidence in every case.

In criminal cases involving encrypted data, deleted digital documents, and hacked accounts, expert witnesses can explain in plain language what forensic tools disclose and what the findings mean.

When it comes to legal cases involving technology issues, expert witnesses can help. If you’re called for jury duty, the information you get from these professionals can make your job a little easier.

That’s where AI agents come in.

Solutions like Borderless AI are transforming the way HR teams work, handling repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and freeing up time for the things that really matter—like building great workplaces and fostering a positive company culture. AI isn’t here to replace HR professionals; it’s here to make their lives easier.

But AI is also revolutionizing global hiring and workforce management. With remote work and global hiring on the rise, companies are no longer limited to local talent pools. AI-powered tools are helping businesses scale internationally, navigate compliance challenges, and hire seamlessly across borders.

Let’s explore how AI is transforming both local HR processes and international expansion.

Recruiting on Autopilot: Finding the Best Candidates Faster

Hiring the right people is a full-time job (literally). But sifting through stacks of resumes, coordinating interviews, and screening candidates can quickly become overwhelming. AI-powered tools streamline the process, handling the heavy lifting so recruiters can focus on connecting with top talent.

Automated Resume Screening

AI-powered tools analyze resumes in seconds, filtering out unqualified applicants and surfacing the best candidates based on skills, experience, and even cultural fit. This means recruiters spend less time drowning in applications and more time actually connecting with top talent.

Chatbots for First-Round Interviews

AI-driven chatbots conduct initial interviews, assessing candidates through text-based Q&As or even voice recognition. They ask structured questions, analyze responses, and pass along the strongest applicants—saving recruiters hours of phone screens.

Stat Spotlight: A LinkedIn report found that 67% of recruiters say AI saves them significant time in the hiring process.

Smarter Candidate Matching for Global Teams

AI doesn’t just look for keywords—it learns from past hiring decisions, improving its recommendations over time. This means HR teams can rely on AI to not only speed up hiring but also match candidates with global roles efficiently.

Global Hiring Insight: AI-driven platforms like Borderless AI allow companies to tap into international talent pools seamlessly, removing hiring barriers in 170+ countries.

Seamless Employee Onboarding—For Local & International Hires

Starting a new job is exciting for employees, but the onboarding process can be a tedious, paperwork-heavy ordeal. AI smooths the transition, making it easier for new hires to settle in while lightening the load for HR.

Automating Paperwork and Training

AI tools handle everything from digital contract signing to benefits enrollment, ensuring compliance and reducing manual errors. Some platforms even personalize training schedules based on a new hire’s role, helping them hit the ground running.

AI-Powered Onboarding Assistants

Instead of constantly answering “Where do I find this policy?” or “How do I set up my email?”, AI chatbots can guide new hires through the process. These digital assistants provide instant answers and connect employees with the right resources—without HR having to jump in.

Global Business Insight: AI-powered Employer of Record (EOR) services allow companies to seamlessly onboard employees in different countries without needing to establish legal entities in each location.

AI-Driven HR Help Desks: Answering Employee Questions 24/7

HR inboxes are flooded with the same questions every day:
When do I get paid?
How much vacation time do I have left?
What’s the dress code?

Instead of spending hours responding to repetitive inquiries, AI chatbots act as always-on HR assistants, delivering fast, accurate answers.

 Fun Fact: Companies using AI-driven HR chatbots have reported a 30% decrease in HR-related email volume within the first six months.

Payroll & Compliance: The AI-Driven Advantage

Payroll errors are the fastest way to frustrate employees. And let’s not even get started on the nightmare of non-compliance penalties. AI helps HR teams get it right, every time—whether they’re paying employees in one city or across multiple countries.

Automating Payroll Processing

AI-powered payroll systems calculate wages, taxes, and deductions instantly—reducing human errors and ensuring that employees get paid correctly and on time.

Staying on Top of International Labor Laws

Employment laws are constantly changing, and navigating different regulations across multiple countries can be a logistical nightmare. AI-powered EOR platforms monitor global compliance regulations in real time, reducing legal risks.

Industry Insight: A PwC study found that AI-driven compliance monitoring reduces regulatory violations by up to 40%.

Performance Management: Smarter, Fairer, and Less Stressful

Performance reviews can be… well, stressful. AI tools continuously collect and analyze performance metrics, making reviews more objective and data-driven.

Tracking Real-Time Performance Data

Instead of relying on managers’ memory, AI provides real-time insights into an employee’s achievements and challenges.

Personalized Development Plans

Some AI platforms suggest personalized learning opportunities and career development paths based on an employee’s strengths, goals, and industry trends.

Reducing Bias in Reviews

AI can help eliminate unconscious bias in performance evaluations by providing consistent, data-backed assessments. This ensures fairer promotions and raises, leading to a more motivated workforce.

Final Thoughts: AI & HR—A Dream Team for Growth

AI isn’t just making HR faster—it’s making it better. By eliminating inefficiencies, reducing manual workloads, and providing real-time insights, AI allows HR professionals to do what they do best: focus on people.

With AI as a trusty sidekick, HR can finally step away from the endless emails, spreadsheets, and compliance checklists and get back to creating workplaces where employees thrive—whether locally or across 10+ time zones.

What’s Next? AI in HR is just getting started. Expect to see:

• Predictive hiring that anticipates top candidates before they even apply.
• AI-driven career coaching that helps employees map out their next big move.
• Deeper integration with company culture & global HR strategies.

So, is AI the future of HR? Absolutely. And for HR teams drowning in admin work, that future can’t come soon enough.