Author: Malavika Madgula

Do you remember when Spotify was supposed to have completely obliterated the CD (compact disc, for Gen Alpha and Beta) for good? As it turns out, the CD era didn’t quite get the memo. According to a new report from RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), CD revenue in the United States reached a whopping $171 million in the first half of 2026, jumping as much as 58.6% in sales as compared to the previous year. And no, that’s not a one-off spike from a blockbuster album or any rounding error; it’s the reversal of a genuine decline, and it’s…

Will it or won’t it – that’s been the only question that’s been plaguing the cryptocurrency world ever since the inception of the Pi coin. Despite launching the much-awaited Open Mainnet in February 2025, the cryptocurrency had lost nearly 90% of its value by January 2026. After years of closed-network operations, the news of Pi finally allowing external trading had the token surging to a then-all-time high of nearly $3, but collapsing later on. By June 2026, the cryptocurrency’s price had stalled close to its all-time low, despite having some major bullish catalysts, including its pivot to AI (artificial intelligence)…

Enterprises run smoothly only when the right resources are accessed by the right people at the right time. However, when it comes to brass tacks, that’s harder than it sounds. Today, work teams are not only larger but also more distributed, relying on software tools more than ever, which makes controlling and tracking user access all the more complex. When access is mismanaged or managed poorly, not only do teams lose clarity of who can use what data and which systems, but also the propensity for mistakes increases and productivity slows down. Add to that the exponential increase in cyberthreats,…

In 2026, cybersecurity is no longer working behind the scenes, silently. Rather, it’s a frontline battle that shapes the trust we place in every entity: our workplace, our government, our bank, and even the smartphone in our pockets. With digital threats becoming smarter, faster, and more and more unpredictable, one thing is crystal-clear: the next era of cybersecurity will go beyond just humans protecting systems; it’ll see machines defending humans against other machines. The adage fighting fire with fire couldn’t be truer than in 2026, with cyberthreats coming from the sophisticated use of AI (artificial intelligence) tools more than ever.…

As artificial intelligence (AI) reimagines nearly every longstanding process in recent years, the technology landscape has been tumultuous, to say the least. Globally, teams are being expected to respond to the sudden disruption, drive innovation, and navigate market shifts, all while proving ROI (return on investment) and juggling competing priorities. Sounds challenging, right? In fact, companies are so desperate to jump onto the AI bandwagon that they’ve been pushing employees to use AI as much as possible, even if they aren’t able to entirely understand what it is, what it can do, and how exactly it could be helpful. Adding…

In a mere span of two years, we’ve seen AI (artificial intelligence) evolve from reactive assistants into proactive, autonomous agents that are not only triggering workflows and calling APIs (application programming interfaces), but also making decisions and even collaborating with other agents. The agentic AI era is here, where AI agents aren’t just suggesting actions, but taking them on their own. The question is: who is governing them? As enterprises and CIOs (chief information officers) rush to design and deploy these intelligent agents, a critical blind spot is emerging: agentic AI governance. When AI agents are rolled out without any…

Imagine sending USD 100,000 to a supplier on the other side of the globe on a Friday evening and having it actually arrive to their account within minutes. This isn’t a pipedream anymore; it’s happening right now – and it’s completely changing how businesses move money across borders. Traditionally, cross-border payments usually involved batch-based settlements and multiple intermediaries, which resulted in unnecessary risks, higher fees, and slower payments. Enter blockchain, which offers a new approach featuring programmable, shared settlement layers operating round-the-clock and finalising transactions in seconds. The winds of change are already blowing. According to September 2025 data from…

The role of seatbelts in saving lives on the road has been unparalleled. In 2026, AI dashcams have transformed into the new seatbelts, as road safety isn’t just about following speed limits and wearing seatbelts anymore… Today, it’s about using and deploying intelligent tech to predict and prevent accidents, and AI (artificial intelligence) dashcams are at the helm of this transformation. In fact, American IoT firm Samsara performed a worldwide analysis of more than 2,500 fleets and released a first-of-its-kind report in May 2026, which validated the efficacy of AI-enabled telematics and cameras in reducing crashes, besides improving fleet safety…

We’ve all heard of the social media-famous terms ending with “maxxing,” like “looksmaxxing.” In Gen-Z Internet slang, it means to maximise or optimise a specific activity or quality… Did you ever imagine the same term to be applicable in AI (artificial intelligence)? We’re talking about – drumroll – Tokenmaxxing, the newest form of conspicuous consumption in Silicon Valley. It all blew up in April 2026 when a Meta engineer created a “token leaderboard” that ranked employees by their token usage. Basically, it was an internal leaderboard on the Meta intranet where employees wanted to show off their AI superuser chops,…

48 teams, 16 host cities, 3 countries, tens of millions of fans; the 2026 FIFA World Cup has shaped up to be the biggest sporting event the world has ever seen. It’s also shaped up to be the largest tech attack surface a sporting event has ever had. We’ve always thought of the FIFA World Cup in terms of the experience and its broadcast around the world: the game, the stadiums, the teams, the goals, and the crowds. However, making all that happen, behind the scenes, is a digital economy connecting millions of fans with hospitality providers, transport networks, ticketing…