Voice phishing is getting better and better: It’s now the second most popular initial entry point for cyber attacks, according to Google.

The Google Threat Intelligence Group’s latest report is out from incident response unit Mandiant, and it found that “highly interactive” voice fakery now makes up 11% of vectors observed across 2025.

That’s almost twice as frequent as email phishing attacks (6%), which were once a huge staple of hackers everywhere.

Voice Phishing Surged Across 2025, New Data Shows

“Highly interactive voice phishing saw a significant surge to 11%, becoming the second-most commonly observed vector” in 2025, the report said.

However, it notes that “exploits remained the most common initial infection vector for the sixth consecutive year, accounting for 32% of intrusions.”

What does voice phishing look like in practice? Some groups target IT help desks with the aim of fully bypassing typical security measures like multifactor authentication (MFA) in order to get the initial access to software-as-a-service (SaaS) environments that they need.

Email Phishing Attempts Were Less Frequent

In a sharp contrast, email phishing fell to just 6% of intrusions last year. Social engineers appear to be moving to audio and away from text.

Other takeaways from the new report:

• Cybercriminals a lot faster at handing off initial access in targeted environments: Their window was just 22 seconds in 2025 – huge drop from eight hours in 2022.
• Global median dwell time is 14 days, up from 11 days. This “likely reflects growing sophistication, particularly in evading defenses.”
• Organizations are getting better at spotting threats internally: “52% of the time organizations first detected evidence of malicious activity internally, an increase from 43% in 2024.”

Cyber Criminals Love AI Tools

AI-powered voice phishing is just the start: Once they’ve gained access, hackers can harvest OAuth tokens and session cookies or steal hard-coded keys and personal access tokens. They can then use all that data to infiltrate downstream environments and steal mass amounts of customer data.

The new report joins similarly troubling analyses from recent months.

Most recently, we covered a study by Armis that claimed cyber crime had hit a global “tipping point.” We’ve also heard from yet another study which determined that a full 68% of professionals say existing security tools can’t mitigate new threats.

50% of all working hours are set to be undertaken by AI agents in the near-future, says a new report from Accenture and The Wharton School. The findings appear in The Age of Co-Intelligence, which examines how human and AI collaboration is evolving.

Elsewhere, the study concludes that so-called “minimum viable” AI-led organizations will require at least 60 enterprise agents to support key functions such as R&D, customer service, and finance. 35 of these agents set to be digital, and the remaining 25 will be physical.

The research is part of a growing body of evidence that, increasingly, AI is no longer just used as an enabler, but as a tangible replacement for human labor. While businesses are pushing back on this narrative, it is becoming harder to deny.

Half of All Working Hours to be Conducted by AI Agents

50% of all working hours will be handled by AI agents in the near-future, according to new research from Accenture and The Wharton School. The consultancy giant itself laid off thousands of employees last year in what many saw as a pivot towards AI.

The study looks at how at the evolving nature of the relationship between humans and AI, contending that usage has shifted from “simple augmentation” to “co-intelligence.”

To gather findings, the researchers analyzed task-level data across 18 industries using data from O*NET (Occupational Information Network) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, corresponding to more than 120 million workers across 18 industries.

Findings Illuminate Changing Human-AI Relationship

The report argues that organizations will soon require at least 60 agents to support important business functions, comprising 35 digital agents and 25 physical ones.

Consumer goods and services businesses will see the highest percentage of work undertaken by these agents, with 58% of working hours to be automated (29% digital agents and 29% physical ones).

At the other end of the spectrum, healthcare businesses will remain largely untouched by AI automation, with 28% of hours impacted by digital agents and just 13% impacted by physical ones.

While it’s thought that the emerging dynamic will have a positive impact on business output, the researchers issued a note of caution: “Humans must stay in the lead by setting direction, defining guardrails, challenging analysis, making trade-offs, and owning outcomes.”

Growing Disconnect Between Employee Fears and Business Assurances

The Accenture-Wharton report is the latest in a long line of similar findings that posits AI is no longer just a tool for augmentation, but poses a genuine threat to jobs everywhere. Recently, it was revealed that a staggering 54% of companies plan compensation cuts due to AI, with a further 26% set to lay off staff in favor of automation entirely.

Increasingly, workers are fearful that their job security is at risk due to increasing investment in the nascent technology. Several high-profile companies have already laid off staff while increasing their AI budgets, including Accenture, Salesforce, and Microsoft.

A number of companies have also walked back their AI pivots, with a rift emerging between employee concerns and the language that their bosses are deploying with regards to AI. It’s expected that this division will only continue to deepen as AI uptake increases.

37% of consumers trust brands more when their email communications feel human, according to a recent study.

While consumers aren’t set against businesses using AI in brand emails, above all, the study shows that personalization and relevance are the key makers of trust.

Businesses can utilize AI tools for monitoring email marketing campaign success, however, the human touch remains a vital component to ensure communications feel personal.

Consumers Trust Brand Emails That Feel Human, Despite Being Less Polished

In a recent Adobe Express study, 37% of consumers revealed that they trust brands more when marketing emails feel human, even if this makes them appear less polished. This suggests that personal and authentic communications matter more to consumers today than perfection.

Similarly, 18% of consumers said they have unsubscribed from marketing emails in the past because they suspected it was written by AI.

Adobe Express surveyed 1,007 consumers in the US as part of its study, with data being collected in December 2025.

Consumers are Generally Wary of AI in Email Marketing

On average, consumers estimated that they receive around six AI-generated emails per week, highlighting an increased use of AI within email communications. However, this isn’t always welcomed, as almost half (46%) of consumers surveyed said they would be more likely to unsubscribe from emails if they knew an email was written by AI.

Despite not all marketers embracing AI in this space, these findings suggest that consumers are increasingly paying attention to the way emails are written, and that AI use can be detrimental to how much trust is fostered between brands and their audiences.

Additionally, 78% of consumers highlighted that messages that felt too salesy or pushy made emails less appealing, as well as wordy emails (46%) and generic messaging (37%).

The Way Forward Blends AI with Human Creativity

Overall, 60% of consumers said an email that sounds like a real person wrote it is what makes it feel truly personalized.

That being said, 37% of consumers said they don’t care whether a marketing email sounds human or AI-generated, so long as the content within is useful and relevant to them. This positions personalization and relevance as the gold standard of marketing emails.

These findings state that consumers are not entirely averse to the use of AI in email marketing, however, businesses should focus on creating a balance that includes both human creativity and AI, in order to achieve the personalization and relevance consumers feel from a human-written email.

AI can be highly beneficial to campaigns, by monitoring key metrics and analyzing trends for example, but businesses seem apt to lose their audience when they attempt to replace the trust consumers feel from human creativity.

The honeymoon period is over for AI tools, with executives now measuring the success of the technology on financial goals rather than pure innovation.

A new study found that costing savings (53%) and return-on-investment (50%) are the most important factors when evaluating AI tools.

More notably, this is a big change of perspective from just last year, when more nebulous metrics were considered most important, like optimized product designs and improved data processing.

AI Success: Financial Goals Over Innovation

According to a new study from TE Connectivity, the financial benefits are more important than product innovations when it comes to AI for business executives in 2026.

More specifically, 66% of executives say that financial goals are the top priority when it comes to evaluating the use of AI at their respective businesses.

On top of that, 53% of executives are measuring the success of AI tools based on cost savings, while 50% are doing so based exclusively on return-on-investment (ROI), the two highest metrics across the research.

A Big Change from 2025

The fact that business executives are pivoting entirely to the financial implications of AI is headline-worthy in its own right. However, it’s also worth noting that this is a big change from 2025.

In fact, only 46% of business executives were willing to admit that they are focused on financial goals over innovation in 2025, which represents a 20% difference in just a single year.

The same is true of the more specific measurements of success too. Only 30% were measuring AI success by return-on-investment in 2025, another 20% increase year-over-year.

55% of executives were measuring AI success based on optimized product designs. In 2026, that number is only 32%.

AI Needs to Start Making Money

Since its inception in 2022, the modern iteration of AI has seen a lot of promises without a lot of results. ROI in particular has been hard to come by, with businesses reporting little revenue from a lot of investment.

That’s why this study is far from surprising. Business executives the world over have given the technology plenty of breathing room to be improve productivity, increase revenue, and “transform the business world,” as experts have predicted.

Now, it’s time to pay the piper, and if AI can’t deliver, there could be some serious economic issues for businesses that have been laying off employees in anticipation of this eventual return.

Salesforce is making AI a bit more accessible by announcing that its Agentforce for Small Business tools will now be available in all its Salesforce Suite plans.

More specifically, small businesses will now have access to powerful AI functionalities that have become common, albeit expensive, in business platforms like Salesforce.

Features like advanced pipeline summaries, email content generation for easy follow-ups, and AI assistant access to guide small business owners through the CRM platform.

Salesforce Announces Agentforce for Small Businesses in Suite Plans

Announced in a company blog post, Salesforce is officially bringing its AI-powered Agentforce for Small Business features to the Suite plans available from the popular CRM.

“Teams can quickly understand what’s happening with customers, follow up faster, and act on insights, all from the same place you already run your business.” – Salesforce announcement

The AI features will be available on the Starter Suite and Pro Suite plans, as well as the Free Suite plan, which allows you to get started at no cost for up to two users.

Check out our Salesforce Free Suite review to learn more

What Can Agentforce for Small Businesses Do?

Adding AI to business software is all too common in 2026, but Salesforce provides some truly helpful tools that can supercharge small business to make sales, analyze analytics, and streamline communication.

Again, all of these tools will be available in all Suite plans, even the free option.

• Sales summaries – Users will be able to get “instant, high-level summary” of deal status, so you’ll know exactly where you stand before every meeting.
• Generated follow-up emails – You’ll be able to generate follow-up emails based on “customer data and business context” to follow up with clients quickly.
• Employee Agent – This AI assistant works like conversational chatbots to provide “summaries, draft personalized communications, and log activities.”

Making AI Accessible

To say free AI features in business software is rare would be quite an understatement. Typically, these automation-focused tools cost extra or require credits, which creates a substantial barrier to entry for small businesses on a budget.

Heck, even Salesforce pricing shows that the Agentforce functionality is typically reserved for the most expensive paid plan, with the Agentforce 1 Sales plan costing $550 per user, per month.

That’s why this announcement is such a big deal for small businesses. It’s one of the few examples of a CRM platform providing AI features at absolute no additional cost. And, in the case of the free plan, no cost at all.

The impact of AI in the workplace could be brutal for workers everywhere, a new study indicates, with over half of companies in the US saying they plan to reduce worker compensation by the end of this year, due to AI.

Not only did 54% of the surveyed companies say they would be reducing their pay, but another 26% say they plan to entirely lay off workers.

These insights come after years of white collar job reductions across the tech industry and serve as another reminder that our lengthy timeline of AI-related job insecurity has not yet come to an end.

Half of US Companies Plan Compensation Reductions

The new survey is out from ResumeBuilder.com, which polled 866 US business leaders to conclude that “54% of companies have or will reduce employee compensation to free up capital for AI spending in 2026.”

According to the report, this trend is set to continue for the foreseeable future, as “the vast majority expect further AI investment at the expense of employees.”

Of the companies that are cutting back on compensation due to AI, opinions are mixed on the exact reason. 75% say AI offers a competitive advantage, while 74% specifically point to revenue growth thanks to AI tools.

In addition, 57% say they “risk falling behind competitors without significant AI investment.”

Bonuses May Be the First to Go

Bonuses are in danger across the largest amount of companies. Here’s how the various types of compensation being reduced, according to the report:

• Bonuses (61%)
• Equity or stock awards (60%)
• Raises (59%)
• Benefits (53%)
• Base salaries (43%)

It’s worth noting that these are all self-reported claims. We’ll have to wait to see if compensations really are reduced to this extent.

An Overwhelming Majority Plan on Future Layoffs

One last troubling statistic from the new report? 94% of the surveyed companies say they “expect to reduce headcount as AI takes over more functions.”

In other words, half of the companies may be planning compensation cuts in 2026 — but an overwhelming majority are planning on even more layoffs at some point in the near future.

Last year, we covered British computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton’s view that AI will “very likely” cause mass unemployment.

We’ve already seen plenty of headline-grabbing mass layoffs due to AI, from Accenture to Duolingo. Executives’ minds seem to be made up. They’re operating in lockstep, moving towards a goal of lowering headcounts while relying on AI to pick up the slack.

Cyber crime threats have reached a global “tipping point,” with the acceleration of AI a major factor, according to startling new research from Armis.

Among the findings, it is revealed that more than half of surveyed organizations (54%) have already been impacted by an AI-generated or AI-led attack in the last 12 months, with a further 50% confirming that they’ve been unable to “adequately secure” their organization post-attack.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that, at the moment, AI is transforming cybersecurity for the worse. Recently, it was reported that 68% of professionals believe that existing security tools are unsuitable to mitigate rising cybersecurity threats.

Armis Warns of Global Cyberwarfare ‘Tipping Point’

Armis, a leading cybersecurity management company, has issued some stark warnings to the business sector with its latest report, A World Under Pressure: Cyberwarfare in an Age of AI-Fueled Escalation.

The research paints a grim picture about the cybersecurity landscape, which it argues has reached a “global tipping point.” The overwhelming majority (89%) of surveyed IT leaders, for instance, are concerned about the impact of cyberwarfare on their organizations — representing an increase of 35% compared with their 2024 findings.

According to Armis co-founder and CTO, Nadir Izrael:

“Geopolitical tensions, AI acceleration, and unresolved security gaps are colliding, bringing the state of cyberwarfare to a boiling point…organizational leaders must heed the call and immediately enhance their proactive cybersecurity operations before it’s too late.”

AI Acceleration a Major Factor in Crisis

Reportedly, the rapid development of AI is a massive contributor to the escalating crisis. Nearly eight in ten respondents (79%) are concerned about the ability of nation states to use AI to develop “sophisticated” and “targeted” cyberattacks,” representing a 6% increase on the 2025 report.

Meanwhile, more than half of respondents (54%) have already been impacted by AI-driven threats in the last year, with 50% acknowledging their failure to adequately secure their respective organizations in the wake of these attacks.

The report also observes a concerning disconnect between the scale of this threat and individuals’ perception of their ability to handle it. 76% of IT leaders believe they are ready to “mitigate” AI-led threats — a confidence that simply doesn’t stack up with the other findings.

Evidence of Cybersecurity Crisis Impossible to Ignore

There’s a growing body of evidence that’s becoming increasingly hard to ignore — the business sector is in cybersecurity crisis. With the rapid development of AI, cybercriminals are evolving their tactics to continuously stay one foot ahead of the defense. In fact, AI figures prominently in our list of the top cybersecurity trends of 2026.

To navigate this changing landscape, businesses need to take some urgent steps. First, they should increase their cybersecurity budgets as a matter of priority. This will allow them to invest in top talent, as well as the latest technology, to combat the rise of AI-led threats.

Crucially, organizations need to invest time and resources into upskilling their existing employees on how to spot and nullify threats. Every single employee represents a potential attack vector, and alarmingly, senior leaders are just as culpable as juniors.

According to our own research, a shocking 98% of bosses can’t identify all the signs of a phishing attack, indicating that this is a major problem felt organization-wide.

US logistics businesses have reported the highest level of operational pressure since April last year, shows the latest Tech.co data.

Major unforeseen circumstances are the root cause of this increased pressure, as businesses deal with severe weather events, such as Storm Fern.

To combat pressure, businesses are turning to vehicle maintenance measures, securing their day-to-day operations against an increasingly volatile environment.

Operational Pressure Felt by US Logistics Businesses Reaches All-Time High

US logistics businesses are facing the highest amount of operational pressure since last April. 

Tech.co’s ‘Operational Pressure Index’ reached 44 in February 2026, the highest figure recorded in our data so far. The figure is indicative of a sharp and rapid spike in operational strain over the past month.

Tech.co has been tracking operational pressure within the logistics industry since April last year. Our ‘operational strain’ score evaluates levels of freight demand, issue severity, and business stance across surveyed logistics firms.

Major Unforeseen Circumstances Root Cause of Pressures

In our research, 30% of logistics businesses cited major unforeseen circumstances as a cause for the rise in operational pressure.

Severe weather is likely to have contributed to this rise. Significantly, late January saw the surge of Storm Fern across the South and North East of the US, causing major disruption to the freight market.

Unforeseen events such as severe weather can cause knock-on effects for the industry, including loss of power for warehouses and labor challenges as drivers deal with more challenging road conditions.

Businesses Focus on Vehicle Maintenance Amidst Pressure

Vehicle upkeep rose by 3 percentage points from January to February, positioning maintenance as a priority as businesses face a spike in operational pressure.

Among the firms prioritizing vehicle upkeep, 70% are focusing on preventative maintenance as their top strategy. This indicates that logistics businesses are solidifying their current operations to help secure them against further disruptions.

“With the industry currently volatile, we’re seeing companies are taking steps to invest now and protect themselves in the future. The move is an essential one, as companies look to maintain some semblance of control where they can, in the face of ever more challenges and disruption to the supply chain.” Jack Turner, Editor at Tech.co

Behind preventative maintenance, logistics businesses are also employing methods such as addressing mechanical issues (52%) and upgrading/replacing components (51%). As pressure rises, this further shows logistics businesses are in a state of pre-emptive strengthening.

Intuit, the global fintech company behind accounting solution QuickBooks, is partnering with Anthropic to introduce custom AI agents to customers. The two institutions announced the “game-changing” partnership this week.

According to the press release, the multi-year partnership will allow businesses that use Intuit’s suite of products to build “secure, accurate” AI agents that support compliance and streamline complex workflows. At the same time, Intuit’s financial and marketing tools will be available to users of Anthropic tools, including its flagship chatbot Claude.

The Intuit-Anthropic deal is the latest in a long line of partnerships between big tech firms and AI startups. From a business perspective, AI has demonstrated a clear aptitude for automating repetitive tasks and boosting worker efficiency, even as concerns mount that its increasing prevalence could lead to mass unemployment.

The Intuit and Anthropic Partnership

Intuit and Anthropic have announced a new multi-year partnership to bring custom AI agents to businesses that use Intuit products. The two companies announced the news this week via a press release, with Intuit Chief Technology Officer, Alex Balazs, calling it a “groundbreaking partnership.”

As per the new agreement, customers of the Intuit suite of products — which includes QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, Mailchimp, and Intuit Enterprise Suite — will get the benefits of Anthropic’s flagship chatbot, Claude, directly in the platform.

At the same time, Anthropic’s products — Cowork, Claude for Enterprise, and Claude.ai — will gain access to Intuit’s extensive expertise and tools across finance and marketing.

A Highly Personalized Experience

Intuit hopes that this new partnership will deliver “highly personalized experiences” for its business customers. In particular, customers will be able to build and deploy their own AI agents, which are specifically designed to accommodate each business’s specific needs, while maintaining regulatory compliance.

The press release gives the example of a regional restaurant chain with 15 sites, which could use Claude to combine third-party sales and inventory data with Intuit data, including food costs, payroll, and workforce hours. Ultimately, this would establish a picture of which locations were performing efficiently and allow the business to make decisions based on intelligent insights.

Anthropic users, meanwhile, will get the benefit of Intuit’s tools and expertise. A microbusiness owner, for example, could feed a list of their transactions into Claude, which could turn them into a branded, pay-enabled invoice, thanks to Intuit.

Customers Win — But Workers Lose

Increasingly, big tech firms are teaming up with AI startups in a bid to bolster their services and gain a first-move advantage in an AI-saturated marketplace. The Microsoft-OpenAI agreement was arguably the first of its kind, and the likes of Amazon, NVIDIA, and Meta have since followed suit.

The benefits are clear for both parties. Tech firms get priority access to innovative new technology; AI startups get access to new markets. And ultimately, the customer is the winner.

However, the increasing convergence of AI and business does potentially spell disaster for one demographic: the workers. There’s already mounting evidence that companies are laying off employees in favor of automation. With the partnerships trend going nowhere, this is likely to become more pronounced.

According to a new report from Experian and Forrester Consulting, 68% of business leaders believe that their current security tools aren’t up to the task when it comes to fending off cyber attacks.

However, as threats evolve in 2026, many businesses are turning to machine learning to close the gap, and the results have been quite promising.

The main benefit businesses are seeing is real-time fraud detection, as well as the ability to provide better customer service and improved accuracy when it comes to detecting threats.

Leaders Aren’t Confident in Security Tools

A new report from Experian and Forrester Consulting has revealed that 68% of business leaders believe their current security tools can’t keep up the pace when it comes to navigating the evolving threat of fraud attacks.

This remains a huge concern for businesses, particularly as 67% expect more fraud attacks in 2026 than in the previous year.

Businesses Are Turning to Machine Learning for Security

According to the report, businesses are investing in machine learning as a way to bolster security in 2026. 

71% of businesses are investing more in technology rather than human analysts, suggesting that the potential limitations of traditional methods are becoming more obvious.

In particular, businesses are turning to machine learning to help process the large datasets being produced for more accurate fraud detection measures. And, they’re seeing great benefits, with 70% of respondents agreeing that machine learning has improved their ability to detect fraud that a rules-only system would have missed.

Likewise, 66% of businesses say that machine learning has improved their ability to identify new types of fraud faster than before. This positions machine learning as a key element of security protocols for the future, as threats develop more with AI.

Benefits of Machine Learning in Combatting Fraud Attacks

The main benefit businesses identified in using machine learning to tackle fraud is through real-time detection measures, which was cited by 54% of respondents. Models can identify and flag anything suspicious much faster than a traditional system can.

Similarly, 52% of respondents say that better customer experience with less security friction is another key benefit. Machine learning allows businesses to make faster security decisions, and it allows them to carry out passive fraud checks regularly.

51% of respondents also noted an improved accuracy in their detection of fraud when adopting machine learning, especially when compared with rules-based systems alone. As models can be continually retrained and improved, businesses can be sure that the system won’t miss any new threats.

When adopting machine learning into a security stack, the report claims the most important element is having sufficient, high-quality data available, in order for the system to be as effective as possible.