Tools to work smarter: In search of AI skills for restaurant operations, owner Patrick Cheng turned to Verizon’s free skill-development courses to learn how AI tools and digital strategies could help him work smarter and grow his business.
Putting AI learning to work: Cheng uses AI to reduce manual onboarding and administrative tasks, freeing up time and boosting employee retention.
AI skills drive long-term business growth: AI tools and data-driven strategies helped Cheng shift his focus from short-term sales to long-term growth, leading to increased daily revenue in only a few months
When Patrick Cheng decided to acquire a run-down Chinese restaurant in Dunwoody, Georgia, in 2020, he was at a professional crossroads. His rapidly growing homestay rental business had suddenly shut down due to the global pandemic and, like many small-business owners at the time, he was forced to pivot. After seeing high customer demand, Cheng went all in on the restaurant. But even with a degree in business administration and a family background in food service, he soon found that he lacked the knowledge to sustain and scale the business.
That problem turned around when Cheng discovered Verizon’s free skill-development program, Verizon Small Business Digital Ready, and began taking courses on AI, digital marketing strategies, branding and operations. His experience shows how restaurant owners can use practical AI tools and digital skills to improve operations, save time and drive measurable business results.
Verizon is building on that approach through the Small Business AI Accelerator, an immersive 12-week program designed to help select small businesses develop and apply AI skills. Small-business owners can explore Verizon’s free AI courses and resources to find practical ways to put AI to work.
How this restaurant owner uses AI to improve operations
Of everything he learned, Cheng says the AI resources “impacted almost every level of the business.” He now uses AI tools for restaurant operations, including employee training, new-hire onboarding and customer service, which has freed up 50% of his time and more than doubled employee retention. “We’re able to train and retain our employees at a higher rate because they actually know what they’re coming into—things you think they know, but do not know,” he explains.
Instead of building documents such as training manuals from scratch, Cheng uploaded an industry-standard template into an AI platform and used the prompting techniques he learned through Verizon to create tailored standard operating procedures based on information he had provided about General Tso’s. He’s also using AI-powered technology to answer phones, take orders and catalog customer feedback.
“We’re using this to improve our processes [on an ongoing basis],” Cheng says. Every piece of feedback, whether it’s food quality or a delivery issue, gets reviewed and resolved. That visibility has been key to General Tso’s growth. “With the right data, we’re able to see what’s really affecting revenue growth,” Cheng says.
Digital skills helped drive this restaurant’s growth
After taking more than a dozen of the program’s free courses on digital marketing strategies, branding and operations, Cheng realized where he needed to improve. “We didn’t establish a strong brand identity or message that would help us stand out. We were just working harder, not smarter,” he says.
What Cheng learned helped shift his focus from short-term revenue gains to long-term strategic growth. He made several key changes that created a domino effect, ultimately doubling his average daily revenue in just a few months. One of those changes included an upgraded point-of-sale system that captures more customer data.
“[Straight] sales numbers were not enabling us to make decisions,” Cheng explains. “Now we have marketing, advertising and loyalty programs. We have new subscribers daily.” Adding new digital strategies for automated promotions and new ways to convert customers drove a surge in repeat and online sales. “That’s the power of data-driven decisions,” he says.
He also learned about the importance of good reviews to improve his website’s organic search ranking. That insight led Cheng to implement in-house delivery, giving him greater control over quality and customer feedback while allowing the restaurant to expand its delivery radius.
Empowering the next generation of small-business owners
Inspired in part by Verizon’s free program, Cheng wants to pay forward what he’s learned by helping other small-business owners, including non-native English speakers who may face cultural and language barriers. He has used AI tools to help with tasks such as translating applications and preparing federal contract bids.
“Thousands of family-run Chinese restaurants struggle due to outdated marketing, inefficient operations and lack of digital integration,” Cheng says. “Our mission is to revitalize these businesses and build a system that empowers other restaurant owners, creates jobs and uplifts the community.”
In the future, Cheng envisions developing what he calls “AI employees,” which are AI agents designed to handle recurring tasks. “AI [would be] working for me 24/7,” he says.
For all the ways Cheng now uses AI, he traces his start back to Verizon. “Without the Verizon courses, I would have been stuck. I would not have started [using AI],” he says. The learnings, Cheng says, provided a foundation he was lacking, and then a template to turn the new knowledge into an actionable plan. “Now I take the good ideas and say, ‘Hey, this is doable and executable. This is valuable.’”
Discover free AI courses and resources designed to help small-business owners put AI to work.
An individual user’s experience may vary and results are not guaranteed.
Micron’s advanced DRAM packaging enables the 512GB DDR5 RDIMM to unlock data center performance with speeds up to 9,200 MT/s and reduced operating power by more than 60%
BOISE, Idaho, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), today announced a major milestone in memory innovation with the successful demonstration of the world’s first 512GB DDR5 module on multiple server platforms. The achievement reinforces Micron’s leadership in high-performance, high-capacity server memory and provides enterprise data center and cloud customers with a path to support large and demanding AI, analytics, in-memory database and simulation-heavy workloads with greater efficiency. Leading semiconductor enablers, AMD and Intel, are both actively validating the module, which will deliver speeds up to 9,200 MT/s.
The module’s high capacity is possible due to Micron’s advanced vertical interconnect packaging innovations. This product vertically stacks DRAM dies interconnected by through-silicon vias (TSVs) to maximize density within individual DRAM packages while preserving the performance modern data center architectures demand. The module enables up to 12TB of DDR5 DRAM in a single 24-slot dual-socket server.
“Micron continues to set the pace for memory technology, delivering a new class of ultra-dense, high-performance server memory that helps customers keep larger datasets closer to the compute engines that need them,” said Raj Narasimhan, senior vice president and general manager of the Cloud Memory Business Unit at Micron. “A 512GB RDIMM enables multi-terabyte servers, supporting larger AI and database workloads, greater virtualization density and improved power efficiency, all within existing server footprints.”
Ecosystem partner validation Micron is collaborating closely with leading ecosystem enablers to validate the 512GB DDR5 RDIMM across next-generation server platforms, ensuring broad compatibility and a smooth path to deployment.
“AMD solutions continue to advance data center performance, scalability and efficiency as AI and data-intensive workloads reshape infrastructure requirements,” said Amit Goel, corporate vice president, Compute and Enterprise AI Platform Solutions Engineering, AMD. “Our close engineering collaboration with Micron brings compute and memory innovation together to help customers realize the full value of AMD-powered platforms. Together, we’re enabling balanced, high-performance infrastructure for the growing scale and complexity of modern workloads.”
“The growth of AI and other data-intensive workloads is placing new demands on server infrastructure, making memory capacity and bandwidth increasingly important to overall system performance,” said Karin Eibschitz Segal, general manager of platform and system engineering in Intel’s Data Center Group. “Intel is working closely with Micron to validate its 512GB DDR5 RDIMM and help enable future server platforms designed to meet the growing demands of next-generation data center workloads.”
Meeting the memory demands of data-intensive workloads The rapid proliferation of large language models (LLMs), agentic AI, real-time inference and high-core-count CPU workloads is driving demand for greater server memory capacity, higher bandwidth and improved power efficiency. Micron 512GB RDIMMs address these demands by enabling larger datasets to remain resident in main memory, reducing reliance on slower storage tiers and minimizing costly data movement. The new 512GB RDIMM also improves efficiency, reducing operating power by more than 60% compared with four 128GB RDIMMs.1
For memory-bound workloads such as Spark Support Vector Machines (SVM)-based data analytics, Micron 512GB RDIMMs can deliver up to 1.4 times higher performance compared to 256GB DDR5 configurations. The 512GB module also provides significant advantages for memory-intensive databases and caching platforms, including RocksDB and Redis, improving throughput, increasing concurrency and helping scale datasets more efficiently.
What the industry has to say about this future memory solution “As data center workloads continue to grow, we are increasingly focused on how we can optimize the balance between compute, memory and efficiency across the stack,” said Darrin Alves, chief information officer for Infrastructure Platforms at JPMorganChase. “Higher-capacity memory technologies like Micron’s 512GB RDIMMs will help enterprises support larger in-memory workloads, improve resource utilization and enhance the flexibility needed to scale modern computing environments.”
Micron expects 512GB RDIMMs to be in volume production sometime in the second half of 2027 aligned to customer needs. For more information on Micron’s currently available data center solutions, visit the Micron data center memory webpage.
About Micron Technology, Inc. Micron Technology, Inc., is a global leader in semiconductor memory and storage, powering AI and compute-intensive applications from cloud to edge. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology and product leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron’s comprehensive portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR solutions deliver the speed, efficiency and scale today’s workloads demand, accelerating intelligence to enrich life for all. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com.
Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Micron’s 512GB DDR5 RDIMM, its expected performance, capabilities, benefits, validation and deployment, and the timing of volume production. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to the documents Micron files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically its most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. These factors can be found at https://investors.micron.com/risk-factor. Although Micron believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, Micron cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, or achievements. Micron is under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results.
Stephen van Rooyen, CEO, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo
Stephen van Rooyen will lead the combined Benelux business which is intended to be listed in Amsterdam in the middle of next year
Experienced and proven leadership team appointed to newly created Ziggo Group with expertise and backgrounds across Liberty Global, Telenet, VodafoneZiggo and beyond
New appointments join Ziggo Group CEO Stephen van Rooyen and Telenet group CEO John Porter ahead of intended listing on Euronext Amsterdam mid-2027
DENVER and AMSTERDAM, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ziggo Group, Liberty Global’s newly established Benelux connectivity company bringing together its interests in VodafoneZiggo and Telenet, has announced its leadership team as it begins operations and prepares for its intended listing on Euronext Amsterdam in mid-2027.
Stephen van Rooyen, who continues as CEO of VodafoneZiggo, will lead Ziggo Group and John Porter will continue as CEO of Telenet and as Chairman of Wyre.
The leadership teams of Telenet and VodafoneZiggo will remain responsible for their customers, markets, people, culture and performance.
Ahead of the listing Ziggo Group will continue to operate within Liberty Global’s governance framework benefiting from its scale, expertise, capabilities and support, as Ziggo Group builds, integrates and grows its businesses.
Ziggo Group will focus on the areas where working together creates real advantage: becoming a public company, performance management, capital allocation, technology strategy, leadership and talent development, and the creation of scale and efficiency.
Preparations are well underway for the listing including the recently announced sale of VodafoneZiggo’s passive tower assets for €669m. This forms part of Liberty Global’s €1.2-1.4bn of non-core asset disposals which will be used to retire Ziggo Group debt ahead of the spin-off.
The new leadership appointments are (full biographies at the bottom of press release):
Jany Fruytier(previously announced) – Chief Financial Officer, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo
Luk Bruynseels – Chief Technology & Information Officer, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo
Soraya Loerts – Chief People Officer, Ziggo Group
Henry Harris – Chief Legal Officer, Ziggo Group
Sanchia Templar – Transformation Director, Ziggo Group
Sammy van Brakel – Chief of Staff, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo
Robin Kroes – Deputy CEO, VodafoneZiggo
Together, the Ziggo Group Leadership Team will be responsible for delivering these priorities and supporting long-term value creation, while preserving clear accountability within Telenet and VodafoneZiggo.
Stephen van Rooyen, Chief Executive Officer of Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo, said: “As we bring together Telenet and VodafoneZiggo, I am excited to be joined by a talented team with deep experience as we create a stronger platform to serve our customers across Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. We are building on the trusted brands, leading connectivity networks and strong relationships both businesses have established in their markets. Together, we have the scale, expertise and ambition to become the Benelux connectivity champion.”
Ziggo Group Leadership Biographies
Stephen van Rooyen, Chief Executive Officer, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo Stephen van Rooyen is Chief Executive Officer of Ziggo Group and CEO of VodafoneZiggo. He leads the combined Benelux connectivity business as it prepares for its intended listing in Amsterdam in mid-2027, while continuing in his role as CEO of VodafoneZiggo. Prior to his current role, he spent more than 17 years at Sky, where he served as CEO, UK and Ireland, and CEO of Sky Europe, with oversight of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. During his time at Sky he also held senior positions including Chief Marketing, Sales and Digital Officer. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at Virgin Media, News UK and Accenture in London and Australia.
John Porter, Chief Executive Officer, Telenet and Chairman, Wyre John Porter is Chief Executive Officer of Telenet since 2013 where he has led the company’s development from a traditional cable operator to a converged telecommunications, media and entertainment provider offering broadband, mobile and TV services. He is a global cable and telecommunications executive whose 44-year career has spanned the United States, Australia and Europe during the industry’s most transformative decades. He began with Group W Cable in Florida, Texas and Alabama before joining Warner Cable in Ohio, where he helped lead operations through cable’s rapid expansion era.
In the mid-1990s, Porter moved to Australia to co-found Austar, building regional pay television into a national platform. Austar was listed publicly in 1999 and later sold to Foxtel in 2012, marking one of the defining transactions in the Australian media market. Porter is a member of the Cable Hall of Fame, recognized for his enduring leadership, entrepreneurial vision and contribution to the global evolution of broadband and media.
Jany Fruytier, Chief Financial Officer, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo Jany Fruytier is Chief Financial Officer of Ziggo Group, with responsibility for its intended listing in mid-2027 and for its financial strategy, capital allocation and long-term value creation agenda. He also serves as Chief Financial Officer of VodafoneZiggo. Prior to this role, he led the successful 2024 spin-off of Sunrise, Liberty Global’s Swiss telecommunications business, which delivered significant value for shareholders. Throughout his career, Jany has developed extensive finance leadership experience, with a strong track record in business transformation, integration and value creation.
Luk Bruynseels, Chief Technology & Information Officer, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo Luk Bruynseels leads the technology agenda and teams across Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo, with responsibility for technology strategy, architecture, investment, design, execution and operations, while also overseeing Ziggo Tech Services. Luk brings extensive experience in technology and telecommunications, built through a career spanning senior leadership and board roles across the sector. He spent 16 years at Telenet, where he held a range of senior technology leadership positions, including Chief Technology Officer. Most recently, he served as Liberty Global’s Managing Director, Networks & Capital Allocation. He also holds a board position at Wyre, the network infrastructure company in Flanders.
Soraya Loerts, Chief People Officer, Ziggo Group Soraya Loerts leads Ziggo Group’s People agenda, with responsibility for shaping Ziggo Group leadership, talent development and executive reward, as well as developing shared organizational capabilities. Soraya has broad leadership experience across Commercial, Operations, Technology and HR, bringing deep expertise in leadership, talent and organizational effectiveness and a strong understanding of the VodafoneZiggo, Telenet and Liberty Global ecosystem. Over the past five years as MD, Global Talent & Chief DEI Officer at Liberty Global, she has worked across geographies to develop leaders, identify talent, strengthen organizational capability and build a shared purpose through the Global Belonging agenda.
Henry Harris, Chief Legal Officer, Ziggo Group Henry Harris leads Ziggo Group’s legal, governance and regulatory agenda, helping to ensure the market conditions are right to deliver the best possible experience for customers. Henry has extensive experience spanning legal, strategy and corporate transactions, most recently serving as Chief Strategy Officer and previously as General Counsel at AtlasEdge. Following more than a decade as a transaction lawyer at a global law firm, Henry was also Managing Director, Legal at Liberty Global, where he played a key role in landmark transactions across the telecommunications, media and infrastructure sectors.
Sanchia Templar, Transformation Director, Ziggo Group Sanchia Templar leads transformation efforts through our planned spin, helping ensure Ziggo Group is ready for its next phase as a standalone company. Sanchia brings deep telecoms transformation experience, including leadership roles at Orange UK, EE and British Telecom, where she supported the integration of British Telecom and EE. Both at British Telecom and other organisations she has helped drive major strategic and operational change programs on corporate and private equity backed transactions.
Sammy van Brakel, Chief of Staff, Ziggo Group and VodafoneZiggo Sammy van Brakel leads the Office of the CEO, serving as a strategic partner to the CEO and the Ziggo Group Leadership Team. Sammy has held a number of roles at VodafoneZiggo, including positions in HR and People Management, before moving into transformation and strategic leadership. She also currently serves as Chief of Staff to the VodafoneZiggo CEO, where she plays a key role in the company’s turnaround and transformation.
Robin Kroes, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, VodafoneZiggo Robin Kroes is Deputy CEO of VodafoneZiggo. He works closely with the CEO on VodafoneZiggo’s priorities and execution of the strategy – driving commercial and operational performance, strengthening cross-functional delivery and supporting alignment with Ziggo Group. Robin has more than 20 years’ experience in telecommunications, giving him a deep understanding of the Dutch market. He has a long history with the business, having held roles at both UPC and Ziggo. He retains his role as CCO at VodafoneZiggo, where he is responsible for the Consumer and Soho businesses.
ABOUT LIBERTY GLOBAL
Liberty Global Ltd. (Nasdaq: LBTYA, LBTYB, LBTYK) delivers long-term shareholder value through the strategic management of two complementary platforms: Liberty Telecom and Liberty Growth.
Liberty Telecom is a world leader in converged broadband, video and mobile communications, providing approximately 80 million fixed and mobile connections across Europe through advanced fiber and 5G networks that empower customers and strengthen national economies. The business generates aggregate revenue of $22 billion, including approximately $18 billion from nonconsolidated joint ventures and $4 billion from consolidated operations.
Liberty Growth invests in scalable businesses across the technology, media, sports and infrastructure sectors, with a portfolio of roughly 70 companies and funds valued at $3.4billion.*
Together, these platforms reflect Liberty Global’s focus on operating, enabling and investing in businesses with strong strategic fit and the potential to deliver sustainable long-term returns.
*As independently valued as of December 31, 2025.
ABOUT ZIGGO GROUP
Ziggo Group is a newly established Benelux champion in connectivity, entertainment and digital services, bringing together Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo and Telenet.
With 13 million customers and €6.6 billion in revenue, Ziggo Group combines strong national businesses in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg with greater scale at Group level.
The Group develops the shared strengths in technology, innovation and capital that multiply what each business can achieve on its own. This enables VodafoneZiggo and Telenet to invest more, move faster and grow in their own markets, where they remain fully responsible for their customers, people, culture and performance.
Ziggo Group is preparing for an intended listing on Euronext Amsterdam in mid-2027. Find out more at ziggogroup.com.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the combination of Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo and Telenet into a new holding company to be named Ziggo Group, the potential listing of the Ziggo Group shares for trading (together, the “Transaction”), the performance of Ziggo Group following the Transaction and other information and statements that are not historical fact. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the risk that we do not receive shareholder approval for certain aspects of the Transaction and/or related matters, our ability to satisfy the other conditions to the Transaction on the expected timeframe or at all, the approval of the shares of Ziggo Group for listing on the relevant stock exchange and the development of a trading market for them, the Liberty Global Board of Directors’ discretion to decide not to complete the Transaction for any reason, our ability to realize the expected benefits from the Transaction, unanticipated difficulties or costs in connection with the Transaction, Ziggo Group’s ability to successfully operate as an independent public company and maintain its relationships with material counterparties after the Transaction and other factors detailed from time to time in Liberty Global’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and in Liberty Global’s other filings with the SEC, as it may be updated or supplemented from time to time by our quarterly reports and other subsequent filings.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement.
ROSWELL, Ga., Sept. 15, 2026 /3BL/ – As part of its ongoing commitment to help businesses reduce their environmental impact, Kimberly-Clark Professional™ today announced an expansion of its Thrive™ sustainability program. The program, which already accepts qualifying towel dispensers, toilet paper dispensers and select wipes, has now expanded to include the full range of WypAll® and Kimtech™ wipes and eligible hand soap and sanitizer refill bottles*, extending the landfill diversion solution across more of the products businesses use every day.
Kimberly-Clark Professional’s Thrive™ program provides a process for collecting, shipping and tracking eligible nonhazardous used products.* The materials are converted into alternative fuel, which can offset the use of natural resources such as coal and natural gas, and the resulting ash is repurposed as an ingredient in cement manufacturing. According to a third-party life cycle assessment, using waste-derived alternative fuel in place of coal can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54%^.
“We’re committed to reducing our own environmental footprint while helping our customers do the same,” said Cristine Schulz, Associate Director of Sustainability, Kimberly-Clark Professional™. “By expanding the Thrive™ program, we’re giving customers more ways to put their sustainability priorities into action through the products and operations they manage every day.”
Since launching in late 2025, Thrive™ has already helped over 20 companies divert more than 175,000 pounds of waste from landfills. The expanded program builds on that momentum by making more commonly used facility products eligible for diversion and giving customers additional opportunities to help reduce waste generated through everyday operations.
Thrive™ also provides customers with visibility into their landfill diversion efforts through traceable reporting. Customers can quantify diversion metrics and monitor progress over time to help sustainability teams understand their impact and confidently communicate progress toward their sustainability goals.
The expanded program may be particularly beneficial for hospitality, retail, entertainment and other away-from-home environments where restroom experiences contribute to overall brand perception. Such locations are increasingly balancing expectations for cleanliness, guest satisfaction and environmental stewardship.
The Thrive™ expansion is part of Kimberly-Clark Professional’s™ broader commitment to reducing environmental impact and helping businesses turn their sustainability priorities into meaningful, measurable action.
*Qualified products are eligible for landfill diversion so long as after use they are non-hazardous as classified by federal, state and local regulations.
^Based on third-party Life Cycle Assessment of a waste stream replacing coal as alternative fuel in a cement kiln instead of being landfilled
About Kimberly-Clark Professional™ Kimberly-Clark Professional™ partners with businesses to achieve their goals while enhancing the well-being of their employees and guests with quality hygiene and personal care solutions. Key brands in this away-from-home segment include Kleenex®, Cottonelle®, Scott® and WypAll®. To see how Kimberly-Clark Professional™ is helping businesses create a better clean, together, please visit the Kimberly-Clark Professional™ website.
Across DP World’s Canadian operations, women are making an impact at every level of our business — from frontline terminal operations to corporate roles supporting our global logistics network.
In this video, colleagues from across our Canadian enterprise share what it means to build a career in an industry that has historically been male dominated, and how creating an inclusive workplace can help people see new possibilities for themselves and their futures.
Their experiences reflect the importance of opportunity: being encouraged to take on new challenges, having the support to grow, and knowing that your contributions are valued regardless of your role or background.
By bringing different perspectives and experiences to the table, DP World is helping create a workplace where more people can build careers, develop their potential, and help shape the future of trade and logistics.
Hear directly from some of the women across our Canada team about their experiences, what inclusion means to them, and why opportunity matters.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., September 15, 2026 /3BL/ – Discovery Education today released Education Insights 2026-2027: Learning with Purpose, a national research report conducted with Hanover Research. Drawing on insights from more than 1,000 K–12 leaders, educators, and students across the U.S., the report shows a clear gap between career-readiness goals and classroom reality: students often form career interests well before high school, but experience career-connected learning later, and less often, than educators believe they do.
Across every role and grade band surveyed, both teachers and administrators (99%) and students (91%) agreed that schools have an important part to play in preparing students for their futures. That consensus, however, does not translate into a consistent classroom experience. Administrators report weekly career learning at nearly four times the rate students do (71% versus 19%), and they are also more likely than teachers to say schools effectively prepare students for future careers (92% versus 68%). Just 10% of middle school students report learning about careers in class every week, the lowest share of any grade band.
States, employers, and educators increasingly agree on the need to prepare students for life beyond graduation. Already, 43 states have added at least one career-focused indicator in their accountability systems. In the workplace, 84% of hiring managers say most high school students are not prepared to enter the workforce, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Yet teachers say they need more support to make career connections a consistent part of everyday instruction, with 95% reporting a need for additional resources. The gap between ambition and reality means that most students aren’t offered structured career learning until after interests have formed.
“When career-connected learning meets students’ curiosity as early as kindergarten, we see the kind of deep engagement that fuels academic rigor and prepares students for what comes after graduation,” said Amy Nakamoto, Chief Commercial Officer at Discovery Education. “This research confirms that career readiness can’t be confined to a single program or grade band. It must be a design principle built into standards-aligned instruction across every grade, so students can grow from early exploration to confidence in their skills and choices.”
Educators Want More Classroom-Ready Support
More than nine in 10 educators say career readiness is as important to measure as academic achievement, yet only 37% say career readiness is embedded in instruction and 77% say bringing it into core learning is difficult in practice. With 93% of teachers also calling for more frequent career exploration at school, the report points to a clear need for practical support educators can use within everyday instruction.
Career Interests Start Before High School
The data shows career curiosity starts early and often outpaces the support schools provide. Among students surveyed, 78% say they discovered a career that genuinely interested them before reaching high school, including 54% who trace that interest back to elementary school. And 81% of students say career exploration should begin before high school altogether.
Middle School Is a Critical Gap
Middle school is a high-pressure, low-support moment: nearly 90% of middle school teachers believe students learn about careers too late, more than half of middle school students say they do not know much about options beyond college, and 58% feel pressure to pursue college even when another path might fit them better.
Career Connections Work Best Inside Daily Instruction
The report points to a clear path forward. Isolated career events register as the least influential factor in shaping student career interest: just 6% of students named field trips as a top influence on their career aspirations. By contrast, skill-building was named one of the most effective career-readiness effort by students (70%), teachers (84%), and administrators (92%), suggesting that career readiness resonates most when it is built into what students are already learning and doing in class, rather than treated as a separate initiative.
Hands-On Learning and Future-Ready Skills Matter Most
Teachers rank real-world, hands-on learning opportunities as the top resource that would improve career instruction, 10 percentage points above any other option. Those experiences can help students build not only career awareness, but also the durable skills needed for success in a changing workforce. As AI transforms how people work, 93% of educators and 82% of students say knowing how to work with AI tools will matter for future careers, while students continue to prioritize communication, problem-solving, adaptability, and creativity.
The report’s findings were reinforced by educators who participated in the research, many of whom described the importance of introducing career exploration earlier and making future connections more visible in everyday learning.
“Connecting learning to future careers gives students a reason to stay engaged and see the value in what they’re learning,” said Tavauna Owens, a fifth-grade math and science teacher in Broward County Public Schools, Florida. “Introducing career awareness early helps build confidence, spark curiosity, and show students that the skills they develop today can lead to exciting opportunities in the future.”
Education Insights 2026-2027: Learning with Purpose builds on a point of view Discovery Education has been developing across its work with schools nationwide: that career-connected learning works best as a design principle woven into daily, standards-aligned instruction from kindergarten forward, not a separate program bolted onto the school year. Solutions such as Discovery Education Experience and Career Connect bring that thinking into the classroom, embedding real-world relevance, standards-aligned career exploration, and future-ready skill-building directly into daily instruction.
The survey was conducted by Hanover Research on behalf of Discovery Education in May 2026 and included 1,009 K-12 superintendents, principals, curriculum directors, teachers, and students across the United States. Hanover Research also conducted live interviews with stakeholder groups to add depth to the survey findings.
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About Discovery Education
Discovery Education is a global education technology leader whose innovative solutions empower educators and progress student learning. Discovery Education’s solutions have served more than 100 million students globally, supporting effective teaching and learning in 45% of U.S. K-12 schools and in 100+ countries and territories. The company’s portfolio includes award-winning core and supplemental curriculum, high-quality standards-aligned content, and AI-enabled teaching and learning tools. Solutions span math, science, literacy, social studies, and career-connected learning, including instructionally aligned content developed through one-of-a-kind partnerships with industry leaders to bring real-world relevance into every lesson. Learn more at www.discoveryeducation.com.
About Hanover Research
Founded in 2003, Hanover Research is a global research and analytics firm. Hanover was named a Top 50 Market Research Firm by the American Marketing Association. Learn more at www.hanoverresearch.com.
Enterprise AI runs on physical infrastructure – power, cooling, and sovereign placement. ServiceFabric® Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the programmable layer that makes that foundation AI-native across Digital Realty’s global platform
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the world’s largest cloud- and carrier-neutral data center platform, today announced the availability of ServiceFabric® Model Context Protocol (MCP), an emerging open protocol that helps make infrastructure programmable for Private AI environments. ServiceFabric MCP extends Digital Realty’s global interconnection platform with programmable controls designed for enterprise AI deployments. The launch reflects Digital Realty’s view that the next era of enterprise AI will be defined by physical infrastructure – power density, advanced cooling, and sovereign placement – made programmable through open, AI-native control.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an emerging open standard that can enable AI systems and agents to securely interact with infrastructure, applications, and enterprise services through standardized interfaces. These capabilities help enterprises securely connect AI workloads, data, and infrastructure across distributed environments. Across more than 800 Digital Realty and third-party data centers, ServiceFabric MCP extends Digital Realty’s global platform into a programmable foundation for deploying and managing enterprise AI infrastructure at scale.
“Our strategy is simple: provide the foundational infrastructure enterprises need for sustained AI workloads, while enabling flexible scale as demand grows. ServiceFabric MCP extends the foundation of AIPx with programmable controls and agent-ready interfaces, and our patent position reflects the long-term investment we’ve made in this architecture,” said Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Realty.
Validated Across Digital Realty’s Platform and Ecosystem ServiceFabric MCP and AIPx, Digital Realty’s private interconnection fabric for AI workloads, are being validated across internal deployments, enterprise AI environments, and partner ecosystem implementations.
“Enterprise adoption of Private AI infrastructure has reached an inflection point. Production AI workloads now demand control over data movement, policy enforcement, and partner integration that public cloud APIs alone cannot deliver. Providers combining global footprint with programmable, agent-ready interconnection are well positioned to support this next wave of enterprise AI investment,” said Mary Johnston Turner, Research VP, IDC.
Digital Realty has launched AI solutions with partners including ePlus, Lenovo, and Dell, built on infrastructure powered by technologies from NVIDIA and AMD. Additional providers are in active development.
Proven Internally, Validated by Customers Digital Realty operates ServiceFabric MCP and related AIPx across its own infrastructure environments, using internal AI workloads and operational deployments. These deployments help Digital Realty validate and orchestrate its own AI infrastructure. Insights from these internal deployments are now helping inform customer AI infrastructure implementations.
“At See All AI, we are developing advanced medical imaging AI systems that demand both massive compute performance and highly scalable data infrastructure. Digital Realty’s Boston campus and ServiceFabric provide the high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity required to support our NVIDIA DGX B200 environment, enabling secure movement of large imaging datasets, dynamic connectivity to cloud resources, and the operational resiliency needed for production healthcare AI,” said T. Michael Thornton, Chief Executive Officer, See All AI.
What ServiceFabric MCP Delivers ServiceFabric MCP provides an AI-native control surface across four capability areas:
Design and provisioning: enabling intent-based connectivity design, provisioning, and API access through MCP.
Discovery and telemetry: allowing real-time capacity, topology, and inventory discovery, plus live network telemetry signals covering throughput, latency, and link health.
Identity and security: enabling identity and access control via OAuth 2, with programmable controls over network connectivity.
Operations integration: allowing agent-assisted diagnostics and troubleshooting, with integration hooks for Slack, Microsoft Teams, Splunk, and Datadog.
Open by Design ServiceFabric MCP is built for how enterprises deploy AI – across public cloud, network service providers, bare metal platforms, and other colocation environments – supporting commercial, open-source, and future AI models. Connections remain private, operating at Layer 2 and Layer 3 with strong authentication and access controls. Enterprises are not required to operate exclusively in Digital Realty facilities, and they are not required to commit to a single AI model.
The First Programmable Surface of a Foundation for AI Architecture ServiceFabric MCP is designed as the first programmable surface of Digital Realty’s broader Foundation for AI architecture. Over time, that architecture is expected to extend beyond programmable networking into space, power, inventory, partner ecosystems, and sovereign deployment patterns. Digital Realty sees ServiceFabric MCP as a key part of its broader private AI infrastructure strategy.
Availability By exposing programmable controls and agent-ready interfaces across the global platform, ServiceFabric MCP is designed to help shorten enterprise time-to-deployment for Private AI workloads and support a broader ecosystem of customers and partners building AI infrastructure on Digital Realty’s platform. ServiceFabric MCP is available today.
About Digital Realty Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation, from cloud and digital transformation to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 55+ metros across 30+ countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.
Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the company’s strategy, expectations, anticipated benefits of ServiceFabric MCP and related technologies, availability and participation of partners, emerging technologies including AI, expected growth in digital transformation, customer demand for company’s products and services and growth, and adoption of private AI infrastructure. For a list and description of risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
The company’s agentic AI engine recognized for industry innovation and impact
Paychex WISE recognized as one HR Executive’s Top HR Products of the Year in 2026
Built on Paychex’s trusted HR, payroll, and workforce expertise, WISE combines embedded AI capabilities with expert guidance to proactively identify issues, automate workflows, and drive better business outcomes
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Paychex (Nasdaq: PAYX), a leading provider of expert-enabled HR, payroll, and benefits, today announced that WISE (Workforce Intelligence Strengthened by Expertise), the company’s AI-powered intelligence engine, has been named a Top HR Product by HR Executive. WISE is one of only 14 solutions to earn the designation for 2026.
Hosted by HR Executive and HR Tech, the annual Top HR Products competition aims to uncover the most impactful and forward-thinking technologies introduced into the market over the last year. Each submission is reviewed by a panel of esteemed judges and then assessed for innovation, functionality, ease of use and value to HR organizations. After a rigorous evaluation and live product demonstration, WISE was recognized as a Top HR Product of 2026.
“The future of AI in HR is not simply providing information or answering questions — it is delivering real intelligence that can help organizations confidently take action,” said Ryan Bergstrom, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Paychex. “Being named a Top HR Product winner by HR Executive – one of our industries most respected award programs – validates our vision for WISE and the value it is delivering to businesses every day. We are proud to be redefining what AI can do by combining trusted expertise, proprietary workforce insights, and agentic AI capabilities that help our customers anticipate issues, make better decisions, and complete work more efficiently.”
Since its launch in May 2026, WISE has helped customers proactively prevent payroll errors and unlock operational efficiency, while also enabling Paychex service teams to focus on providing customers with higher-value support.
Specifically, Intelligent Pay Cycle, powered by WISE, continuously monitors payroll workflows for anomalies and proactively flags missing pay data, incomplete time records, and unresolved approvals before they become payroll issues. Key results to date include:
Enabled proactive payroll management, with nearly 90% of identified time and pay rate errors corrected before payroll processing day.
Reduced review and resolution times for direct deposit changes, decreasing the average turnaround from approximately three days to less than two days.
WISE represents a fundamental shift in how intelligence is applied within HR, moving from user-directed tools to an agentic platform embedded directly into HR, payroll, and workforce management workflows. WISE underpins Paychex’s strategy to power people and performance through agents, intelligence, and assistants — while seamlessly connecting customers to human expertise when it matters most. Together, these capabilities deliver actionable insights, expert guidance, and agentic automation that help organizations work faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
Industry analyst and judge Madeline Laurano said, “The most compelling HR technologies do more than just address the challenges HR teams face today – they help anticipate what’s next. This year’s Top HR Product winners show how innovation, grounded in market needs, can deliver greater efficiency, better insights and more strategic value. These are the kinds of solutions that move the industry forward and redefine what’s possible for HR.”
Paychex will be honored on Monday, October 19, during the HR Icons Awards Evening at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the night before HR Tech 2026. Those attending the conference will have the opportunity to see Paychex’s award-winning WISE in action by visiting Booth #4227 during expo hours Tuesday, October 20 to Thursday, October 22.
More information about WISE and AI at Paychex is available at paychex.com/ai.
AboutHR Executive Established in 1987, HR Executive is the premier global media company covering strategic issues in HR. Part of the Arc network, HR Executive provides more than 175,000 subscribers with news, content and analysis of global HR trends. HR Executive is where HR professionals go when they need to know, providing in-depth coverage on all facets of human resource management, including recruiting, talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, learning and development, employment law, talent management, the latest technologies and more. Visit hrexecutive.com.
About HR Tech HR Tech is the industry’s premier event series showcasing breakthrough HR technologies, with its flagship U.S. conference serving as its cornerstone since 1997. HR Tech in the U.S. features the world’s largest expo of innovative HR solutions, live product demonstrations and the industry’s preeminent startup competition. The HR Tech portfolio has expanded globally with additional annual events in Europe and Asia, creating a worldwide network of innovation hubs that shape the future of work.
HR Tech is part of the event arm of HR Executive, a prestigious global media company established in 1987 that delivers news, content and analysis of strategic HR trends to more than 220,000 subscribers worldwide. The synergy between the events and media channels enables the brands to create a comprehensive knowledge ecosystem that addresses all aspects of human resource management, establishing the organization as the definitive authority for visionary HR leaders. Visit www.HRTechConference.com to learn more.
About WISE WISE (Workforce Intelligence Strengthened by Expertise) is the AI-powered intelligence engine transforming business operations with embedded context-aware intelligence, expert-enabled guidance, and autonomous execution. With Paychex’s five decades of trusted data and human expertise at its core, WISE transforms AI from a passive tool to expert-designed agentic workflows with the ability to complete tasks autonomously, making work faster, smarter, and more efficient
About Paychex Paychex, Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYX) provides a comprehensive suite of expert-enabled technology and advisory solutions that help businesses manage HR, payroll, and benefits. Serving approximately 840,000 clients and paying 1 in 11 U.S. private sector workers, Paychex combines scale, trusted expertise, and innovation to help businesses succeed. Built on more than 50 years of workforce experience and one of the industry’s largest proprietary HR datasets, Paychex’s WISE agentic AI engine embeds intelligence directly into workflows to improve productivity, enhance decision-making, and deliver better outcomes. Learn more at paychex.com.
Media Contact Chelsea Wernick Public Relations Program Manager Paychex, Inc. (585) 216-2974 cwernick@paychex.com
Expanded solution includes new FlexGen Multi-Die product to address the challenge of efficient data movement for an industry that is shifting to multi-die architectures, while preserving quality of service and architectural flexibility across chip boundaries
CAMPBELL, Calif., Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Arteris, Inc. (Nasdaq: AIP), a leading provider of semiconductor technology for accelerating innovation in the AI era, today announced an expansion of its multi-die portfolio that helps semiconductor companies transition from monolithic system-on-chip (SoC) designs to chiplet-based architectures for AI, HPC and consumer electronics applications, without having to reinvent how data moves through the system.
Semiconductor companies are increasingly adopting multi-die architectures to address the demands of AI computing. They are now building systems that extend beyond the practical size limits of a single die, optimizing individual chiplets for different process technologies and dividing a system across multiple dies. This introduces a new challenge: communication that previously occurred within one SoC must now cross physical chip boundaries, while maintaining performance, efficiency, and predictable traffic behavior.
Arteris addresses this challenge by extending network-on-chip (NoC) connectivity and data movement transparently across die-to-die links, allowing multiple dies to operate as a unified architecture. The new FlexGen Multi-Die product expands this approach for non-coherent AI and high-performance computing architectures and complements Ncore Multi-Die for cache-coherent systems.
Together with Arteris Magillem integration automation and Cycuity hardware security assurance, the expanded portfolio provides semiconductor engineering teams with technologies spanning data movement, system integration, and security for increasingly complex multi-die designs.
“Multi-die architectures represent one of the most important changes in semiconductor design since the introduction of the SoC itself,” said K. Charles Janac, president and CEO of Arteris. “As systems expand beyond the boundaries of a single piece of silicon, the challenge is no longer simply connecting chiplets; it is preserving the intelligence of the architecture across them. Our goal is to help engineering teams gain the benefits of multi-die architectures without having to reinvent the system every time they divide it across another piece of silicon.”
Extending NoC interconnect technology across chip boundaries
In a monolithic SoC, NoC technology serves as the fabric that enables processors, memory subsystems, accelerators and other functions to communicate and share data. Moving to a multi-die architecture creates physical boundaries between those functions, potentially requiring engineering teams to define and manage additional interfaces between chiplets.
Arteris extends NoC connectivity transparently across those boundaries, without reinventing the system. The new FlexGen Multi-Die NoC IP supports bidirectional transactions over a single UCIe PHY, reducing PHY area, power and I/O requirements by up to 50%. This approach allows engineering teams to preserve important NoC capabilities across die-to-die links, rather than treating each chiplet boundary as a separate system integration problem.
FlexGen Multi-Die is designed for non-coherent AI and HPC architectures and supports virtual channel link technology to improve utilization of limited chiplet I/O resources and advanced quality-of-service (QoS) mechanisms that maintain throughput for high-priority traffic across shared die-to-die links. These capabilities help engineering teams use available bandwidth efficiently, while scaling designs across multiple dies.
The broader Arteris multi-die portfolio includes:
FlexGen Multi-Die for non-coherent AI and HPC architectures, extending efficient data movement and QoS capabilities across die boundaries.
Ncore Multi-Die for cache-coherent compute architectures, enabling coherent connectivity and efficient data sharing across multiple dies.
Magillem integration automation, which helps automate IP packaging, chiplet and multi-die integration, and hardware/software integration to reduce engineering effort and development complexity.
Cycuity hardware security assurance*, which helps engineering teams identify vulnerabilities earlier in development and verify security requirements across increasingly complex multi-die systems.
Together, these capabilities give semiconductor companies a more evolutionary path from monolithic SoCs to multi-die architectures, while helping engineering teams improve design reuse, reduce integration complexity and bring differentiated products to market faster.
From monolithic designs to multi-die products
Arteris customers are already using the company’s technology as they transition existing architectures from single-die implementations to multi-die products.
“As Agentic AI workloads continue to expand across cloud infrastructure, edge and endpoint devices, multi-die architectures are becoming increasingly important for balancing performance, scalability, and development efficiency,” said Jason Miller, senior director, Silicon Design at AMD. “Solutions that simplify system integration, while preserving bandwidth and performance across chiplets, help engineering teams accelerate innovation and bring differentiated products to market faster. Arteris’ continued expansion of its multi-die portfolio supports the flexibility and productivity required for our next generation of data center, client, gaming, and embedded compute products.”
“The future of advanced semiconductor design is inherently multi-die” said Daisuke Murakami, executive chief engineer, Global Leading Group at Socionext. “By collaborating with Arteris on its UCIe-based multi-die solution, we gain early access to technologies that simplify chiplet integration while enabling the scalability, bandwidth and efficiency needed for next-generation AI, automotive and data-center SoCs.”
Building toward a broader chiplet ecosystem
As multi-die adoption expands, interoperability among NoC technologies, die-to-die interfaces, chiplet IP, design tools and advanced packaging technologies will become increasingly important. Arteris is working with semiconductor IP and ecosystem partners to help reduce integration risk and establish more reusable foundations for multi-die design.
“Physical AI systems require right-sized inference and scalable architectures that seamlessly integrate diverse compute technologies while meeting stringent power, performance, safety, security, and reliability requirements,” said David Glasco, vice president of R&D, Silicon Solutions Group at Cadence. “By combining the comprehensive Cadence Physical AI platform, IP, and security solutions with Arteris’ NoC IP, our collaboration enables accelerated silicon realization and trusted system deployment from cloud to edge. This reusable foundation helps customers scale physical AI systems more efficiently, reduce development risk, and speed time to market. Together, Cadence and Arteris provide a seamless path from specification to silicon to deployment, accelerating innovation across the physical AI ecosystem.”
“An open chiplet ecosystem requires architectural frameworks that simplify the integration of specialized dies into scalable, manufacturable systems,” said Suresh Subramaniam Ph.D., CTO, systems and advanced packaging at Silitronics. “We plan to leverage Arteris FlexGen technology in our development of an OCP-derived chiplet architecture, combining intelligent die-to-die connectivity with Silitronics’ system-level design, advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration capabilities to help customers bring differentiated multi-die solutions to market faster.”
“As multi-die designs become increasingly central to AI and high-performance computing innovation, interoperability across the chiplet ecosystem is critical to reducing design complexity and accelerating adoption,” said Neeraj Paliwal, senior vice president of product management at Synopsys. “The successful validation of interoperability between Synopsys’ silicon-proven UCIe IP, delivering high-bandwidth, low-latency die-to-die connectivity, and Arteris Ncore Cache Coherent NoC IP for multi-die designs helps customers confidently integrate chiplets, reduce integration risk, and enable silicon success.”
“UCIe provides an open, high-performance foundation for integrating chiplets across different functions and process technologies,” said Mao Liu, vice president at UniVista. “By working with Arteris to validate interoperability between UniVista UCIe IP and Arteris Ncore Multi-Die, we aim to provide customers with a more integrated path to scalable, cache-coherent multi-die designs for AI, high-performance computing and other compute-intensive applications.”
A practical path to the chiplet future
AI compute systems of the future require the transparent data movement solutions that Arteris is bringing to the industry, to speed the development and delivery of advanced heterogeneous systems. The new FlexGen Multi-Die product transparently extends non-coherent connectivity across die boundaries, enabling engineering teams to address different connectivity requirements across future multi-die SoC implementations.
The expanded Arteris multi-die solution is available today to early access partners and strategic customers. Learn more at arteris.com/multi-die.
About Arteris
Arteris is a leading provider of semiconductor technology that accelerates the creation of high-performance, power-efficient silicon with built-in safety, reliability, and security. Innovative Arteris products are designed to optimize data movement and help ease complexity in the modern AI era with network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect intellectual property (IP), system-on-chip (SoC) software for integration automation and hardware security assurance. All are used by the world’s top technology companies to improve overall performance and engineering productivity, reduce risk, lower costs, and bring cutting-edge designs to market faster. Learn more at arteris.com.
Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the Company’s expectations, plans, objectives, outlook, projected financial or operating results, market opportunities, product development, and/or business strategy. These statements are based on management’s current expectations, estimates, assumptions, and projections and are not historical facts. Words such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “plan,” “intend,” “project,” “potential,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including economic and market conditions; supply-chain constraints; technological developments; regulatory changes; litigation; cybersecurity risks; availability of capital; and other risks. Additional information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as required by applicable law.
Part of the newly renamed Netskope Skylight AI Security suite, Agent Action Control classifies agentic actions by risk and blocks the ones that matter before they execute
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, today announced Netskope Skylight Agent Action Control, a new capability that classifies every action an AI agent attempts, and applies granular controls to stop high-risk actions before they execute. The capability meets security teams’ need for a policy-based way to govern, rather than react to, what autonomous agents are permitted to do.
Agent Action Control arrives as Netskope renames its AI security portfolio to better communicate the company’s broad capabilities across AI security. Formerly Netskope One AI Security, Netskope Skylight is the new family name for the suite of Netskope AI security products including Netskope Skylight AI Command Center, Netskope Skylight AI Guardrails, Netskope Skylight AI Gateway, Netskope Skylight Agentic Broker, and Netskope Skylight AI Red Teaming.
Netskope Skylight Agent Action Control
Today, 91% of organizations cannot stop a risky agent action before it executes1, and 54% reported a confirmed or suspected AI agent security incident in the past year2. With Netskope Skylight Agent Action Control, teams can more effectively govern what an agent is attempting to do thanks to:
Control over nine different types of action: To enable granular policy definition, every agent action is classified into one of nine intent-based categories prior to execution. These include, access control changes, configuration changes, credential and secret manipulation, data destruction, infrastructure provisioning, potential data exfiltration, potential external communication, remote code execution, or source code change.
Risk-based policy profiles by agent type: Block, allow or alert based on low, medium, high or critical risk categories, with the option to send a default or custom notification to the end-user for user coaching when the action is blocked. Profiles attach to specific agents, so a coding assistant and a chat application do not have to operate under the same rules.
Granular policy alerts: Every action is logged, with security teams able to filter policy alerts by cost exposure, source code changes, infrastructure updates, or external communication to align investigation effort with organization risk prioritization.
No new console and no new agent: Netskope Skylight Agent Action Control runs on network traffic the Netskope platform already inspects, so security teams gain enforcement over agent behavior without deploying a separate tool or standing up a second console.
The result is a policy that governs what an agent is allowed to do before it acts. When a coding agent working from a vague prompt attempts to delete a production repository, for example, the action is classified as data destruction at a critical risk level, and the call is stopped before it reaches the repository. The security team gets a record of the attempt instead of an incident report. This approach provides governance and controls over agents at risk of “authority drift”, or whose harness or instructions are too vague or permissive.
“AI agents tend to act first and explain later, and most security teams only learn what happened after it is done,” said John Martin, Chief Product Officer, Netskope. “Agent Action Control puts a decision in front of every action an agent takes, so a team can say yes to agentic AI without saying yes to the one action that could cost them a production system.”
“As enterprises accelerate adoption of AI agents, we’re finding that probabilistic controls are sometimes insufficient to protect the enterprise, but even occasional failure is unacceptable,” said Dr. Grace Trinidad, Research Director for AI Security and Trust at IDC. “These hardened, policy-based, deterministic controls are the backstop that prevents AI agents from causing an enterprise incident.”
Netskope Skylight Agent Action Control will be available at the end of the current quarter. To learn more about Netskope Skylight, visit netskope.com/skylight.
About Netskope Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, addresses the needs of both security and networking teams by providing optimized access and real-time, context-based security for the AI ecosystem inclusive of agents, applications, tools, LLMs, people, devices, and data. Thousands of customers, including more than 30% of the Fortune 100, trust the Netskope One platform, its Zero Trust Engine, and its powerful NewEdge network to reduce risk and gain full visibility and control over cloud, AI, SaaS, web, and private applications — providing security and accelerating performance without trade-offs.
