In the US, e-commerce is something like a fifth of retail sales and analysts predict that AI will account for someting in the region of a tenth of e-commrce sales three years from now, so AI will influence around $150 billion of consumer purchases.
How shopping chatbots might transform retail
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If the shoppers are chatbots and not humans, will they be swayed by adverts, or trained to ignore them?
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How shopping chatbots might transform retail
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According to data from analytics firm Similarweb, Walmart’s efforts have helped to double its share of referrals from AI, measured against a sample of major retailers and marketplaces, to 32.5 per cent over the course of 2025.
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How shopping chatbots might transform retail
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Yet the advent of agentic AI also threatens to start unpicking an online retail ecosystem that has cost billions of dollars of investment to create. Control over customer relationships and data troves that have been built up over decades could be partially ceded to intermediaries.
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Illicit crypto flows surge to record $158bn
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A record $158bn of digital tokens was sent to crypto wallets controlled by criminals last year, underscoring how the fast-growing digital assets industry is increasingly being used to facilitate illicit activity globally.
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Obinna on X: “Stablecoins as a tool for FX price discovery” / X
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Across nearly every market I tracked, USDT traded at a premium to the official dollar price. The size varied – by country, and within countries as monetary policy shifted – but the premium persisted throughout the year.
From: Obinna on X: “Stablecoins as a tool for FX price discovery” / X.
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Who are agentic payments actually for? (TWIF 1/30)
A common question was: What will payment agents actually be used for?
A few of my very rough thoughts:
One of the most intuitive answers is that SaaS with agents as a core user will be able to support usage-based billing and metering with micropayments.
Right now there’s a lot of decision architecture in billing and AP/AR that’s designed around human-in-the-loop payments, which can change for real-time cashflows.
Online digital media is another area with a clearly broken commercial product right now. Users either: (1) pay more than they want for many subscriptions they only use some of the time or (2) don’t pay, and navigate through significant ad-load on free news sites that make it difficult to absorb content.
Commercial payments use cases are both more complex and more repeatable. They also generate more ‘data exhaust’ in the form of invoice memos and transaction tagging. I think this means that commercial agentic payments are likely to take off well before consumer.
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Who are agentic payments actually for? (TWIF 1/30)
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KYA (know your agent) and digital ID will become much more important. there will need to be a taxonomy of transaction types.
What level of idenfication and human consent is required for a $10 transaction?
For $10,000?
For a mortgage?
For medical records?
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Apple introduces new AirTag with expanded range and improved findability – Apple
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Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11 — powers the new AirTag, making it easier to locate than ever before. Using haptic, visual, and audio feedback, Precision Finding guides users to their lost items from up to 50 percent farther away than the previous generation.1 And an upgraded Bluetooth chip expands the range at which items can be located. For the first time, users can use Precision Finding on Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, to find their AirTag, bringing a powerful experience to the wrist.
From: Apple introduces new AirTag with expanded range and improved findability – Apple.
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Individual behind $40 million government wallet theft is son of seized-crypto contractor executive: ZachXBT | The Block
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Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has alleged that the individual behind a multimillion-dollar theft of cryptocurrency from U.S. government wallets is the son of the head of a company contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service to custody seized digital assets.
According to ZachXBT’s investigation, an individual known online as “Lick,” real name John Daghita, is allegedly involved in siphoning tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto from government wallets. Furthermore, ZachXBT has alleged that Daghita is the son of Dean Daghita, the chief executive of CMDSS, a company holding a government custody contract.
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Snippings 