BOSTON – November 03, 2026 -- Only 54% of consumers trust that advertised Black Friday prices are genuinely lower than usual, and one in five actively distrust them, according to a survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Promotion fatigue is also spreading. 22% of consumers plan to spend less or skip year-end sales events because they believe discounts are available all the time.

Shoppers have not raised the bar for a good deal. The expected minimum discount eased to about 30%, from 32% in 2025.

Alpharetta – November 03, 2026 -- Generative large language models (LLMs) computing financial figures directly achieved an exact precision rate of 63.5%, against 100% for SigmaCore.ai's deterministic Eliza engine, according to a benchmark study released by the Georgia-based AI developer.

Code execution lifts LLM accuracy to 94.7% but adds formula-selection risk

The study, titled "Can We Trust the AI to Do the Math?", covered 3,400 financial test cases. LLMs with code execution enabled reached 94.7% exact precision.

New York – – November 03, 2026 -- Egan-Jones Ratings warns that free open-source software and artificial intelligence are weakening software incumbents' staying power, and that some credit models overstate how secure incumbency is. The commentary is addressed to institutional investors and risk managers holding software and platform credit.

Jena – November 02, 2026 -- State-backed hacking groups from Russia, Iran, North Korea and China are expanding their activity and tailoring campaigns to global conflicts, according to ESET's latest APT Activity Report. Targets include governments, defense contractors, critical infrastructure, technology providers and institutions in geopolitical crisis regions.

Lyndhurst, N.J. – November 02, 2026 -- Only about 16% of 38 higher education institutions surveyed by Marts&Lundy offer incentive compensation to advancement staff, while more than 40% of those without a program are considering one, according to a new benchmarking study from the fundraising consultancy.

Berlin – November 02, 2026 -- Almost 82% of surveyed trade fair visitors say fairs let them experience things that are not possible in the digital space in the same way, the highest agreement score in a new study by German trade fair association AUMA. The survey of 1,855 respondents is the first of its kind. It was launched because winning visitors for exhibition stands increasingly appears as a challenge in AUMA's annual exhibitor and organiser surveys.

Germany hosts more than 300 trade fairs a year, drawing around 13 million visitors.

Wilhelmshaven – November 02, 2026 -- A study commissioned by Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) concludes that importing synthetic methane (SNG) through the planned LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven would be uneconomic and inefficient, undermining the operator's case for a long-term switch to green gases.

Hamburg – November 02, 2026 -- Two-thirds of companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland move fewer than a quarter of their AI pilot projects into regular operations, according to a study by Lünendonk & Hossenfelder in cooperation with Sopra Steria. Only 1% have integrated AI agents across more than one core business process.

Sopra Steria concludes that strict internal governance, data quality and compliance structures, often seen as brakes on innovation, are what allow AI agents to scale.

Hanover – – November 02, 2026 -- Adults in Germany cover about 190 million kilometers per day by bicycle and e-bike, according to a longitudinal mobility study from bicycle insurer and leasing provider Linexo. The total splits into roughly 130 million km by conventional bike and 60 million km by e-bike, about 4,750 times the circumference of the Earth.

Phoenix – October 31, 2026 -- Sixty-two percent of employers say their employees are developing AI skills faster than their organizations can adapt, according to findings cited in a new University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies white paper on rural workforce development.