AI agents start paying supplier invoices in Visa, BILL and Billtrust pilot
AI agents start paying supplier invoices in Visa, BILL and Billtrust pilot

Visa, BILL and Billtrust have started a live pilot in which AI agents pay approved supplier invoices from start to finish. The agents pay through suppliers’ own payment portals. The three companies call it the first live pilot of its kind. Until now, m…

Sierra and Stripe let AI agents take card payments during calls
Sierra and Stripe let AI agents take card payments during calls

Sierra, the AI customer service startup led by Bret Taylor, has partnered with Stripe so its agents can take card payments during phone calls. Customers type their card number on the keypad and the data goes straight to Stripe. Healthcare billing firm …

Amazon will hire 300,000 for the holidays as other retailers hold back
Amazon will hire 300,000 for the holidays as other retailers hold back

Amazon plans to hire more than 300,000 US workers for the holiday season, up 20% from last year, with seasonal staff paid an average of $20 an hour. It is adding health cover for seasonal workers who stay into January. Overall US seasonal retail hiring…

Revolut outage leaves customers unable to use app or cards
Revolut outage leaves customers unable to use app or cards

Revolut customers across Europe were unable to open the fintech’s app or pay with their cards on Tuesday morning, after a service disruption hit several of its features. Outage tracker Downdetector logged more than 1,500 reports at that point, and user…

AI agents broke into 100+ sites for one hacker at $50 each, researcher says
AI agents broke into 100+ sites for one hacker at $50 each, researcher says

A cybersecurity researcher watched a Chinese-speaking hacker break into the websites of more than 100 companies, leaving almost all the work to AI agents. Snorre Fagerland, principal threat researcher at NorForge, set out the findings on Monday in a re…

Kroger will cut 37% of its corporate workforce as it leans on technology
Kroger will cut 37% of its corporate workforce as it leans on technology

“Our company has more layers, more handoffs and more overhead than we need, so we are addressing this issue.” Kroger chief executive Greg Foran wrote this in a memo to staff on Monday, 12 October. The US supermarket chain will cut about 3,000 corporate…

Ramp passes $2bn in revenue as its Europe chief confirms the $60bn round
Ramp passes $2bn in revenue as its Europe chief confirms the $60bn round

“Today, Ramp raised $1.85B at a $60B valuation,” Eric Oancea, who leads Ramp in Europe, wrote on LinkedIn. His post confirms the round that Bloomberg reported on 10 October. Ramp’s co-founders, Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh, marked the new valuation wit…

Schwab and JPMorgan are blocking AI agents from moving customer money
Schwab and JPMorgan are blocking AI agents from moving customer money

Charles Schwab is blocking unauthorised AI agents, including Meta’s Muse, that try to move client money, CEO Rick Wurster told Bloomberg Television. Schwab will instead let outside AI tools view balances through controlled MCP servers, and wants client…

Musk says SpaceX will cover Grok Bot purchase mistakes and leaked cards
Musk says SpaceX will cover Grok Bot purchase mistakes and leaked cards

“To buy stuff, you can just take a picture of your credit card, drop it in the chat and Grok @Bot will scour the Internet for the best deal on the item you want and order it.” Elon Musk posted that advice on X on Saturday. On Thursday he added a promis…

Visa gets China’s approval to prepare a domestic card clearing business
Visa gets China’s approval to prepare a domestic card clearing business

Visa has won approval to start preparing a domestic bank card clearing business in China, the company said on Tuesday. The People’s Bank of China approved its “Application to Prepare”, which lets Visa begin formal preparations. It does not yet let Visa…