Allianz and Anthropic Forge Global Partnership to Advance Responsible AI in Insurance January 9, 2026 Anthropic’s safety-first AI meets Allianz's dedication to customer centricity, stakeholder trust, and regulatory excellence Three focus areas of the partnership: workforce empowerment, operations automation through agentic AI, and regulatory compliance
Make this the year Britain stops punishing wealth creators January 9, 2026 Britain is now a £1 trillion tax state with the biggest differential between high and low earners in the OECD. Our top 10 per cent face rates comparable to Denmark while middle earners pay less than Americans, except we don’t deliver Scandinavian public services or American entrepreneurship. We’ve stumbled into the worst of all worlds, [...]
Motive Launches AI Dashcam Plus, Powering a New Era of Edge AI Safety for Physical Operations January 8, 2026 New commercial vehicle AI dash cam delivers three times more AI processing power, stereo vision, and hands-free two-way communication in an all-in-one device Powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS6490 processor, AI Dashcam Plus can run more than 30 AI models simultaneously and is designed to detect and respond to risk instantly
Ministers to offer business rates relief to pubs after backlash January 8, 2026 Panicked ministers are poised to water down the business rates bombshell faced by pubs, after an aggressive backlash from the industry saw over a thousand landlords ban Labour MPs from their premises. The government is expected to announce an overhaul to the way it calculates business rates for pubs within days, which it says will [...]
AI caution and uninvested capital: Private equity predictions for 2026 January 8, 2026 Private equity deals will “take longer” this year as firms continue to ramp up their use of a controversial tactic to hold onto assets for longer in order to maintain their value. Partners at law firm White and Case expect general partners to continue to hold onto a significant number of assets which were originally [...]
Rates row shows how little Labour understands business January 8, 2026 Whether it’s your after work favourite or your home local – whether you drink or not – everyone has a favourite pub. But the sector is facing a crisis – and we know whose fault it is. We also know the challenges facing British pubs reflect a bigger problem in the relationship between this government [...]
Peter Mandelson handed back £1.3m from consulting firm he founded January 8, 2026 A consulting firm founded by Peter Mandelson handed back £1.3m to the House of Lords peer prior to his departure from the business, the firm’s latest accounts reveal. Global Counsel, a London-based public policy consultancy launched by Mandelson in 2016, had been lent £1m by the disgraced politician with interest paid “at commercial rates,” white [...]
Mark Kleinman: What’s in store for the Square Mile in 2026? January 8, 2026 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Not great, not awful: a fair summary of my corporate predictions for 2025. On the plus side, I was right to forecast a bid for ITV, or at least part of it, and correct that Thames [...]
British shoppers turn to AI as London high street sales falter January 7, 2026 As our beloved high streets grapple with rising business costs, decaying consumer confidence and yet another bout of tax uncertainty, AI agents are reshaping how consumers shop. A report published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) warns that that so-called ‘agentic AI’, a quasi-autonomous form of artificial intelligence, could shift from novelty to norm within [...]
In defence of the junk food advert ban (from a marketer) January 7, 2026 Many agencies have pushed back against the junk food advert ban, but Ogilvy UK's Amelia Torode says she welcomes the legislation.