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Dow futures drop as report says White House mulls global tariff of up to 20% on nearly all trading partners

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Investors are buckling up for a potentially bumpy ride as a critical week for markets and the economy kicks off, with reports indicating President Donald Trump’s trade war could soon get even more intense. Dow futures were down 170 points, or 0.41%, while S&P 500 futures fell 0.77% and Nasdaq futures sank 1.4%. That follows Friday’s selloff that saw the broad market index sink 2%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond slipped 5.9% basis points to 4.196%. Tariff news dominated the weekend and indicated more escalation is ahead. On Sunday, sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump has pushed his advisers to get more aggressive on tariffs, including higher rates on a wider set of nations. One option under consideration in recent days is a global tariff of up to 20% that hits nearly all US trading partners, reviving an idea Trump floated on the campaign trail. A 20% rate would further up the ante. Fitch Ratings earlier estimated that if Trump carried out all his previously announced plans, the effective US tariff rate could hit 18% on average—the highest level in 90 years.  Reciprocal tariffs, where the US matches duties or trade barriers from other countries, are still an option too, according to the Journal, but one source that said Trump wants a “big and simple” policy. That suggests the eventual tariff policy will be broader than Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s “dirty 15” plan to set tariffs on the 15% of countries that the administration considers the worst trading partners. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Similarly, the Washington Post reported on Saturday that Trump is considering a single universal tariff as part of an effort to fundamentally transform the US economy. That means most imports would face the same rate no matter which country they are from, the report said, adding that Trump views a single duty as less likely to be watered down by exemptions. Intense discussions are ongoing ahead of Wednesday, which Trump has billed as “Liberation Day,” when his next batch of tariffs will be unveiled.

Trump ‘very angry’ at Putin’s remarks on Zelensky

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President Trump said he is “very angry” and “pissed off” at remarks Russian President Vladimir Putin made Friday about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting he is not a legitimate leader. The president threatened to slap a new tariff on Russia if it is at fault for stalling an end “to bloodshed.” “If I feel, if we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when Putin said yesterday that — you know, when Putin started getting into Zelensky’s credibility, because that’s not going in the right location, you understand?” Trump told NBC News’s Kristen Welker during a phone interview on Sunday. The Russian president said Friday that his Ukrainian counterpart does not have the legitimacy required for a peace deal signature and suggested an interim government is needed, The Associated Press reported. Ukraine’s 2024 presidential elections were postponed due to martial law amid the war with Russia. Putin said any agreement signed on to by Ukraine’s government could receive pushback. “Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine,” he said Friday, according to the AP, later saying that “democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty” would be able to happen via the temporary governance.

TikTok ad revenue could top $32B — if it doesn’t lose its biggest market

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Meta stands to be the big winner in the event of a TikTok ban. Dive Brief: Dive Insight: Despite the sell-off deadline of April 6 fast approaching, there is still a major sense of uncertainty for marketers as TikTok hasn’t negotiated with potential buyers. However, President Donald Trump indicated he will most likely provide an extension for TikTok if a deal is not reached by then. Additionally, the administration has indicated it is in talks with four groups about the potential sale. TikTok stands to lose billions of dollars in ad revenue if a U.S. ban is enacted, according to a WARC report. The money would likely trickle down into American companies, such as Google and Meta. If TikTok does go dark permanently in the U.S., Meta is predicted to absorb 55% of its ad spend. Platforms with short-form video options, such as YouTube and Instagram, stand to benefit the most. While the U.S. remains the largest market for the app, the country’s share of total ad revenue for the platform has steadily declined over the past five years. By 2026, the U.S. is predicted to make up 34% of TikTok’s ad revenue, down from 43.3% in 2022. However, if a ban is avoided the app is predicted to earn $13.4 billion in ad revenue from the U.S. in 2026. TikTok is the fifth most popular app globally, jumping to the second most popular app when just considering women between the ages of 16 and 24. Its ad reach is predicted to be 1.59 billion users, with users globally averaging 35 hours a month on the app. U.S. users spend an average 44 hours per month on the app, exceeding the global average. This far exceeds the monthly usage of other platforms and is more than double the average usage of Instagram. Courtesy MarketingDive

Estée Lauder Partners With Adobe for AI-Driven Marketing

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Adobe announced a partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies where the company is adopting Adobe Firefly and redefining its process of launching digital marketing campaigns through generative AI. As the parent company to iconic brands such as Clinique, Estée Lauder, Jo Malone London, La Mer, and M•A•C Cosmetics, ELC connects with consumers across roughly 150 countries and territories. With a strong focus on innovation and speed to market, ELC is investing in digital advertising to engage its diverse and unique consumer base. By integrating Firefly across existing Adobe Creative Cloud workflows, ELC will drive efficiency, accelerate campaign execution and empower creative teams to recapture time—and focus on ideating and creating new artistic concepts. Across digital channels, different formats (text, image, shopping, app promotion) and sizes for marketing campaigns contribute to hundreds of thousands of assets needed every year. Teams are burdened with repetitive tasks that take time away from driving new design concepts and connecting with different audiences. This partnership underscores ELC’s newly unveiled Beauty Reimagined, a bold strategic vision aimed at establishing ELC as the best consumer-centric prestige beauty company in the world. A key focus of this plan includes driving transformative innovation to accelerate speed-to-market, as well as boosting consumer-facing investments to accelerate new customer acquisition. By harnessing Adobe’s Firefly capabilities to streamline content production, ELC reinforces its commitment to this vision—ensuring impactful, consumer-driven engagement at scale. Through leveraging Adobe Firefly Services—a collection of creative and generative APIs—ELC can reimagine content production as additional campaigns are required to engage consumers who are more digital than ever. In fact, survey stats show nearly two-third of marketers* believe the demand for content will quintuple between 2024 and 2026. With features such as Generative Expand seamlessly integrated into existing workflows, images can be intelligently resized and optimized for various formats. Teams can quickly deliver assets with text and imagery intuitively placed, ready for distribution across digital marketing channels. “Maintaining mindshare on digital channels such as social media is important in the competitive beauty industry, but oftentimes the content requirements for each platform stresses our ability to deliver new campaigns,” said Justin Edwards, Vice President, Global Digital Creative and Brand Image, M•A•C Cosmetics. “The M•A•C Cosmetics team was the first to explore the potential of generative AI for the company through Adobe Firefly Services, and we believe it will remove hurdles that currently prevent our designers from focusing on their craft.” “Adobe Firefly Services APIs surface decades of Adobe innovation across our foundational AI models and applications such as Photoshop and InDesign, to assist with daily tasks that are crucial but can often be repetitive and time-intensive,” said Varun Parmar, general manager, Adobe GenStudio and Firefly for Enterprise. “The Estée Lauder Companies have shown an incredibly compelling and practical application of generative AI, which allows design teams to focus more time on their craft and ideating eye catching creative for its portfolio of nearly 25 brands.” As part of its new content production workflow, ELC also needed to modernize its digital asset management (DAM) system. The DAM houses the company’s entire library of images, logos, patterns and more—assets that anchor the creation of digital content. ELC is now leveraging Adobe Experience Manager Assets as a Cloud Service to enhance their DAM and drive greater operational efficiency. This creates an architecture where assets can be uploaded with greater speed, along with enhanced search capabilities for teams to quickly locate assets and gain actionable insights on usage and performance. It further shortens the time it takes to build and deliver assets for digital campaigns. “At The Estée Lauder Companies, we need to keep pace with a changing environment where an increasingly large share of transactions is happening through digital channels such as mobile devices,” said Yuri Ezhkov, Vice President, Creative Center of Excellence, The Estée Lauder Companies. “We have a trusted partner in Adobe to provide generative AI technologies that are safe for commercial use, with tools that enable our design teams to operate more nimbly and be free to focus on ideating.”

Salesforce to Invest USD $1 Billion in Singapore Over 5 Years

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Salesforce pledges to invest in Agentforce, customer success, and workforce development Salesforce launches more services on Hyperforce, allowing customers to securely deploy a deeply unified platform with Agentforce, Data Cloud and Customer 360 Applications, adhering to local data residency Singapore Airlines and Salesforce collaborate on AI-powered customer service applications Salesforce, the world’s #1 AI CRM*, announced plans to invest USD $1 billion in Singapore over the next five years, affirming a strong commitment to accelerate the nation’s digital transformation and Agentforce adoption. Singapore is an important growth market for Salesforce as businesses increasingly embrace Agentforce to unlock new opportunities. This investment underscores Salesforce’s support for Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 and the nation’s vision as a driver of global AI innovation. Spurred by a USD $6 trillion digital labor market, thousands of customers around the world are investing in Agentforce, Salesforce’s digital labor platform, to build and deploy agents that can reason, decide, act, and drive meaningful outcomes 24/7. Singapore has been dealing with a slowing growth rate of the labor force, contributed by an aging population and declining birth rates. Agentforce delivers Singapore an opportunity to rapidly expand its labor force in many key service and public sector roles. This investment will help support Singapore enterprises as they build limitless digital workforces, bringing humans together with trusted autonomous Agentforce agents to unlock new levels of productivity, innovation, and growth. As Agentforce adoption accelerates, it has the potential to drive significant impact across Singapore’s industries, startups, and the public sector. Mr Jermaine Loy, Managing Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board said: “Singapore welcomes Salesforce’s investment, which will boost our ongoing efforts to build a vibrant hub for AI innovation and adoption across our economy. Salesforce’s initiatives in AI research and workforce development will strengthen our ecosystem by catalysing innovation for key industries and corporates based in Singapore.” “We are in an incredible new era of digital labor where every business will be transformed by autonomous agents that augment the work of humans, revolutionizing productivity and enabling every company to scale without limits,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “Singapore is at the forefront of this shift, and as the world’s largest provider of digital labor through our Agentforce platform, Salesforce is thrilled to expand our work with the business community and our longtime partners in the region to drive innovation, productivity and growth.” Driving global Agentforce innovation from Singapore Salesforce has been investing in Singapore for nearly two decades and has established a thriving customer base and partner ecosystem in the region. Customers of all sizes, including industry leaders like Singapore Airlines, Grab, M1, FairPrice Group, Ocean Network Express and PRISM+ are using Salesforce AI technologies to drive efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and unlock new revenue streams. Singapore plays a crucial role in driving Agentforce innovation for Salesforce. In 2019, Salesforce expanded its AI Research team internationally, choosing Singapore as its first overseas AI Research hub location. Since then, the hub has significantly contributed to the global development of AI for the industry. This includes development of industry leading models such as multimodal language-vision foundation models (BLIP), and time-series foundation models (Moirai). The AI Research hub has contributed to product innovations such as AIOps Agents that help Salesforce achieve highest levels of site availability and in-house code LLMs for helping customers optimize their code for performance. Their work has resulted in over 100 research papers and patents being published. This continued investment will not only drive Agentforce innovation through the research hub but also support Salesforce’s expanding customer base in the region. In fact, Singapore Airlines and Salesforce announced that the Airline is incorporating Agentforce, Einstein in Service Cloud, and Data Cloud into its customer case management system, enabling it to deliver more consistent and personalized service to its customers. The two companies also plan to co-develop AI solutions for airlines at the Salesforce AI Research hub in Singapore, aiming to provide greater value and additional benefits to the industry. Bringing local data residency for Agentforce to Singapore Salesforce is expanding its services on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s trusted next-generation platform architecture, in Singapore to provide data residency for Data Cloud, Agentforce, and Unified Marketing Applications (UMA) by next month. This will empower Singapore businesses to capitalize on Salesforce’s Agentforce and data offerings while adhering to local data residency regulations, an imperative for regional and global organisations in regulated industries such as the government, financial services or telecommunications. This helps align with data privacy regulations, enhancing data security and fostering trust among customers and stakeholders by demonstrating a commitment to compliance. Salesforce first introduced Hyperforce in Singapore in 2021. Building an Agentforce-ready workforce Salesforce is refreshing its Singapore office with a new space to enable customers to transform their workforce with digital labour. The space will include Agentforce activations space and a demo pod to provide hands-on experience building and deploying trusted, autonomous AI agents through Agentforce. The new space will also be used for upskilling initiatives for the ecosystem of partners and the community. Salesforce remains committed to investing in workforce development by upskilling in Agentforce, ensuring the workforce is equipped for the jobs of the future. The company is partnering with Institutes of Higher Learning such as Singapore Management University, Institute of Technical Education, and Ngee Ann Polytechnic to equip students with in-demand CRM and AI skills through training and certifications, as well as connection to opportunities for employment in the Salesforce ecosystem. Leveraging Trailhead, Salesforce’s free training platform, these initiatives equip individuals with the skills essential for thriving careers in the digital economy. Salesforce commitment to giving back An important part of Salesforce’s culture is the belief that business is the greatest platform for change, reflected in the company’s 1-1-1 model of corporate philanthropy, which dedicates 1% of the company’s equity, 1% of its employees’ time and 1% of its products to giving back. Over the last two decades, Salesforce Singapore and its employees have spent over 190,000 hours volunteering in their communities and giving over … Read more

Dassault Systèmes and RWTH Aachen Partner for Workforce Skills

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Dassault Systèmes announced its 10-year collaboration with the Chair and Institute for Machine Elements & Systems Engineering (MSE) at the RWTH Aachen University, one of Europe’s best engineering universities, to boost the engineering and industrial product development skills of Germany’s future workforce. “The transformation to an AI-supported, seamless digital product development process requires engineers who are trained on MBSE methods and tools. Therefore, we decided to use the tool chain of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform” MSE will integrate Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud into RWTH Aachen University’s mechanical engineering curricula for up to 13,000 mechanical engineering students, making the 3DEXPERIENCE platform with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) the core technology of its education programs. MSE and partnering chairs can train students and junior engineers in MBSE, integrating the latest virtual twin applications. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform connects modeling with physical and AI-based simulation, and creates traceability of system parameters in one collaborative environment. Students gain practice-oriented learning that can be applied to jobs across all industrial sectors, facilitating their entry into the professional world and eliminating the need for long training processes. Besides education, joint research activities of MSE and Dassault Systèmes are fostered to enhance model-based systems engineering methods and processes. New technologies, resulting out of research, are transferred to industry by the Center for Systems Engineering (CSE). CSE is an interdisciplinary hub on the RWTH Aachen Campus dedicated to strengthening collaboration between academia and industry to advance engineering practices. “The transformation to an AI-supported, seamless digital product development process requires engineers who are trained on MBSE methods and tools. Therefore, we decided to use the tool chain of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform,” said Professor Georg Jacobs, Director of the Institute for Machine Elements and Systems Engineering (MSE), RWTH Aachen University. “Our partnership with Dassault Systèmes is the greatest of that kind for a major technical university and will strengthen the ability of industry to innovate in the years to come.” MBSE has emerged as a key enabler in the efficient development of autonomous vehicles, aircraft, medical devices and other solutions combining mechanical, electronic and software systems. Employees having advanced modeling and simulation skills in this domain are highly sought after by companies in regulated and competitive markets as they adopt the principles of experience and circularity in complex product development. “Mastering systems engineering is an imperative for industrial innovation in the Generative Economy. By training future engineering professionals with the right skills, our partnership with MSE and CSE at RTWH Aachen University will help bridge the skills gap, boost student employability, and accelerate industrial transformation in Germany. This is the power of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and the cloud in action,” said Valérie Ferret, Vice President, 3DEXPERIENCE Edu, Dassault Systèmes. The collaboration was announced in Aachen during CWD & DSEC 2025, an event focused on drivetrain technology, systems engineering and wind power drives.

Tiger Pistol Releases Playbook for Scaling SMB Advertising

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CLEVELAND, March 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tiger Pistol, the most advanced local advertising platform, today announced the release of its latest resource for marketing resellers, Scaling SMB Advertising: A Marketing Reseller’s Guide to Efficiency, Profitability, and Growth. This essential playbook outlines strategies for marketing resellers to streamline operations, scale local advertising programs, and increase profitability through automation and efficiency. According to the 2025 Small- and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) Marketing Survey by Taradel, 94% of SMBs plan to maintain or increase their digital marketing investments in 2025, yet 41% spend less than $500 per month on advertising. Marketing resellers who offer scalable, cost-effective advertising solutions are in a prime position to capture this demand, helping SMBs maximize budget efficiency while driving measurable results. Tiger Pistol’s latest playbook provides a roadmap for resellers to expand their services, improve operational efficiency, and deliver high-performing campaigns at scale. SMBs are leaning into digital advertising, but they need solutions that match their resources and goals. Marketing resellers who embrace automation and scalable ad strategies will be the ones who win—both in customer retention and revenue growth,” said Sarah Cucchiara, VP of Business Development at Tiger Pistol. “This playbook breaks down the exact steps resellers need to take to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and deliver results-driven campaigns at scale. “Source – PR Newswire

Certified Languages Int’l Enhances Customer Service With CXone Mpower

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with NICE, Certified Languages International will streamline operations, elevate global interpretation services, and deliver tailored, automated customer service across industries NICE announced that Certified Languages International, a full-service language company specializing in on-demand interpreting and document translation services supporting 230 languages worldwide, has selected NICE CXone Mpower as its platform of choice to upgrade its customer service operations. By migrating from its legacy infrastructure, the company aims to enhance workflow automation, unify its knowledge base and ensure seamless support for its agents and interpreters —delivering exceptional experiences at every interaction. Marketing Technology Insights: Genesys and TeKnowledge Partner for AI-Driven Customer Experiences Certified Languages International handles thousands of inbound client inquiries daily, seeking interpretation services across every industry including healthcare, financial services, retail, and BPO. Previously relying on multiple vendors for separate CX needs, the company will unify its global operations and knowledge base with the CXone Mpower platform, creating a single source of truth for agents and interpreters. With the powerful CXone Mpower Essentials Suite, agents can quickly identify the required language, check interpreter availability based on skillset, and seamlessly connect clients to the most appropriate interpreter. “Our interpretation services help people communicate clearly and effectively in their language of choice, and we needed a solution that would support the rapid growth of our 24/7 on-demand interpretation services,” said Jacob Dillon, COO, Certified Languages International. “NICE CXone Mpower fits all our needs with its comprehensive offering and ability to align with future business growth. Working with NICE will enable us not only to meet but exceed our clients’ needs while ensuring a convenient and personalized service.” Dan Belanger, President, Americas, NICE said, “In interpretation services, speed and accuracy are non-negotiable. That’s why we’re excited to help Certified Languages International use CXone Mpower to unify knowledge, streamline workflows, and connect agents and interpreters in real time for a quicker and more precise service.” Marketing Technology Insights: IQor CXBPO Redefines Customer Experience Source – Businesswire

Boomi Launches AI Studio Delivering Comprehensive AI Agent Control

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As enterprises embrace agentic AI to drive automation and decision-making, the rapid proliferation of AI agents presents new challenges for security, compliance, and interoperability. According to Gartner®, “By 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024, enabling 15% of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously.”1 However, without a centralized management solution for all AI agents, organizations risk fragmented AI ecosystems, operational inefficiencies, and regulatory exposure. Boomi’s new AI Studio, now available in early access, provides organizations a secure, compliant, and vendor-agnostic way to design, orchestrate, monitor, and optimize unique AI agents — whether built on Boomi or third-party technologies — and provides full AI agent lifecycle management to ensure seamless integration, governance, and control across the enterprise. “With Boomi AI Studio, we’re giving organizations a powerful yet accessible way to build, monitor, and orchestrate AI agents with trust, security, and governance at the core,” said Ed Macosky, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Boomi. “As of today, Boomi has deployed more than 25,000 AI Agents for customers. This strong market adoption of our AI agents highlights not only the real value they’re delivering, but also the need for a solution that enables organizations to leverage AI responsibly while accelerating innovation and achieving transformative outcomes.” “As AI reshapes our business landscape, effective management of these systems becomes essential. Boomi AI Studio delivers precisely what enterprises need to harness AI at scale — comprehensive governance, seamless orchestration, and a robust framework for integrating AI across operations,” said Amit Sinha, President & Co-Founder of WorkSpan. “With Boomi’s solution, we can confidently deploy and oversee AI agents throughout our ecosystem, ensuring compliance and fueling innovation while maintaining operational excellence.” Boomi AI Studio offers a fully integrated environment for AI agent design, governance, and orchestration, including: “Boomi is addressing a critical gap in the market, setting a standard for managing AI agents at scale. While many vendors focus on releasing new agents, few are tackling the essential challenge of managing, deploying, curating, and optimizing these environments effectively,” said Shawn Rogers, CEO of BARC US. “The rise of agentic AI presents significant opportunities for automation and efficiency, but organizations require a structured approach to ensure these agents operate securely, ethically, and efficiently. To truly harness the power of AI-driven automation, enterprises need a comprehensive solution that provides the necessary oversight and guardrails to scale with confidence.” Boomi is now accepting applications for early access to Boomi AI Studio. A limited number of organizations will be selected to participate in this phase. Early adopters will gain hands-on access to existing features while helping shape future enhancements. General availability will follow in Q2 2025, based on feedback and iteration. For more information on Boomi AI Studio and to apply for access, please visit the Boomi AI Studio Website. Boomi AI Studio features, functionality, and availability are subject to change based on ongoing development and user feedback. This announcement does not constitute a commitment to deliver specific future capabilities or general availability timelines. Boomi makes no guarantees regarding performance, regulatory compliance, or continued availability of specific feature

WNS Acquires Kipi.ai to Expand Data, Analytics and AI Capabilities

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WNS, a business process management (BPM) company, said it bought Kipi.ai, a data modernisation company working on the Snowflake platform, for an undisclosed amount.  Kipi, based in the US, provides strategy, execution, and managed service capabilities across data engineering, advanced analytics, and data science. The acquisition is a move by WNS to expand its presence in the analytics and AI sector.  Legacy players in the BPM and IT services sector are acquiring artificial intelligence (AI) companies that offer solutions leveraging AI, machine learning (ML), generative AI (GenAI), and analytics to better serve their clients, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. We believe that Kipi’s market-differentiated data modernisation capabilities and talented team are an excellent fit for WNS. Together, we will leverage domain expertise and scalable AI solutions to drive decision intelligence and efficiencies, and to create new revenue streams,” WNS chief executive Keshav Murugesh said in a statement.  Kipi operates in the healthcare, financial services, technology, and manufacturing sectors and has more than 250 proprietary accelerators, enablers, applications, and solutions. It also has more than 600 employees, including over 450 data engineers, solutions architects, data scientists, and business analysts.  “The strong cultural alignment and complementary service offerings between our two firms will unlock the full potential of AI and offer opportunities to grow and better serve our global clients,” said Jason Small, founder and CEO of Kipi.ai.