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Small Business Daily Podcast
Welcome back! Today we’re looking at funding rounds, new AI platforms, and the tools shaping how small and growing companies sell, support customers, and build products. Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories:
Parloa raises $350M to make enterprise customer experience fully conversational
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By Kyt Dotson — January 15, 2026
Parloa raised $350 million at a $3 billion valuation to scale its voice-first AI platform for customer experience, used by major enterprises from Allianz to SAP. The company’s pitch: win the market by winning voice, with real-time dashboards and compliance built in to make agents explainable and trustworthy. For businesses, this signals faster, more human-like call automation across high-volume requests without sacrificing governance.
Manufacturing automation software startup Tulip hits unicorn status with $120M raise
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By Mike Wheatley — January 15, 2026
Tulip secured $120 million led by Mitsubishi Electric, valuing the no-code frontline operations platform at over $1.3 billion. Its shop-floor apps, AI features, and connectors promise big ROI, citing a Forrester study showing 448% ROI in three years and major efficiency gains. For manufacturers, Tulip offers a modern alternative to traditional MES, helping teams digitize quickly without deep coding expertise.
Tines launches AI interaction layer to unify agents, copilots and workflows
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By Duncan Riley — January 15, 2026
Tines introduced an AI Interaction Layer to unify agents, copilots, MCP servers/clients, and workflows with human-in-the-loop controls and full auditability. With 88% of AI POCs stalling before production, Tines aims to overcome fragmentation by standardizing access, permissions, and governance. The takeaway: a single pane of glass for AI that helps IT leaders operationalize safely instead of piling on disconnected pilots.
CRM tools with automation: Our top picks for 2025
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By Sam Lauron — January 15, 2026
This guide makes the case for unified, automated CRMs to eliminate data silos, brittle integrations, and inconsistent reporting. It outlines must-have features—lead routing, journeys, AI assistance, governance—and recommends platforms from HubSpot to Salesforce and Zoho. For small businesses, the message is clear: choose a single source of truth with automation baked in to speed follow-up and boost conversion.
Business spending on OpenAI models jumps to a record, new data shows
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By Alistair Barr — January 15, 2026
Ramp’s spend data shows 46.6% of U.S. businesses paid for AI in December, with OpenAI adoption hitting a record 36.8%—a rebound driven by both chat subscriptions and API use. Anthropic gained to 16.7%, while Google’s paid footprint remains smaller, likely understated by free Workspace access. The signal: AI budgets are shifting from experiments to everyday, recurring use across functions like engineering, finance, and support.
MongoDB combines database and embedding models for simplified AI development
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By Paul Gillin — January 15, 2026
MongoDB launched the Voyage 4 embedding models and automated embedding for Community Vector Search, tightening the loop between its operational database and retrieval. The lineup includes options balancing accuracy, latency, and cost, plus multimodal support that now extends to video. Developers can cut complexity by avoiding separate vector databases and pipelines, accelerating RAG apps from prototype to production.
Wikipedia owner signs on Microsoft, Meta in AI content training deals
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By Not specified — January 15, 2026
The Wikimedia Foundation expanded paid enterprise partnerships for AI training access, adding Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral to help sustain Wikipedia’s infrastructure. With 65 million articles powering model training, the nonprofit is pushing structured, paid access to offset rising server costs. The move supports a more sustainable content ecosystem while delivering cleaner, large-scale data feeds to AI companies.
Google launches Market Access Program to help Indian AI startups scale globally
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By Not specified — January 15, 2026
Google’s new Market Access Program targets Indian AI startups moving from pilots to production with enterprise guidance, sales access, and global immersion. The company also highlighted infrastructure investments and open model updates like MedGemma 1.5 for healthcare and FunctionGemma for lightweight agents. As India’s AI market heads toward a projected $126B by 2030, the initiative aims to speed adoption with trust and safety built in.
Transforming Enterprise Workflows: How IBM Is Unlocking AI’s Potential
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By Eira May (Host), Jody Bailey (Host), Matt Lyteson (Guest) — January 15, 2026
IBM’s CIO for Technology Platform Transformation outlines a blueprint for enterprise AI: outcome-first workflows, governed agents, and an “AI license to drive.” With its Ask IT platform handling up to 82% of requests, IBM emphasizes guardrails, centralized platforms, and cost/value tracking from day one. The lesson for leaders: combine cross-functional teams with rigorous governance to scale safely and measurably.
