Day: June 24, 2026

Toshiba Launches GridDB™ Startup Program to Collaborate with Innovators and Co-Create Future Technologies

KAWASAKI, Japan, June 24 -- Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of the GridDB Startup Program, a strategic initiative that will empower startups in building and scaling real-time industrial solutions on GridDB Cloud, Toshiba's distributed time-series database for Big Data and IoT systems. Applications are open here from June 24, 2026. In a business world driven by constantly growing flows of information, identifying and extracting value requires systems that can accurately and reliably analyze massive volumes of data in real time with no disruption to operations. GridDB, Toshiba's distributed time‑series database, addresses these challenges by delivering strengths in reliability, low latency, and horizontal scalability. The launch of GridDB Startup Program is part of Toshiba's broader effort to foster long-term partnerships with startups that advance co-development of solutions and bring new ideas to life. The program aims to combine Toshiba's expertise in data infrastructure with the creativity and agility of startups in generating new use cases and technology breakthroughs in IoT, AI and machine learning, smart infrastructure, healthcare, finance, real-time analytics, and other areas. The program provides participants with essential technology, reduces barriers to innovation, and enables collaborative experimentation. Access to GridDB Cloud and GridDB's technical expertise gives the participants ability to concentrate solely on product development rather than infrastructure management, and to rapidly prototype, validate, and scale concepts. The program also delivers resources and incentives to foster early-stage growth, supporting startups in accelerating time-to-market and taking solutions to the global level.     Key Incentives of the GridDB Startup Program: Complimentary access to GridDB Cloud Dedicated technical support from GridDB's experts Opportunities for joint marketing and promotional activities with Toshiba's GridDB team Potential connection with Toshiba Corporate Venture Capital Applications are open from June 24, 2026 for 26 countries and regions where GridDB Cloud is available. Details and application form are here. Through collaborations nurtured in the GridDB Startup Program, Toshiba will continue to contribute to the advancement of digital transformation (DX) and the realization of future cyber-physical systems.  About GridDB Cloud GridDB Cloud, is Toshiba's high-performance database offered as a fully managed cloud service, combining time-series data management, petabyte-scale scalability, and high reliability with dual NoSQL/SQL interfaces for flexible development. It is available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, offering seamless integration with tools like Azure IoT Edge and Grafana, intuitive GUI-based cluster management, and elastic scaling—reducing setup times, infrastructure costs, and operational overheads. With global availability in 26 countries and regions, GridDB Cloud enables enterprise-scale real-time analytics with ease. GridDB Product Website https://www.global.toshiba/ww/products-solutions/ai-iot/griddb.html -- PRNewswire -- Source: Toshiba Corporation 

KAWASAKI, Japan, June 24 — Toshiba Corporation today announced the launch of the GridDB Startup Program, a strategic initiative that will empower startups in building and scaling real-time industrial solutions on GridDB Cloud, Toshiba’s distributed time-series database for Big Data and IoT systems. Applications are open here from June 24, 2026. In a business world driven by constantly growing […]

Omnichat Launches Annual Product OmniClaw, the New Agentic AI Strategist

TAIPEI, June 24, 2026-- Omnichat, the omnichannel customer experience platform, hosted its annual product launch on June  9th. Under the theme "The New Era of Agentic AI: Driving the Future of Retail and Omnichannel Revenue Growth," the company launched OmniClaw, its AI strategist, alongside Omni AI Message Flow and other Agentic AI solutions. Amid fading traffic dividends and soaring customer acquisition costs, Omnichat partnered with LINE and Meta to explore how enterprises can build sustainable retail models leveraging AI, proprietary data, and private domain operations.  As conversational commerce experiences continue to mature, Omnichat has achieved historic breakthrough milestones in 2026 in both technical capability and messaging volume, successfully routing over 8 billion messages. The platform continues to fuel revenue growth for enterprises through chat commerce and has secured dual validation as a LINE-Biz Solutions Gold Tech Partner and a Meta Certified Company in both Business Messaging Strategy and WhatsApp for Business Technical. "The true value of AI does not lie in one-way broadcasting; it lies in transforming conversations into a brand's most potent CRM and real-time social commerce engine," said Jerry Weng, General Manager of Omnichat Taiwan. "As a dual-certified partner within the LINE and Meta ecosystems, Omnichat is dedicated to helping brands leverage data-driven conversations to unlock revenue. In an era where organic traffic is dwindling, we are equipping enterprises with the ultimate retail compounding effect and a closed-loop system for data growth." The showcase featured exclusive industry keynotes from LINE and Meta leadership. Achi Tsai, Vice President of Product & Strategy Planning, Corporate Business Division for LINE Taiwan Limited, noted, "LINE's core AI roadmap has always been about 'empowerment' rather than 'control.' Moving forward, AI will evolve from a generative, passive search tool used by social editors and support reps into an active predictor that anticipates customer needs and serves up hyper-personalized recommendations before the user even asks. LINE will continue its deep collaboration with Omnichat to help enterprises translate complex interactions into seamless, attentive care, creating powerful private domain engagement and compounding value." Bell Hou, Client Solutions Director, Greater China at Meta, added, "As the Meta Business Messaging ecosystem constantly evolves, the newly introduced Marketing Messages on Messenger has become a vital tool for brands to bypass the traditional 24-hour messaging window and strengthen private domain retention. By integrating audience management with omnichannel data, brands can maximize lead generation capabilities on Messenger, drastically improving targeted communication efficiency and long-term customer lifetime value." Beyond exploring macroeconomic industry trends with LINE and Meta, Omnichat lifted the curtain on its Agentic AI product roadmap, announcing a brand-new lineup of AI solutions - OmniClaw, Omni AI Message Flow, CS Agent, and Sales Agent, designed to seamlessly inject AI capabilities directly into operational workflows and revenue-generating scenarios. The highlight of the showcase was OmniClaw, an AI-native brain and strategist embedded directly into the Omnichat platform. Unlike generic AI tools, OmniClaw is engineered for loyalty management, precision marketing, and intelligent sales. From day one, it understands a company's campaign data and organizational structure, enabling teams to run real-time analytics, plan campaigns, and access expert guidance without switching tabs. Marketers can directly ask, "Which campaign generated the highest revenue?", "Which member segment is ripe for remarketing?", or "Analyze recent support ticket trends." OmniClaw cross-references multi-module data to deliver concrete, actionable recommendations, eliminating manual reporting for rapid decision-making. "OmniClaw solves the fatal flaw of generic AI tools—their lack of business-specific understanding," said Alan Chan, Founder and CEO of Omnichat. "It aggregates multi-dimensional data into actionable business insights. As an AI-native brain built for retail, OmniClaw is more than a search tool. By analyzing historical empirical data—including conversation trends, product recommendation links, and broadcast performance—it maps out future campaigns and generates ready-to-use drafts. This empowers enterprises to make faster, data-driven decisions, turning AI into a true operational growth engine." To address the traditional bottlenecks of marketing campaigns—where moving from inspiration and copywriting to cross-department or agency alignment is incredibly time-consuming—Omnichat rolled out Omni AI Message Flow. Here, AI steps into the role of a Marketing Agent to streamline the entire creation cycle. Marketers simply input their campaign objectives and brand guidelines, and the AI automatically maps out the conversation flow, generates the copy, and designs the asset layout. This slashes campaign setup time by at least 50%, allowing brands to take ideas to launch at unprecedented speeds. In 2026, retail technology has officially entered the "Agentic Era," with AI evolving into Omni AI Agents armed with autonomous reasoning and cross-system execution capabilities. Omnichat's CS Agent natively bridges with enterprise CRM and ERP systems to autonomously handle member inquiries, order tracking, logistics, and post-purchase support—dramatically reducing manual workloads while upgrading service speed. Simultaneously, the Sales Agent acts as the ultimate conversational commerce brain, proactively recommending merchandise based on product catalogs, inventory levels, and consumer intent to drive checkouts directly within the chat window for a 24/7 autonomous shopping experience. "The CS Agent and Sales Agent we launched have completely bridged the last mile from 'understanding dialogue' to 'taking cross-system action,'" explained Ian Chan, Chief Technology Officer at Omnichat. "They don't just call system APIs to autonomously close up to 90% of support cases; they proactively pitch product recommendations like a star salesperson to close deals directly in the chatroom. Coupled with our new BYOA (Bring Your Own AI) open architecture, we are helping enterprises securely and deeply embed their proprietary AI models into daily operations, transforming AI into tangible corporate productivity." The event closed with a cross-industry panel discussion featuring Henry Lu, CEO of IMAG Marketing, Anne Chen, Director of Business Development at WENK MEDIA, and Kevin Li, Chief Marketing Officer of Buy123. The panelists unanimously agreed that AI, private domain operations, and data integration have formed the new battleground for brand competitiveness, and that the democratization of Agentic AI will drastically accelerate digital transformation and top-line revenue growth across the retail industry. Addressing the pain point of skyrocketing traffic costs, WENK MEDIA shared practical case studies on how combining AI with robust data integration successfully amplified traffic conversion. From a CRM perspective, Buy123 broke down how mid-sized brands can break away from margin-killing price wars by pivoting toward granular, data-driven customer segmentation on LINE. Finally, IMAG, a customer relationship and AI-powered engagement partner for premium retail brands, pointed out that international luxury brands have seamlessly woven AI into their omnichannel strategies—maintaining elite, high-touch hospitality while fostering high-frequency digital engagement. This signals a broader shift from competing for traffic to building long-term customer relationships, with AI helping brands determine the next best action across every customer interaction. Agentic AI is increasingly becoming a key growth engine for the next phase of retail transformation. About Omnichat Limited Omnichat is a leading AI-Native Agentic Customer Experience Platform, empowering over 5,000 global brands with an autonomous AI workforce. Through its comprehensive AI Social CRM ecosystem, the platform is designed to scale customer engagement and cultivate long-term loyalty. As an official partner of Meta and LINE, Omnichat seamlessly integrates marketing automation, sales conversion, and customer support. By unifying conversational interaction with agentic execution, Omnichat delivers seamless end-to-end customer journeys across LINE, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WeChat.  -- PRNewswire -- Source: Omnichat 

TAIPEI, June 24, 2026— Omnichat, the omnichannel customer experience platform, hosted its annual product launch on June  9th. Under the theme “The New Era of Agentic AI: Driving the Future of Retail and Omnichannel Revenue Growth,” the company launched OmniClaw, its AI strategist, alongside Omni AI Message Flow and other Agentic AI solutions. Amid fading traffic dividends […]

PM Anwar Chairs 149th Meeting of Ministers and Chief Ministers, Focuses on Economic Resilience and El Niño Preparedness

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday chaired the 149th Meeting of Ministers and Chief Ministers at the Parliament Building, with discussions centring on measures to strengthen the nation's economy amid growing global uncertainties and challenges arising from ongoing conflicts in West Asia. Anwar said the meeting reviewed various government initiatives aimed at restoring economic momentum and enhancing resilience in response to external pressures affecting the global economy. "The government remains committed to ensuring that Malaysia's economic fundamentals remain strong despite global uncertainties. Close cooperation between the Federal Government and state governments is essential in addressing emerging challenges and safeguarding the wellbeing of the people," he said. The Prime Minister said the meeting also assessed the country's level of preparedness in facing the El Niño phenomenon, which is expected to impact water supply, the agricultural sector, food security and increase the risks associated with extreme heat and hailstorms. According to Anwar, proactive measures and coordinated action plans are being strengthened to minimise the effects of adverse weather conditions on communities and key economic sectors. He added that emphasis was also placed on ensuring that government policies and initiatives are implemented in a more cohesive and efficient manner, with the interests of the people remaining the top priority. "The government will continue to strengthen economic competitiveness, attract quality investments and ensure that development benefits are shared equitably across all states and communities," he said. Anwar expressed confidence that the spirit of cooperation and consensus achieved through the meeting would further strengthen relations between the Federal Government and state administrations. "God willing, the spirit of togetherness fostered through this meeting will continue to reinforce Federal-State relations and ensure that the benefits of national development can be fully enjoyed by all Malaysians," he said. -- MINUTESMY

KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday chaired the 149th Meeting of Ministers and Chief Ministers at the Parliament Building, with discussions centring on measures to strengthen the nation’s economy amid growing global uncertainties and challenges arising from ongoing conflicts in West Asia. Anwar said the meeting reviewed various government […]

Abu Dhabi Opens Strategic Life Sciences Corridor to California Through Biocom Partnership

ABU DHABI, UAE, June 24 -- The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in Abu Dhabi, and Biocom California, one of the world's largest life sciences associations representing more than 1,800 biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology organisations, have announced a strategic partnership that will create a formal gateway between Abu Dhabi and California's life sciences ecosystems. The collaboration will strengthen connectivity between innovators, researchers, investors and entrepreneurs across both markets, creating new opportunities to accelerate the development, validation and scaling of next-generation health solutions. Both parties will exchange expertise on life sciences ecosystem and cluster development, including industry best practices, sector policy insights and lessons learned, helping strengthen innovation environments and accelerate the growth of high-value life sciences activities in both regions. The partnership connects California's globally renowned life sciences community with Abu Dhabi's Health, Endurance, Longevity and Medicine (HELM) Cluster, creating opportunities for companies to build, test and scale innovations across both markets. Through Biocom California, US-based biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology leaders will be provided access to Abu Dhabi's intelligent life sciences ecosystem and living lab model, where discovery, validation and real-world implementation happen within a single environment. H.E. Dr. Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of DoH, said: "The most successful life sciences ecosystems are those that can connect talent, research, investment and implementation across borders. Through this partnership with Biocom, we are creating a direct bridge between Abu Dhabi's intelligent life sciences ecosystem and one of the world's leading centres of life sciences innovation. For innovators, researchers, and investors, this creates new opportunities to access Abu Dhabi's living lab for intelligent life sciences, where scientific discoveries can be translated into real-world impact faster and at scale." Joe Panetta, President Emeritus of Biocom said: " Biocom is honored to be partnering with the DoH under this important MOU. Abu Dhabi life science ecosystem is strategically focused and well supported for the creation of promising new and innovative life science therapies. Biocom reaches out actively to develop a network of partnerships in established and growing life science ecosystems around the world. Under this MOU we look forward to cooperating jointly in events, providing opportunities to find partners for companies in both California and Abu Dhabi and connecting Abu Dhabi to our other partners." -- PRNewswire -- Source: The Department of Health - Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, UAE, June 24 — The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in Abu Dhabi, and Biocom California, one of the world’s largest life sciences associations representing more than 1,800 biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology organisations, have announced a strategic partnership that will create a formal gateway between Abu […]

Johor Polls Must Focus on Parties, Policies and People’s Future – Datuk Fahmi

JOHOR BAHRU, June 24 — Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said the announcement of Pakatan Harapan's candidates for the Johor state election (PRN) sends a clear message that the contest should remain a competition between political parties, centered on policies, performance and the future of the people, yesterday. He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had stressed that the state election must not involve or associate other institutions, but instead be conducted in a mature and democratic manner. "The Prime Minister has made it clear that this election should be fought on the basis of party strength, policies and track records. It must remain a contest between political parties without dragging other institutions into the political arena," Fahmi said. He noted that Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had confirmed that seat negotiations within Pakatan Harapan had been successfully concluded, allowing the coalition to focus entirely on mobilising its election machinery, strengthening logistics and delivering accurate information to voters across Johor. Fahmi also highlighted Johor's strong development record under the MADANI Government, noting that the state received the highest development allocation among states in Peninsular Malaysia. "Johor has received a larger development allocation than states governed by Pakatan Harapan such as Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang. In fact, allocations channelled to Johor under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's administration are 43 per cent higher compared to those provided during the administration of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob," he said. He added that DAP Secretary-General Anthony Loke had emphasised the importance of securing victory in Johor to further strengthen political stability and ensure the Federal Government remains strong and effective. At the same time, Fahmi said Pakatan Harapan leaders have consistently reiterated that the election should remain a contest between political parties while preserving the country's democratic principles. "The message is simple. We go to the ground with discipline, a proven record of service and a clear determination to continue defending the interests of the people of Johor. "What we seek to protect is not merely electoral victory, but the people's confidence that stability, humility and consistent service remain the strongest foundation for Johor's future," he said. -- MINUTESMY

JOHOR BAHRU, June 24 — Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said the announcement of Pakatan Harapan’s candidates for the Johor state election (PRN) sends a clear message that the contest should remain a competition between political parties, centered on policies, performance and the future of the people, yesterday. He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar […]