Technology

If you're looking for a healthy drink alternative to replace sugary sodas or caffeine, these healthy beverages are here to quench your thirst.

• Amazon is expanding Same-Day and Next-Day delivery to more rural US areas
• It will spend $4 billion to triple the size of its US rural delivery network
• Over 4,000 smaller cities, towns, and rural communities will be covered by the end of 2025

Amazon has announced further plans to expand its fast Prime delivery services across more rural parts of the US.

The ecommerce giant says the move will mean thousands of smaller cities, towns, and rural communities will be able to shop a wide range of popular items, and get them delivered, within hours.

However the expansion, set to complete by the end of the year will come too late for Amazon Prime Day 2025, which starts in just a few days.

Amazon Prime rural expansion

The expansion will see Same-Day and Next-Day Delivery services coming to customers in more than 4,000 smaller US cities, towns, and rural communities by the end of 2025.

Amazon says this will expand the reach to "tens of million" of customers, and will be transforming daily life for rural customers", who often have limited product choices due to living further away from stores, as well as facing limited delivery options when shopping online.

The company notes it is also widening the amount of essential everyday products available for Same-Day Delivery, covering household goods, cleaning supplies, vitamins and medications, and food.

There's no change to Prime's pricing - members will still need to spend over $25 at checkout to get access to unlimited free Same-Day Delivery.

“Everybody loves fast delivery. So, whether you live in Monmouth, Iowa or in downtown Los Angeles, now you're going to have the same fantastic Amazon customer experience: the ability to get the wide variety of items you need to keep your household running every day, delivered the same or next day,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.

The news comes shortly after Amazon revealed plans to spend $4 billion by the end of 2026 to expand its delivery network across rural areas of the US.

This will see it add over 200 additional delivery stations to its network, claiming to support more than 100,000 full- and part-time jobs both on the road and in warehouses.

This will include Amazon's own network as well as schemes like its Delivery Service Partner program, Amazon Flex, and Hub Delivery, which enables small businesses and members of the community to offer their support.

With the expansion, Amazon hopes to improve delivery speeds by up to 50% in rural areas.

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The Cherry MC 2.1 is a solid, inexpensive gaming mouse that gets most of the basics right.

You can't beat the typing experience on Cherry switches, but the MX 3.0S doesn't offer much else.

The Elo Vagabond is the pro mobile controller I've been looking for.

As much as I love the Ayaneo Pocket S, it doesn't do enough to justify its price.

• Photos of an iPhone 17 Pro dummy unit show a more polished design than earlier leaks
• They provide a close look at the rumored new camera bar design
• It's a design that now seems very likely to feature

At this point, we’ve seen quite a few leaked renders and dummy units of the iPhone 17 Pro, most of which show off a new look for the camera bar – one that a lot of people haven’t been impressed by. But a new iPhone 17 Pro dummy unit might change some minds.

Leaker Majin Bu has shared photos of what's purported to be an iPhone 17 Pro dummy unit, and while the design looks broadly the same as in previous leaks, it looks much more like a finished phone than in most earlier glimpses.

The iPhone 17 Pro is shown in a black color, with a glossy camera panel and a more matte finish on the rest of the rear, and that contrast certainly looks appealing to our eyes. The camera block also doesn’t look like it sticks out quite as much here as in some earlier leaks, though it’s undeniably large.

IPhone 17 Pro Black, Absolutely beautiful pic.twitter.com/tQZAGa6TGlJune 24, 2025

A likely leak

Now, as with any leak, we’d take this with a pinch of salt, especially as Majin Bu has a mixed track record. But the phone here looks to us much more like something Apple would actually release than the uglier interpretations of this design we’ve seen in the past.

So, we’d say there’s a high chance this is somewhat accurate. Certainly, it seems very likely that Apple will equip the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max with a large camera block in broadly this shape, since most leaks are in agreement on that front.

We should find out exactly how these phones will look in September, as that’s the month Apple typically uses to unveil new iPhones. In any case, we’re now a lot more positive about this rumored design change than we were before.

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July is yet another stacked month looking at everything new on Hulu, and although that means more titles must be removed to make way for its new additions, unlike other platforms, Hulu tends to only remove a small handful of its lesser-known movies, which is one of the reasons why it's still up there as one of the best streaming services.

Hulu removed only 15 movies in June, but has increased that slightly next month to 17 films. Though these movies aren't as popular as other titles on the platform, there are a few hidden gems for you to get through before they go, especially if you're a fan of horrors and thrillers.

For another consecutive month at least, the best Hulu movies remain untouched, which is a nice surprise for movie buffs like me. Let's hope Hulu sticks to this pattern when considering which movies to remove next.

Everything leaving Hulu in July 2025

Leaving on July 1

Asking For It (movie)

Leaving on July 6

Ultrasound (movie)

Leaving on July 7

Minamata (movie)

Leaving on July 12

Vesper (movie)

Leaving on July 14

Supercell (movie)

Leaving on July 15

God's Country (movie)

Leaving on July 17

The Hater (movie)

Leaving on July 18

The Cursed (movie)

Leaving on July 19

Old Man (movie)

Leaving on July 20

You Are Not My Mother (movie)

Leaving on July 21

American Night (movie)

Leaving on July 22

All My Friends Hate Me (movie)

Leaving on July 23

My Happy Ending (movie)

Leaving on July 24

Topside (movie)

Leaving on July 25

The Lair (movie)

Leaving on July 29

Hatching (movie)

Leaving on July 30

A Day to Die (movie)

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I did the unthinkable last week: I paused my Netflix subscription and decided to only watch content from a smaller, lesser-known streaming service called Mubi instead.

The results? I watched a lot of movies that I normally wouldn’t be able to find on one of the best streaming services. From arthouse and indie films like Pablo Larraín's Ema, to world cinema and restored classics like Tarsem Singh's The Fall, a lot of the titles I watched aren’t widely available to stream elsewhere.

While mainstream streaming services have played a valuable role in helping to distribute more indie films, in more recent years many have had to tighten their purse strings as they look to funnel more money to their studio's big-ticket productions. This means indie movies don't tend to make up a huge part of their libraries, giving Mubi the opportunity to cater to a niche that the popular streamers are neglecting.

Mubi's catalog might have a lot less choice than the likes of Netflix, but this gives its original content (both self-made and acquired) even more exclusivity, as it's the only place to find certain films. What Mubi is essentially offering is a gateway to some of the biggest film festivals’ highlights, so if you didn’t get to go to this year’s Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale or Venice festivals, Mubi is your streaming portal.

Of course, not every film from these festivals is streaming on Mubi. The cost of acquiring movies depends on the scale of a production and the prestige of the studio behind it. But with Mubi making its biggest acquisition ever at this year’s Cannes – it spent $24 million on Lynne Ramsay's festival darling Die My Love (pictured above) – it's starting to become a viable rival to streamers with deeper pockets.

What I streamed during my Mubi subscription

Pablo Larraín's Ema was one of the arthouse films I watched on Mubi. (Image credit: Mubi)

If you’re new to Mubi, there’s never been a better time to be getting into independent cinema. Indie studios such as A24 and Neon are producing some of the movie world's most talked-about releases – who could forget last year's Oscar-winning hit Anora? Or what about some of the best horror movies of 2024 like I Saw the TV Glow and Long Legs?

Mubi's own distribution studio is making waves in the space, too. It most notably secured the global streaming rights to Coralie Fargeat’s body horrorThe Substance last year, alongside Magnus von Horn's true-crime drama The Girl with the Needle and Andrea Arnold’s dreamscape coming-of-age drama Bird, which if you haven't seen is an absolute must-watch.

Arnold is known for casting unknown actors alongside established stars, and this formula works brilliantly for Bird, which sees Barry Keoghan (Salt Burn) starring alongside newcomer Nykiya Adams.

Other highlights from its 2024 releases (that I've seen so far) include the Latvian indie movie Flow, which beat Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 to win Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, as well as Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl and Miguel Gomes' Grand Tour.

I also managed to find some older films that I hadn't seen in years like John Carpenter's Escape From New York (if you haven't met Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken before, then you're welcome), Spike Lee's Malcolm X, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin and Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. I also made sure to stream these nine movies on Mubi with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes recommended by TechRadar's Rowan Davies.

What I'm most excited for, though, is the new movies and series that Mubi acquired at this year's festivals, and which are yet to be released on the streaming service. From what I'm seeing online from those who attended the screenings, Cooper Raiff's Hal & Harper, Alex Russell's Lurker and Oliver Laxe's Sirât are among the most-anticipated, with all three having over 90% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes based on early critic reviews.

What I loved about streaming movies on Mubi

Andrea Arnold's Bird was one of my favorite watches on Mubi. (Image credit: Mubi)

We once hailed Mubi as the "antidote to streaming fatigue", and I wholeheartedly agree with this for the way it takes a completely different approach to curating its library. Unlike the more popular streamers, Mubi hand-picks the films it shows, making it a lot easier to find something new to watch.

I'm sure many have found themselves making one of these five mistakes when choosing what to watch on Netflix (or any streaming service for that matter); whether it be ignoring non-English titles or judging a movie by its cover art. But it's a lot harder to do this on a service like Mubi, mainly because it specializes in foreign films (it always includes the country of where a film is made), and because of the incredible cover art it features for each title.

It even has a Curator's Spotlight section of featured films to make deciding what to watch easier, but it's worth noting that this varies by region because of distribution rights. For instance, in the US, Mubi's editors have picked Lars Von Trier's Antichrist, Alonso Ruizpalacios' La Cocina, Daisy Von Scherler Mayer's Party Girl and Michael Almeryda's Marjorie Prime, while in the UK only La Cocina is recommended out of those four.

Mubi also has a treasure trove of little-known content that makes finding something new to watch enjoyable and fresh. Half the time, I've never heard of the films I see in its catalog, which means I'm constantly discovering new underground hits I wish I'd known about sooner. I couldn't ask for anything more from a streaming service.

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• Microsoft Teams will soon let users save messages in chats
• New addition should help users quickly find important messafes
• All Microsoft Teams users should benefit upon launch

Finding that vital message to check your working (or win an argument) in a Microsoft Teams chat should soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update.

The video conferencing platform has revealed it is working on adding the ability for users to save messages in their conversations and chats.

This tool should mean users no longer have to trawl back manually through long conversations to find the message they need - something that has definitely frustrated me in the past.

Microsoft Teams notification sizes

In a Microsoft 365 roadmap post, the company noted how the new feature will allow users to, "quickly get back to important information without scrolling through long conversations."

Users will be able to save messages, covering not just posts, but also any replies or chat message, and be able to find them later in the Saved view in your Chat or Teams list.

Simply click on a saved message to open the full conversation in the right pane, where you can review or reply directly to whichever message you choose.

The feature is listed as being "in development", but has a scheduled rollout start date of August 2025, so users don't have too long to wait. When released, it will be available to users across the world using Teams on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

The launch is the latest in a series of recent improvements to Microsoft Teams announced by the company as it looks to improve the experience for users.

This includes adding noise suppression for participants dialing in to a call, which should spell an end to potentially ear-splitting call interruptions, or participants being deafened by background noise from another person on the call.

The platform also revealed it is rolling out "enhanced spell check", giving users the tools to make sure their messages are as accurate as possible.

It also recently announced it would be adding a tweak to will allow multiple people to control slides being presented in a meeting or call.

Users will also finally be able to minimize or shrink the size of Teams notifications, meaning they are safe from having distracting pop-ups catch the corner of their eye when working.

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• Apple’s AirTag 2 tracker has long been rumored to launch around the middle of this year
• But a new report claims it's been delayed until September
• When it launches the tracker could also come with low-battery alerts

Apple’s AirTag is one of the best item-trackers around, and the second-generation AirTag 2 has been rumored to be dropping any day now. But, while a new leak hints that the device is almost ready, it looks like it might be delayed by a few months.

This information seems to have been unearthed by 9to5Mac and “reliable” sources cited by the outlet. We don’t have a way to independently verify what they've said, so take this with a pinch of salt.

First, 9to5Mac says that “we are able to confirm that Apple has already set up compatibility with the 2nd-gen AirTag on iOS 18.6”.

Based on the release dates of iOS 17.6 and iOS 16.6, it’s likely that the iOS 18.6 update will land in mid-July, which lines up nicely with past rumors that the AirTag 2 would drop around the middle of the year.

But before you get your hopes up, 9to5Mac also claims its sources have told it that the AirTag 2 has now been delayed, with Apple "now aiming at a fall release". That could mean we won’t see the device until September, which is when the iPhone 17 range will be announced.

Plenty of new features

(Image credit: TechRadar)

For a few months now, various leaks and rumors have pushed the idea that the AirTag 2 is due to launch right about now. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, for example, claimed that Apple was aiming for a release “around the middle” of 2025, and just a few weeks ago he stated that the device was “nearly ready.” Leaker Kosutami, meanwhile, said the AirTag 2 should arrive in May or June this year.

With June almost over, 9to5Mac’s claim that the release window has been pushed back remains a distinct possibility. That said, there’s still plenty of time for the AirTag 2 to arrive “around the middle” of the year (such as in July or even August), so it’s not a done deal yet.

According to the rumor mill, AirTag 2 will come with better connectivity that could triple the Precision Finding range. It will also supposedly be more tamper-resistant, while 9to5Mac says its source believes the AirTag 2 will have “alerts for both low and very low battery levels.” The website also says it has a “hunch” that Apple could switch to a rechargeable battery in the tracker.

If you’ve been thinking about getting some new AirTags, we would have previously suggested you wait until the new version launches. But with the AirTag 2 apparently delayed a few months, now might be a good time to peruse some of the best AirTag deals if you’re in need of a reliable item tracker.

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• Microsoft is trying to push its AI chatbot Copilot, but is hitting roadblocks
• Copilot is struggling against rival ChatGPT
• ChatGPT launched much earlier, giving the model a head start

AI chatbot models like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are gaining huge traction in the workplace and beyond, but OpenAI's model is reportedly starting to show dominance in the business world.

A Bloomberg report has claimed even businesses which have purchased Copilot plans are struggling to convince users to make the switch, with drugmaker Amgen buying a 20,000 user plan, only to have employees continue using ChatGPT over a year later.

It is not the only customer to report issues, as workers shun Microsoft Copilot in favor of ChatGPT, which is used more at home and thus become more familiar to many.

A head start

Microsoft does use OpenAI’s models to power Copilot, and offers very similar features to ChatGPT, with information summaries, email drafting, data analysis, and image generation.

That being said, ChatGPT’s momentum and existing user base seems to be giving the chatbot the edge.

As of June 2025, ChatGPT has almost 800 million weekly active users, and 3 million paying business users, whereas Copilot has stagnated a little, with 20 million weekly users for the past year.

Theoretically, the race should be a little more even, since Windows is such a dominant operating system in the professional world. Microsoft salespeople have traditionally been able to use Windows compatibility as an effective selling point, but that’s no longer the case, the report suggests;

“The company’s [Microsoft’s] salespeople knew ChatGPT dominated the consumer chatbot market, but expected Microsoft to own the enterprise space for AI assistants thanks to decades-long relationships with corporate IT departments. But by the time Microsoft began selling Copilot to businesses, many office workers had already tried out ChatGPT at home, giving the chatbot a first-mover advantage.”

Despite negotiating with companies such as Volkswagen, Accenture and Barclays, which all signed deals for over 100,000 accounts in agreements worth ‘tens of millions’ a year, Microsoft still lags behind OpenAI in its user base, and organizations are having to encourage workers to use the chatbot.

The news comes after Microsoft has announced largescale layoffs, with between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs worldwide expected to be cut - amounting to nearly 3% of the firm’s workforce - just two years after 10,000 personnel were made redundant (5% of the workforce).

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• Colors have leaked for the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7
• The leak comes from Samsung's own website
• We could get three main colors for each phone

We've already seen plenty of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 leaks in recent days – and now it appears Samsung has got in on the act itself

As spotted by Android Authority, certain pages have gone live on Samsung's Ireland website, showing three colors for the Z Fold 7 and three for the Z Flip 7 – with both handsets getting a fourth Green Mint shade that's exclusive to the website.

For the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, it looks like we'll get Jet Black, Blue Shadow, and Silver Shadow. That compares to Silver Shadow, Pink, and Navy for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, at least in the US (with Crafted Black and White as website exclusives).

The leak suggests Jet Black, Blue Shadow, and Coral Red as the main colors for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7. In the US right now, you can pick up the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 in Yellow, Mint, Silver Shadow, and Blue, with Black, Peach, and White the colors exclusive to Samsung's website).

Throwing shades

More Galaxy Z Fold7 images have emerged!Via @evleaks pic.twitter.com/NPm0bJE82lJune 25, 2025

This latest leak lines up pretty neatly with what we've previously heard about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 colors and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 colors. While there will of course be variations over time and between regions, it seems Samsung may have now settled on the color options it's going to give us.

It's worth mentioning that Coral Red has also been tipped for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, so it's possible that the distinctive shade is coming to both of these foldables – which are also both likely to be instant additions to our best foldable phones guide.

The color leaks also fit in neatly with unofficial renders posted by @evleaks: these renders also show Jet Black, Blue Shadow, and Silver Shadow for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Jet Black, Blue Shadow, and Coral Red for the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

What we do know for sure is that Samsung has scheduled the next Galaxy Unpacked event for Wednesday, July 9. The smart money suggests we should see both these flagship foldables appear, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8.

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• Jurassic World Evolution 3 will no longer feature AI generated character portraits
• This was confirmed by the developers via the Steam Forum
• It follows community backlash regarding the inclusion

The developer of the upcoming dinosaur park management simulator Jurassic World Evolution 3 has announced that the game will no longer feature some AI-generated visual assets following community outrage.

When the next entry in the Jurassic World Evolution series was first revealed at last year's Summer Game Fest, some eagle-eyed fans spotted an AI-generated content disclosure on its Steam page. "Scientists' avatars are created using generative AI," it read, referring to some in-game character portraits.

The disclosure, which is now required by Valve, is intended to increase transparency and allow consumers to decide whether they are comfortable purchasing a product with any generative AI involvement.

Many Jurassic World Evolution fans reacted negatively to the news, with a huge thread on the Steam forums discussing the move. "Nope, I will not support this," wrote one potential player. "It's a matter of principle," chimed in another.

A few defended the decision: "If using AI to quickly generate images for scientists [...] helps free up time for development on actually-important mechanics, then it is worthwhile to use. Being upset over something that is so inconsequential to the rest of the game is pretty ridiculous."

No matter which side of the AI content debate you fall on, polarising your fanbase like this ahead of a major launch is never a particularly good idea and risks overshadowing all other conversation regarding the game.

This is presumably one of the reasons why developer Frontier Developments has announced that the game will no longer feature the AI-generated assets.

"Thanks for your feedback on this topic," a representative wrote on the Steam forum "We have opted to remove the use of generative AI for scientist portraits within Jurassic World Evolution 3."

The AI-generated content disclosure has now been removed from the Steam page, too, which presumably means that the title will no longer feature any AI-generated content.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 is set to launch on October 21, 2025, for PC, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PlayStation 5.

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Complex problems often demand simple answers. When we overcomplicate things, whether in life or business, we almost always end up worse off. Later, we look back and think: if only I’d kept it simple.

Cybersecurity is no different, though the source of that simplicity may lie in unexpected places.

With the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) now sounding the alarm on quantum-era threats and AI-powered malware, it’s clear the risks are evolving fast. These threats adapt, mutate and inject themselves into systems at alarming speed. It’s no wonder business leaders are extremely concerned about the risk of existing cyber strategies and deployed solutions being overwhelmed.

Outspending the problem isn’t working

A recent McKinsey report reveals that cybersecurity spending surged to $200 billion in 2024—up from $140 billion in 2020—yet breaches keep rising.

To confront these rising risks, organizations are doubling down on complex cybersecurity stacks, layering tools in the belief that more technology equals more protection.

But what if that logic is flawed? What if, instead of boosting your system resilience, complexity increases and hides your vulnerabilities? In truth, we’re stuck in a complexity trap.

Organizations are drowning in software solutions that promise the world but deliver confusion. Each new tool might address a specific threat vector, but the resulting patchwork of platforms often leads to fragmented visibility and hidden blind spots.

In short, we risk opening more doors that attackers can walk through.

By trying to guard against every threat, we become entangled in complexity and exposed to its consequences—creating a false sense of security in the process.

Simplicity solves complexity

When you strip back your cybersecurity layers and concentrate on a back-to-basics approach that’s founded on clarity, control and isolation, you achieve better protection than any complex software stack.

Now, this isn’t about throwing out digital defenses. It’s about recognising their limits and rethinking where real resilience comes from.

Software alone, no matter how smart, is still vulnerable to manipulation. And with AI supercharging attacks in real time—learning from failed breach attempts, mimicking user behavior and exploiting every crack in the system at an accelerating pace—this has never been truer.

That’s why physical isolation has stepped back into the conversation. It’s not just a legacy idea from a pre-cloud era; it’s the critical missing idea in modern cyber strategy.

The case for physical network isolation

Highly motivated threat actors and AI-powered malware have the ability to think and spread without human input. With devastating precision, it targets high-value assets, adapting mid-attack.

This calls for a defense that is unhackable by nature.

Hardware-based network isolation is exactly that. When systems are physically segmented—truly separated from the internet – remote infection becomes impossible. The key to modern deployment of this traditional airgap method lies in being able to control it, at will, on demand.

If malware can't make contact, it can't compromise. It’s that simple.

Even if a system is somehow breached, physical segmentation allows businesses to readily contain the threat. When you isolate systems from one another with hardware, not just firewalls or virtual LANs, you prevent lateral movement, stop data exfiltration and drastically reduce the blast radius of any attack.

This is especially critical for operational technology, critical infrastructure and sensitive research environments, where uptime is essential and downtime is catastrophic.

An overdue shift in thinking

The complexity trap is reflected in how we spend. According to industry research, 65% of cyber budgets now go to third-party tools and services, outpacing investment in in-house capability.

But security is not just a tech problem; it’s a strategic design challenge. Businesses today react to new threats by accumulating more tools. What’s needed instead is a clear, layered security plan that’s built with purpose, not patched together.

That begins with rethinking how much of your infrastructure truly needs to be online. In a hyperconnected world, we’ve defaulted to keeping everything on all the time.

But always-on equals always-vulnerable. If certain data or systems don’t require constant internet access, why expose them?

By selectively disconnecting key assets, at the right time, you can regain control of your business.

The future starts with hardware

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a step backward. It’s a step toward resilience. Software-based security remains essential. But as threats evolve, our defenses must too.

Layered protection that starts with hardware-based control is the only viable way forward. It combines the speed and scale of software with the unbreachable foundations of physical isolation.

Think of it like a bank vault. The digital defenses are the alarms, cameras and motion detectors. But the vault? That’s your hardware-based barrier. Even the smartest thief can’t crack it from a distance.

Protecting your systems isn’t just about keeping up with the latest threats. It’s about doing what works, what’s reliable and proven.

Because just like in life, the clearest answers are often the strongest ones.

And in cybersecurity, simplicity is the ultimate advantage.

We list the best endpoint protection software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

• Over half of marketers say they can’t do their jobs without AI, despite poor results
• Budgets for AI keep rising, even though 81% of leaders say it's being wasted
• Marketers are stuck manually fixing AI output for days every week

Social media professionals have grown increasingly dependent on artificial intelligence, with new research finding more than half saying they now can’t imagine performing their roles without it.

A survey from Hootsuite claims this growing reliance is not matched by results despite heavy investments in AI technologies.

The firm's research reveals 88% of senior marketing leaders are encouraging their teams to use AI tools, yet 81% admit budgets are being wasted on tools not fit for purpose. 

Manual work persists despite automation promises

Delving deeper, Hootsuite found many marketers find themselves trapped in a time-consuming cycle of manual labor and subpar outcomes, revealing a deep disconnect between expectations and the actual utility of generative AI tools in marketing.

A significant proportion of social media managers still spend up to three full working days each week verifying AI-generated content and manually gathering insights from online platforms.

This lag not only drains staff time but also affects campaign performance.

As trends shift rapidly, marketers often find their content outdated by the time it is published, which may explain why over half of senior marketers feel their campaigns consistently underperform.

The financial implications are just as troubling. Budgets for AI tools continue to rise, yet for some, the wasted investment exceeds 20% of their entire marketing budget.

"This should be a wake up call to all marketers: traditional AI isn’t as sophisticated as you think it is," noted Irina Novoselsky, CEO at Hootsuite.

"With five billion people spending up to five hours a day online, social is one of the richest sources of real-time data sources available and yet, traditional AI tools still can’t harness it, leaving the insights marketers truly need hiding in plain sight."

(Image credit: NPowell/Flux)

With rising pressure from executive leadership to justify every expense, marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to defend investments in AI tools that fail to deliver tangible returns.

A critical weakness in current generative AI systems lies in their reliance on outdated datasets.

These tools often fail to capture the dynamic nature of real-time audience behavior, meaning that their insights may be out of sync with the present moment.

While 64% of senior leaders believe their AI tools offer real-time insights, only 39% of social media managers agree, a clear signal that confidence in AI’s real-world performance is uneven across organizational levels.

In response to these challenges, Hootsuite has introduced OwlyGPT, a generative AI assistant trained on live social data.

The company says, this tool delivers up-to-the-minute insights tailored to brand voice and cultural context.

Considering the issues with AI static data, this move appears promising, but it's good to approach it with some skepticism. After all, businesses have been led to believe in AI’s transformative power before, only to confront disappointing results.

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From my vantage point, I see the legacy mainframe landscape as both a testament to decades of reliable operation and a critical juncture demanding strategic evolution. The global economy’s reliance on these systems is undeniable – they are the silent workhorses powering a significant majority of business transactions.

However, the accelerating pace of technological advancement, coupled with the realities of hardware lifecycles and a shifting talent pool, calls for a proactive and thoughtful approach to their eventual end-of-life. The question is no longer if we modernize, but how we navigate this complexity without disrupting the very core of operations.

Cost and complexity

A primary hurdle is the significant cost and inherent complexity of these transformations. Mainframe modernization isn't a simple tech refresh; it demands substantial investment, time, and meticulous planning. Decades of accumulated technical debt, often manifested as undocumented code and intricate dependencies, require a phased and strategic approach.

Carving the application portfolio into thin, business-aligned slices, is a great approach to deliver tangible value in shorter cycles. Prioritizing initiatives with clear and early ROI, such as migrating non-critical workloads, builds momentum and stakeholder confidence.

The shrinking pool of mainframe-skilled professionals presents another critical challenge. The reality is that the workforce with deep expertise in these legacy systems is nearing retirement, creating a potential knowledge vacuum. To mitigate this, we advise for codification of tribal knowledge.

This involves leveraging tools to harvest specifications from production logs and source code analytics, while also pairing retiring experts with cross-skilled engineers. Investing in upskilling programs that bridge the gap between COBOL literacy, modern cloud-native and observability skills is paramount to building a future-ready workforce capable of managing both legacy and target environments during transition.

Data migration

Migrating petabytes of critical, often poorly documented, business data and its embedded logic to modern platforms is a high-stakes challenge, with severe risks of data loss or corruption. A recommended strategy involves inverting data gravity: implement an API façade over shared datasets and incrementally replicate data to the target platform using event streaming, thereby minimizing disruption.

Employing anti-corruption layers ensures a clean decoupling of legacy systems, aligning migration with modern architectures while safeguarding core business processes. Another technique we support is behavior equivalence and leveraging data seams to integrate into the origin system while the architecture is going through its evolution.

Beyond the technical aspects, organizational misalignment is a frequent stumbling block. Modernization is a business transformation, not just an IT project, and one of the most reliable indicators of success is a courageous, well-supported leader who can steer the program through the inevitable stumbles and issues that arise. A clear business vision, tied to measurable outcomes like improved customer experience or reduced operational risk, is essential.

Culture of change

Fostering a culture of change through transparent communication, targeted training, and deliberate capability-building is crucial: the destination team must be fully trained and capable of operating a platform of this criticality and complexity, which goes far beyond a typical N-Tier architecture. Such preparation helps overcome internal resistance and ensures everyone understands, and can realize, long-term benefits.

Finally, integration and observability gaps can derail even the most well-intentioned modernization efforts. Legacy systems are often deeply embedded within the broader IT ecosystem, so updating core components can surface unforeseen integration challenges.

To counter this, we advocate for enhancing observability from day one, including baselining the performance of existing mainframe jobs and screen transactions; these metrics establish a benchmark to keep the modernized environment aligned with current service levels.

This early telemetry is paired with modern monitoring solutions and real-time dashboards that provide comprehensive insights into system behavior. Prioritizing API-first integration ensures seamless communication between legacy and new architectures, while automated testing at integration points minimizes disruption risk during the transition.

The advent of AI

Generative AI is accelerating mainframe modernization by offering powerful opportunities to analyze legacy systems and streamline transformations, delivering greater agility and resilience. This shift is mirrored by modernization spending moving from defensive capital expenditure to growth-focused operational expenditure.

Success in this evolving landscape hinges on disciplined execution, continuous measurement, and transparent communication, rather than merely relying on tools. Furthermore, enhanced cloud platforms now provide flexible and secure migration paths, significantly boosting the strategic importance of these efforts due to heightened regulatory scrutiny on operational resilience.

Here’s a modernization manifesto to bear in mind:

• Start with the business capability map, not the code tree. Technology serves the business.
• Prefer incremental stranglers over all-or-nothing migrations. Decommissioning legacy components is a tangible win.
• Automate everything twice – first to understand, then to transform. Leverage code scanners, synthetic data, and automated testing.
• Invest in people before platforms – empower cross-functional teams that own both the old and the new.
• Measure outcomes continuously and publicly – demonstrate the business value of modernization with clear KPIs.

In conclusion, mainframe end-of-life is not an event to be feared, but a strategic imperative to be navigated with diligence and foresight. It’s a long-term commitment to ensuring our critical value streams remain adaptable and resilient.

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