4, Jun 2026
A New Wave of Art and Design at Cedars-Sinai Marina Hospital
By Camille Meggs
LOS ANGELES June 04: Layne Dicker likes a well-appointed home, but when it came time to decorate his rustic Utah house, one of his family’s most treasured possessions wasn’t a good fit.
Dicker, an experienced art collector, made the tough call to exclude a beloved piece from his prized collection from the décor. Rather than storing or selling the 1987 lithograph Kite on Gibson Beach by Malcolm Morley, Dicker gifted the artwork to Cedars-Sinai—a poignant nod to his history with the hospital. He was born at the former Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in 1958 and grew up in Beverly Hills.
The painting’s new home: the new, nine-story Cedars-Sinai Marina Hospital, set to open late this year. Dicker says it’s the perfect spot because of the new hospital’s ocean-inspired design elements that reflect the coastal community.
“When my wife passed away in 2019, I decided to move to the log vacation home we built, and the Morley just didn’t fit in,” Dicker said. “But it’s a piece I’ve always loved and thought it would be better to donate so that more people could enjoy it.”
Nancy Chaikin knows exactly how Dicker feels. The art advisor and collector has given Cedars-Sinai Marina artwork from her own collection, an oil on linen piece by Sean Landers called Untitled, which exudes ripples of the ocean using a special paint application technique.
“I am thrilled to contribute to the hospital’s environment,” Chaikin said. “Art can activate a space, not only by creating warmth and beauty, but by provoking thought and emotion. I feel fortunate to share Sean Landers’ work with patients, employees and visitors at Cedars-Sinai.”
Donated works of art have already made a difference to visitors like Gianna Chaisson, whose father recovered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a major heart attack.
“I found myself walking through the hospital and was deeply impacted by the art collection,” Chaisson shared. “In moments when everything felt so uncertain, the artwork helped keep me grounded and, most importantly, hopeful.”
Cedars-Sinai, located in Beverly Grove, has long been known for its donated art collection and now is seeking to extend the art-as-healing philosophy to the new hospital.
“We love receiving art of all genres that enrich the healing spaces Cedars-Sinai is known for and that inspire everyone who enters,”said John T. Lange, curator of the Cedars-Sinai art collection and manager of the Cedars-Sinai Advisory Council for the Arts. “We consider it such an altruistic act to part with valued pieces that beautify, and inform our themes of hope and restoration to soothe those facing health challenges.”
Lange is busy these days, figuring out where to display the donated art. He strategically places every piece to generate and emphasize Cedars-Sinai’s healing environment. For example, a collection of handpicked images graces the walls of the surgical unit, so post-op patients are encouraged to walk a little farther every day to see the next art piece. Studies have proven that walking after surgery can speed a patient’s recovery and discharge.
Lange is also collaborating with Cedars-Sinai’s director of Urologic Oncology research, Timothy Daskivich, MD, to develop an app for patients to monitor their steps by choosing an art tour on their floor.
“Art is not only nice to see,” Lange said. “It is very powerful medicine that plays a huge role in creating a healing atmosphere for those facing health challenges, visitors and, of course, our employees.”
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- By Neel Achary
4, Jun 2026
Dubai South emerges as Emirate’s real estate powerhouse
Transaction volumes up 36% since February, developer sales surge 57% as investor confidence holds firm
Dubai, UAE, June 4 The evolution of Dubai South as the emirate’s largest single urban master development is highlighted by a new market analysis today revealing sustained residential real estate growth over the last three months.
For the third consecutive month in May, Dubai South ranked as the best-performing area in the emirate’s property sector, recording 1,357 sales transactions valued at AED 1.6 billion, a 15.9% rise in volume on April and marking its seventh straight month in the top five.
A market report from fäm Properties reveals that residential property sales transactions at Dubai South have surged by 36.4% since the onset of the regional conflict at the end of February.
This growth has been largely driven by developer off-plan sales, which climbed 24.8% last month to 1,233 transactions, following a 35.71% increase in April, adding up to a cumulative rise of 57.87% since the end of February.
“The level of market activity at Dubai South underlines the strength of its fundamentals as a fully integrated, connected urban and business hub propelling growth across the emirate’s broader economy,” said Firas Al Msaddi, CEO of fäm Properties.
“Growing transaction volumes reflect genuine end-user and investor confidence in the government’s long-term development vision for this dynamic aviation and logistics ecosystem, underpinned by the expansion of Dubai World Central into the world’s largest airport.”
Data from DXBinteract shows that the Dubai real estate market recorded 10,281 sales transactions worth AED28.9 billion in May. The month brought 8,772 apartment sales worth AED14.6 billion, 1,037 villa sales worth AED7.2 billion, along with 133 plot sales valued at AED4.2 billion.
The commercial sector, including offices and shops, recorded 335 sales transactions valued at AED2.9 billion. The average property price per sq ft was up by 3% YoY to AED1,650.
Primary sales again dominated in May, accounting for 7,595 sales transactions totalling AED18.5 billion, compared with 2,686 resales valued at AED10.4 billion. The most expensive villa sold in May was a luxury property at Signature Villas on Palm Jumeriah which went for AED145 million.
The most expensive apartment went for AED113 million at Solaya 5 at Jumeirah First. Other luxury apartments sold for AED106 million at Solaya 6 at La Mer and 101 million at One Casa at Al Wasl on the Dubai Water Canal.
With properties worth more than AED5 million accounting for 8.56% of sales, 8.19% were between AED3-5 million, 12.41% between AED2-3 million, 31.02% between AED1-2 million and 39.82% were below AED1 million.
TOP FIVE PERFORMING AREAS IN MAY 2026
Transactions Sales value
Dubai South 1,357 AED1.6B
Wadi Al Safa 3 983 AED1.7B
Wadi Al Safa 5 631 AED833.9M
Al Barsha South Fourth 551 AED690.4M
Jebel Ali First 541 AED920.9M
BEST-SELLING PROJECTS IN MAY 2026
Primary market apartments
|
|
Volume |
Value AED |
Median price AED |
|
Binghatti Skyflame 1 |
442 |
311.1M |
550K |
|
Binghatti Skyflame 2 |
193 |
124.8M |
565K |
|
Azizi Venice 14 Building |
109 |
82.5M |
650K |
|
Azizi Venice 14 Building |
105 |
79.1M |
650K |
|
Bond |
101 |
23.9M |
201K |
Primary market villas
|
Lunaya |
62 |
524.6M |
6.9M |
|
Reportage Hills |
47 |
95.1M |
1.8M |
|
Verdana 3 |
36 |
50.0M |
1.3M |
|
Palm Jebel Ali |
22 |
815.7M |
31.3M |
|
Verdana 10 |
22 |
37.5M |
1.7M |
4, Jun 2026
How New Discoveries About ‘Ground Plans’ for Neurons Could Simplify Brain, Behavior Research
While E. Josie Clowney would never suggest that neuroscience is simple, a new study by her team at the University of Michigan could drastically reduce complexity in future studies.
Their work focused on instinctual behaviors in fruit flies, but it has the potential to accelerate work to better understand the neurobiology that underlies behavior and decision-making in mammals, including humans.
The research establishes a new way to understand neurons, their connectivity and the behaviors they control. Within this new framework, the researchers can circumvent the conventional approach of considering each type of neuron individually and instead focus on groupings defined by shared structure and by two sets of regulatory genes.
The work was supported by the Pew Charitable Trust and the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health and U.S. National Science Foundation.
While there are more than 8,000 kinds of neurons in the fruit fly cerebrum – the part of its brain where instinctual behaviors are hardwired – there are less than 200 major structural groups, or ground plans. Led by Najia Elkahlah, who recently defended her doctoral thesis in the Clowney lab, the team’s discoveries revealed how these ground plans get set up. There is a sort of order or hierarchy, where one set of genes coordinates the formation of the ground plan, and the other set produces small differences in shape and connectivity among neurons within each ground plan.
“Instead of studying all 8,000 kinds of neurons, we can instead understand how circuits work by studying these 200 modular elements that are wired together in various ways for different functions,” said Clowney, associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.
These gene sets have homologues in mammals, and many of them are known to be critical in mammalian neural development. This raises the possibility of discovering similar simplifying frameworks in other organisms.
“At this moment, it’s not yet possible to ask if the same rules apply to analogous parts of mammalian brains, because we don’t know enough about the relationships among circuits, genes or developmental programs that operate there,” Clowney said. “But I feel strongly that there will be simplifying rules of some sort in the mammal as well, and that we or others will be able to discover them if we take inspiration from the way we went about making this discovery.”
The research was published in the journal Nature.
Taste and cease
Scientists have been studying the humble fruit fly as a biological model since before they knew genes were made of DNA. That history has yielded fundamental biological discoveries, as well as a substantial body of work on which to build new ones.
“The reasons we work with this animal today are because it has useful characteristics that simplify our experiments and interpretations, and because we want to take advantage of 100 years’ worth of knowledge,” Clowney said. “In my opinion – though others in the field might disagree—we don’t study this animal because it is ‘special,’ but rather as a generic example of ‘an animal.'”
Within the Drosophila cerebrum, researchers including Clowney had previously discovered specific neural circuits linked to specific instinctual behaviors. And this specificity helped the team discover the broader ground plans that can help simplify their quest to link molecular and cellular biology to behavior.
The researchers discovered that there are two sets of regulatory genes at work. The first set controls the basic shape of the neuron, while the second set influences finer variations and connectivity.
It’s this first set that gives rise to the roughly 200 ground plans. Of these 200, there’s one ground plan that’s connected to sensing a taste and stopping a behavior. Within that ground plan, there’s neural circuitry that detects unsavory taste information and quashes feeding behavior. Another circuit detects undesirable pheromonal tastes and blocks mating behavior. The team was able to identify the second set of genes that gave rise to these two distinct neural pathways and behaviors.
“Thinking about these two sets of genes separately allowed us to relate the developmental programs to the function of circuits,” Clowney said. “We identified two sets of genes that give neurons in the decision-making center of the brain their gross versus fine characteristics, and defined a new way to study these circuits.”
U-M research lab technician Joe Carter and doctoral students Yunzhi Lin and Yijie Pan also contributed to the study. The Clowney lab worked in collaboration with Troy Shirangi, a professor at Villanova University. Additional support for the project was provided by the U-M Advanced Genomics Core and the U-M Single Cell Spatial Analysis Program.
4, Jun 2026
Debut Feature Film ‘Contradiction’ Wins Best Director at Indie Vegas Film Festival
No-budget psychological thriller is recognized following debut in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS (MAY 26, 2026) — Contradiction, the debut feature film from writer-director Pierce Kafka, was awarded best director after screening for the first time at Indie Vegas Film Festival on May 1.
Produced entirely as a no-budget independent feature, Contradiction stood out at the festival for its stylised storytelling and ambitious creative execution. The award marks a major milestone for Kafka’s first feature film and highlights the growing recognition of emerging independent filmmakers outside of traditional studio production.
Set in 1990s Miami, the film follows a security guard whose life begins to unravel after meeting a dangerously charismatic coworker. It explores themes of fear, identity, and self-destruction, while also tapping into broader conversations around indie filmmaking and creative risk-taking.
“We made Contradiction as a true no-budget independent thriller, built entirely on passion, resourcefulness, and a deep belief in the story we wanted to tell,” says Pierce Kafka. “Winning Best Director at our first-ever film festival means a lot because it represents what independent filmmaking is all about. Through trusting the vision and taking risks, you can connect your story to audiences in a meaningful way regardless of resources.”
With a background that spans award-winning creative campaigns, public speaking, and personal experiences, Kafka’s personal and professional experiences helped shape the film’s introspective tone and visual style.
Indie Vegas Film Festival is a platform dedicated to showcasing independent filmmakers and original storytelling in the heart of Las Vegas. Now in its third year, the festival highlights a diverse slate of films across genres.
Follow Contradiction on its national film festival run at https://contradictionmovie.com/
4, Jun 2026
Lufthansa Group welcomes visa-free airport transit for Indian nationals via Germany
The Lufthansa Group welcomes the decision of the Federal Republic of Germany to abolish airport transit visa requirements for Indian nationals travelling to third countries via German airports, effective 3 June 2026. This policy change, announced by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in New Delhi, will make journeys via key German hubs more seamless for Indian passengers and further strengthen air connectivity between India, Germany and the rest of the world.
As the largest European airline group in India, the Lufthansa Group currently operates more than 70 weekly flights between India and Europe and has been present in the Indian market for over six decades. In its 100th anniversary year, the Group is further deepening its commitment to India through sustained investment and network expansion. This includes the deployment of Lufthansa’s award-winning Allegris cabins on additional Boeing 787-9 services from Delhi and Hyderabad, the launch of SWISS’s first-ever direct service between Bengaluru and Zurich in the 2026 Winter schedule, and the rollout of FOX (Future Onboard Experience) across all long-haul cabins. FOX is a premium upgrade across all cabins, focused on choice, comfort and individuality, delivering “Lufthansa Signature Moments” that aim to redefine long-haul travel. To meet growing demand, Lufthansa and SWISS are also adding capacity with extra SWISS A330 frequencies between Delhi and Zurich and enhanced Lufthansa Airbus A380 services between Mumbai and Munich.
India is the Lufthansa Group’s largest intercontinental market in the Asia-Pacific region and plays a pivotal role in the Group’s global network. The introduction of visa-free airport transit for Indian nationals travelling via Germany to onward destinations will simplify travel, improve connectivity and further reinforce Germany’s role as a leading gateway between India, Europe and the world.
4, Jun 2026
Kesari Home Launches Flagship Store at Kunj Mall, Vasant Kunj – Celebrating Heritage, Craftsmanship & Handmade Luxury
The launch event was thoughtfully curated by Sunayana Chibba bringing together esteemed members of Delhi’s design, cultural, and creative circles for an immersive experience celebrating India’s rich textile heritage. Guests explored an exceptional collection of hand-knotted carpets, handwoven rugs, and artisanal décor pieces while enjoying a refined live Santoor and Tabla fusion performance accompanied by a thoughtfully curated high-tea experience inspired by the warmth and sophistication of Indian hospitality.
“At Kesari Home, we believe that every handcrafted piece should embody the spirit of the artisan and become a meaningful part of the customer’s journey, our flagship store is not merely a retail destination, but a tribute to India’s timeless craftsmanship and the artisan communities that preserve these invaluable traditions.” said Archana Nirula, Founder of Kesari Home.
“Curating this evening for my community was truly special because Kesari Home beautifully represents the soul of Indian craftsmanship and the stories woven into every handmade piece, It was wonderful to bring together people who genuinely appreciate heritage, artistry, and conscious luxury in such an intimate and inspiring setting. “Said Sunayana Chibba.
Beyond design excellence, Kesari Home remains deeply committed to social impact. A portion of the brand’s profits supports the India Vision Foundation established by Dr. Kiran Bedi, contributing to initiatives focused on education, rehabilitation, women’s empowerment, and community development. The brand also works directly with artisan communities to help preserve traditional weaving practices and sustain livelihoods for future generations.
4, Jun 2026
AAEON and DEEPX Deepen Ties with Global Edge AI Mass Production Partnership at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2026
Agreement formalizes shared vision and strategic goal of how best to address market demand for compact, low-power, high-performance AI platforms.
(Taipei, Taiwan – June 4) Leading provider of advanced industrial and embedded AI computing platforms AAEON (Stock Code: 6579) has confirmed that it has signed a three-year Mass Production Cooperation MOU with South Korean AI semiconductor company DEEPX Inc. The ceremony, which took place at the DEEPX exhibition booth in Hall 1 of the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center during the opening day of COMPUTEX TAIPEI, saw both AAEON CEO Howard Lin and DEEPX CEO Lokwon Kim in attendance,
The relationship between the two companies can be traced back a number of years, with a particular highlight being a December 2025 collaboration that saw multiple models from AAEON’s UP Development Kit and Mini PC series leverage DEEPX’s innovative DX-M1 AI chip, addressing market demand for ultra-low power, compact, and AI-ready edge platforms. Following sustained collaboration and extensive project validation, the two companies have now formalized their relationship through the signing of an MOU.
Under the agreement, the two companies will pursue a three-year cooperation to integrate DEEPX’s AI semiconductors (NPU) across key AAEON product lines, including industrial PCs, single-board computers, and edge platforms.
By pairing DEEPX’s innovative AI technology with AAEON’s extensive expertise in industrial computing, the companies have optimized both the hardware design and thermal architecture needed to maximize the performance of DEEPX AI chips. As a result, they state they will be better equipped to provide customers with practical, competitive platforms that are easy to integrate, deploy, and scale across a wide range of edge AI applications.
“Although DEEPX is one of our newer strategic partners, our collaboration has been exceptionally active and productive, driven by a deep alignment in addressing customer requirements for compact, low-power, and robust AI systems.,” said Howard Lin, CEO of AAEON. “By integrating AAEON’s global hardware platforms with DEEPX’s advanced semiconductor technology, we are well-positioned to deliver reliable, transformative edge AI solutions with long-term product availability across smart factories, healthcare, smart cities, and a wide range of industrial applications.”
At COMPUTEX 2026, AAEON will showcase edge AI solutions jointly developed with DEEPX and powered by DEEPX DX-series AI accelerators. These solutions will illustrate how customers can deploy AI inference directly at the edge for applications across machine vision, defect inspection, object detection, robotics, and automation.
Visitors interested in learning more about AAEON’s edge AI solutions are invited to visit Booth J1310 at Hall 1 of Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, where live demonstrations and product specialists will be available.
COMPUTEX Taipei
Date: June 2–5
Venue: Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Hall 1, 1F
Booth: J1310
AAEON x Intel Pavilion
Venue: Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1, 1F
Booth: A0618
4, Jun 2026
Auditoria Deepens Autonomous Accounts Payable Operations And Finance Intelligence
New AP agents for supplier risk monitoring and statement reconciliation, enhanced capabilities in SmartResearch, and Workday ASOR certification strengthen Auditoria and Workday partnership
Santa Clara, CA – June 4, 2026 — Auditoria.AI, the leader in agentic artificial intelligence for the Office of the CFO, today announced a major expansion of its SmartResearch platform, strengthening its role as the governed intelligence layer behind autonomous finance operations. Announced at Workday DevCon 2026 in Las Vegas, the expansion extends beyond being a founding member in Workday’s Agent Partner Network to include official certified Workday integration of SmartResearch, expanded accounts payable solutions, and autonomous capabilities, including AP Vendor Watch, and a preview of AP Statement Reconciliation.
Together, the announcements reflect a broader shift taking place across enterprise finance. Organizations are moving beyond AI experimentation and seeking ways to safely operationalize agents within systems that manage cash flow, supplier relationships, approvals, compliance, and financial reporting. For finance leaders, the challenge isn’t just whether AI can automate work, but whether autonomous agents can operate with the governance, transparency, and auditability enterprise finance requires.
That is the gap Auditoria is closing, as each capability announced today operates within Auditoria’s Governed Autonomy framework, the design philosophy that enables AI agents to execute autonomously within enterprise-defined boundaries, adapt as policies change, and produce a defensible audit trail for every action, without requiring human approval at every step.
“Finance teams do not need more disconnected AI tools. They need intelligence that can operate safely across real financial workflows,” said Rohit Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Auditoria.AI. “Everything we announced today builds toward that vision. SmartResearch is becoming the intelligence layer for the Office of the CFO, while Governed Autonomy ensures those agents can operate within the controls, policies, and audit expectations enterprise finance requires.”
SmartResearch reaches general availability
Auditoria announced the general availability of SmartResearch, its conversational AI financial analyst built specifically for the Office of the CFO. SmartResearch enables finance teams to interrogate financial operations using natural language, combining ERP data with external financial intelligence to deliver decision-ready answers and complex financial scenario simulations with full source lineage and reasoning transparency.
“Finance is moving from systems of record to systems of intelligence, and this category of technology is leading that shift,” according to R “Ray” Wang, Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. “Agentic AI purpose-built for the Office of the CFO, connecting disparate enterprise data, reconciling unstructured context, and delivering continuous cash intelligence that drives autonomous decision-making, demonstrates what’s possible. This is next-gen finance, and the innovators defining it have the DNA, the depth, and the conviction to shape the category.”
As part of the expansion announced today, Auditoria has extended SmartResearch deeper into accounts payable workflows. Finance leaders can now analyze supplier trends, spend patterns, payment risks, and operational exceptions through a conversational interface that brings together internal finance data with external market intelligence.
Certified Workday integration validates governed enterprise deployment
Auditoria also announced official certification in Workday’s Marketplace for SmartResearch which is registered to Workday’s Agent System of Record (ASOR), strengthening the company’s integration with Workday environments and reinforcing its focus on governed enterprise AI deployment.
Workday ASOR provides the governance framework through which AI agents connect into enterprise workflows with centralized identity propagation, lifecycle management, entitlement enforcement, and audit controls. Auditoria’s certification reinforces that its agents are designed to operate within the same governance and accountability standards enterprise finance teams already expect from their core systems.
“Workday’s Agent System of Record creates a necessary foundation for governed, responsible AI at scale. Auditoria’s certification is a testament to our shared commitment to developing agentic AI that operates with the same high standards of security and auditability that our customers expect from Workday’s core systems,” said Mohan Rajagopalan, senior director, AI platform product management, Workday. “This powerful alignment enables the Office of the CFO to confidently scale agentic AI, driving tangible, measurable change across the business.”
Expanding autonomous AP operations
Auditoria also announced the availability of AP Vendor Watch, a continuously operating agent designed to help accounts payable teams monitor supplier risk in real time. AP Vendor Watch automates ongoing tracking of supplier health signals, identifies emerging risks against configurable thresholds, and surfaces actionable alerts without manual intervention across ERP environments.
Finance teams can define the specific supplier risk parameters most relevant to their business while maintaining consistent monitoring across their vendor ecosystem.
Auditoria also previewed AP Statement Reconciliation, which will arrive later this quarter. The capability automates the process of matching supplier statements against internal financial records, helping finance teams identify discrepancies earlier, prevent overpayments, strengthen supplier relationships, and accelerate reconciliation cycles.
Like the broader Auditoria platform, both new AI agent products operate within the platform’s Governed Autonomy framework, ensuring that every autonomous action remains policy-aligned, traceable, and auditable.
Availability
SmartResearch enhancements and AP Vendor Watch are now available through Auditoria. AP Statement Reconciliation is currently in preview and is expected to become generally available later this quarter.
3, Jun 2026
Liferay Launches Liferay AI Hub
LOS ANGELES – (June 3, 2026) – Liferay, a leading provider of Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs), today announced the lunch of Liferay AI Hub, a standalone SaaS product that enables enterprise organizations to build, deploy, and manage AI agents through a low-code environment. Grounded in an organization’s own data and governed by its existing security policies, Liferay AI Hub is designed to give enterprises the speed and flexibility they need to adopt AI at scale without rebuilding the security infrastructure they already have in place.
Enterprise AI initiatives often stall because of the complexity involved in deploying AI responsibly. Building governance from scratch can take months. Ensuring AI stays grounded in the right data, and never surfaces what it shouldn’t, requires infrastructure most organizations are still trying to build. And fragmented adoption across departments creates security gaps and redundant costs that often go unnoticed until it’s too late. Liferay AI Hub was built to solve those challenges.
“The typical enterprise governance foundation includes access controls, data policies, and security infrastructure that have taken years to assemble. Liferay AI Hub lets organizations apply all of that to AI without starting over,” said Julia Molano, Director of Product Management at Liferay. “They can connect their preferred AI models, define agents tailored to their business, and deploy them in days, not months.”
Governance by Design
Liferay AI Hub is built on top of Liferay DXP’s existing security and access control framework. Rather than requiring organizations to build a separate governance layer for AI, Liferay AI Hub agents operate on behalf of authenticated DXP users, ensuring they can only access data that user is authorized to see. Every AI interaction is logged in a full audit trail, and sensitive information stays within the organization’s environment. The platform is designed to support enterprise compliance needs, including GDPR data locality, HIPAA access controls, and SOC 2 audit readiness. Liferay also holds ISO/IEC 42001 certification for its AI Management System, validating its commitment to responsible AI governance.
Open Architecture, Any AI Service
Unlike embedded AI solutions tied to a single vendor’s model, Liferay AI Hub is built on an open, model-agnostic architecture. Organizations can connect a wide range of LLMs, including models from providers such as Anthrophic, Google and OpenAI. As the AI landscape evolves, organizations can swap or add models without rebuilding agents or disrupting existing workflows, protecting their technology investments over time. Through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), customers can access data from any compatible system to be used by agents.
Low-Code Agent Building for the Whole Enterprise
Liferay AI Hub provides a low-code studio designed for technical users, including existing IT resources, who need to configure, deploy, and manage AI agents without the overhead of custom development. Pre-built agent templates cover common use cases, including content creation. They can be reviewed, configured, and deployed in minutes. For more specialized requirements, teams can define bespoke agents grounded in their own documents, product catalogs, knowledge bases, and systems of record.
Liferay AI Hub also supports multi-agent orchestration, allowing organizations to chain specialized agents into end-to-end business workflows, with complete human review checkpoints and event-driven triggers coming in later releases. Use cases span marketing content pipelines, supply chain risk monitoring, predictive audience segmentation, automated compliance review, proactive customer service triage, and more.
Availability
Liferay AI Hub is now available, Organizations interested in early access can visit www.liferay.com/capabilities/
3, Jun 2026
ICBA Releases Community Banker Guide on Artificial Intelligence Security Readiness
Washington, D.C. (June 3, 2026) — The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) today released a new guide to help community banks navigate the artificial intelligence security landscape.
Developed by community bankers on ICBA’s AI Task Force to provide practical guidance to their industry colleagues, the Community Banker AI Security Readiness Guide offers an informational overview of the AI threat shift, what it means for local institutions, strengthening third-party due diligence, updating and testing incident response plans, and more.
“The nation’s community banks are leveraging AI to strengthen operations and resilience while they work to address key AI risks and implementation challenges that warrant further attention,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said today. “ICBA’s new Community Banker AI Security Readiness Guide was developed by community bankers for community bankers to help navigate our rapidly evolving security environment.”
Contributors include Andrew Pyles, president and CEO of Eclipse Bank in Louisville, Ky.; David Peterson, chief innovation officer of First National Bankers Bank in Baton Rouge, La.; Ferdinand Feola, senior vice president chief technology officer of The Dime Bank in Honesdale, Pa.; Milton Bartley, co-founder, president, and CEO of ImageQuest in Nashville, Tenn.; Danna Burchess, executive vice president and chief financial officer of First National Bank of Gillette, Wyo.; and Anjelica Dortch, vice president of operational risk at ICBA.
With community banks long serving as adopters of technology to improve operational efficiency and strengthen cybersecurity, ICBA strongly supports responsible AI adoption. In a recent ICBA letter to the Financial Stability Oversight Council and interindustry AI action plan, ICBA called on policymakers to ensure a risk-based, proportionate policy framework and coordinated action to address emerging AI-enabled cyber risk. This week’s executive order on promoting advanced AI innovation and security expressly recognizes community banks as a critical infrastructure component and adopts elements of the action plan in directing federal agencies to secure their systems and promote access to AI security tools.
ICBA looks forward to continuing to work with community bankers, administration officials, lawmakers, and other stakeholders to provide valuable resources to community bankers while ensuring their voice is being heard on these critical issues.
