Target is offering more than 8,000 new gifts, with more than half exclusive to the retailerMost new holiday items at Target are $20 or less, including thousands $5 and underNew AI-powered shopping experiences, daily deals and early Black Friday savings simplify gifting

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) is putting gifting at the heart of the holidays, bringing guests more than 8,000 new stylish gifts they can’t wait to give. More than half of the new assortment is available only at Target, with thousands of gifts priced at $5 and under. New AI-powered shopping experiences, fresh ways to discover gifts and deals throughout the season will make it easier for guests to find something special for everyone on the list.

“This holiday season, guests will see and feel the changes we’ve been making across Target, bringing together the style, design and value they expect from us with an experience that makes shopping easier and more inspiring,” said Michael Fiddelke, chief executive officer, Target. “We know guests turn to Target for gifting, gathering and everything in between, and our team is ready to help busy families discover more joy in those moments throughout the season.”

Stylish gifts at an incredible value
As consumers continue to look for affordable ways to give gifts that feel special, Target is leaning into one of the season’s biggest trends: luxe-for-less gifting. This year’s assortment includes 100% cashmere (excluding functional trim) starting at $25, pajamas for all from $10, festive decor from $5, faux fur throws at $30, top toys from LEGO, Barbie and Nintendo, new and exclusive gifts from prestige, emerging and global beauty brands at Target Beauty Studio, nostalgic sweet treats and host gifts from Favorite Day and exclusive finds for sports and wellness fans, making it easy for guests to find gifts that feel elevated at every price point.

“Guests tell us they want to give gifts that are thoughtful and personal, while feeling good about what they’re spending,” said Cara Sylvester, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Target. “That’s why we’ve brought together the brands they love, exciting trends and unexpected finds they won’t see anywhere else — all at prices that make it easier to get that ‘I can’t wait to give this’ gift.”

More ways to discover the perfect gift
New this season, Ask Target, an AI-powered shopping assistant available in beta on Target.com and the Target app, helps guests find inspiration, narrow their choices and shop with confidence and ease. Additional AI-powered features and a digital holiday kids catalog offer more ways to discover gifts for everyone on the list.

Target’s new Academy of Giftology holiday marketing campaign, launching in November, will tackle familiar gifting dilemmas with playful inspiration to help guests gift it their all and find gifts they’ll be excited to give.

More ways to save, from the first gift to the last
Beginning Nov. 1, guests can shop a new Deal of the Day every day through Dec. 24, with a first-ever one-day preview of upcoming offers to help them plan ahead. Early Black Friday deals run Nov. 5–7, followed by new limited-time offers every weekend throughout the holiday season.

The joy of gift giving
Through Target’s partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, guests can give a gift that helps give back with the Gigglescape St. Jude bear, with a donation tied to each purchase while supplies last.

About Target
Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) brings together style, design and value to offer a distinct assortment and elevated shopping experience across more than 2,000 U.S. stores and online. Powered by more than 400,000 team members, Target serves millions of families each week and invests in the communities where they live and work to support growth and opportunity for all.

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SOURCE Target Corporation

Kristen Nunery warns that homegrown Certificate of Insurance tracking tools can create a false sense of security when businesses mistake collecting insurance documents for verifying coverage and compliance

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) makes it easier for businesses to build their own software, Kristen Nunery, founder and CEO of illumend, is warning construction and property management companies against a costly misconception: that building a Certificate of Insurance (COI) tracking system is the same as verifying that contractors and other third parties have the insurance coverage their contracts require.

In her new article, “You Can Build a COI Tracker with AI. That Doesn’t Mean You Should,” Nunery explains that general-purpose AI tools such as ChatGPT can help businesses create applications that collect certificates, track expiration dates, and automate reminders. But those capabilities address only part of the insurance compliance process. Determining whether coverage satisfies contractual requirements involves interpreting insurance documents, reviewing endorsements, identifying exclusions and resolving discrepancies that basic tracking software may overlook.

“AI has democratized the ability to build software. It hasn’t democratized the expertise to make the right insurance decision,” said Nunery, who has spent 16 years in insurance compliance. “If you don’t have a compliance process today, you’re not automating a process. You’re automating your best guess.”

Why a COI Tracker Is Not an Insurance Compliance Verification System

According to Nunery, the critical distinction is between tracking the existence and expiration of insurance documents and verifying whether the underlying coverage meets contractual obligations.

A homegrown COI tracker may confirm that a certificate is current, record policy limits, and flag missing documents. But a current certificate does not necessarily mean a contractor is adequately insured or compliant with an agreement’s terms.

For example, a subcontractor may submit a certificate showing sufficient general liability limits and additional insured status. Yet the underlying endorsement may be a CG 20 10 covering ongoing operations only, while the contract also requires completed-operations coverage under a CG 20 37 or equivalent endorsement. A basic tracker could mark the subcontractor as compliant despite the missing coverage.

“The tracker didn’t misread anything,” Nunery said. “It never had the contract requirement, the endorsement language, or the connection between the two.”

Other potential gaps include incorrectly named insured entities, missing endorsements, inadequate completed-operations coverage, and policy provisions that fail to satisfy contractual insurance requirements. Identifying these issues requires evaluating insurance evidence in context, not simply extracting data from a certificate.

Why Insurance Compliance Verification Requires Specialized Technology

Nunery argues that businesses seeking to move beyond basic COI tracking need technology designed specifically for insurance compliance verification, with insurance expertise embedded in how the system evaluates coverage.

Unlike homegrown tracking tools, specialized compliance platforms such as illumend compare insurance documents against established contractual requirements, examine supporting endorsements, identify coverage gaps, and explain findings that require attention.

This approach powers Lumie, illumend’s specialized AI-powered insurance compliance expert. Lumie reviews certificates and endorsements against established requirements, flags potential deficiencies and provides supporting evidence for its determinations, while allowing compliance professionals to review and resolve exceptions.

“AI should do more than flag a problem. It should show you what it found, which requirement it evaluated, and the evidence behind its assessment,” Nunery said. “Lumie applies insurance expertise at scale and creates a clear record of its findings, so teams can act on routine determinations efficiently and focus their attention on exceptions that need a closer look.”

Nunery’s perspective draws on her experience building myCOI, whose technology has reviewed more than 45 million insurance documents and identified more than 2 million coverage gaps before they became claims, according to company figures.

Build a COI Tracker or Buy a Compliance Platform? The Questions Businesses Should Ask

For organizations considering building their own COI software, Nunery recommends first determining whether they need a document-tracking application or a comprehensive insurance compliance verification system.

Basic tracking needs may be addressed with spreadsheets, conventional software, or applications built with general-purpose AI. But verifying compliance requires substantially more: translating contractual insurance requirements into rules, reviewing endorsements and policy evidence, identifying exceptions, documenting decisions, and maintaining an auditable compliance process.

Businesses must also consider who will keep insurance requirements current, validate the system’s determinations, investigate discrepancies, and maintain the records needed to support compliance decisions during claims or audits.

“Building the software happens once,” Nunery said. “Running a compliance system means keeping requirements, evidence, follow-ups, decisions and the audit trail current, every day it’s in use.”

To read Nunery’s full article, visit https://www.illumend.ai/evaluation-buying/build-vs-buy-coi-tracking-software-ai

About illumend
Founded in 2025, illumend™ is the AI-powered platform redefining how businesses manage third-party insurance compliance and risk. Backed by myCOI, the leader in third-party insurance compliance management with more than 16 years of expertise, illumend reimagines compliance by guiding every step of the process—from document review and expiration tracking to risk flagging, communication, and resolution—within one intuitive system. Built on myCOI’s institutional foundation—having processed more than 45 million documents, managed over 1.2 million agreements, cleared more than 750,000 third-party partners, and identified more than two million coverage gaps before claims—illumend brings this depth of compliance intelligence into an AI-native platform. At its core is Lumie, illumend’s conversational AI guide that reads complex insurance documents, flags issues in real time, and explains them in language anyone can act on. To learn more, visit https://www.illumend.ai.

Media contact:
Michael Tebo
Gabriel Marketing Group (for illumend)
Phone: 571-835-8775
Email: michaelt@gabrielmarketing.com

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SOURCE illumend

New conversational AI platform release introduces LLM model testing, AI-assisted integration building, and a fully configurable chat panel – all without writing a line of code

SANDNES, Norway, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — boost.ai, the enterprise conversational AI platform for regulated industries, today announced version 14 of its platform, introducing a new set of capabilities that give CX and AI operations teams direct control over how their AI Agents are built, tested, and presented to customers. The update will begin rolling out to customers in the coming weeks.

The release reflects a shift in how enterprises manage conversational AI at scale. As AI Agents take on more complex, transactional work, the teams accountable for their performance increasingly need to move quickly — adjusting models, building integrations, and updating customer-facing experiences on their own timelines. This release is built around that reality.

“The question enterprises are asking is no longer whether conversational AI can handle complex, transactional interactions; it can. The real challenge is whether the teams responsible for those interactions can move at the speed the business needs,” said Jerry Haywood, CEO of boost.ai. “At boost.ai, we are giving our customers the tools to make better model decisions, keep AI investment proportionate, and stay in control of how their AI Agents evolve.”

Test the model before you trust it

Large Language Model (LLM) testing within the platform’s Test Studio now lets teams take any use case or guardrail in their AI Agent, run it against multiple AI models simultaneously, and see exactly how each one performs, comparing quality, response speed, and cost side by side.

While public benchmarks measure how a model performs in general, they do not measure how it handles a specific organisation’s use cases, with their specific guardrails in place. This update allows CX teams to identify where simpler, more cost-effective models perform just as well as premium alternatives, and where a more capable model is genuinely needed, before either decision reaches a customer.

The result is a more deliberate approach to model selection: one grounded in evidence rather than assumption, and one that keeps costs proportionate to the demands of each task.

Build integrations without the developer queue

The boost.ai platform also includes a major upgrade to the AI assistant built directly into its API Connector. Teams can now describe the integration they need in plain language – from CRM systems like Salesforce to automation platforms like UiPath – point the companion at the relevant API documentation, and receive working integration code, step by step.

Across the industry, integrations are where transactional AI use cases have historically hit their limits. Checking a balance, processing a change, or retrieving a policy detail all require a connection to a backend system, and building that connection has traditionally required writing code – which has meant waiting on a development cycle. The boost.ai API Connector Companion removes that dependency, and teams can now build and refine integrations themselves, in the time it takes to describe them, with no coding knowledge required.

Configure the customer experience yourself

The update also includes a new version of the boost.ai chat panel, paired with a redesigned configuration interface. The chat panel is now available as a floating widget, a full-page experience, or embedded directly in a page – with all configuration managed through the platform’s UI.

Teams can maintain multiple configurations and apply each to specific pages by URL — so one AI agent can behave differently across different parts of the customer journey, with business users controlling those changes directly through the UI. New additions include a landing page view with suggested topics and a fixed area for system messages and disclaimers — joining existing platform features that clearly indicate to end users when a response is AI-generated, in support of EU AI Act transparency requirements.

“With this release, we focused on the places where our customers told us they were losing time. Model selection was guesswork, integrations required code, and interface changes required front-end resources,” said Clay Cardozo, VP of Product Development at boost.ai. “All three of those are now something a CX team can do themselves, and are all built on the same principle: the people closest to the customer experience should be able to shape it.”

About boost.ai

boost.ai is the trusted leader in AI-powered customer experience solutions for regulated industries. Built for security, speed, and scale, the platform enables fast deployment, high-resolution rates, and full hybrid control through seamless orchestration of traditional NLU and LLMs. With over 650 successful deployments, 600 live AI agents, and more than 150 million automated conversations, boost.ai helps enterprises around the world resolve with confidence, automate at scale, and trust every conversation. Proven performance and enterprise-grade reliability make boost.ai the partner of choice for leading brands across the world, including Nordea, Credit Union of Colorado, Sage, DNB, Trading 212, and more. boost.ai is recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI Platforms. Learn more at boost.ai.

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SOURCE boost.ai