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BGE Awards ICF $65 Million in Energy Efficiency Contracts

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Company Will Implement Statewide Residential and Commercial Programs

RESTON, Va., March 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has awarded global consulting and technology services provider ICF (NASDAQ:ICFI) over $65 million in re-compete and new contracts to implement EmPOWER Maryland, the utility’s statewide energy efficiency and demand response program. The agreements were awarded in the fourth quarter of 2024 and have a term of three years.

ICF will deliver a full range of energy efficiency program implementation services to residential and commercial customers across Maryland including customer acquisition, contractor training and management, technical and engineering support, rebate processing, regulatory support and more. ICF will also use their proprietary utility technology platform to monitor program performance in real time, enabling BGE to make fast, effective program optimization decisions and provide a more streamlined customer experience. 

ICF has delivered award-winning energy efficiency programs for BGE for over 15 years that have achieved over 5.5 gigawatts in energy savings to over 18 million utility customers.

“We are excited to continue our longstanding work with BGE to evolve and optimize their energy efficiency programs as they navigate the challenging transition to a clean energy future,” said Anne Choate, ICF executive vice president for energy, environment and infrastructure. “We will draw on our deep understanding of Maryland’s regulatory environment, our proven technology capabilities that enable data-driven customer experiences, and our industry-leading energy expertise to help BGE achieve their program goals.”

ICF partners with the nation’s top utilities and developers, along with nearly every U.S. federal agency, state energy offices and energy non-governmental organizations, providing end-to-end offerings across the energy value chain—from strategy to planning and analysis to implementation. The company currently delivers over 200 active energy efficiency, electrification and demand management programs across North America, including for the top 60 utilities. The company has processed over $3.1 billion in energy efficiency rebates and is one of the largest electrification implementers in the U.S.

ICF’s energy experts work hand-in-hand with the company’s technologists, data analysts, marketers and more to design and implement cost-effective, award-winning utility programs that deliver maximum energy savings and advance the transition to clean energy.

Read more about ICF’s energy efficiency and technology services and how they help clients meet their electrification and decarbonization goals.

About ICF
ICF is a global consulting and technology services company with approximately 9,000 employees, but we are not your typical consultants. At ICF, business analysts and policy specialists work together with digital strategists, data scientists and creatives. We combine unmatched industry expertise with cutting-edge engagement capabilities to help organizations solve their most complex challenges. Since 1969, public and private sector clients have worked with ICF to navigate change and shape the future. Learn more at icf.com.

Caution Concerning Forward-looking Statements
Statements that are not historical facts and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties are “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may concern our current expectations about our future results, plans, operations and prospects and involve certain risks, including those related to the government contracting industry generally; our particular business, including our dependence on contracts with U.S. federal government agencies; our ability to acquire and successfully integrate businesses; and the effects of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), or any other future pandemic, and related national, state and local government actions and reactions, on the health of our staff and that of our clients, the continuity of our and our clients’ operations, our results of operations and our outlook. These and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those indicated in forward-looking statements that are included in the “Risk Factors” section of our securities filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included herein are only made as of the date hereof, and we specifically disclaim any obligation to update these statements in the future.

Contact: Lauren Dyke, lauren.dyke@ICF.com, +1.571.373.5577

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stc group unveils its vision for AI-native networks at Network X 2026

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — stc group, Saudi Arabia’s leading digital enabler, has released its AI Native Core Network White Paper during Network X 2026 outlining how it plans to evolve towards an AI-native telecom network by 2030. The paper explains how the group aims to embed AI directly into its network’s design and operations to support emerging digital services and improve reliability.

stc group continues to advance its network capabilities to support AI-driven applications and changing connectivity needs. The group is upgrading its core network, which manages user connections and delivers communications services. By integrating AI deeply into this infrastructure, stc group aims to help the network adapt to changing service requirements and resolve issues with less manual intervention.

The white paper highlights how advances in AI and 5G-Advanced, the next stage of 5G, are increasing network complexity. Services such as AI-enabled calling and immersive communications require faster, more responsive connectivity. AI agents, software systems that carry out tasks on users’ behalf, also need networks to coordinate communications and computing resources around each task.

To address these requirements, the paper sets out stc’s approach spanning AI-native infrastructure, network functions and autonomous operations. It details how the group plans to develop the infrastructure needed to run AI, embed intelligence within network functions and automate more operations. These capabilities would help the network allocate resources more efficiently and recover from faults faster, while allowing engineers to focus on service improvement and oversight.

The release of this whitepaper marks an important milestone in stc group’s network evolution, building a scalable foundation for future AI services, AI agents, intelligent interaction scenarios, and next-generation 5G-A and 6G applications. Building on its existing investments, the group aims to improve network reliability, support the next generation of digital services and accelerate the industry’s transition from Cloud Native to AI Native networks.

About stc group: 

stc group is a digital enabler, offering advanced solutions and driving a role in the digitalization process. The group provides a comprehensive suite of services encompassing digital infrastructure, cloud computing, cybersecurity, Internet of Things (IoT), digital payments, digital media, and digital entertainment. The group comprises 13 subsidiaries across The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. 

To know more about stc group: Click here  

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Shoplazza Collaborates with TikTok to Bring Product Discovery Closer to Purchase

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The collaboration supports TikTok’s new agentic commerce experiences, with a focus on helping merchants turn customer interest into sales.

TORONTO, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Shoplazza, an AI-native commerce operating system, recently announced it is working with TikTok to support new agentic commerce shopping experiences. The collaboration reflects a shared focus on shortening the path from product discovery to purchase and helping merchants make more of the demand their content and advertising generate.

TikTok introduced Buy Direct and Shopping Assistant on October 5, naming Shoplazza among its commerce and payment partners. Buy Direct lets consumers buy directly from brands within TikTok, without being redirected to an external storefront. It uses Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to connect with merchant systems, while brands remain the Merchant of Record.

Shopping Assistant answers product questions using merchant-supplied information on product pages within TikTok’s in-app browser. Shoppers can get the details they need before proceeding to checkout on the merchant’s website within the same browser.

For merchants, a shorter purchase journey can help protect the value of their customer acquisition spending. Redirects and repeated forms add friction just as a shopper is ready to buy. Losing that purchase means losing potential revenue after already paying to attract the customer.

“As platforms automate more decisions, performance increasingly depends on how well data, creative and checkout work together,” said Chao Xu, Director at Shoplazza. “TikTok’s new shopping experiences make it easier to buy while interest is fresh, helping merchants turn that interest into revenue and use each transaction to inform smarter marketing decisions.”

Shoplazza sees these developments as part of a broader convergence between advertising platforms and commerce infrastructure. From transaction data sharing and Instant Pages to Buy Direct, the opportunity is to help algorithms understand completed purchases more accurately while making it easier for shoppers to follow through.

The collaboration builds on an established relationship. Shoplazza’s merchant admin already supports catalog syncing, TikTok Pixel and Events API setup. In May, it was the sole winner of the TikTok Partner Innovation Award for Innovation in Marketing Technology – Commerce. In July, it joined the first group of TikTok for Business Agentic Hub partners, introducing AI Skills that connect store data and business insights with TikTok’s advertising intelligence.

About Shoplazza

Shoplazza is a global AI-native commerce operating system that enables brands to build, launch, and scale their online businesses. Built on an AI agent-native framework, Shoplazza integrates storefronts, marketing, payments, and operational workflows into a unified system designed to support scalable, long-term growth across global markets. Learn more at https://www.shoplazza.com/.

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Lexsoft Systems Partners With Clio to Bring Clio’s Legal AI Platform to Law Firms and Legal Departments Across EMEA

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Lexsoft will deliver Clio products, including Clio Work and Clio Manage, and integrate them into the systems its clients already use

LONDON and MADRID, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lexsoft Systems, a provider of IT and business process solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Clio, the global leader in legal AI. Through this EMEA-wide partnership, Lexsoft will deliver Clio’s platform to law firms and corporate legal departments, and integrate it with the other business-critical systems those clients run.

This agreement strengthens Lexsoft’s position as an independent legal solutions provider, and reinforces its growing presence in the UK and across Europe. It also supports the continued expansion of its carefully selected product portfolio of best-practice, global market-leading legal systems. 

Clio brings together the context of a firm’s work with trusted legal intelligence. Clio Work can draw on the matters, clients, documents, and other information already in Clio Manage, then ground that work in Clio’s global library of more than 1 billion legal documents to support research, analysis, and drafting. For Lexsoft’s global clients, that means AI designed for legal work that understands both the firm and the law.

“A practice management system is the originating point for most major legal processes — from document management and time recording through to security measures such as ethical walls,” says Carlos García-Egocheaga, CEO of Lexsoft Systems. “Until now, we’ve been reluctant to commit to a single partner, despite a wide choice of technologically robust and functionality-rich practice management systems on the market. But with the Clio platform, we’re offering customers more than practice management. Clio Manage takes practice management to a new level, from user experience to advanced functionality. Clio Work, Clio’s legal AI workspace, helps lawyers research, strategise and draft alongside Clio’s global library of legal documents. By integrating these capabilities into customers’ existing systems, we can deliver AI that works the way they do. We’re excited about the value this partnership enables us to deliver to our customers, large and small.”

The partnership lets Lexsoft build tailored environments around Clio, with deep integrations into the other systems its clients run. It helps firms across EMEA move beyond adoption of AI tools to deeper integration and a more fundamental transformation of how legal work gets done.

“Firms across Europe want AI in their daily work, and it only earns its place when it understands the context behind that work,” says Lisa Del Real, Vice President, Channel Partnerships at Clio. “Lexsoft has built its business on connecting the systems law firms and legal departments depend on. Through this partnership, Lexsoft’s clients can run Clio Manage and Clio Work on one shared foundation, so the context of each matter carries from the business of the firm into the legal work itself. They also get an implementation team that already knows how they work.”

Lexsoft is offering Clio’s products to law firms and corporate legal departments in EMEA immediately.

About Lexsoft Systems

Lexsoft provides IT and business process solutions to the legal sector across Europe, the United States, and Latin America. ISO 27017 and ISO 27001 certified, the company assists law firms and corporate legal departments (CLD) to improve their document management, knowledge management, practice management, and CRM processes, to facilitate business efficiency, improve productivity, and reduce risk. Lexsoft T3 is a proven knowledge management solution, offering one of the most comprehensive workflows for this business function. For more information, visit: www.lexsoft.com.

About Clio

Clio is the global leader in legal AI, empowering legal professionals and law firms of every size to work smarter, faster, and more securely. Purpose-built for the legal industry, Clio’s Intelligent Legal Work Platform streamlines workflows, improves decision-making, and combines powerful technology with industry-leading security. Trusted by hundreds of thousands of legal professionals in more than 130 countries, and approved by over 100 bar associations and law societies worldwide, Clio sets the standard for innovation and client success across the legal profession. Backed by world-class investors and a mission to transform the legal experience for all, Clio is defining the future of legal work through AI. Learn more at www.clio.com.

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