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Constructor Named a Visionary in the First-Ever Gartner Magic Quadrant for Search and Product Discovery

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Report notes that search and product discovery “helps organizations meet the demands of today’s B2B and B2C buyers”

SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Constructor, the leading AI-powered product discovery and search platform for enterprise ecommerce companies, today announced it has been named a Visionary in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Search and Product Discovery.1 According to the report, search and product discovery (S&PD) “helps organizations meet the demands of today’s B2B and B2C buyers.”

Constructor’s award-winning technology delivers personalized, cohesive experiences across the buyer journey — enabling ecommerce companies to increase revenue and conversions, and execute on other metrics that matter.

Gartner defines search and product discovery as “applications that augment digital commerce solutions to facilitate navigation, filtering, comparisons and ultimately selection of products” — noting that “buyers of S&PD products are looking to use these platforms to deliver and support a unique, compelling and consistent CX [customer experience] across many channels.” According to the report, “Demand for differentiating S&PD continues to grow, as it is often seen as a relatively cost-effective way to provide optimal experiences in the path to purchase — without fully replacing an incumbent digital commerce or DXP [digital experience platform].” Gartner also explains that, when it comes to S&PD, “‘headless’ options — that is, decoupled front ends or architectural approaches that put them on a path to composable commerce — are often preferred.”

Constructor’s headless platform — the only ecommerce product discovery platform built from the ground up using AI, rather than bolting it on after the fact — delivers on the promise of composable architectures, adding more business value fast. A founding member of the MACH Alliance, which advocates for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems, Constructor helps B2B and B2C ecommerce companies — including Sephora, Petco, Birkenstock, Very Group and Fisheries Supply — drive personalized, revenue-generating experiences across search results, browse functionality, product recommendations, landing pages, product-finder quizzes, its AI Shopping Assistant (ASA) and more.

As ecommerce companies look to create value-driven S&PD experiences, they often find that surfacing simply relevant results (e.g., shirts when someone searches for “shirts”) no longer cuts it. Gartner explains that “for many years, the key to a site or app search was relevance. However, good relevance has become highly commoditized and is not enough on its own.” Constructor powers highly personalized, highly attractive results (such as displaying shirts in the buyer’s preferred brands, styles, colors, size, price point, etc.) — using clickstream behavioral data and multiple types of AI to accurately gauge and cater to an individual’s intent.

“We’ve long said that in ecommerce, moving beyond relevance is critical. We feel that buyers need experiences that are contextualized to them, and that what we show shoppers shouldn’t just be relevant, but it should be attractive products they actually want to buy. The results we’ve delivered for our customers highlight the power of delivering attractive — not just relevant — experiences,” said Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO, Constructor. “There are lots of exciting advances on the horizon of ecommerce search and product discovery, and we’re excited to help companies harness them.”

Finkelshteyn continued: “We believe our recognition as a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant validates Constructor’s vision for the future, while underscoring the power of our AI.”

Founded in 2015, Constructor is also the youngest company among the vendors evaluated in the report, as per the founding dates. Constructor was named a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant based on its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.

Laser-focused on ecommerce, Constructor has powered more than 100 billion buyer/shopper interactions in the last six months — enabling ecommerce companies to drive hundreds of millions of personalized experiences every day. The company recently received a gold Stevie® Award in the 2024 American Business Awards® (best new “Electronic Commerce Solution” winner for ASA) and was named best “AI Solution” in the Convrt Awards for ecommerce and a finalist in the 2024 CODiE Awards (“Best AI-Driven Technology Solution”). Constructor was also recently ranked highest in the strategy category in “The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Search And Product Discovery, Q3 2023” report.

And with generative AI (GenAI) poised to further transform search and product discovery, Constructor is helping the world’s leading apparel brands, grocers, general retailers, manufacturers, distributors and other ecommerce businesses realize great value today.

The recently unveiled Constructor AI Shopping Assistant (ASA) was mentioned in the Gartner Quick Answer: How GenAI Impacts Digital Commerce Search & Discovery Experience report.2  

ASA combines GenAI with personalization — with customers reporting results including a 10% increase in website revenue, 6% increase in search conversions, 7% increase in clicks and more. In addition, Constructor’s GenAI-powered Attribute Enrichment — which automatically generates and enriches product catalog data — has helped customers achieve 97%+ accuracy in product tagging and labeling.

It behooves ecommerce companies to investigate and implement compelling GenAI use cases such as these. As Gartner notes in the new Magic Quadrant, “By 2026, at least one new GenAI-based conversational UI pattern in S&PD will disrupt traditional search and browse UIs, penetrating at least 5% of the market.”

More information on Constructor is available on Gartner Peer Insights™, which displays customer reviews — with Constructor averaging 4.9 stars out of 5, based on 27 ratings (as of May 16, 2023). View more customer testimonials at: https://constructor.io/customers/.

1 Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Search and Product Discovery, Mike Lowndes, Aditya Vasudevan, Sandy Shen and Noam Dorros, May 13, 2024.

2 Gartner, Inc., Quick Answer: How GenAI Impacts Digital Commerce Search & Discovery Experience, Aditya Vasudevan and Mike Lowndes, November 30, 2023.

Disclaimer
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences with the vendors listed on the platform, should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Constructor
Constructor is the only product discovery and search platform tailor-made for enterprise ecommerce where conversions matter. Constructor’s cloud-based solutions use natural language processing, machine learning-enhanced results ranking and collaborative personalization to deliver powerful user experiences across all facets of product discovery. Optimizing specifically for ecommerce metrics like revenue, conversion rate and profit, Constructor generates consistent $10M+ lifts for some of the biggest brands in B2C and B2B ecommerce, such as Sephora, Petco, Birkenstock, Very Group, home24, Bonobos and Fisheries Supply. Constructor is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2015 by Eli Finkelshteyn and Dan McCormick. For more, visit: constructor.io.

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Intesa Communications Group Named ‘Customers First’ Winner in San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce 2026 Small Business Awards

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The award-winning, women-owned San Diego public relations and government affairs firm was recognized for exceptional client service that has fueled 14 years of growth

SAN DIEGO, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Intesa Communications Group, a leading San Diego public relations and government affairs firm, has been named the “Customers First” winner in the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Small Business Awards. Announced July 9 at the Chamber’s annual Small Business Awards event, the recognition honors the small business whose commitment to customer service most clearly sets it apart from the competition.

Founded in 2012, the certified women-owned San Diego firm has grown from a boutique agency into one of the region’s leading public relations and government affairs firms. Intesa has doubled its team over the past two years, sustained three consecutive years of double-digit revenue growth and expanded its client portfolio by 26% last year. Intesa provides public relations, strategic communications, and government affairs services for a wide range of organizations, including San Diego State University, SeaWorld San Diego, Expedia Group, H.G. Fenton Company, San Diego Foundation, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and SBCS.

“This award belongs to every member of our team and to the clients who trust us with their most valuable asset: their reputation,” said Margie Newman Tsay, founding partner of Intesa Communications Group. “Our clients stay with us for years because we show up prepared, fully invested and ready for the moments that matter most. Being recognized for putting customers first is the highest compliment our business community can pay us.”

Intesa’s client-first approach has produced measurable results across public relations and government affairs efforts throughout the region. For example, in its first month working with the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, the firm helped reimagine the organization’s summer food drive messaging, generating more than 15 million impressions and helping deliver 489,026 pounds of food and $344,505 in donations — the equivalent of more than one million meals and a 175% increase from the previous year. Similarly, Logan Heights Community Development Corporation credits the firm with an 81:1 return on investment after Intesa parachuted in to help the nonprofit promote the California Mortgage Relief Program.

“Small businesses are the heart of our economy: fueling innovation, creating jobs and defining the character of communities across the San Diego region,” said Chris Cate, president and CEO of the Chamber. “We celebrate the resilience, ingenuity and community impact of our small business leaders. They are the very spirit behind our purpose to champion business and empower leaders.”

The Chamber award is as much a reflection of Intesa’s clients as it is the firm itself. The opportunity to partner with organizations doing meaningful work across the region is what makes recognition like this possible. True to form, the Intesa team plans to mark the win by thanking the clients behind the work.

“We call ourselves dot connectors, and this award is what that looks like in practice,” said Maddy Kilkenny, partner at Intesa Communications Group, who leads the firm’s government affairs practice. “Whether our team of 10 people is helping a client navigate a policy decision at City Hall or a story on the front page of the newspaper, we aim to leave them stronger and more confident than before. Hearing our clients say we deliver on that is the best win of all.”

According to the Chamber’s award requirements, businesses with 100 or fewer employees were eligible for nomination. They were voted on by a panel of chamber members, who reviewed the nominations and selected the winners of all four categories.

The recognition adds to more than 60 awards Intesa has earned for excellence in public relations, strategic communications, and public affairs, including honors from PR News, the Public Relations Society of America, PR Daily, the International Association of Business Communicators, the San Diego Business Journal (SDBJ), MARCOM, and the American Marketing Association, among others. It also comes on the heels of two Intesa team members, Emily Alvarenga and Margaret Lutz Chantung, recently receiving SDBJ’s “40 Under 40” and “Indispensable” awards, respectively.

For more information about Intesa Communications Group, visit www.intesacom.com.

About Intesa Communications Group
Intesa Communications Group is a certified women-owned San Diego public relations and government affairs firm that helps leaders communicate and advocate with confidence. Since 2012, Intesa has partnered with the region’s trusted leaders and organizations, providing strategic communications and public affairs counsel on high-stakes issues at the intersection of reputation, policy and public perception. The firm’s work has earned more than 60 industry awards across 53 recognized client campaigns, including the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce “Customers First” 2026 award. Learn more at www.intesacom.com.

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The Inner Circle acknowledges Shankari Thiagarajan as Pinnacle Professional of The Year

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HOUSTON, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Prominently featured in The Inner Circle, Shankari Thiagarajan is acknowledged as a Pinnacle Professional of The Year for her contributions to Information Technology and Agile Delivery.     

Shankari Thiagarajan has established a distinguished career in information technology project and program management, recognized for her expertise in agile delivery, digital transformation, and cross functional leadership across multiple industries. Currently serving as project manager and scrum master at Astellas Pharma Inc., she oversees agile delivery initiatives supporting global life science programs.

With more than 15 years of experience spanning technology and pharmaceutical sectors, Ms. Thiagarajan has developed a reputation for leading complex implementations and driving operational efficiency. Her expertise includes agile methodologies, project and delivery management, product ownership, healthcare IT, telecom and network optimization, financial services modernization, retail technology upgrades, and GIS and digital mapping solutions.

Ms. Thiagarajan earned a Master of Business Administration in Organizational Leadership from Campbellsville University, a Master of Science in Information Systems from Virginia Tech, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University College of Engineering Hyderabad.

Throughout her career, she has contributed to major organizations across a wide range of industries. Her accomplishments include leading agile transformations at Cigna, overseeing retail technology upgrades at Walmart, managing large scale telecom transformation initiatives at T Mobile and Verizon, and modernizing financial platforms at Security Finance. She also contributed to the early development of Google Maps during her tenure at Google India, advancing to team lead within a year.

In addition to her corporate achievements, Ms. Thiagarajan is the creator of the YouTube channel My Experiments with Life – #Positivity #Learning, launched in 2023. Through this platform, she shares motivational content and insights focused on personal growth, technology, spirituality, and lifelong learning.

Her professional accomplishments have been recognized through honors including Marquis Who’s Who 2026, a featured podcast interview with Jim Masters on Close Up TV hosted across Apple Radio, Spotify, and iHeart., recognition in The National Law Review & EIN Presswire, and a certificate of appreciation from Virginia Tech for academic excellence and community involvement.

Outside of her professional work, Ms. Thiagarajan enjoys creating motivational YouTube content, exploring technology and spirituality, listening to contemporary music, and pursuing philanthropic and educational interests. She credits her strong work ethic and determination to the example set by her parents.

Looking ahead, she plans to continue advancing her leadership capabilities and pursue executive level opportunities that allow her to make significant contributions within the information technology sector.

Guided by a philosophy rooted in courage, persistence, and continuous learning, Ms. Thiagarajan remains committed to professional growth while inspiring others to pursue excellence and self-improvement.

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, editorialteam@continentalwhoswho.com

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SOURCE The Inner Circle

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University of Phoenix Leaders Present at Building Blackboard Together 2026

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Presentations explored learning technology, accessibility and online pedagogy as higher education adapts to an AI-enabled future

PHOENIX, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — University of Phoenix leaders shared insights on artificial intelligence, accessibility, online learning and student support at Building Blackboard Together 2026, Blackboard’s flagship user conference, held July 13-15 in Dallas, Texas. The conference brought together educators, institutional leaders and industry experts to explore innovations, technologies and emerging practices shaping the future of teaching and learning.

Representing University of Phoenix were Marc Booker, Ph.D., vice provost of strategy; Kelly Hermann, vice president of Accessibility and Student Affairs; and Erin Amsden, group product manager. Through presentations and panel discussions, the leaders shared perspectives on responsible AI adoption, accessibility leadership, student engagement and the evolving role of learning technologies in supporting institutional goals and student success.

“Building Blackboard Together provides an opportunity to engage with peers across higher education who are navigating many of the same opportunities and challenges around technology, accessibility and learning mobility,” said Dr. Booker. “These conversations help advance practical approaches for supporting learners while thoughtfully integrating innovation into the educational experience.”

During the conference, University of Phoenix was also recognized with the 2026 Blackboard Catalyst Award for Ethical AI Leadership, which honors institutions advancing responsible, transparent and inclusive approaches to artificial intelligence that promote trust and equitable outcomes for learners and educators. The recognition follows the University’s ongoing efforts to support AI literacy, responsible use and AI-enabled learning experiences.

Exploring the Expanding Role of the Learning Management System

As part of the Strategic Leadership Summit, Booker served as a panelist for “The LMS as Mission-Critical: Connecting Learning, Experience & Evidence.” The session examined how learning management systems are evolving beyond course management to support learning, engagement and institutional insight across the student lifecycle.

Panelists discussed how institutions are leveraging learning technologies alongside student information systems to support teaching and learning, advising, co-curricular engagement and data-informed decision-making while addressing increasing expectations surrounding artificial intelligence, student success and accountability.

Sharing Lessons from AI-Powered Student Support

Booker also presented “Scaling AI-Powered Support Across the Student Experience at University of Phoenix,” a session focused on the University’s process for expanding its AI support assistant across the online classroom environment, moving from proof of concept to full-scale deployment over a six-month period.

In addition, Booker participated in “Online Pedagogy to Drive Institutional Growth: Best Practices and Success Stories,” a panel discussion exploring how institutions are designing engaging online learning experiences and leveraging Blackboard technologies to support quality course delivery and student engagement.

Advancing Accessibility Leadership

Hermann joined the session “Communicating Up: Turning Accessibility Work into Leadership-Ready Stories.” The presentation focused on strategies for translating accessibility initiatives into narratives, evidence and visualizations that resonate with institutional leaders.

The discussion explored ways to connect accessibility efforts to broader institutional priorities, demonstrate impact through data and support informed decision-making that advances accessibility and learner success.

Examining Emerging Challenges in Artificial Intelligence

Amsden served as a panelist for “Agentic AI in Pedagogy: Threats and Opportunities.” The session addressed the growing influence of agentic AI and its implications for academic integrity, assessment design and learner engagement.

Panelists explored how technology, pedagogy and security practices can work together to promote authentic student work while helping institutions balance innovation with responsible AI implementation.

Contributing to the Future of Teaching and Learning

Amsden, Booker and Hermann are key members of University of Phoenix’s dynamic leadership team, frequently invited to share their expertise at prestigious national conferences and events. In 2026, University leaders will participate in the ASU + GSV Summit, 1EdTech Learning Impact Conference, SXSW EDU Conference, and PESC Data Summit. These engagements underscore the University’s commitment to innovation and thought leadership in higher education, providing valuable insights and fostering collaborations that drive the future of learning.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is Built for Real Life. 50 Years Strong. The University innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world through flexible online learning, relevant courses, academic AI pillars, and skills-mapped curriculum for associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. Active students and alumni have access to Career Services for Life® resources including career guidance and tools. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.

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