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Pioneering AI technology from Bain & Company powering Athena Pathway’s bid for British victory in inaugural Women’s America’s Cup

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Unique, cutting-edge AI simulation tools and technology deployed by Bain to optimise British competitors’ racing performance in the world’s premier global sailing competition

LONDON, Oct. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Pioneering AI advances developed by Bain & Company are being harnessed by Britain’s team of world-class women sailors in their bid to make sporting history by winning the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup in this weekend’s finals at the pinnacle of global sailing competition.

Bain is partnering with Athena Pathway and its sailing teams, Britain’s entrants in the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup races, to bring state-of-the-art AI technology to power their challenges for victory in the world’s oldest sporting trophy contest, with this year marking the first-ever women’s race in the competition. Watch the video here.

Athena Pathway was founded by the British sailing champions Hannah Mills OBE and Sir Ben Ainslie, the world most decorated Olympic sailors, to change the landscape of competitive high-performance sailing by bringing diversity and equal opportunities to the sport in the UK. Britain’s Athena Pathway teams in the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup include women sailors and youth sailing talent with a collective six Olympic medals and 22 sailing World Championship medals. They are competing against crews from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.

Bain & Company’s Advanced Analytics Group, the firm’s AI practice, and a team of expert Bain consultants have worked in close collaboration with Athena Pathway sailors, coaches and teams at its base in Barcelona and remotely, to develop and deploy unique AI-powered simulation tools and technology to enhance and optimise the performance of the Athena Pathway teams in their bid for America’s Cup wins.

The AI technology developed by Bain for Athena Pathway exploits detailed race performance data pulled from sensors fitted on the specialised, high-performance AC-40 yachts used in the America’s Cup racing – a new class of one-design foiling monohull yacht designed to ensure teams secure wins based entirely on the talent, technique and skills of competing crews.

Harnessing the data captured from race trials, practices and early phases of the America’s Cup competition, the unique AI technology from Bain enables sophisticated analysis by the Athena Pathway teams  supported and advised by Bain’s expert consultants, to maximise speed and optimise manoeuvres on the water, enhancing sailing efficiency in the high-speed racing and helping to achieve the best overall race performance. AI-powered simulations allow the Athena Pathway teams the test multiple “what if” race scenarios onshore during training, saving time versus testing these on the water, as well as adjusting real-time decision-making in simulated race conditions on the water.

Hannah Mills, Athena Pathway’s co-founder and Team Principal at the yacht’s helm in the women’s races, said: “Using AI to really help us learn and evolve and upskill very quickly has been a huge part of our training in preparation for the America’s Cup. Bain’s partnership with us has been integral to trying to achieve our goal of winning. When I look at what Bain has been doing with us, particularly on the ground, I’ve never had a partnership quite like it.”

The AI simulations, driven by Bain’s custom-built deep-learning AI model, unique to this project, acts as a ‘digital twin’ of Athena Pathway’s real-life AC40s yachts. This enables the crews to optimise so-called “velocity made good” (VMG), a key driver of race performance, for the yachts using interactive mapping enabling visualisation of both past, real sailing manoeuvres as well as simulated scenarios the teams want to test out. The AI models, pulling from around six million individual data observations captured by the sensors used, across more than 40 types of input variable, provide instantaneous feedback and real-time insights on specific scenarios of interest to the teams as they plan their race tactics and strategy.

Chris Draper, head coach for Athena Pathway, added: “Having the AI tools and being able to share that collaboratively has been enormous for us. It really has been a game-changing relationship. We’ve got sensors throughout the boats that give us direct feedback on how things are moving, the loads and strains, so you can identify exactly what is happening. We’re literally learning every day how to optimize performance and the AI tool is enabling us to do that, providing us with really, really interesting results. It thinks slightly outside of the box and it’s proving exceptionally useful for us.”

Discussing the partnership with Athena Pathway, Hugo Parkinson, Bain senior partner and leader of the firm’s Advanced Manufacturing practice in EMEA, said: “We are hugely excited to have partnered with Athena Pathway in this ground-breaking way. The unique AI tools we’ve been able to bring to their challenge in the America’s Cup is pioneering and is helping the teams solve some of their biggest challenges in the racing. It’s learned how to sail the boat and now it makes a series of AI-powered recommendations on how to sail it faster. Being able to bring this sort of advanced analytics to such an exciting environment is incredibly helpful in furthering the ambitions of Athena Pathway in this top-tier sport. For us at Bain, there’s also the tremendous benefit of what we’ve learned through this collaboration where we’ve been able to identify multiple real-world applications for this technology in all kinds of business use cases.”

In addition to backing Athena Pathway’s challenge for the America’s Cup with AI technology, Bain has also worked with the teams, and their coaches and leaders, to enhance their operations at their Barcelona base in multiple additional ways, with Bain support for optimising teamwork, help with upgrades to IT systems, onshore base efficiencies and planning, and improved documentation in the teams’ playbooks.

Juan Carlos Gay, Bain senior partner in the firm’s Energy & Natural Resources practice and global Head of the Capital Projects Acceleration team, who co-led Bain’s Athena Pathway collaboration with Hugo Parkinson, added: “Our partnership with Athena Pathway has been a tremendous opportunity to bring our technological and AI capabilities, and our deep business expertise in a wider range of ways, to this thrilling realm – competitive yacht racing – outside of the business world. Bain champions diversity in everything we do, which is core to our mission, so it’s been particularly inspiring for us and Athena Pathway to come together in support of the young and female talent competing in this inaugural Women’s America’s Cup race.”

Media contacts
To arrange an interview or for any questions, please contact:

Gary Duncan (London) — Email: gary.duncan@bain.com
Katie Ware (New York) — Email: katie.ware@bain.com
Ann Lee (Singapore) — Email: ann.lee@bain.com 

About Bain & Company

Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the future.

Across 65 cities in 40 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today’s urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a gold rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 2% of all companies. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry. 

 

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SOURCE Bain & Company

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KuCoin Marks Ninth Anniversary at Tomorrowland Belgium, Honoring Nine Years of Industry Progress Beyond the Signal

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PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands, July 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On the day of its ninth anniversary, KuCoin welcomed global partners, institutional clients, ecosystem builders and media representatives to the “On Cloud 9 Skybox Experience,” an exclusive celebration at the Tomorrowland Belgium Skybox. Overlooking Tomorrowland’s iconic Mainstage, guests gathered throughout an unforgettable evening as world-renowned artists including Nicky Romero, Alok, Steve Angello and Hardwell delivered performances that brought together people from around the world. Against this backdrop of music, culture and global connection, KuCoin celebrated not only its own nine-year journey, but also the remarkable progress the digital asset industry has achieved together.

The experience formed part of KuCoin’s broader ninth-anniversary campaign, “Beyond the Signal,” reflecting the company’s belief that the industry’s future will be shaped not by short-term market movements alone, but by the trust, innovation and infrastructure that enable lasting progress. Bringing this vision to life in an elevated festival setting, the evening offered guests an opportunity to reflect on nine years of shared growth, collaboration and resilience, while looking ahead together to the next chapter of digital assets.

Against the backdrop of Tomorrowland’s iconic Mainstage, the exclusive Skybox experience with signature champagne rituals brought KuCoin and its guests together to reflect on and celebrate the milestones that have shaped its nine-year journey. From expanding access to digital assets and navigating multiple market cycles to strengthening security and compliance, supporting institutional participation, and advancing innovation across payments, AI and Web3, these milestones also reflected the broader evolution of the digital asset industry toward greater maturity.

The moment celebrated not only how far KuCoin has come, but also the progress the industry has made together. Over the past nine years, markets have risen and fallen, and technologies have continued to evolve. Yet lasting progress has always been driven by the builders, developers, partners and communities working together to create enduring value. That is the idea behind Beyond the Signal.

“Ninth anniversaries are often measured in years. We prefer to measure ours in trust,” said BC Wong, CEO of KuCoin. “The greatest achievement of the past nine years has not been our growth alone, but the confidence our users, partners and community have continued to place in us. Trust is the infrastructure that enables innovation, adoption and long-term progress. As we enter our next decade, we remain committed to building secure, compliant and trusted digital asset infrastructure together with our partners worldwide.”

The celebration also highlighted KuCoin’s expanding partnership with Tomorrowland as the festival’s Exclusive Crypto Exchange and Payments Partner for Tomorrowland Winter and Tomorrowland Belgium 2026–2028. Bringing together one of the world’s most influential cultural events with trusted digital infrastructure, the partnership reflects a shared vision of connecting people across borders and creating meaningful real-world experiences through technology, payments and community. For KuCoin, Tomorrowland is more than a global music festival—it represents the openness, diversity and global community that have always been at the heart of crypto.

Nine years ago, KuCoin set out to make digital assets accessible to more people around the world. Today, its mission has evolved beyond access to helping build the trusted infrastructure that will support the future of digital finance. Beyond music, beyond the celebration and beyond the signal, KuCoin’s ninth anniversary was not only a milestone for the company, but a celebration of how far the industry has come together—and a commitment to building what comes next.

About KuCoin

Founded in 2017, KuCoin is a leading global crypto platform built on trust and security, serving over 45 million users across 200+ countries and regions. Known for its reliability and user-first approach, the platform combines advanced technology, deep liquidity, and strong security safeguards to deliver a seamless trading experience. KuCoin provides access to 1,500+ digital assets through a broad product suite and remains committed to building transparent, compliant, and user-centric digital asset infrastructure for the future of finance, backed by SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and ISO/IEC 27701:2019 Certifications. In recent years, we have built a strong global compliance foundation, marked by key milestones including AUSTRAC registration in Australia, a MiCA license in Europe, and regulatory progress in other markets.

Learn more at www.kucoin.com.

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SOURCE KuCoin

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2026 World Internet Conference Digital Silk Road Development Forum Opens in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province

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XI’AN, China, July 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from CRI Online:

On July 22, the 2026 World Internet Conference (WIC) Digital Silk Road Development Forum officially opened in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Hosted by the WIC and organized by the Shaanxi Provincial Government, the forum was held under the theme “Pooling Intelligence on the Silk Road, Embarking on a Digital Future — Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace”. Approximately 800 participants from more than 50 countries and regions, as well as seven international organizations, attended the event.

Mayra Arevich Marín, Minister of Communications of Cuba; Faqir Mahbub Anam, Minister of Posts, Telecommunication & Information Technology and Minister of Science and Technology of Bangladesh; Samba Diouf, Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Affairs of Senegal; Wang Binying, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); John Higgins, President of the International AI Governance Association (IAGA); and Wang Xingxing, Founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

Following the opening ceremony, a ministerial meeting was held. Thematic forums were convened focusing on Silk Road e-commerce cooperation and development, collaborative innovation and development of AI agents, digital and intelligent health, and the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage in the digital intelligence era. These discussions aimed to help Belt and Road partner countries strengthen consensus, deepen cooperation, and seize new opportunities brought by digital and intelligent development. During the forum, the World Internet Conference Cultural Heritage Digitalization Case Collection (2026) was released. A series of capacity-building activities under the WIC Digital & AI Academy were also held, including a capacity building program on AI-driven digital trade, a salon on “Copyright Empowerment in Cultural Heritage Digitalization”, and a field study at a digital port.

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SOURCE CRI Online

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Tesla Owns Nearly 1 in 5 AI Answers About EVs. New 5W Index Ranks the Top 25 EV Brands by AI Citation Share.

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EV charging networks — Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint — are nearly invisible inside AI answers despite operating the infrastructure the entire category depends on.

MIAMI, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm, today released the 5W AI Visibility Index — EV, ranking the top 25 EV brands by modeled AI citation share across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Tesla anchors the category at 18.4% — more than the next three brands combined. Rivian is second at 8.2%. Ford is third at 6.4%.

The Index is Volume 07 in 5W’s 2026 Consumer AI Visibility Index series. The full report is available at https://www.5wpr.com/research/ev-ai-visibility-index/.

More than a third of U.S. consumers now begin product research with an AI engine — not Google. For the EV category — where purchase consideration windows stretch six to twelve months and buyers cross-reference range, charging, ownership cost, and long-term reliability across dozens of sources — the answers the engines return are shaping the shortlist before a buyer walks into a dealership.

The Findings

Tesla dominates at 18.4% citation share — cited on virtually every consumer EV query across all five engines. Brand, product, and CEO overlap produce a citation profile no peer can match.Rivian (8.2%) is the dominant adventure-EV authority. The R1T and R1S anchor truck and SUV electric citation.Ford (6.4%) leads legacy automakers. The F-150 Lightning owns EV-truck queries; the Mach-E anchors EV-SUV comparisons.Lucid (4.8%) and Hyundai Ioniq (4.4%) complete the Tier 1 leaders. The Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 over-index against U.S. brand recognition.GM sits at #6 with 3.8% — despite scale — because Bolt, Lyriq, and Hummer EV are cited separately rather than as one GM-EV narrative. Ford consolidated its story. GM did not.Toyota (#17) and Honda (#18) are the two largest legacy automakers furthest behind in EV citation. The bZ4X, Solterra, and Prologue cite at rates far below what brand recognition would predict.EV charging networks are absent from the top 25. Electrify America, EVgo, and ChargePoint operate the infrastructure the entire category depends on — and have not built consumer-facing brand citation to match. The category is open.

“Every EV buyer starts inside a chatbox now. Tesla owns nearly one in five answers. The next three brands combined don’t match it. That’s a citation moat measured in AI — not TV budgets, not showroom count,” said Ronn Torossian, Founder and Chairman, 5W AI Communications. “GM is bigger than Rivian by every commercial metric and half its size in the answer. That gap costs sales. The charging networks are the biggest miss in the category — whoever builds the dominant ‘where should I charge’ answer anchors a multi-decade growth curve. Right now, none of them own it.”

The Five Engines Do Not Return Identical Answers

ChatGPT: Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Ford, Hyundai dominate. Conservative and brand-anchored.Claude: Recurrent and CleanTechnica over-index. Data-source preference. Lighter on enthusiast brands.Perplexity: Reddit EV subreddits dominant. Out of Spec YouTube data heavily cited. Freshness-favored.Google AI Overviews: Tesla, InsideEVs, Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book dominate. Closest to a SERP-mirror.Gemini: YouTube EV creators dominate — Out of Spec, Munro Live, MKBHD at the highest rates.

Engine-aware strategy matters. A brand absent from one engine but present in another needs a different program than a brand absent across the board.

Methodology
Modeled directional estimates derived from publicly available data, observed retrieval patterns, structural signals, and the corresponding Everything-PR Citation Share Study — EV (Issue No. 07). Twenty-five brands, five engines, sixty-plus consumer-prompt query patterns. Not the output of logged query runs across millions of prompts. Intended as a strategic framework — not a definitive search-engine measurement.

The dominant outlets shaping EV citation are InsideEVs, Electrek, Recurrent, Edmunds EV, Car and Driver EV, CleanTechnica, and the Reddit-and-YouTube creator layer. Brand citation share is built primarily through presence inside that specific outlet set — and through Recurrent battery-data partnership for used-EV citation.

About 5W AI Communications
5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research to help clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research. Founded in 2003, 5W is recognized as a Top U.S. PR Agency by O’Dwyer’s, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, honored as a 2026 Top Place to Work in Communications by Ragan, and named to Digiday’s WorkLife Employer of the Year list. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors — Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit — and B2B specialties including Corporate Communications, Reputation Management, Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing across Social, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. Learn more at 5wpr.com.

Media Contact
press@5wpr.com

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SOURCE 5W Public Relations

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