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Novakid launches NovaPals, an AI-native conversational app designed for independent English-speaking practice

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AI-native conversational partner delivering 24/7 English speaking practice with an adaptive curriculum based on CEFR standards

Designed with AI from the ground up, not retrofitted, leveraging Novakid’s proven years teaching hundreds of thousand students across the globe and through millions of lessons

Targets the ‘excluded middle’: learners aged 13+ who have outgrown children’s apps but aren’t ready for adult tools

Powered by AI technology proven on the field via Novakid’s in-house AI tutor “Pandy”, used by students worldwide

SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, 2026 /CNW/ — Novakid, the award-winning online English school for children, launched NovaPals, an AI-first conversational English app designed to give learners an unlimited and independent speaking practice. Unlike traditional language learning tools focused on grammar drills or vocabulary exercises, NovaPals delivers real-time conversations with an AI partner that adapts to proficiency level, remembers previous interactions, and guides learners through a structured CEFR-aligned curriculum.

The app addresses a critical gap in language education: learners who have moved beyond simplified children’s content but aren’t yet comfortable with adult-level tools. NovaPals provides judgment-free speaking practice accessible anytime, anywhere, making it particularly valuable for students with limited access to live tutors or structured classroom conversation time. As such, NovaPals is the perfect companion for children, teens, and all those who need extra speaking practice.

What sets NovaPals apart is its foundation: the app is built AI-native, architected around Novakid’s proprietary conversational AI agents. The agents draw on almost 10 years of human-designed curriculum expertise delivered to hundreds of thousand students and over 20 million lessons. Rather than offering an open-ended chatbot, NovaPals guides learners through purposeful conversations with defined learning objectives and built-in assessment tracking.

“We’ve spent years building the best human-led English curriculum for children,” said Max Azarov, CEO and co-founder of Novakid. “NovaPals represents our next evolution: taking that expertise and reimagining it for an AI-native experience. This isn’t AI layered onto traditional content, it’s a product designed from day one around what conversational AI does best: personalized and adaptive practice at scale.”

NovaPals builds on insights taken from Pandy, Novakid’s AI tutor deployed to support between-lesson practice. Real-world experience and practice revealed that AI-driven interactions often encourage learners to speak more frequently and with greater confidence, particularly when the AI partner provides consistent encouragement without social pressure or judgment.

The app features a cast of friendly and approachable characters that learners interact with over time, creating a sense of connection and accountability similar to the social contract that makes human tutoring effective. Gamification is integrated from day one in order to provide students with a fun and engaging experience.

“Our initial AI Tutor tests showed us that younger learners genuinely bonded with AI tutoring,” said Chris Kemsley, Product Lead for NovaPals. “That made us ask: what could that look like for other students not finding the learning solution tailored to their needs? For us, it meant combining three things: expert human curriculum design, a product they actually want to use, and emulating the social contract between learner and tutor. The result is NovaPals.”

NovaPals represents a strategic expansion of Novakid’s learning ecosystem, designed to scale beyond the current market for human-led, synchronous tutoring. By offering both teacher-led instruction and AI-powered independent practice, Novakid provides learners with a full array of learning options: human teachers for structured lessons and feedback as well as AI partners for daily study and confidence building.

NovaPals is available for download on iOS and Android.

About Novakid

Novakid is a leading online English learning platform for young learners, and one of the fastest-growing EdTech companies globally. A US company, with a head office in London, this Series B startup has raised $41.5 million in funding from leading global investors, and is trusted by over 990,000 families across 50+ countries.

Novakid membership offers parents an easy and affordable way to get their kids to practice English regularly by participating in online international activities they love. Regular practice complements their academic studies at school, builds confidence and expands opportunities.

Novakid offers multiple ways to learn, adapting to every child – cute Pandy (our AI tutor), group workshops with certified teachers, live streams, and individual 1:1 classes for most serious learners.

AI is at the core of how Novakid personalises learning: matching students to the right teacher, adapting lesson pacing, tracking progress against Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) standards, and creating individual learning journeys. 

Novakid’s approach works. On average, 96% of students improve their English within 6 months. 75% show results from month 1, and most pass assessments on the first or second try.

Novakid website: https://novakidschool.com
NovaPals website: https://novapals.ai/en

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Foresite Named 2026 Google Cloud Security Partner of the Year for North America

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Recognition highlights leadership in practitioner-governed, AI-enhanced security operations

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Apr. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Foresite Cybersecurity today announced it has been named the 2026 Google Cloud Security Partner of the Year in the North America category, presented at Google Cloud Next ’26 in Las Vegas.

Foresite named 2026 Google Cloud Security Partner of the Year

Organizations looking to operationalize AI-driven security on Google Cloud can learn more at next.foresite.com.

Foresite delivers fully managed security operations on Google Security Operations (SecOps), enabling customers to detect and respond to threats in seconds, reduce investigation fatigue, and maintain continuous audit readiness without expanding internal teams.

Operating as the human control layer for AI-driven security, Foresite combines Google’s agentic investigation capabilities with practitioner-validated accountability. Every autonomous investigation is reviewed and authorized by a named analyst before response actions are executed, giving customers clear visibility into how decisions are made and risk is managed.

“The Google Cloud Partner Awards honor the strategic innovation and measurable value our partners bring to customers,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem and Channels, Google Cloud. “We are proud to name Foresite a 2026 Google Cloud Partner Award winner, celebrating their role in driving customer success over the last year.”

As a Google Cloud Premier Partner with Security and MSSP specializations, Foresite delivers managed services through its Catalyst platform — extending Google SecOps with operational governance, automation, and continuous compliance capabilities. Over the past year, the company expanded its SecOps delivery practice while sustaining 96% customer retention, reflecting growing demand for managed, AI-enhanced security operations.

Across its managed services portfolio, Foresite delivers a 90% reduction in mean investigation time and sub-15-second automated threat response for its customers — enabling security teams to focus on strategic risk decisions rather than alert triage.

Foresite’s approach to managed security operations on Google Cloud was the subject of an independent Technical Validation by Enterprise Strategy Group (now part of Omdia), commissioned by Google in August 2025. The report examined how Foresite’s Catalyst platform extends Google Security Operations to deliver threat detection, investigation, and response for organizations at varying levels of security maturity.

“Our Technical Validation of Foresite’s Catalyst platform examined how practitioner-led governance can extend Google Security Operations to deliver measurable detection and response outcomes. Google Cloud’s Partner of the Year recognition independently confirms what our analysis identified — that platform-native expertise, rather than tool access, is what differentiates managed security outcomes for mid-market and enterprise organizations.”— Tony Palmer, Practice Director, Omdia (formerly Enterprise Strategy Group).

“We’re entering an era where AI can investigate threats at machine speed,” said Jeremy Hehl, Chief Evangelist at Foresite. “Enterprise organizations need confidence that those decisions are governed and aligned to real business risk. This recognition from Google Cloud reinforces our focus in helping customers operationalize AI security at scale.”

Foresite is showcasing its Agentic SOC capabilities at Google Cloud Next ’26, demonstrating how security teams can move beyond alert monitoring to govern autonomous response using Google SecOps, Google Threat Intelligence, and AI security controls.

Foresite is purpose-built for organizations that need enterprise-grade security operations without enterprise-scale friction. The company delivers the operational rigor and platform expertise these organizations require to run Google SecOps effectively — without the overhead of building and staffing a full internal SOC.

About Foresite Cybersecurity
Foresite Cybersecurity is a Google Cloud Premier Partner providing managed security operations, compliance automation, and threat intelligence services. Through its Catalyst platform, Foresite helps organizations operationalize AI-driven security with practitioner-led governance and measurable risk reduction. Learn more at foresite.com.

Media Contacts 
Claire Simpson Director of Global Brand & Strategic Marketing
Tim Suwandhaputra VP, Go-to-Market
press@foresite.com

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Tredence Awarded 2026 Google Cloud Global Industry Solutions Partner of the Year Award for Retail

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Trusted for driving the data & AI strategy for 8 of the top 10 retailers, powering $2 trillion in retail revenue

LAS VEGAS and BENGALURU, India, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tredence, a global AI and data science solutions company, today announced it has been named the 2026 Google Cloud Services & Industry Solutions Partner of the Year for Retail. This award reflects Tredence’s demonstrated ability to deliver measurable customer impact at scale. Notably, this is Tredence’s third such distinction, having previously been recognized in CPG and Gaming, a testament to Tredence’s unmatched depth, breadth, and impact across the industries it serves.

For the world’s leading retailers, Tredence has consistently delivered the full AI transformation journey — migrating, modernizing, and deploying scalable AI applications and agents on Google Cloud, powered by Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise. In FY25, Tredence drove transformative impact across 25+ strategic retail accounts spanning four continents, delivering measurable business outcomes and accelerating Google Cloud adoption at unprecedented scale. Tredence’s impact has been defined by three core motions:

Modernization at scale, building agentic foundations – Tredence executed some of the world’s most complex retail cloud migrations, including the largest-ever cloud migration in retail history, migrating 12 petabytes of data for 40,000+ analytics users with 100% operational continuity, and a landmark platform overhaul delivered ahead of schedule, reducing total cost of ownership by 20–40% and building the unified data foundations that power agentic AI at scale.Accelerating agentic AI adoption – Tredence deployed 100+ AI/ML accelerators, including 10+ retail-specific multi-agent systems built on Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise, eliminating up to 70% of manual effort, automating up to 98% of manual ticketing processes, and cutting temporary labor costs by 20%, compressing months of deployment into weeks across some of the most complex retail environments in the world.Delivering global impact at measurable scale – Tredence drove transformative outcomes across every retail format and across geographies unifying supply chain data across 20,000+ stores to automate retail media insights, deploying a full agentic platform in just 6 months for a major wholesale retailer, and delivering greenfield Google Cloud wins, proving that the Tredence and Google Cloud partnership delivers measurable impact across every retail segment and scale of ambition.

“The Google Cloud Partner Awards honor the strategic innovation and measurable value our partners bring to customers,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem and Channels, Google Cloud. “We are proud to name Tredence a 2026 Google Cloud Partner Award winner, celebrating their role in driving customer success over the last year.”

“Winning Google Cloud’s Retail Partner of the Year reflects one thing: the outcomes we deliver for the world’s most admired retailers, consistently and at scale,” said Amanpal Dhupar, Vice President, Head of Retail at Tredence. “We are the trusted Data and AI partner for 8 of the top 10 global retailers and have built a team of world-class retail practitioners, a proprietary accelerator ecosystem powering over $2 trillion in global retail sales, and a last-mile operationalization capability.”

Tredence recently launched its Transformative Agentic Commerce Solution Accelerators at NRF 2026. Built on Google Cloud services, these accelerators can be customized for each retailer to address unique needs and deliver faster time-to-value.

Tredence will showcase these capabilities at Google Next, Booth #2911, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

About Tredence:

Tredence is a global AI and data science solutions provider focused on solving the last-mile problem in AI, the gap between insight creation and value realization. Tredence leverages deep domain expertise, data platforms and accelerators, and strategic partnerships to provide tailored, cutting-edge solutions to its clients. The company has 4,200+ employees across the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Riyadh, London, Toronto, and Bengaluru, serving top brands in Retail, CPG, Hi-tech, Telecom, Healthcare, Travel, and Industrials. 

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1773052/Tredence_Logo.jpg

 

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dbt Labs Wins a 2026 Google Cloud Partner of the Year Award

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PHILADELPHIA, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — dbt Labs, the leader in standards for AI-ready structured data, announced today that it has received the 2026 Google Cloud Partner of the Year award for Data and Analytics: Data Pipelines and Governance. dbt Labs works together with Google Cloud to provide the foundation for an organization’s transition to AI leadership and innovation. The combination of rich data warehousing capabilities and the democratization of complex data transformation removes technical barriers, enabling analysts and business leaders to accelerate their time-to-value.

dbt Labs is being recognized for its achievements in the Google Cloud ecosystem, helping  joint customers manage data at scale on Google Cloud and turn it into trusted, actionable insights with speed and efficiency. Thousands of organizations run dbt on Google BigQuery globally, an integration designed to accelerate the delivery of trusted analytics and AI. By consolidating data transformation into a single, unified tool, joint customers quickly gain increased operational efficiency through advanced orchestration features. dbt Labs empowers customers to manage and trust results, ensuring high-quality data is ready to power analytics and AI initiatives both today and in the future.

“Every AI strategy needs to be underpinned by a standardized foundation and process to control, govern and document progress for high-quality, trusted results,” said Shawn Toldo, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Ecosystem at dbt Labs. “Together, dbt Labs and Google Cloud enable organizations to build that foundation for an AI-ready future. We are excited for the recognition and growing partnership with Google.”

dbt Labs is being recognized for its achievements in the Google Cloud ecosystem, helping  joint customers manage data at scale on Google Cloud and turn it into trusted, actionable insights with speed and efficiency. Thousands of organizations run dbt on Google BigQuery globally, an integration designed to accelerate the delivery of trusted analytics and AI. By consolidating data transformation into a single, unified tool, joint customers quickly gain increased operational efficiency through advanced orchestration features. dbt Labs empowers customers to manage and trust results, ensuring high-quality data is ready to power analytics and AI initiatives both today and in the future.

“The Google Cloud Partner Awards honor the strategic innovation and measurable value our partners bring to customers,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem and Channels, Google Cloud. “We are proud to name dbt Labs a 2026 Google Cloud Partner Award winner, celebrating their role in driving customer success over the last year.”

This recognition is the latest example of dbt Labs’ momentum since launching on Google Cloud Marketplace one year ago. The partnership’s trajectory is driven by extensive global adoption and usage across diverse industries and a rapidly expanding community of active practitioners. Additionally, dbt Labs’ partner team earned two Google Partner All Star awards, reinforcing the deep collaboration and commitment to driving mutual success.

By bringing Google AI capabilities into dbt workflows, joint customers gain the trustworthy, well-documented, governed foundation that reliable analytics and AI demand. To learn more about how dbt Labs and Google Cloud are enabling AI-ready data pipelines, watch the on-demand webinar “Building dbt Models Faster with Google AI” at https://www.getdbt.com/confirmation/building-dbt-models-faster-with-google-ai-recording.

About dbt Labs
Since 2016, dbt Labs has been on a mission to help data practitioners create and disseminate organizational knowledge. dbt is the standard for AI-ready structured data. Powered by the dbt Fusion engine, it unlocks the performance, context, and trust that organizations need to scale analytics in the era of AI. Globally, more than 80,000 data teams use dbt, including those at Siemens, Roche and Condé Nast.

Learn more at getdbt.com, and follow dbt Labs on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

 

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