A new study of tech firms reveals a major gap between high AI utilization and active risk management, calling for “Responsible AI” stewardship.

BEIJING, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — While 92% of China-listed tech companies mentioned AI-related keywords in their sustainability reports, only 22% explicitly addressed specialized AI governance, according to a latest report by China Asset Management Co. (ChinaAMC). The gap between “high AI usage” and “low AI governance discussion” is not confined to China, but is a global phenomenon that warrants attention.

Text-mining analysis of the 2025 ESG reports of China’s STAR 50 index constituents reveals that while 49 of the 50 firms mentioned data security, privacy protection and cybersecurity, and 48 generally touched upon “science ethics”, only 11 talked about “AI ethics”, “responsible AI”,”AI risks”, according to the report jointly released by ChinaAMC and ZD Proxy, a proxy advisor firm. A parallel study by UNESCO found similar gaps globally.

This is one of several findings of the report. Launched during the high-profile World Artificial Intelligence Conference(WAIC 2026), the report echoed WAIC’s focus on “Responsible AI” and unpacked the ESG-related opportunities and risks brought about by the AI wave across the E, S, and G dimensions, with a particular focus on identifying the effective practices among enterprises, regulators, and investors. Below are our core findings:

Environmental (E): Green computing is a definitive, long-term secular trend.

Based on our observations and interviews, leading enterprises have widely incorporated the continuous optimization of computing energy efficiency into their client contracts as a hard requirement. Green computing is shifting from a “nice-to-have” benefit to a mandatory “barrier to entry.” Although still in its infancy, the direction of this trend is certain, offering long-term structural opportunities for the industry.

Social (S): Large-scale job restructuring rather than sheer displacement.

Certain roles are indeed disappearing—particularly technical, entry-level positions. A report by Anthropic revealed that for jobs highly exposed to AI, entry rates for young professionals aged 22–25 dropped by more than 10% relative to 2022 levels, while their counterparts over 25 saw no equivalent change.”

However, other studies found client-facing capabilities, domain-specific know-how embedded in actual workflows, and interpersonal people skills remain difficult to replace. In these areas, AI acts more as an enhancer than a replacement. Furthermore, we find that the actual consequences of this social transition are not dictated solely by the technical boundaries of AI; corporate strategic attitudes play an equally vital role. When enterprises position AI as a “multiplier of employee capabilities,” they can effectively drive workforce empowerment and job restructuring, achieving a long-term win-win for labor value.

Governance (G): Most enterprises prioritize application over governance, while regulatory frameworks are taking shape.

Text-mining analysis of the 2025 ESG reports of STAR 50 index constituents reveals that while 92% mentioned AI-related keywords, only 22% explicitly addressed specialized AI governance. This gap—characterized by “high AI usage, low governance discussion—reflects a current governance deficit.

Meanwhile, the world’s three major economies have carved out three distinct regulatory pathways: China balances development with security through agile legislation and rapid iteration; the European Union has built a stringent regulatory framework centered on risk classification; and the United States is experiencing a tug-of-war between federal deregulation and tightening state-level oversight.

Investor Action: “Responsible AI” is evolving from a niche pioneer initiative into a quantifiable, comparable stewardship agenda.

AI-related shareholder proposals continue to surge in the U.S. stock market, and investor attention is shifting toward addressing specific gaps in corporate governance structures. The number of AI-related shareholder proposals rose from 16 in 2023 to 26 in 2025. These AI governance resolutions garnered an average of approximately 30% support from independent shareholders, compared with 16% average support for general environmental and social proposals over the same period.

“Ultimately, we believe that the true impact of AI on ESG depends entirely on how the technology is designed, deployed, and governed,” said Shirley Xu, ESG research head of ChinaAMC. “ChinaAMC is actively building a ‘Responsible AI’ evaluation framework, systematically assessing tech companies from their governance structure, risk identification and assessment, and positive externalities.”

About ChinaAMC:

Founded in April 1998, China Asset Management Co., Ltd. (ChinaAMC) has grown to be one of the largest asset managers in China, with total AUM reaching RMB3.15 trillion (US$465.3 billion, including subsidiaries) as of the end of June 2026. It positioned itself as a full-service and versatile asset management platform that operates across asset classes, industries and regions. In 2017, it became the first full-service asset manager to sign the UN PRI in China. Since then it has conducted over 170 deep engagements with more than 70 Chinese companies. It attended more than 1,000 shareholder meetings in 2025 alone.

Disclaimer

Investment involves risk, including possible loss of principal. The information contained herein is for reference only and reflects prevailing market conditions and our judgment as of the release date, which are subject to change without further notice.

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SOURCE ChinaAMC

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cake Digital Bank (“Cake”), Vietnam’s AI-first digital-only bank, has been named Vietnam’s Best Digital Bank at the Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence 2026, one of the banking industry’s leading international awards.

The recognition was presented under Euromoney’s Group Level Banking Awards, which assess the overall capabilities of banking institutions, including both digital-only and traditional banks. Rather than recognizing a single product or application, the award evaluates an institution’s overall strategy, technology capabilities, business performance and customer value.

In its editorial assessment Euromoney noted that “Cake Digital Bank’s performance in Vietnam reflects a shift from digital experimentation to scaled, profitable digital banking, achieved through a model built natively on cloud and AI rather than adapted from legacy systems.”

Founded in 2021 as a digital bank from inception, Cake has now served more than seven million customers. The bank also became the first digital-only bank in Vietnam to report profitability after just 3.5 years of operation, demonstrating the commercial viability of its digital banking model.

Cake recorded an average revenue per user (ARPU) of US$25 in 2025 and expects to attain ARPU of US$44 in 2026. This reflects Cake’s ability to deepen customer engagement through an expanding portfolio of digital financial services built on its AI and technology platform.

Cake’s business strategy centers on building long-term customer relationships through a fully digital and highly personalized banking experience. Its single digital platform integrates a comprehensive range of retail financial services, including account opening, payments, savings, lending and investment products. Artificial intelligence and data science are embedded across the customer journey to continuously personalize services based on individual needs and behaviors.

The bank also maintains internationally recognized standards in cybersecurity and risk management, including PCI DSS 4.0.1 Level 1, PCI 3DS, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, FIDO2, and ISO/IEC 30107-3 Level 2 facial biometric authentication. These capabilities enable Cake to deliver secure, personalized banking services at scale while serving millions of users.

Beyond its proprietary platform, Cake has developed a broad digital financial ecosystem through partnerships spanning retail, telecommunications, transportation, insurance and digital services. These partnerships extend the bank’s potential reach to more than 80 million users across Vietnam’s digital economy, supporting broader access to modern financial services and financial inclusion, particularly for customer segments that have been underserved by traditional banks.

Commenting on the recognition, Mr. Nguyen Huu Quang, CEO of Cake Digital Bank, said “This award recognizes the strategy we have pursued since the beginning: using AI and data science to understand every customer as an individual, rather than serving everyone through a one-size-fits-all model. In just over five years, we have demonstrated that a digital-only bank in Vietnam can achieve rapid growth, operate profitably and deliver personalized experiences at the scale of millions of customers. This provides a strong foundation for our vision of becoming a leading Next Gen AI Bank in the region while expanding financial inclusion and making modern banking more accessible to people across Vietnam.”

The award from Euromoney extends the series of international accolades for Cake. Earlier, the bank was named Best Digital Bank in Vietnam 2025 by International Banker. In 2026, Cake also received two HR Asia Awards: Best Companies to Work for in Asia and the Tech Empowerment Awards.

Together, these recognitions reflect Cake’s consistent strategy of building a customer-centric digital bank while making long-term investments in people, technology and innovation to support sustainable growth.

The Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2026 ceremony is scheduled to take place in September 2026.

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SOURCE Cake Digital Bank

New capabilities across retail and hospitality help high-volume businesses simplify operations, move faster and deliver more seamless customer experiences

MONTREAL, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lightspeed Commerce Inc. (NYSE: LSPD) (TSX: LSPD) (“Lightspeed” or the “Company”), the unified omnichannel platform powering ambitious retail, golf and hospitality businesses in over 100 countries, today announced a new wave of product innovations across Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant designed to help merchants and operators simplify complex workflows, save time and operate with greater confidence.

Retailers and hospitality businesses are under increasing pressure to do more with less while managing disconnected systems, manual processes and rising operational complexity. Lightspeed’s latest innovations address these challenges directly with new AI-powered tools, stronger fulfillment capabilities, improved multi-location management and automated payments reconciliation.

A key theme across this latest release is Lightspeed’s continued investment in Lightspeed Payments. Across retail and hospitality, new payments innovations made in the last year, including saved payment methods, pre-authorization, automated reconciliation and new hardware upgrades, are helping merchants reduce manual work and errors, speed up service, simplify end-of-day operations and create more seamless customer experiences. By bringing more of the payment lifecycle into one connected platform, Lightspeed is helping businesses save time and energy while operating with greater accuracy and confidence.

“What we’ve released this quarter reflects our continued focus on helping ambitious businesses operate with less friction,” said Dax Dasilva, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightspeed. “From simplifying daily operations and improving sales visibility, to creating faster checkout experiences and streamlining fulfillment across channels, these innovations are designed to help our customers move faster, operate smarter, and deliver great customer experiences with confidence.”

New product innovations across Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant include:

Retail

Lightspeed and Klaviyo launch integration to empower retailers with marketing automation
By connecting Klaviyo to Lightspeed Retail, Lightspeed enables merchants to automate personalized customer communications without manual data work or fragmented tools. The integration syncs customer, sales, and product data in real time so merchants can easily launch lifecycle flows such as welcome, post-purchase, and re-engage campaigns, as well as targeted omnichannel outreach.AI Blog Builder helps retailers drive traffic and sales through content
With the new AI Blog Builder, merchants can effortlessly generate SEO-optimized blog posts in minutes. By providing automated topic suggestions and publishing reminders, the tool allows retailers to maintain a consistent, professional content calendar that helps drive traffic and boost sales. Advanced design controls, built-in SEO settings, and multilingual support ensure that posts are tailored to reach and resonate with target audiences, allowing merchants to scale their content strategy without the burden of manual creation.AI section generator in AI Assistant helps merchants refine website content faster
The newly embedded AI section generator in AI Assistant empowers merchants to build high-quality, on-brand website content faster. By allowing merchants to preview changes directly in the editor and providing an intuitive, conversational interface for refinements, the tool ensures website updates align with their unique brand vision. This seamless, context-aware workflow saves valuable time and enables merchants to deliver more engaging, customized digital experiences for their customers.Lightspeed Scanner now helps store staff grow basket size at checkout
Lightspeed Scanner now surfaces data-driven cross-sell prompts directly on the shop floor and at checkout. Powered by a rolling 90-day market basket analysis, Frequently Bought Together recommendations appear on the Product Details screen during look up and refresh dynamically on the Sell Screen as items are added to cart — helping sales associates to recommend suitable complementary products, regardless of their experience levels.Omnichannel customer accounts bring more convenience to retail shoppers
Shoppers buying from Lightspeed Retail merchants can now view order history and manage loyalty points through the new omnichannel customer portal. The experience helps merchants bridge the gap between in-store and online shopping while delivering the convenience customers increasingly expect.NuORDER Brand Sales Overview gives brands a clearer view of wholesale performance
NuORDER now provides a centralized view of wholesale sales performance, allowing brands to track orders, revenue, units sold and top performers in one place. With clear year-over-year visibility into sales trends and top-performing sales representatives, the dashboard gives brands a faster, more intuitive way to understand performance without relying on manual spreadsheets.

Hospitality

New Lightspeed AI enhancements bring insights on operations and tasks to hospitality merchants
Lightspeed AI delivers customized AI driven insights when merchants log in to their Back Office. By asking a question in natural language, operators can rapidly generate tailored charts and insights, then pin preferred reports so critical information is always within reach. For merchants using Lightspeed Tasks to build checklists for consistent service, operators can also ask Lightspeed AI to surface operational issues based on checklist insights across locations, so teams can spot what needs attention without reading through every note and comment.Lightspeed launches Locations Manager to simplify multi-site operations
Locations Manager gives hospitality operators a centralized way to manage multiple venues from a single dashboard. In its first iteration, the feature allows businesses to share items, create menus and sync updates across locations in a few clicks, while still giving individual venues the flexibility to make regional changes when needed. Future updates are planned to introduce additional capabilities, including user permission management, invoice visibility across the business and enhanced unified reporting.Lightspeed Payments automates reconciliation for hospitality businesses
Through Lightspeed Payments, reconciliation automatically accounts for tips, split checks, chargebacks and tip adjustments, helping operators quickly spot discrepancies between POS data and bank deposits. Instead of spending hours balancing the books after service, managers can close out faster with a clearer view of actual cash flow.New booking widget gives restaurants more control over the guest journey
Lightspeed Reservations now offers an enhanced booking widget that allows hospitality customers to receive reservations directly through their own websites. By enabling guests to book without leaving a restaurant’s site, the new widget creates a smoother reservation experience while giving operators the ability to capture more bookings along the guest journey.

To learn more about these new features, visit Lightspeed’s website.

About Lightspeed

Lightspeed is the POS and payments platform powering businesses at the heart of communities in over 100 countries. As the partner of choice for ambitious retail, golf and hospitality entrepreneurs, Lightspeed helps businesses accelerate growth, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and run smarter across all channels and locations.

With fast, flexible omnichannel technology, Lightspeed brings together point of sale, ecommerce, embedded payments, inventory, reporting, staff and supplier management, financial services, and an exclusive wholesale retail network. Backed by insights, and expert support, Lightspeed helps businesses run more efficiently and focus on what they do best.

Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange (NYSE: LSPD) (TSX: LSPD), with teams across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may include forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”), including information regarding Lightspeed’s partnerships, product offerings and planned product roadmap. Forward-looking statements are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions and are identified by words such as “will”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “estimates” or similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Such statements are based on current expectations of Lightspeed’s management and inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, including economic factors. A number of risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this news release, including, among other factors, those risk factors identified in our most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, under “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Information Form, and in our other filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available under our profiles on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully when making decisions with respect to Lightspeed’s subordinate voting shares and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are not guarantees of future performance and, while forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that Lightspeed considers reasonable, actual events and results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by Lightspeed. Except as may be expressly required by applicable law, Lightspeed does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE Lightspeed Commerce Inc.