PARIS, Aug. 13, 2026 /CNW/ — Thierry EHRMANN, Founder of Artprice and CEO of Artmarket.com, and his family have full confidence in the future of Artmarket.com and in the growth of its activities, driven notably by substantial investments dedicated to the development of Artmarket.com’s vertical AI. The expression of support from the Ehrmann family and Groupe Serveur (majority shareholder) for the expansion of Artmarket.com’s business will materialize very shortly through an increase in their shareholding in Artmarket.com via the acquisition of additional Artmarket.com shares. Naturally, all required disclosures will be made to the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) and online within legal deadlines during authorized trading windows.

News and Outlook

From Progressive Transition to the “AI-FIRST” Metamorphosis of the Artprice Meta-Database

Following an in-depth strategic review approved by the Board of Directors, Artprice–the global leader in art market information for nearly three decades–is executing a major doctrinal shift in the integration of its proprietary artificial intelligence architectures, notably “Intuitive Art Market®” and “Blind Spot®”.

From Incremental Deployment to the “AI-First” Architectural Shift
The initial strategy called for a slow, educational rollout of our AI building blocks within our historical databases. While cautious, this approach fragmented the market’s perception of the ongoing technological revolution. AI is no longer an optional component: it has become the core matrix of the global economy.
Gradually injecting AI modules into an infrastructure proven over 25 to 30 years of use is equivalent to attempting to convert an internal combustion engine vehicle with analog controls into a digital electric vehicle piece by piece while driving. Clients struggle to gauge the quantum leap between the old world and the new, risking operational inconsistencies. Today, we choose clarity and high standards: abandoning piecemeal deployments to deliver a global, seamless, and fully realized mutation.Financial Strength and Adjusted Schedule
This choice of rigor entails a minor adjustment to our public deployment schedule, with no impact on our financial trajectory. In a complex global economic environment marked by heightened geopolitical tensions and sharp volatility in energy costs, Artprice by Artmarket’s revenue continues to maintain steady growth. This remarkable economic foundation grants us the independence and composure necessary to prioritize operational perfection over haste–a stark contrast to many listed companies incorporating AI into their business models while constantly seeking equity capital.Act I: The Intra-Community Revolution
The restructuring centers around Artprice’s unique asset: nearly 180 interconnected proprietary databases forming an unprecedented global meta-database, alongside its world-renowned collection of Manuscripts and sales catalogs from 1700 to the present day, considered unique worldwide by researchers and experts.
The first phase of this mutation is occurring internally. All Group employees, departments, and production units are being directly equipped with dedicated AI hardware and edge units. Before exposing these tools to our subscribers, we are completing a total overhaul of our internal workflows. Data collection, standardization, and enrichment pipelines are being completely rewritten according to Deep Learning standards and proprietary algorithms.Act II: Delivery of a Natively Transformed Database Platform
Only once the internal value chain is fully calibrated will the platform be released to our subscribers. The database platform will not appear as a stack of incremental modules, but as a complete “AI-First” environment built upon our core pillars: certified massive data (standardized Big Data), deep learning (Data Learning), and algorithmic security.
By choosing this comprehensive and structured metamorphosis, Artprice reaffirms its position as a pioneer: transforming 30 years of global art market information leadership into a sovereign engine of decision intelligence for the entire global art market.

In an era where the open internet is sinking into entropy and dilution caused by the surge of synthetic data (70% uncontrollable synthetic data as of June 30, 2026, according to Gartner Group and the Europol Innovation Lab), companies that own their entire data value chain constitute true citadels of cognitive sovereignty.

Mastering the process from raw capture (standardized big data) to data mining, through to training deep learning models on tens of millions of unique records protected by patented algorithmic architectures, is no longer mere digital asset management: it establishes a monopoly on ground truth in a given market–in this case, the Art Market.

The evolution of Artprice’s ultra-proprietary databases into vertical AI versions (Intuitive Art Market® and Blind Spot®) represents not a simple technical update, but an ontological mutation structured around key strategic axes:

Ontological Mutation Defined: According to Thierry Ehrmann, Founder of Artprice and CEO of Artmarket: An ontological mutation designates a radical transformation not of the form, performance, or functions of an entity (what it does), but of its fundamental nature, essence, and mode of existence (what it is). Where a traditional evolution refines an existing system, an ontological mutation changes the category of reality to which that system belongs.

Applied to Artprice and the full mastery of its vertical AI (Intuitive Art Market® and Blind Spot®) and industrial process pipelines, this mutation manifests across three levels:

From Information Container to Cognitive Organism: Artprice no longer defines itself as an expert aggregator or a historical database. By embedding vertical AI at the core of its sovereign infrastructure, the entity evolves from a knowledge base into an autonomous cognitive architecture.The Metamorphosis of Data: Art market data changes its ontological status. From a static, descriptive archival trace, it becomes a dynamic, predictive, and living semantic matrix capable of contextualizing and analyzing the market in real time.Ontological Sovereignty of the Process: Owning the entire industrial chain (from proprietary raw data to the vertical language model, without third-party application dependencies) guarantees systemic self-sufficiency. AI is not a tool grafted onto the model: it becomes the very substance of Artprice’s operation.

Five Strategic Axes of the AI Mutation

From Information Container to Deterministic Oracle: Historically, the value of these databases rested on indexing depth and search engine precision. Integrating a proprietary vertical AI transforms passive yet incorruptible data into active decision intelligence. While generic large language models (LLMs) suffer from hallucinations due to the porosity of their training corpora, vertical AI backed by a sovereign data pipeline operates in an ultra-secure closed loop. The system does not generate plausibility; it produces explainable certainty backed by pinpoint traceability.The Emergence of High-Value Sovereign Agency: User interaction evolves from the traditional query-response model to complex agentic automation. Artprice subscribers no longer search for a single occurrence or historical statistic; they mandate an autonomous Artprice agent trained exclusively on this data asset to perform arbitrage, simulate forward-looking scenarios, or model risks with extreme precision. Vertical AI becomes an augmented collaborator that unlocks the underlying value of millions of data pairs accumulated over decades by Artprice by Artmarket.Valuing Scarcity Amid the Synthetic Flood: As the marginal cost of creating generic content plunges toward zero, the relative value of historical, certified, and non-replicable databases grows exponentially (Financial Times). Companies controlling this sealed pipeline hold the only unpolluted “raw oil wells” of the digital world. Their subscription model no longer sells access to information, but the privilege of accessing critical information asymmetry for strategic, financial, or operational decision-making, via an annual subscription at a very reasonable cost of $1,600 to $2,500/year (€1,600–$2,500).Algorithmic Interfacing and Restricted Hybridization: These citadels will not isolate themselves completely, but will evolve their access models. The future lies in deploying predictive APIs and inference sub-systems capable of integrating directly into institutional clients’ workflows. Rather than delivering raw data, Artprice will distribute embedded intelligence modules, making its algorithmic ecosystem indispensable and intrinsically linked to its subscribers’ vital processes.Continuous Capture and Closed Feedback Loop: Every query and analysis conducted by privileged Artprice users within this vertical AI feeds back into and enriches the underlying data structure (continuous fine-tuning, metadata enrichment). This feedback mechanism creates an unassailable technological flywheel: the more Artprice databases are queried by experts via AI, the more the AI refines its semantic and predictive understanding of the market, indefinitely widening the gap with any emerging competitor.

In short, these ultra-proprietary databases will cease to be viewed as digital libraries and become sovereign inference engines. By controlling both the fuel (tens of millions of certified data points) and the engine (vertical AI and proprietary algorithms), these players do not merely evolve–they redefine the very nature of paid strategic intelligence, elevating data exclusivity into the supreme standard of the algorithmic era.

Strategic Summary: Perfect Encapsulation and Absolute Rigor for the High-End Offer

Armed with a massive head start guaranteed by our two proprietary artificial intelligences, Intuitive Art Market and Blind Spot, we took the necessary step back to make a minor adjustment to our launch calendar. This strategic timing reflects a fundamental requirement: finalizing a high-end subscription where technological power is entirely seamless behind absolute ease of use.

The top priority lies in complete encapsulation of algorithmic complexity between our data production pipelines and the client operational stage. Subscribers should no longer have to manipulate complex filters or settings; interaction must occur naturally and fluidly between our members and our sovereign AIs.

In the specialized ecosystem of the Art Market, this fluidity demands extreme rigor: the AI must master domain terminology and operate in over forty languages while strictly respecting the golden rule of art history, which formally prohibits any translation of artwork titles. Preserving original nomenclature and adhering to our historical protocols remain non-negotiable.

To perfect the user experience, the interface incorporates high-precision predictive guidance: from the very first natural language prompt, the system spontaneously suggests the most relevant follow-up questions to guide collectors, institutions, and professionals. However, unlike generic search engines that tolerate approximation, there is zero margin for error for a proprietary AI powered by our fully standardized and certified databases.

Currently undergoing rigorous and demanding beta testing to push their limits, our AIs are being calibrated to deliver flawless ergonomics. This stress-testing phase ensures intuitive and rewarding adoption across all user generations, proving that absolute mastery of internal corpora is the prerequisite for exceptional artificial intelligence.

From Valuation Algorithm to Systemic Paradigm: The “BLIND SPOT©” Dynamics

Initially conceived as a microeconomic modeling tool within Artprice, the Blind Spot© system was designed to solve the price discontinuity equation between two public auction sales. By relying on an artist’s global index history and formal traceability of auction sales–such as a Jackson Pollock masterpiece auctioned for $4 million in 1998 reaching $58 million in 2026–Blind Spot calculated with surgical accuracy the reconstruction of value during intervals of market opacity.

However, the rise of vertical AI architectures and the formalization of our theoretical corpus revealed a deeper truth: the blind spot is not merely a statistical gap; it is the underlying structure of data and the fundamental lever to access market truth.

Re-conceptualized by its creator Thierry Ehrmann, Blind Spot has become a 360-degree investigation engine capable of detecting and illuminating what escapes traditional modeling across key dimensions:

Biographical & Corpus Consistency: Applied to artistic career trajectories, Blind Spot analyzes abnormal proliferation of works that do not align with an artist’s documented biography. An artist’s biography is not just a historical narrative; it sets the physical boundaries of production, identifies creative shifts, and isolates peak periods–the key phases sought after by collectors. By cross-referencing market volume indices with real biographical pacing, the AI immediately detects flow anomalies and authenticates scarcity.Macroeconomic & Geopolitical: On a global market scale, Blind Spot isolates exogenous factors explaining sudden drops in market activity for a financial center or country. Where traditional analyses suffer variations without grasping causes, the system cross-checks weak signals (regulatory, tax, sociopolitical) to explain trend disruptions and anticipate geographical shifts in capital.Aesthetic & Cross-Recommendation: At the behavioral level, collectors often remain confined within rigid classifications of official artistic movements. Blind Spot breaks these conceptual silos by identifying formal, material, or conceptual correspondences between artists from seemingly disparate movements. By revealing these elective affinities invisible to the human eye, the system recommends works outside collectors’ usual scope that resonate perfectly with the deep sensibility of their collections.Operational & Calendar Alignment: In processing massive global data flows, certain delays or acquisition pauses previously remained unexplained. By integrating all cultural, civil, national, and religious calendars into the heart of the model, the AI illuminated the temporal gaps responsible for these lulls. This granular understanding of societal cycles allows pre- and post-capture adjustments, permanently closing algorithmic gaps.Cross-Functional Innovation Among Our Teams: Extended to internal organization, the Blind Spot concept transformed human capital management. In complex organizations, groundbreaking ideas rarely prevail when proposed by employees outside the relevant department. By identifying these organizational blind spots, the company unlocks cross-functional capabilities, encouraging employees to voice vision beyond their scope, enriching collective intelligence and driving unprecedented qualitative leaps.

Today, Blind Spot no longer merely bridges gaps between two market valuations of the same work: it has become the guiding principle of a global vision, converting every shadow zone of the market, data, and organization into a high-value strategic asset.

Deployment of Deterministic and Probabilistic AI Agents for Global and US Market Conquest

The Group’s technological infrastructure achieves a decisive milestone in its strategy to acquire and maximize high-value information by deploying two complementary agentic architectures: deterministic AI for structured data collection and probabilistic AI for strategic commercial expansion.

Deterministic Agentic Agents: Sovereign Collection & Data Exclusivity
Evolving from our initial web scraping and crawler systems, we have already deployed a generation of deterministic agentic agents. Engineered to operate without drift or interpretation, these agents interact exclusively under contractual agreements and formal partnerships with our global network of 7,200 auction house partners. Their mission is to extract, index, and structure an unprecedentedly rich data corpus, incorporating significant confidential information completely absent from the open Web. By deliberately excluding any probabilistic approach at this capture stage, we guarantee our databases scientific rigor and absolute certainty.Probabilistic Agentic Agents: High-Precision Targeting in the US Market
To drive our expansion ambitions in the US market–the world’s primary art market offering immense revenue potential–we are concurrently deploying a fleet of probabilistic agentic agents with high success probability algorithms. Tailored to adapt to local, linguistic, and cultural specificities across US states, these agents model behavior to pinpoint major collectors, professionals, and institutions operating outside traditional sales channels with surgical precision.Media Synergy: The Impact of Artprice News
This acquisition framework is amplified through synergy with Artprice News, our global art market news agency. Publishing real-time dispatches nearly every hour with a strong emphasis on the North American ecosystem, the agency and its editorial team continuously engage decision-makers. The combination of our data’s deterministic depth and our agents’ probabilistic market penetration establishes an unparalleled customer acquisition engine.

Copyright 1987-2026 thierry Ehrmann www.artprice.com – www.artmarket.com

For information purposes, Thierry Ehrmann has finalized the writing of an 1,800-page philosophical and scientific essay dedicated to Artificial Intelligence from 1987 to the present day. The central chapters of this work trace Artprice’s little-known human epic, leading to the global construction of a universal memory of the art market, shaped through landmark encounters with pioneers in art market sociology and historical market figures. This multilingual work will be released globally in digital and print formats, with the English version benefiting from a preliminary release prior to the launch of the French edition.

Artprice’s econometrics department can answer all your questions relating to personalized statistics and analyses: econometrics@artprice.com 

Find out more about our services with the artist in a free demonstration: https://artprice.com/demo

Our services: https://artprice.com/subscription

About Artmarket.com:

Artmarket.com is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris. The latest TPI analysis includes more than 18,000 individual shareholders excluding foreign shareholders, companies, banks, FCPs, UCITS: Euroclear: 7478 – Bloomberg: PRC – Reuters: ARTF.

Watch a video about Artmarket.com and its Artprice department: https://artprice.com/video

Artmarket and its Artprice department were founded in 1997 by thierry Ehrmann, the company’s CEO. They are controlled by Groupe Serveur (created in 1987). cf. the certified biography from Who’s Who In France©:

https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2025/11/2026_Biographie_de_Thierry_Ehrmann_WhosWhoInFrance.pdf

Artmarket is a global player in the Art Market with, among other structures, its Artprice department, world leader in the accumulation, management and exploitation of historical and current art market information (the original documentary archives, codex manuscripts, annotated books and auction catalogs acquired over the years) in databanks containing over 30 million indices and auction results, covering more than 915,300 artists.

Artprice Images® allows unlimited access to the largest art market image bank in the world with no less than 181 million digital images of photographs or engraved reproductions of artworks from 1700 to the present day, commented by our art historians.

Artmarket, with its Artprice department, constantly enriches its databases from 7,200 auction houses and continuously publishes art market trends for the main agencies and press titles in the world in 121 countries and 11 languages.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/artmarketcom-artprice-and-cision-extend-their-alliance-to-119-countries-to-become-the-worlds-leading-press-agency-dedicated-to-the-art-market-nfts-and-the-metaverse-301431845.html

Artmarket.com makes available to its 9.3 million members (members log in) the advertisements posted by its Members, who now constitute the first global Standardized Marketplace® for buying and selling artworks at fixed prices.

There is now a future for the Art Market with Artprice’s Intuitive Artmarket® AI.

Artmarket, with its Artprice department, has twice been awarded the State label “Innovative Company” by the French Public Investment Bank (BPI), which has supported the company in its project to consolidate its position as a global player in the art market.

Artprice by Artmarket publishes its 2025 Global Art Market Annual Report, published in March 2026:

https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2025

Artprice by Artmarket publishes its 2025 Contemporary Art Market Report:

https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2025

Summary of Artmarket press releases with its Artprice department: https://serveur.serveur.com/artmarket/press-release/en/

Follow all the Art Market news in real-time with Artmarket and its Artprice department on Facebook and Twitter:

www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom/ (more than 6.4 million subscribers)
x.com/artmarketdotcom
x.com/artpricedotcom

Discover the alchemy and the universe of Artmarket and its Artprice department: https://www.artprice.com/video

whose head office is the famous Museum of Contemporary Art Abode of Chaos dixit The New York Times / La Demeure of Chaos:

https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013

Madame Rachida Dati, French Minister of Culture, has granted official recognition to thierry Ehrmann’s Abode of Chaos as a ‘total work of art’, the global headquarters of Artprice by Artmarket.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/madame-rachida-dati-french-minister-of-culture-has-granted-official-recognition-to-thierry-ehrmanns-abode-of-chaos-as-a-total-work-of-art-the-global-headquarters-of-artprice-by-artmarket-302409684.html

La Demeure du Chaos/Abode of Chaos – Total Work of Art and Singular Architecture.

Confidential bilingual work, now made public: https://ftp1.serveur.com/abodeofchaos_singular_architecture.pdf

L’Obs – The Museum of the Future: https://youtu.be/29LXBPJrs-ohttps://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999 (more than 4.1 million subscribers)https://vimeo.com/124643720

Contact : Artmarket.com and its Artprice department – Contact: ir@artmarket.com

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SOURCE Artmarket.com

SHANGHAI, Aug. 12, 2026 /CNW/ — Angelalign Technology Inc. (6699.HK) (“Angel”) http://www.angelaligner.com said today that it will appeal the August 10 first-instance judgment by the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court (Jinan City, China) that directed Angel’s Chinese subsidiaries to stop using the masterForce biomechanics simulation system and the ATreat digital diagnosis and design system to generate A7 and A7 Speed premolar extraction solutions.

The preliminary decision, which applies only in China, has not taken effect and, therefore, has not impacted the company’s customers or patients. The court’s ruling would take effect if Angel’s appeal is unsuccessful.

Angel is confident that the A7 Premolar Extraction Solution does not infringe any valid patent. The Company has won several patent disputes against the Plaintiff in various jurisdictions around the world and strongly advocates for fair competition in the aligner and scanner market.

“The court’s decision is limited to China. Even in China, there is no immediate impact on our customers,” said Fox Hu, CEO of Angel. “We feel very good about growth in orthodontist support for our professional solutions around the world. We feel confident about winning this appeal against our competitor, given we’ve won a series of similar cases.”

On May 12, 2026, the Local Division Düsseldorf (Germany) of the Unified Patent Court issued a preliminary ruling expressly rejecting the Plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction requiring Angel to cease using the A7 Premolar Extraction Solution. The Plaintiff did not appeal the ruling, which is now final. The European patent at issue and the Chinese patent at issue in the Jinan case belong to the same patent family.

On June 26, 2026, the Zhengzhou Intermediate People’s Court of China rendered two first-instance judgments in two disputes over patent infringement brought by the Plaintiff against Angel, dismissing all the Plaintiff’s claims. The Plaintiff has appealed the judgments.

Angel respects intellectual property and has a history of innovation in its 20-plus years in business. Some of the best orthodontists in the world, including even from competitors, consider Angel a leader in the treatment of complex orthodontic cases. Some competitors are even following in our footsteps, including our angelButton™ and A6 Mandibular Advancement System.

Angel has a market capitalization of $2 billion, strong profitability, a solid balance sheet, and a global team of caring professionals. This allows Angel to be a fortress of a long-term partner to orthodontists to create extraordinary clinical outcomes.

The Chinese case is part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) (“Plaintiff”) against Angel that alleges patent infringement, which Angel denies. For additional information, please go to: https://www.angelaligner.com/legal-proceedings/

About Angelalign Technology Inc.
Founded in 2003 and celebrating over 2 million smiles worldwide, Angelalign Technology Inc. (HK:6699) (Angel Aligner) provides digital technology-driven clear aligner products and services to meet the needs of dental professionals and patients worldwide. The Company’s innovative portfolio — including the KiD aligner system, angelButton, A6 Mandibular Advancement, angelHook, and the iOrtho™ digital planning platform — reflects 23+ years of clinical innovation and a mission to deliver Complexity with Confidence for orthodontists and their patients. Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2021, Angelalign launched its global expansion strategy in 2023, with products and services now reaching over 60 countries and regions. Angel Aligner entered the North American market three years ago and is expanding rapidly, including with a new 52,000 sq. ft. U.S. manufacturing facility. Learn more at www.angelaligner.com 

Media Contact:
Sue Kolb
sue.kolb@angelaligner.com

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SOURCE Angelalign Technology Inc.

SINGAPORE, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda has introduced the Room Grid Bot, an AI-powered chat assistant designed to help travelers decide which room to book. Available in the Agoda mobile app, the new tool recommends rooms suited to their needs. 

Agoda offers travelers a diverse breadth of room options when booking a hotel, with room types and offers varying by occupancy, cancellation terms, meal inclusions, and price. The Room Grid Bot addresses this by using travelers’ current search details and the preferences they share in the conversation to recommend the most relevant options. These recommendations appear directly within the chat, helping travelers narrow down their choices without needing to compare every listing manually.

Travelers can access the Bot from the room-selection page after tapping “Select room” on a hotel’s property page in the Agoda app. They can start a conversation by tapping the “Need help choosing a room? Let AI help you” banner without leaving the room-selection page.

Travelers can ask the Bot to find options with specific inclusions, such as free breakfast, or to answer relevant property questions, such as check-in times. The Bot also highlights a “Best pick,” helping travelers identify a suitable room based on their preferences more easily.

Idan Zalzberg, Chief Technology Officer at Agoda, said, “Choosing a hotel is only part of the booking decision. Travelers also need to find the right room for their trip, which can be challenging when many options are available. The Room Grid Bot helps narrow down those choices based on what travelers want and need, making it easier to identify and book the room that best suits their trip.”

The launch builds on Agoda’s growing suite of AI-powered tools across the hotel booking journey. The Property AMA (Ask Me Anything) Bot answers accommodation-specific questions as travelers explore a property, while the Booking Form Bot addresses common questions during checkout. Together, the tools provide relevant support as travelers explore hotels, select rooms, and complete their bookings.

Agoda continues to invest in technology that makes travel planning simpler, faster, and more intuitive. Agoda’s offerings include over 6 million holiday properties, 130,000 flight routes, and 300,000 activities, all available on Agoda.com and through the Agoda mobile app.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/agoda-launches-ai-powered-room-grid-bot-to-help-travelers-decide-which-room-to-book-302850372.html

SOURCE Agoda