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OutRival’s “The New Normal” Podcast Goes Inside the AI Playbooks of the World’s Largest Brands, Including Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Azamara Cruises, SNHU and More

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The weekly show has published 13 episodes with the leaders of some of the largest organizations in higher education and travel, including Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Azamara Cruises, Southern New Hampshire University, Western Governors University, Miami Dade College and Dallas College, plus the U.S. Department of Labor. Thirty episodes are recorded, with 100 planned by 2027.

MIAMI, Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The New Normal, the show about how enterprises are deploying AI agents and generating real ROI, today released its 13th episode and confirmed a weekly cadence through 2027. Presented by OutRival, the Miami-based company building AI digital workers for voice, SMS and email, the show has recorded 30 episodes with the leaders of some of the largest organizations in higher education, travel and government, and plans to have 100 recorded by 2027. New episodes publish every Thursday at thenewnormal.fm.

The New Normal is hosted by OutRival Co-Founder and CEO Ruben Harris and Co-Founder and President Timur Meyster. Vice President, Head of Travel Jeff Herzfeld, a 20-year cruise and hospitality sales operations veteran, co-hosts the travel episodes. The show’s next chapter is insurance: recordings with carrier, agency and brokerage leaders begin Q4 2026, co-hosted by OutRival’s Vice President, Head of Insurance, Eric Weinstein.

The Premise

Most AI coverage is about what might happen. The New Normal is about what already did. Every episode puts a senior operator in the chair to walk through the use cases they actually deployed, the numbers they actually saw, and the decisions they got wrong along the way. No vendor pitch, no futurism, just leaders who run large organizations explaining how the work is changing inside them.

How the Show Is Made

Every episode is recorded in person. The OutRival team gives each guest two options: fly to OutRival’s headquarters in Miami, or the hosts fly to the guest’s headquarters. The second option is the one the team prefers, because being on site is how you learn how a leader is actually thinking about these decisions, and it puts a light on the people behind the C-suite: the enrollment counselors, advisors, sales associates, contact center teams and technologists responsible for creating an amazing experience for every student, traveler and policyholder. The episodes are produced by Mike Landsberg and Thomas Risavy of Grove Station Studios.

The show was built for industries that live on the phone: higher education, insurance and travel, where the relationship between a brand and the people it serves runs through millions of calls, texts and emails. Nobody proves the point like Bob Becker, the cruise industry sales legend responsible for more than $50 billion in sales at Carnival, Norwegian and Celebrity, who filled ships primarily through the phone.

His episode, released today, is live here. Those are the industries where getting AI right matters most, because a human will always be in the loop at some point to create a delightful experience for the student, the traveler or the policyholder. The leaders on the show have already made the hard calls about where that point is, and they are thinking past the first call: how AI agents can help their people provide care through the entire journey, from the first inquiry to the trip after this one. Together, the institutions represented in the first 13 episodes serve more than one million students a year and millions of travelers.

Why the Show Exists

Every new normal begins as the risk most people avoid today and the standard everyone copies tomorrow. After conversations with more than 300 enterprise leaders, the OutRival team found that most companies are still not running AI in production at scale, and the few that are have a lead the rest of the market cannot see coming. The New Normal exists to put those leaders on the record. The guests are the ones putting digital workers on the org chart, writing job descriptions for them, and reorganizing teams so humans and AI work side by side.

Most companies still treat AI as reactive support, a smarter way to answer the phone once a customer finally calls. The leaders on the show flipped it. They use it to reach out first: the inquiry that never got a callback, the application someone almost finished, the policy up for renewal, the guest ready to book the next trip. The show covers inbound and back-office use cases too, but the questions it keeps coming back to are about where leaders stopped waiting and started the conversation themselves.

13 Episodes, Three Industries, One Format

The show launched in June 2026 with higher education, added the U.S. Department of Labor as its first government guest, and opened its travel chapter in October. Published episodes, in order:

Kermit Cook, CEO, Penn Foster: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/penn-foster-kermit-cookMadeline Pumariega, President, Miami Dade College: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/miami-dade-college-president-madeline-pumariega-on-deploying-ai-at-scale-in-higher-educationScott Pulsipher, President, Western Governors University: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/wgu-scott-pulsipherDavid Andrews, Chancellor, UMass Global: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/umass-global-david-andrewsMark Milliron, President, National University: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/national-university-mark-millironLisa Marsh Ryerson, President, Southern New Hampshire University: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/snhu-lisa-marsh-ryersonGregory Fowler, President, University of Maryland Global Campus: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/umgc-gregory-fowlerTaylor Stockton, Chief Innovation Officer, U.S. Department of Labor: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/dol-taylor-stocktonRaghu Krishnaiah, Chief Operating Officer, University of Phoenix: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/university-of-phoenix-raghu-krishnaiahJustin Lonon, Chancellor, Dallas College: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/dallas-college-justin-lononMike Flaskey, President and COO, Marriott Vacations Worldwide: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/marriott-vacations-worldwide-mike-flaskeyDondra Ritzenthaler, CEO, Azamara Cruises: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/azamara-cruises-dondra-ritzenthalerBob Becker, the King of Outbound, former sales executive at Carnival, Norwegian and Celebrity, released today: thenewnormal.fm/episodes/bob-becker-king-of-outbound

Insurance episodes, co-hosted by Eric Weinstein, will cover how carriers, agencies and brokers are putting AI agents to work. Additional higher education, travel and insurance executives are already recorded and scheduled.

What the Guests Are Saying

“I want more of our people to be able to do the heart work, and I want to offload the hand work,” said Lisa Marsh Ryerson, President of Southern New Hampshire University, on where AI belongs at a university serving 300,000 learners.

“A pilot is an initiative. Scale is a transformation,” said Madeline Pumariega, President of Miami Dade College, on why the college went all in rather than piloting.

“You don’t have the reach that these digital workers do,” said Mike Flaskey, President and COO of Marriott Vacations Worldwide, on what AI adds to a 1,400-person sales organization.

“So if AI’s coming and it can help us, let’s go,” said Dondra Ritzenthaler, CEO of Azamara Cruises.

“Hope is a pretty poor strategy in business,” said Bob Becker, the sales leader who built the outbound model used across the cruise industry, on why he started AI with one use case.

What the Hosts Are Saying

“The most useful conversations about AI were happening in private, between operators, and nobody was recording them,” said Ruben Harris, Co-Founder and CEO of OutRival. “Thirteen episodes in, the pattern is clear. The leaders winning with AI did not wait for a perfect pilot. They put it to work on the conversations they were already having with students, travelers and policyholders, and they measured it. We have 30 of those stories recorded, and we will have 100 by 2027.”

“Every enterprise is being told to deploy AI. Almost nobody is being shown what it looks like when it works,” said Timur Meyster, Co-Founder and President of OutRival. “We built OutRival to put digital workers into production at scale, so we know the difference between a demo and a deployment. The New Normal exists to make that difference public. The leaders on this show are not forecasting. They are reporting results, and they are putting their names on them.”

“I started on the phones at Carnival and spent twenty years running sales floors, so I know how this industry reacts to a pitch about the future. We’ve heard it. We’ve bought it. Most of it didn’t work,” said Jeff Herzfeld, Head of Travel at OutRival. “This show skips the pitch entirely. It’s leaders in cruise, vacation ownership and hospitality telling you what they actually did with this technology and what happened next. Honest, specific, and on the record. That conversation used to happen behind closed doors. Now you’re in the room.”

Who Should Watch

The show is built for presidents, chancellors, provosts and enrollment leaders in higher education; CEOs, contact center and revenue leaders in cruise, vacation ownership and hospitality; carrier, agency and brokerage executives in insurance; and anyone responsible for deciding how AI shows up in front of a student, a traveler or a policyholder.

The show is also tailored towards established vendors and startups who are obsessed with learning how their customers and potential customers think. New episodes publish every Thursday, with short clips released across YouTube Shorts, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Where to Watch and Listen

Show hub: https://thenewnormal.fmTravel hub: https://thenewnormal.fm/travelYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutRival_Presents_TheNewNormalApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outrival-presents-the-new-normal/id6783387190Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Dp83sQVBUkustC0WiARSoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/newnormalpodcastNewsletter (Substack): https://outrivalpresentsthenewnormal.substack.com/RSS: https://rss.buzzsprout.com/2625410.rss

Executives interested in appearing on the show can apply at https://thenewnormal.fm/be-a-guest.

About The New Normal

The New Normal is the weekly show about how enterprises are deploying AI agents and generating real ROI. Presented by OutRival, it features candid, in-person conversations with presidents, chancellors, CEOs and operating executives across higher education, travel, insurance and government on the AI use cases they have put into production, what worked, what did not, and what comes next. The show has published 13 episodes, has 30 recorded, and will have 100 recorded by 2027. Episodes, clips and a press kit are available at

https://thenewnormal.fm.

About OutRival

OutRival makes it possible for brands to genuinely care about every single person they serve. The Miami-based AI company builds digital workers that call, text and email on behalf of brands in industries that live on the phone, including higher education, insurance and travel. Every person a brand serves gets a dedicated assistant that remembers every conversation, keeps every promise, and brings in the right human at the moments that matter. Founded by Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster and backed by Y Combinator, Google Ventures, Initialized Capital, Top Tier Capital Partners, Opportunity Fund, and more, OutRival handles millions of conversations a month from its headquarters at Ampersand Studios in Miami. Learn more at https://www.outrival.com.

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SOURCE OutRival, Inc.

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JinkoSolar Unveils Tiger Neo 5.0 All-Black Residential Solar Module with 25.52% Efficiency

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October 17, 2026

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SHANGRAO, China, Oct. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (“JinkoSolar” or the “Company”) (NYSE: JKS), today unveiled Tiger Neo 5.0, an all-black residential solar module built on its all-new TAC technology. The first version to reach the market, an all-black 48-cell module, delivers a maximum power output of 510 W with a module efficiency of 25.52%. It was designed to redefine the upper limits of what a scenario-specific module can deliver in both appearance and efficiency for premium homes and other architecturally refined residences.

The module showcases a deeper, more uniform and more refined black appearance than conventional back-contact (BC) modules. Semiconductor-grade low- and high-temperature processes bring the power temperature coefficient down to -0.24%/℃, meaning stronger energy yield in high-temperature environments.

TAC technology combines the excellent carrier transport of TOPCon with the low-temperature processing and positive electrode passivation of HJT, pushing peak cell efficiency to 28%, approaching the theoretical limit of monocrystalline silicon cells. Together with a zero-gap cell layout and hidden-ribbon technology at module level, the module achieves an efficiency of 25.52%. Compared with conventional BC products, it delivers approximately 30 W more power, and a lower temperature coefficient. Its deeper, more premium black appearance blends seamlessly into residential rooftops— especially dark-colored ones — making it a standout in the residential module category for both power and aesthetics.

“Our vision for Tiger Neo 5.0 was to develop a panel tailored to premium residential rooftops. It pushes the boundaries of both performance and aesthetics with innovations in cell technology, passivation processes, structural design, module format and interconnections. With this launch, we aim to help move the industry toward solutions tailored to specific applications,” said Charlie Cao, CEO of Jinko Solar Co., Ltd.

About JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.

JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) is a holding company combining clean energy industrial operations and strategic investment in emerging technologies. Its industrial foundation is a controlling interest in Jinko Solar Co., Ltd. (SSE: 688223), a global leader in clean energy technology. The Company makes disciplined strategic investments in renewable energy, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, commercial space and other frontier technologies, drawing on its industrial experience and its ability to identify emerging technologies and bring them to commercial scale.

Through Jinko Solar Co., Ltd., the Company distributes its solar products and sells its solutions and services to a diversified international utility, commercial and residential customer base in China, the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, South Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and other countries and regions.

JinkoSolar has over 10 production facilities globally, over 20 overseas subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, Mexico, and other countries, and a global sales network with sales teams in China, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Spain, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Vietnam and India, as of June 30, 2026.

To find out more, please see: www.jinkosolar.com 

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Among other things, the quotations from management in this press release and the Company’s operations and business outlook, contain forward-looking statements. Such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in JinkoSolar’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 20-F. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Ms. Stella Wang
JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.
Tel: +86 21-5180-8777 ext.7806
Email: pr@jinkosolar.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jinkosolar-unveils-tiger-neo-5-0-all-black-residential-solar-module-with-25-52-efficiency-302911814.html

SOURCE JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd.

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AGFUND wins international award for excellence in inclusive banking and social impact

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October 17, 2026

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 Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal credits the founders of AGFUND’s microfinance banks for laying the foundations of its development impact

BANGKOK, Oct. 17, 2026 /CNW/ — The Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND) won the “Excellence in Inclusive Banking and Social Impact” award at the 2026 Sustainable Development Goals Awards, organized by the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) in cooperation with the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG).

AGFUND CEO Hammam bin Nasser bin Juraid accepted the award in Bangkok, Thailand, alongside the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.

HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, President of AGFUND, said the recognition acknowledges AGFUND’s experience using financial services to empower underserved communities, strengthen livelihoods and promote economic independence.

He credited the founders of AGFUND’s microfinance banks, particularly the late Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, for establishing institutions centered on empowering people.

He added that the award reflects over two decades of commitment, the dedication of financial inclusion banks and partners, and clients who transformed financing into businesses and family income. He emphasized expanding opportunities and measuring success through lasting improvements in people’s lives.

Prince Abdulaziz stressed that the recognition reflects the value of institutions reaching excluded populations and encourages broader access and economic opportunities for families.

AGFUND’s financial inclusion banking network has served more than 1.3 million clients and disbursed over US$1.37 billion in financing since inception. Women represent 59 per cent of borrowers, demonstrating its contribution to economic empowerment.

Presented by WSBI, established in 1924, together with ESBG, the award recognizes an approach linking financial services, social impact and sustainable development.

Following its first bank in Jordan in 2004, AGFUND expanded across nine countries: Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Mauritania and Sierra Leone, focusing on communities underserved by conventional financial institutions.

The network has issued more than 1.5 million loans, opened over 927,000 savings accounts, established 112 branches and employed more than 1,500 people. Its services finance micro and small enterprises and income-generating activities, improving livelihoods and economic independence.

AGFUND plans to strengthen development partnerships, advance digital solutions and innovative financial products, and integrate financing with training, capacity development, market access and risk protection.

It is also exploring geographic expansion, particularly in Africa, through institutional partnerships that adapt successful approaches to local needs and extend sustainable financial inclusion to more communities.

Website – https://agfund.org/

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SOURCE The Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND)

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GAC Showcases Multiple Models at Canton Fair: Systemic Global Expansion as a Response to High‑Level Opening‑Up

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October 17, 2026

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GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On 15 October, the 140th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) kicked off in Guangzhou. Dubbed “China’s No.1 Exhibition” with a 70‑year history, it serves as a vital window for global merchants to understand China, and one of GAC’s stages to connect with the world. For international buyers, GAC serves not only as a sourcing platform but as a trusted channel for experiencing Chinese automotive innovation and building long-term local partnerships. Having made its debut in 2012, GAC has participated in the fair 30 times to date. Together with the Canton Fair, it has witnessed the transformation of Made‑in‑China products into Chinese global brands.

This transformation is reflected in GAC’s global expansion journey through a string of continuously refreshed sales figures. Overseas sales stood at 90,000 units in 2024, hit 130,000 units in 2025, and exceeded 197,000 units in January‑September 2026, representing a year‑on‑year surge of 138.9%. GAC is sprinting full steam ahead toward its annual target of 300,000 overseas units. GAC has accomplished a shift from “product export” to “system‑level global expansion”.

At the GAC booth, XT80, AION i60 and AISTALAND GX7 showcased intelligent driving, three-electric systems and premium cabins. The energy-ecology zone featured DC ultra-fast charging piles, 7 kW smart home chargers, multi-in-one electric drive units and PV-Storage-Charging-Swapping Technology, addressing range anxiety. Opening day drew buyers from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and Africa. At the Music & Cuisine Festival, GAC built three immersive spaces blending smart mobility, Cantonese cuisine, camping and sports. The XT80, AION N60, GAC S7 and AISTALAND GT7 served as lifestyle carriers, letting guests enjoy morning tea, global cuisines and intangible cultural heritage.

GAC will advance its ONE GAC 2.0 strategy, deepening localized operations and expanding its systematic global layout. As a tribute to the Canton Fair’s 70th anniversary and a new business card for China’s auto industry, GAC will help drive Chinese intelligent manufacturing onto the global stage.

For further information about GAC, please visit https://www.gacgroup.com/en or follow us on social media.

 

SOURCE GAC

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