Two new launches today, one meaty reception finding, and a five-platform check-in that includes a genuinely surprising one: a $100M-ARR CX vendor tying a 20% layoff directly to going "AI-first."

New launches

India's Bank of Baroda relaunches banking app with a conversational AI core

One of India's largest public-sector banks, serving 150M+ customers.

Bank of Baroda relaunched its mobile banking app as bob World 2.0, built on a microservices architecture with conversational AI at its core — natural-language navigation and payments rather than fixed menu-driven banking UI, plus personal financial management, hyper-personalization, and persona-based experiences for seniors, women, NRIs, and millennials. Demonstrated at Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai to India's Dept. of Financial Services Secretary.

Sources: APAC News Network, Telangana Today, RetailIntel

Salesforce launches "Casey," a named customer-service agent across voice, SMS, WhatsApp, and web chat

Salesforce's agentic AI/CRM platform, sold to enterprises and SMBs alike.

Salesforce introduced a portfolio of seven named, purpose-built Agentforce agents; "Casey" is the customer-service agent, resolving issues over voice, SMS, WhatsApp, and web chat with prebuilt support for FAQs, returns, account management, and escalation to a human — businesses can rename it and apply their own rules. Six of the seven agents, Casey included, are generally available now.

Sources: Salesforce Newsroom, ITdaily, Technobezz

New reception finding

Kroger's AI shopping assistant draws privacy pushback

Launched 2 weeks ago (late August 2026): independent coverage has been mixed, focused on privacy/trust rather than usability. EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) senior counsel Sara Geoghegan criticized the chatbot's product recommendations, questioning whether they serve the shopper or Kroger's own commercial interests, as part of EPIC's broader criticism of Kroger's data practices including "surveillance pricing." Press coverage doesn't always cleanly separate this Gemini-powered shopping assistant from a related, Instacart-powered "Cart Assistant" pilot on Kroger's app/delivery, so treat the privacy angle as pertaining to Kroger's broader AI-shopping-chatbot push rather than confirmed identical to this specific tool. No hands-on quality reviews of the assistant's conversational accuracy or human-escalation behavior were found.

Sources: AOL, WCPO, Cheapism, EPIC

Platform Watch

• Booksy announced cutting ~20% of staff (~200 positions) across all markets in September 2026, which CEO Stefan Batory framed explicitly as accelerating a shift to an "AI-first organization" built around self-service tools rather than a financially-driven cut. Independent reviews stay persistently negative on customer service and payments — recurring complaints about unreliable payouts and disputed "Boost" marketing-fee charges, with one aggregator showing 2.2/5 across 89 reviews. (rp.pl, Trustpilot, SmartCustomer)
• Capacity crossed $100M ARR (up from $5M roughly 3.5 years earlier) and now serves 20,000+ organizations including 20% of the Fortune 50, landing at No. 432 on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list. Independent G2 reviews stay strongly positive, though pricing remains enterprise-only and custom-quoted rather than SMB-self-serve. (PR Newswire, G2)
• WATI raised a $23M Series B in February 2026 (Tiger Global, Sequoia India, and Shopify's first-ever venture investment), but 2026 pricing changes — passing through Meta's shift to message-based WhatsApp pricing — are drawing complaints about hidden costs and no self-serve cancellation. (WATI, Flowcart)
• Haptik launched SOLO (July 2026), an AI-native growth platform for Indian solopreneurs and small businesses, drawing 10,000+ early-access signups; independent reviews stay strongly positive (4.5/5 on G2). (APAC News Network, SoftwareReviews)
• Bambuser's FY2025 revenue fell 19% year-over-year and its June 2026 AGM declared no dividend, even as it added AI-era product discovery features and a new enterprise adopter (Audi Sweden). One independent review notes it isn't really built for small businesses, despite being tracked here as SMB-adoptable. (Inderes, Ecommerce Guide)

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