Multi-year strategic partnership will advance global operations for one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies to accelerate growth and enhance customer service. 

GREEN BAY, WI, and BASKING RIDGE, NJ, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Schreiber Foods and Ascendion today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to transform Schreiber’s global operations and software development using agentic AI, advancing the company’s vision to do good through food. Through this partnership, Ascendion will equip Schreiber’s capability centers with AI-native technology to fuel sustainable growth and accelerate innovation across more than 40 locations on five continents.

As a trusted food and beverage supplier to the world’s leading retailers, restaurants, distributors, and food manufacturers, Schreiber’s products feed families in more than 95 countries and its global IT capability centers serve more than 10,000 employee-partners worldwide.

“To fuel Schreiber’s next era of rapid growth, we are taking a bold, transformational leap forward in how we operate and serve our customers,” said Trevor Farrell, President of Schreiber Foods. “By leaning into next-generation, agentic AI with Ascendion, we are reinforcing the very foundation of what our customers rely on us for: world-class quality, safety, and service. This technology will empower our employee-partners, accelerate our innovation, and allow us to deliver even greater impact at scale.”

Through the partnership, AI agents will help Schreiber and Ascendion teams get quality and food safety signals to decision-makers faster, modernize the ERP environment, and give regional teams a more unified way to collaborate. Over time, repetitive, high-volume technology work will increasingly be performed by AI agents, freeing Schreiber’s engineers and analysts to focus on work that requires human judgment and creativity. Ascendion’s proprietary Engineering to the Power of AI method and tools will balance work across people and AI to ensure security, privacy, compliance, and ethical alignment.

For Ascendion, the engagement reflects what Chief Executive Officer Karthik Krishnamurthy described as a special kind of responsibility. “Schreiber Foods’ mission is one of the most consequential out there. We are honored to deploy technology that helps Schreiber bring food to people all over the world,” Krishnamurthy said. “Schreiber leaders recognize the impact that can be unlocked by AI-native operations across their global network. It’s a bold vision built on a powerful foundation of success, and we’re thrilled to bring the full power of AI to this partnership.”

Technology is at the core of the partnership. Schreiber has deployed multiple AI tools, and the Ascendion partnership builds on that foundation. Ascendion will leverage AAVA, its proprietary agentic AI platform, to accelerate AI across capability center workflows, drive accelerated decisions on the plant floor, provide stronger traceability across geographies, and lower the technology cost base while increasing operational resilience for the next phase of growth.

“AI is a significant driver of transformation, but its real strength lies in how it empowers our people,” said Sri Kantamneni, Executive Vice President, Chief Information & Digital Officer at Schreiber Foods. “Through this strategic collaboration with Ascendion, we’re equipping our capability centers with AI-native tools that elevate our internal service and operational standards. By giving our employee-partners better, smarter tools to work with, we enable them to focus less on manual processes and more on driving customer success and accelerating our growth.”

“We’re accountable for outcomes, not effort,” added Dharam Gurbani, Chief Growth Officer at Ascendion. “What changes for Schreiber Foods’ plants, customers, and consumers is the only scorecard that matters. Our partnership will re-set expectations for velocity, efficiency, and operational excellence across capability centers in the United States, Mexico, India, Spain, and Poland. We are grateful for the trust Schreiber is putting in Ascendion, and we’re excited to accelerate toward the future.”

To know more about the Schreiber collaboration, click here.

About Schreiber Foods

Schreiber Foods strives to do good through food every day. Based in North America, Schreiber is an employee-owned, customer-brand leader in cream cheese, natural cheese, process cheese, beverages and yogurt. Its more than 10,000 employees and presence on five continents enable Schreiber to be an essential ingredient in its customers’ success. With annual sales of more than $7 billion, Schreiber partners with the best retailers, restaurants, distributors and food manufacturers around the globe. Schreiber also recognizes its responsibility to do good in the world and is driven to make a difference in everything it does.

About Ascendion

Ascendion is an AI-native software engineering company that partners with global enterprises to drive agentic transformation across how they build, modernize, and operate software. AAVA™, Ascendion’s proprietary agentic AI platform, brings expert engineers and AI agents together as one operating model, closing the last mile between ambition and outcome and turning velocity into measurable business results. The result: faster time-to-market and value that compounds over time. Find out more at www.ascendion.com.

Engineering to the Power of AI and AAVA are trademarks or service marks of Ascendion^®. AAVA™ is pending registration. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

YIWU, China, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — An increasing number of content creators from around the world are traveling to Yiwu to explore wholesale markets and host livestream shopping sessions, reflecting the city’s growing role in cross-border e-commerce.

Backed by one of the world’s most comprehensive small commodities supply chains, around-the-clock livestreaming infrastructure and steadily expanding foreign trade, Yiwu is providing creators from China and abroad with new opportunities to monetize content while helping merchants reach overseas consumers.

In July, leading influencers and international student creators from several countries independently launched livestream shopping activities across Yiwu International Trade City eight major markets, demonstrating a business model that is attracting growing participation.

Creators from Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East—including TikTok influencers with followings in the tens of millions, French niche creators and Indian cross-border content producers—have been visiting Yiwu’s wholesale markets to produce short-form videos. Collectively, they reach an audience of more than 40 million followers, while bilingual content generated during these visits has attracted over 10 million views and contributed to a growing number of overseas sourcing inquiries.

Recent campaigns have also produced measurable commercial results. Indonesian livestream host Rami gained more than 80,000 followers within just over 10 days of launching content from the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center. A jewelry merchant featured in her livestreams reported additional revenue of RMB 20,000 to 30,000 per session. In another case, a Malaysian creator generated more than RMB 200,000 in sales during a single livestream featuring a silver jewelry store, prompting the merchant to pursue a longer-term collaboration.

The trend is also gaining traction among Chinese content creators. Over the past two months, more than 300 influencers from a wide range of content categories have independently visited Yiwu’s eight major wholesale markets, touring over 1,370 source manufacturers and wholesale booths. Together, they produced 305 industry-focused videos that generated more than 128 million views and led to over 8,000 verified sourcing inquiries.

The content spans more than 20 of Yiwu’s key manufacturing sectors, including AI-powered devices, collectible toys, beauty products, outdoor equipment, imported home furnishings, fashion accessories and toys.

Yiwu has also expanded its livestreaming ecosystem to better accommodate international audiences.

The Global Digital Trade Center has introduced a “Starlight Livestream” initiative, under which nearly 700 merchants extend their business hours into the early morning to align with peak online shopping hours in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.

The arrangement allows overseas creators to broadcast in real time from wholesale markets while their target audiences are online. Supported by integrated dropshipping services, creators can promote products without maintaining inventory or operating warehouses, while merchants fulfill orders directly. Revenue is generated through commission-based partnerships, allowing both merchants and creators to scale up sales with relatively low upfront costs.

According to participating merchants, collaborations with overseas content creators have helped expand their international customer reach, enabling them to connect directly with overseas buyers through livestreaming without relying solely on overseas trade exhibitions. More than 87% of surveyed merchants said they are interested in establishing long-term partnerships with international creators.

The growth of creator-led cross-border commerce has been supported by Yiwu’s strong foreign trade performance.

In the first half of 2026, the city’s exports reached RMB 420.7 billion, up 17.3% year on year. Cross-border e-commerce transaction value exceeded RMB 100 billion for the first time in a six-month period, an increase of 11.25% from a year earlier. Yiwu’s supply network spans 26 major product categories and more than 2.1 million product lines, enabling merchants to respond quickly to changing market demand.

Yiwu continues to expand its support services for content creators, including free livestreaming venues, multilingual AI-powered editing tools and integrated cross-border logistics solutions, making it easier for overseas creators to establish and operate livestream-based businesses.

The growing number of collaborations between creators and merchants suggests that the combination of localized digital content and Yiwu’s manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem is becoming an increasingly important driver of cross-border e-commerce.

Rather than requiring significant upfront investment, creators can produce localized livestreams and short-form videos from Yiwu’s wholesale markets while relying on the city’s extensive supplier network and dropshipping capabilities. Merchants, in turn, gain greater exposure to overseas consumers and new business opportunities through creator partnerships.

As cross-border e-commerce continues to expand, Yiwu is positioning itself as a hub where manufacturers, merchants and content creators can collaborate within an integrated livestream commerce ecosystem, creating new opportunities for international trade.

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) jointly announce the expansion of the Sustainable Tourism Academy into South Korea with full Korean language support.

The milestone comes as the Academy celebrates its first anniversary and surpasses 3,000 registered users as it continues its mission to support hospitality professionals across the region in building practical knowledge on more sustainable tourism, based on the GSTC Hotel Standard.

Since its launch one year ago, the Sustainable Tourism Academy has become an important resource for hospitality professionals seeking to advance sustainable practices across Asia. With Korean language now available, the Academy further strengthens its ability to serve South Korea’s diverse hospitality sector.

Dr. Mihee Kang, Chief Assurance Officer at GSTC, said: “The Sustainable Tourism Academy’s expansion demonstrates how knowledge-sharing and private sector collaboration can accelerate meaningful transformation. By bringing this training to Korean hospitality professionals, we’re equipping them with the knowledge to lead in more sustainable tourism practices that strengthen South Korea’s market position globally.”

The Academy has collectively reached over 3,500 industry professionals to date through both digital and in-person training programs. Academy users represent a diverse cross-section of the region’s hospitality sector, from professionals at leading global hotel groups like Accor Group, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, and ONYX Hospitality Group, to independent operators and hospitality students from institutions such as the Asian Institute of Hospitality Management.

Alex Park, Country Director for Korea at Agoda, said: “South Korea has established itself as a world-class tourism destination, and a focus on sustainability is essential to maintaining that excellence as the industry continues to evolve. By making the Sustainable Tourism Academy accessible in Korean, Agoda is investing in our partners’ success, empowering them to adopt practices that resonate with global travelers and strengthen their business resilience. This reflects our commitment to supporting long-term growth for our partners and the destinations they serve.”

The Academy now supports seven languages: English, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean. The most popular courses include GSTC Standards & Performance Indicators, GSTC Certification, and Developing a Sustainable Policy and Strategy, reflecting the sector’s strong interest in both foundational sustainability knowledge and practical implementation.

Prospective learners can enroll in the Sustainable Tourism Academy, with courses now available in Korean, at https://sustainabletourismacademy.org/.

TOKYO, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Digital travel platform Agoda and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) jointly announce the expansion of the Sustainable Tourism Academy into the Japanese market with full Japanese language support.

The milestone comes as the Academy celebrates its first anniversary and surpasses 3,000 registered users as it continues its mission to support hospitality professionals across the region in building practical knowledge on more sustainable tourism, based on the GSTC Hotel Standard.

Since its launch one year ago, the Sustainable Tourism Academy has become an important resource for hospitality professionals seeking to advance sustainable practices across Asia. With Japanese language now available, the Academy further strengthens its ability to serve Japan’s diverse hospitality sector.

Dr. Soohyun Kwon, GSTC Senior Research Specialist and Japan Director, said: “Education is the cornerstone of sustainable transformation. This partnership between Agoda and GSTC exemplifies how the private sector can drive meaningful change across Asia. By making world-class sustainable tourism training accessible in Japanese, hospitality professionals now have the resources to lead in more sustainable practices. We’re proud to celebrate this milestone with Agoda and all learners who are part of this journey.”

The Academy has collectively reached over 3,500 industry professionals to date through both digital and in-person training programs. Academy users represent a diverse cross-section of the region’s hospitality sector, from professionals at leading global hotel groups like Accor Group, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, and ONYX Hospitality Group, to independent operators and hospitality students from institutions such as the Asian Institute of Hospitality Management.

Tadashi Ikai, Senior Country Director, Agoda International Japan, said: “Japan’s tourism industry is a vital pillar of the nation’s economy, and upskilling more sustainable practices is key to its future growth. By making the Sustainable Tourism Academy accessible in Japanese, Agoda is committed to supporting our partners—from major brands to family-run businesses—in building more sustainable practices that will strengthen Japan’s global reputation as a responsible travel destination. This initiative reflects our responsibility to the communities and environments that make Japan beautiful.”

The Academy now supports seven languages: English, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean. The most popular courses include GSTC Standards & Performance Indicators, GSTC Certification, and Developing a Sustainable Policy and Strategy, reflecting the sector’s strong interest in both foundational sustainability knowledge and practical implementation.

Prospective learners can enroll in the Sustainable Tourism Academy, with courses now available in Japanese, at https://sustainabletourismacademy.org/.

SHANGHAI, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — From voice calls to intelligent interaction, from music enjoyment to vlog creation, audio is no longer mere signal processing — it has become the invisible infrastructure of the digital era. As user expectations for sound that is “clear, authentic, and immersive” continue to rise, audio technology is moving from behind the scenes to center stage.

As a leading force in mobile chipsets, UNISOC is leveraging UNISOC Lyric Audio technology to deepen its capabilities across four major scenarios — calling, interaction, playback, and recording — making sound a digital bond that connects, heals, and empowers creation.

Device-Edge AI Intelligent Voice: A More Natural Voice Interaction Experience

The device-edge AI intelligent voice capability of UNISOC Lyric Audio builds a complete on-device pipeline spanning wake-up, recognition, and understanding. Built on this technology framework, voice capabilities are deployed deeply on the device itself — from voice wake-up and voiceprint recognition to speech recognition and semantic understanding, all completed locally. This reduces reliance on the cloud and delivers an always-responsive, stable, and reliable interaction experience.

Specifically, the full-pipeline low-power voice wake-up technology adopts a software-hardware co-design to achieve ultra-low-power standby wake-up, keeping the device “always ready.”

Voiceprint recognition precisely matches the user’s voiceprint features against the enrolled voiceprint, providing localized protection for identity authentication and effectively reducing the risk of privacy leakage.

The command word recognition engine responds rapidly to basic voice commands, with recognition accuracy at an industry-leading level.

On-device automatic speech recognition (ASR) completes recognition processing without uploading voice data to the cloud, significantly reducing dependence on the network.

Lightweight natural language understanding (NLP) intelligently classifies user voice intents and accurately extracts key information from complex commands. It currently supports 400 common expressions across six core control scenarios, including music, brightness, and volume, helping terminal devices upgrade to a safer, more natural, and lower-latency voice interaction experience.

AI All-Scenario Noise Reduction: Clearer Voice, Purer Communication

AI all-scenario noise reduction covers all service scenarios, including cellular calls, VoIP, and recording. It innovatively offers multi-tier solutions — lightweight AI voice enhancement, flagship AI vocal prominence, and AI voiceprint noise reduction — flexibly matching terminal requirements from mainstream to flagship.

Among them, the lightweight AIECNR 1.0/2.0 solution is deployed on a dedicated audio ADSP chip, tackling everyday environmental noise with extremely low power consumption and latency. Combining AI noise reduction with echo suppression, it effectively overcomes the echo cancellation challenge in double-talk scenarios and has been validated in mass production in multiple leading customer projects.

For more demanding requirements, the flagship AI vocal prominence solution supports both cellular calls and VoIP scenarios with echo and noise reduction capabilities. It delivers stronger suppression of complex noises such as road noise and tapping sounds, significantly improving voice restoration quality in noisy environments such as subways and shopping malls — making voices stand out and communication clearer.

AI voiceprint noise reduction leverages enrolled voiceprint information and neural network capabilities to precisely separate and enhance the target speaker’s voice from mixed audio, effectively filtering out ambient noise and other people’s voices.

Built on UNISOC’s software-hardware co-designed platform capabilities, AI all-scenario noise reduction ensures that users always enjoy clear voice and pure communication across every scenario.

AI Voice Communication Enhancement: Smooth Communication Even in Weak-Network Scenarios

For extreme weak-network scenarios such as satellite communication, off-grid communication, and emergency rescue, UNISOC integrates two core capabilities — AI Codec (AI-powered codec) and AI PLC (AI packet loss concealment) — to ensure smooth and clear calls even in the most challenging environments.

AI Codec intelligent voice coding/decoding technology introduces AI generative reconstruction, breaking through the bandwidth limits of traditional voice codecs and achieving equivalent voice quality at only 30% of the bitrate of conventional solutions. In satellite communication scenarios, it effectively compensates for severe signal attenuation caused by mountain obstruction, cloud cover, and building blockage. In terrestrial off-grid communication scenarios, AI Codec significantly extends communication range at equivalent voice quality compared with traditional codec solutions, and greatly improves connection rates and call quality in extreme long-range conditions.

Meanwhile, AI PLC intelligent packet loss concealment targets all kinds of weak-network scenarios — whether fluctuating satellite links, the edge of off-grid communication range, or weak cellular signals. When network instability causes voice data loss, it predicts and reconstructs the missing voice segments in real time, keeping speech natural and continuous, without stuttering or interruption.

Together, AI Codec and AI PLC form an end-to-end voice communication enhancement technology with dual weak-network resilience — “ultra-low-bitrate transmission plus intelligent packet loss concealment.” It can widely serve critical scenarios such as field exploration, ocean operations, mountain rescue, and extreme-weather emergency response, enabling users in remote or critical environments to enjoy a reliable, clear, and uninterrupted voice communication experience.

AI Ultrasonic Fused Proximity Sensing: Accidental-Touch Prevention During Calls, Redefining Value with Chips

AI ultrasonic fused proximity sensing reuses the phone’s earpiece and microphone to transmit and receive customized high-frequency ultrasound, and fuses real-time sensor data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and more. During calls and VoIP scenarios, it accurately determines the relative position between the phone and the user’s face, intelligently turning the screen on and off. This solution not only delivers an experience upgrade featuring a hole-free design, strong interference resistance, and high precision, but also further optimizes terminal costs:

• Hole-free integrated design: supports hole-free full-screen solutions, increases the screen-to-body ratio, and gives the device a cleaner, purer appearance;
• Superior environmental interference resistance: operates reliably even under complex conditions such as strong ambient light or a smudged screen;
• Precise and responsive, free from false triggers: ultrasound combined with motion and posture recognition effectively reduces the probability of false screen on/off judgments;
• Ultimate cost optimization: hardware reuse reduces dependence on additional components, allows more flexible screen selection, and strengthens the terminal’s cost advantage.

This feature is about to enter mass production on the T7300 platform. Leveraging the platform’s powerful software-hardware co-design capabilities, the solution offers end-to-end advantages of high integration, low power consumption, and easy deployment.

Diverse Audio Scenarios: A Complete All-Scenario Solution

Beyond the core technologies above, UNISOC Lyric Audio also delivers leading capabilities across diverse scenarios, including wireless audio, audio recording, audio playback, and gaming audio.

• For wireless audio, the solution is capable of Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification and supports wireless audio transmission, spatial audio characteristic tuning, and Bluetooth LE Audio;
• For audio recording, in addition to noise reduction, it provides an integrated audio-visual solution that includes HDR recording, Audio Zoom, and Audio Focus;
• For audio playback, it supports end-to-end playback algorithms covering high-volume output, speaker control, and other technologies;
• For gaming audio, it supports customer customization needs, offering a complete solution that includes in-game AI voice enhancement, gaming sound effects, a low-latency gaming audio path, and intelligent gaming power management.

Built on UNISOC’s integrated software-hardware audio platform, UNISOC Lyric Audio has established four core technologies — AI all-scenario noise reduction, device-edge AI intelligent voice, AI voice communication enhancement, and AI ultrasonic fused proximity sensing — together with a complete all-scenario solution covering recording, playback, and gaming audio.

Going forward, UNISOC Lyric Audio will continue to advance its AI audio capabilities, evolving the audio experience from “clear and pleasant” toward “intelligent perception, natural interaction, and all-scenario adaptation,” bringing users a smarter and more immersive next-generation audio experience.

Note: The data in this article comes from UNISOC laboratories.