SoftBank to Launch Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 in Japan on September 25
SoftBank is set to roll out the new Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 in Japan on September 25, giving Meta Platforms another distribution channel for its AI-powered smart glasses. The Japanese carrier has been steadily expanding its smart-glasses business, becoming the country's first mobile network operator to sell Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses in June and enlarging its Meta glasses assortment again in August. Alongside the Gen 3 launch, SoftBank will also add Meta Glasses by LISA to its lineup. The wider retail and carrier availability matters to Meta because smart glasses are a prominent piece of its push to extend artificial intelligence beyond smartphones and PCs, and could help it gauge whether AI-powered wearables can become a substantial consumer hardware category. Meta shares closed up 4.5% at $777.59 on Thursday, while SoftBank Group's U.S.-listed shares slumped 7.6%.
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Workday Launches AI-Powered Total Benefits Platform
Workday, Inc. has launched Total Benefits, a new artificial intelligence-powered solution that brings employees' health, financial and wellbeing programs together in one place. The platform combines four key capabilities: Workday Wellness, Benefits Guidance through Self-Service Agent, Life and Money Solutions, and Benefits Administration Services. Workday Wellness provides HR and benefits leaders real-time insights into program usage, performance and costs, and early adopters reported a 75% reduction in the time needed to onboard new providers. The services include AI-powered Benefits Guidance through Self-Service Agent, which helps employees compare plans, enroll in coverage, add dependents and update beneficiaries, while the platform also offers financial services such as earned wage access, direct deposit and employment and income verification. Through Benefits Administration Services, partners including Strada and Benefit Harbor help HR teams with plan setup, system migration and ongoing administration. Workday faces competition from Oracle Corporation and Automatic Data Processing, Inc., both of which are expanding their own enterprise AI capabilities.
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Salesforce Q2 Earnings Beat, Fiscal 2027 Revenue Outlook Raised
Salesforce reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings of $5.90 per share, up 102.7% year over year and beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 80.43%, while revenues rose 10.8% to $11.35 billion. The company raised its fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.10-$46.40 billion from $45.90-$46.20 billion, a $200 million increase, or $300 million in constant currency, reflecting $100 million of organic growth and $200 million tied to the pending Contentful and Fin acquisitions, partly offset by a $100 million foreign-exchange headwind. Salesforce also lifted its fiscal 2027 non-GAAP earnings outlook to $16.67-$16.71 per share from $14.06-$14.12, with non-GAAP operating margin guidance unchanged at 34.3%. For the third quarter of fiscal 2027, the company expects revenues of $11.42-$11.50 billion, implying 11%-12% year-over-year growth, and non-GAAP earnings of $3.42-$3.44 per share. Agentforce and Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210% year over year, and the company returned $364 million through dividends during the quarter while continuing its $25 billion accelerated share repurchase program.
