News In Brief

Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from Oct 5 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.

Dell Expands AI Data Platform

Perth, Oct 7: Dell Technologies has added new features to its AI Data Platform, designed to help businesses give AI agents more reliable answers drawn from their own data.
Dell says the main obstacle to using AI at scale is usually a company’s data rather than the AI model, because most business information was never organised for machines to read.
The new features include a Unified Semantic Layer, which makes sure terms such as “client” and “account” mean the same thing across systems, and an Enterprise Knowledge Graph that maps how different pieces of data relate. Knowledge Agents, each focused on a single topic, then use that context to answer questions within rules set by the customer.
Dell also says its data processing engine, running on NVIDIA GPUs, handles data nearly four times faster on average than CPUs alone, and its PowerScale storage now supports up to 500 tenants in one cluster.

Aussies Fib On Home Insurance

Perth, Oct 8: More than one in five Australians with home insurance have left out or exaggerated information when taking out or renewing their policy, according to new research from comparison site Finder.
Finder’s 2026 Household Report, based on 631 respondents with a current home insurance policy surveyed in August, found 22 per cent had bent the truth to save money.
Home security was the most common fib, with 10 per cent admitting to fudging details about alarms, locks or security cameras. Nine per cent had misrepresented the value of their home or contents, and another 9 per cent claimed DIY repairs or renovations had been done by a licensed tradie.
Seven per cent were less than truthful about whether their property sat in a bushfire, flood or cyclone zone, while 6 per cent lied about the age or construction of their home.
Finder insurance expert Ceyda Erem warned the savings could come at a steep cost.
“A small saving on your premium isn’t worth it if inaccurate details give your insurer grounds to reduce or deny a claim just when you need their help most.”
She urged homeowners to shop around instead.
“Look for a more competitive policy with the right level of cover instead, because saving money should never mean gambling with your home.”
Most Australians (74 per cent) said they had always given accurate information.

Managers Want Humans Overseeing AI

Perth, Oct 8: Middle managers are almost twice as likely as executives to want a human involved when artificial intelligence resolves IT issues that could affect security, data or business operations, new global research from TeamViewer has found.
The digital workplace provider’s study found 46 per cent of middle managers wanted human oversight in those situations, compared with 24 per cent of executive leaders, pointing to a disconnect between the people closest to AI-driven work and those setting strategy.
Security, privacy and risk concerns were the most commonly cited barrier to AI adoption among IT decision-makers, named by 45 per cent.
Nearly a third of workers (30 per cent) listed security risks or unauthorised access among their biggest worries about AI acting without a human in the loop. That figure rose to 33 per cent among middle and senior managers but fell to 23 per cent among executives.
“Security cannot be added after autonomy is introduced. The more authority an AI system has, the more important it is that its actions are transparent and that clear boundaries define when human approval is required,” said TeamViewer chief information security officer Jan Bee.
Attitudes also varied by industry, with 49 per cent of workers in energy, utilities, and oil and gas wanting human involvement, compared with 28 per cent in marketing, media and communications.
In Australia, 74 per cent of workers said they were more likely to trust AI when it showed what it was doing and why, while 55 per cent said they did not always know when to trust AI and when to verify its output.
Accountability also remained murky, with only 52 per cent of Australian workers saying it was clear who was responsible when autonomous systems made mistakes.
“Here in Australia, employees are not opposed to AI taking on more responsibility, but they want confidence that the right safeguards are in place,” said TeamViewer ANZ country manager Tristan Ohlenrott.

Dell Unveils AI-Powered XPS Laptop

Perth, Oct 8: Dell Technologies has unveiled the XPS 16 Creator Edition, the first laptop in its XPS range to run on NVIDIA’s RTX Spark chip, as part of an expanded line-up of Windows PCs built for agentic AI.
Developed with NVIDIA and Microsoft, the laptop is aimed at creators and developers who want to run large AI models on their own machine rather than in the cloud.
The RTX Spark superchip combines an NVIDIA Blackwell graphics processor, a Grace CPU and up to 128GB of shared memory in a chassis 17.8mm thin. Dell says the shared memory lets users work with large 3D scenes, 8K video timelines and AI models that would overwhelm a conventional laptop.
The laptop features a 3.2K tandem OLED display, and supports creative apps including Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and DaVinci Resolve, as well as AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor.
Dell also announced its Dell Pro Precision with GB300, a deskside AI supercomputer, will be available on Windows, letting businesses run demanding AI workloads without moving to Linux. The machine can run AI models of up to one trillion parameters locally.
“AI is no longer something you build in the cloud and deploy later. It runs continuously, makes decisions and connects directly to the work people do every day,” said Rob Bruckner, president of client devices at Dell Technologies.
The XPS 16 Creator Edition will be available from mid-October, while the Dell Pro Precision with GB300 on Windows is coming soon. Australian pricing has not been announced.

11:11 buys IBM VMware customers

Perth, Oct 9: Managed infrastructure provider 11:11 Systems has acquired select enterprise customers from IBM’s VMware Cloud Service Provider business. The terms were not disclosed.
The deal is 11:11’s eighth VMware-related purchase and its eleventh acquisition overall. The company bills itself as the largest privately held VMware Cloud Service Provider partner in the world.
It comes as Broadcom reshapes its VMware Cloud Service Provider partner program. 11:11 has positioned itself as the platform of choice for providers looking to move their customers elsewhere.
“Enterprises today are crossing the Rubicon into a new era of cloud, containers and private AI, and the path forward requires both fortitude and practical guidance,” said 11:11 Systems chief executive Brett Diamond.
The acquisition extends the company’s reach across North America, EMEA, APAC and South America, and adds to its capacity to handle complex enterprise migrations.
11:11 has previously bought seven VMware-based businesses: iland Cloud, Green Cloud Defense, Unitas Global, Sungard Availability Services, Faction, Ntirety and Digital Sense.
“11:11 Systems is a partner that reflects our model. With a global platform, extensive VMware experience, more than 6,000 customers and a portfolio spanning cloud, connectivity and security, they are well positioned to support enterprise customers as they modernise critical workloads utilising VMware Cloud Foundation,” said Ram Velaga, president of Broadcom’s Infrastructure Software Group.

Smart Communications expands AI migration

Perth, Oct 9: Customer engagement technology provider Smart Communications has expanded its AI-assisted migration services. The move is aimed at helping regulated enterprises cut the cost of legacy communications systems and get ready to adopt AI.
Organisations in insurance, financial services, healthcare and government often run several communications systems built up over decades of growth and acquisitions. Consolidating them can cut cost and complexity, but the expense and disruption of migrating often hold those plans back.
According to IDC, 57 per cent of organisations still rely on legacy technology to create, manage and deliver customer communications. Meanwhile, 64 per cent are producing at least 20 per cent more communications than a year ago.
Smart Communications’ service uses AI to analyse an organisation’s existing documents and find duplication, then produces a prioritised modernisation plan. An AI conversion engine turns legacy documents into reusable templates, and customers review and approve every conversion with the company’s migration experts.
“Most enterprises know where they need to go. The difficult part is the journey,” said Heidi Johnson, chief product and technology officer at Smart Communications.
IDC research director Amy Machado said faster migrations were changing the market.
“AI-assisted template reconstruction is cutting migration timelines, which means switching costs — long the biggest moat in this market — are eroding. That’s good news for buyers and a wake-up call for incumbents.”
The release you pasted still has draft comment markers in it ([JK1], [YF2], [CN3]), and the IDC footnote (¹) has no source attached. If you’d like to name the IDC report the figures come from, ask the PR contact for it.

Grand Final Lifts Online Footy Spending

Perth, Oct 9: Online spending on footy merchandise, snacks and backyard barbecue gear rose over the NRL Grand Final weekend, according to Adobe Digital Insights.
Online traffic for NRL team merchandise was up 37 per cent on the same weekend last year, and 158 per cent above average August levels.
Fans also stocked up for watch parties. Compared with August, online spending rose on pizza (28 per cent), sausages and beef patties (26 per cent), corn chips and dip (23 per cent), beer (18 per cent) and soft drinks (5 per cent).
Spending on screens was 17 per cent above August levels, led by TVs (21 per cent), projectors (12 per cent) and streaming devices (11 per cent).
Hosts also spent more on outdoor barbecues, grills and smokers (up 29 per cent) and small kitchen appliances (up 33 per cent). Spending on cleaning supplies such as vacuums, mops and brooms rose 26 per cent.
Adobe tracks hundreds of millions of transactions and visits to Australian retail sites each month.
I left out the MND search spike because Adobe gave no reason for it, and the Firefly prompts because they promote Adobe’s own product. If Adobe explains the MND figure, it could go in as a final line.