After two months of sharp improvement, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index has registered a small gain this month with a reading of 79.6. However, that's 6% below the index's historical average following an inflation surge that ballooned the prices of many necessities.

In a significant escalation of hostilities in the troubled Red Sea region, a UK-registered cargo ship has been damaged by Yemen's Houthi rebels and is said to be at risk of sinking. As a result of the regional disruption, weekly toll revenues through the Suez canal have fallen 40% to $28 million since November, according to freight management firm Veson Nautical.

Distributors need to track certain metrics -- including revenue, sales performance, customer scorecards and inventory -- to expand their business, but real growth only happens when insights lead to action, writes Helen Pina, vice president of distribution software firm White Cup. Incorporating AI tools into customer relationship management and business intelligence software can help distributors take strategic action based on metric data, including creating marketing campaigns, order management and sales forecasting, Pina writes.

Because of the many stakeholders involved in a supply chain, communication and oversight can get lost in the various stages, which calls for "an intelligent software orchestration layer," such as RFID technology, robotics and AI, says GreyOrange CEO Akash Gupta. Digital payment is also on the rise, with 31% of retailers investing in upgrading that technology, according to a report from PYMNTS and Corcentric.

More businesses are turning to artificial intelligence tools to make their companies more efficient and productive, experts say. AI is being used to hire, to better understand customer needs and improve everyday tasks.

Marketers can yield higher returns on content efforts without dipping deeper into their pockets by following advice from marketing expert Penny Gralewski. Among Gralewski's nine tips are reevaluating your "customer journey map internally to ensure everything still works," and finding individuals in different departments to help craft your content.

Digital ad spending will increase by 13.2% and social media ad spending by 13.5% as part of an overall 9.7% global rise in ad spending this year, Insider Intelligence predicts. The research firm also forecasts that retail media will make up more than 50% of search ad growth.

Though many major US-based companies have taken college degrees off their required qualifications list on job postings, those companies aren't following through with hiring workers without degrees, according to a new report. About 60% of the US workforce does not have college degrees, and this report looks at which companies are still hiring the same people as before.

Technology -- from email to remote meetings -- can be a source of stress for employees, but when used correctly, those same communication tools can ease that stress when they're used to develop training and conflict resolution programs and processes, writes Edward Beltran, the CEO of global leadership development and training company Fierce. "When it comes to reducing burnout and increasing employee well-being, getting to the true root of stress must play a fundamental role in any solution," Beltran writes.

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