Over thirty companies worldwide represented at BSF meeting -- At its first meeting, the members of the Broadband Services Forum (BSF) set the direction of the group�s future initiatives. Project work on IPTV and dynamic and interactive services such as gaming and video were given top priority by a poll of the meeting�s attendees. Content-to-go was another area on which the BSF membership wanted to focus. These areas will top the BSF�s agenda in 2005. The input from a membership representing diverse industry segments within the broadband market is one of the greatest strengths of the BSF. �As the only industry group that represents the interests of service providers, content providers and technology vendors, the BSF is a unique position to address the profitable new services that are critical to all of these stakeholders,� said BSF Chairman Derek Kuhn. The keynote The Promise of IP Television was delivered by Amy Friedlander, SVP of Programming at SBC. In her presentation, Friedlander shared SBC�s services vision, and provided valuable insights into how service providers and their partners can work together to define and monetize new services.
For decades, the story of digital commerce has been one of incremental improvement: better search, faster checkout, smarter recommendations. But something more fundamental is now underway. The emergence of agentic commerce, in which AI agents autonomously search, evaluate, and execute purchases on behalf of buyers, represents a genuine architectural shift in how commerce operates. Whether it becomes the revolution its proponents promise, or another technology that peaks at interesting pilot project, will depend on how effectively the AI industry addresses the structural challenges it faces. Agentic Commerce Market Development Agentic commerce involves deploying AI agents to handle the full purchasing cycle. Rather than browsing a website and entering card details yourself, you grant an AI agent the authority to act on your behalf, within defined parameters. The agent handles product discovery, comparison, negotiation, and payment execution. It draws on your procurement preferences, pur...