It Pros Weigh In On Ai’s Role In Coding: Doing More Of What They Hate The Most

Instead of writing code, programmers complain they now have to proof one written by artificial intelligence (AI). As the New York Times aptly put it, many feel like bystanders to their own job. I decided to run a quick vox populi to see what coders actually think about the so-called vibe coding. Funnily enough, those developers who use AI almost every time to write code were the same ones whose answers I couldn’t use because they were written by AI. Having rejected those, I was left with a dozen decent answers, and this article is based on my correspondence with experienced developers who leverages AI in everyday tasks, and seemingly have strong opinions about doing so. How often do developers have to check AI-written code? Every developer quoted in this article deals with AI-written code. The scope of it differs, but all of them agree you need to stay sharp when using AI if you don’t want to end up cleaning its messes later. “Nowadays, I’m more of a code editor than a coder myself. I review AI-generated code daily as if reviewing someone else’s pull request,” Holger Sindbaek, Founder and Developer at World of Card Games, told Cybernews. While most developers say they always check the AI-written code as it is “too risky” to trust AI output, some seemingly don’t bother. And here’s why. “I generally only need to proofread AI-generated code when it throws errors. That is very rare these days, usually for very recent API changes that the model isn’t trained on yet. It’s amazing how rapidly AI has evolved to need much less oversight and correction,” Derrek Coleman, Developer Relations Lead at Recall Labs, said. Cursor, the AI code editor, is one of the tools that came up a lot. Developers also mentioned GitHub Copilot, and some custom GPTs they use to vibe-code. Do developers prefer code-proofing to code-writing?  To read what Ilia Badeev, Head of Data Science at Trevolution Group, shared with Cybernews, click here.

Over-promised And Under-delivered: The NDC Problem

Oojo.com CEO, Gulce Karsli Rozenveld, speaks to Travel Monitor, offering a frank take on the state of NDC from a frontline perspective. This op-ed sheds light on why standardisation (not just innovation) is the real missing link, the reason why booking rates via NDC remain under 20 per cent and the technical chaos OTAs face when connecting to airline NDC content. Airlines make bold claims about NDC, but behind the scenes, there is a lot of mess. As an OTA, we navigate constant chaos and inconsistencies, and at the end of the day, it’s us who absorb the extra costs and inefficiencies. It’s time for the industry to call out the overpromised future. Airlines have long touted NDC as a game-changer. Two promises were made: first, that dynamic pricing will lead to better results and increased sales; and second, that airlines will soon offer a complete and standardized way of delivering fares and extra services via NDC. The reality is a bit dimmer, garnished with a bitter taste of technical problems. No matter how much effort we invest in the OTA side, the road is plagued with many technical challenges for each and every airline content we want to sell on NDC, so we often resort to ignoring the content altogether. The second claim has been that airlines will soon offer a complete and standardized way of delivering fares and extra services via NDC. What we see, however, is far from standard: setups vary wildly from one carrier to another; no two integrations work alike. It becomes clear pretty quickly that each airline has built its own version of this new system, which means that even when we use an aggregator, we and the aggregators must still perform special adjustments for each airline. The promised uniformity is nowhere in sight. Continue reading here.

2 Things Senior Travelers Want

As 70-year-old San Francisco-based Homer prepares for his yearly trip to Manila to meet Philippine-based family members and devour his favorite kare-kare, he joins over 137 million 60 plus travelers worldwide, many of whom journey each year to reconnect with loved ones and rediscover the comforts of home. With seniors now accounting for a significant share of long-haul travel driven by more time, disposable income, and a deep desire to reconnect, senior visiting friends and relatives (VFR) voyagers are now redefining its landscape. According to the latest data from Trevolution Group, the share of VFR travel has surged significantly in recent years, particularly among senior travelers. Since early 2020, the demand has been growing steadily, with a major increase in the 65+ age group, while from 2021 to 2023, this momentum showed over double the increase. Although they usually don’t engage in typical tourist activities and most likely remain in a single location within the destination country, VFR travelers can still be a significant boost to their hometown economy. This type of travel, often labelled as “leisure”, is the most resilient and accounts for up to 48% of global tourists, and the numbers are only growing; only this segment has been underappreciated, and the industry often falls short of meeting the needs of mature globetrotters.  Some call the VFR “a sleeping giant” of the travel industry. For Homer, booking his trips starts with a phone call because, as he says, “things are easier this way.” “I don’t trust screens,” Homer explains. “Back in the day, we didn’t talk to computers — we talked to people. And I insist on keeping it that way.” This pretty much sums up the expectations of 65+ travelers: the simpler, the better. Continue reading here.

11 Surprisingly Affordable Vacation Destinations

The financial uncertainties of tariffs, trade wars and roller coaster stock prices have prompted many Americans to cut spending. But while dining out, home improvements and other non-essential purchases are taking a hit, demand for international travel is surprisingly showing no signs of weakening. Executives from Delta and United airlines report that international bookings from U.S. customers are ahead of last year, and the most recent Portrait of American Travelers from MMGY Global, a travel and hospitality marketing company, indicates the highest interest in travel abroad since 2020. MMGY also notes that, in response to economic concerns, more people are considering bookings during shoulder seasons — windows of time between peak and off-peak travel periods, typically March through May and September through November, when air fares, hotel room rates and other travel costs are generally lower. As budget travelers living on Social Security incomes, this is a favorite strategy of ours, too. In addition to saving money, shoulder seasons are when crowds thin out and the weather is typically fabulous. One of our best money-saving hacks is often overlooked when planning travel. We search for countries with currencies that are struggling versus the U.S. dollar. In these places your money goes a lot further. If the country is generally inexpensive as well, all the better. The challenge is keeping up with shifting global currency valuations. For example, we were able to spend months in Argentina two years ago because our dollars were worth double the official exchange rate. Today that margin has almost vanished. We reached out to travel experts to find out where to get the most bang for your bucks in 2025. Get ready to expand your horizons and stretch your travel dollars with this eclectic collection of countries that span the globe. Click here to read the recommendations from Mercedes Zach of ASAP Tickets, an online travel agency based in Delaware.

AI Coding Assistants Give Big-Tech Powers to Small Businesses 

Small businesses are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI)-powered coding assistants to slash their technology development expenses while maintaining competitive digital capabilities, according to industry practitioners. AI coding assistants are tools based on large language models to generate code, fix bugs and more. They enable smaller teams to do tasks that would cost a lot more and require additional engineers. They also cut development time for businesses to bring products to market faster. “The game has changed with the advent of AI coding tools, particularly for small firms,” Lei Gao, CTO of social engagement platform SleekFlow, told PYMNTS. “They don’t need an entire engineering team anymore because now they can save money and time too by developing apps, trying out new frameworks or automating procedures.” That’s the experience of Mike Stone, co-founder of customer web and mobile development firm The Gnar Company, whose clients include the state of Massachusetts, Grubhub and AARP. “One senior developer with the right toolchain now delivers what used to take a small team,” Stone told PYMNTS. Small businesses recognize the benefits of AI. According to a recent survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, nearly all (98%) small businesses are using an AI-enabled tool, and for good reason. However,  Ilia Badeev, head of data science at the Trevolution Group, told PYMNTS that non-technical folks using AI coding tools can only go so far. “It is quite difficult to write a fully functional solution that will scale and continue to develop at the level of large tech companies without engineering skills or experience in industrial software development.” Continue reading here.

Phishing the Mind: Why Spam Outsmarts People, Not Technology

When you open your email platform, one thing it surely doesn’t scream of is “danger”. But over the years, what began as a primary channel for communication across individuals, businesses, and governments has become an open invitation for abuse. Today, spam emails have grown from being just a nuisance to becoming an entry point for fraud, extortion, espionage, and economic disruption. Email-based attacks are now more personal, more convincing, and more likely to succeed. According to VIPRE’s Q1 2025 Email Threat Trends Report, what makes them so dangerous is not their technical complexity, but their ability to trick people. The United States has become both the top sender and recipient of these malicious campaigns. VIPRE’s data shows that 57% of global spam originated from US infrastructure, and a staggering 75% of the world’s malicious emails ended up in American inboxes. We look at what new tricks are helping threat actors weaponize the email system, and how to catch them. A recent scan of over 1.45 billion emails in the first quarter of 2025 by cybersecurity company VIPRE revealed that about 92% were spam. Nearly 70% of those spam emails carried malicious intent, such as phishing, scams, or malware. That scale of threat is not isolated when you consider that SlashNext’s report recorded a 202% rise in email-based attacks in 2024 alone. VIPRE’s findings show that this wave of malicious email is no longer built around complex payloads, but instead focuses on manipulating the minds of recipients.

Continue reading here to find out why hacking the human mind is now an easier target than breaching security checkpoints, explained by Ilia Badeev, Head of Data Science at Trevolution Group.

Trevolution Group Adds New Hotel Booking Service

Unlocking exclusive accommodation discounts for travellers. Trevolution Group, which operates multiple global travel brands such as ASAP Tickets, Skylux Travel, Dreamport, Oojo, and others, has introduced a new business segment dedicated to hotel bookings.  Powered by AI-enabled provider ZentrumHub, the next-generation solution aims to enhance the overall travel experience by providing cost-effective accommodation options for the Group’s customers purchasing flights and travel packages with significant savings on all hotel stays. Initially specialising in airline ticketing, Trevolution Group is now further expanding its travel services to include accommodations across the most popular tourist destinations available through multiple B2B and B2C distribution channels. The new hotel booking feature will ensure convenience for a wide range of travellers able to access discounted hotels independently through the all-in-one Dreampass mobile app.  It will also be available as a standalone white-label digital service across ASAP Tickets, Skylux Travel, Oojo, and Vagamo travel brands, integrated into each platform to enhance user experience and broaden customer access. A dedicated internal web portal will support the Group’s travel agent teams globally, enabling them to offer and instantly book hotel stays for their call-to-book clients even more efficiently.  On top of that, a wide selection of hotels will also be available forTriplicity corporate clients, providing a secure, affordable, and seamless booking experience for business travelers worldwide. Continue reading here.

Openai Teams Up With Legendary Apple Exec

OpenAI recently revealed a major acquisition that shocked members of the tech community. The artificial intelligence (AI) startup has been in full focus lately after abandoning its plan to switch to a for-profit structure. This development is regarded as a win for Elon Musk, one of the company’s founders, who had advocated strongly against this change, to the point of taking legal action. Last week, the company took a significant step forward when it revealed Codex, a software engineering agent with the ability to perform many complex tasks at the same time. Experts have speculated that this event is likely to help usher in a new era of agentic coding tools. However, OpenAI’s most recent deal shows that it is hyper-focused on expanding its reach into new areas. This comes at a pivotal time for the tech sector, as rivals both large and small are working toward similar goals. Anyone who follows tech news, or just CEO Sam Altman’s X account, knows that OpenAI’s team has been extremely busy lately, rolling out Codex and continuing to scale as GPT’s user base continues to grow. But this week brought news that the startup will be acquiring an AI device startup called io in a $6.5 billion all-stock deal. At first glance, this may not seem like groundbreaking news. After all, prominent tech companies acquire startups all the time. But this acquisition took the tech world by storm because OpenAI’s new deal will add a highly influential figure to its team, someone who knows about helping take companies to new heights. Click here to read what Ilia Badeev, Head of Data Science at Trevolution Group, had to share.

Contact Center Automation: What It Is and Why It Matters

From self-service to sentiment analysis, this guide covers the benefits, challenges and top platforms in contact center automation. Contact center automation is transforming how businesses manage customer interactions by optimizing repetitive tasks, improving agent efficiency and enhancing customer experiences. From intelligent call routing to real-time analytics, call center automation takes advantage of advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning to reduce manual workloads and deliver faster, more consistent service. Modern call center automation software enables businesses to automate everything from routine inquiries to post-call follow-ups, freeing agents to focus on more complex, high-value conversations.

This article examines how contact center automation works, its key benefits and use cases, what to look for in automation software, and how businesses can effectively adopt it. The Business Research Company’s 2025 CCaaS Global Market Report revealed that the global Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) market is experiencing significant growth. Valued at $6.7 billion in 2024, it’s projected to reach $16.06 billion by 2029. Businesses have long recognized that customer service is central to the overall experience—and are rapidly adopting new technologies to enhance it.

Click here to read what Ilia Badeev,head of data science at Trevolution Group, told CMSWire.

Product or Feature? A Key AI Debate Could Leave CIO Strategies in Limbo

Many AI products will end up being built into other software or platforms, making it easier for CIOs to navigate the constantly changing marketplace. Until then, due diligence is vital. The rapidly evolving AI ecosystem, where new products and services seem to appear daily, presents CIOs and IT purchasing leaders with increasingly challenging decisions, in part because of uncertainty about where the AI market may ultimately be headed. One major debate, with implications for CIOs and IT buyers, is whether AI will primarily be a product or a feature after the AI market sorts itself out. On the one side are AI pure-plays offering niche and often task- or industry-specific point solutions, as well as AI generalists such as OpenAI, Meta, and Google, whose standalone large language models (LLMs) can be integrated with other IT systems. On the other side, IT vendors such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and many cybersecurity providers are rapidly adding AI features to enhance and transform their core products. A third option, where end-user companies build their own AI tools, seems to be seems to be imperiled, at least for now, by a huge majority of AI proof-of-concept projects failing. Click here to read what Gulce Karsli-Rozenveld, CEO of the online flight booking service Oojo, has to share.