(NewsUSA) - As self-driving vehicles continue to extend their reach onto the roads, the United States is at risk of losing its leadership in this key area, according to a new report from the Special Competitive Studies Project, a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

Specifically, scaling of AVs will affect the development of autonomous systems with other industrial applications including industrial robotics, smart infrastructure, and dual-use military systems, and components and cars are increasingly sourced from China, according to the report.

The SCSP’s Tech Scorecard Series, which evaluates national competitiveness across five categories, broke down the current status of the AV industry and where countries stand in the latest report, “The Autonomous Vehicle Crossroads,” with the following results:

Innovation Leadership. In terms of AV, the United States maintains dominance in this area, with cars that set the global gold standard for safety and reliability. The U.S. also maintains a lead in software development, especially in the areas of vision-language-action (VLA) models.

Industrial Capacity. Based on recent data, China dominates the physical layer of AV by maintaining complete control of both the supply chain components and vehicle manufacturing capacity. China also controls approximately 90% of the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing technology used in autonomous vehicles.

Market Ecosystem. The U.S. and China are essentially tied in terms of global funding for AV. Although the U.S. AV industry maintains the largest share, China’s aggressive approach to globalization has fueled growth with mass deployment.

Talent Pipeline. China currently produces significantly more engineering graduates with AV-relevant skills, and is integrating more intelligent vehicle curricula into its university system. The U.S. cannot currently match this focused pipeline and struggles to compete for a limited pool of skilled engineers.

National Leverage. China’s established state support for the AV industry and coordinated regulatory frameworks have promoted faster deployment of AV at scale compared to the U.S., where regulations remain a patchwork, with inconsistent testing and development among states.

To read the full report and take a deeper dive into the U.S.-China strategic competition in autonomous vehicles, visit scsp.ai.

(NewsUSA) - Nonprofit organizations have a new opportunity to leverage their data and optimize their profits, thanks to a new platform.

SimioAccelerate, introduced in the spring of 2026, was developed by Moore, a leading marketing, data, and fundraising management company, in collaboration with Microsoft. The platform uses signals on proprietary giving collected through SimioCloud, a Moore company.

SimioAccelerate is an AI-powered DaaS fundraising platform designed to accelerate nonprofit growth using proprietary giving signals from SimioCloud. The platform harnesses the power of AI, as AI agents orchestrate, automate and execute the entire process of effective fundraising. Nonprofit organizations provide first-party data to connect with SimioCloud. The platform uses proprietary predictive models to deliver targeted donor insights.

SimioAccelerate then picks up the ball, and translates the information into actionable intelligence that can be used to activate fundraising campaigns. AI-generated campaigns are created with the nonprofits' branding, content, and messaging. Execution is then initiated with email, call scripts, direct mail, and other addressable channels, delivering increased support tailored to a nonprofit’s specific mission.

“Fundraising is entering a new era where data and AI will fundamentally change how generosity is discovered and activated,” said Gretchen Littlefield, CEO of Moore. “SimioAccelerate brings all nonprofits a level of intelligence that has historically only been available to the largest enterprises,” she explained.

SimioCloud has been shown to increase response rates by up to 85%, as well as doubling the number of major donors and increasing average gift amounts by 50% for enterprise clients. The unique data foundation of SimioCloud enables insights beyond what can be achieved through large language models alone, according to experts at the company.

“Technology can help accelerate the incredible work that nonprofit organizations do every day by helping them reach more people, enhance their operations, and build on the impact they are already making in their communities,” said Harpreet Girn, vice president, global scale, Microsoft Elevate, at Microsoft Corp. “Through our collaboration with Moore, SimioAccelerate brings together the scale of Microsoft Azure, the unique data of SimioCloud, and the power of AI to the nonprofit sector, helping these organizations unlock new insights to accelerate their missions,” Girn said.

“SimioAccelerate gives nonprofit organizations the ability to see new opportunities by combining Microsoft’s global cloud and AI capabilities with SimioCloud’s proprietary giving data. This unlocks new giving to accelerate their missions,” Littlefield added.

SimioAccelerate’s free platform is available now. For more information on the product, go to wearemoore.com/simioaccelerate.

(NewsUSA) - Artificial intelligence is likely to have a greater impact on the military’s wartime operations than on peacetime tasks, according to a new report from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

The new report mapped 131 Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) to their closest civilian equivalents to assess the impact of AI on army personnel. Although the sample size was small and based on private sector task classification, the data provide a foundation for further study of AI in the military, the authors wrote.

“AI won’t replace the Army’s people, but it will transform how they work,” the experts emphasized.

Common AI tasks such as gathering information and identifying objects can take on life-or-death importance in a wartime setting, when actions may be simpler and more structured, thus suited to AI, according to the report. For example, infantry officers in peacetime settings currently have approximately 25% of their work affected by AI, mainly related to administrative tasks. By contrast, AI’s wartime applications, estimated at about a third of activity (33%) for infantry include situational awareness, analyzing data, gathering information, and targeted objects or events.

Based on the report, SCSP experts offered four policy priorities to help the U.S. prepare to optimize an AI-enabled military in the future.

-Lethality. Save time by using AI on automation of administrative or routine tasks, and spend it on active training and readiness for warfighting.

-Commercial Alignment. Optimize interactions with private sector counterparts by using AI to align workflows for more efficient commercial research and development, and reserve custom development for unique wartime functions.

-Combat Investment. AI’s greatest potential military application may be in actual wartime use for information gathering, situational awareness, and targeting.

-Retention. Last, but not least, AI has potential to help address the problem of burnout in the military. Company commanders work more than 12 hours a day. Using AI for routine administrative tasks “could transform quality of life for junior officers and their families; a strategic retention tool,” the experts concluded.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more.

(NewsUSA) - Next-generation robotics and advanced manufacturing are key to preserving American leadership in technology and AI, but the United States has fallen behind China in this essential arena, according to a new report from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

In the report, The Robot Deficit: Diagnosing the U.S.-China Competition in Robotics for Advanced Manufacturing, SCSP outlines how the competition for leadership in the robotics space has shifted as China has rapidly accelerated its activity in this space.

Attention to robotics is essential as the United States strives to improve its domestic manufacturing capacity, according to SCSP experts. Humans simply can’t manufacture the leading-edge products that will support dominance in technology, such as semiconductors and quantum devices, at the necessary scale. “In these domains, the ability to automate is synonymous with the ability to produce,” the experts noted in their new report.

Although the United States maintains a lead in cutting-edge innovation leadership and capabilities regarding software prowess, it has fallen short on developing the robotic automatic necessary to manufacture the components of technology—the semiconductors and quantum devices that can’t be manufactured at scale by humans.

According to the report, the U.S. needs to address four key areas:

Industrial Capacity. The U.S. currently trails China in manufacturing scale, supply chains, and raw materials. The U.S. reliance on imported components is a potential disadvantage to building automation tools in the event of a trade disruption or conflict.

Market Ecosystem. In 2024, China accounted for 54% of all global industrial robot installations. By contrast, the U.S. dominates venture capital funding but favors high-margin software over physical hardware. Changes are needed to expand industrial scaling.

Talent Pipeline. The good news: The United States attracts the top 1% of global elite researchers. However, experts predict that more than 2 million manufacturing jobs in will go unfilled, leaving a critical structural labor gap. China is working to reverse the brain drain and keep talent at home, while also launching significant academic programs in robotics.

National Leverage. Robotics in the United States remains highly fragmented because of a combination of bureaucratic bottlenecks and the lack of a comprehensive national plan.

Potential solutions to the deficit in robotics involve the government and industry working together, with measures including tax incentives for robotics, federally funded programs, and a dedicated government office to prioritize robotics and advanced manufacturing. Whether these plans succeed remains to be seen.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more.

The need for robotics manufacturing capacity is a strategic asset that the United States needs to rebuild, yet structural bottlenecks make such an objective unsustainable with current infrastructure.

(NewsUSA) - Increasing and upgrading the use of technology in government is essential, but not easy, and it takes more than money, according to Sri Ramaswamy, the Chief Innovation Officer for the NobleReach Foundation, a nonprofit organization that connects top tech talent with government needs. “It takes people, people who understand technology and how it can be applied to create efficiencies, improve service, and upgrade national security,” Mr. Ramaswamy said in a podcast for the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

The role of technology in government is threefold, said Mr. Ramaswamy.

-Creating new products and services. For example, new technology allows for new ways to treat cancer, or to fight wars.

-Creating new ways of functioning. For example, technology improves efficiency, so any organization, whether it is the government, a company, or a university, can do their jobs better.

-Adapting to the spillover effects of emerging technology. For example, when any technology makes a leap from an experimental stage to the real world, there is a learning curve that is not captured by any one organization, but spills into the economy.

To take advantage of these technologies, the government must tap into pipelines of the best and brightest tech talent and inspire them to get involved and put their expertise to use, Mr. Ramaswamy said.

To help fill the need for top tech talent, NobleReach has created the NobleReach Scholars Program, which recruits engineering and computer science graduates to enter public service for short-term, high-impact stints. This program also can help create “dual citizens,” who can move fluidly between the public and private sectors to maintain America's technological edge, Mr. Ramaswamy explained.

The NobleReach Scholars’ Program is aimed at bringing in up-and-coming tech talent into government work on a shorter-term basis at the start of their careers, without the pressure of a long-term commitment to government work. They can put their technical skills to good use for a year or two and get experience addressing real and serious problems that our government needs to solve to stay competitive.

“Work in the agencies, work with the people who are trying to tackle these problems, learn from them, see what you can contribute, and then you can get out and do whatever you want in your career,” Mr. Ramaswamy emphasized. “Hopefully the service that spirit will stay with you and you'll find more opportunities to serve down the road. That's the spirit of the Scholars Program,” he said.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more about bridging the tech talent gap and other strategies to help improve American security and competitiveness.

(NewsUSA) - For years, digital marketing strategy revolved around a simple objective: rank high in search results and attract clicks to your website. But a quiet shift in search behavior is changing that equation.

A growing percentage of online searches now end without a click. Known as “zero-click searches,” these queries are answered directly on the search results page through featured snippets, local map listings, knowledge panels, and quick-answer boxes. While convenient for users, the trend is forcing businesses to rethink how they approach visibility online.

According to analysts at iLocal, zero-click searches are becoming a defining factor in how customers discover local businesses — especially in service industries where users want immediate answers.

What Zero-Click Searches Look Like

A zero-click search occurs when a user gets the information they need directly from the search results page without visiting a website.

Examples include:

• A homeowner searching for “emergency plumber near me” and calling a business directly from the local map listing
   
• A user checking business hours from a knowledge panel
   
• A quick answer appearing at the top of results for a question like “how long does roof replacement take”
   

In each case, the search engine delivers the information before the user ever reaches a company’s website.

While this may seem like a loss of traffic, it actually reflects a deeper shift in how digital discovery works.

Visibility Now Happens Before the Click

Businesses used to think of search results as a gateway to their website. Today, the search results page itself has become a critical part of a company’s digital presence.

Listings in the local map pack, review ratings, photos, and business details often form the customer’s first impression. In many cases, they also determine whether a user makes contact immediately.

For service businesses, that contact may happen through a phone call directly from the search listing — bypassing the website entirely.

This means that a company’s visibility strategy must extend beyond website rankings alone.

The Importance of Structured Information

Search engines rely on structured data and clearly organized information to generate quick answers and business summaries. Companies that maintain accurate listings, structured service descriptions, and consistent contact information are more likely to appear in these enhanced search features.

For local businesses, this often includes:

• Fully optimized business profiles
   
• Consistent name, address, and phone number data across platforms
   
• Structured website content that clearly explains services
   
• Customer reviews and updated business details
   

These elements help search engines confidently display a business in quick-answer results.

Traffic Is No Longer the Only Metric

As zero-click searches grow, businesses are beginning to shift how they measure digital success. Instead of focusing solely on website visits, many are evaluating visibility metrics such as calls from search listings, direction requests, and map interactions.

In other words, engagement may occur before the user ever lands on the website.

For companies that depend on inbound inquiries, this shift requires new tracking methods and a broader view of digital performance.

Adapting to the New Search Landscape

The rise of zero-click searches doesn’t mean websites are becoming irrelevant. In fact, they remain critical for credibility, detailed information, and conversion.

However, businesses must now recognize that discovery often happens earlier in the search process. The companies that succeed are those that treat the entire search ecosystem — not just their website — as part of their customer journey.

In a digital environment designed for instant answers, visibility isn’t just about attracting clicks anymore.

It’s about being the answer users see first.

To learn more, visit https://ilocal.net

(NewsUSA) - For many small and mid-sized businesses, declining local rankings are blamed on competition, algorithm updates, or insufficient ad spend. But according to digital strategists at iLocal, the real issue is often far less dramatic — and far more fixable.

It’s website structure.

While business owners focus on keywords and backlinks, search engines have evolved to prioritize something more foundational: how a website is built, organized, and internally connected. When that structure is flawed, rankings suffer — often quietly and gradually.

The Architecture Problem

Search engines don’t see websites the way humans do. They crawl code, hierarchy, internal linking patterns, and page relationships. If a site lacks clear structure, search engines struggle to determine which pages are most important, which services are primary, and which geographic areas are relevant.

Common structural issues include:

• Multiple services lumped onto a single page
   
• No dedicated pages for specific cities or service areas
   
• Duplicate or thin content spread across pages
   
• Broken internal links
   
• Poor navigation hierarchy
   

From a search engine perspective, this creates ambiguity. And ambiguity reduces authority.

When Google’s algorithms attempt to determine local relevance, they rely on clear signals. If a roofing contractor serves five cities but mentions them only in passing on one generic page, the site may fail to rank strongly in any of them.

The Shift Toward Topical Authority

Search engine updates in recent years have increasingly favored topical depth and clear content silos. Businesses that build structured service clusters — individual pages supporting a primary category — often outperform competitors with broader but shallower websites.

For example, instead of one “Services” page listing plumbing, drain cleaning, and water heater repair, structured sites create separate, optimized pages for each service, internally linked in a logical hierarchy.

This isn’t about keyword stuffing. It’s about clarity.

When structure aligns with search intent, rankings improve naturally because the site better answers specific queries.

User Experience Now Impacts SEO

Another overlooked factor is behavioral data. Slow load times, confusing navigation, and cluttered layouts increase bounce rates and reduce time on site — signals that can indirectly affect ranking performance.

A poorly structured website not only confuses search engines but also frustrates visitors. When users quickly exit a site, it reinforces negative engagement signals.

The technical and user-experience sides of SEO are now inseparable.

The Compounding Effect of Structural Weakness

What makes structural problems particularly costly is that they compound over time. Businesses continue investing in ads, social media, and review acquisition, sending more traffic to a foundation that cannot fully capitalize on it.

In some cases, companies attempt aggressive SEO campaigns without addressing structural flaws first. The result? Limited gains despite significant investment.

The Emerging Best Practice: Structural Audits

Forward-thinking local businesses are increasingly conducting structural audits before expanding marketing efforts. These audits assess:

• URL hierarchy
   
• Internal linking patterns
   
• Page depth and crawlability
   
• Service-to-location alignment
   
• Technical performance factors
   

The goal isn’t cosmetic redesign — it’s architectural clarity.

Businesses that address structural weaknesses often see ranking improvements without increasing content volume or backlink acquisition. By reorganizing and clarifying what already exists, they unlock latent SEO potential.

A Strategic Reframing

The conversation around local rankings is shifting. Instead of asking, “How do we outrank competitors?” the more strategic question may be, “Does our website clearly communicate our expertise and geography to search engines?”

In a digital landscape where search algorithms reward precision and user satisfaction, structure is no longer a background detail.

It’s infrastructure.

And for local businesses competing in crowded markets, infrastructure may be the quiet differentiator between stagnation and sustained visibility.

To learn more, visit: https://ilocal.net/

(NewsUSA) - For both India and the United States, leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies will impact not only domestic prosperity and resilience, but also their ability to establish their values and systems to define the global digital order, according to a new report from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and ORF America.

The report includes insights from a pair of recent meeting in Washington, D.C., and New Delhi, India, in which more than 150 leaders from industry, government, academia, and the civilian sector shared insights and developed a plan for how the two countries can translate their shared strategic interest in AI into a long-term advantage for both.

The report focuses on four core pillars of action—applications, infrastructure, talent, and policy—with recommendations for how the U.S. and India can work together to ensure the development and adoption of trusted AI around the world.

Applications. Priorities for partnership in AI applications include establishing a public-private U.S.-India AI Coalition to prioritize commercial and dual-use applications in areas of impact; streamlining cybersecurity cooperation by encouraging U.S. and Indian agencies to develop joint threat-sharing protocols for AI-related cyber threats; strengthening Digital Public Infrastructure by creating an integration portal for U.S. firms to deploy data security solutions; and integrating AI into defense dialogues, capabilities development, and joint military exercises to align operational concepts and reinforce deterrence.

AI Infrastructure. To stay at the leading edge of AI and technology innovation, the report calls for establishing a comprehensive U.S.–India Full-Stack AI Infrastructure and Technology Program to identify and export integrated capabilities. Other key actions include connecting the digital and industrial foundations of AI stacks to grow respective, domestic infrastructure capacities in order to stay at the leading edge of AI and technology innovation. Key actions involve establishing and synchronizing U.S. and Indian semiconductor policies to ensure supply chain resilience and remove investment hurdles; mobilizing a Joint AI Infrastructure Financing and Investment Program to secure capital for trusted projects; creating a Single-Window Clearance Mechanism under Invest India for fast-tracking project permitting approvals; and instituting a supply chain program to export mid-life U.S. GPUs to India for population scale AI use cases.

Talent. To create the mutually reinforcing high-skill ecosystems to meet the demands of emerging industries, the report’s recommendations are to conduct yearly Joint AI Labor-Market Mapping to align education and training programs with workforce needs. Other goals include establishing a standardized certification process for AI talent to set globally recognized benchmarks; creating a Binational AI Training & Apprenticeship Network linking U.S. and Indian institutions for hands-on AI skills; and launching a Joint U.S.-India Research and Innovation Accelerator to align funding, capital, and intellectual property protections for joint research and development projects.

Policies. The report calls for aligning policy foundations to improve cooperation between both countries and deepen the interoperability, trust, and resilience of the U.S. and India’s respective AI and technology ecosystems. Policy actions include establishing a standing U.S.-India AI Standards Council to identify critical standards needed to enable AI cooperation, synchronizing them, and creating a pathway for mutual recognition of certification of AI models and applications.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more.

(NewsUSA) - A growing number of consumers are getting answers from search engines without ever clicking on a website.

Known as “zero-click searches,” this trend is accelerating as search platforms integrate artificial intelligence, featured snippets, and instant-answer summaries. For local businesses, the shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

Instead of scrolling through a list of links, users now see AI-generated overviews, highlighted answers, business details, and summarized recommendations directly within search results. If a company’s information is not properly structured and optimized, it may never be included in those answers — even if it offers the exact service being searched.

“Visibility today isn’t just about being on page one,” explains digital marketing agency iLocal. “It’s about being understood by search engines at a deeper level.”

Experts point to several factors influencing whether a business appears in zero-click environments:

• Structured data and schema implementation

• Clear and consistent business information

• FAQ sections formatted for answer extraction

• Strong local authority signals

• Fast-loading, mobile-optimized pages

When these elements are missing, search engines may default to competitors whose digital infrastructure is more clearly defined.

For home service providers, medical offices, professional firms, and other local businesses, this evolution means websites must function not only as marketing tools but as structured data hubs that feed search engines accurate, trustworthy information.

While zero-click searches may reduce traditional website traffic in some cases, businesses that optimize correctly can gain visibility directly within search summaries — reinforcing brand authority before a consumer even visits a site.

As AI continues to reshape search behavior, industry leaders say the businesses that succeed will be those that adapt early, invest in technical clarity, and build digital foundations designed for both humans and machines.

In a landscape where answers appear instantly, being included in those answers may matter more than clicks themselves.

To learn more about iLocal’s digital visibility solutions, visit https://ilocal.net/

(NewsUSA) - As artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into search engines, many local businesses are discovering a troubling reality: they are no longer appearing in search results the way they once did.

The rise of AI-generated overviews, conversational search tools, and direct-answer summaries has fundamentally changed how consumers find local services. Instead of browsing multiple websites, users are increasingly shown AI-curated responses that pull information from structured, trusted digital sources. Businesses that are not properly optimized for this new environment may find themselves effectively invisible.

Industry data shows that a growing percentage of searches now end without a click. That means if a company’s website is not structured in a way that artificial intelligence systems can easily interpret — through clear site architecture, structured data, entity signals, and well-formatted content — it may never be included in AI-generated answers.

“Search has shifted from simply ranking webpages to understanding entities and trust signals,” says leadership at iLocal, a digital marketing agency focused on local visibility. “If a business’s digital foundation isn’t technically sound, AI systems may bypass it entirely.”

Common issues preventing businesses from appearing in AI-driven results include:

• Lack of schema markup and structured data

• Poorly organized website architecture

• Missing or inconsistent business entity information

• Thin or duplicate content

• Broken contact forms or technical site errors

While traditional search engine optimization still matters, experts note that AI-first optimization requires a more comprehensive approach. Clear categories, frequently asked questions formatted for extraction, authoritative citations, and strong local relevance signals all contribute to whether a business is surfaced in AI responses.

For small and mid-sized companies competing in crowded markets, adapting to this new search landscape is critical. Visibility is no longer determined solely by keyword placement but by how clearly and credibly a business communicates its expertise to both users and machines.

As AI continues to shape consumer search behavior in 2026 and beyond, businesses that invest in structured, technically sound digital foundations are more likely to remain visible — while those that rely on outdated tactics risk disappearing from the conversation entirely.

To learn more about iLocal’s approach to AI-first local visibility, visit https://ilocal.net/