Traction Technology

The EU AI Act Just Changed How Banks Have to Evaluate AI Vendors ‍ Who this post is for: Heads of Fraud and Risk, Chief Innovation Officers, and technology evaluation leads at banks, insurers, and fintechs — anyone whose vendor shortlist now has to survive regulatory scrutiny, not just a technical demo. On August 2, 2026, the evaluation criteria for financial services AI quietly changed — and a lot of vendor shortlists built before that date are now missing a column.

Financial Services AI Startups Worth Evaluating in 2026: The Traction Five A note on this list: This shortlist was generated using Traction AI — our platform for technology scouting across a database of over 1 million verified companies.

Why Innovation Programs Lose Participation Over Time Who this post is for: Chief Innovation Officers, innovation program managers, and Heads of Technology Scouting who have a capable platform in place, a mandate from leadership, and a quiet, nagging problem: not enough people are actually using it. Here is a pattern we see constantly, and it is almost never diagnosed correctly. An organization stands up an innovation program. Leadership is bought in. The platform is capable.

How to Decide Which Innovation Projects to Fund, Stop, or Scale Who this post is for: Chief Innovation Officers, R&D leaders, and innovation portfolio managers who are sitting on more active projects, pilots, and bets than they can fund — and need a defensible way to decide which ones get more resources, which get killed, and which are ready to scale across the organization.

McKinsey's 2026 State of AI Survey Shows Why Scouting AI Tools Isn't Enough — You Have to Govern the Pilot McKinsey's newest State of AI survey — 1,719 respondents, 97 countries, fielded May–June 2026 — surfaces a finding that innovation and IT leaders can't afford to read past: the organizations pulling ahead on AI aren't the ones finding the most tools. They're the ones with the discipline to evaluate and govern what they pilot before they scale it.

What Is Agentic AI for Innovation Management? A Practical Guide for Enterprise Teams Who this post is for: Chief Innovation Officers, Heads of Technology Scouting, VPs of Digital Transformation, and R&D leaders who are being asked what agentic AI means for their innovation program — and who want a grounded, specific answer rather than the autonomous-agents hype that dominates most writing on the topic. Agentic AI is the most-used and least-understood term in enterprise technology right now.

The 10 Biggest Challenges in Innovation Management in 2026 — and How to Actually Fix Them Who this post is for: Chief Innovation Officers, innovation managers, Heads of Technology Scouting, and R&D leaders who recognize the challenges in their own programs — and who are tired of reading diagnostic lists that name the problems without providing operational fixes. Every innovation leader knows the challenges. That is not the hard part.

How to Write a Vendor RFI That Gets Responses: A Practical Guide Who this post is for: Innovation managers, technology scouts, procurement partners, and R&D leaders who need structured information from shortlisted vendors — and who have learned the hard way that most RFIs either get ignored, get boilerplate answers, or get responses so inconsistent they cannot be compared. Most vendor RFIs fail before they are sent.

Best AI Idea Management Software 2026: The 8 Platforms Compared Who this post is for: Innovation managers, Chief Innovation Officers, and digital transformation leaders evaluating AI-powered idea management platforms in 2026 — who want an honest assessment of what each platform's AI actually does, where it stops, and which program requirements each is best suited for.

Enterprise Technology Trends H2 2026: What to Evaluate, What to Pilot, and What to Watch Who this post is for: Chief Innovation Officers, Heads of Technology Scouting, VPs of Digital Transformation, and R&D leaders who are conducting mid-year strategy reviews and need a structured, evidence-based answer to the question every leadership team is asking right now: what should we be evaluating and piloting in the second half of 2026 to stay competitive? The mid-year inflection point is real.