Dialogue AI, a U.S. startup founded by ex-Nextdoor engineers, raised a $6 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company uses AI to automate market-research workflows—study design, participant recruitment and insights generation—via a proprietary large-scale AI interviewer that can conduct thousands of simultaneous real-time interviews. Early clients include Square, Wayfair and Nextdoor. With just ten employees currently, the startup plans to double headcount in the next 12–18 months and sees opportunity in synthetic-user surveys for businesses lacking in-house capacity.

The U.S. Treasury Secretary will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Malaysia next week in an effort to prevent the escalation of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports — particularly rare-earth materials linked to tech manufacturing. President Trump had previously threatened a 100% tariff from November 1 unless Beijing lifted export curbs. The meeting follows a virtual high-level call and a temporary trade truce agreement set to expire November 10. Market analysts say progress could ease supply-chain strain; failure may intensify machinery and tech-tariff risks.