Featured: AI News’ list of innovative companies to watch in 2021

Companies around the world have ramped up their AI deployments over the past year. As with any emerging technology, AI has brought significant opportunities but also its fair share of challenges.

In this feature, AI News takes a look at some of the most innovative companies leading the way in maximising the opportunities while minimising the challenges of artificial intelligence deployments. In alphabetical order:

Affectiva

Affectiva is an MIT Media Lab spin-off...

3 March 2021 | Big Data

Opinion: What is real intelligent automation?

Intelligent automation reduces costs, improves efficiency and allows businesses to initiate change through technology. When applied to business operations or customer services, it has proven to be an invaluable piece of technology as it improves productivity thus saving time in the process with quicker responses. With intelligent automation, manufacturing giant Siemens has driven 10 times faster processes at a tenth of the cost.

However, some software vendors place commodity...

29 January 2021 | Enterprise

Strategy Analytics defines path to AI vendor and buyer success in new report

Research firm Strategy Analytics has argued in a new report that both vendors of AI products and their users can succeed with a 'thorough understanding' of customer journeys.

The report, 'Defining the AI Buyer Journey', aims to take a comprehensive view of the 'who, what, why and how long' issues in the buyer journey, from paths to selection, paths to adoption, and implementation.

The goal is to avoid all 'AI-washing' where possible. This can occur on both the vendor...

29 January 2021 | Adoption

From experimentation to implementation: How AI is proving its worth in financial services

For financial institutions, recovering from the pandemic will put an end to tentative experiments with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and demand their large-scale adoption. The crisis has required financial organisations to respond to customer needs around the clock. Many are therefore transforming with ever-increasing pace, but they must ensure that their core critical operations continue to run smoothly. This has sparked an interest in AI and ML solutions, which...

15 December 2020 | Adoption

Algorithmia: AI budgets are increasing but deployment challenges remain

A new report from Algorithmia has found that enterprise budgets for AI are rapidly increasing but significant deployment challenges remain.

Algorithmia’s 2021 Enterprise Trends in Machine Learning report features the views of 403 business leaders involved with machine learning initiatives.

Diego Oppenheimer, CEO of Algorithmia, says:

“COVID-19 has caused rapid change which has challenged our assumptions in many areas. In this rapidly changing environment,...

10 December 2020 | Adoption

Eggplant launches AI-powered software testing in the cloud

Automation specialists Eggplant have launched a new AI-powered software testing platform.

The cloud-based solution aims to help accelerate the delivery of software in a rapidly-changing world while maintaining a high bar of quality.

Gareth Smith, CTO of Eggplant, said:

“The launch of our cloud platform is a significant milestone in our mission to rid the world of bad software. In our new normal, delivering speed and agility at scale has never been more...

6 October 2020 | Cloud

Global spending on AI ‘expected to double in four years’, says IDC

Worldwide spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is forecast to double over the coming for years to hit $110 billion by 2024, according to new data from IDC.

The figure, which comes from the analyst firm's latest Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide, calculates a CAGR of 20.1% as adopting AI becomes a 'must' in the enterprise.

In particular, companies will utilise AI to deliver a better customer experience, as well as help employees to become better at...

27 August 2020 | Adoption

Microsoft: The UK must increase its AI skills, or risk falling behind

A report from Microsoft warns that the UK faces an AI skills gap which may harm its global competitiveness.

The research, titled AI Skills in the UK, shines a spotlight on some concerning issues.

For its UK report, Microsoft used data from a global AI skills study featuring more than 12,000 people in 20 countries to see how the UK is doing in comparison to the rest of the world.

Most notably, compared to the rest of the world, the UK is seeing a higher failure...

12 August 2020 | Adoption

Moveworks raises $75m in series B funding to accelerate conversational AI for IT support

Moveworks has raised $75m in a series B funding round to boost its conversational AI technology for automated IT support as the company says it is ‘still in its first inning.’

The round was led by new investors ICONIQ Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Sapphire Ventures. Along with these new investors, existing investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, and Comerica Bank. The fundraiser also received personal investment from John W. Thompson, partner at...

15 November 2019 | Enterprise

Elif Tutuk, Qlik: On securing data literacy and the evolution of AI with BI

This time last year, a fascinating report from venture capital firm Work-Bench assessed the future of enterprise software.

The study argued that the largest technology companies were winning at artificial intelligence (AI) – not surprising, given they can hoover up all the best talent – but more importantly, business intelligence (BI) vendors wanting to ensure their future going forward needed to beef up their skillsets with AI. “Expect all modern BI vendors to release an...

16 September 2019 | Big Data