Bob, CFO of ABC Inc is about to get on an earnings call after just reporting a 20% miss on earnings due to slower revenue growth than forecasted. Company ABC's stock price is plummeting, down 25% in extended hour trading. The board is furious and investors demand answers on the discrepancies. Inaccurate revenue forecast remains one of the biggest risks for CFOs. In a recent study, more than 50% of companies feel their pipeline forecast is only about 50% accurate.

The Global Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture (AIA) Market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 24.3% during the forecast period. The factors driving the growth of the global AIA market are rising adoption of information management systems (IMS), automated irrigation, increasing crop productivity by implementing deep learning techniques, and increasing global population. Furthermore, growing trend of precision farming and increasing adoption of smart sensors are also fueling the demand of the global AIA market. Replacement of human labor is also expected to overcome by AIA, to minimize scarcity of physical labor. However, the high cost of collecting data of agricultural land is a major restraint of the AIA market growth.

NEW YORK, March 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture (AIA) Market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 24.3% during the forecast period. The factors driving the growth of the global AIA market are rising adoption of information management systems (IMS), automated irrigation, increasing crop productivity by implementing deep learning techniques, and increasing global population. Furthermore, growing trend of precision farming and increasing adoption of smart sensors are also fueling the demand of the global AIA market. Replacement of human labor is also expected to overcome by AIA, to minimize scarcity of physical labor. However, the high cost of collecting data of agricultural land is a major restraint of the AIA market growth.

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming an integral part of every tech company's strategy, so it's no surprise that big firms are ramping up their acquisition of AI startups. M&A activity has already seen a fivefold increase in the number of AI startup acquisitions -- from 22 in 2013 to 115 in 2017. While the race is far from over, Google and Apple have acquired the most AI startups since 2012. With close to 14 acquisitions, Google is currently leading the charge to buy AI startups. The company's most recent acquisition involves the conversational commerce platform Banter, which helps businesses connect with their customers over popular messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Snapchat.

In January, PwC Canada and CB Insights released the MoneyTree report analyzing Canadian VC activity for Q4 and all of 2017. In a year where Canadian companies raised $3.3 billion CAD ($2.7 billion USD) total, the report found that seed stage investments are declining across the country -- a sign that Canadian companies are finding their product-market fit, according to PwC's Michael Dingle. The report also tracks Canadian cities showing significant activity within their startup ecosystems. To gather a yearlong perspective on how Canada's tech hubs have performed, BetaKit spoke with PwC's tech team from each city to talk standout sectors, and what each ecosystem needs. Toronto came at the top of the list, with $976 million ($770 million USD) invested across 115 deals in 2017, while Waterloo raised $229 million ($181.9 million USD) across 16 deals. For Toronto, this number represented a 22 percent decline from 2016, which saw $1.2 billion ($1 billion USD) invested over 126 deals.

Google in February did something it's never done before: It told the world just how big its Google Cloud business really is. The search giant said its six-year-old cloud platform and its popular cloud-based collaboration portfolio, G-Suite, is now a $1 billion per quarter business. To sustain that growth, Google is leaning more heavily on its capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. To pull in bigger deals, Google needs solution providers to help them reach businesses where AI and machine learning will matter most. Agosto, a Minneapolis-based Google partner, is seeing an increase in the number of Fortune 500 companies that are looking at Google as a feature-by-feature competitor of AWS and Microsoft.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese auto parts supplier Denso Corp 6902.T said on Friday it has agreed to acquire an additional 4.5 percent stake in chip maker Renesas Electronics Corp 6723.T, as carmakers accelerate development of self-driving vehicles and other technologies.

Atomwise, which uses deep learning to shorten the process of discovering new drugs, has raised a $45 million Series A. The round was led by Monsanto Growth Ventures, Data Collective (DCVC) and B Capital Group. Baidu Ventures, Tencent and Dolby Family Ventures, which are all new investors in Atomwise, also participated, as well as returning investors Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures and DFJ. This means Atomwise, which was founded in 2012, has now raised more than $51 million in funding. The company, which aims to reduce the amount of money and time researchers spend on finding compounds for medications, says it now has more than 50 molecular discovery programs. Atomwise's technology is also being used to develop safer, more effective agricultural pesticides.

Internet of Things startups took in more than $1.35 billion from corporate and private investors during the latter half of 2017, for a total of about $2.2 billion in the full year. Chicago-based Uptake Technologies, an Industrial IoT startup, had the biggest haul of the year, with $117 million raised in a Series D round, on top of a $90 million Series C round earlier in 2017, bringing its total funding to more than $250 million. It strengthened its position as an IoT "unicorn," which is now valued at $2.3 billion. "We're on a growth trajectory now where there is virtually nothing standing in our way from being the predictive analytics market leader across every heavy industry, from oil & gas to mining and beyond," Uptake CEO Brad Keywell said in a statement. "The opportunity is too significant for us to not double down right now."

Samsung Electronics is now believed to be upgrading its Bixby artificial intelligence platform following its latest acquisition. The South Korean giant's affiliate has apparently acquired AI search engine startup Kngine. The Investor learned Wednesday that Samsung Research America has acquired a 100-percent stake in Kngine, a startup that develops mobile solutions that understand and answer inquiries with the use of AI including deep learning. The functionality is something that could strengthen Bixby as a whole and set it apart from its rivals, like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Kngine started its operations in 2013 in Egypt.