Microsoft has completed its acquisition of Siri backend creator Nuance in a bumper deal that it says will usher in a "new era of outcomes-based AI". "Completion of this significant and strategic acquisition brings together Nuance's best-in-class conversational AI and ambient intelligence with Microsoft's secure and trusted industry cloud offerings," said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of the Cloud AI Group at Microsoft. "This powerful combination will help providers offer more affordable, effective, and accessible healthcare, and help organisations in every industry create more personalised and meaningful customer experiences. I couldn't be more pleased to welcome the Nuance team to our Microsoft family." Nuance became a household name (in techie households, anyway) for creating the speech recognition engine that powers Apple's smart assistant, Siri.

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to be one of the most transformative technologies of our time. It has already proven it can reliably complete complex tasks almost instantaneously, eliminating the need for days or even weeks of human input in many cases. The challenge for companies developing this advanced technology is building a business model that can deliver it efficiently since AI is a brand-new industry with little existing precedent. That's what makes C3.ai ( AI 1.65%) a trailblazer, as it's the first platform AI provider helping companies in almost any industry access the technology's benefits. C3.ai just reported its fiscal 2022 third-quarter earnings result, and it revealed continued growth across key metrics, further cementing the case for owning its stock for the long run.

This has been a brutal earnings season for investors who hold a lot of growth stocks. Markets are down, and Wall Street sentiment is shifting toward safer, more established businesses. Many of these growth stocks are issuing conservative outlooks for the fiscal year ahead, too, after several years of booming gains. It was still jarring to see Ambarella ( AMBA -6.21%) shares fall over 30% after the company reported solid fourth-quarter results. The company, which develops AI video processing tech in the autonomous driving and security markets, has some big markets it can target over the next few years.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that he believes the company's goal of a humanoid robot is the most important thing it's working on. The electric vehicle manufacturer first announced its robot plans at its AI Day last year. Instead of showing off any sort of prototype, a person in a robot suit walked stiffly on stage and proceeded to dance, spin and pretend to jump rope. "Obviously that was not real," Musk told the audience, after thanking the person for their robot performance. On the company's earnings call Wednesday, Musk said of its planned robot, "This I think has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time."

Insurance industry that operated with low profit margins, is facing increased competition both in terms of price and time to serve. This approach resonates with customers as 85% of customers want to buy insurance policies more quickly. How can insurers keep up? To keep up, Insurers are renewing their underwriting departments to price risk better and in less time. We explain why insurers must renew their underwriting approach and introduce four key technologies that enable more effective underwriting.

Who joins Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (FB) (formerly known as Facebook), and Alibaba (BABA) on this list of Warren Buffett stocks based on the investing strategy of the Berkshire Hathaway CEO? In addition to GOOGL, FB and BABA, Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM), Evercore (EVR), Teradyne (TER), and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) are among 21 names featured on this stock screen.

Computer graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. reported strong fourth-quarter results today, beating expectations one week after its bid to acquire rival Arm Ltd. for $66 billion fell through. The company reported net income of $3 billion, or $1.18 a share, with earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $1.32 per share. Revenue for the quarter jumped 54% from a year ago, to $7.64 billion. That was better than expected, with analysts looking for earnings of just $1.23 per share on revenue of $7.42 billion. Nvidia founder and Chief Executive Jensen Huang (pictured) said the company was seeing "exceptional demand" for its computing platforms.

Sirona Medical, a company developing an "operating system" for digital radiology, has acquired Nines– a company that has developed FDA-cleared analysis and triage algorithms. This acquisition comes during a somewhat shaky moment in AI-based radiology. But Sirona is betting this move proves out its thesis: to bring AI into the clinical workflow, we need to rebuild things from the ground up. To understand where Sirona and Nines fit together, think about the IT behind radiology as a layer cake. The first layer of that cake is made of medical image databases.

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced it has acquired advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed by Virtual Control, an AI and machine learning software developer that creates innovative analysis solutions in lab testing. Agilent will integrate the software, known as ACIES, into its industry-leading gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GS/MS) platforms to improve the productivity, efficiency and accuracy of high-throughput labs the company serves around the world. "We're extremely pleased to be adding these additional capabilities to our product lineup." With the acquisition, Agilent obtained the software and other assets associated with ACIES. As part of the transaction, core members of the ACIES team also became Agilent employees.

As more and more companies adopt artificial intelligence (AI) in their operations, investors may be considering AI stocks in the stock market. After all, AI remains to be an increasingly relevant area of research now. For the uninitiated, AI deals with machines that attempt to emulate human intelligence. Most of us may think of sentient robots and futuristic gadgets upon hearing the term. But in reality, AI often revolves around complex algorithms and software which enable enterprises to make more effective decisions.