Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is on the rise. According to a recent McKinsey survey, 55 per cent of companies use artificial intelligence in at least one function, and 27 per cent attribute at least 5 per cent of earnings before interest and taxes to AI, much of that in the form of cost savings. As AI will dramatically transform nearly every industry it touches, it's no surprise that vendors and enterprises are looking for opportunities to deploy AI everywhere they can. But not every project can benefit from AI and attempting to apply AI inappropriately can not only cost time and money but also sour employees, customers, and corporate leaders on future AI projects. The key factors for determining whether a project is suitable for AI are business value, availability of training data, and cultural readiness for change.

Atlassian today announced that it has acquired Percept.AI, an AI company from Y Combinator's summer 2017 batch, that offers an automated virtual agent support solution -- a chatbot, basically -- based on a proprietary AI engine for natural language understanding. Atlassian plans to integrate this virtual agent technology into Jira Service Management, its tool for helping IT teams provide better service to employees and customers. Ahead of today's acquisition, Percept had raised a seed round for an undisclosed amount from the likes of Hike Ventures, Builders VC, Cherubic Ventures, Amino Captial, Tribe Capital and Y Combinator, according to Crunchbase. The two companies did not disclose the financial details of today's acquisition. There can be little doubt that Atlassian is investing heavily in Jira Service Management.

Elon Musk has described Tesla's humanoid robot as the most important product it is developing in 2022, with the potential to be "more significant" than the company's car business. The as-yet unreleased Optimus robot is being built to serve as a general purpose robot, though early versions will have more limited factory-based applications. Mr Musk said during an earnings call on Wednesday that a working prototype of the Tesla bot will be unveiled at some point this year. The world's most valuable auto manufacturer is designing Optimus in a humanoid form in order for it to carry out everyday human tasks, such as shopping in a supermarket. "Essentially in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it you can, but you won't need to do it," Mr Musk said during the Tesla AI Day last August.

Microsoft beat market expectations Tuesday with strong quarterly performance in cloud computing and software, still benefitting from the pandemic's online shifting of work, play, shopping and learning. The US tech colossus, which announced last week a blockbuster deal to buy gaming giant Activision Blizzard, said profit jumped to $18.8 billion in the final three months of last year. "Digital technology is the most malleable resource at the world's disposal to overcome constraints and reimagine everyday work and life," CEO Satya Nadella said, in announcing revenue of $51.7 billion. Microsoft investments include pouring money into the booming video game market and by extension the metaverse, the virtual reality vision for the internet's future. On an earnings call, Nadella pointed to the tens of millions of people playing games such as Forza, Halo and Minecraft, many investing in "avatar" proxies for online worlds, saying that the metaverse is a natural extension.

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) is one of the world's largest global associations of financial institutions with about 400 member firms in more than 75 countries. We serve as a forum for exchanging views and developing proposals on global financial issues; we advocate for regulatory, financial, and economic policies that are in the broad interests of our members and foster global financial stability and sustainable economic growth; and we provide our members with an independent source of economic and financial research. The Institute's Digital Finance team helps the financial services industry and the public sector understand technology-driven trends reshaping the industry, such as the implications of BigTech firms, the rise of digital assets (including CBDCs), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), increased automation, and cross-border connectivity. The team is also leading the effort to leverage the use of new technologies to meet regulatory and compliance challenges. Some of the key areas that the team is focusing on currently include cloud adoption and technology partnerships, the regulation of tech firms, the implications of digital currencies, the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi), international digital economic cooperation, the ethical use of data including topics such as transparency, controls and governance, commercial opportunities surrounding digital identity, and cyber intrusion.

Newgen Software, a leading provider of a unified digital transformation platform, is pleased to announce that it is acquiring India-based Number Theory, an AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning) data science platform company, subject to the completion of conditions as stated in the approved Share Purchase Agreement. Number Theory's platform, AI Studio, brings intuitive AI/ML to every enterprise, while unifying the entire lifecycle of data engineering, from data preparation to model development and monitoring. It empowers both citizen and expert data scientists to work faster and more efficiently, thereby helping in accomplishing key machine learning tasks in just hours or days, not months. This acquisition will further strengthen Newgen's low code digital transformation platform, NewgenONE, with AI/ML modeling and data analytics capabilities. "Our customers are increasingly looking to leverage data for deeper insights and accelerated growth. Number Theory will bring domain expertise, along with a powerful engine to extract actionable insights in real time. AI/ML projects often get complex, expensive, and not rewarding. What we like about Number Theory's platform is that it is for every enterprise. It lets fusion teams build, deploy, and collaborate on the entire modeling lifecycle in low code and on cloud. We look forward to welcoming the Number Theory team to the Newgen family," said Virender Jeet, CEO, Newgen.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Welcome back to talking tech huge news in the world of video games. And for that matter technology, Microsoft announced it plans to acquire video game publisher Activision Blizzard in an all cash deal valued at an eye-popping 68.7 billion.

Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy Activision Blizzard Inc. in a $68.7 billion deal, uniting two of the biggest forces in video games to create the world's third-biggest gaming company. In its largest purchase ever, Microsoft will pay $95 a share in cash for one of the most legendary gaming publishers, known for titles like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft but which is also grappling with a cultural upheaval over its treatment of women. Activision Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick will continue to serve in that role only until the deal closes, a person familiar with the deal said. It's unclear what position, if any, he would take afterward. Once the transaction is completed, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, who was promoted along with the deal to CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

Video game giants Call of Duty and World of Warcraft have a new home: Microsoft. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced it will acquire Activision Blizzard, the publisher behind Call of Duty, one of the top-selling video games in the U.S., along with several other titles including Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush. Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal valued at $68.7 billion. "Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement. "We're investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all."

In a deal underscoring the growing importance of software in vehicles, Aptiv will spend $4.3 billion to acquire the software firm Wind River from a hedge fund, TPG Capital of Fort Worth, TX. "The automotive industry is undergoing its largest transformation in over a century, as connected, software-defined vehicles increasingly become critical elements of the broader intelligent ecosystem," says Kevin Clark, Aptiv president and CEO. "With Aptiv and Wind River's synergistic technologies and decades of experience delivering safety-critical systems, we will accelerate this journey to a software-defined future of the automotive industry," says Clark (pictured, below left). "In addition, we are committed to further strengthening Wind River's competitive position in the multiple industries it serves." Aptiv will finance the $4.3 billion transaction through a combination of cash and debt. The acquisition is expected to close mid-year 2022 and is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approvals.