Robotic process automation startup UiPath today announced it has closed a $225 million funding round, bringing its total raised to over $1.2 billion. While the new round is roughly half the $568 million UiPath raised last April, it catapults the New York-based company's post-money valuation to $10.2 billion, up from $7 billion in 2019 and $3 billion in 2018. CEO Daniel Dines says the funding will be used to scale UiPath's platform and deepen its investments in "AI-powered innovation" as it expands its cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. The round will also likely lay the groundwork for future strategic deals, following UiPath's acquisition of startups StepShot and ProcessGold last October. RPA -- technology that automates monotonous, repetitive chores traditionally performed by human workers -- is big business.

Prophecy Market Insights has recently published a Artificial Intelligence in Education System report which represents the latest industry data and future …

Microsoft has acquired Snoqualmie, Wash.-based Orions Systems for an undisclosed amount. Orions Systems makes AI-powered vision systems, and its founder, Nils Lahr, has worked on imaging, content distribution network (CDN), and streaming media services. "Orions Systems has developed a strong reputation and leading technology for organizations seeking to gather and analyze high-value data specifically in the areas of video and image content. The acquisition will bring additional technologies that will allow solutions like Dynamics 365 Connected Store and the Microsoft Power Platform to offer retailers and other organizations a way to build and train their own AI models to customize and optimize how they can learn from their physical space. This extra set of tools will deliver on scenarios beyond what is offered out-of-the-box today and can adapt to the truly unique dimensions and needs of their physical spaces," said Microsoft Dynamics 365 Corporate Vice President Muhammad Alam in a July 7 blog post announcing the deal.

OTTAWA, ON, June 15, 2020 /CNW/ - Kinaxis Inc. (TSX: KXS), the authority in driving agility for fast, confident decision-making in an unpredictable world, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Toronto-based Rubikloud, a disruptive, emerging provider of AI solutions that automate supply chain prescriptive analytics and decision-making in the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. Globally-recognized retailers and CPG manufacturers in the health and beauty, household and grocery segments use Rubikloud's AI-based products today. Their offerings include demand forecasting and automation to manage and optimize trade promotions, pricing and assortment to drive product demand and dramatically improve financial results. Kinaxis will enhance RapidResponse's demand planning capabilities with the Rubikloud offerings, anticipating initial opportunities in the company's rapidly-growing CPG customer base and over time for other industries such as life sciences. The acquisition also offers Kinaxis a springboard into the enterprise retail industry.

Last October, Jay Richards, author of The Human Advantage, caught up with Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks, a Baylor University computer engineering prof, at COSM 2019 to ask, what are our cheat-death chances? They were responding to futurist Ray Kurzweil's heady claims made at the conference that we will merge with computers by 2045 and live on as AI. Richards and Marks reflected on Kurzweil's claims and the thoughts of the panel responding to them. Jay Richards: He's (Kurzweil, below right) very much a sort of, I'd say, a techno-optimist. And in fact, he sort of thinks we're going to get brain scans and upload ourselves, whereas the panel… Though I know there was a diversity of opinion among the panelists, nevertheless, there was, I thought, a strong dose of realism.

Amazon announced Friday that it will acquire Zoox, a self-driving startup founded in 2014 that has raised nearly $1 billion in funding and which aims to develop autonomous driving technology, including vehicles, for the purposes of providing a full-stack solution for ride-hailing. Zoox will continue to exist as a standalone business, according to Amazon's announcement, with current CEO Aicha Evans continuing in her role, as well as CTO and co-founder Jesse Levinson. Their overall company mission will also remain the same, the release notes. The Financial Time reports that the deal is worth $1.2 billion. The Wall Street Journal had reported at the end of May that Amazon was looking at Zoox as a potential acquisition target, and that the deal had reached the advanced stages.

As AI adoption brings out changes in the workplace, workers are challenged to obtain needed AI skills and business leaders are working to adapt. And as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shift to online learning, companies such as Udacity--who have been in that business for years--are in a good position to help. Business leaders may be caught between competing objectives of continuing to deliver strong financial performance while making investments in hiring, workforce training and new technologies that support growth, suggested the author of a recent piece in Harvard Business Review. A team at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab has been studying how work is being changed by AI. "By examining these findings, we can create a roadmap for leaders intent on adapting their workforce and reallocating capital, while also delivering profitability," stated author Martin Fleming, a VP and Chief Economist at IBM. He made three suggestions for reskilling the workforce to better prepare for AI.

Microsoft announced the acquisition of ADRM Software, a provider of large-scale industry data models. Ravi Krishnaswamy – CVP, Azure Global Industry, Microsoft, welcomed the new team to the company via a blog posted below. Krishnaswamy also noted that the acquisition will help Microsoft and ADRM Software to create intelligent data lakes. In advancing our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, Microsoft has been investing in the power of data and artificial intelligence (AI) to continuously innovate, influence and enhance customer experience and partner growth. Data and AI are the foundation of modern technological innovation, yet businesses today struggle to unlock the full value data has to offer as fragmented data estates hinder digital transformation.

The maker of the popular Roomba line of robot vacuum cleaners boosted its second-quarter revenue forecast on Monday, citing stronger-than-expected sales of its devices. The company had previously projected revenue to be "down modestly" from last year's period; Wall Street analysts had forecast a 30%...

Publishing deals in the video game industry are generally kept secret, with terms hidden behind non-disclosure agreements and the threat of legal fallout. However, in the realm of AAA publishing, it's common for independent developers to sign contracts granting them less than 10 percent of a game's lifetime revenue, in exchange for marketing and financial assistance from a multibillion-dollar organization. In some cases, the developer also signs away their intellectual property rights, losing creative control over the game entirely. Or, a huge company will simply buy the smaller studio outright, devouring its existing library and creative talent, and overseeing all of its future products. In late March, Epic Games launched a multiplatform publishing initiative touting "the most developer-friendly terms in the industry." Under this deal, developers are guaranteed 50 percent of a game's revenue once production costs are recouped, and they retain full creative control over their own titles. Epic also promises to cover up to 100 percent of a game's development costs, including salaries, advertising and publishing fees. "We're building the publishing model we always wanted for ourselves," said Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. Epic Games has been experimenting with publishing models since the early '90s, decades before the launch of Fortnite, The Epic Games Store or the Unreal Engine. We're talking about the days of BBS, back when Sweeney was building ZZT out of his parents' house and the World Wide Web was just flickering to life.