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Digital AI
Plano, TX - April 15, 2020 - CollabNet VersionOne, XebiaLabs, and Arxan Technologies today announced their combination and strategic transformation to Digital.ai, a new software company that brings together leaders in business agility, software delivery, and application security into one integrated, intelligent value stream platform. Backed by TPG Capital, Digital.ai is on a mission to revolutionize how enterprises create, measure, deliver, secure, and continuously improve digital products that provide value, fuel revenue growth, and enable innovation in today's rapidly changing world. The Digital.ai Value Stream Platform seamlessly integrates all the disparate tools and processes across value streams, uses data and AI/ML to create connective tissue between them, and provides enterprises with the real-time, contextual insights they need to drive and sustain their digital transformation and produce great business outcomes. By streamlining processes across teams and providing continuous feedback loops throughout the development lifecycle, organizations can focus on what matters most to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and create meaningful value for customers. "In these challenging times, your digital presence is your business. Digital.ai enables enterprises to focus on business outcomes instead of outputs, unifying value creation, delivery, and protection practices to drive efficiencies and create engaging, secure digital experiences that customers value and trust," said Ashok Reddy, CEO of Digital.ai.
Latent Bayesian Inference for Robust Earnings Estimates
Nagpal, Chirag, Tillman, Robert E., Reddy, Prashant, Veloso, Manuela
Equity research analysts at financial institutions play a pivotal role in capital markets; they provide an efficient conduit between investors and companies' management and facilitate the efficient flow of information from companies, promoting functional and liquid markets. However, previous research in the academic finance and behavioral economics communities has found that analysts' estimates of future company earnings and other financial quantities can be affected by a number of behavioral, incentive-based and discriminatory biases and systematic errors, which can detrimentally affect both investors and public companies. We propose a Bayesian latent variable model for analysts' systematic errors and biases which we use to generate a robust bias-adjusted consensus estimate of company earnings. Experiments using historical earnings estimates data show that our model is more accurate than the consensus average of estimates and other related approaches.
SoftBank shares tumble 10% after OneWeb files for bankruptcy
SoftBank Group Corp. fell as much as 10 percent after a provider of satellite-based internet service that it invested in filed for bankruptcy, ceding some gains from an unprecedented plan to sell assets and buy back shares. OneWeb made the filing late Friday U.S. time after raising about $3.3 billion in debt and equity financing from shareholders including SoftBank, Airbus SE and Qualcomm Inc. since its inception. At least $1 billion of that came from SoftBank, which said it first invested in December 2016 and declined to give a total amount. It is the latest blow to SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who last week unveiled a plan to raise $41 billion to buy back shares and slash debt. The announcement sent the shares soaring more than 50 percent in just a few days.
AI Is Changing Work -- and Leaders Need to Adapt
As AI is increasingly incorporated into our workplaces and daily lives, it is poised to fundamentally upend the way we live and work. Concern over this looming shift is widespread. A recent survey of 5,700 Harvard Business School alumni found that 52% of even this elite group believe the typical company will employ fewer workers three years from now. The advent of AI poses new and unique challenges for business leaders. They must continue to deliver financial performance, while simultaneously making significant investments in hiring, workforce training, and new technologies that support productivity and growth.
Diligent Robotics raises $10 million for nurse assistant robot Moxi
Diligent Robotics today announced the close of a $10 million round to expand its fleet of nurse assistant robots for hospitals. The round was led by DNX Ventures, with participation from True Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Grit Ventures, E14 Fund, and Promus Ventures. Moxi is designed to reduce nurse workloads by handling tasks like collecting supplies, gathering soiled linens, and delivering fresh ones, and it's coming to market during the COVID-19 crisis, when nurses are in short supply. In addition to tackling mundane aspects of the job, the robot can also help reduce health care professionals' exposure to disease. Moxi was created by Diligent Robotics at University of Texas, Austin by CEO Dr. Andrea Thomaz, a roboticist and professor who previously ran the Georgia Tech Socially Intelligent Machines Lab. "It's a really good time to be working on this problem," Thomaz told VentureBeat in a phone interview.
The AI startup industry may be heading for consolidation and bigger problems as the economy gets tougher: 'Get acquired or go out of business'
Perhaps no area of tech has been more buzzy in recent years than the shiny sector of artificial intelligence startups. That happy innovation workshop may have just hit hard times. AI execs and investors say market volatility and regulations clamping down on data may soon lead to AI startups getting gobbled up by companies with cash and data to burn. The market intelligence firm CB Insights said in a report this year that the 100 best-funded startups in artificial intelligence have raised over $7.4B in funding across 300 deals from 600 unique investors. Now as the market skyrockets, then plummets in extreme volatility amid the coronavirus crisis, that may be endangered.
UPDATE 1-German data mining software provider Celonis valued at $2.5 bln after funding round
BERLIN, Nov 21 (Reuters) - German data mining software firm Celonis said on Thursday that it had raised $290 mln in a Series C funding round, putting a $2.5 billion valuation on the company that has been compared with enterprise application giant SAP . The funding round was led by Arena Holdings and investors included Ryan Smith, the founder of customer experience specialist Qualtrics that was bought by SAP for $8 billion a year ago. Celonis, based in Munich and New York, runs a cloud-based service that uses artificial intelligence to mine data and optimise business processes, serving customers including Siemens, 3M, Airbus and Vodafone. "We are in a market that shows enormous momentum," co-CEO and co-founder Bastian Nominacher told Reuters, adding that Celonis would invest the funds raised in its global sales and customer service and in enhancing its cloud platform. The funding round brings total investments into Celonis to $370 million.
Accenture Completes Acquisition of Mudano, Enhancing Its Analytics and Data Transformation Services to Financial Services Firms in the UK
Accenture Completes Acquisition of Mudano, Enhancing Its Analytics and Data Transformation Services to Financial Services Firms in the UK LONDON; Feb. 28, 2020 โ Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has completed its acquisition of Mudano, a strategic data consultancy to U.K. financial services firms. The acquisition enhances Accenture's analytics, data and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation capabilities. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Mudano's team of industry-focused data professionals will join Accenture Applied Intelligence. Mudano was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in London, with a presence in Edinburgh, Scotland. About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations.
What Companies Tend to Get Wrong About AI
In the stampede to build an AI strategy, executives fall into four main traps. It's almost impossible to pick up a trade journal, hear a start-up pitch or listen to a quarterly earnings call without hearing the two magic letters: AI. Over the past few years, interest in artificial intelligence has rocketed with no sign of abating. But in the stampede to build an AI strategy, executives fall into the following four main traps. As boards and corporations are flush with AI fever, they tend to speak of AI as one all-encompassing technology.