Improving operating room capacity management through data analytics and machine learning will be the breakfast keynote topic of discussion at the upcoming 2020 OR Business Management Conference. Ashley Walsh, senior director of client services at LeanTaaS, Inc., a Silicon Valley software innovator that increases patient access and transforms operational performance for healthcare providers, and Melissa Pressley, management engineer at Duke University Health System (DUHS), will address the audience on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 a.m. in the Global Ballroom of the Bonaventure Resort & Spa in Weston, Florida. "Improving OR utilization and improving surgeon access to OR time significantly enhances the financial results for hospitals and health systems, increases patient access, and facilitates surgeon recruitment and retention" "DUHS has leveraged EHR data to improve OR access with mobile and web technologies and increase accountability with surgeon-centric metrics and reporting to help our surgeons better understand the "why" behind OR metrics," said Pressley. "I'm looking forward to sharing how DUHS and LeanTaaS have enhanced the patient experience while balancing surgeon needs, among other improvements." DUHS is among several leading health systems in the U.S. that have deployed the LeanTaaS iQueue for Operating Rooms solution to effect data-driven changes to their approach to capacity management.

For today's retailers, AI is fast becoming an invaluable tool to understand what shoppers want – and ensure their experience matches up with their expectations. From supermarket chains with thousands of retail outlets to online clothes brands, fast-evolving AI technologies are helping them to increase sales, reduce excess stock and overall, improve profit margins. "Retailers are under increasing pressure," says Kate Edwards, Senior Research Analyst at JLL. "AI is a growing part of their business model to use the data they have to better understand their customers, predict future trends and boost business, from improving the customer-facing experience, to optimising supply chain processes." The growing focus on sustainability is equally driving uptake. For example, AI can help identify the opportunities for unsold products, reduce the levels of returned products and decipher optimal fulfilment options, delivering both cost and environmental benefits.

IBM called for rules aimed at eliminating bias in artificial intelligence to ease concerns that the technology relies on data that bakes in past discriminatory practices and could harm women, minorities, the disabled, older Americans and others. As it seeks to define a growing debate in the U.S. and Europe over how to regulate the burgeoning industry, IBM urged industry and governments to jointly develop standards to measure and combat potential discrimination. The Armonk, New York-based company issued policy proposals Tuesday ahead of a Wednesday panel on AI to be led by Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The initiative is designed to find a consensus on rules that may be stricter than what industry alone might produce, but that are less stringent than what governments might impose on their own. "It seems pretty clear to us that government regulation of artificial intelligence is the next frontier in tech policy regulation," said Chris Padilla, vice president of government and regulatory affairs at International Business Machines Corp. The 108-year-old company, once a world technology leader, has lagged behind the sector for years.

Sign up here to receive the Davos Diary, a special daily newsletter that will run from Jan. 20-24. IBM called for rules aimed at eliminating bias in artificial intelligence to ease concerns that the technology relies on data that bakes in past discriminatory practices and could harm women, minorities, the disabled, older Americans and others. As it seeks to define a growing debate in the U.S. and Europe over how to regulate the burgeoning industry, IBM urged industry and governments to jointly develop standards to measure and combat potential discrimination. The Armonk, New York-based company issued policy proposals Tuesday ahead of a Wednesday panel on AI to be led by Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The initiative is designed to find a consensus on rules that may be stricter than what industry alone might produce, but that are less stringent than what governments might impose on their own. "It seems pretty clear to us that government regulation of artificial intelligence is the next frontier in tech policy regulation," said Chris Padilla, vice president of government and regulatory affairs at International Business Machines Corp.

Today's Daily AI Roundup covers the latest Artificial Intelligence announcements on AI capabilities, AI mobility products, Robotic Service, Technology from Samya.AI, Trend Micro, Tata Consultancy Services, Moody's Analytics, and Machine Zone. Samya.AI, an enterprise Revenue Growth AI SaaS company, announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed round funding led by Sequoia India. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, announced it has joined non-profit community LOT Network in a bid to combat the growing threat posed to its business and its customers by patent assertion entities (PAEs). Tata Consultancy Services, the leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, reported its consolidated financial results according to Ind AS and IFRS, for the quarter ending December 31, 2019. Moody's Analytics, a global provider of financial intelligence, has won the Best Financial Services AI Solution category at the 2019 Artificial Intelligence Awards.

Today's Daily AI Roundup covers the latest Artificial Intelligence announcements on AI capabilities, AI mobility products, Robotic Service, Technology from Samya.AI, Trend Micro, Tata Consultancy Services, Moody's Analytics, and Machine Zone. Samya.AI, an enterprise Revenue Growth AI SaaS company, announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed round funding led by Sequoia India. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, announced it has joined non-profit community LOT Network in a bid to combat the growing threat posed to its business and its customers by patent assertion entities (PAEs). Tata Consultancy Services, the leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, reported its consolidated financial results according to Ind AS and IFRS, for the quarter ending December 31, 2019. Moody's Analytics, a global provider of financial intelligence, has won the Best Financial Services AI Solution category at the 2019 Artificial Intelligence Awards.

Soft Robotics Inc., a pioneer in robotic grasping, announced today that it has raised $23 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Calibrate Ventures and Material Impact and included existing investors Honeywell, Hyperplane, Scale, Tekfen Ventures, and Yamaha. FANUC Corp., the world's largest industrial robot manufacturer, joined this round as a new investor in Soft Robotics. Soft Robotics previously announced a strategic partnership with FANUC to integrate Soft Robotics' mGrip adaptable gripper system with any FANUC robot through the deployment of a new controller. The combined product was introduced at IREX in Tokyo in December 2019.

"Ambarella is an artificial intelligence ("AI") company," says the first line in a recent Ambarella (AMBA) investor presentation to Morgan Stanley. More than four and a half years ago, we wrote about how Ambarella was seeing very strong revenue growth selling semiconductor processing solutions for video in four primary segments: camera-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), wearable cameras like GoPro, cameras for drones, and home automation cameras. Since that article, shares of Ambarella have fallen -50% compared to a NASDAQ return of 73% over the same time frame. Fortunately, the company is being forthcoming with investors as to why the company's stock has performed so poorly. We had previously remarked how a lack of transparency into the company's financials prevented investors from seeing which of these areas were contributing to all that strong revenue growth.

Finance and accounting professionals are under constant pressure from the C-suite to elevate the strategic relevance of their function. At the same time, they are under day-to-day pressure to help their organizations stay ahead of audit and compliance requirements, report on financial results, and manage ongoing accounting activities. These activities are all critical for business growth. As enterprise resource planning is meant to be both the primary source of truth and technology used to perform these tasks, it can play a critical role in improving the ease and accuracy with which they are completed. Having the right ERP technology can make or break a finance team's ability to focus on the strategic instead of the tactical.

Apple has acquired Xnor.ai, a Seattle startup specializing in low-power, edge-based artificial intelligence tools, sources with knowledge of the deal told GeekWire. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources said Apple paid an amount similar to what was paid for Turi, in the range of $200 million. Xnor.ai didn't immediately respond to our inquiries, while Apple emailed us its standard response on questions about acquisitions: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." When we visited Xnor.ai's office in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood this morning, a move was clearly in progress -- presumably to Apple's Seattle offices. The arrangement suggests that Xnor's AI-enabled image recognition tools could well become standard features in future iPhones and webcams.