The news: The word "digital" came up 44 times on Starbucks' investor call Thursday, following its earnings report that beat analyst estimates with $6.75 billion in third quarter revenue. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson highlighted the company's "Deep Brew" initiative that leverages artificial intelligence to automate inventory orders; predict staffing needs; anticipate equipment maintenance; personalize customer offers (its Starbucks Rewards loyalty membership program grew 15 percent to 17.6 million members); and more. "Deep Brew is a key differentiator for the future," Johnson said on the call. Johnson, a former Microsoft and Juniper Networks leader who took over as CEO in 2017, wrote about Deep Brew in a LinkedIn post last week. The company is working with Microsoft to power the underlying infrastructure for Deep Brew.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Fintech Market report provides the past, present and future industry trends and the forecast information related to the expected Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Fintech Market sales revenue, growth, demand, and supply scenario. It offers in-depth data, improves variations of the worldwide Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Fintech Market to help you in deciding the final strategy. It features far-reaching information in terms of changing market dynamics, manufacturing trends, structural changes in the market, and the latest developments. Market Overview: The report begins with this section where product overview and highlights of product and application segments of the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Fintech Market are provided. Highlights of the segmentation study include price, revenue, sales, sales growth rate, and market share by product.

La Forge is an Accelerator dedicated to Artificial Intelligence.

Cognex CGNX recently announced the acquisition of Seoul-based SUALAB, a developer of deep learning-based vision software. Although the financial terms of the acquisition have been kept under wraps, per a Pulse article the transaction price is estimated to be $168.6 million. Deep learning allows Cognex to solve the most complex vision application operations in factories faster, easier and in a cost-effective manner. The addition of SUALAB's Intellectual property and highly skillful engineering team, which specializes in deep learning, is expected to strengthen the company's product portfolio. The latest acquisition will help Cognex to reap benefits from strong prospects of the global deep learning system software market.

At the COSM Technology Summit, tech pioneer and visionary Ray Kurzweil offered by interactive video a glimpse of his foreseen Singularity in which we merge with super-intelligent computers. As a Director of Engineering at Google, with a 30-year track record of accurate predictions and many key patents to his credit, the "the restless genius" (Wall Street Journal) projects the revolution -- of which he has been so large a component -- into a limitless future: "I've been in this field 55 years and it's only in the last few years that we can take everything humans do and go way beyond the best human. We can perform any kind of human capability." He cites an example: "AlphaGoZero was not given any information about Go but after three days defeated every human. These milestones are coming quickly."

Digital media software company RealNetworks has announced significant financial progress in the third quarter financial report, the company says in a press release. RealNetworks had already announced great success for its SAFR biometric facial recognition software in its Q2 2019 report that saw revenues of $44.2 million. According to current figures, the third quarter revenue rose to $45.0 million from just $17.6 million during the same timeframe last year. The SAFR live video artificial intelligence and biometric facial recognition platform was recently integrated with the Nvidia Metropolis Software Partner Program to improve technology deployment in smart city projects. In June, SAFR biometric facial recognition was rolled out in a museum in Europe on MOBOTIX cameras to provide live analytics.

Forecast, a Denmark-based startup that has developed "AI-powered" project management software, has raised $5.5 million in new funding. The round is led by Crane Venture Partners, with participation from existing backers SEED Capital and Heartcore. Forecast has raised $10 million in total funding to date. Founded in late 2016, Forecast describes itself as an AI-powered project management solution that automates manual project management tasks, and brings extra visibility and predictive capabilities to to project management. The idea is to help increase collaboration across teams with a better workflow and to improve planning.

Starbucks Corp. is getting personal with its customers, enlisting help from advanced technologies that the company says will kick its digital capabilities up a notch. Kevin Johnson, Starbucks' SBUX, 0.44% chief executive, talked on the post-earnings conference call with analysts about Deep Brew, an artificial intelligence program, saying it has been percolating for the past year. The company has been ramping up its investment in artificial intelligence during the course of the program. "Deep Brew will increasingly power our personalization engine, optimize store labor allocations and drive inventory management in stores," said Johnson, according to a FactSet transcript. With more customers signing up for the company's loyalty program, the opportunity for personalization is increasing.

Viz.ai, a healthcare startup that's using artificial intelligence (AI) to help medical professionals spot early signs of stroke, has raised $50 million in a series B round of funding led by Greenoaks, with participation from Alphabet's VC arm GV and Kleiner Perkins. In the U.S. alone, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), culminating in some 140,000 deaths each year -- or 1 in every 20 deaths. Moreover, those who survive a stroke often suffer long-term disability as a result. As with many medical conditions, early stroke detection is the key to treating and negating the impact of strokes, but they can be difficult to diagnose. And even then, coordinating treatment among the various specialists can cause unnecessary delays.