The demand for artificial intelligence has grown significantly in the last few years due to the advantages it provides. Rising use of big data, growing demand for greater transparency and visibility into supply chain data and processes, and increasing adoption of AI for improving consumer services and satisfaction are some of the other factors driving the demand in this market. Moreover, growing applicability of AI in various industries has further augmented the demand in this market. The global artificial intelligence in supply chain market could be classified on basis of technology, application, end-user industry, and offerings. The end-user industry category can further be segmented into manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, retail, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, food and beverages, and others.

Montreal-based Element AI, which develops artificial intelligence-powered software solutions, announced this morning it has raised US$151.4 million in a massive Series B round. Founded in 2016 by a team of six partners including serial entrepreneurs Jean-François (JF) Gagné and A.M. Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio, Element AI is described by lead investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) as "a company with a commercial focus that anticipates and creates AI products to address clients' needs." In its own words, Element AI "turns research and industry expertise into software solutions that exponentially learn and improve" and are adapted to specific industries with a primary focus on the financial services and supply chain sectors. Its offering, which includes advisory services, AI-enablement tools and products, aims to help large organizations "operationalize AI and create real business impact." Customers include LG and National Bank, among others.

Blackberry and Jaguar Land Rover have announced that they will work together to develop new autonomous vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies. The two companies will use Blackberry's QNX operating system and Blackberry Cylance to develop a range of capabilities to bolster vehicle safety, including predictive software maintenance and cyber threat protection, in Jaguar Land Rover's next-generation vehicle architecture. Under the partnership, Blackberry will also help Jaguar Land Rover identify potential security vulnerabilities found in connected and autonomous vehicles. "BlackBerry is a trusted partner of the automotive industry because of our heritage and innovations in secure communications," Blackberry CEO John Chen said. "We are pleased to be Jaguar Land Rover's chosen partner for safety-certified technology, as we advance Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to transform automotive safety."

Daisy Intelligence announced that it has raised $10 million (CDN) in Series A financing led by Framework Venture Partners and partnered by European-based corporate investor, Sonae IM. The funding will enable Daisy to expand globally, invest in sales and marketing, provide further support for its customer success teams, and expand its operational infrastructure as growth demands. Daisy's AI-powered technology platform helps retailers and insurance companies generate significantly improved financial results by delivering business recommendations and automating complex processes beyond human capability.Daisy is driving a revolution in retail with its core AI SaaS platform, adding intelligence and automation to merchandising decisions. Daisy has helped its retail clients increase year over year, same store sales an average of 2.9% by optimizing their promotional product and pricing mix. Insurance companies use Daisy's AI-powered risk management platform to detect and avoid millions of dollars in fraud and automatically adjudicate claims.

FarmWise announced today that it has raised a $14.5 million Series A round of funding for its autonomous agriculture robots. The round was led by Calibrate Ventures with participation from Wilbur Ellis, Xplorer Capital and Alumni Ventures Group. This brings the total amount raised by FarmWise to $20.2 million. Farmwise builds self-driving robots that use a combination of computer vision and AI to identify weeds among crops and precision mechanical tools to remove them without the need for herbicides. According to the press release sent to The Spoon, FarmWise says its robots have removed weeds from more than 10 million plants.

Bengaluru-based parent-tech startup Parentof has raised $1 million in a seed funding round to evolve its technology and expand its partner network. The recent funding round was led by angel investors V Srinivas and other existing investors. Founded in 2015, Parentof is a decision sciences organization that provides insights into child growth and decision analytics. The company creates an ecosystem for parents to easily access technology-enabled solutions to help drive better outcomes for children. It believes that applying research and technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can bridge the gap between the realities and assumptions of parenting.

The Series E financing will be used to build on this momentum, specifically supporting the continued development of the DataRobot platform -- which includes Automated Machine Learning, Automated Time Series, and MLOps -- as well as potential acquisition opportunities. DataRobot's platform has been developed over the course of more than a million hours of engineering innovation, and its capabilities have been accelerated via several strategic acquisitions. Most recently, DataRobot acquired ParallelM to create its industry-leading MLOps and governance offering. The company's holistic approach to AI success has been fine-tuned through working with thousands of AI projects across more than 35 countries.

Consumers, retailers and farmers alike are hungry for the next generation of food, and investors are beginning to acquire the taste, too. Early-stage investment in agrifood tech startups reached $10.1 billion in 2017, a 29 percent increase on the previous year. Agrifood can be split into two parts. "Agritech" refers to technologies that target farmers. Jointly, the two have enough reach to impact every part of the production line, from farm to fork.

What would you like to order?" Those are the words you might hear a robot say upon pulling up to a McDonald's drive-thru in the near future. That's because the fast-food company recently agreed to acquire a Silicon Valley-based company called Apprente, which aims to use artificial intelligence to automate the drive-through process. McDonald's hopes using artificial intelligence will not only reduce service time, but also boost profits -- customers might feel less anxious and more inclined to spend when they're dealing with a robot. The company said it might also use Apprente's technology in self-service kiosks someday, and that it plans to form a new group with Apprente employees called McD Tech Labs, which will help to automate drive-thrus. Apprente's system seems unique compared to other voice recognition systems, which normally use "speech-to-text" models that transcribe what a person says and then try to decipher the meaning.

It seems Amazon may be putting profits before customers. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the retail giant tweaked its product-search algorithms in order to favor its own'private label' and higher profit margin products– instead of what is most relevant for consumers. Programmers involved with the search algorithm are said to have opposed the change, as Amazon's principles stress they'work to earn and keep customer trust'. The changes were cited by sources familiar with the situation, who claimed Amazon's product-search system was changed last year. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the retail giant tweaked its product-search algorithms in order to favor its own'private label' and higher profit margin products– instead of what is most relevant for consumers Prior to the switch, algorithms would first show products that were bestsellers or relevant to what customers were looking to purchase.