EcoFactor is one of several startups with a cloud computing platform to manage and analyze data from smart thermostats and other home energy devices. But it also specializes in using that data to monitor and predict performance problems and impending failures of the air conditioners keeping houses cool. That kind of technology could have a lot of value to the companies that make heating, air conditioning and ventilation equipment -- enough to make it worth owning. On Tuesday, HVAC giant Trane announced it has acquired EcoFactor's energy analytics software for an undisclosed sum. Trane, a brand of Ingersoll Rand, plans to integrate EcoFactor's "unique artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for energy efficiency and HVAC fault detection" into its existing Nexia home automation line.

British companies that fail to invest in artificial intelligence soon are at risk of losing 20pc of their cash flow, McKinsey has warned. New figures claim that AI could boost the UK economy by 22pc in the next decade by making companies more productive, and fast-moving businesses could stand to grow in value by 120pc if they invest in AI tools. A new report produced by the consultancy's business and economics research arm McKinsey Global Institute has claimed the UK is "potentially more AI-ready compared with the global average", but could miss out on the opportunity if investment does not occur. "The United Kingdom has impressive pockets of innovation but is failing to scale to business more broadly," the report stated. It cited DeepMind, which was bought by Google for £306m in 2014, and Magic Pony, which was taken over by Twitter in a £102m deal in 2016, as examples of these pockets.

Investment banking is seeing its historical profit centers eroded by technology and regulations. Core processes are being automated or commoditized. From IPOs, to M&A, to research and trading, investment banks are getting smaller, leaner, and scrambling to keep up with innovations. In 2006, investment banks were at the top of the finance world. With torrential growth and return on investment (ROI) driven largely by the trading of complex financial instruments, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and others achieved record profits and awarded unprecedented bonuses. Over the next two years, everything fell apart. Download the free report to learn how core processes of this financial service are being automated or commoditized. After the collapse of Lehman and Bear Stearns and the global financial crisis that ensued, the business models of the world's biggest investment banks needed to change. In the US, legislation emerged to forbid investment banks from prop trading, or trading with their own capital, and forcing them to keep more capital on hand. This regulation reduced trading profits and created a need to cut costs, spurring investment banks to spin off unprofitable divisions or eliminate them entirely. While the rules against prop trading have more recently been loosened, the restriction has still changed how investment banks operate. Moreover, as more and more companies raise large equity rounds they're also choosing to delay public offerings. And even when major tech companies do decide to go public, some, like Spotify and Slack, are doing so mostly without the help of banks. As a result, banks are facing dropping IPO profits: they generated just $7.3B in revenue in 2017 from equity capital markets, which includes IPOs, down an inflation-adjusted 43% since 2000's peak, according to the Wall Street Journal. At the same time, financial upstarts have built technologies that could eventually cut into the relationship-driven work that investment banks are used to doing. Instead of working with a bank to make an acquisition, you can use Axial -- the so-called "Tinder of M&A," for its algorithm-based approach to matching companies with potential buyers. In 2015, 26% of $1B mergers and acquisitions took place without the help of external financial advisors, up 13% from the year before, according to Dealogic.

In modern times, talking about artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction; it is a reality more than palpable. The daily life of people is mostly supervised by artificial intelligence, whether it is found in social networks or the one used by governments as national security systems, to mention two. However, how can artificial intelligence influence today's economy?, Can this change the direction of the world economy?, We can start answering these answers today with certain echoes that occur around the world, as a week ago AICoin invested in a pioneer startup in Artificial Intelligence technologies for health in the United States of America, since AIcoin uses the profits of cryptocurrency operations to acquire capital holdings in Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups. The deal is as follows, AICoin, through Tessier-Ash pool PTE Ltd. is the main investor in this round of financing of US $ 2,000,000 and will acquire a position on the Sevamob board of directors. Sevamob, a provider of platforms enabled by artificial intelligence for medical care in organizations, and part of the Innovations in Healthcare program at Duke University, is one of the new companies that uses technologies such as artificial intelligence and telemedicine in clinics emerging from light assets, to provide superior primary medical care to marginalized populations at a cost up to 50% lower.

ABBYY, a global leader in Content IQ technologies and solutions, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based TimelinePI. TimelinePI provides a comprehensive process intelligence platform designed to empower users to understand, monitor and optimize any business process. The global process analytics market size is expected to grow to USD 1,421.7 million by 2023 according to Research and Markets. The acquisition of TimelinePI is a strategic investment by ABBYY into the emerging process intelligence market which is critical to truly understanding the impact and effectiveness of business processes and opportunities for productivity gains from digital transformation investments. TimelinePI's vision of combining the most versatile process mining and operational monitoring with cutting-edge, process-centric AI and machine learning will serve as a critical cornerstone to ABBYY's Digital IQ strategy.

SoftBank Group saw its operating income increase by 81% over the year to March 31, 2019, driven by its SoftBank Vision and Delta Funds more than tripling their operating income. Here's how it's related to artificial intelligence, how it works and why it matters. Overall, the SoftBank conglomerate took in ¥9.6 trillion in sales, an increase of 5%, from which it made ¥2.35 trillion in earnings before interest and taxes, up 81%, and ¥1.4 trillion of net income. Broken down, both of its telcos in the form of Sprint and SoftBank Corporation contributed around ¥3.7 trillion in sales, with Yahoo Japan making ¥947 billion in sales, and others making up the remaining ¥1.2 trillion. For operating income, the SoftBank Vision Fund hit ¥1.26 trillion, SoftBank made ¥725 billion, Sprint contributed ¥280 billion, and Yahoo Japan made ¥135 billion.

While some people might think Cinco de Mayo is about Mexican independence, it's actually a holiday that celebrates the day three Americans fought and defeated El Guapo at the Battle of Santa Poco. And it's just one of the many things Mexico is famous for. Her rich cultural heritage has resulted in some of the world's best cuisine that has been exported to every corner of the planet. Then there are the other exports, like those depicted in the recent third season of Narcos, a gripping thriller about the country's cartels in the 1980s. Mexico also plays a key role in regional international trade as the US' neighbor and second largest export market.

Google shares slumped on Monday after the company failed to beat analyst predictions, following a year of internal turmoil, privacy concerns, and several international fines. Stock for Alphabet, Google's parent company, was down 7% in after-hours trading after the company reported first quarter revenue of $36.34bn, lower than the $37.33bn revenue forecast by analysts. The quarter one earnings represent a 17% increase from the same time last year, in which it reported $31.15bn in revenue. In a call with investors on Monday, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, said the company would continue to invest more in algorithms on YouTube, following recent incidents that saw the platform offering misinformation, hate speech, and disturbing content targeting children. He also promised to continue to address user privacy concerns.

AI in commerce is a fast-growing -- and highly lucrative -- industry. A recent report published by Juniper Research predicts that global retail spending on AI and machine learning will reach $7.3 billion per year by 2022, up from an estimated $2 billion in 2018. Stores with and without brick-and-mortar presences cite cost savings, increased productivity, and more informed business decision-making as the leading adoption drivers; that's part of the reason why retail AI deployments experienced a sevenfold increase from 2016, according to Capgemini. Vue.ai is looking to cash in on the trend, and it's raising venture capital to lay the stage for its next round of growth. The Fremont, California-based subbrand of AI startup Mad Street Den today announced that it's raised $17 million in a series B financing round led by Falcon Edge Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and KDDI Innovation Fund's Global Brain.

Tesla's "autonomy day" kicked off on Monday morning at the electric-vehicle maker's headquarters in Palo Alto, California, where executives including CEO Elon Musk were expected to give investors more details about the company's self-driving technology, known as Autopilot. "Tesla is making significant progress in the development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including our FSD computer, which is currently in production and which will enable full-self driving via future over-the-air software updates," the company said when it announced the event. Attendees were given red, Tesla-branded badges with sequential numbers, assumably for test rides of the full self-driving functionality. Musk took the stage just before noon alongside Pete Bannon, the vice president of Autopilot engineering, as more than 40,000 people watched remotely via the company's live YouTube stream. Bannon explained how Tesla designed a new chip for its Autopilot software, noting that the company was able to leverage expertise from multiple teams across the business.