December 14, 2016 – New York & London – DataArt, a leading global technology consultancy, predicts that 2017 will be a year of integration, disruption and transformation due in large part to the digitalization of key industry sectors. Cyber security and data protection will become major board-level concerns as financial institutions realize that failing to protect customer information will be their biggest source of regulatory non-compliance and reputational risk. Organizations will invest heavily in correcting technology vulnerabilities, lax cultures and poor processes. As a result, data management in all its forms will dominate 2017. Rapid digitalization of customer-facing services will be a matter of organizational life and death as e-commerce and fintech elevate expectations for the optimal user experience (UX).

Microsoft has taken some inspiration from Star Trek. The company announced Tuesday a program called Microsoft Translator that listens to someone, transcribes what they've said, and then shares the translated text with their audience. The system is kind of like the universal translator from the most (or second-most, depending on who you ask) influential sci-fi series. It even speaks Klingon -- Microsoft Translate supports 60 languages for speech-to-text translation, and the one used by an alien species is apparently one of them. Microsoft said that its translator can work with up to 100 people at once, even if they're split between multiple languages, just as well as it can facilitate communications between two people.

Evernote has reversed proposed changes to its privacy policy that would allow employees to read user notes to help train machine learning algorithms. CEO Chris O'Neill said the company had "messed up, in no uncertain terms." The move by the note-taking app follows protests from users, some of whom have threatened to drop the service after the company announced that its policy would change to improve its machine learning capabilities by letting a select number of employees, who would assist with the training of the algorithms, view the private information of its users. The machine learning technologies would make users more productive as they would allow the automation of functions now done manually, like creating to-do lists or putting together travel itineraries, O'Neill had said earlier on Thursday in defense of the proposed changes. Evernote employees would only see random content in snippets to check that the features are working properly but they wouldn't know who it belongs to, and personal information would be masked, he added.

Knowmail, a company building a Personalized Artificial Intelligence platform to help employees communicate and collaborate better, announced it closed a new $3.5 million investment led by CE Ventures with managing partner Tayman Kan also joining the board. This round also includes existing shareholders AfterDox, Plus Ventures, 2B Angels, INE Ventures and notable private investors. The additional funding will be utilized to continue building out Knowmail's functionality and expand its customer base globally. Founded in 2014, Knowmail is led by Haim Senior (CEO), previously executive at EMC, seasoned entrepreneur Oded Avital (COO) and previous Verint Systems ASG director Avi Mandelberg (CTO) in order to, in their own words, "liberate corporate employees from slavery created by information overload". "We are thrilled to lead this latest round of funding for Knowmail and strongly believe in the team and vision."

Business analytics software provider FusionOps has launched a platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify opportunities to improve supply chain performance for customers such as manufacturers and enterprise corporations, the company said Tuesday. The new "cognitive applications" product is an extension of Mountain View, Calif.-based FusionOps' existing suite of supply chain solutions, which use database analysis and machine-learning tools to help companies improve their forecasts, control costs, and hone inventory levels. The platform uses embedded AI and machine learning to connect the dots between complex signals such as changes in demand, manufacturing, inventory, orders, and external factors. The system then suggests solutions and can even take corrective action in real time, without requiring human input. The new suite comes in three main parts, with a search feature and a cognitive application to be available in Q4 2016 and a supply chain actions tool arriving later in 2017.

We do enterprise solutions, mobility and cloud," explained Santosh Ahuja, Director of Architecture at Impiger Technologies, in this SYS-CON.tv Featured on-site presentation and ongoing on-demand webcast exposure to a captive audience of industry decision-makers Showcase exhibition during our new extended dedicated expo hours Breakout Session Priority scheduling for Sponsors that have been guaranteed a 35 minute technical session Online targeted advertising in SYS-CON's i-Technology Publications Capitalize on our Comprehensive Marketing efforts leading up to the show with print mailings, e-newsletters and extensive online media coverage Unprecedented Marketing Coverage: Editorial Coverage on ITweetup to over 100,000 plus followers, press releases sent on major wire services to over 500 industry analysts Online targeted advertising in SYS-CON's i-Technology Publications All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades. With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @CloudExpo @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.

Watch out Tesla and Google: the race for whom will build the car of the future is still far from over. German automakers are working hard to stay ahead of the pack and add new capabilities to their reliable, if sometimes unexciting, vehicles. Back in September BMW, Audi and Mercedes announced the launch of a project aimed at helping vehicles communicate with each other and help the driver gain a better understanding of traffic conditions. The BMW i8 is presented on the first day of the press days of Paris motor Show, on September 29, 2016. Today, BMW unveils yet another agreement, a partnership with American giant IBM.

WIRE)--Conversica, the leader in artificial intelligence (AI) powered business conversations and the only provider of AI-based lead engagement software for sales and marketing, today announced that it has secured $34 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round. The round was led by Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners L.L.C. (PSG), an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners L.L.C., with participation from Toba Capital, Wellington Financial LP and Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd., as well as additional funding from existing investor Kennet Partners and founder Ben Brigham. Conversica's board of directors has been expanded to include PSG Managing Director Gopi Vaddi and Toba Capital Partner Wilder Ramsey. "The Conversica team has developed a unique and powerful way to solve a ubiquitous business problem, enabling sales and marketing organizations to automatically engage, qualify and follow up with their leads to more effectively turn them into customers," said Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica. "Sales and marketing professionals at over 1,000 organizations have already achieved tremendous productivity enhancements by deploying our service. We are confident that our unique AI technology will be deployed across a broad spectrum of customer engagement functions to automate and improve many important business conversations."

Evernote is trying to improve its digital-note-taking service, but it needs to access and read customer notes to do so. In a corporate blog post published this week, the company said it's updating the terms of its privacy policy to include a change that lets its employees access user notes to improve its machine-learning technologies. Machine learning technologies can allow powerful software to sift through data to find patterns and better automate tasks. Evernote said the decision to have some of its employees read user notes, effective Jan. 27, 2017, was done to "make sure that our machine learning technologies are working correctly, in order to surface the most relevant content and features to you." The company elaborated that although its current "computer systems do a pretty good job, sometimes a limited amount of human review is simply unavoidable in order to make sure everything is working exactly as it should."

Gigaom, the leader in emerging technology research, today announced that it will host its annual conference Gigaom AI Now in San Francisco, CA, February 15-16th. The one-and-a-half day conference, held at the Golden Gate Club, will share how companies are using AI today to drive significant ROI across every aspect of business, from administration to product development, sales and marketing, and customer experience. Attendees at this event will learn from world-leading practitioners how today's progressive businesses are applying the most innovative AI tools, platforms, and technologies in-house to drive revenue and improve operations across the enterprise. "In the last couple of years, AI has become the technology no enterprise can afford to ignore. It will change every department in almost every business. We have designed this event to focus entirely on how enterprises can use AI right now to improve their business in substantial ways," shared Gigaom Publisher, Byron Reese.