Sal Syed admits it's almost too good to be true. The first time he utilized the Arccos Caddie, golf's first artificial intelligence-powered platform, he notched a hole-in-one. "My first experience was nothing short of remarkable," says Syed, who is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Arccos, a golf tracking, sensor and data company. "(Arccos Caddie) is similar to, almost like a Waze or Google Maps. It's giving you the optimal directions to get from Point A to Point B on the golf course. I know I'm biased but I can't imagine playing without it now."

Stamford, Conn.-based Arccos Golf Wednesday launched a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI) caddie for golf, saying the platform will help golfers of all skill levels achieve lower scores with the power of data-driven decisions. Dubbed Arccos Caddie, the platform is powered by the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and trained on a data set comprised of more than 61 million shots hit by the users of Arccos' golf-tracking system, elevation data and 386 million geotagged data points on more than 40,000 golf courses. Arccos notes the AI platform also accounts for weather conditions, including forecasted wind speed, wind direction, precipitation and temperature. "Every shot in golf involves a decision-making process, and the caddie's role has historically been to help you make more intelligent choices," said Sal Syed, CEO and co-founder of Arccos. "Today, however, less than three percent of players have access to a caddie.

"Every shot in golf involves a decision-making process, and the caddie's role has historically been to help you make more intelligent choices. Today, however, less than 3 percent of players have access to a caddie," said Sal Syed, CEO and Co-Founder of Arccos. "Everyone else is missing out on a crucial source of information that can help inform every shot. Arccos named Microsoft as its Official Cloud Partner in January 2017. Together, they are dedicated to creating artificial intelligence technologies that will move the connected golf category forward, taking it mainstream; this starts with Arccos Caddie.