NVIDIA is sitting pretty in AI (artificial intelligence) right now. For the next few years, most AI systems will continue to be trained on NVIDIA GPUs and specialized hardware and cloud services that incorporate these processors. However, NVIDIA has been frustrated in its attempts to become a dominant provider of AI chips for deployment into smartphones, embedded systems, and other edge devices. To address that strategic gap, NVIDIA this past week announced that it is acquiring processor architecture firm Arm Holdings from SoftBank Group and the SoftBank Vision Fund. Once the acquisition closes in the expected 18 months, NVIDIA will retain Arm's name, brand identity, management team, and base of operations in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Technology expert John Best provided an overview of the potential that artificial intelligence (AI) holds for credit unions during a general session at the CUNA Operations & Member Experience Council Conference in Chicago. Best says the long-held vision of AI is a robot that performs virtually all our day-to-day duties, but in the immediate future, AI applications will act as our assistants. "Tomorrow's AI revolution will grow from today's technology," he says. "We're going to have applications in place that take what we do today and do it better." Whether employees are in the call center or accounting, they'll have AI that will assist them with their everyday duties, he says.

Technology expert John Best provided an overview of the potential that artificial intelligence (AI) holds for credit unions during a general session at the CUNA Operations & Member Experience Council Conference in Chicago. Best says the long-held vision of AI is a robot that performs virtually all our day-to-day duties, but in the immediate future, AI applications will act as our assistants. "Tomorrow's AI revolution will grow from today's technology," he says. "We're going to have applications in place that take what we do today and do it better." Whether employees are in the call center or accounting, they'll have AI that will assist them with their everyday duties, he says.

According to recent data, the majority of retailers think artificial intelligence (AI) will be a competitive necessity in the next few years. This comes as no surprise, with the expansive list of benefits that AI brings to the retail industry, including improved customer experience, reduced operational costs and increased efficiency. As retailers are rushing to realize the benefits of AI and machine learning technologies in tandem with customers expecting a top-notch in-store experience across all touchpoints, the challenges with adoption are becoming apparent. At some point, whether online or in-store, consumers will want to speak with a live person. When it comes to integrating technology into the retail experience, there will inevitably be a time when it makes more sense for a customer to speak with someone face-to-face or on the phone.

According to recent data, the majority of retailers think artificial intelligence (AI) will be a competitive necessity in the next few years. This comes as no surprise, with the expansive list of benefits that AI brings to the retail industry, including improved customer experience, reduced operational costs and increased efficiency. As retailers are rushing to realize the benefits of AI and machine learning technologies in tandem with customers expecting a top-notch in-store experience across all touchpoints, the challenges with adoption are becoming apparent. At some point, whether online or in-store, consumers will want to speak with a live person. When it comes to integrating technology into the retail experience, there will inevitably be a time when it makes more sense for a customer to speak with someone face-to-face or on the phone.

Some of the techniques that can be utilized to drive artificial intelligence (AI) innovation are lean and design thinking. Both techniques, or a modified combination, are useful to effectively innovate. In this article, I will provide an overview to both to enable you to be a practitioner, especially to employ design thinking without any tools whatsoever. Lean is the elimination of waste, where "waste" refers to work that adds no value or limited value to a process. Lean is about organizing work activities.

Advanced Micro Devices is gearing up to join a race to accelerate deep-learning jobs in client and embedded systems. However, AMD is not yet ready to provide any specifics on the 7-nm x86 and GPU chips that it aims to deliver over the next year -- or its roadmap beyond 7 nm. "There is a need for high performance with what we call the edge [of the network] … closer to the source where data is coming in and [needing] to be analyzed -- often in real time," said Mark Papermaster, AMD's chief technology officer, in an interview. "AMD's machine-learning strategy is holistic and provides engines of AI for both the data center and the edge." In late 2016, AMD released its first GPU accelerators for deep learning in the data center.

At its AI for Allconference in Bengaluru, Microsoft India today showcased some of its most recent artificial intelligence (AI) solutions aimed at helping improve lives and transform businesses. Microsoft India said it is helping 650 India-based partners use the Microsoft cognitive services, IoT, AI and machine learning platforms to build solutions for India. Over the last year, Microsoft and its partners have deployed AI solutions in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture,retail, e-commerce, manufacturing and financial services. Today Microsoft also announced a partnership with Forus Health, a Bengaluru-based technology company focusing on retinal imaging devices, to leverage AI capabilities for early detection of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma & macular degeneration, and help reduce avoidable blindness. "We are working closely with our partners to bring AI to all sectors in India,"said Mr. Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India.

It's safe to say that as data sets grow and the time to create positive impressions shrinks, having compelling insights at your disposal becomes more critical to customer engagement success. Jim Sinai, vice president of marketing at Salesforce Einstein, notes how retailers are trying to build a better experience online and ultimately bridge the online and in-store experiences. "What the Salesforce Commerce Cloud with Einstein is actually helping people do is find opportunities to do product recommendations to visitors both for the web experience and the in-store experience and figure out how to bring that connected retail experience together."

A new partnership will help retailers make smarter business decisions faster. Based on a new alliance between IBM Watson and Salesforce, the companies will seamlessly connect their solutions -- a move that will enable a new level of intelligent customer engagement across sales, service, marketing, and commerce, among other operations. Specifically, the partnership will bring new insights from Watson directly into the Salesforce Einstein's Intelligent Customer Success Platform. AI will be the foundation enabling an entirely new level of intelligent customer engagement across sales, service, marketing, commerce, among other segments. The solution integration will combine deep customer insights from Salesforce Einstein with Watson's structured and unstructured data across many sources and industries including weather, healthcare, financial services and retail.