At a time when technologies like natural language processing (NLP), robotic process automation (RPA), and machine learning (ML) are transforming the traditional enterprise, businesses are left with two choices: adopt artificial intelligence (AI) or get left behind. In the Benelux region, AI is topping the corporate agenda across all industries. The Benelux region is already in a strong position as an innovation hub for AI. As ports of AI expansion, countries like Belgium and the Netherlands are witnessing a rapid increase in AI development and adoption. In many ways, now is the best time for enterprises in this region to renew their focus on AI and start doubling their efforts.

We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. When I joined VentureBeat three months ago, it came as no surprise to discover that a stubborn gender gap remains among AI professionals and researchers. Frustrating, to be sure, especially when the demand for AI talent is so high. The statistics say it all: A 2020 World Economic Forum report found that women make up only 26% of data and AI positions in the workforce. According to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI's 2021 AI Index Report, women make up just 16% of tenure track faculty focused on AI globally.

While social or companion robots may sound like something one would only see in a science-fiction movie, conversational AI bots are becoming the norm in Asia, and are beginning to be commonplace even in the United States. Microsoft's Xiaoice, for instance, has 660 million users in China, and recently had a valuation of $1 billion dollars. The Xiaoice chatbot is included in 450 million smart devices, and according to the Xiaoice company, which split off from Microsoft in 2020, 60% of all worldwide AI-human interactions are conducted via Xiaoice technology. Many enterprise businesses use AI chatbots for customer service and product inquiries, but for millions of users today, the AI chatbot is seen as a romantic partner or companion. Likened to the AI-character Samantha in the 2013 movie Her, Xiaoice is not the only AI entity in the conversational AI space.

In recent years, the rise of artificial intelligence is incredibly impacting business processes. In almost every business industry, artificial intelligence has been the key driver in gaining substantial revolution. This is because artificial intelligence is becoming part of our lives, and it is already being applied virtually in almost every business operation. In other words, AI technology is becoming an imperative for businesses that help to maintain a competitive edge. Many organizations these days have realized how artificial intelligence is making huge waves in the business world, thus have started to adopt it.

Huawei today unveiled in its Shenzhen headquarters a new AI chipset for IoT devices, in yet another move by the company to reduce its reliance on U.S. components. Named the Ascend 910, this chipset comes just two weeks after Huawei pulled back the curtain on its own proprietary operating system, HarmonyOS, which will be used in an upcoming smart TV and soon other smart home products from the company. Almost exactly two years ago Huawei introduced the Kirin 970, the first mobile chipset with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which brought on-device machine learning capabilities to the Mate 10 series of smartphones. Apple and Qualcomm didn't implement a neural engine into their respective mobile chipsets (the A series and Snapdragon series) until a year later. The Ascend 910's A.I. scale is much larger than the Kirin chips' NPU, as it's designed to handle large data networks and in the near future power smart cities and driver-less cars--in China, at least. It is very unlikely western countries will adopt Huawei's A.I. framework anytime soon, given all the recent allegations made by the U.S. government.

The costs associated with information technology products and services in Australia are expected to reach A$93 billion in 2019, while 28 per cent of spending within key enterprise IT markets globally is expected to shift to the cloud by 2022. Developments in cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence(AI) have changed what's possible in regard to software services which can be provided to organisations. Each year, solutions powered by the cloud and AI are deployed by enterprise businesses to improve the efficiency of business operations and the productivity of employees. Business communication methods are one area that has and will continue to benefit greatly from improvements in cloud technology and AI. This advance in technology is allowing businesses to seek quicker and more simple communication in an increasingly mobile world.

H2O.ai, an AI company that provides industry-leading data products for enterprise businesses, today announced it has been named by Gartner, Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global machine learning industry, as a Representative Provider of deep learning platform provider that allows users to create their own deep learning solutions. Gartner's January 2017 Innovation Insight for Deep Learning report listed H2O's Deep Water as one provider of deep learning platforms, placing it alongside other offerings from Caffe, Ersatz Labs, Facebook's Torch, Google TensorFlow, Intel's Nervana, The Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, Theano and Skymind's Deeplearning4j. "We believe our inclusion in this report validates and enforces our standing in the industry," said SriSatish Ambati, co-founder and CEO of H2O.ai. "We're excited to continue expanding our suite of deep learning solutions." H2O.ai launched in 2011 with the goal of democratizing data science by open sourcing deep learning and AI for everyone.

Terrible user interface and complex designs have plagued enterprise tools for decades. These tools are not only boring and bulky, but most of them require hours of training, onboarding, and whatnot before you can actually start using them. You end up losing crucial time just figuring out the basic workflow. This is 2016, and there ought to be a better way for enterprise businesses to get work done quickly and efficiently. The good news is it looks like bots might be the answer.

Terrible user interface and complex designs have plagued enterprise tools for decades. These tools are not only boring and bulky, but most of them require hours of training, onboarding, and whatnot before you can actually start using them. You end up losing crucial time just figuring out the basic workflow. This is 2016, and there ought to be a better way for enterprise businesses to get work done quickly and efficiently. The good news is it looks like bots might be the answer.

Most enterprise businesses, for decades, have been subjected to tools that have bad user interface and complex designs. Apart from being boring and bulky, most of these tools require hours of training, onboarding, etc., before one can actually start using them. On an average, a typical employee ends up spending 70‑80 percent of their work time on outdated enterprise software. In this process, you eventually lose crucial work time in just figuring out the basic workflow. If the hours spent on enterprise software could be brought down without hampering the workflow, then it could be a huge boost in employee efficiency.