Japanese electric motor maker Nidec raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 4.3% on Tuesday off the back of a recovery in demand for hard drive motors amid efforts to raise its profitability and a weaker yen. The company raised its expectations for operating profit in the financial year to the end of March 2025 to 240 billion ( 1.53 billion), versus an earlier forecast of 230 billion and an average analyst view of 246.9 billion. Operating profit for the April-June quarter totaled 60.3 billion, largely in line with 60.2 billion in the same period a year earlier and compared with the average estimate of 58.4 billion in a survey of four analysts by LSEG. "Nidec expects rapid demand expansion of power generators which are essential to data centers," the company said in a statement. It said it saw demand for hard drive disk motors recovering and that for water-cooling modules for artificial intelligence expanding rapidly. The company said last month its business in water-cooling modules for generative AI data centers could expand to 1 trillion in sales in the future.

Technology giant Microsoft recently released its sustainability report for the 2023 financial year, and it didn't exactly have positive numbers. Microsoft set a climate goal in 2020 to become carbon negative by 2030, sequestering more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits, but the company seems to be on the wrong track to achieve this goal. Microsoft's greenhouse gas emissions increased by 30 percent in the 2023 financial year -- and it's all Copilot's fault. The big culprit is the company's huge AI investments. It takes huge amounts of energy to train and use AI models.

Nintendo on Tuesday reported a solid net profit for the financial year to March on the strong performance of its blockbuster Switch console, but issued a cautious forecast. Uncertainties linked to the global chip shortage and potential production and transport delays caused by Covid-19 lockdowns could hit future profits, the Japanese gaming giant warned. The company, which has benefited from a string of popular titles including "Pokemon Legends: Arceus", posted a 2021-22 net profit of 477.7 billion yen ($3.7 billion), down just 0.6 percent on-year. But it expects net profit for the current financial year of 340 billion yen, a yearly drop of around 29 percent. Nintendo's profits were sent soaring by a boom in demand for video games during the pandemic and the runaway popularity of the Switch, which was launched in March 2017.

Xero has bolstered its machine learning capabilities for document processing and extraction using technology from Hubdoc, a company that the cloud accounting firm acquired last year for $70 million. According to Xero, the new machine learning capabilities means advisors will have access to more accurate information, gain deeper understanding of financial health, and the flow of data will become more automated. Xero added it is working with advisors to pilot a short-term cash flow tool that uses data and advanced statistical methods to provide small businesses with a 30-day view of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cash flow predictions, including impact of existing bills and invoices. In addition, the company has introduced single sign-on, touting it as making it easier for developers to build on the Xero platform, onboard new users, and integrate Xero with certified third-party apps. Updates to the Xero Advisor Directory using geo-targeting have also been made, the company said during Xerocon Brisbane 2019, noting the technology will make it easier for small businesses to find a local accountant or bookkeeper and onboard new clients.

A customer is the most crucial for any business enterprise. Today, with the evolution of the digital economy, a number of things have changed for the end customer – from buying grocery online to availing loans. Realising there were processes that can be automated to a great extent to enhance the customer experience, IITian couple Manish Gupta and Rashi Gupta started Rezo.ai in 2017. The Noida-based startup uses machine learning and NLP to automate enterprise workflows with limited human intervention. It also enables automatic conversational responses to customers.

The Indian banking sector is beginning to adopt AI (artificial intelligence) quite aggressively for both the back-office and customer facing purposes. According to a data provided by RBI, among state run banks in India, PNB topped in the number of loan fraud cases across India with 389 cases over the last five financial years. After the infamous bank fraud that the country witnessed this year, Punjab National Bank (PNB) on May 6, announced its plans to rely on AI for reconciliation of accounts and incorporate analytics for improving the audit systems as it seeks to clean up the process and counter fraud in the near future. This decision was taken after the biggest bank fraud in which two junior officers at a single branch had illegally steered USD 1.77 billion (Euro 1.43 billion) in fraudulent loans to companies, controlled by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi. PNB managing director Sunil Mehta said in a statement that, "The'business remodelling' brought alive by changes at PNB is essential to ensure that the bank continues to grow and compete with its peers better," and elaborated on several steps that would reduce human intervention.

Doomsday conspiracies of the human race being ruled by robots aside, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. From changing the job landscape, to becoming a buzzword for almost every company, AI is now an integral part of most organisations. Whether it is Google, Facebook, or even companies like Oracle, Microsoft and SAP, they are all working to design software that can learn, and make decisions – in short, Artificial Intelligence. It isn't only private organisations that are keen on the technology, but government organisations like Niti Aayog are also looking closely at it. In fact, the Indian Government has allocated Rs 3,073 crore to spearhead work on fifth generation technology startups like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, and Blockchain.

Bengaluru: Wipro Ltd, which launched its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Holmes 18 months ago, is now making its biggest push to embrace automation by allowing more of its managers to identify work which will not require engineers in each of the over 20,000 projects currently underway. This "bold" development, according to one executive who did not want to be identified will mean Wipro doesn't just save on costs (thereby arresting falling profitability), but fundamentally alters the traditional model of deploying armies of engineers to undertake maintenance work. To be sure, that could also mean that its current workforce needs to learn new technology skills swiftly to stay relevant. Wipro is in the process of appointing individual leaders in each of the six industry-serving segments (which the company calls strategic business units) and five solution offering verticals or practices, who will be entrusted with the job of automating mundane maintenance work. Until now, Wipro's chief technology officer K.R. Sanjiv, in consultation with various segment heads used to decide which projects could use Holmes.

No need to panic, but automation and artificial intelligence may already be playing a role in reducing IT hiring in India. According to Nasscom, an Indian IT industry association, fresh hiring in the current financial year is expected to decline compared to last year as IT companies face stiff margins, and move more jobs to automation. Campus hiring may fall for the first time since 2009. "Hiring activity in the year before last was 2.20 lakh (new jobs were created in IT sector). Last year there were about two lakh additions. This financial year, we are expecting it to be on the lower side of that," Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar said.

Mauna Kea Technologies (Euronext: MKEA, FR0010609263; OTCQX: MKEAY), inventor of Cellvizio(R), the multidisciplinary confocal laser endomicroscopy platform, today announced its full-year results for the financial year ended December 31, 2015, as approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting on March 23, 2016. Benoît Jacheet, Chief Financial Officer of Mauna Kea Technologies, stated: "2015 was a critical year in the implementation of our updated strategic plan and this affected our sales performance. Even so, we successfully delivered a significant improvement in our gross margin and operating performance by streamlining our cost structure to reduce fixed operating costs. Increased financial flexibility is expected to support the continued growth of our global user base." As previously reported, Mauna Kea Technologies recorded a 22% decline in its full-year 2015 sales to EUR8,547 thousand.