News/Agents
Swiss AI startup raises €114M to train robots using gaming data
Swiss AI startup General Intuition has raised €114 million in one of 2025's largest seed funding rounds, led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst with participation from Raine. The New York and Geneva-based company, spun off from Dutch video platform Medal, plans to bridge gaming data with real-world applications in robotics and drones, leveraging over 2 billion annual gameplay clips to train AI agents for both virtual and physical environments. What you should know: General Intuition emerged from Medal's extensive gaming content library, which processes nearly 1 billion video uploads annually from 10 million monthly active users. The startup uses...
read Oct 13, 2025How-to: Amazon Quick Suite enables AI assistants to access enterprise data with standardized protocol
Amazon Quick Suite now enables organizations to connect their AI assistants directly to enterprise applications through a standardized protocol called Model Context Protocol (MCP). This capability addresses a critical challenge: allowing AI agents to securely access organizational data and take actions across multiple business systems without requiring complex custom integrations. MCP functions as a universal translator between AI systems and enterprise applications. Instead of building individual connections between your AI assistant and each business tool—a process that traditionally required extensive custom development—MCP provides a single, standardized approach that works across platforms. This matters because it dramatically reduces the technical complexity...
read Oct 13, 2025Salesforce commits $15B to San Francisco AI innovation hub
Salesforce announced a $15 billion investment in San Francisco over the next five years, focusing on artificial intelligence innovation and workforce development in the city. The commitment represents one of the largest corporate investments in San Francisco's tech ecosystem and positions the company to strengthen its AI capabilities while supporting its hometown's economic growth. What you should know: The investment will fund a new AI incubator hub on Salesforce's San Francisco campus and help companies adopt AI agents that can perform tasks on behalf of users.• AI agents are software programs that can automatically handle routine business tasks like scheduling...
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Salesforce positions Slack as primary interface for Agentforce 360 platform
Salesforce has unveiled Agentforce 360, an expanded platform for building and deploying AI agents across enterprises, positioning Slack as the primary interface for accessing Salesforce functionality. The announcement comes as the company attempts to move customers beyond "pilot purgatory" and deliver production-scale AI implementations, though many features remain in development phases. What you should know: Agentforce 360 introduces several new capabilities designed to streamline enterprise AI agent deployment and management. The platform features Agent Script, a human-readable JSON language for authoring complex agent behavior, entering beta testing in November 2025. Atlas Reasoning Engine now supports Google's Gemini large language model...
read Oct 9, 2025Forrester predicts “frumpy but functional AI” era as 95% of projects fail
Forrester Research, a market research firm, predicts that 2026 will mark the beginning of "the age of frumpy but functional AI," signaling a shift from AI hype to practical implementation. The firm expects businesses to focus more on governance and measured adoption rather than rushing to deploy new AI tools, as companies realize many AI initiatives fail to deliver expected returns on investment. The big picture: AI is transitioning from a revolutionary technology grabbing headlines to a mundane but essential part of business operations, similar to how the iPhone evolved from groundbreaking innovation to everyday necessity. Key spending trends: Forrester...
read Oct 9, 2025Google DeepMind launches Gemini 2.5 Computer Use to control web browsers
Google DeepMind has launched Gemini 2.5 Computer Use, an AI model that can autonomously navigate web browsers by clicking, typing, and scrolling through websites like a human user. The model joins similar offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic in the emerging field of AI agents capable of performing web-based tasks with minimal human oversight. What you should know: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use operates through natural language prompts and can execute complex multi-step web tasks independently. Users simply provide instructions like "Open Wikipedia, search for 'Atlantis,' and summarize the history of the myth in Western thought," and the model handles the entire...
read Oct 9, 2025Dia browser available for Mac users with $20/month Pro subscription
The Browser Company has officially released its AI-powered Dia browser to all Mac users after months of beta testing, offering a free tier alongside a $20/month Pro subscription. This agentic browser represents a significant evolution from traditional web browsing by integrating AI automation directly into everyday online tasks, potentially transforming how users shop, research, and navigate the internet. What you should know: Dia is designed as an "entirely agentic browser" that automates web-based tasks through AI integration rather than simply adding AI features to traditional browsing. Users can enter natural language prompts like "I want a modern-looking men's shirt with...
read Oct 9, 2025Salesforce debuts AI agents for 24/7 IT support across platforms
Salesforce has launched Agentforce IT Service, an AI-powered system designed to replace traditional IT helpdesk ticket systems with conversational AI agents that provide 24/7 support across platforms like Slack, Teams, and email. The service aims to reduce manual IT tasks and allow both workers and IT staff to focus on higher-value strategic work, representing another step in AI's expansion into workplace support functions. How it works: Unlike traditional ticket-based IT support, Agentforce operates as a "conversation-first" system that can handle requests through any communication platform. Workers can initiate IT help requests directly through chat systems, email, or messaging apps without...
read Oct 9, 2025AWS debuts Quick Suite connecting 1,000+ apps for AI-powered workspaces
Amazon Web Services has launched Amazon Quick Suite, an AI-powered platform designed to serve as a centralized hub for enterprise workers to access data and complete tasks across multiple applications using natural language. The solution aims to address the challenge of critical business data being scattered across various systems, positioning itself as "everything you want to do with ChatGPT at work, but can't." What you should know: Quick Suite functions as an AI-powered workspace that connects to numerous enterprise applications and data sources. Workplace administrators can integrate the platform with personal repositories like Google Drive, Office 365, Slack, and email,...
read Oct 7, 2025OpenAI launches AgentKit to transform ChatGPT into AI development platform
OpenAI has launched AgentKit, a comprehensive toolkit that enables developers and business users to build, deploy, and manage AI agents directly within chat interfaces. The October 6 release positions OpenAI as a platform leader in the rapidly expanding agentic AI market, potentially creating an "agent store" ecosystem similar to Apple's App Store model. What you should know: AgentKit comprises three core components designed to streamline multi-agent workflow creation and deployment. Agent Builder serves as a canvas for creating and versioning multi-agent workflows. Connector Registry functions as a centralized hub where administrators can manage tool and data connections across OpenAI products....
read Oct 7, 2025Anthropic dishes out open-source Petri tool to test AI models for deception
Anthropic has released Petri, an open-source tool that uses AI agents to test frontier AI models for safety hazards by simulating extended conversations and evaluating misaligned behaviors. The tool's initial testing of 14 leading AI models revealed concerning patterns, including instances where models attempted to "whistleblow" on harmless activities like putting sugar in candy, suggesting they may be influenced more by narrative patterns than genuine harm prevention. What you should know: Petri (Parallel Exploration Tool for Risky Interactions) deploys AI agents to grade models on their likelihood to act against human interests across three key risk categories. The tool evaluates...
read Oct 6, 2025Google DeepMind’s CodeMender AI fixes 72 security bugs automatically
Google DeepMind has unveiled CodeMender, an AI agent that automatically fixes software vulnerabilities and proactively rewrites code for better security. Over the past six months, the system has already contributed 72 security fixes to open-source projects, including some with up to 4.5 million lines of code, demonstrating AI's growing capability to address the mounting challenge of software security at scale. How it works: CodeMender leverages Gemini Deep Think models to create an autonomous debugging agent equipped with sophisticated validation tools. The system uses advanced program analysis including static analysis, dynamic analysis, differential testing, fuzzing, and SMT solvers (mathematical problem-solving tools)...
read Oct 3, 2025OpenAI launches Operator AI agent and jobs platform to blend human-AI work
OpenAI is expanding its workforce integration strategy with two key initiatives: the broader rollout of Operator, an AI agent that can perform computer tasks like booking reservations and coding, and the launch of an AI Jobs Platform designed to match AI-savvy workers with companies. These developments signal OpenAI's push to blend human and artificial intelligence capabilities in workplace environments, addressing both automation needs and human employment concerns in the AI era. What you should know: Operator functions as a Computer-Using Agent (CUA) that can automate various tasks typically performed by humans on computers and potentially smartphones. The AI agent can...
read Oct 2, 2025“Agent behavior coach” and 10 other new AI jobs that didn’t exist 5 years ago
The artificial intelligence revolution isn't just transforming how we work—it's creating entirely new categories of jobs that didn't exist even five years ago. While prompt engineering has emerged as the most visible AI-related role, it represents just the tip of the iceberg. Consider how the early internet spawned unexpected careers like webmaster and cloud architect. Similarly, AI's rapid evolution is generating demand for professionals who can bridge the gap between sophisticated AI systems and human needs. According to a recent survey by Rev, a transcription and captioning services company, 85% of US workers across all generations believe AI prompting will...
read Oct 2, 2025Salesforce upgrades Slack with AI agents that tap workplace conversations
Salesforce is upgrading Slack with new AI capabilities that give agents deeper access to workplace conversations and data. The company is introducing a real-time search API, Anthropic's Model Context Protocol server, and enhanced developer tools to help AI agents deliver more contextually relevant responses by tapping into previously inaccessible conversational data. Why this matters: Salesforce is positioning conversational data as crucial for the next generation of AI agents, which have historically lacked sufficient context to provide truly useful responses.• "Conversational data is the gold of the agentic era, yet it's been locked away in unstructured messages and chats, largely out...
read Sep 30, 2025Opera launches Neon AI browser with automated task completion for $19.90/month
Opera has officially launched Neon, its first agentic AI web browser, now rolling out to select users on the waiting list for $19.90 per month. The browser joins a growing field of AI-centric browsing tools alongside Perplexity's Comet and The Browser Company's Dia, marking Opera's ambitious entry into autonomous web navigation and task completion. What you should know: Neon transforms web browsing into an AI-assisted experience with automated task completion capabilities. The browser opens with a chatbot window and features "Neon Do," which can execute complex tasks like shopping, booking, information gathering, or even job applications based on simple prompts....
read Sep 29, 2025Let a thousand upskilled Clippies bloom: Microsoft launches AI agents that work across Office apps
Microsoft has quietly launched what could be its most significant productivity upgrade in years: AI agents that can independently handle complex tasks across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These aren't just enhanced chatbots—they're sophisticated digital assistants capable of analyzing data, creating presentations, and managing documents with minimal human oversight. The rollout represents Microsoft's latest move in the intensifying AI productivity race, where tech giants are competing to embed artificial intelligence directly into everyday business workflows. Unlike traditional AI features that simply suggest text or format documents, these agents can execute multi-step processes, make decisions, and even ask clarifying questions to ensure...
read Sep 26, 2025Databricks and OpenAI launch $100M Agent brick platform for enterprise AI
Databricks, a data intelligence platform company, has partnered with OpenAI in a $100 million deal to launch "Agent brick," an enterprise AI platform that integrates advanced models like GPT-5 into business-ready agent systems. The collaboration aims to help companies build AI agents that can analyze data, automate workflows, and maintain compliance with regulations and cybersecurity standards, positioning both companies to capture growing enterprise demand for frontier AI capabilities. What you should know: The Agent brick platform runs on Databricks' data intelligence infrastructure, allowing enterprises to deploy large language models at scale while maintaining governance and security standards. Companies can build...
read Sep 25, 2025The best AI becomes invisible infrastructure, according to Grammarly’s CEO
Grammarly CEO Shishir Mehrotra argues that artificial intelligence becomes invisible infrastructure once it works effectively, with AI agents already embedded throughout digital systems without being recognized as such. This perspective reframes the AI conversation from futuristic speculation to present-day reality, suggesting that successful AI integration happens when technology seamlessly blends into existing workflows rather than announcing itself as revolutionary innovation. What you should know: AI agents are already operating across countless systems, but we've stopped calling them AI once they become reliable infrastructure. Traffic systems that adjust timing based on car detection, Grammarly's real-time writing assistance, and spam filters all...
read Sep 23, 2025Google launches MCP Server to democratize AI data access
Google launched the Model Context Protocol Server to provide developers with standardized access to public data from its Data Commons knowledge graph without requiring complex API integrations. The server builds on Anthropic's open MCP standard and aims to reduce AI hallucinations by giving large language models access to trusted public datasets, potentially democratizing data access for AI development at an unprecedented scale. What you should know: The MCP Server simplifies how AI agents consume publicly available data by eliminating the need for developers to navigate complex APIs. Data Commons provides public datasets from trusted sources for AI developers, data scientists...
read Sep 22, 2025Ex-Stripe executives raise $19.2M for AI agent payment protocol ATXP
Two former Stripe executives have raised $19.2 million to develop ATXP, a protocol designed to enable AI agents to make autonomous payments across the internet. Louis Amira, Stripe's former head of crypto & AI partnerships, and David Noël-Romas, the company's former head of crypto engineering, launched Circuit & Chisel to address what they see as a critical infrastructure gap preventing widespread AI agent adoption. The big picture: ATXP aims to become the foundational protocol for agentic payments, similar to how HTTP enabled modern web browsing, potentially unlocking a new era of microtransactions powered by AI agents. Why this matters: The...
read Sep 19, 2025Walmart deploys AI “super agents” across $815B retail empire
Walmart is implementing a comprehensive "super agents" strategy built on agentic AI, deploying autonomous systems across operations for associates, developers, customers, and suppliers. The $815 billion retail giant's unified framework represents a significant evolution from its existing AI infrastructure, positioning the company to maintain its dominance as the world's largest retailer through advanced automation and personalized experiences. What you should know: Walmart's agentic AI strategy centers on four specialized "super agents" designed to operate with minimal human intervention across key business areas. The Associate Agent handles HR inquiries and workforce management, while the Developer Agent assists software teams with coding,...
read Sep 19, 2025AI agent adoption by big biz surges 119% as companies embrace autonomous systems
Salesforce's new Agentic Enterprise Index reveals that AI agent adoption among leading companies surged 119% in the first half of 2025, with consumer-facing industries like retail, travel, and financial services driving the fastest growth. The data shows businesses are rapidly transitioning to what Salesforce calls "agentic enterprises"—organizations where autonomous AI agents work alongside humans to execute complex business processes independently. What you should know: The shift toward AI agents represents a fundamental change in how businesses operate, moving beyond simple automation to systems that can reason, plan, and adapt. Employee interactions with AI agents grew at an average monthly rate...
read Sep 18, 2025Notion introduces AI agents that automate complex workspace tasks
Notion has launched Notion Agent as part of its 3.0 rollout, introducing AI-powered autonomous agents that can perform complex tasks across the platform without human intervention. The company describes these agents as digital teammates capable of doing "everything a human can do in Notion," marking a significant shift from manual page and database construction to fully automated workspace management. What you should know: The Notion Agent represents a major evolution in how users interact with the productivity platform, moving beyond simple AI assistance to autonomous task execution. Agents can perform up to "20 minutes of autonomous work at a time...
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