News/Agents
Gates-backed $1M prize targets AI systems for Alzheimer’s research
The Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative has launched a $1 million AI competition to accelerate research into the condition, with backing from Bill Gates. The prize targets the development of agentic AI systems that can independently read and organize vast amounts of Alzheimer's research, potentially uncovering breakthrough insights that human researchers might have missed. What you should know: The Alzheimer's Insights AI Prize specifically seeks innovative agentic AI solutions that can autonomously navigate complex research datasets to identify new treatment pathways. The winning solution will be made freely available to scientists worldwide through ADDI's AD Workbench, a secure cloud-based research environment....
read Aug 19, 2025Salesforce acquires Regrello to boost AI workflow automation
Salesforce is acquiring San Francisco-based startup Regrello to enhance its Agentforce suite of autonomous AI agents for sales, service, and marketing workflows. The acquisition, expected to close by the end of 2024, represents Salesforce's fourth major purchase this year as it aggressively builds out its AI capabilities to compete in the enterprise automation market. What you should know: Regrello specializes in converting unstructured data into automated workflows, particularly for supply chain operations. The startup's technology will function as a middle layer for Agentforce, helping transform messy inputs like supplier contracts or shipment delay emails into actionable, multi-step workflows. "One of...
read Aug 19, 2025Zoom launches AI virtual receptionist for 24/7 phone support in 6 languages
Receptionists are not going to be receptive to this. Zoom has launched Virtual Agent for Zoom Phone, an AI-powered receptionist that can handle customer calls 24/7 without human intervention. The no-code tool allows companies to replace or supplement traditional receptionists by greeting callers, processing requests, and routing calls autonomously across six languages at launch. What you should know: Virtual Agent operates as a fully automated digital receptionist that promises to reduce missed calls and hold times for businesses. The AI agent can greet callers naturally, process their requests, and initiate next steps without requiring human pickup. Available in English, Spanish,...
read Aug 18, 2025Grammarly launches 8 AI agents to automate writing tasks. Meet the team.
Grammarly has unveiled eight new AI agents designed to transform how students and professionals approach writing tasks. Unlike traditional AI chatbots that require careful prompting, these automated assistants activate contextually and provide targeted support without manual intervention. This development represents a significant shift for Grammarly, the writing assistance platform founded in 2009. The company is repositioning itself around AI agents—autonomous software programs that can perform specific tasks with minimal human oversight. For business professionals, this means access to specialized writing support that adapts to different contexts and requirements automatically. The timing is particularly relevant as organizations increasingly integrate AI tools...
read Aug 18, 2025Android 16 QPR2 brings AI agents, flexible parental controls, and UWB upgrades
Google is accelerating Android development with a new twice-yearly release schedule, and the upcoming Android 16 QPR2 update represents the company's first "minor" release under this faster cadence. QPR stands for Quarterly Platform Release—Google's system for delivering significant updates between major Android versions. This December release will introduce three substantial improvements that signal Google's broader push into AI-powered mobile experiences and enhanced device connectivity. While these updates may seem technical on the surface, they represent meaningful shifts in how businesses and consumers will interact with their Android devices. 3 major features coming to Android 16 QPR2 1. AI agents that...
read Aug 15, 2025Cutting off your nose? McKinsey deploys 12,000 AI agents while slashing 5,000 jobs
McKinsey, a global consulting firm, is confronting an existential threat as artificial intelligence agents prove capable of performing the same consulting work that has generated billions in revenue for the firm. The company has deployed 12,000 AI agents across its operations while simultaneously reducing its workforce from 45,000 to 40,000 employees over the past 18 months, highlighting the tension between embracing automation and maintaining human expertise. What you should know: McKinsey's leadership acknowledges AI poses fundamental challenges to the consulting industry's traditional model. "Do I think that this is existential for our profession? Yes, I do," said Kate Smaje, a...
read Aug 15, 2025Cohere raises $500M at $6.8B valuation for enterprise AI
Canadian AI startup Cohere has raised $500 million in funding, reaching a valuation of $6.8 billion as it competes for enterprise AI market share. The funding round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from AMD Ventures, Nvidia, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures, positioning the company to expand globally and advance its enterprise-focused AI models. What you should know: Unlike broad foundational model companies such as OpenAI and Meta's Llama, Cohere specializes in building AI models specifically designed for enterprise use cases. The company recently launched North, a ChatGPT-style tool designed to help knowledge workers with tasks...
read Aug 14, 2025It’s All Geek to Me: JetBrains develops programming language that lets you code in English
JetBrains, creator of the Kotlin programming language, is developing a new unnamed programming language that would allow developers to write code using English-based descriptions rather than traditional syntax. The company envisions this higher-abstraction language enabling AI agents to automatically generate cross-platform applications from natural language specifications, making AI code generation more controllable and transparent. What you should know: JetBrains CEO Kirill Skrygan describes this as the next evolution in programming abstraction levels, moving beyond current languages like Java and C#. "And now it's time to move even higher," Skrygan said. "So when we write the code, we'll basically lay out...
read Aug 14, 2025SuperOps and AWS launch AI agent marketplace for IT firms
SuperOps, a software company, and Amazon Web Services have launched an AI agent marketplace for managed service providers and IT firms, set to debut in beta next month. The partnership addresses a growing disconnect between business leaders' enthusiasm for AI agents—with some CFOs allocating 25% of their AI budgets to them—and the practical challenges of implementing these tools effectively. What you should know: The marketplace will serve as a curated shopping platform where MSPs and IT professionals can browse and select agents tailored to their specific operational needs. Developers will also be able to sell their agents through the platform,...
read Aug 13, 2025More than a nice-to-have: UT Dallas CIO says agentic AI is essential for higher education
Frank Feagans, VP of IT and CIO at the University of Texas at Dallas, is advocating for the integration of agentic AI into university curricula and operations, emphasizing that this technology is no longer aspirational but essential for higher education's future. His approach centers on channeling human experience through AI governance strategy while bringing private industry best practices to academic institutions. What you should know: Feagans believes universities must embrace agentic AI to remain competitive and relevant in preparing students for future careers. Through corporate partnerships, UT Dallas is fostering a culture that promotes emerging technology benefits by engaging students...
read Aug 13, 2025Nvidia unveils Cosmos Reason model to help robots think before acting
Nvidia has unveiled new agentic AI and physical robotics models at the Siggraph 2025 conference, including the Cosmos Reason model, updated Omniverse libraries, and the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPU. These advances target digital twins, physical AI systems, and enterprise computing, positioning Nvidia to capture growing demand for AI that can reason and act in the physical world. What you should know: The Cosmos Reason model represents a significant leap in physical AI capabilities, designed to help robots and vision agents think before they act. The customizable 7-billion-parameter vision-language model enables machines to "reason like humans" using prior...
read Aug 12, 2025AI systems repeat the same security mistakes as 1990s internet
Cybersecurity researchers at Black Hat USA 2025, the world's premier information security conference, delivered a sobering message: artificial intelligence systems are repeating the same fundamental security mistakes that plagued the internet in the 1990s. The rush to deploy AI across business operations has created a dangerous blind spot where decades of hard-learned cybersecurity lessons are being forgotten. "AI agents are like a toddler. You have to follow them around and make sure they don't do dumb things," said Wendy Nather, senior research initiatives director at 1Password, a leading password management company. "We're also getting a whole new crop of people...
read Aug 12, 202575% trust AI agents but only 30% accept taking orders from them
New research reveals a complex relationship between AI agents and workplace trust, with employees increasingly comfortable working alongside these systems but hesitant to grant them significant autonomy. A Workday survey of nearly 3,000 business leaders found that while 75% feel comfortable collaborating with AI agents, only 30% would accept taking orders from one, highlighting the delicate balance companies must strike as they integrate AI into daily operations. What you should know: Employee comfort with AI agents varies dramatically based on the level of control and oversight involved. Only 24% of respondents said they'd be comfortable with agents operating without direct...
read Aug 12, 2025Employee of the Month: Salesforce’s CoAct-1 hybrid AI agent achieves 60% task success rate
Salesforce researchers have developed CoAct-1, a new computer-use AI agent that combines traditional point-and-click navigation with code execution to automate complex tasks. The hybrid system achieved a 60.76% success rate on the OSWorld benchmark while requiring significantly fewer steps than purely GUI-based agents, potentially solving the brittleness issues that plague current automation tools. How it works: CoAct-1 operates as a three-agent team that strategically chooses between coding and clicking based on the task at hand. The Orchestrator acts as project manager, analyzing user goals and delegating subtasks to either the Programmer or GUI Operator based on which approach would be...
read Aug 11, 2025Survey reveals AI agents can control computers but create massive security risks
Researchers from Zhejiang University and OPPO AI Center have published the most comprehensive survey to date of "OS Agents"—AI systems that can autonomously control computers, mobile phones, and web browsers by directly interacting with their interfaces. The 30-page academic review, accepted for publication at the Association for Computational Linguistics conference, comes as major tech companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple, and Google race to deploy AI agents capable of performing complex digital tasks, while highlighting significant security vulnerabilities that most organizations aren't prepared to address. The big picture: This technology represents a fundamental shift toward AI systems that can genuinely understand...
read Aug 8, 2025LangChain launches Open SWE, an AI agent for autonomous coding tasks
LangChain has launched Open SWE, an open-source asynchronous coding agent that operates in the cloud and integrates directly with GitHub repositories. The tool represents a significant evolution in AI-powered software development, allowing developers to delegate complex coding tasks that the agent can complete autonomously over extended periods. What you should know: Open SWE functions like an additional team member, capable of researching codebases, creating execution plans, writing code, running tests, and opening pull requests. The agent has already become a top contributor to LangChain's own projects, including LangGraph and its own repository. Users can get started in minutes with just...
read Aug 7, 2025AI agents and AI-ready data hit peak hype, claims report
Gartner's 2025 Hype Cycle report identifies AI agents and AI-ready data as the most overhyped technologies currently at the "Peak of Inflated Expectations," warning that generative AI disillusionment is approaching. The research firm, which analyzes emerging technology trends, emphasizes that while these technologies show promise, they require precise strategic application rather than broad organizational deployment to deliver meaningful results. What you should know: Gartner named four main technologies dominating the AI landscape: agents, AI-ready data, multimodal AI, and AI trust, risk and security management (TRiSM). AI agents refer to increasingly autonomous systems that can carry out tasks for humans, though...
read Aug 6, 2025Google’s new AI agent outperforms OpenAI and Perplexity on research benchmarks
Google researchers have developed Test-Time Diffusion Deep Researcher (TTD-DR), a new AI framework that outperforms leading research agents from OpenAI, Perplexity, and others on key benchmarks. The system mimics human writing processes by using diffusion mechanisms and evolutionary algorithms to iteratively refine research reports, potentially powering a new generation of enterprise research assistants for complex business tasks like competitive analysis and market entry reports. The big picture: Unlike current AI research agents that follow rigid linear processes, TTD-DR treats report creation as a diffusion process where an initial "noisy" draft is progressively refined into a polished final report. The framework...
read Aug 6, 2025Ask Jules: Google launches AI coding agent for developers and beginners
Google has launched Jules, its AI-powered coding agent, to the general public after months of beta testing. Built on Gemini 2.5 Pro and designed for both developers and non-technical users, Jules aims to democratize coding by helping anyone write, test, and improve code without requiring formal programming experience. What sets Jules apart: The AI agent can run multiple tasks simultaneously and has been significantly upgraded based on extensive beta feedback. During beta testing, users submitted tens of thousands of tasks, resulting in over 140,000 publicly shared code improvements. Jules can now reuse past setups, visualize test results, and integrate with...
read Jul 30, 2025Writer launches Action Agent to safely automate corporate workflows with AI
Writer has launched "Action Agent," a new AI tool designed to give corporate employees powerful automation capabilities while maintaining strict security guardrails. The software creates isolated virtual computers where AI can operate freely without risking damage to corporate systems, addressing the tension between companies' desire for AI benefits and their fear of uncontrolled deployment. How it works: Action Agent creates disposable virtual environments where AI can perform complex tasks without accessing sensitive corporate infrastructure.• The AI can browse websites, fill out forms, and execute repetitive workflows like daily data collection across multiple sites, chart creation, and automated email distribution.• By...
read Jul 29, 2025NiCE acquires German AI firm Cognigy for $955M in record European deal
NiCE has acquired German conversational AI company Cognigy for $955 million, marking the largest acquisition of a European AI company to date. The deal represents a significant milestone for Europe's AI sector and demonstrates investor confidence in enterprise AI solutions, particularly as venture capital investment in European AI continues to surge. What you should know: Cognigy specializes in agentic AI that delivers human-like customer service across more than 100 languages and communication channels. The company's AI agents can understand, adapt, and act in real time, serving major clients including Mercedes-Benz, Nestlé, DHL, and Lufthansa Group. NiCE, an AI-powered customer experience...
read Jul 28, 2025E2B raises $21M as 88% of Fortune 100 companies adopt its AI agent platform
E2B, a startup building cloud infrastructure specifically for artificial intelligence agents, has raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners, a global software investor managing over $90 billion in assets. The round included participation from existing investors Decibel, Sunflower Capital, and Kaya, along with Scott Johnston, former CEO of Docker. The funding comes as E2B reports that 88% of Fortune 100 companies have signed up to use its platform—a remarkable adoption rate that highlights how quickly large enterprises are embracing AI automation tools. The company has also added seven figures in new business just in the past...
read Jul 25, 2025OpenAI adds Agent mode to ChatGPT Mac app for Plus users
OpenAI has added its new Agent mode to the ChatGPT macOS app, making it available immediately for Plus subscribers. The integration allows Mac users to run complex, long-term tasks in the background while continuing other work, bringing the combined capabilities of Deep Research and the previous Operator agent directly to desktop users. What you should know: Agent mode appears as a new option in the toolbar beneath the prompt window, offering an alternative way to interact with ChatGPT's most advanced capabilities. Users can access Agent mode by selecting it from the toolbar or by typing "/" to bring up a...
read Jul 25, 2025Anthropic’s AI auditing agents detect misalignment with 42% accuracy
Anthropic has developed specialized "auditing agents" designed to test AI systems for alignment issues, addressing critical challenges in scaling oversight of increasingly powerful AI models. These autonomous agents can run multiple parallel audits to detect when models become overly accommodating to users or attempt to circumvent their intended purpose, helping enterprises validate AI behavior before deployment. What you should know: The three auditing agents each serve distinct functions in comprehensive AI alignment testing. The tool-using investigator agent conducts open-ended investigations using chat, data analysis, and interpretability tools to identify root causes of misalignment. The evaluation agent builds behavioral assessments to...
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