News/Data
Microsoft Fabric attracts 70% of Fortune 500 companies
Microsoft's dramatic expansion of its Fabric data platform marks a strategic shift to dissolve data silos and streamline enterprise AI development. By integrating CosmosDB—the database that powers ChatGPT—alongside other key database technologies, Microsoft is executing on its vision of a unified data foundation capable of handling diverse workloads without the traditional limitations of coupled compute and storage. This approach directly addresses the integration complexity that has historically hindered enterprise AI initiatives. The big picture: Microsoft is significantly expanding its Fabric data platform by integrating CosmosDB and other database options to create a unified data layer that eliminates traditional data silos....
read May 20, 2025Data center future trends unveiled at Eaton’s seaside conference
Eaton's Solutions By The Sea Data Center Conference highlights the critical intersection of generative AI, energy production, and data center evolution. The conference showcases how infrastructure providers are preparing for AI's intense energy demands while addressing sustainability concerns. Understanding these developments is crucial as data centers rapidly transform to accommodate AI workloads that require significantly more power, cooling capacity, and innovative rack designs. The big picture: Eaton's conference focused on how generative AI is transforming data center infrastructure requirements and energy management strategies across the industry. Sessions covered critical topics including chip evolution impacts on rack design, handling volatile GenAI...
read May 19, 2025AI drives surge in data center real estate demand
The race for AI computing capacity has ignited an unprecedented boom in data center real estate, reshaping how these facilities are valued and operated. This strategic infrastructure now serves as a battleground for technological and economic dominance, with hyperscalers wielding their market power to secure prime locations while traditional metrics for evaluating these assets undergo a fundamental transformation to accommodate the demands of AI workloads. The big picture: Data centers have evolved from simple warehouse-like facilities into strategic infrastructure assets whose value is now determined by factors beyond traditional metrics like square footage and occupancy rates. The exponential growth in...
read May 19, 2025Singapore fund seeks Gulf investors for Indian data centers
Singapore's CapitaLand Investment is aggressively pursuing Gulf investors for a major data center fund in India, positioning itself at the intersection of emerging AI infrastructure needs and Middle Eastern capital flows. This strategic move comes as India transforms into an AI powerhouse, with computing capacity projected to grow at over 50% annually through 2030 and an increasing trend of AI talent remaining in the country rather than seeking opportunities abroad. The big picture: Singapore-based CapitaLand Investment aims to raise $200-250 million from Gulf investors to build data centers in India as the country emerges as an artificial intelligence powerhouse. The...
read May 16, 2025NTT DATA expands data centers with 3 major land acquisitions
NTT DATA's global data center expansion marks a significant escalation in the company's infrastructure strategy, securing land across three continents to support nearly a gigawatt of new capacity. This aggressive growth initiative comes amid surging demand for data center capacity driven by AI computing requirements and digital transformation. The $10 billion investment through 2027 positions NTT DATA as a major player in the increasingly competitive global data center market. The big picture: NTT DATA has secured land across seven strategic markets in North America, Europe, and Asia as part of a $10 billion investment plan through 2027, enabling nearly a...
read May 15, 2025Zoho enhances CX platform with AI-driven workflow improvements
Zoho's AI-powered CRM expansion aims to democratize customer data access across organizations, breaking down traditional barriers that confined CRM systems to sales teams. The new "CRM for Everyone" platform leverages Zoho's proprietary AI engine Zia to enable any employee to create customized workflows, reports, and visual elements without technical expertise, making customer data more accessible and actionable throughout the entire business. The big picture: Zoho Corporation has enhanced its customer experience platform with deeper AI capabilities and workflow orchestration tools designed to extend CRM functionality beyond traditional sales departments. The expanded platform leverages Zoho's proprietary AI engine, Zia, to enable...
read May 13, 2025Federal HR systems cost taxpayers billions, Workday survey reveals
Federal HR systems are squandering billions in taxpayer dollars through inefficient, outdated technology according to a new report from MeriTalk and Workday. The study reveals that 89% of federal HR leaders believe legacy tools hinder their agency's mission, with HR teams wasting nearly half their time correcting errors, reconciling data, and navigating manual processes. This technological stagnation is occurring precisely when government needs greater agility, with potential savings of up to $1 billion annually if just half of this wasted time could be recovered. The big picture: Federal HR operations are struggling with outdated systems that actively undermine workforce strategy...
read May 12, 2025Pedal to the metal: Penske’s AI accelerates fleet intelligence innovation
Penske Truck Leasing's Catalyst AI platform represents a significant advancement in fleet management technology, applying machine learning to transform massive vehicle datasets into actionable intelligence for commercial transportation companies. The platform's latest update introduces sophisticated comparison capabilities and metric customization that enable fleet operators to identify performance gaps and make more strategic operational decisions. With its ability to analyze over 100 billion data points annually across hundreds of real-time models, Catalyst AI addresses the growing recognition among business leaders that AI integration is crucial for organizational resilience in the transportation sector. The big picture: Penske Truck Leasing has released an enhanced...
read May 12, 2025LeRobot aims to solve robotics data crisis with public help
The robotics field is racing to solve its "ImageNet moment" – the need for diverse, high-quality datasets that can train robots to generalize across environments and tasks. Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models have shown impressive capabilities, from basic object manipulation to complex household tasks, but their effectiveness is limited by available training data. LeRobot is tackling this challenge by democratizing data collection, making it accessible to ordinary people while establishing standards for consistent, high-quality contributions that could collectively transform robotic learning. The big picture: Generalization in robotics isn't just about advanced models but requires diverse training data that teaches robots to adapt...
read May 9, 2025South African CIOs transform AI hype into measurable business results
South African CIOs are adopting a more pragmatic approach to AI investments, focusing on targeted high-impact deployments rather than broad implementation. Financial services group Sanlam and manufacturers like Lactalis Southern Africa exemplify this strategic shift, allocating AI budgets toward solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes. This evolution marks a departure from earlier experimentation phases as organizations now demand tangible returns on their AI investments while leveraging the technology to enhance customer experiences and operational efficiency. The big picture: Enterprise AI investment is accelerating, with Foundry's AI Priorities Study 2025 showing nearly half of organizations now allocating dedicated AI budgets, up...
read May 9, 2025How Paradies Lagardère uses AI to support human-centered service
Paradies Lagardère is leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance operations across its 700+ stores, restaurants, and bars in 90 North American airports. The travel retailer focuses on what it calls "useful technology" rather than novelty, employing AI solutions that work behind the scenes to improve customer experiences while empowering employees to provide better service. This approach demonstrates how established retail businesses can integrate AI strategically without compromising their customer-first philosophy or replacing human workers. The big picture: Paradies Lagardère is implementing AI-driven solutions that enhance operations without disrupting the customer experience or replacing employees. CEO Gregg Paradies emphasizes the company's commitment...
read May 8, 2025ChatGPT privacy: How to opt out of data training
Protecting your conversations with AI has become increasingly important as more users share sensitive information with platforms like ChatGPT. OpenAI's default settings allow your chat data to be used for model training, but the company provides a simple opt-out option hidden within account settings. Understanding how to control your data helps maintain privacy while still benefiting from AI assistance. How to prevent ChatGPT from using your conversations for training 1. Log in to your ChatGPT account Access your account through the official website or app to reach your personal settings. 2. Navigate to Settings Look for the settings menu, typically...
read May 8, 2025Forward march: Microsoft expands AI data centers despite initial pullback reports
Microsoft's ambitious $80 billion data center investment plan remains firmly on track, dispelling recent rumors of a pullback due to AI demand concerns. The tech giant's leadership directly addressed the speculation during its recent record-breaking Q3 earnings report, reaffirming its commitment to massive infrastructure expansion. This development underscores Microsoft's conviction that cloud and AI infrastructure represent critical strategic investments despite the quarter-to-quarter volatility that naturally occurs in large-scale capital deployment. The big picture: Microsoft has maintained its historic 2025 capital expenditure plan of $80 billion, aligning with similar massive investments being made by AWS, Google, and Meta. The company spent...
read May 8, 2025IBM unveils watsonx.data’s generative AI capabilities at Think 2025
IBM's new watsonx.data platform is taking center stage at Think 2025 as the company addresses a critical challenge in enterprise AI adoption: data readiness. While organizations are rapidly embracing generative AI, IBM reveals that less than 1% of enterprise data is currently being utilized for these initiatives, despite approximately 90% of corporate data being unstructured and scattered across various systems. This data fragmentation, rather than model optimization or inference costs, represents the true bottleneck preventing companies from realizing AI's full potential. The big picture: IBM is positioning watsonx.data as the solution to the enterprise unstructured data problem by transforming it...
read May 7, 2025AI-powered agentic analytics restores business leaders’ data trust
Business leaders are facing a growing paradox in data-driven decision-making: as data volumes increase, confidence in using that data is plummeting. This disconnect threatens effective leadership in uncertain times, but a new approach called "agentic analytics" promises to bridge this gap by pairing business users with AI agents that can automate data tasks, proactively identify patterns, and deliver insights in accessible language within existing workflows. The big picture: Business decision-makers are drowning in data while simultaneously losing faith in their ability to use it effectively, with leader confidence in data-driven decisions dropping 18% since 2023 to less than half overall....
read May 7, 2025Leaders at a loss: Fragmented data frustrates executives’ use of AI
AI's promise of productivity faces a harsh reality check as CEOs discover their data systems are simply not ready to support advanced AI initiatives. The IBM study of 2,000 CEOs across 30 countries reveals a critical disconnect between AI ambitions and the foundational data architecture needed to realize meaningful returns, highlighting the growing urgency for companies to address their fragmented information systems before expecting AI to deliver on its potential. The big picture: While 61% of CEOs are actively deploying AI agents and planning their expansion, half admit their rush to adopt new technologies has created disconnected systems that undermine...
read May 7, 2025Abu Dhabi-based AI firm Presight expands to Global South markets for growth
Presight AI is leveraging its strong domestic performance to fuel ambitious global expansion plans, particularly across emerging markets. The data analytics provider's strategic pivot toward international growth comes amid impressive financial results, with first-quarter sales more than doubling year-over-year, signaling the company's growing influence in the global AI analytics landscape. The big picture: Presight AI reported first quarter sales of 563.9 million dirhams ($153.5 million), marking a substantial 115% annual increase as the company accelerates its international expansion strategy. Key details: Around 23% of Presight's current sales originate from outside the United Arab Emirates, with the company targeting an ambitious...
read May 7, 2025TransUnion’s AI-driven platform transformation led by Venkat Achanta
TransUnion is transforming from a traditional credit bureau into a modern platform enterprise by consolidating its fragmented technology infrastructure. Under the leadership of Venkat Achanta, who joined after the $3.1 billion Neustar acquisition, the company has developed OneTru—a unified platform that standardizes operations across its global network spanning 30 countries and 13,000 associates. This technology modernization represents a strategic shift for the $4.5 billion company as it evolves beyond data provision to becoming an insight-driven organization powered by advanced analytics and emerging AI capabilities. The big picture: TransUnion's technology infrastructure had become unwieldy with over 20 different tech stacks resulting...
read May 5, 2025Google AI scrapes blocked sites, raising privacy concerns
Google's clever AI scraping loophole reveals a significant discrepancy between what the company publicly promises and what it actually does with website data. While Google allows publishers to opt out of AI training for its DeepMind unit, this protection doesn't extend to other parts of the company—including its search division, which develops AI products like Gemini and AI Overviews. This distinction exposes how tech giants can technically honor opt-out requests while still using the same data through internal organizational divisions. The big picture: Google admitted in federal court that it continues training AI models on data from websites that explicitly...
read May 5, 2025Do they even come with jobs? Small towns fend off AI data centers
The battle over AI data centers is intensifying across rural America as small towns organize to resist these massive facilities. Communities in Missouri, Indiana, Virginia, and several other states are mobilizing against what they see as industrial intrusions that strain local infrastructure while providing minimal benefits. This grassroots resistance represents a significant challenge to tech companies' expansion plans and highlights the growing tension between AI's rapid advancement and its physical infrastructure requirements. The big picture: Small-town residents are increasingly pushing back against the construction of resource-intensive AI data centers in their communities, forming grassroots campaigns that share tactics across state...
read May 2, 2025AI helps manufacturers tackle climate-driven supply chain risks
Climate change is increasingly straining global manufacturing supply chains, prompting companies to implement AI-powered resilience strategies. Romanian clothing manufacturer Katty Fashion exemplifies this shift by participating in the EU-funded R3GROUP project, which helps businesses develop robust supply networks capable of withstanding climate disruptions. This emerging application of digital twin technology allows manufacturers to simulate and respond to potential supply chain vulnerabilities in real-time, building on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic when companies first confronted the fragility of their global sourcing networks. The big picture: Climate change has joined pandemics as a major disruptor of global supply chains, pushing manufacturers...
read May 2, 2025Scanning the horizon: Meta expands data collection from Ray-Bans to enhance AI
Meta is expanding data collection from Ray-Ban smart glasses, significantly reducing user privacy options while bolstering its AI capabilities. The company's recent email to customers reveals substantial changes that automatically enable voice recording storage for Meta AI interactions and default camera access, removing previous opt-out options. These changes reflect an aggressive push to gather more user data while maintaining minimal technical escape routes for privacy-conscious consumers. The big picture: Meta has fundamentally altered its Ray-Ban smart glasses privacy settings, now collecting and storing voice recordings by default when users interact with Meta AI. The company has eliminated the option to...
read May 1, 2025Rivaling Python, Raven-ml brings machine learning capabilities to OCaml
OCaml's machine learning ecosystem is getting a significant boost with Raven, a new collection of libraries and tools designed to rival Python's data science capabilities. This pre-alpha project aims to bring the performance and type safety advantages of OCaml to machine learning workflows, potentially offering developers an alternative that combines the best of both worlds: Python's intuitive data science approach with OCaml's more rigorous programming model and performance benefits. The big picture: Raven introduces a comprehensive machine learning ecosystem for OCaml that promises to make data science tasks as efficient and intuitive as they are in Python while leveraging OCaml's...
read Apr 30, 2025Spreading out: Startups build cutting-edge AI models without data centers
A new approach to AI model training could disrupt the centralized power structure that has dominated artificial intelligence development. By using distributed computing across regular GPUs connected via the internet, two startups have demonstrated an alternative path that might challenge the resource-intensive model building methods that currently give tech giants their competitive edge in AI development. The big picture: Researchers from Flower AI and Vana have successfully trained a language model called Collective-1 using GPUs spread across the globe rather than concentrated in datacenters. This distributed approach allowed them to incorporate both public and private data sources, including messages from...
read