News/Operations
AI sales agents achieve 60% deflection rates, bypassing human counterparts altogether
Artificial intelligence has quietly revolutionized customer support over the past two years, with companies routinely achieving deflection rates above 60%—meaning AI handles more than half of all customer inquiries without human intervention. Now, this same transformation is beginning to reshape sales teams, and the implications could be just as dramatic. The concept of "deflection" in customer service refers to AI systems resolving customer issues automatically before they reach human agents. Rather than simply routing calls or providing basic information, these AI agents can access customer data, process transactions, and handle complex workflows independently. The results have been remarkable: companies are...
read Jun 25, 2025United uses AI to help passengers navigate tight airport layovers
United Airlines has launched an enhanced ConnectionSaver technology that uses artificial intelligence and real-time mapping to help passengers navigate tight layovers at its hub airports. The system can hold connecting flights at gates longer while providing passengers with turn-by-turn navigation directions through the airport, addressing one of air travel's most stressful scenarios during the peak summer travel season. How it works: The upgraded ConnectionSaver technology combines AI-powered flight management with detailed airport mapping to create a comprehensive connection assistance system. United can use AI and ground teams to hold connecting flights at gates for additional time without delaying the overall...
read Jun 24, 2025Augmented Retail: Walmart built internal AI platform serving 1.5M associates daily
Walmart has built Element, an internal AI foundry platform that now serves 1.5 million associates across its operations, handling 3 million daily queries from 900,000 weekly users. Rather than buying enterprise AI solutions, the retail giant created a manufacturing-style approach to AI development that treats applications like products rolling off an assembly line, fundamentally changing how large enterprises can deploy artificial intelligence at scale. What you should know: Element's foundry model eliminates traditional AI deployment cycles by standardizing the entire development process from conception to production. The platform is LLM-agnostic, allowing Walmart to select the most cost-effective model for each...
read Jun 24, 2025Think locally, scrape globally: Web scraping gets easier with Oxylabs’ 175M proxy pool and AI tools
ZDNET's David Gewirtz tested Oxylabs, a web scraping proxy service that offers over 175 million residential proxies across 195 countries, significantly outpacing competitors like IPRoyal (32 million) and MarsProxies (1 million). The platform combines extensive proxy infrastructure with AI-powered data parsing tools, positioning it as a comprehensive solution for enterprise-scale web scraping operations. What you should know: Oxylabs distinguishes itself through both scale and ethical sourcing practices in the competitive proxy services market. The company maintains 175 million residential proxies across 195 countries, dwarfing competitors' offerings. Residential proxy access is obtained ethically by paying computer owners small amounts for bandwidth...
read Jun 23, 2025Huawei unveils 6 strategies to dial in 5G-A networks monetization
Telecom operators worldwide face a familiar challenge: they've invested billions in 5G infrastructure, but generating meaningful revenue from these networks remains elusive. Now, Huawei's carrier business group is pushing a new strategy centered on 5G-Advanced (5G-A)—an enhanced version of 5G that promises faster speeds, lower latency, and more sophisticated network management capabilities. Speaking at MWC Shanghai 2025, James Chen, president of Huawei's carrier business group, outlined how operators can finally unlock the revenue potential of their 5G investments. His message was clear: the window for 5G-A monetization is open, but success requires strategic focus on differentiated services, industry-specific solutions, and...
read Jun 23, 2025Cvent unveils AI-powered CventIQ to automate event planning and personalization
Cvent Connect 2025 delivered a clear message: artificial intelligence is reshaping how organizations plan, execute, and analyze their events. The annual conference for Cvent, a leading event management platform provider, showcased CventIQ—a comprehensive AI suite designed to streamline everything from small local gatherings to major corporate conferences. Rather than positioning CventIQ as a standalone product, Cvent integrated these AI capabilities across four strategic areas that directly address common pain points in event management. For business leaders evaluating event technology investments, these announcements signal a significant shift toward AI-powered automation and personalization in corporate events. According to Forrester, a prominent technology...
read Jun 20, 2025Swiss AI cuts cement emissions by 50% while maintaining strength
Researchers at Switzerland's Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) have developed an AI framework that can generate low-carbon cement formulations in seconds, potentially cutting CO₂ emissions by up to 50% while maintaining structural performance. This breakthrough addresses one of the world's biggest climate challenges, as cement production accounts for about 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions and humanity consumes more cement than food—around 1.5 kilograms per person daily. How it works: The PSI team built a specialized AI system from the ground up rather than adapting generic models for cement development. Their custom simulation software models how various cement ingredients react during...
read Jun 19, 2025Ecolab CDO transforms century-old company with AI-powered revenue solutions
Ecolab Chief Digital Officer Kevin Doyle is transforming the century-old industrial company through a comprehensive digital strategy that combines AI, IoT, and data analytics to serve both internal operations and customers. Under his leadership, Ecolab Digital has developed everything from AI-powered dish machine diagnostics to predictive analytics for waterborne pathogen detection, while creating new subscription-based revenue streams that move beyond the company's traditional chemical and equipment sales model. What you should know: Ecolab Digital represents a strategic merger of the company's commercial digital solutions and IT teams, designed to leverage technology for both internal efficiency and customer differentiation.• The unified...
read Jun 19, 20253 ways Cisco is betting big on AI to simplify network management
Cisco's annual user conference delivered a clear strategic message this year: the networking giant is betting big on artificial intelligence to transform how businesses manage their digital infrastructure. At Cisco Live 2025, the company unveiled a comprehensive vision for helping organizations become "AI-ready" by embedding intelligence into networking, security, and observability systems. The announcements signal Cisco's response to mounting competitive pressure and customer demands for simpler, smarter infrastructure management. After years of criticism for having a fragmented, complex product portfolio, Cisco is positioning itself as the company that can help businesses navigate the dual challenge of adopting AI while securing...
read Jun 18, 2025Globant launches 5 AI agents to automate full-funnel marketing workflows
Globant, a digital transformation company, has launched FUSION, a comprehensive suite of five AI agents designed to automate and optimize marketing workflows from initial strategy through final campaign execution. Unveiled at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the platform represents a significant shift toward AI-powered marketing operations that promise to deliver measurable business outcomes rather than just technological novelty. The announcement comes as marketing departments increasingly struggle with the complexity of managing campaigns across multiple channels while maintaining brand consistency and measuring performance. Traditional marketing workflows often involve disconnected tools and manual processes that slow execution and create inconsistencies....
read Jun 18, 2025AI orchestration from on high helps companies manage multiple disconnected AI systems
As artificial intelligence applications multiply across enterprises, a new challenge emerges: managing the chaos of disconnected AI systems. Companies that began with a single chatbot or automated workflow now find themselves juggling multiple AI agents, each operating in isolation. This fragmentation creates inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities for AI systems to work together effectively. The solution lies in AI orchestration—a systematic approach to coordinating multiple AI agents and applications within a unified framework. Think of it as a conductor directing an orchestra, ensuring each AI system plays its part at the right time and in harmony with others. For businesses...
read Jun 18, 2025Claude Code integrates with third-party tools through MCP connections
Anthropic has expanded its Model Context Protocol (MCP) capabilities by allowing developers to integrate Claude Code with any remote MCP servers. This development builds on the growing industry adoption of MCP, which Anthropic pioneered as an open standard for connecting AI assistants to data systems, and has since been embraced by Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google. What you should know: Claude Code can now access third-party services including development tools and project management systems through MCP integration. Developers can pull information from desired sources securely and efficiently, creating personalized workflows that leverage specific tools or data sources directly within Claude Code....
read Jun 18, 2025Salesforce embeds AI agents across platform with Agentforce Summer ’25 update
Salesforce has rolled out its Summer '25 update for Agentforce, introducing embedded AI capabilities, multimodal support, and industry-specific agents designed to automate enterprise workflows beyond pilot projects. The comprehensive upgrade positions Agentforce as a no-code AI engine woven directly into core business functions, targeting enterprises ready to deploy AI for real-world digital execution across sales, employee support, and industry-specific use cases. What you should know: The Summer '25 release transforms Agentforce from a modular tool into a comprehensive AI platform embedded across Salesforce's entire ecosystem. Sales Cloud now automatically suggests and applies CRM field updates, including "Next Steps" and "Stage"...
read Jun 18, 2025Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs expands to Cambridge with $3B in pharma deals
Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet spinoff focused on AI-driven drug discovery, is establishing its first U.S. office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the company prepares to advance its drug candidates into clinical trials. The move positions the London-based company closer to American pharmaceutical partners and clinical development infrastructure, marking a significant milestone in its evolution from AI research to therapeutic development. What you should know: Isomorphic Labs built its platform on DeepMind's AlphaFold protein structure prediction technology and has secured major pharmaceutical partnerships worth billions in potential value. The company raised $600 million in external funding in March, led by Thrive Capital,...
read Jun 17, 2025Groq challenges AWS with faster AI and Hugging Face integration
Groq has launched two major initiatives targeting established cloud providers like AWS and Google: supporting Alibaba's Qwen3 32B language model with its full 131,000-token context window and becoming an official inference provider on Hugging Face's platform. These moves position the AI inference startup to challenge tech giants by offering faster processing speeds and broader developer access, potentially reshaping how millions of developers access high-performance AI models. What you should know: Groq claims to be the only fast inference provider capable of supporting Qwen3 32B's complete 131,000-token context window, a technical capability that enables processing of lengthy documents and complex reasoning...
read Jun 16, 2025AI is reshaping IT roles, not eliminating them—here’s what’s changing
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping how IT departments operate, but the transformation isn't playing out as many expected. Rather than wholesale job displacement, organizations are discovering that AI functions more like a sophisticated amplifier—handling routine tasks while elevating human expertise to focus on strategy, security, and innovation. This shift is creating both opportunities and anxiety within IT teams. According to JumpCloud's Q1 2025 IT Trends Report, 37% of IT administrators express concern that AI could eventually eliminate their positions. However, the reality emerging across organizations suggests a more nuanced evolution: IT roles are changing, not disappearing. The challenge for IT...
read Jun 16, 2025Multi-model mayhem: AI tax is draining business budgets—here’s how to avoid it
The promise of artificial intelligence seemed straightforward: smarter automation, faster decisions, and streamlined operations. Yet many businesses find themselves in a frustrating paradox—the more AI tools they adopt, the more complex and expensive their operations become. Instead of the efficiency gains they expected, companies face overlapping subscriptions, conflicting outputs, and teams spending more time managing AI tools than benefiting from them. This phenomenon has a name: AI tax. Understanding and avoiding this hidden cost has become essential for businesses seeking genuine value from their AI investments. What is AI tax? AI tax represents the hidden costs that accumulate when businesses...
read Jun 13, 2025Booking.com measures AI’s 16% productivity boost across 3,000 developers
Booking.com attracts over 500 million monthly visitors and processes more than a billion annual bookings, cementing its position as a dominant force in online travel. However, maintaining this market leadership in an increasingly competitive landscape requires more than just scale—it demands rapid software innovation and delivery capabilities. The Amsterdam-based travel giant is betting heavily on artificial intelligence to accelerate its 3,000-person engineering organization. Rather than simply adopting AI tools and hoping for the best, Booking.com has developed a sophisticated measurement framework to quantify exactly how generative AI impacts developer productivity, satisfaction, and code quality. "We're very excited about GenAI because...
read Jun 13, 2025DC airports cut wait times 20% with homegrown AI system “Queue Hub”
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has deployed Queue Hub, a custom AI-powered intelligence platform that uses machine learning and computer vision to optimize operations at Dulles and Reagan airports. The homegrown system, which earned MWAA a 2025 CIO 100 Award, has reduced security wait times by 15% and customs wait times by 20% while helping manage over 50 million passengers annually. What you should know: Queue Hub represents a comprehensive approach to airport operations management, built entirely in-house rather than using commercial solutions. The platform integrates machine learning algorithms (software that learns patterns from data), open-source object detection (technology that...
read Jun 11, 2025Vanta’s AI agent cuts compliance work from 8 hours to 1 hour weekly
Vanta has launched an AI Agent designed to automate compliance tasks and transform governance from a reactive burden into a proactive business function. The agent aims to streamline fragmented compliance processes by reasoning over frameworks, detecting inconsistencies, and making data-driven recommendations, potentially reshaping how organizations approach trust and accountability in security management. The big picture: Compliance is evolving from episodic, manual processes to continuous, AI-driven monitoring that can accelerate business operations rather than slow them down. Companies like WorkJam, a workforce management platform, report dramatic efficiency gains, with compliance tasks dropping from seven or eight hours per week to just...
read Jun 10, 202576% of small businesses are now exploring or using AI
A comprehensive survey of nearly 1,000 small businesses reveals that over 50% are actively exploring AI implementation, with 25% already integrating artificial intelligence into their daily operations. The findings from Reimagine Main Street, a project of Public Private Strategies Institute conducted in partnership with PayPal, indicate that AI adoption among small businesses has reached a critical tipping point, evolving from a question of "if" to "when." What you should know: Small businesses are moving beyond basic AI applications toward strategic implementations that provide competitive advantages. 82% believe adopting AI is essential to stay competitive in today's business environment The survey...
read Jun 10, 2025Cisco launches AI-powered network management that cuts troubleshooting to seconds
Cisco has unveiled new AI-powered networking hardware and software designed to automate network management tasks at "machine speed" through its AgenticOps framework. The announcement, made at Cisco Live 2024 in San Diego, introduces routers, switches, and management tools powered by Cisco's proprietary Deep Network Model. The move positions the networking giant to capture enterprise demand for autonomous network operations while keeping IT teams in control. Key hardware launches: Cisco introduced multiple product lines optimized for AI workloads across campus and industrial environments. New secure router models (8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 8500) deliver three times the throughput of previous versions...
read Jun 10, 2025Cutting to the chase: Zencoder’s AI testing agent takes QA work from days to mere hours
Zencoder has launched Zentester, an AI-powered agent that automates end-to-end software testing, promising to compress days of quality assurance work into just two hours. The tool addresses a critical bottleneck in AI-driven development, where accelerated code generation has created overwhelming testing requirements that traditional QA processes can't handle efficiently. What you should know: Zentester operates on plain English instructions and can interact with applications like a human tester—clicking buttons, filling forms, and navigating workflows—while validating both frontend and backend functionality. The AI agent integrates with existing testing frameworks like Playwright and Selenium rather than replacing them entirely. Early customer Club...
read Jun 9, 2025Deep Pour: How construction companies use generative AI to cut costs and delays
Blueprints, schedules, cost estimates—construction has always been about balancing precision with unpredictability. A single design flaw or delay can ripple through an entire project, turning weeks into months and stretching budgets past their limits. But what if technology could catch errors before they happen, optimize schedules in real time, and even generate complex designs automatically? Generative artificial intelligence is making this possible across construction sites worldwide. This technology learns from thousands of building projects to create innovative design solutions, predict potential problems, and optimize everything from material usage to worker safety protocols. What is generative AI in construction Generative AI...
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