iTWire - Business Intelligence

New Relic Report Finds Manufacturers Rely on Observability to Drive Security, AI, and IoT Adoption

2024-08-15T15:22:10+10:00

New Relic State of Observability for Industrials, Materials, and Manufacturing report shows 44% of respondents say the adoption of AI technologies are driving the need for observability, with 65% able to resolve incidents faster after adoption

New Relic, the intelligent observability platform, published its State of Observability for Industrials, Materials, and Manufacturing report, which offers insights and analysis on the adoption and business value of observability. The report is based on insights from 285 technology professionals and was developed in association with the 2023 Observability Forecast. It shows that manufacturers are investing in observability to optimise uptime and improve productivity, cross-team collaboration, and strategic decision making.

The report highlights the importance of implementing full-stack observability, with respondents reporting a higher return on investment (ROI) after adoption. Additionally, 65% of industrials, materials, and manufacturing respondents said their mean time to resolution (MTTR) has improved since adopting observability. The report found that the primary strategies and trends driving observability include security (50%), AI technologies (44%), and IoT technologies (43%).

"As manufacturers across the Asia Pacific region accelerate their digital transformations, they are recognising the critical role of observability in optimising operations and customer experience. Forward-thinking manufacturers are gaining a competitive edge by leveraging full-stack observability to enhance operational efficiency, mitigate risks, and deliver superior customer experiences," said Peter Marelas, Field CTO, APJ at New Relic.

Observability and AI drive industry advantages

As the manufacturing industry enters the Fifth Industrial Revolution, there is a strong focus on adopting new technologies to create a competitive advantage. Close to half (44%) of manufacturing organisations said AI technologies were driving observability needs. The powerful combination of technologies like observability and AI are creating greater insights into telemetry data and are crucial to addressing the surmounting complexities of growing data sets. Observability is critical to the success of AI, since it helps teams to understand their telemetry data, how to improve MTTR, and enables developers to easily apply fixes to code-level errors in their integrated development environment (IDE). It also increases automation for rapid alerts while improving incident detection and resolution.

Observability is key to reducing outages

Manufacturing organisations that had achieved full-stack observability saw a substantial rate of improvement in MTTR, with 34% reporting an improvement by 25% or more since adopting observability. These organisations also experienced less frequent high-business-impact outages, with 30% reporting outages at least once a week, compared to the average of 32%. Additionally, just 12% of responses estimated outages cost their organisations more than $1 million per hour compared to 21% overall.

Investments in observability drive productivity

More than half (51%) of manufacturing organisations said that observability improves cross-team collaboration and strategic decision making. When it came to what improved their life the most, nearly half (47%) of practitioners said observability increases productivity and that they can find and resolve issues faster.

“New Relic is a critical component in our DevSecOps cycle. New Relic will allow us to normalise the process of driving continuous application and service improvement through observing the user experience, which is key for any project and moves beyond setting and forgetting after deployment,” said Mitsuhiro Mabuchi, Ph.D, Group Manager, Cloud CoE Grp., DS System Development Dept., Advanced Data Science Management Div., Advanced R&D and Engineering Co., (Concurrently Lead of the CCoE Virtual Team at the Direct Reporting Digital Transformation Promotion Dept.), Toyota Motor Corporation.

For more information, view the State of Observability for Industrials, Materials, and Manufacturing report.

New Relic Launches the First Fully-Integrated, AI-Driven Digital Experience Monitoring Solution

2024-07-11T10:10:25+10:00

Integrated DEM solution gives businesses end-to-end visibility and insights to deliver enriched user experiences across all digital channels

New Relic DEM makes it easy for businesses to quickly identify and resolve user friction points across mobile, web, and AI-powered applications

New Relic, the intelligent observability platform, launched the industry’s first fully-integrated, AI-driven Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) solution to optimise app performance and proactively prevent interruptions in digital experiences. The enterprise-grade solution offers end-to-end visibility and real-time insights across mobile, web, and AI apps, enabling organisations to deliver high-quality digital experiences across all touchpoints, with new features like New Relic mobile user journeys, New Relic mobile logs, and enhancements to New Relic session replay.

DEM is more critical than ever, especially for AI adoption

Interruptions in digital experiences—such as apps not loading or performing slowly—can erode customer satisfaction, cause customers to abandon carts or leave bad reviews, and result in lower conversion rates and missed opportunities that ultimately impact revenue. This situation is worsened with the pressure to adopt fast-evolving AI technologies like ChatGPT that can produce unreliable results and further damage brand reputation. New Relic DEM, part of the New Relic observability platform, monitors real user interactions across all applications, including AI applications, helps identify incorrect AI responses, and flags user friction points. This ensures frictionless and consistent experiences wherever users interact, allowing enterprises to adopt AI with confidence.

Integrated DEM delivers real-time insights for uninterrupted digital experiences

Most enterprises today struggle with multiple user monitoring point solutions that create disjointed partial views of their digital experiences. New Relic DEM is the only integrated solution that combines real user monitoring (RUM) capabilities like browser monitoring, mobile monitoring, and synthetic monitoring, with APM 360, errors inbox, and AI monitoring in a single platform, out of the box. This provides enterprises with an end-to-end view of their customer experience and insights in the context of their entire application stack, helping them measure the health and performance of applications and underlying network and infrastructure from a user point of view. It enables them to pinpoint the root cause of issues and quickly resolve them. It also allows for a better understanding of user behaviour and journeys within the apps, helping to design new app features that delight users and drive engagement.

"As streaming services across the Asia Pacific region gear up for the record-breaking viewership of the Paris Olympics, they must do everything they can to prevent buffering screens and frozen replays. When even the slightest delay can lead to customer churn, poor reviews, or lost subscribers, every second matters,” said New Relic Field Chief Technology Officer, APJ Peter Marelas. “New Relic enables streamers to proactively manage and optimise digital experiences in real-time; enabling them to host uninterrupted live events for every viewer across all devices – laptop, smart TV, mobile or tablet – even during peak times.”

New Relic’s advanced DEM capabilities drive business outcomes:

Superior insights without the high costs: The only session replay solution that automatically captures 100% of incidents and records critical user actions leading up to each incident, offering superior insights without the expense of recording every single session.
The most comprehensive list of mobile platforms: Comprehensive mobile log management supports a wide range of platforms (iOS, Android, watchOS), and popular hybrid frameworks (Xamarin, .NET MAUI, React Native, Flutter, Cordova, and Ionic Capacitor). This enables organisations to detect and mitigate risks across the mobile ecosystem, proactively addressing issues that affect customers.
Actionable user journeys without event duplication: The only mobile user journeys solution to provide automatic, dynamic, nonlinear charts without event duplication. It delivers detailed insights beyond basic page views, including breadcrumbs, HTTP events, and handled exceptions, facilitating quicker issue resolution and enhancing mobile user experiences.

New Relic DEM is available now, with flexible pricing to accommodate businesses of all sizes. For more information, visit:

Comments on the News

“When customers want to purchase a product or service, or get information, there’s little patience for slow or disrupted experiences. Customers have other options and will go elsewhere when they encounter these issues. DEM enables providers to know exactly the type of experience their customers are seeking and the problems they encounter. Most importantly, DEM allows these companies to get ahead of issues before they lose revenue. On the flip side, when companies get DEM right, customers are more likely to keep coming back and recommending them.” – Stephen Elliot, Vice President, IDC Group.

“When you are developing applications at the velocity we are, mistakes do happen. One of the key goals for us is to understand what that problem is within 30 seconds and correct it so our customers are not impacted. This is where New Relic helps us. New Relic has brought significant clarity to our digital operations. We now have a clearer view of critical touchpoints, enabling our teams to pinpoint and resolve issues more effectively." - Sumit Malhotra, Chief Information Officer at Times Internet, the digital arm of The Times Group, India’s largest media conglomerate, reaching 400-500 millions users monthly.

Finance Phantom Review – Trading Made Easy with this AI Trading Bot

2024-07-13T09:32:16+10:00

COMPANY PRODUCT NEWS: The AI revolution in the last couple of years has taken almost every industry by a storm. AI-powered applications have shown just how powerful and useful they can be. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise to know that traders in the financial markets have opted to use AI trading bots to elevate their experience and to reach new heights of profitability.

However, the market has quickly become saturated with a ton of bots at your disposal. This makes it quite a challenge for prospective traders to choose one AI trading bot. This Finance Phantom dives into one of the options you can consider because of its advanced capabilities and top-notch offerings. Go through this Finance Phantom review and save yourself a great deal of time and trouble.

Simple user interface

The simple user interface of the Finance Phantom is the first thing that will impress you when you begin to use it. It is purposely designed that way to ensure anyone who signs up does not face a learning curve. You will not face any trouble in navigation, even if you are a complete newbie. The features are laid out properly and you can leverage them without any difficulties.

Moreover, the user interface is also compatible with different devices. Since you can access it via the web browser, it automatically adjusts in accordance with the device you use it on. You can customize the dashboard easily and add features you want to access quickly.

Access to a demo account

There are times when people sign up with an AI trading bot, only to discover it does not align with their trading style. Sometimes, the bot may lack some features that can leave you frustrated. You do not want to your time and effort to go down the drain when you sign up with an AI trading bot. The Finance Phantom AI trading robot ensures that does not happen. How?

It is because the Finance Phantom gives you the option of setting up a demo account. It is a great opportunity for you to test the bot. The practice account can help you assess the features and capabilities of the trading bot. You can access a live market environment in which you trade with virtual cash and not risk your own. This way, your capital remains safe while you become acquainted with the bot itself as well as the trading environment. You can also experiment with different automated trading strategies via this account to improve profitability.

A secure infrastructure

Malicious actors are quite common in the online trading space due to which security is a big concern for every trader. You will be pleased to know that the Finance Phantom has put in a great deal of effort to address the security risks to give its users peace of mind. After all, you want to focus on your trading activities and not stress about security constantly. Thanks to this secure infrastructure, your personal and financial data is secure and does not end up in the wrong hands.

In terms of security, you will find that the Finance Phantom has secured its network with SSL encryption. It can protect against malicious data traffic. Your data is encrypted immediately, which keeps it safe from prying eyes. The network also uses different firewalls to guard against hacks and remote attacks. Another prominent security feature of the Finance Phantom is its adherence to security protocols like AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and KYC (Know-Your-Customer). It highlights the bot’s dedication to keep its clients safe and provide them a stress-free trading environment.

Top-notch customer support

You do not want to be stuck for answers when you encounter a technical problem with the AI trading bot. You may also have general queries about other aspects of the platform. No one wants to wait for days on end to get a response. The Finance Phantom has a customer service team that is available 24/7 to assist you in every way.

The Finance Phantom offers you different channels of communication you can use to get in touch with their support team. You can give them a call at any time, or email them. There is also a form on the website you can fill out with your query. If you want quick assistance, you can take advantage of the live chat option. Their team is professional and friendly and do their level best to resolve your queries.

Ending Thoughts

When you go through the features highlighted in this Finance Phantom review, you can see that this trading bot can deliver a professional and seamless trading experience. Its easy-to-use interface, professional support and robust security make it a wholesome package. You can also benefit from competitive fees and transparent policies that you are unlikely to find elsewhere.

How Generative AI can be Turbocharged with Knowledge Graphs

2024-07-09T10:17:39+10:00

GUEST OPINION: It’s been in the public consciousness for little more than a year, yet generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is already being used by everyone from school students to chief executive officers.

Gen AI tools can undertake a multitude of tasks. They can generate computer code, create natural-language interfaces, and speed data retrieval from complex systems.

Tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are being harnessed by non-technical users to summarise lengthy documents, draft marketing materials, and create everything from photo-realistic images to video footage.

The technology is also having an increasing impact when it comes to data and analytics. It can make dense, complex data sets more readily available to a wide groups of users.

The role of knowledge graphs

Increasingly, it’s becoming clear that the power of Gen AI tools can be further strengthened with the use of knowledge graphs.

Knowledge graphs can be likened to a giant digital encyclopedia. Unlike traditional encyclopedias, they don’t just list facts but also connect them. Concepts, entities (like people, places, or companies), and their relationships are all mapped out, allowing the Gen AI tool to understand the world in a more nuanced way.

Having this capability is vital when you consider that around 80% of the world’s data is unstructured. Being able to effectively make use of this digital treasure trove can deliver significant business value.

Adding value to data analysis

Knowledge graphs can add value to Gen AI in a variety of ways, and one of the most important is reducing the occurrence of so-called hallucinations. These occur when a Gen AI tool responds to a query with material that is factually inaccurate or even nonsensical.

To overcome this, knowledge graphs can provide a grounding in reality. They allow the AI tool to verify information and generate outputs that are consistent with real-world knowledge.

Knowledge graphs can also help to eliminate societal biases that can be produced by AI tools that have been trained on unfiltered data. The graphs can be curated to mitigate this by including diverse perspectives and factual information. This, in turn, helps to ensure that the AI's outputs are fair and unbiased.

Also, knowledge graphs don't just constrain, but can also help to spark creativity. By enabling Gen AI tools to better understand the relationships between different facts or concepts, they can explore new possibilities and generate more original and insightful content.

Interestingly, the benefits on offer extend beyond just improved outputs as knowledge graphs can also streamline the development process. By providing a centralised source of information, they allow developers to train generative AI models faster and with less data.

Delivering business benefits

The mixing of Gen AI and knowledge graphs is already having a real-world impact for many organisations. For example, chatbots powered by gen AI and knowledge graphs are providing more natural and informative customer service experiences.

In the pharmaceutical sector, Gen AI tools can use knowledge graphs to analyse vast datasets of scientific research, accelerating the discovery of new drugs and treatments. They can achieve in days or even hours what would have taken a human research team many months.

Gen AI tools can also create marketing materials, product descriptions, and even financial reports. All outputs can be informed by the accuracy and context provided by knowledge graphs.

As Gen AI continues to evolve, knowledge graphs will become even more critical to those working in applications such as fraud detection, risk and compliance, identity and access management, network and IT operations. Not only will they reveal new ways to solve the world’s most pressing business problems but by providing the foundation of factual knowledge and relationships, they will ensure that AI is not just powerful, but also responsible and reliable.

The combination of knowledge graphs and gen AI holds immense potential to revolutionise a number of industries. By working together, these technologies can unlock a future of intelligent automation, fuelled by creativity, and grounded in factual accuracy.

Advanced, energy efficient computing cluster speeds up science and AI-powered breakthroughs

2024-06-28T15:47:54+10:00

Virga is a fast, powerful and energy-efficient accelerated computing cluster that will help grow Australia’s science, industry and economy.

Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has worked with Dell Technologies to build a high-performance computer (HPC) system which will speed up scientific discoveries and help grow Australia’s industry and economy.

Named Virga, the HPC system is built on state-of-the-art Dell PowerEdge XE9640 servers and is the first deployment of its kind in Australia, designed to optimise artificial intelligence (AI) workflows while also being power-efficient using direct liquid cooling.

Professor Elanor Huntington, CSIRO’s Digital, National Facilities & Collections Executive Director, said Virga will provide the critical computing infrastructure needed for machine learning and AI to grow Australia’s industry and economy.

“CSIRO is proud to be a steward of some of Australia’s most important pieces of research infrastructure,” Professor Huntington said.
“AI is used in practically all fields of research at CSIRO, such as developing world-leading flexible printed solar panels, predicting fires, measuring wheat crops and developing vaccines, just to name a few.

“High-performance computing systems like Virga also play an important role in CSIRO’s robotics and sensing work and are crucial to the recently launched National Robotics Strategy to drive competitiveness, and productivity of Australian industry.”

The HPC cluster, which is housed at CDC’s Hume Data Centre in Canberra, is named Virga after the meteorological effect of rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground and was named in recognition of CSIRO’s decades of research into cloud and rain physics.

Dr Jason Dowling from CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre said the increase in medical imaging data coupled with the growing complexity of diagnostic techniques has led to an urgent need for advanced computational power and data processing for medical image analysis.

“The new HPC facilities will allow researchers in our Australian e-Health Research Centre to train and validate new computational models, which will help us develop translational software in medical image analysis for image classification, segmentation, reconstruction, registration, synthesis, and automated radiology reporting,” Dr Dowling said.

“One collaborative project with the Queensland Children’s Hospital that will benefit from the new cluster is the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models to diagnose pathology from MRI scans of the lungs in children with cystic fibrosis.”

The Virga cluster features:

NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs to support deep learning, machine learning and AI.
94GB of high-bandwidth memory per GPU
Transformer Engine - significantly speeds up AI performance and capabilities and helps train large models within days or even hours.
4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors
Hybrid direct liquid cooling to reduce the need for energy intensive air cooling

Angela Fox, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies Australia and New Zealand said the Virga AI system can examine large volumes of scientific data and then help researchers improve the models they build.

“Dell Technologies provides organizations with solutions and expertise that accelerate AI and bring value to their data,” Ms Fox said.

“With Dell PowerEdge servers as the foundation, Virga will help create new Australian scientific breakthroughs using its AI capabilities, all the while being both more sustainable and more energy efficient than previous generation clusters.”

60% Australian SMEs will be using AI by 2026: survey

2024-06-17T15:31:15+10:00

Sixty-percent of all Australian businesses are already using, or planning to integrate, AI into their operations over the next two years. according to an independent survey commissioned by a small business organisation.

The survey by business loan comparison platform, Small Business Loans Australia, revealed that 1 in 4 (25%) of Aussie businesses have already embraced the “swelling tech trend” and adopted AI tools throughout their day-to-day operations.

The independent survey questioned 205 directors and decision-makers across micro (1-10 employees), small (11-50 employees) and medium-sized businesses (51-200 employees) to gauge their rate of AI adoption and which tools they rely on.

Small Business Loans Australia says that “an eyewatering 90 per cent of medium-sized businesses (51-200 employees) will be using AI by 2026,” and “specifically, the data shows over a third (37%) have adopted AI, with an additional 53 per cent planning to integrate it into their businesses by 2026”.

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“Mirco businesses (less than 10 employees) are the most likely to resist the evolving digital landscape, with just 18 per cent saying they’re already using AI and an additional 23 per cent planning to use it by 2026,” notes Small Business Loans Australia.

Non-creative AI tech reigns supreme among Australian SMEs

Small Business Loans Australia asked respondents which types of AI tool they have embraced or are planning to integrate into their businesses in the next two years, and the survey shows AI-powered reporting and chat boxes with email replies are the most embraced AI tools among SMEs, while more than a quarter (27%) of all SMEs use or plan to use AI-powered customer or data analysis tools - and AI-powered reporting was the second most favoured tool with a quarter (25%) either harnessing it or planning to over the next two years, with chat boxes and customer email replies ranking third for all SMEs at 24 per cent.

Small Business Loans further commented that the study found: “AI productivity tools are also favoured among SMEs, with 23 per cent using it or preparing to integrate it into day-to-day operations. When it comes to genuine customer engagement – or even copy editing – Aussie businesses are less likely to use AI, with only 15 per cent saying they use or will use AI-powered copy generators and only one in 10 (11%) confessing they use or plan to use a customer relationship manager bot.

“When it comes to business sizes, AI tool trends vary, with half (50%) of all medium-sized operations embracing AI productivity tools and 53 per cent of small businesses leaning on AI chat boxes and email replies. Half (49%) of small businesses rely or will rely on AI-powered reporting.

“The larger the business, the more likely they are to give creative work to the bots, with 20 per cent of medium-sized businesses admitting to using or planning to use AI copy generators and editors and image generation, and almost a third (27%) cent confessing to using AI for customer relationship management.

“Despite widely shunning AI, a small percentage of micro businesses use data crunching or automated-reply AI. Fourteen (14) per cent saying they use or will use AI-powered customer or data analysis tools.

NSW is Australia’s most pro-AI state

“Among the major states, NSW SMEs are most in favour of artificial intelligence, with 67 per cent using or planning to incorporate AI by 2026. West Australian businesses are national leaders when it comes to already integrating AI – at 40 per cent. However just 13 per cent of WA businesses aim to bring AI tools into their operations in the future, spelling a widespread tech resistance.

“Despite just 19 per cent of South Australians use AI across their businesses, they are planning to massively catch up, with an incredible 38 per cent respondents saying they’ll integrate AI by 2026.

“The sunshine state has fallen behind in the current AI usage stakes, with just 17 per cent of Queensland businesses leaning on artificial intelligence tools. Over the next two years, 37 per cent say they plan to bring it in.

“Among the states, a high 36 per cent of NSW businesses are leaning on AI-powered customer or data analysis tools with AI chat boxes and email replies for customers also favoured by NSW (at 33%) and WA businesses equally.

“Victorian businesses copy generating and editing AI tools the least, with only 6 per cent using or planning to use it in the future. South Australian businesses lead the charge on shirking customer relationship management bots, on the other hand, with only 6 per cent adopting that AI.”

Alon Rajic, Founder and Managing Director of Small Business Loans Australia, says: “These figures paint a clear picture of where Australian businesses are leaning on AI. Across the board, time-consuming data analysis or automatic reply tools are favoured above all in this fast-growing tech realm.

“When delving deeper into this trend, it’s easy to see that AI is being heartily embraced in areas where human error can be costly, and manpower can be time consuming. Australian businesses are increasingly seeing the value in utilising AI for those arduous, laborious and menial tasks that don’t require a human touch, creativity or finesse.

“This is a trend we’re seeing internationally too with a colossal rise of companies using financial reporting AI clocked over the past year.1”

Rajic says the rapid-fire rise of AI usage down under was made all the more remarkable given ChatGPT only launched in 20222, but given the economic strain of many businesses and particularly smaller operators3 it was surprising that more micro businesses weren’t embracing the trend.

“This tells us that customer relationships and a considered, human touch are paramount to Australia’s smallest businesses, but as AI offerings continue to expand and more knowledge about their cost and time saving benefits emerge, we expect this trend to change. With an extraordinary 90 per cent of medium-sized businesses expecting to harness AI by 2026, it stands to reason that smaller SMEs will follow suit,” Rajic concluded.

The full survey results, including breakdowns across the major states, can be found here: https://smallbusinessloansaustralia.com/are-small-to-medium-businesses-harnessing-the-power-of-ai/

About Small Business Loans    
Small Business Loans Australia (smallbusinessloansaustralia.com) is an Australian comparison website providing Australian small and medium business owners with information on the different types of financing options and loans offered by Australian lenders, and how alternative lenders differ from banks. Small Business Loan Australia works with more than 30 Australian lenders and provides loans from $5000 to $1 million. For more information, visit smallbusinessloansaustralia.com)    

Crestron debuts new 1 Beyond Optical Zoom Cameras, bringing an unrivalled intelligent video experience to the most important meeting spaces

2024-01-25T14:37:53+11:00

COMPANY NEWS: As hybrid meetings demand more, the combination of optical zooming, Visual AI tracking, and multi-camera switching capabilities enable automated broadcast-quality video for impactful collaboration in the most valuable rooms.

Crestron Electronics, a leading global provider of workplace collaboration technology, today announces the launch of the new 1 Beyond PTZ camera line. This line includes four all-new cameras, each equipped with optical zoom to uphold the integrity and pixel quality of the images captured. A thoughtfully developed lineup includes the i12 and i20, which boast built-in Visual AI framing and tracking capabilities, as well as the p12 and p20, which are standard PTZ cameras that complement the groundbreaking features of the Crestron Automate VX multi-camera speaker tracking solution.

The new Crestron 1 Beyond PTZ camera line addresses a critical need for automated cameras suited to provide the premium experience required in larger meeting spaces. In-room participants must be captured clearly and framed properly no matter where they are seated, elevating meeting equity and engagement. Static wide shots of a large meeting space are not sufficient to foster connection and communication among in-person and remote participants, and low-quality digital zoom or jerky automated PTZ movements can cause remote participants to disengage.

Designed for premium performance and easy installation, the cameras offer the flexibility to be used as part of a room solution or standalone. Each of the new cameras is in certification for Microsoft Teams® and Zoom Rooms® software and was designed in-house to integrate seamlessly with Crestron Flex solutions, powering a one-touch meeting experience for Microsoft Teams or Zoom Rooms software. With a single tap, users can initiate an automated, broadcast-quality video production that immerses live participants and results in high-quality collaboration for all.

Intelligent PTZ Cameras With Visual AI

The Crestron 1 Beyond i12 and i20 models are intelligent PTZ cameras boasting built-in Visual AI, perfect for enhancing framing and tracking in medium to large rooms.

An onboard processing unit and built-in reference camera allow the i12 and i20 to swiftly and intelligently frame and track groups, presenters, or zones. Industry-leading Crestron Visual AI detects and tracks a speaker even when the subject is turned away or wearing a mask and anticipates behaviours for smooth, natural camera movement.

The i12 model, designed for medium to large spaces, offers 12x optical zoom and can be used for either group framing or basic presenter tracking up to 25 feet. Using Visual AI, two i12 cameras can be paired together, and when someone enters or exits a designated zone, the cameras will switch automatically. The i20 model is tailored for large and extra-large spaces, providing 20x optical zoom. It features enhanced presenter tracking up to 50 feet with group tracking and preset zones.

Standard PTZ Cameras With Speaker Tracking

The Crestron 1 Beyond p12 and p20 models are standard PTZ cameras. The p12 is suitable for medium and large rooms with 12x optical zoom, while the p20 is ideal for large and extra-large rooms, offering 20x optical zoom.

Crestron 1 Beyond cameras are designed for flexible deployment as standalone devices or as part of a multicamera solution. Using Crestron Automate VX multi-camera speaker tracking solution, up to 12 cameras can be leveraged in a single space with automatic switching, framing, and tracking based on who is speaking so every angle can be captured.

“The new Crestron 1 Beyond cameras are the latest leap forward in our growing portfolio of hybrid work solutions,” says Brad Hintze, EVP of global marketing at Crestron. “These cameras are designed to redefine the video experience in larger meeting spaces, ensuring that every participant, no matter their location in the room, is captured with perfect clarity for a professional video experience. This innovation is a testament to our commitment to enhancing meeting equity and engagement in the evolving landscape of workplace collaboration.”

To experience these cameras and more, visit Crestron at stand #3H300 during ISE® 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. To learn more about the new 1 Beyond camera line, please visit the blog.

Availability

The new Crestron 1 Beyond PTZ cameras are now available for order. Get more information at www.crestron.com.

About Crestron

At Crestron, we build technology for every way people work everywhere in the world – from desktops to boardrooms, offices to multinationals. Technology that adapts to what you have and prepares you for what you will need. Platforms, devices, and systems designed to improve communication and collaboration are all managed by a cloud-based system for easy deployment, monitoring, and upgrading. At Crestron, we create simpler solutions so people can work faster, better, and more productively. Discover Crestron at www.crestron.com.

Mastercard, NEC team up for biometric in-store payments

2023-11-15T10:40:19+11:00

American credit payment provider Mastercard and Japanese technology provider NEC have teamed up to help consumers use biometric technology for in-store payments.

The technology will be demonstrated in Singapore on Wednesday, at the Singapore Fintech Festival which runs till 17 November.

A statement from NEC said the in-store payments would be effected through the use of NEC's face recognition and liveness verification technologies, and Mastercard's payment enablement and optimised user experience.

[Liveness verification refers to the ability to detect that a live face is being presented, and not that of a corpse.]

{loadposition sam08}“As retailing environments continue to evolve and choices in ways to pay rapidly expand, biometric solutions offer a seamless, quick and secure checkout, without needing to unlock a phone or insert a PIN,” said Ajay Bhalla, president, Cyber and Intelligence Solutions, Mastercard.

“This partnership with NEC will enable us to bring exciting new biometric payments to customers in countries across Asia Pacific and lead the world in safe and convenient checkout experiences.”

Takao Iwai, corporate senior vice-president and managing director, Financial Solutions Division, NEC Corporation, added: “By utilising NEC's world-class face recognition technology, the new payment system will provide both security and convenience.

“By collaborating with Mastercard, which has payment assets used around the world, NEC will provide a new payment experience, aiming to create a world where everyone can use digital technology with safety.”

Mastercard's biometric checkout was tested in Brazil last year. It requires consumers to either use their faces or else a wave of a card to complete a purchase.

NEC's statement said: "Merchants can benefit from shorter lines, increased security and more hygienic conditions. Additionally, loyalty programs can be integrated in the checkout system, for faster more tailored offers at purchase as part of any successful business strategy.

"Biometrics can play a key role in helping merchants build a more engaging relationship with their customers while driving sales."

Twilio to deliver customer-aware generative AI through new open AI integration

2023-08-05T00:54:46+10:00

OpenAI will power generative AI capabilities within Twilio Segment, the Customer Data Platform

Twilio CustomerAI can unlock generative and predictive capabilities for over 300,000 Twilio Customers, now boosted by OpenAI’s GPT-4

COMPANY NEWS: Twilio, the customer engagement platform that drives real-time, personalised experiences for today’s leading brands, announced it will enable companies to create personalised, customer-aware experiences powered by OpenAI.

Through this integration, Twilio customers will be able to use OpenAI’s GPT-4 model to power new generative capabilities in Twilio Engage, its multichannel marketing solution built atop the Segment Customer Data Platform. The combination of Twilio Segment, ranked the #1 Customer Data Platform for market share by IDC for four consecutive years,* and OpenAI’s powerful Large Language Models, will create new opportunities for businesses to activate a unique understanding of their customers across every interaction.

“As AI drives down the cost of intelligence, it is increasingly possible for companies to deliver a deeply personalised experience for every customer,” said Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI. “We know how much people want this, and we’re happy to be working with Twilio to bring it to the world. Twilio Segment’s Customer Data Platform will enable today’s and tomorrow’s large language models to unlock deep personalisation at scale for every business.”

This announcement is a part of Twilio CustomerAI, a technology layer that couples the power of predictive and generative AI with the wealth of customer data flowing through Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform. Most companies know that in order to understand their customers, they need to make use of their data – yet companies struggle to do so. Data pipelines break, data formats evolve rapidly, and data teams often don’t have the bandwidth to fully leverage the potential of the customer data they have. Now, with AI rapidly unlocking new opportunities, the value of having organised, clean and actionable data that is AI-ready has never been more important. Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform enables companies to unlock their data, building an understanding of their customers with Twilio Segment, and then activate that understanding across their contact center with Twilio Flex, their marketing campaigns with Twilio Engage, and their products. Twilio CustomerAI infuses greater customer understanding and personalisation across every one of those customer touchpoints.

“It's clear that Large Language Models are the next wave of innovation in customer engagement,” said Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio. “Experiences like ChatGPT are coming to the enterprise to power groundbreaking experiences in sales, service, content, marketing and more. Twilio CustomerAI enables companies to build customer-aware interactions – giving the language models context about the customer they're helping. Without customer-awareness, any ChatGPT-like experiences would be generic and unhelpful. But with CustomerAI, companies can transform LLMs into the most helpful, knowledgeable agent imaginable at scale.”

This integration with OpenAI will formalise the exciting opportunities that many in Twilio’s community of more than 10 million developers have already been experimenting with. For example, it’s possible to build a ChatGPT plugin for Twilio Flex, which gives users the ability to access Flex directly from ChatGPT's interface, creating a new channel for brands to serve their customers better. Meanwhile, developers can create voice-activated chatbots, using Twilio's native speech recognition and Amazon Polly Neural text-to-speech capabilities with ChatGPT. Another example is the potential of ChatGPT when paired with Twilio Programmable Messaging, used here to build a serverless SMS chatbot. These builds validate the enormous potential of OpenAI and Twilio’s ongoing and aligned efforts, and the value it can bring to customers looking to uplevel their customer engagement strategies.

Twilio and OpenAI are committed to building AI safely and responsibly. Twilio builds privacy and security by design into its product development lifecycle and will ensure companies have full transparency and control of the data that informs AI-powered interactions with their customers. Twilio is partnering with a group of trusted, world-class partners that meet its privacy and data protection standards.

About Twilio
Today's leading companies trust Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) to build direct, personalized relationships with their customers everywhere in the world. Twilio enables companies to use communications and data to add intelligence and security to every step of the customer journey, from sales to marketing to growth, customer service and many more engagement use cases in a flexible, programmatic way. Across 180 countries, millions of developers and hundreds of thousands of businesses use Twilio to create magical experiences for their customers. For more information about Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), visit: www.twilio.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements about the future availability of AI-related capabilities, functionality and features within Twilio products, including Flex, Engage and Verify, and potential benefits to customers.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events, the outcome of which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including those more fully described in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Forward-looking statements represent our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

*Source: IDC Worldwide Customer Data Platform Market Shares, 2019: Calm Before the Marketing Cloud Vendor Storm, Doc #US46130720, March 2020; IDC Worldwide Customer Data Platform Market Shares, 2020 The Flight to First-Party Data Is On, and CDPs Win Big,Doc #US48052920, July 2021; IDC Worldwide Customer Data Platform Market Shares, 2021 Stellar CDP Growth Proves Value of Unified Data for CX, doc #US49493722 July 2022; *IDC Worldwide Customer Data Platform Applications Software Market Shares, 2022: Continued CDP Growth to $2.7 Billion Proves Value of Unified Data for CX and Digital Business, June 2023, IDC #US50861023.

Teradata integrates Google Cloud’s Vertex AI with VantageCloud and ClearScape Analytics

2023-05-03T11:58:44+10:00

Data platform provider Teradata has announced the integration and general availability of Google Cloud’s Vertex AI with Teradata VantageCloud and ClearScape Analytics, the “complete cloud analytics and data platform”.

Teradata says that by operationalising sophisticated Vertex AI models with the scalability and performance of ClearScape Analytics, customers can move from experimenting with AI to achieving AI-driven business success across a multitude of use cases.

According to a recent Accenture survey of executives at the world’s 2,000 largest companies, those who discussed AI on their earnings calls were 40% more likely to see their firms' share prices increase. However, only 12% of these organisations are “AI achievers” – companies that have differentiated AI strategies and the ability to operationalise for business value. In fact, most companies (63%) are “AI experimenters” – companies that lack mature AI strategies and capabilities to operationalise.

Teradata says that with VantageCloud and ClearScape Analytics plus Vertex AI, organisations can move seamlessly from being AI experimenters to AI achievers. ClearScape Analytics, delivers enterprise-scale performance that ensures customers can execute AI/ML on massive datasets, regardless of where that data sits within an organisation. Vertex AI helps users take advantage of various cutting-edge algorithms to build high-quality AI models in less time and with minimal expertise. When combined, Teradata’s AI and Vertex AI enable companies to put more sophisticated AI models into production, faster, and to scale those models across the organisation.

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“Our customers are investing in the power of AI to fuel their digital transformations and achieve tangible business outcomes that have a real-world impact on their businesses,” said Hillary Ashton, Chief Product Officer at Teradata. “Our openness and scalability facilitate the operationalisation of Vertex AI’s models across an organisation and its mission-critical use cases – such as customer churn, fraud detection, predictive maintenance, and supply chain optimisation. Customers are able to make bold business decisions, driven by data, that keep them ahead of the competition.”

"Vertex AI enables data scientists to build, deploy and scale machine learning models faster, with fully managed tools and services for use cases across industries. This capability, when combined with the vast and reliable analytics data sets prepared by Teradata, gives customers the ability to scale their AI/ML initiatives quickly and with confidence, speeding time to value,” said June Yang, Vice President, Cloud AI and Industry Solutions at Google Cloud.

Teradata says VantageCloud, ClearScape Analytics, and Vertex AI work together seamlessly, giving customers using VantageCloud on Google Cloud the ability to tap into the power of their data in three simple steps:

1. Accelerate data preparation by quickly integrating disparate datasets that span diverse environments, data lakes, and object stores. Using the power of Teradata’s analytics capabilities, ClearScape Analytics, and in particular its robust in-database analytics, data scientists can transform data into rich, reusable analytic datasets.

2. Build and train high quality AI/ML models faster with Vertex AI using analytic datasets prepared with ClearScape Analytics.

3. Operationalise the Vertex AI models at scale in VantageCloud. The integration with Vertex AI offers VantageCloud customers direct, transparent, and real-time access to all their models, which in turn delivers the crucial insights needed to drive business outcomes.