📈 How are companies using AI?

➜ Buy Now, Pay Track Later. Best Buy is rolling out an AI-powered delivery tracking system that promises minute-by-minute updates. The company aims to satisfy customers who are increasingly frustrated with vague delivery windows and limited order visibility. As Brian Tilzer, chief digital, analytics and technology officer at Best Buy said “Over 30% of global consumers are open to AI-driven order and delivery updates that’s why we have decided to provide live estimated time of arrivals down to the minute.”

PYMNTS

➜ Walmart’s Next AI Frontier. Walmart is heavily investing in new technology and trying out new programs and processes to be even more consumer-friendly. Jon Alferness, Walmart’s CPO has shared a few key elements of such improvements in the latest episode of ModernRetail podcast, including using customer data or updating search as the next frontier for AI. Never underestimate Walmart.  

Modern Retail 

➜ How to Revolutionize Retail With AI-Driven Smart Stores. VenHub’s AI-powered autonomous retail units are set to disrupt traditional store models with 24/7 operation. Imagine fully autonomous, AI-powered Smart Stores which utilize smart inventory management systems to operate without human employees. Sounds like an old idea? Not at all – VenHub’s units don’t let the shopper in. Instead, they act as massive vending machines of the future. What’s more, they can be set up in 7 days!

VenHub 

➜ GenAI Tool is Boosting Worker Efficiency. Target's new artificial intelligence tool is helpful whenever the company brings on seasonal team members. Company’s COO and CFO Michael Fiddelke is set on completing a full chain roll out of a new AI tool to help store employees quickly resolve on-the-job challenges. This GenAI initiative is part of the retail giant’s broader effort to use the technology across its business to empower its workers.

Retaildive 

➜ Disruption Forum Retail Around the Corner. It’s time for yet another edition of Disruption Forum this time focused on retail innovation. Join the exclusive online event to grab real-world AI use cases and tips straight from top brands. When? 8 October, 2024.
Save your seat at: Disruption Forum Future of Retail

💡 What are the nerds up to?

➜ AI-Powered Game Dev Is Here. Developing games, producing or animating films, and visualizing spaces or products – Unreal Engine, a powerful real-time 3D creation tool, does it all. And now, it’s jumping on the AI bandwagon. Ludus AI promises a set of revolutionary tools: an AI chat for natural commands, AI Copilot for faster development, and an AI-driven blueprint editing plugin for seamless blueprint creation. The startup’s looking for financing – any big time gamers out there?

LinkedIn 

➜ AI Earthquake Prediction Breakthrough. Researchers at the University of Texas have developed an AI that predicted 70% of earthquakes during a trial in China. “Predicting earthquakes is the holy grail,” said Sergey Fomel, a professor in UT’s Bureau of Economic Geology and a member of the research team. “We’re not yet close to making predictions for anywhere in the world, but what we achieved tells us that what we thought was an impossible problem is solvable in principle.”

SciTechDaily

➜ AI Wearable That’ll Help You Remember. Meet Omi, ‘the world's #1 open-source AI wearable for effortless conversation capture’. I cannot verify the marketing claim, but I am curious to see how the makers will go about the legal side of automated transcriptions. What I love is that the solution is open-source, customizable… and has a neat shape. Check it out.

YouTube

➜ How To Save 40% on GPU Costs. Ever heard of ‘hot-swapping’? It lets you serve different models on the same GPU machine with only ~2 second swap times (~150x faster than baseline!). While literally EVERYONE’s trying to race for The Next Most Powerful Model, any cost optimization around GPUs is pure gold. Outerport promises just that. I’d watch this space, if I were you!

Hacker News

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