Category Archives: Ai

The advent of healthcare marketplaces was supposed to usher in an era of consumerism in the industry. Instead of taking health provider or family recommendations at face value, people would use the data available to them to make more informed, rational choices. Economists have estimated that more than $30 billion could be saved if people avoided the EDand chose lower-cost providers.

If only healthcare was that simple.

Often, researching options for the lowest-cost providers or avoiding the emergency room is more than one person can handle. Were expecting too much from patients. Asking them to also behave as a consumer of healthcare is unrealistic. Its time for technology developers to step up and step in by arming health providers with the support and technology resources they need, so patients can receive the best care possible.

The current healthcare system requires two roles one person to experience the clinical side of healthcare (the patient) and one to manage the operations (the consumer). While some people are fortunate to have someone who can be their consumer, many others dont. Instead, they have to remember their medications, follow up on paperwork, set appointments and manage other responsibilities while undergoing clinical care. Essentially theyre operating as their own caregiver.

The Internet of Healthcare Report conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Olive found patients spend an average of 19 minutes recovering lost passwords in healthcare. The healthcare industry espouses the time savings that AI and automation can provide. Mostly, we hear about the time savings providers will see 90 minutes on average from avoiding operational work. But we forget to mention (and value) the time patients spend on healthcare administrative work. This is time sick patients dont have. Its time that is uncompensated. And often it falls on women to make time for this.

When we say healthcare should be consumer-driven, what we mean is caregiver-led. At its most extreme, healthcare is punishing and could even be dangerous for people without help.

People need someone (especially if they have more complex conditions) to manage the nonmedical aspects of care. But for those without a companion or person they trust, AI can step in and fill that role. Technology can help with some of the tasks traditionally handled by a caregiver.

Patients often say that having their medical history accessible to them could help improve outcomes. Thats something a human could provide, but AI can support. Its the equivalent of a friend who remembers things for you. Everyone deserves this kind of friend.

AI can transfer information between sites, create smarter privacy controls and remind patients of the passwords they spend 19 minutes looking for. AI can take on this operational role and save patients precious time and energy.

When organizations invest in AI, theyre offering a service that can step into that role for their patients. By investing in AI, organizations support both patients and their caregivers.

Its possible that patients wont know they have an AI caregiver. They wont digitally enter or retrieve data themselves. Instead, the information they need will have already been sent where it needs to go. Its the behind-the-scenes work that makes this a seamless, supportive experience, and that allows patients to ultimately focus on whats most important: getting better.

Photo: metamorworks, Getty Images

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AI can provide the support patients need to focus on getting better - MedCity News

Technology firm FuelTrust has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solution, Carbon Baseline, to provide detailed and verified baseline assessments of historical ship and fleet emissions.

The advancement made by individual ships towards reducing carbon emissions will be evaluated on the basis of historicalbaselines up to 2008.

The assessment of ship performance can then be used to influence finance decisions, tax levies and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

The solution will utilise blockchain technology and Cloud-based AI to offer a validated historic carbon baseline in just weeks and at a reduced cost.

According to the firm, its patent-pending AI Digital Chemist uses historical operational data to calculate previous-year greenhouse gas (GHG) emission profiles for a ship or fleet.

After receiving the validated historic carbon baseline, owners can raise charter pricing for validated green vessels and certify applications for carbon credits.

FuelTrusts autonomous emissions scoring will also allow firms to pay reduced carbon taxes and fees internationally.

At present, emissions models provide only rough estimates, based on generic models that do not consider chemical interactions, source fuel data or the impact of supply and delivery chains.

Some models have a high cost of deployment and require high-maintenance devices on board vessels or huge amounts of manual input.

FuelTrust chief product officer Darren Shelton said: With Carbon Baseline, class or flag authorities can be provided a more accurate, third-party verified report on the emissions reductions actually achieved, meaning the fleet owner, their customers and their investors can benefit.

Exact calculation is essential for the industry as not all fuels are created equal. Recent studies have shown that, for example, there can be an energy density difference of up to 3% between batches of the same fuel. There is also a significant carbon difference between batches.

Last September, FuelTrust introduced the Bunker Insights application to promote fuel cost transparency in the marine sector.

Propeller Shaft Seals and Bulkhead Seals

Marine Computers for Shipping Operations

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FuelTrust launches AI-based solution for assessing GHG emissions - Ship Technology

EDMONTON, Alberta, Feb. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In anticipation of AI Week, May 24 - 27, 2022, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) announced the first $100,000 in travel bursaries for emerging researchers and applied artificial intelligence (AI) professionals globally. The Global Talent Bursary program will facilitate upwards of 500 guests to attend AI Week in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. For more information and to apply, head over to http://www.ai-week.ca/talent-bursaries.

As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of AI research excellence, Im thrilled to have the opportunity to invite the world to AI Week. The Global Talent Bursary program makes it financially viable for more of our peers, alumni and collaborators to come to the conference. It also provides amazing access to our rich community to plan future endeavours. I hope youll apply and come to AI Week to find your next role, learn more about a dynamic research domain, and find collaborators for startup ventures, says Cam Linke, CEO of Amii.

Global Talent Bursary recipients receive exclusive access to events at AI Week including an Academic Symposium featuring content from Amiis deep well of world-leading researchers, a VIP Career Mixer and more. In addition, Amii is pleased to offer Global Talent Bursaries for individuals from groups who are typically underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, recent immigrants to Canada and individuals from rural communities. Applications are completed on the basis of self-identification.

Recipients will also enjoy access to a special AI Week lecture from Richard S. Sutton, Chief Scientific Advisor, Fellow and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Amii. One of the world-leaders in the field of reinforcement learning, Dr. Sutton is a Distinguished Research Scientist at DeepMind and one of the worlds foremost thinkers about AI, the mind and what it means to be intelligent.

I invite you to join us for four days of workshops, social events, educational events experts and students, meeting each other and seeing the Edmonton ecosystem. We have travel bursaries available for early-career researchers of all types, and were excited to meet people and learn a little bit about AI together, says Sutton.

The inaugural AI Week presented by Amii is a four-day celebration of Albertas 20-year history of excellence in AI and machine learning. The event will run from May 24-27, 2022 in Edmonton with a mix of in-person, hybrid and digital first offerings. With programming for all audiences, the event marks Amiis 5th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Amii research centre at the University of Alberta. For updates and announcements, join the AI Week Insiders List at http://www.ai-week.ca.

The celebration will feature a variety of events and programming focused around AI and machine learning. Audiences of all ages will have an opportunity to connect with AI leaders in research and industry, explore the promise and possibilities of the technology and immerse themselves in the science of AI and machine learning. With something for experts and beginners alike, events and activations include:

AI Week presented by Amii will take place from May 24 to 27, 2022 at a range of venues across Edmonton. This year will mark the inaugural year of what will become an annual celebration of Albertas AI community. Stay up-to-date on announcements and programming by joining the AI Week Insiders List at http://www.ai-week.ca.

About Amii

One of Canadas three centres of AI excellence as part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, Amii (the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute) is an Alberta-based non-profit institute that supports world-leading research in artificial intelligence and machine learning and translates scientific advancement into industry adoption. Amii grows AI capabilities through advancing leading-edge research, delivering exceptional educational offerings and providing business advice all with the goal of building in-house AI capabilities. For more information, visit amii.ca.

Spencer MurrayCommunications & Public Relationst: 587.415.6100 ext. 109 | c: 780.991.7136spencer.murray@amii.ca

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Amii invites the world to AI Week with $100000 in travel bursaries - GlobeNewswire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GuideWell, a health solutions company and parent to the leading health insurer in Florida, andOlive,the automation company creating the Internet of Healthcare, today announced an innovative collaboration of health care and technology. Through this collaboration, GuideWell's subsidiary, Florida Blue, becomes the first U.S. payer to automate prior authorization approvals through AI-powered clinical reviews, resulting in faster care for patients and greater provider satisfaction. This partnership will transform a frustrating, labor-intensive process, accelerating GuideWell's mission to help people and communities achieve better health through innovation and collaboration.

"Olive's AI platform helps GuideWell create a best-in-class utilization management model that reduces the administrative burden on our providers while creating a better experience for our members," said Dr. Elana Schrader, Florida Blue senior vice president, healthcare services and GuideWell Health president. "By being the first health plan to automate approvals, we are leading the way for insurers to close the technology gap to better serve our members and providers."

For most of the industry, the prior authorization process is a time-consuming endeavor for both providers and payers, requiring phone calls and faxes to provide patient medical records. Incomplete and inconsistent data can cause delays and lead to a 15-day cycle before a member receives authorization for a procedure. GuideWell's health plan companies receive hundreds of thousands of prior authorization submissions.

By deploying Olive's AI platform, prior authorization decision-making moves to the point of care (such as a doctor's office).The solution will enable members to receive authorizations faster by giving providers an immediate approval from GuideWell (sometimes before a member leaves their provider's office) when Olive's artificial intelligence determines the prior authorization request meets GuideWell's medical necessity requirements.

This increase in decision-making at the point of care provides patients with the right care, at the right place, at the right time. As a result, clinical staff spend less time on administrative functions and more time on patient care. Olive refers to this process connecting the industry's systems to more rapidly deliver intelligence that results in better human outcomes as creating the Internet of Healthcare.

GuideWell launched a pilot with Olive in Florida last year and saw impressive results: a massive reduction in time to decision by 10 days when immediate responses were available and a 27 percent decrease in unnecessary prior authorization requests, lessening the provider's burden and operational costs and 48 percent faster decisions leading to faster patient care.

"Olive is proud to partner with GuideWell to apply automation and AI to automatically prepare, submit and deliver payer-approved prior authorizations one of the most broken processes in health care today," said Jeremy Friese, MD, president, payer market at Olive. "Together, we are reimagining the care experience for patients, payers and providers."

The companies will begin rolling out the AI platform in April, with a full-scale implementation in July for more than 2.5 million commercial members.

About GuideWellGuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation (GuideWell) is a not-for-profit mutual holding company and the parent to a family of forward-thinking companies focused on transforming health care. The GuideWell organization includes Florida Blue, the leading health insurance company in Florida; Triple-S Management, a leading health care services company in Puerto Rico; GuideWell Health, a portfolio of clinical delivery organizations; GuideWell Venture Group, a portfolio of companies including Onlife Health and PopHealthCare focused on creating human-first and innovative health solutions for health plans; GuideWell Source, a provider of administrative services to state and federal health care programs; and WebTPA, a market leading administrator of self-funded employer health plans. In total, GuideWell and its affiliated companies serve more than 46 million people in 45 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, visit http://www.guidewell.com.

About OliveOlive is the automation company creating the Internet of Healthcare. The company is addressing healthcare's most burdensome issues through automation delivering hospitals, health systems and payers increased revenue, reduced costs, and increased capacity. People feel lost in the system today and healthcare employees are essentially working in the dark due to outdated technology that creates a lack of shared knowledge and siloed data. Olive is driving connections to shine new light on healthcare processes, improving operations today so everyone can benefit from a healthier industry tomorrow. To learn more about Olive, visit oliveai.com.

SOURCE GuideWell

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GuideWell and Olive Debut First-Of-Its-Kind AI Solution to Accelerate Access to Health Care - PRNewswire

AI has the potential to change almost every industry, and digital marketing is no different. Tom Welbourne, founder and director at The Good Marketer, looks at the evolution of AI and what marketers can do about it.

Huge growth is predicted in the global AI market over the next few years, with its value reaching $190.61 billion by 2025.

With this in mind, let's take a look at the impact AI is having on the digital marketing industry.

With so much data involved in the digital marketing industry, the impact that AI will have is huge. Common marketing tasks that involve data such as customer segmentation, campaign automation, and A/B testing will all feel its impact. AI will be able to carry out these tasks more efficiently than humans.

AI is also causing areas of marketing such as SEO, email marketing, lead generation, content marketing and predictive marketing to change. These changes will be disruptive, but as long as digital marketers stay aware and have an open mind, there's no reason to fear them.

AI has become a core component of search engine algorithms, including Google's BERT and Rankbrain. There are now also AI-powered SEO tools on the market that can help marketers, particularly with on-page SEO and content creation.

Tools such as MarketMuse help marketers analyze top-performing content, perform keyword research, create content briefs, and assist with other time-consuming activities. AI-powered content writing tools such as Jarvis.AI help you create original content and social media content using AI.

While these tools are useful, it's important to note that they only work well with human input. For example, one common issue with AI content writing tools is that they can struggle to incorporate a brand's tone of voice. This content can then require editing from a content writer to incorporate the brand's tone.

Another area of digital marketing where AI is having an impact is email marketing, particularly with email creation and email send times.

Traditionally, it would take a marketer a lot of experimentation to test out different subject lines to see which performs the best. AI can help marketers come up with subject lines that will generate a high open and click-through rate by using algorithms to analyze the results of previous marketing campaigns. This will help marketers improve their subject lines over time.

AI-powered writing software can also help marketers with the entire email creation process, from writing email body copy to suggesting images and promotions.

While primarily used for customer service, AI chatbots are a useful tool in a digital marketer's toolbox. On many websites today, visitors will be welcomed by a chatbot when they enter a page. Sometimes these are operated by a human, but often these chatbots will be AI-powered or AI-assisted.

This process can be useful for capturing the contact information of visitors who land on a page and solving their queries. Digital marketers can benefit from this as AI chatbots can help a business gain a continuous stream of new leads without a human present.

Similar to how AI chatbots help marketers and customer support teams simultaneously, the same can be said for AI functionalities in a CRM platform. Each CRM will have its own unique functionalities, but many can be set up to help identify factors that could indicate that a customer is close to churning.

For example, if a CRM has an integration with a SaaS product and analytics indicate that a user of that SaaS platform has not logged in for a certain period of time, a marketer could set up an email sequence that triggers when a user has not logged in or been inactive for a specified period of time.

Now that we've looked at some of the different areas of digital marketing, we can ask the question, how does AI impact the digital marketer's role now and in the future?

While the future is somewhat uncertain, what we can see is that AI isn't replacing digital marketers anytime soon. Instead, it's helping marketers automate and streamline cumbersome tasks, and helping them segment and personalize their communications with prospects and customers.

Some predict that instead of replacing marketers, the rise of AI will actually end up creating more jobs than it replaces. Many AI marketing tools require human input to work correctly, so this prediction has some weight behind it.

If digital marketers can keep up to speed with the changes that AI will bring to marketing, they will be well-equipped to deal with any significant changes in the industry.

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How AI is changing the role of the digital marketer - The Drum

In the second half of 2021, the number of artificial intelligence deals decreased by 9.1% from the same period in 2020. This marks an acceleration in growth from the 27.3% decrease in deals that occurred in H1 2021 relative to the same period a year earlier.

GlobalDatas deals database looks at mergers, acquisitions, and venture capital and private equity investments taking place daily between thousands of companies across the world.

During second half of 2021, artificial intelligence deals accounted for 2.5% of all deals taking place in the sector. This represents an increase from the figure of 2.4% in second half of 2020.

GlobalData's thematic approach to sector activity seeks to group key company information on investments to see which industries are best placed to deal with any issues they may encounter.

These themes, of which artificial intelligence is one, are best thought of as "any issue that keeps a CEO awake at night", and by tracking them, it becomes possible to ascertain which companies are leading the way on specific issues and which ones have some work to do.

Innovative Surface Modification for Enhanced Heat Transfer Solutions

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AI deals decreased in the power industry in H2 2021 - Power Technology

South Korea-based Genuv is bolstering its ATRIVIEW drug discovery platform with Finland-based Aiforia Plc's AI and Deep Learning technology. The addition of AI means faster drug discovery and faster development of therapeutics aimed at Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Genuv's lead drug candidate, SNR161 has been shown to restore CNS functions in preclinical models of ALS and Alzheimer's disease. It is now being studied in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial for ALS.

ATRIVIEW is used to screen both existing drugs and new substances for neuroprotective and neurogenerative effects.

"Aiforia is helping Genuv bring the power of deep learning artificial intelligence to our unique ATRIVIEW drug discovery platform," Sungho Han, founder and chief executive officer of Genuv said in a statement. "The additional speed will enable Genuv and our partners to bring more drug candidates to the clinic more quickly."

For Finland's Aiforia, this is the first time its AI platform has been applied to neurodegenerative drug discovery. Korea's Genuv joins pharma giants Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb as Aiforia clients.

"We're excited to help Genuv extend the capabilities of the remarkable ATRIVIEW platform with the help of our powerful, deep learning technology," Jukka Tapaninen, CEO of Aiforia said in a statement. "Aiforia brings increased efficiency and precision to medical image."

Elsewhere around the globe:

Azafaros BV Netherlands-based Azafaros announced positive data from its first-in-human Phase 1 study with AZ-3102, the company's lead program in development as a potential treatment for pediatric neurogenetic lysosomal storage disorders. AZ-3102 is an azasugar, orally available, small molecule designed to be a potent and selective inhibitor of two target enzymes involved in glycolipid metabolism by modulating the metabolism of glycosphingolipids. Data from the Phase 1 study with AZ-3102 in healthy volunteers demonstrate its positive safety and tolerability profile and provide the first clinical proof of the compound's mechanism of action.

ProBioGen Germany-based ProBioGen forged a multi-product commercial license agreement with AstraZeneca for the company's GlymaxX technology. AstraZeneca is expected to incorporate the technology. GlymaxX improves target cell killing orchestrated by natural killer cells, enhancing antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). GlymaxX also allows using the same modified cell line to produce antibodies of varying levels of fucosylation.

Sequana Medical Based in Belgium, Sequana has received Medical Device Regulation (MDR) certification from the British Standards Institution for its alfapump system.

Opthea Limited Australia's Opthea presented data from a prespecified subgroup analysis of a Phase IIb dose-ranging study of intravitreal OPT-302 in combination with ranibizumab, compared with ranibizumab alone, in participants with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). OPT-302 combination therapy had a safety profile consistent with standard of care anti-VEGF-A monotherapy while demonstrating greater improvements in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and less retinal fluid compared to ranibizumab monotherapy.

Noema Pharma Switzerland-based Noema announced it will initiate a Phase IIb study of the mGluR5 inhibitor NOE-101 in trigeminal neuralgia (TN) following clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The LibraTN trial will evaluate the efficacy and safety of NOE-101 in adults with pain associated with TN. NOE-101 has previously been found to be safe and well tolerated in adult subjects.

AC Immune SA Also based in Switzerland, AC Immune announced new interim 10-week data from the high-dose cohort of a placebo-controlled Phase Ib/IIa trial evaluating ACI-35.030, a first-in-class phosphorylated-Tau (pTau) vaccine candidate in participants with early Alzheimer's disease. The interim data shows that the high-dose of ACI-35.030 led to the strong induction of antibodies selective for pTau and its aggregated form, enriched paired helical filaments (ePHF).

Trinity Biotech PLC Based in Ireland, Trinity received approval for its new HIV screening product, TrinScreen HIV, from the World Health Organization (WHO). TrinScreen HIV is a rapid test providing results in less than 12 minutes from a finger stick drop of blood.

OxDx University of Oxford spinout OxDx raised 2.6 million (about US$3.53 million) in pre-seed funding for its AI-powered diagnostic technology that can recognize and identify specific species and strains of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens within a sample in seconds. The company intends to develop an ultra-fast analysis platform capable of rapidly scaling for many diseases via simple software updates improving the cost and access to infectious disease diagnostics worldwide. The funding is co-led by IQ Capital and Ahren Innovation Capital with participation from Science Creates Ventures.

OKYO Pharma Also based in the U.K., OKYO Pharma Limited completed a pre-IND meeting with the FDA regarding the development plans for OK-101 to treat dry eye disease (DED). The regulatory agency provided guidance on a Phase II study based on clinical and nonclinical milestones.

ONK Therapeutics Ireland's ONK and Intellia Therapeutics entered into a licensing agreement for natural killer cell therapies. The agreement grants ONK a non-exclusive license to Intellia's proprietary ex vivo CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing platform and its lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery technologies. ONK intends to develop up to five allogeneic NK cell therapies. Intellia will be eligible to receive up to $184 million per product in development and commercial milestone payments, as well as up to mid-single digit royalties on potential future sales.

LianBio Based in Shanghai, LianBio announced that the National Medical Products Administration granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation in China for mavacamten for the treatment of patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM). Breakthrough Therapy Designation was supported by data from the global Phase III EXPLORER-HCM trial of mavacamten in oHCM patients. In the EXPLORER-HCM trial, mavacamten met all primary and secondary endpoints with statistical significance and clinically improved functional status, symptoms, and quality of life.

JCR Pharmaceuticals At WORLDSymposium, Japan-based JCR Pharmaceuticals highlighted the potential benefits of therapies that rely on J-Brain Cargo, a proprietary technology developed by JCR Pharmaceuticals, to deliver medicine across the blood-brain barrier. Presentations focused on the long-term safety and efficacy and potential behavioral effects of JR-141 (pabinafusp alfa 10 mL, intravenous drip infusion), the company's investigational therapy for mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II, or Hunter syndrome). JR-141 is a recombinant iduronate-2-sulfatase enzyme replacement therapy (that was approved in March 2021 in Japan, where it is marketed as Izcargo for the treatment of patients with MPS II.

Elypta Based in Sweden, Elypta initiated the clinical study LEVANTIS-0087A to validate the diagnostic performance of GAGomes the complete profile of human glycosaminoglycans as metabolic biomarkers for Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED). The study aims to detect any type of cancer in adults who show no symptoms or have any recent history of cancer.

Revive Therapeutics Canada's Revive Therapeutics was granted Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for Bucillamine for the prevention of ischemiareperfusion injury (IRI) during liver transplantation. Currently, there are no approved treatments available for IRI. Liver ischemia-reperfusion injury is a major complication of liver transplantation and is one of the leading causes for post-surgery hepatic dysfunction.

InflaRx NV Based in Germany, InflaRx initiated the second dosing cohort of the vilobelimab and PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, pembrolizumab, combination arm of the Phase II clinical trial in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). The study is investigating two independent arms: vilobelimab alone and vilobelimab in combination with pembrolizumab. The trial's main objectives are to assess the safety and antitumor activity of vilobelimab monotherapy and determine the maximum tolerated or recommended dose, safety, and antitumor activity in the combination arm. The trial is expected to enroll a total of approximately 70 patients.

XO Life Also based in Germany, XO Life raised more than 2 million (about US$2.27 million) to build its patient insights platform for drugs and therapies.

Funding Societies Singapore's Funding Societies, Southeast Asia's largest SME digital financing platform, announced that it has raised US$144 million in an oversubscribed Series C+ equity round. This comes on the back of its US$45 million Series C raised between 2020 and 2021.

Memo Therapeutics Based in Switzerland, Memo closed an oversubscribed Series B financing round. The company raised 37 million Swiss Francs (approximately US$40.16 million). The round was led by Swisscanto Invest. The proceeds will be used to advance the clinical development of its best- and first-in-class neutralizing antibody, MTX-005, targeting BK virus infection in renal transplant patients.

Centauri Therapeutics London-based Centauri closed a 24 million (about $32 million) Series A investment round. The funds will support the continued advancement of the company's antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development, using the Alphamer platform to identify and progress novel antibacterial candidates through first-in-human trials for difficult-to-treat infections.

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Global Roundup: Genuv Adds AI to Aid Discovery of Alzheimer's, ALS Therapies - BioSpace

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As more businesses look to install contact center as a service (CCaaS) functionality, the key to success will be viewing it as a human support tool rather than a human replacement tool.

Cloud-based CCaaS applications manage and track customer journeys and interactions with employees as well as other inbound or outbound customer communications. They also deploy tech tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to enhance the customer experience.

Jeetu Patel, Cisco's Executive Vice President and General Manager of security and collaboration, explained that these services help remove friction for the user while equipping the agent with important customer information.

This mixed mode of human interaction coupled with AI can go a long way toward improving an experience many customers find aggravating and time-consuming.

What you need is a bot that is smart enough to say, Let me connect you with an agent who can answer that question for you. And that connection with the agent should be seamless, Patel said.

He explained a key factor is making sure the CCaaS platform can support an omnichannel experience, where customers have the option to engage in multiple places.

You should be able to reach assistance from any of these social network or communications channels, and if there is need for a human, it immediately and seamlessly transfers to a human, Patel said. This platform needs to be thought of as a human support tool rather than a human replacement tool.

Related Article: 4 Reasons Why the Call Center Should Be Omnichannel

Patel sees automation and AI taking CCaaS in an even more proactive direction in the future, where customers can be alerted to problems before theyre personally aware of them.

The way to think about this entire experience is not just what happens when someone calls and goes through a plethora of menu items to get connected to someone and then get them transferred three times that is not the road to success, he said.

From his perspective, the road to success with CCaaS means becoming proactive, anticipating problems and making sure there are multiple channels that the customer can engage in based on their preference and priorities.

Gayathri Krishnamurthy, RingCentrals Associate Vice President of product marketing, called AI the next wave for the contact center, helping drive intelligence through both the customer journey and the agent journey.

AI can identify intent, provide guidance, offer predictions and be proactive all before a customer or employee needs something, according to Krishnamurthy.

Our customers can take advantage of artificial intelligence with open APIs that integrate with AI engines, natural language platforms and machine learning technology, which gives them options to integrate with various bot vendors in the market.

Krishnamurthy explained that RingCentral sees many use cases for AI, from customer-facing bots that help people to self-serve or agent-facing bots that can feed the right knowledge to an employee in real-time.

There is also more interest and investment in the operations side of the house with intelligent routing, by mapping personalities of specific agents to talk to certain customers, she went on.

Krishnamurthy said she sees automation as more of an efficiency play, and a great cost lever to remove repetition and mundane operations, giving back a few hours of the day to an agent or supervisor.

We see automation at the agent side of the house, based on RPA (robotic process automation) technology where some of the mundane activities of updating records in CRM and other systems are taken care of by automation bots, she added.

Other technologies Krishnamurthy sees contributing to the evolution of CCaaS in 2022 and beyond include mobile knowledge, mobile self-serve, mobile interactive voice response (IVR) and video applications like augmented and virtual reality.

Cisco's Patel pointed out that central to any successful CCaaS deployment is the continuity of interaction. When the customer needs to switch from one channel to another, there should be no loss of context.

For example, if a customer switches from a website chatbot to a phone call, the contact center agent should not need to ask for the customers account information again.

Patel noted that theres still a host of technical challenges involved with integrating omnichannel contact center services, but argues boardroom attitudes towards contact centers are evolving to recognize a holistic experience, which can have a huge impact on brand loyalty.

Reducing cost can't be your primary motivator, Patel cautioned. The mentality should be to drive the best experience. As you do, you of course want to keep a level of efficiency in mind. But don't drive it with the idea of taking out the humans and keeping the AI in there. I think you'll find it's a very disappointing experience.

Related Article: How Contact Center Automation Boosts More Than Just Cost Saving Metrics

The future of AI in CCaaS deployment will offer a seamless omnichannel experience, a feat that will improve customer and employee satisfaction rates. While new challenges will ultimately arise, this tech is slated to permanently change the state of digital marketing.

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Balancing AI and the Human Touch in CCaaS Deployment - CMSWire

Pawan Gupta explains the need of leveraging artificial intelligence to reduce wastage

Artificial Intelligence is a phrase that has been around for many years now. It started as fiction in movies and popular literature and steadily became a trendy word to describe intelligent machines. But today its becoming indispensable, crossing over from fiction to fact, across industries.

The pandemic had a lot to do with this rising popularity and usefulness. At least 40% of active fashion consumers today are already availing of online services even as you read these words, increasing opportunities for deploying AI and deriving benefits. Without mistake, it can be said that we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, where brands are gearing up to embrace the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and other new-age technologies.

Artificial Intelligence is used in different ways in the fashion industry. The industry is faced with several challenges, sustainability being the top on the list. But considering how widespread and popular fast-fashion trends are, change is a long-term endeavor. However, with the help of Artificial Intelligence, accurate predictions of trends, understanding customer preferences, managing workflows, and efficient supply chain are now reducing overproduction and minimizing wastage.

Tackling overproduction and overstocking has become a necessary concern among producers globally. United Nations estimated that the global fashion industry losing at least $500 billion annually due to a lack of and widespread use of recycling practices. Improper clothing disposal is also adding much to the loss.

Overproduction of overstocking is common among producers, especially due to a lack of Data Intelligence tools. The balance sheet of demand and supply is often off balance because proper assessment of trends and demands is either not done or is not done accurately or efficiently. To identify a few factors which create surplus stocks:

The answer to the above challenges can well be found in the use of Artificial Intelligence. AI tools help in market research and fetch real-time information. The data gathered can be aptly assimilated into a real-time prediction system, in which case inventory management can become both manageable and sans waste. The data collected and stored can also be used for future references.

Customer behaviour prediction is another important contribution of AI to combat waste in the clothing industry. Customer behaviour is always changing, and one can never rely on any one-time data when it comes to this. Hence AI can be integrated into the retailers planning policy as the data analyzed can be used to adapt to the latest demand patterns.

Demand patterns can be predicted with the help of algorithms. It can even start on any social media platform. The algorithm gives accurate data about the market and hence can drive the retailers to make the correct decisions about how much to produce. This is what we now call smart demand forecasting or smart demand prediction. Customers purchasing history can also be traced with the help of AI and can help the retailers to cater exactly to their demands. This may lead to lesser returns and help the customers make the right decisions.

Artificial Intelligence has become a part of the fashion industry in a way no one had previously predicted. We are denizens of a virtual world now and AI tools are constantly transforming the way we are manufacturing and marketing the products. Future predictions about robots being used for cutting and sewing are already in place. With the use of AI and new-age technologies, we can expect a reduction in wastage by about 60 to 70% as the processes will be automated with the highest possible accuracy.

Pawan Gupta, CEO & Co-founder at Fashinza

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How AI is Helping Minimize Waste in the Clothing Industry - Analytics Insight

When TikTok videos emerged in 2021 that seemed to show Tom Cruise making a coin disappear and enjoying a lollipop, the account name was the only obvious clue that this wasnt the real deal. The creator of the deeptomcruise account on the social media platform was using deepfake technology to show a machine-generated version of the famous actor performing magic tricks and having a solo dance-off.

One tell for a deepfake used to be the uncanny valley effect, an unsettling feeling triggered by the hollow look in a synthetic persons eyes. But increasingly convincing images are pulling viewers out of the valley and into the world of deception promulgated by deepfakes.

The startling realism has implications for malevolent uses of the technology: its potential weaponization in disinformation campaigns for political or other gain, the creation of false porn for blackmail, and any number of intricate manipulations for novel forms of abuse and fraud. Developing countermeasures to identify deepfakes has turned into an arms race between security sleuths on one side and cybercriminals and cyberwarfare operatives on the other.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA provides a measure of how far the technology has progressed. The results suggest that real humans can easily fall for machine-generated facesand even interpret them as more trustworthy than the genuine article. We found that not only are synthetic faces highly realistic, they are deemed more trustworthy than real faces, says study co-author Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The result raises concerns that these faces could be highly effective when used for nefarious purposes.

We have indeed entered the world of dangerous deepfakes, says Piotr Didyk, an associate professor at the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano, who was not involved in the paper. The tools used to generate the studys still images are already generally accessible. And although creating equally sophisticated video is more challenging, tools for it will probably soon be within general reach, Didyk contends.

The synthetic faces for this study were developed in back-and-forth interactions between two neural networks, examples of a type known as generative adversarial networks. One of the networks, called a generator, produced an evolving series of synthetic faces like a student working progressively through rough drafts. The other network, known as a discriminator, trained on real images and then graded the generated output by comparing it with data on actual faces.

The generator began the exercise with random pixels. With feedback from the discriminator, it gradually produced increasingly realistic humanlike faces. Ultimately, the discriminator was unable to distinguish a real face from a fake one.

The networks trained on an array of real images representing Black, East Asian, South Asian and white faces of both men and women, in contrast with the more common use of white mens faces in earlier research.

After compiling 400 real faces matched to 400 synthetic versions, the researchers asked 315 people to distinguish real from fake among a selection of 128 of the images. Another group of 219 participants got some training and feedback about how to spot fakes as they tried to distinguish the faces. Finally, a third group of 223 participants each rated a selection of 128 of the images for trustworthiness on a scale of one (very untrustworthy) to seven (very trustworthy).

The first group did not do better than a coin toss at telling real faces from fake ones, with an average accuracy of 48.2 percent. The second group failed to show dramatic improvement, receiving only about 59 percent, even with feedback about those participants choices. The group rating trustworthiness gave the synthetic faces a slightly higher average rating of 4.82, compared with 4.48 for real people.

The researchers were not expecting these results. We initially thought that the synthetic faces would be less trustworthy than the real faces, says study co-author Sophie Nightingale.

The uncanny valley idea is not completely retired. Study participants did overwhelmingly identify some of the fakes as fake. Were not saying that every single image generated is indistinguishable from a real face, but a significant number of them are, Nightingale says.

The finding adds to concerns about the accessibility of technology that makes it possible for just about anyone to create deceptive still images. Anyone can create synthetic content without specialized knowledge of Photoshop or CGI, Nightingale says. Another concern is that such findings will create the impression that deepfakes will become completely undetectable, says Wael Abd-Almageed, founding director of the Visual Intelligence and Multimedia Analytics Laboratory at the University of Southern California, who was not involved in the study. He worries scientists might give up on trying to develop countermeasures to deepfakes, although he views keeping their detection on pace with their increasing realism as simply yet another forensics problem.

The conversation thats not happening enough in this research community is how to start proactively to improve these detection tools, says Sam Gregory, director of programs strategy and innovation at WITNESS, a human rights organization that in part focuses on ways to distinguish deepfakes. Making tools for detection is important because people tend to overestimate their ability to spot fakes, he says, and the public always has to understand when theyre being used maliciously.

Gregory, who was not involved in the study, points out that its authors directly address these issues. They highlight three possible solutions, including creating durable watermarks for these generated images, like embedding fingerprints so you can see that it came from a generative process, he says.

The authors of the study end with a stark conclusion after emphasizing that deceptive uses of deepfakes will continue to pose a threat: We, therefore, encourage those developing these technologies to consider whether the associated risks are greater than their benefits, they write. If so, then we discourage the development of technology simply because it is possible.

Excerpt from:

Humans Find AI-Generated Faces More Trustworthy Than the Real Thing - Scientific American