Technology

Acer America improves service by decreasing repeat caller rate by 15% with responses powered by natural language speech recognition.

Acer America drives service improvements with Nuance''s natural language speech recognition technology on hosted IVR platform. The solution, which is based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) to offer call steering, has helped reduce repeat caller rate by 15% and decreases average call time by 50 seconds, among other benefits.

Acxiom improves opportunity-to-close problems for their sales team, claiming near-100 percent renewal rate, with machine learning

Clari''s AI powered OTC solutions gives Acxiom''s sales team access to real-time activity and historical data to better manage opportunity pipelines to make accurate forecasts. The solutions use predictive analytics and analyzes customer behaviour by sourcing data from various sources.

Adobe Research team investigates current approaches in machine learning for automating data cleansing and finds them inadequatee

Researchers from Adobe Research investigate the ability of metric learning techniques to automatically clean data. These approaches assume that datasets can be described in pre-defined ways, and that cleaning methods will work similarly well for similarly defined datasets. Ultimately, however, they find this not to be the case with the implication being that current cleaning standards are inadequate.

Adobe is developing technology to detect manipulation in images using a deep neural network

Adobe revealed that it is currently working on developing an AI system that spots whether an image has been altered artificially. It does so using a deep neural network which is trained on existing data sets of altered images.

Aipoly app identifies objects and uses voice to describe them to visually impaired people

Aipoly has launched an app by the same name aimed to assist visually impaired people understand their surroundings. Users point their phone camera towards an object and without taking a picture of it, the app can identify and label objects which it then reads to them. It does not require an internet connection and can also be of use to people learning a new language.

Airbnb improves search results ranking with the use of deep learning

Alibaba has reduced customer service staff needs for its marketplace vendors by introducing a chatbot

Alibaba has introduced a text-based chatbot, Dian Xiaomi, which vendors operating on its marketplace platforms vendors can implement. Alibaba claims that AI algorithms are helping to drive internal and customer service operations including smart product and search recommendations: Alibaba’s software tracks customer browsing and interactions with the website to offer product recommendations.

Amazon stops using machine learning program to evaluate job candidates based on historical resume datasets due to gender bias

Amazon shelved a human resources project which used machine learning trained on historic data to analyse and reject job applicant resumes. Because it was trained on data from which human hiring decisions had been made, it perpetuated those engrained biases, and it has been revealed that in 2015 it stopped analysing resumes in this way.

Android is planning to extend battery life in its mobile phones by implementing convolutional neural networks developed by DeepMind

Android is planning to implement research from DeepMind which analyses battery usage by apps on Android-powered phones. These convolutional neural networks predict consumption and adjust battery power accordingly, resulting in longer-lasting batteries.

Apple iOS 10 creates thematic movies from user photos using facial recognition while remaining low latency

Apple has introduced a new user media management application for devices running its iOS 10 system. The app, called "Memories", uses facial recognition and other AI to automatically create thematic mini movies with soundtracks, all processed on the user''s device. This is achieved while keeping computational resource requirements low so as to avoid user inconvenience.

Atos SE deploys Robotic Process Automation to automate extracting information in IT tasks

Atos SE automates IT tasks such as ticket management, incident management and server load balancing. These tasks were previously done manually.

BLOKWORX, an IT security services firm, to detect potential cyber threats using machine learning

BLOKWORX manages IT security for its clients 24/7. As mobile and web touch points are increasing exponentially, they need to upgrade their security offerings. They are using Deep Instinct''s platform to detect malware, ransomware and cyberattacks across all the platforms to prevent zero-day and advanced threats.

Baidu improves ad targeting for its online users resulting in increased advertising revenue through deep learning

Baidu uses deep learning algorithms to more effectively target users with ads on its online platforms, increasing revenue generated from advertising.

Baidu researchers synthesise speech through neural voice cloning with limited data samples

Baidu researchers demonstrate the ability to clone voices for speech using two methods: speaker adaptation and speaker encoding. The former demonstrates better cloning quality but the latter is less computing resource-intensive while still achieving good results.

Bytedance ranks web content according to the preference of each user by analysing their behaviour using machine learning

Bytedance offers Toutiao - an app which uses machine learning to discover content from the web for easy consumption. The algorithm presents content ranked according to the preference of each user uncovered by analysing clicks, views, comments etc on the app. The app is extremely popular in China with more than 120m users who spent ~76 minutes on the app daily.

CV Compiler analyses technical resumes and recommends improvements using machine learning

CV Compiler, developed by Andrew Stetsenko and Alexandra Dosii, is a web app that analyses and then suggests corrections to technical CVs to attract recruiters at big tech companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook, using machine learning. The algorithm has analysed 1 million resumes and has learnt to scan for keywords that are industry-specific. Thus far, 10,729 professionals have compiled their resumes using the tool.

Capgemini improves software development productivity and quality by using machine learning driven "low-code development"

Capgemini uses Mendix''s AI powered low-code development platforms to manage enterprise software development visually, using it for development, deployment and maintenance. The platform uses machine learning algorithm trained on 5 million application flows built across 15 industries to predict the next steps with 90% accuracy and assist development.

Cereproc generates synthetic speech from text using natural language processing and machine learning

Cereproc uses AI to generate speech from text using Deep networks and can personalize (and copy the original) voices of users which has therapeutic implications for some patients.

Cisco improves its online conferencing platform using accurate voice and chat assistants

Cisco''s Webex platform for online conferences is now using MindMeld''s conversational AI which Cisco acquired recently. Using conversational agent is enabling people to communicate easily with applications, devices and can also be used in authenticating participants.

Citrix''s IT department achieves 30% more deliverables and deploys cloud software upgrades 75% faster by tracking application performance and code changes using machine learning

Citrix, a digital workspace provider, has adapted DevOps to maintain its application upgrades and maintenance. Aiding them in this transformation is Dynatraces''s AI solution which offers end-to-end visibility to the IT system. Any variations are spotted instantly and notified. This has helped them achieve 4X productivity improvement in deployment.

Code.org saves 80% testing time by automating user interface testing across different devices and platforms using visual validation tools

Code.org uses Applitools'' visual testing platform to automate testing user interface changes. The platform creates a baseline model of the UI and detects any changes and tests them across, devices or software to make sure the color, shape, position and size are as expected. This has made testing 3X easier.

Codeship automates functional testing of web-based software applications using machine learning

Codeship, a continuous integration platform, uses Mabl''s platform to automate functional testing of web applications. The software maintains baselines of user interface for existing applications and automatically detects any anomalies or variations. It can identify changes across devices or browsers and auto-update baselines.

Constant Contact adapted a DevOps culture and monitors application performance constantly using machine learning

Constant Contact, a leading online marketing platform for small organizations, wanted full-stack visibility to minimize production issues. Using New Relic''s platform they were able to constantly monitor application performance and customer experience. No of incidents and duration to resolve those were significantly reduced.

Coyote improves the accurate reporting of speed limits by 9% using machine learning

Coyote provides real time information on traffic hazards, road conditions and speed limits. In order to maintain an accurate reporting of driving speed limits within their embedded maps, the company implemented Dataiku''s machine learning solution. By leveraging predictive algorithms the company was able to detect speed limit anomalies which led to a 9% increase in speed limit reliability and the automation of its correction process.