Iconic retailer achieves 95% coverage while reducing testing time by half with AI and ML powered test automation from eureQa

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

“We are able to increase our test coverage to 95% of the browsers and devices our customers use, while simultaneously speeding up our testing 2X with eureQa”, said Russell Glitman, eCommerce Manager at The Vermont Country Store.  He added, “eureQa helped us reduce the number of customer support staff involved in testing by half, so that they could spend more time helping our customers.”

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iconic-retailer-achieves-95-coverage-while-reducing-testing-time-by-half-with-ai-and-ml-powered-test-automation-from-eureqa-300815832.html

Cannabis Goes Next-Gen: Moving From Retail to E-Commerce

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

“NexTech AR Solutions ( OTCQB: NEXCF ) ( CSE: NTAR ) is a company focused on bringing next generation, web enabled augmented reality (AR) platforms with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics to the e-commerce, education, training, healthcare, video conferencing and cannabis sector. Having already worked with Cannvas Medtech and Premier Health in the cannabis sector, NexTech recently announced that it has signed an LOI to acquire an e-commerce business that generated USD $1.9 million in revenue and $560,000 in EBITDA in 2018, for the purchase price of $1,850,000 in cash.”

https://www.apnews.com/Globe%20Newswire/baf79107591685ed72f1eb89b80267a6

#HacktheBracket

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

There are many uses for AI including eCommerce, financial services, medical and military applications but this is one I’m truly excited about…leveraging AI to dominate your family and friends in your March Madness bracket.

For those that are new to my blog, I’ve been in Austin since 2010, but I call Indiana home…where basketball is a religion (queue the movie Hoosiers).

So, I did some research and discovered that Adobe Analytics is attempting to help basketball fans by leveraging their AI and Machine Learning to #HackTheBracket.

Pick your match-up. Predict the winner.

What impact does season-long performance have at the big tournament? We use Adobe Analytics to project head-to-head outcomes and give you a bracket-busting edge.* Select a team from each dropdown list to see the probable result.

Download the full Adobe tournament prediction powered by machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other marketing buzzwords (no promises you’ll beat your family and friends if you copy this).

With that in mind, I’m leveraging these picks as an “AI Experiment” but I do so with great trepidation, because the model is predicting all 4 – #1 seeds to make the Final Four.

Update: I just discovered via a new source (NCAA.org) that all of the #1 seeds making the Final Four has only occurred once in history. Check out this link of details.

In the last decade this has happened twice (2016 and 2009). If you’re a basketball fan and a data junkie check out the stats on this CBS site.

https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/data-analytics-cloud/analytics/pdfs/adobe-analytics-bracket-prediction-2019.pdf

Early Birds and Attraqt in e-commerce tie up

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

  • “’France-based Early Birds’ omnichannel personalisation offering and reach in the French retail market combined with UK-headquartered Attraqt’s onsite search, merchandising and internationalisation expertise, will offer retailers new, integrated shopping experiences and further opportunities for commercial growth.’
  • Together with Attraqt, our investment in developing and deploying the best AI-algorithms alongside this newly gained layer of sophisticated search and merchandising will certainly drive new standards for ecommerce experiences for our existing and mutual customers'”

https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2019/3/18/early-birds-and-attraqt-in-e-commerce-tie-up

How Retailers Can Adapt To A.I. And The Future Of Shopping

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

  • “Artificial intelligence will again change the way we shop, according to EY’s FutureConsumer.Now research.
  • As A.I. bots develop, consumers will be able to outsource the type of shopping which doesn’t excite them.
  • Shoppers will no longer have to dedicate their time to repetitive purchases s
  • Experimenting with other new technologies will also attract higher footfall: brands from Nike to Ikea are introducing 3D printing in stores, jumping on the demand for personalization.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/annaschaverien/2019/03/18/ey-future-of-shopping-retail-ai-artificial-intelligence/amp/

The Amazing Ways John Deere Uses AI And Machine Vision To Help Feed 10 Billion People

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

  • “Leading the way is John Deere – the 180-year-old manufacturer of farming and industrial machinery which has spent the past decade transforming itself into an artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven business.
  • Stone tells me “Now we’re very much pushing into artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning … what’s amazing is how all of this technology is such a hand-in-glove fit for agriculture.
  • Blue River is the Silicon Valley-based machine learning startup acquired by Deere back in 2017, which has provided the foundation of the multinational giant’s foray into artificial intelligence, with their expertise in computer vision, in particular, proving itself an incredibly valuable asset.
  • Another crucial part of Deere’s strategy to remain on the vanguard of AI and agriculture is its JD Labs ‘start-up collaborator.'”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/03/15/the-amazing-ways-john-deere-uses-ai-and-machine-vision-to-help-feed-10-billion-people/amp/

Seizing change in seas of change: a 2019 compass for AI in banking

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

  • “Despite their heroic work to date, financial services firms will face the same competitive and regulatory challenges in 2019 as in the past years.
  • Navigating around the three-headed beast—competitive disruption from other established firms, fintechs and new digital-only banks—represents another big issue.
  • Thus the overarching mission for at least the next year involves digital transformation. Enter artificial intelligence (AI), which promises to forever transform banking and propel the industry deeper into the digital age.
  • Less analytically mature organizations are just catching up to traditional “big data” challenges
  • At the same time, consumers are becoming more savvy and cautious regarding the use of their data.
  • Banks will continue to adopt AI and machine learning technologies in 2019. Why? Perhaps the most urgent reason centers on “in-the-moment speed.” Despite having plenty of customer data, banks by and large lack the capacity for instant analysis and interpretation.
  • Inexpensive technology to process billions of transactions is commonplace—but extracting value and insights from that data remains difficult.”

https://www.bai.org/banking-strategies/article-detail/seizing-change-in-seas-of-change-a-2019-compass-for-ai-in-banking

One common data management theme has emerged in 2019: that data equals the new energy source that runs modern businesses

Self-driving cars begin transporting groceries to Texas homes

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

  • “Two Kroger markets in Houston are rolling out a self-driving car program, in which orders can be placed online and delivered right to your home without a driver.
  • The delivery service was conceived by the robotics company Nuro, founded by two ex-Google employees. Kroger and Nuro began working together last year for a trial run in Scottsdale, Ariz., before they started this year’s expansion.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/auto/texas-kroger-stores-employing-driverless-delivery-robots.amp

Here’s how Workruit, the Tinder for jobs, is working to make hiring hassle-free

~ Brandon McGee ~ Leave a comment

    “Like? Swipe right. Don’t like? Swipe left. Location-based social search app Tinder made meeting people easy as pie. Manikanth Challa, 26, a graduate of Penn State University, wondered if the same idea could be applied to recruitment and launched mobile recruiting platform Workruit in May 2017.
  • Any job-seeker or recruiter can register on the platform for free. Once a job is posted, the AI-enabled algorithm curates relevant profiles of job-seekers for recruiters and vice-versa.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/yourstory.com/2019/03/tinder-for-jobs-workruit-axzhmxl/amp