We've all heard that 'data is the new oil'. But while data may be the invisible magic powering the information age, it doesn't have any actual energy-creating properties (Until we discover a way to alchemise electricity purely from Twitter-induced rage, that is.)
Global flower delivery company Florists' Transworld Delivery (FTD), which owns subsidiaries around the world including UK brand Interflora, has been around since 1910, when a group of retail florists across the USA decided to collaborate by fulfilling orders via telegram.
Some years ago, monitoring software vendor Dynatrace made the decision to pivot to an AI-first approach. The decision was based, as the story goes, on the belief that it was better "to be the disruptors rather than the disrupted" in the words of current CEO John Van Siclen. To move from a traditional monitoring and logging vendor to a 'software intelligence' company would involve a massive leap of faith though, and a radical restructuring of the company from inside and out.
Royal Caribbean is known as an innovator within the cruise liner industry - boasting the first robot bartenders, onboard skydiving and onboard surf simulators - but it is not a technology company, and like most modern travel companies it relies on seamless technology and web-booking as a key differentiator.
Dynatrace has made a series of announcements at its Perform conference in Las Vegas this week, with the focus naturally falling on its AI capabilities.
Dow Jones, the longstanding financial news behemoth founded more than 130 years ago, has developed its own mass data service called DNA that allows clients to extract pre-existing and real time data for their operations. Some of the biggest clients are industries such as biological surveillance, reinsurance and capital markets.
Ten years ago, in 2008, shortly following the cataclysmic subprime mortgage crash, for some a beam of hope shone out: the promise of a completely decentralised monetary system, distinct from the irrationalities of the market and the destructive tendencies of government and banks 'too big to fail'. The insurgent idea, leaked quietly onto niche internet forums, was of course, bitcoin.
At the Twilio SIGNAL conference for customers and developers currently taking place in San Fransisco, the company announced the launch of two new products, Autopilot and Pay.