Author: Art Ryan

Kardome announced the launch of a new voice artificial intelligence technology called Cognition AI on January 5, 2026. The company is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The product is designed to improve voice interaction across cars, homes and workplaces. The company says existing voice systems often fail in noisy or complex environments. Cognition AI is built to function in those settings. It allows devices to recognize who is speaking and understand user intent. The system does not rely on fixed voice commands. It also does not require continuous cloud connectivity. Cognition AI works alongside Kardome’s Spatial Hearing AI. Together, they…

Samsung Electronics plans to greatly increase the number of devices with its Galaxy AI features in 2026. T.M. Roh, the company’s new co-chief executive, shared this strategy in an interview on January 5. Roh stated that Samsung aims to use artificial intelligence in all its products, functions, and services. Currently, Samsung offers Galaxy AI on about 400 million smartphones and tablets. The company intends to raise that number to 800 million devices within the year. The AI features partly rely on Google’s Gemini model, which is built into Samsung’s mobile ecosystem. Roh mentioned that this expansion is meant to strengthen…

Amazon and Google are using agentic artificial intelligence to change online retail. Both companies see AI as an important part of the shopping experience, not just an added feature. Amazon explained how it uses generative and agentic AI to make finding and deciding on products easier. The company noted that its vast marketplace can be overwhelming for customers. With hundreds of millions of items, it can take a long time to compare. Amazon employs AI systems that analyze what customers mean rather than just focusing on keywords. These systems look at factors such as reviews, pricing trends, delivery times, return…

Anthropic is focusing its artificial intelligence strategy on using resources efficiently. President and co-founder Daniela Amodei discussed this approach in an interview on January 3. She mentioned that the company carefully allocates computing power and funding while staying competitive in AI development. Daniela and her brother Dario Amodei founded Anthropic. The company operates with fewer resources than some of its larger competitors. Amodei noted that Anthropic has historically had less computing capacity and funding than its rivals. Despite this, she claimed the company has produced highly capable and competitive models in recent years. The strategy prioritizes efficiency over just scale.…

CES 2026 will put artificial intelligence and robotics at the forefront of the event. The exhibition takes place from January 6 to January 9 in Las Vegas. About 4,300 companies from over 150 countries will take part. The show covers roughly 2.5 million square feet of exhibition space. This year’s focus is on physical AI. Physical AI means systems where artificial intelligence controls machines that sense and act in real environments. Robotics will be a major feature across several exhibition halls. The focus shifts from software-based AI to embodied systems. Hyundai Motor Group plans to showcase its long-term robotics strategy.…

MUFG Bank, Ltd. is creating a workplace where humans and artificial intelligence (AI) collaborate, with each AI tailored for a specific role. “Our CEO says we should make the workplace as friendly as possible for our AI colleagues,” said Osamu Abe, executive officer and chief of staff for Asia-Pacific at the Japanese lender, in an interview with Asian Banking & Finance. Abe does not envision a single, all-powerful AI. “I want diversity—different personalities and different risk levels. I don’t want compliance and credit office AIs to behave like our sales and trading AIs,” he explained during a Microsoft Teams interview.…

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) are extending their partnership to advance agentic commerce for merchants. Fiserv will be one of the first major payment processors to leverage Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework at scale, raising the bar for secure, intelligent and interoperable agentic commerce and empowering merchants to confidently embrace the era of AI-driven payments. Supporting Merchant Acceptance Through Agent Pay As commerce becomes increasingly digital and autonomous, merchants need trusted solutions that balance innovation with security and transparency. With this expanded partnership, Fiserv is integrating with Mastercard’s Secure Card on File solution to act as a network token…

Media-focused artificial intelligence is becoming an important area of AI development. Meta is expanding this work through its Superintelligence Labs. Manohar Paluri is the Vice President at Meta. He leads media-focused AI initiatives within the company. Paluri oversees teams that build foundation models for images, video, and multimodal systems. These models help users create, view, and interact with content on Meta platforms. The systems operate at a large scale and support billions of users. Manohar Paluri will speak at Machines Can Think 2026. The event will take place in January 2026. His session will focus on media-native intelligence as a…

Artificial intelligence is becoming essential to changes in the telecom industry. This topic will be highlighted at Machines Can Think 2026 in Abu Dhabi on January 26 and January 27. The event will gather industry leaders, researchers, operators, and regulators. Prof. Merouane Debbah will take part in the summit. He is the Director of the 6G Research Center at Khalifa University. At the event, he will lead a panel called AI Powered Telco 2026 From Network to Experience. The panel will include leaders from du, e& enterprise, GSMA, and TDRA. The discussion will focus on how AI is transforming telecom…

Abu Dhabi will host Machines Can Think 2026 on January 26 and January 27 at Park Hyatt Saadiyat Island. This event will bring together global AI leaders, researchers, and executives from major technology companies. The summit is the main event for artificial intelligence adoption in the Middle East and North Africa region. It will feature over 50 keynote talks, hands-on workshops, interactive demos, and startup exhibits. Organized by Polynome, the event will showcase more than 20 leading AI researchers from over 12 countries and senior leaders from global tech firms. Speakers include Michal Valko, Chief Models Officer at a stealth…

Source: PYMNTS – https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/openai-improving-audio-ai-models-ahead-of-introduction-of-personal-ai-devices/ OpenAI is working on improving audio-focused artificial intelligence models. This effort aims at developing future personal AI devices designed for voice interaction. Sources cited by The Information say that current audio models fall behind text-based systems in speed and accuracy. The company plans to release a new audio model in the first quarter. OpenAI also expects to launch its first personal AI device in about a year, but it declined to comment on the report. OpenAI intends to release multiple personal AI devices over time. Reported formats include smart glasses and a smart speaker. These products…

Source: PYMTS – https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/google-pushes-ai-onto-devices/ Artificial intelligence development has focused on cloud-based systems for years. Large models run in centralized data centers. These systems support chatbots, enterprise software, and consumer tools. Relying on the cloud increases latency, infrastructure costs, and data transfers across networks. Google is now taking a different approach. The company is expanding edge AI alongside cloud-based Gemini models. Google Edge tools and a compact model called FunctionGemma are central to this effort. This strategy makes local execution a key part of AI infrastructure. FunctionGemma runs directly on mobile devices. The model translates natural language commands into executable actions.…

Source: PYMNTS https://www.pymnts.com/real-estate/2026/commercial-real-estate-turns-to-ai-to-automate-the-back-office/ Artificial intelligence is changing commercial real estate by automating back office tasks. This change focuses on valuations, underwriting, leasing, and property operations. Morgan Stanley estimates that automation could cover 37 percent of tasks in the sector. This could lead to efficiency gains of up to 34 billion dollars by 2030. Rising financing costs, tighter margins, and slower transactions are driving this trend. Property owners, lenders, and operators are using AI to speed up processes, reduce errors, and standardize workflows. Automation aids decisions throughout the entire real estate life cycle. Valuation, underwriting, and due diligence are seeing early…

China has developed and launched a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) system that connects directly to its national supercomputing network. This system is capable of conducting advanced scientific research independently. The initiative started on December 23, just a month after US President Donald Trump announced the Genesis Mission, which is an “AI Manhattan Project” intended to maintain US technological leadership. While the US plan is under strict deadlines that require proof of progress within 270 days, China has already rolled out its system across the country, serving over a thousand potential institutional users. The new AI agent can understand simple language…

Price.com launched “Buy with AI,” a feature that allows an AI agent to search for products, apply discounts, and complete purchases on the open internet without needing consumers to visit merchant websites. Instead of retailers and marketplaces controlling discovery and checkout through branded storefronts, AI agents are beginning to position themselves between buyers and sellers. They now determine what gets bought, where, and at what price. This change is significant because payment networks and retail platforms are racing to insert themselves within that agent layer. This signals a broader shift in who controls demand and transaction flow. Price.com Shows HowPrice.com’s…

Thousands of European banking sector workers could lose their jobs due to AI by 2030. Artificial intelligence (AI) and branch closures will drive this trend over the next five years. This may result in a 10% workforce reduction across the industry, according to a report from the Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday (Dec. 31), which cites a forecast from Morgan Stanley. The report states that the cuts are occurring as banks strive to save money with AI while moving more operations online. Most job losses will likely come from back-office and middle-office positions, along with roles in risk management and…

Nvidia is reportedly in talks to acquire Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) startup AI21 Labs. AI21 is one of the few startups in Israel developing a large-scale language model for artificial intelligence, according to Israeli tech publication Calcalist on Tuesday, December 30. The deal could be valued between $2 billion and $3 billion. This is an increase from AI21’s last known valuation of $1.4 billion, which was reached during a fundraising round in 2023. PYMNTS reached out to Nvidia for a comment but has not received a response yet. AI21 completed a $300 million fundraising round earlier this year, led by…

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup MiniMax aims to raise over $600 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong. The company may begin accepting investor orders as early as Wednesday, December 31, for a listing in January, though the size and timing of the deal might change, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, December 30, citing unnamed sources. MiniMax did not comment on the report, according to Bloomberg. The company is one of several trying to be the first Chinese generative AI startup to go public. It plans to compete with U.S. leaders in the field, the report stated. Rival…

Caterpillar has long been known for construction equipment like bulldozers and dump trucks. But now, another part of the company’s business is driving sales: generators. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, December 30, Caterpillar’s power and energy business has become its fastest-growing sales unit due to a rise in data center projects for artificial intelligence (AI) use. The company expects this segment to boost annual sales growth by 5% to 7% through 2030, compared to an average of 4% in recent years. Caterpillar is also planning its largest factory spending in about 15 years to…

Ahead of CES 2026 next week in Las Vegas, several consumer electronics companies are showing off hardware products that use specific AI technologies. The devices include wearables, mixed-reality systems, home security tools, appliances, and robotics. Each relies on cameras, sensors, processors, and AI models to gather data from the physical world, analyze it locally, and trigger specific responses. Wearables and Headsets Rokid is previewing AI glasses that feature a first-person camera, microphones, a micro-display, and an internal computing unit, all designed to fit like regular glasses. According to the company’s CES preview, these glasses have entered mass production, moving past…