Author: Art Ryan

Autonomous microstores are returning to the retail market as artificial intelligence (AI) solves the accuracy and cost issues that stalled the first generation. New systems use stronger computer vision, lightweight agentic inventory models and simpler robotics to track items, forecast demand and run without dense sensor grids or continuous human oversight. Retailers are moving from small pilots to practical deployments as evidence grows that the model can operate reliably at lower cost. The first wave of microstores depended on pressure shelves and large sensor arrays that required constant calibration and often produced inconsistent reads. AI is changing that. Today’s vision…

Perplexity’s new partnership with the United States government and the artificial intelligence startup’s free agentic shopping product for U.S. users were announced Wednesday (Nov. 19). The new shopping experience will be rolled out to U.S. users next week, Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko told CNBC in a report posted Wednesday. In this experience, users will do their own research, because most people want to do that, and then the “agentic part is the seamless purchase right from the answer,” Shevelenko said. Over time, this experience will enable users to buy items from 5,000 merchants through Perplexity’s search engine, according to the report. It…

Large software vendors are strategically positioning artificial intelligence (AI) agents as a managed layer inside the enterprise rather than as optional add-ons. Microsoft’s Agent 365, Salesforce’s Agentforce 360 and Oracle’s AI Agent Marketplace all share the view that businesses will run many agents across crucial functions, including support, operations, finance and customer work, requiring centralized structure, oversight and integration within existing workflows. The result is the early shape of an “AI control plane” that acts as the necessary intermediary between workers, applications and data. Common Agentic Architecture Microsoft’s Agent 365 is representative of this new model. As PYMNTS reported, the company said businesses “are starting to rely on agents to handle tasks across support, operations and productivity tools,…

Dubai, UAE – 20 November 2025 – On 26 and 27 November 2025 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai will host the region’s most dynamic forum for technology, innovation, and digital transformation — DATE MENA. Organised by Trescon, DATE is a Digitization, AI & Emerging Technology Summit. Over two days, the event will bring together 1,000+ pre-qualified business leaders, tech innovators, investors, enterprise buyers, and regulators to explore the technologies redefining industries and shaping the future of MENA. As a high-impact platform, DATE MENA brings 40+ international and regional speakers delivering actionable insights across AI, Blockchain & Digital Assets, Cybersecurity, Immersive Technologies,…

Nokia is dividing its artificial intelligence (AI) and telecom businesses into separate units. The tech company announced Wednesday (Nov. 19) that its new network infrastructure division would house its AI and data center operations, while its telecoms network operations would become part of its mobile infrastructure unit. “Nokia changed the world once by connecting people — and will again by connecting intelligence,” said Justin Hotard, Nokia’s president and chief executive, said in a news release. “As the trusted western provider of secure and advanced connectivity, our technology is powering the AI supercycle.” The Finland-based company is positioning its network infrastructure business as a “growth…

The European Union (EU) has released an extensive plan to ease digital regulations. The project, announced Wednesday (Nov. 19), centers around a “digital omnibus” that streamlines rules on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and data. According to the European Commission — the EU’s regulatory arm — the plan would also be coupled with what it calls a Data Union Strategy to unlock high-quality data for AI and European Business Wallets that will provide companies with a single digital identity to simplify paperwork and make it easier to do business in EU countries. Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s executive vice president for tech Sovereignty, security and democracy, said the plan will help…

Adobe plans to acquire Semrush to add that company’s generative engine optimization (GEO) capabilities to Adobe’s range of tools for marketers. The companies’ definitive agreement for the acquisition includes a total equity value of $1.9 billion, they said ina Wednesday (Nov. 19) press release. The transaction has been approved by both Adobe’s and Semrush’s board of directors but remains subject to customary closing conditions, according to the release. The companies expect the transaction to close in the first half of 2026. PYMNTS reported in September that GEO has become an emerging discipline as artificial intelligence transforms the way people search online, requiring businesses to work to…

xAI is reportedly in advanced discussions to raise $15 billion in equity at a $230 billion valuation. That’s according to a report Wednesday (Nov. 19) by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing sources familiar with the Elon Musk-run artificial intelligence (AI) company’s plans. The report notes that this new valuation would mark a massive jump from the $113 billion xAI revealed after acquiring Musk’s X social media platform earlier this year. Sources told the WSJ that the terms of the new funding were shared with investors by Musk’s wealth manager, Jared Birchall, on Tuesday (Nov. 18) evening. The news comes days after a similar report…

Commerce is changing, and so are the rules that govern how merchants and consumers meet online. Few categories illustrate that better than furniture, where long buying cycles and fragmented experiences are giving way to data-driven speed. Dan Bennett, CMO of Furniture.com, said the category was unnecessarily painful. “It’s a long-winded process,” he told Karen Webster, PYMNTS CEO, as part of the latest installment of “The SKU” series. “It takes far too much bandwidth than it should. I personally think buying furniture should be kind of a joyous experience. … It has an emotional quotient that I think is forgotten in the process.” While the Furniture.com domain dates…

Meta Chief Revenue Officer John Hegeman said Tuesday (Nov. 18) that he is leaving the firm after 17 years to start his own company. Announcing the move in a post on Facebook, Hegeman said he had “decided it’s time to close this chapter and pursue a long-standing dream — starting a new company.” He did not provide any details about the new company. Hegeman thanked Meta executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and said that Andrew Bocking will take over as product group lead for ads and business messaging, while Naomi Gleit will become the leader of business artificial intelligence (AI) and other new monetization opportunities. “Meta’s business is as strong…

Microsoft on Tuesday (Nov. 18) introduced Microsoft Agent 365, a new system aimed to help companies track and control the growing number of AI agents used in everyday work. The company said organizations are starting to rely on agents to handle tasks across support, operations and productivity tools, and that they need a single place to manage them. Microsoft cited IDC research estimating that more than one billion agents could be active inside businesses by 2028. Agent 365 gives companies a unified view of all the agents running in their environments. It includes a central list where IT teams can see…

Lawmakers have introduced two bipartisan bills aimed at expanding artificial intelligence support for small businesses, marking one of Congress’s most targeted efforts this year to help Main Street firms understand and responsibly adopt AI. The proposals focus on training, education and advisory support at a time when many small firms are exploring AI but lack the resources to implement it effectively. The first measure, the AI for Workforce Innovation, Skills and Entrepreneurship Act, known as AI-WISE, was introduced by U.S. Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich) and Troy Downing (R-Mont.). Sponsors outlined the effort in a press release, saying the goal is to provide small business owners with…

Microsoft says it is joining Nvidia in a multibillion-dollar partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic. Under this collaboration, Anthropic will scale its Claude AI model on the Nvidia-powered Microsoft Azure, the companies announced Tuesday (Nov. 18). Anthropic has agreed to purchase $30 billion of Azure compute capacity and to contract additional compute capacity up to one gigawatt, while Microsoft and Nvidia have pledged to invest up to $5 billion and $10 billion, respectively, in Anthropic. According to the announcement, Microsoft and Anthropic are also expanding their existing partnership to widen access to Claude for businesses, giving Microsoft Foundry customers use of Anthropic’s frontier Claude models, while continuing to…

Dubai, UAE — 19 November 2025 — DATEwithTech Dubai 2025, the Middle East’s flagship technology and innovation summit, proudly announces EY and Magure as its Official Gold Partners for the upcoming edition, taking place 26–27 November 2025 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. As the MENA region accelerates its advancement toward a digitally empowered economy, the involvement of EY and Magure brings unmatched strategic depth and leadership to this year’s event. Their Gold Partner status underscores their pivotal roles in shaping enterprise AI adoption, digital trust, cloud transformation and advanced technology deployment across the region. 🌟 Introducing the Gold Partners Elevating DATEwithTech…

Physical AI is emerging as the next stage of robotics as advances in sensing, perception and large AI models give machines capabilities that traditional automation never supported. Earlier robots followed fixed commands and worked only in predictable environments, struggling with the unpredictability found in everyday operations such as shifting layouts, varying item shapes, mixed lighting, and human movement. That is beginning to change as research groups show how simulation, digital twins and multimodal learning pipelines enable robots to learn adaptive behaviors and carry those behaviors into real facilities with minimal retraining. Meet the New Workforce Work from Fraunhofer IESE describes how…

Google introduced its newest AI model, Gemini 3, on Tuesday (Nov. 18) and deployed it directly into Google Search, the Gemini app and its enterprise cloud stack. The company announced the release in its blog, calling it its most capable multimodal model to date. Google Embeds Gemini 3 Into Its Core Products The company says Gemini 3 brings expanded reasoning, longer context handling and improved multimodal performance across text, image, audio and video. Google placed it into Search’s AI Mode for premium users, added it to the Gemini app and made it available to developers through AI Studio and Vertex AI.…

Amazon is introducing new features for its AI shopping assistant amid triple-digit user growth. The updates to the company’s Rufus, announced Tuesday (Nov. 18), include enhancements to its knowledge of shopping category and product research and evaluation, and product search and recommendations. In addition, Amazon says it has developed more than 50 technical upgrades, enhancements, and new features to make Rufus faster and more useful. Amazon introduced a beta version of Rufus last winter, before a wider, nationwide rollout in July of 2024. The generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational shopping assistant has seen significant growth since then, the announcement said. “More than 250 million customers have used…

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told BBC News that the artificial intelligence (AI) boom contains both rational and irrational elements. Pichai said the tech industry can “overshoot” during investment cycles like the one currently happening with AI, the BBC reported Tuesday (Nov. 18). He compared this investment cycle with the one that happened in the early days of the internet. There was “clearly a lot of excess investment” at that time, but the internet was certainly “profound,” Pichai said. “I expect AI to be the same,” Pichai said. “So I think it’s both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this.” Pichai…

TurboTax maker Intuit has launched a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup OpenAI. The collaboration, announced Tuesday (Nov. 18), will let users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT take “trusted, secure, and accurate financial actions” through Intuit’s various apps, which can be accessed within the chatbot. According to an Intuit news release, this marks the first time consumers and businesses will be able to employ Intuit’s AI-driven expert platform and get personalized financial insights and recommendations, all through apps available in ChatGPT. “Every week, hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses search on ChatGPT for answers to their biggest problems,” the release said, citing questions such as “how can…

Social discovery moves at the speed of trends. Large language models (LLMs) are reshaping how people search and buy online. Yet brick-and-mortar remains the heart of beauty. Ulta Beauty sits at the center of all three forces, building a connected commerce strategy designed for consumers who shift rapidly between digital inspiration and the in-store experience. In a conversation with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster as part of “The SKU” series, Josh Friedman, senior vice president of eCommerce and digital at Ulta Beauty, said the typical shopper focuses on the end result, rather than the means, when it comes to commerce. Webster noted that…