Author: Art Ryan

DeepSeek has debuted two new versions of an experimental artificial intelligence (AI) model. “DeepSeek-V3.2 is our first model to integrate thinking directly into tool-use, and also supports tool-use in both thinking and non-thinking modes,” the Chinese startup wrote in a post on X Monday (Dec. 1). The launch was flagged in a report by Bloomberg news, which noted that these releases are new versions of a model released weeks ago, but with new capabilities designed to help combine reasoning and execute certain actions autonomously. Per that report, DeepSeek said the new services match the performance of OpenAI’s flagship GPT-5 throughout multiple reasoning benchmarks, which indicates China’s open-source systems…

S&P Global has rolled out a series of integrations with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This collaboration, announced in a Monday (Dec. 1) news release, is designed to let S&P customers use artificial intelligence (AI) agents to get answers to “complex market, financial, and energy-related questions” from S&P Global directly within their AWS environments. S&P’s data is now available through two new model context protocol (MCP) server integrations with Amazon Quick Suite, the release added. “Bringing S&P Global’s data to Amazon Quick Suite enables financial professionals to harness the power of agentic AI and trusted market, financial, and energy intelligence directly in their workflows,” said Scott Mullins,…

A new wave of funding rounds across the artificial intelligence (AI) startup ecosystem is signaling that investors are continuing to place big bets on companies building the next layer of enterprise intelligence. The pattern signals a growing appetite for AI tools that can deliver reliability, scale and operational efficiency across industries. Harmonic Raises New Capital for Reliable Reasoning Harmonic, a fast-growing startup backed by major Silicon Valley investors, raised $100 million in its Series B, according to the press release. Harmonic is developing an AI system designed to reason with more consistency than standard models. The company describes its mission as…

American consumers are projected to spend $14.2 billion for Cyber Monday. That’s up 6.3% from 2024 and follows record levels of eCommerce shopping on Black Friday, Reuters reported Monday (Dec. 1), citing Adobe Analytics data. As Reuters noted, the all-time high of $11.8 billion in spending last week came as consumers embraced artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to compare prices and land discounts. “AI is the ultimate purchase accelerator, guiding consumers with clear intent straight to the buy button,” said Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce. Adobe expects more than half of the online spending on Cyber Monday is expected to come from three categories — electronics, apparel and furniture —…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — Global AI Show 2025 is pleased to announce that Bilal Baloch, Partner at Shorooq Partners, will join the event as a featured speaker on 8–9 December 2025 at Space42 Arena, Abu Dhabi. Renowned for blending policy insight, technological innovation, and venture leadership, Bilal brings a powerful and unique perspective to the global AI conversation. A Leader at the Intersection of Technology, Policy & Venture Capital Bilal Baloch has cultivated a distinguished career shaped by multidisciplinary expertise: His work empowers founders, policymakers, and enterprise leaders to navigate complexity, embrace innovation, and make high-impact decisions in rapidly evolving…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — Global AI Show 2025 is proud to welcome Coursera, one of the world’s leading online learning platforms, as an official Exhibitor at this year’s flagship AI gathering, taking place 8–9 December 2025 at Space42 Arena, Abu Dhabi. As a global pioneer in accessible, flexible, and industry-aligned digital education, Coursera brings unmatched expertise in preparing learners and organizations for the future of work—especially as AI reshapes industries at unprecedented speed. A Global Leader in Digital Education Founded with a mission to expand access to world-class learning, Coursera partners with more than 350 top universities and industry leaders,…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — The countdown is intensifying. In just 6 days, the global community of AI innovators, industry leaders, policy-makers, and enterprise strategists will converge in Abu Dhabi for Global AI Show 2025, scheduled for December 8, 2025. The event promises to be a pivotal milestone for artificial intelligence adoption, investment, and innovation worldwide. 🌐 A Premier Gathering for the Global AI Ecosystem Global AI Show 2025 will unite a diverse and influential audience, including: Together, they will explore how AI can transform economies, accelerate digital transformation, and unlock new capabilities in business, public service, and global competitiveness. 💡…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — The countdown continues. In just 8 days, game developers, publishers, esports pros, investors, creators, and global gaming fans will unite in Abu Dhabi for Global Games Show 2025, happening December 8–9, 2025 at Space42 Arena. The event is poised to redefine the gaming landscape — positioning Abu Dhabi at the heart of global gaming, immersive entertainment, and interactive media culture. 🌎 A Global Junction for Gaming, VR/AR, Esports & Innovation Global Games Show 2025 will gather a powerful mix of participants including: This year’s edition promises to be more than just a showcase — it’s a…

Tutor Intelligence, which makes AI-powered robots for warehouse work, has raised $34 million in new funding. The company will use the new capital to speed commercialization of its robots, scale its consumer packaged goods (CPG) fleet and advance its central robot intelligence platform and research infrastructure, according to a Monday (Dec. 1) news release. “Tutor stands out for its extraordinary speed of execution and its ability to balance cutting-edge product and model development with a clear commercial focus that quickly gets this functionality into customers’ hands,” Rebecca Kaden, managing partner at Union Square Ventures, which led the funding round, said in the…

Do you remember the first time you used ChatGPT? It probably wasn’t Nov. 30, 2022, when the platform debuted. But it was probably soon after. More than 800 million weekly users later it’s on track to have more than 220 million paid users by 2030. ChatGPT and the other large language models (LLMs) that came after in short order have changed pretty much everything in the business world and as PYMNTS Intelligence research showed, it was a factor on Black Friday. Half of all shoppers, including two in three Gen Zers, used conversational artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help them complete their purchases. But the…

Visa and Amazon Web Services want to help developers and enterprises deploy agentic AI commerce projects. To that end, the companies announced Monday (Dec. 1) the launch of a partnership that will see Visa list its Intelligence Commerce platform in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace. “Agentic commerce needs trust to move from intent to action; Visa Intelligent Commerce is designed to be the trust layer for the agent economy and together with Visa Acceptance can provide the infrastructure for secure, network-agnostic transactions,” Rubail Birwadker, senior vice president and global head of growth for Visa, said in a news release. “With AWS’s scalable cloud…

The role of the finance function is being re-written as companies increasingly are no longer satisfied with observing cash flow in the rearview mirror. Instead, they are beginning to redesign it. The latest data in the report “Time to Cash™: A New Measure of Business Resilience,” a new PYMNTS Intelligence collaboration with Bottomline and FIS, revealed that Time to Cash™, the speed at which a company turns sales into usable capital, now correlates more strongly with performance than sector, size, or even revenue growth. The report classified companies into three distinct profiles: Strategic Movers, Stable Operators, and Liquidity Constrained. Each are mapped to the maturity…

New York has become the first state to take action against so-called “personalized pricing.” As The New York Times reported Saturday (Nov. 29), a law enacted with the state’s budget requires retailers to notify customers about the use of the practice — also known as “algorithmic pricing” — in which they use artificial intelligence (AI) and customer data to set prices. According to the report, the legislation is designed to keep stores from abusing customer data to set high prices by, for example, hiking the cost of a hotel room for someone who has already spent heavily on airline tickets. Under the law, retailers who use personalized pricing…

The last few Prompt Economy Weekly features have focused on trust and technical security for agentic AI. Seeing as how security is a prerequisite for its consistent usage, that focus was spot-on and will continue to be an issue. But this week was something of a litmus test for the Prompt Economy. It marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and time will tell whether agentic AI was a factor. In the meantime, we did have several new cases come to the forefront over the past week. That’s where we will focus as more companies develop the trust and security necessary to fulfill agentic AI’s promise. The first…

Credit unions trying to attract younger members now face a generation that expects personalized digital tools and is willing to walk away when it does not get them. The “Digital-First Retention Playbook: Winning Gen Z Loyalty at Credit Unions” report lays out a portrait of a cohort that sees itself as navigating a tougher financial landscape than older groups while demanding fast, relevant and tech-forward service from its financial institutions. The report, produced by PYMNTS Intelligence in collaboration with Velera, finds that Gen Z’s expectations are rising at the same time that their willingness to switch providers is accelerating. This is…

OpenAI’s data center partners are reportedly set to accrue nearly $100 billion in borrowing.  As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (Nov. 30), this has allowed the high profile artificial intelligence (AI) startup to reap the rewards of a debt-driven spending wave without having to take on financial risks. An analysis by the FT found that SoftBank, Oracle and CoreWeave have borrowed at least $30 billion to invest in OpenAI or help build its data centers. Meanwhile, investment company Blue Owl Capital and computing infrastructure providers such as Crusoe also depend on deals its customers have inked with OpenAI to service roughly $28 billion in loans. Lastly, a group of banks was…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — The countdown is entering its final week. In just 7 days, AI innovators, industry leaders, policymakers, and forward-thinking enterprises from around the world will gather in Abu Dhabi for Global AI Show 2025, set to convene on 8 December 2025 at the heart of the UAE. This year’s edition is shaping up to be a landmark event — spotlighting breakthroughs in generative AI, enterprise automation, agentic systems, ethical AI governance, and large-scale AI adoption. As organizations move from proof-of-concept to deployment, Global AI Show 2025 will offer a global platform for collaboration, investment, and strategic transformation.…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — The countdown is accelerating. In just 9 days, the global gaming community — including developers, studios, creators, investors, and esports professionals — will gather in Abu Dhabi for Global Games Show 2025, scheduled for December 8–9, 2025 at Space42 Arena. This year’s edition promises to set a new benchmark in gaming and interactive entertainment, positioning Abu Dhabi as a global hub for game innovation, immersive experiences, and digital culture. 🌍 A Global Nexus for Gaming, Tech & Entertainment Global Games Show 2025 will bring together a dynamic mix of: The event is designed to be a…

Abu Dhabi, UAE — 2025 — In one of the most significant technology investments in the Middle East, Microsoft has announced a historic US $15.2 billion commitment to the United Arab Emirates, aimed at supercharging the nation’s artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and digital innovation capabilities. This transformative investment underscores the UAE’s fast-rising position as a global hub for next-generation technologies — and solidifies a powerful new chapter in U.S.–UAE strategic tech cooperation. 💡 A Massive, Multi-Layered Investment for AI Leadership Microsoft’s $15.2B initiative focuses on four core pillars designed to propel the UAE into the future: 1. Hyper-Scale AI &…

Surveying the state of America’s artificial intelligence landscape earlier this year, Misha Laskin was concerned. Laskin, a theoretical physicist and machine learning engineer who helped create some of Google’s most powerful AI models, saw a growing embrace among American AI companies of free, customizable and increasingly powerful “open” AI models. But most of these models were being made in China, and these systems were quickly gaining ground on their U.S. competitors. “These models were not that far behind the frontier. In fact, they were surprisingly close to the frontier. The ones that are coming now,” Laskin said, pausing slightly, “well…