Author: Art Ryan

B2B’s AI moment isn’t about shiny demos. It’s about turning the back office into a decision engine. And PYMNTS is set to track that journey with its month-long virtual event B2B.AI: The Architecture of Intelligent Money Movement. It’s a virtual program built for operators: CFOs, treasurers, product leads and platform builders who want the playbooks behind AI that have proven value in B2B. “The opportunity now with Gen AI is to take those specialized point solutions and models to general intelligence across the business,” says PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. “There’s a contextual aspect and a reasoning aspect that Gen AI and agents…

As banks and financial institutions push to justify the billions invested in artificial intelligence (AI), one question defines the conversation: Where does AI create value? To answer that, Thomas H. Davenport looked beyond technology companies to the investors who treat efficiency as currency, private equity. In a new analysis published by MIT Sloan Management Review, Davenport says, “One important sign that AI has the potential to create value is the willingness of private equity firms to build AI capabilities into portfolio companies.” Along with his co-author Randy Bean, Davenport presents that private equity might be offering the clearest evidence of how AI delivers measurable returns.…

Elon Musk has reportedly tapped ex-Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong to serve as xAI’s CFO. That’s according to a report late Monday (Oct. 6) by the Financial Times (FT), which notes that this is the latest executive shake-up at the artificial intelligence (AI) company. According to the report, Armstrong advised Musk on his takeover of Twitter, since rebranded as X, and has become one of the billionaire’s key allies, including during his tenure with the Trump administration. Armstrong will oversee finances for xAI and X, several sources familiar with the matter told the FT. The two companies merged in March, and are valued at $113 billion. “xAI and X’s…

For decades, the competitive advantage in corporate finance rested on scale and speed. Moving money faster, managing liquidity at greater volumes, and executing transactions at lower cost were the name of the game. That equation is now shifting. As artificial intelligence moves from the back office to the core of decision-making, a new source of edge is emerging: AI’s ability to transform raw data into predictive insights. “There’s a continuous evolution and … dynamic disruption in finance that requires CFOs to harness data and AI to make finance more efficient, more effective and substantially more strategic,” Raj Seshadri, chief commercial payments officer…

A Global Stage for Intelligence, Innovation, and Impact The world’s most influential minds in artificial intelligence and technology are converging at GITEX GLOBAL 2025, the largest tech and startup event of its kind. Hosted in Dubai, this iconic gathering brings together the leaders shaping the next era of human progress — from AI giants like OpenAI and G42 to hardware pioneers like Cerebras Systems and data management innovators like Cohesity. GITEX GLOBAL isn’t just another tech expo — it’s a collision of power, ambition, and intelligence. Here, the most advanced ideas in AI, quantum computing, cloud, and cybersecurity converge under…

ChatGPT users can now chat with several third-party apps while in conversation with the chatbot. OpenAI announced this feature called Apps in ChatGPT, together with an Apps SDK for developers that enables them to build these kinds of apps, in a Monday (Oct. 6) press release. The first apps are now available to all logged-in ChatGPT users on Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans, except those in the European Union, according to the release. The pilot partners offering apps within ChatGPT are Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify and Zillow, per the release. Eleven more partners and their apps will be added later this year. “The magic of this new generation…

Billions are flowing into AI, but not where they used to. The largest funding rounds this week went to startups working on deployment, compute and pricing, the systems that determine whether AI can operate efficiently and profitably. The focus is shifting from invention to execution as investors look for what they can scale. Vercel raised $300 million dollars at a $9.3 billion valuation. The company runs a platform that helps developers deploy and manage web applications quickly without maintaining their own servers. As more firms build products that rely on dynamic data or AI, deployment has become a bottleneck. Vercel automates…

Personal styling service Stitch Fix has launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered visualization tool. Stitch Fix Vision, announced Monday (Oct. 6), gives customers personalized imagery of their likeness in an array of shoppable outfit recommendations based on their style profile and the newest fashion trends. “When Stitch Fix launched nearly 15 years ago, we disrupted the retail market and today, we are rewriting the retail playbook once again with our latest suite of innovations, including Stitch Fix Vision,” Matt Baer, Stitch Fix CEO, said in a news release provided to PYMNTS. “We have billions of data points on our clients’ fit and style preferences, and we are using…

If the outpouring of thought leadership is any indication of the urgency with which companies are advancing agentic AI, we’re about to see a Q4 that will require popcorn. But thought leadership won’t pay the bills on their own. Use cases will. And this past week has seen some impressive use cases in the Prompt Economy. The article “What’s Reasonable to Expect from Agentic AI in Pharma?” published by Pharmaceutical Technology examines how agentic AI could transform pharmaceutical research and development. The author argues that pharma’s data-rich, process-heavy environment makes it a natural test bed for AI agents capable of reasoning, adapting, and…

OpenAI and iPhone designer Jony Ive’s artificial intelligence (AI) device has reportedly encountered some technical hiccups.  Ive and the high-profile AI startup are developing a palm-sized, screenless device that can take audio and visual cues from the physical environment and respond to users’ requests. But as the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday, sources familiar with their plans said OpenAI and Ive had yet to solve crucial problems that could hold back the device’s release. Among the obstacles are deciding on the device’s “personality,” privacy issues and budgeting for the computing power required to run OpenAI’s models on a mass consumer product. “Compute is another huge factor for the delay,” said one source close to Ive.…

European tech founders are turning to the U.S. to find funding for artificial intelligence (AI) projects. That’s according to a report Saturday (Oct. 4) from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which said this trend is being driven by the heavier upfront costs of AI computing infrastructure and specialist talent. This is worrisome for Europe, the report added, as the region hopes to make a name for itself as a global AI hub rivaling China and the U.S. Although the European venture capital scene has grown in recent years, WSJ said, it still trails the U.S., where AI and machine learning startups raised upwards…

Unlike other sectors where results aren’t always the deciding factor, AI in healthcare scales only on proof. In cancer diagnostics, adoption depends on consistent, concrete results that doctors trust, and insurers are willing to reimburse. Investors and health systems are already pouring billions into AI, but only tools that deliver reliable outcomes in practice will gain traction. As CancerNetwork notes, the most successful models are those that help pathologists with repeatable tasks rather than trying to replace them outright. A recent Scientific Reports study makes the case: a simple decision-tree model classified breast tumors with more than 90 percent accuracy while clearly showing how it…

Venture capital has never been more one-sided. In 2025, investors funneled nearly $193 billion into AI startups, the first time since the dot-com bubble that more than half of global VC dollars went to a single sector, according to PitchBook via Bloomberg. The surge is minting winners at the top while the rest of the startup pipeline grows thin. “You’re in AI, or you’re not. You’re a big firm, or you’re not,” said Kyle Sanford, director of research at PitchBook. His comment captures a venture market increasingly divided between a handful of AI giants and everyone else. The leaders are pulling in…

After the success of OpenAI’s video editing app Sora, now at the top of the U.S. App Store, Google may be looking to give its Gemini AI app a more visually focused revamp. The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having a chatbot-style look and feel to one offering a scrollable feed with suggested prompts accompanied by eye-catching photos. The changes were spotted in a recent version of the Gemini Android app by the news site Android Authority but are not yet live to the public. Instead, by looking into the app’s code, a…

OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance app. In keeping with a recent trend in the AI industry, only the CEO is making the jump. Chief executive and co-founder Sujith Vishwajith announced the acquisition on Friday, and a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch he is the only one of Roi’s four-person staff to join OpenAI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company will wind down operations and end its service to customers on October 15. The Roi deal marks the latest in a string of acqui-hires from OpenAI this year, including Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and Alex. While it’s not clear whether any of Roi’s technology will transfer over…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly said Friday (Oct. 3) that the artificial intelligence boom is an “industrial bubble” rather than a “financial bubble,” meaning that even if the sector’s share prices collapse, the technology’s benefits will remain. Speaking at Italian Tech Week, Bezos pointed to the fiber-optic cable that outlived the dot-com crash and the life-saving drugs that remained after the 1990s biotech bust, the Financial Times reported Friday. “Investors have a hard time in the middle of this excitement distinguishing between the good ideas and the bad ideas,” Bezos said, per the report. “That’s also probably happening today. But it doesn’t mean that anything that’s…

DualEntry emerged from stealth Friday (Oct. 3) and said it raised $90 million in a Series A funding round and a total of $100 million over the last 15 months for its artificial intelligence-native enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The ERP is built from the ground up with AI and automates 90% of manual tasks for finance teams, the company said in a press release. Designed to scale with businesses from mid-market to initial public offering, DualEntry’s ERP covers the full general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, live bank connections, audit controls and more, according to the release. The ERP’s AI features…

Bank of America Securities projects that ChatGPT will handle approximately 20 billion shopping-related messages in 2025, underscoring how deeply artificial intelligence (AI) is integrating into the commerce journey. Last year’s holiday season saw global retail sales surge to $1.2 trillion, including $282 billion in the United States, as AI chatbot and agent engagement jumped 42%. But the same systems fueling that growth are melding discovery and checkout into a single step, widening exposure to fraud, chargebacks and questions of consumer trust. Those pressures will shape this holiday season. From Discovery to Checkout in a Single Step With OpenAI’s Instant Checkout already live, conversational platforms are becoming…

Uber has acquired Segments.ai, a multi-sensor labeling platform for robotics and autonomous driving, the two companies said Thursday (Oct. 2) in separate posts on LinkedIn. In its post, Uber AI Solutions, Uber’s AI data services business, said that the acquisition is part of its commitment to building its lidar and multi-sensor data annotation capabilities. The company said it has been working in this area for nearly a decade to use labels on real-world data to power autonomy, safety and artificial intelligence breakthroughs. “Segments.ai brings solid experience in lidar annotation tools, deep expertise in the domain, and an incredible base of clients,” the post said.…

Generative AI is consuming money and attention at a pace no technology has matched before. Global infrastructure spending reached $235 billion in 2024, with forecasts of $2.8 trillion by 2029. More than 700 million people use ChatGPT each week, making it the fastest adoption curve in history. Yet revenue trails far behind and the economics remain unsettled. Unlike earlier technology waves where scale drove costs down, artificial intelligence grows more expensive the more it is used. That contradiction of extraordinary adoption and extraordinary cost is the paradox shaping today’s AI economy. In an op-ed by the law firm Baker Botts LLP, the authors warned that “the gap between…