News
Levi Strauss & Co., the American clothing company famed for its denim jeans, has appointed Katia Walsh as its senior vice president and chief strategy and artificial intelligence officer.
The creation of the role marks the shift of companies to focusing on the AI side of tech, as major developments are happening within the fashion and retail industries. Recent developments including improving customer service, offering product personalization as well as changing the way shoppers pay.
In the last few years companies have been expanding their executive team with roles that focus primarily on digital and data initiatives, however Walsh's position may by the first to specifically highlight AI.
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Experian, the consumer credit reporting company, has decided to stop its plan to acquire ClearScore for £275 million due to pressure from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
ClearScore is a UK firm that offers free credit checks for consumers and has over six million customers. Experian had expressed its intention to acquire the company back in March 2018.
The reason the CMA raised doubts about the merger is that it believed it could have a negative impact on competition with the sector.
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Farfetch and Harrods, two of the biggest companies in luxury retail - the former online and the latter in bricks-and-mortar, are teaming up as Farfetch will be the department store’s global commerce platform provider.
This follows a series of successful announcements for Farfetch including partnering with Burberry, acquiring Browns, CuriosityChina and Stadium Goods, as well as its earlier absorption of Condé Nast’s Style.com e-tail operation.
Harrods will use Farfetch Black & White Solutions for e-commerce management as well as support for operations, technical and international logistics. This will allow Harrods to offer an online experience to match that of their customers visiting the store.
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Accurx, a London-based messaging service that allows doctors to communicate with their patients, has raised £8.8m in Series A funding. The round was led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe and Entrepreneur First.
The startup provides Chain SMS, which can be used by GPs, practice managers, admin and reception staff to message patients with regards to prescription reminders, booking appointments, leaving messages, notifying them of normal test results as well as advice.
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Gocardless, a fintech firm, has successfully raised £58.1m in Series E funding. The round was led by new investors Adam Street Partners and the venture capital arms of Google and Salesforce.
The core focus of the company is improving the way businesses collect invoices and make recurring payments by building debit technology on top of existing banking systems.
According to Gocardless, it processes around $10bn worth of payments each year, and has seen a 500% revenue uplift from customers outside of the UK since 2017.
The London-based startup will use the funding to expand into new countries, and is considering opening offices in Spain and the US later this year.
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Venture capital firms investment into the UK's AI sector reached a record high $1.3bn (£998m) in 2018, almost as much as the rest of Europe combined. In comparison, French AI startups raised $400m and Germany AI startups raised $300m.
The news comes as business secretary Greg Clark and digital secretary Jeremy Wright have announced a nationwide programme of industry-funded AI postgraduate courses, as well as £110m from the government.The move aims to drive up skills in the AI sector, with course places funded by businesses including Google’s Deepmind, BAE Systems and Cisco.
The government will also fund a series of AI research fellowships at the Alan Turing Institute - Alan Turing is considered the father of AI - and new PhDs will be created at dedicated AI centres for doctoral training across the country.
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Lego is planning on debuting its first line of building blocks that work with a mobile app to show AR imagery. The "Lego Hidden Side" app will let kids see virtual ghosts in a series of eight haunted building sets that will be available from August.
Toy creators have faced challenges from the growing popularity of smartphones and tablets over the past decade, but Lego's AR-enhanced building blocks may give children a way to combine their screen usage with physical play.
The AR feature will be used to help boost brand awareness and drive engagement and sales.
The use of AR as a mobile gaming feature was first popularised by the app Pokémon Go, which launched in July 2016. The app was downloaded more than 750 million times in its first year. Niantic, the company that co-developed the game, is working on releasing a Harry Potter: Wizards Unite app based on the hit children's books by J.K. Rowling later this year.
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Amazon Go, the cashier-free store, is set to expand outside the US with a new location of central London.
There are currently 10 stores located across the US with the first one opening in Seattle in 2018. Other stores are located in San Francisco and Chicago.
Amazon has expressed its desire to open over 3000 stores by 2021 although it has been gently expanding thus far.
Tesco and Sainsburys have already tested cashierless stores in London following the announcement of the first Amazon Go, so this should help make the adoption of Amazon Go more seamless.
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Anna Money, a Cardiff-based financial admin startup, has managed to raise £8.5m in funding.
The app has over 3,500 users and helps small businesses and smart services with admin, invoices and payroll services, with tax reminders an upcoming feature.
The company intends to use the funds to grow its customer experience team and to continue to expand its product offering.
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A new report has suggested that smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, could be used by the NHS to analyse patients conversations and spot if they are potentially suicidal.
Other technological strategies could include the use of VR to help reduce pain and distress for wounded patients, and treat anxiety, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder. Trials are in already in process in Oxford where patients can use VR goggles to help them overcome a phobia of heights.
The report also calls for the use of robots in surgery to be expanded, while they could also automate repetitive tasks such as dispensing of pharmaceuticals.
According to the report if GPs implemented phones or Skype for diagnoses and treatment of patients this could free up to 5.7 million hours of their time across England annually.
Issues raised included the risk of patients being manipulated by technology as well as misuse of the data gathered. As such processes would need to be in place to regularly regulate and review the technology implemented.
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