State of video in business report

In recent years, we’ve seen significant changes in marketing, sales, and customer service. Businesses are now operating at massive scale through the digitization of processes and automation of communication. While these technologies have brought about incredible efficiencies, they have also become a victim of their own success.

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IT consulting mainly focused on the State and Federal Government. Core competencies include Business Analysis, Process Improvement, Portal Development & Management, Software Development & Maintenance, Business Process Reengineering, Configuration Management, Program Management, Quality Assurance, Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V), Web Applications Development, Database Development & Administration, Business Continuity/Disaster Planning, Security/System Assurance, Test & Verification, MITA, Project Management, RFP Creation, APD, IT Apprenticeships, Biometrics, Medicaid & Medicare Experts.

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Are Telcos Ready for a Quantum Leap?

Article | August 7, 2023

Quantum technologies present both an opportunity for telcos to solve difficult problems and provide new services and a security threat that could require extensive IT investment. Are Telcos Ready for a Quantum Leap? When Andrew Lord, Senior Manager, Optical Networks and Quantum Research at BT, first started presenting quantum technologies at customer events six or seven years ago, his was the graveyard shift, he says, entertaining attendees at the end of the day with talk of 'crazy quantum stuff.' "But that is no longer the case," says Lord. "Over the last two years, I've noticed a shift where I now speak before lunch, and customers actively seek us out." Two developments may be causing the shift: Customers’ growing awareness of the threats and opportunities that quantum computing presents, plus a recent spike in investment in quantum technology. In 2022, investors plowed $2.35 billion into quantum technology startups, which include companies in quantum computing, communications and sensing, according to McKinsey. The public sector has also been digging deep into its pockets. Last year, the United States added $1.8 billion to its previous spending on quantum technology, and the EU committed an extra $1.2 billion, the consultancy noted, while China made total investments of $15.3 billion. According to Luke Ibbetson, Head of Group R&D at Vodafone, quantum computing's promise lies in solving a probabilistic equation within a few hours. This task would take a classical computer a million years to accomplish. This breakthrough would enable telcos to address optimization problems related to network planning, optimization, and base station placement. The flip side is that a powerful quantum computer could also break the public-key cryptography that protects today’s IT systems from hackers. As a spokesperson at Deutsche Telekom remarks: “Telcos will have to react to the threat of quantum computers to communication security because their core business model is at risk, which is offering secure digital communications.” The idea of quantum computing posing a security threat is not new. In 1994, Peter Shor, a mathematician working at AT&T Bell Labs, showed how a quantum computer could solve the logarithms used to encrypt data. “His work simultaneously ignited multiple new lines of research in quantum computing, information science, and cryptography,” according to an article by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Shor is currently working. Beyond The Lab What has changed nearly thirty years on is that quantum computing is creeping out of the lab. Sizeable obstacles to large-scale quantum computing, however, remain. Quantum computers are highly sensitive to interference from noise, temperature, movement or electromagnetic fields and, therefore, very difficult and expensive to build and operate, especially at scale: IBM’s latest quantum processor, for example, operates at a very low temperature of approximately 0.02 degrees Kelvin. When Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs tested telco use cases, it found quantum computing coped well with small problem statements. “However, when the problem size was scaled to real-world problem sizes, the quality of the QComp solution degraded,” according to the spokesperson. The company is now awaiting the next generation of quantum computing platforms to redo the analyses. All of this means, for now, quantum computers are not large and powerful enough to crack Shor’s algorithm. The question is, when will someone succeed? The Global Risk Institute tracks the quantum threat timeline. In its latest annual report, the organization asked 40 quantum experts whether they thought it likely that within the next ten years, a quantum computer would break an encryption scheme like RSA-2048 in under 24 hours. Over half the respondents judged the event to be more than 5% likely, and almost a quarter considered it to be more than 50% likely. Any breakthrough will come from a relatively small number of actors. Today, governments and academic institutions are home to around half of the 163 projects accounted for worldwide by Global Quantum Intelligence, a research and analysis company, according to its CEO, André M. König, with big technology companies and specialized startups accounting for the rest. Q2K Nonetheless, the impact of quantum computing could be widespread, even if relatively few of them are built. The challenge of preparing for a post-quantum future is often called Q2K in reference to the Y2K bug. In the late 1990s, many (but not all) governmental organizations and companies spent millions of dollars on Y2K systems integration to ensure that IT programs written from the 1960s through the 1980s would be able to recognize dates after December 31, 1999, all while being uncertain of the scale or the impact of the risk if they didn’t. ‘Q2K’ differs in that there is no specific deadline, and the dangers of a major security breach are much clearer cut. However, it is similar in demanding a lot of work on aging systems. “Cryptography is used everywhere,” points out Lory Thorpe, IBM’s Director of Global Solutions and Offerings, Telecommunications. She adds, “Because telco systems have been built over periods of decades, people don’t actually know where cryptography is being used. So, if you start to look at the impact of public key cryptography and digital signatures being compromised, you start to look at how those two things impact open source, how that impacts the core network, the radio network, [and] OSS/BSS, network management, how the network management speaks to the network functions and so on.” This complexity is why some analysts recommend that telcos take action now. “You’re going to find tens of thousands of vulnerabilities that are critical and vulnerable to a quantum attack. So, do you have to worry about it today? Absolutely - even if it’s in 2035,” says König. “Anyone who has ever done [IT implementation projects], and anyone who’s ever worked in cybersecurity [knows], tens of thousands of vulnerabilities that are critical [requires] years and years and years of just traditional integration work. So, even if you’re skeptical about quantum, if you haven’t started today, it is almost too late already.” Don’t Panic! For the past two to three years, Vodafone has been preparing to migrate some of its cryptographic systems to be quantum-safe, according to Ibbetson. He believes there is no need to panic about this. However, telcos must start planning now. König said, "The telecoms industry as a whole is not moving as quickly as some other sectors, notably the banking, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries. In these sectors, post-quantum security planning often involves CEOs at a very strategic level." For this reason, Vodafone joined forces with IBM in September 2022 to establish the GSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce. “Even though many industries are preparing to be able to defend against future quantum threats, we didn’t see anything happening particularly in in the telco space, and we wanted to make sure that it was a focus,” says Ibbetson. “Obviously it will turn into an IT-style transformation, but it’s starting now with understanding what it is we need to mobilize that.” AT&T has also been working to pinpoint what needs to be addressed. Last year, the company said it aims to be quantum-ready by 2025, in the sense that it will have done its due diligence and identified a clear path forward. Minding Your PQCs Companies across multiple sectors are looking to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to secure their systems, which will use new algorithms that are much harder to crack than RSA. König contends that PQC needs to become “a standard component of companies’ agile defense posture” and believes the development of PQC systems by software and hardware companies will help keep upgrade costs under control. “From a financial point of view, vendors do a fantastic job bringing this to market and making it very accessible,” says König. Lord, who has been researching quantum technologies at BT for over a decade, is also confident that there is “going to be much more available technology.” As a result, even smaller telcos will be able to invest in securing their systems. “It doesn't need a big boy with lots of money [for] research to do something around PQC. There’s a lot of work going on to ratify the best of those solutions,” says Lord. There are several reasons why eyes are on software based PQC. Firstly, it can be used to secure data that was encrypted in the past, quantum computing advances will make vulnerable in the future. In addition, the quantum-based alternative to PQC for securing network traffic called quantum key distribution (QKD), comes with a huge drawback for wireless operators. QKD is hardware-based and uses quantum mechanics to prevent interception across optical fiber and satellite (i.e., free space optical) networks, making it secure, albeit expensive. But for reasons of physics, it does not work on mobile networks. Setting Standards Given the importance of PQC, a lot of effort is going into standardizing robust algorithms. The political weight of the US and the size of its technology industry mean that the US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is playing a key role in the technical evaluation of post-quantum standardization algorithms and creating standards. NIST expects to publish the first set of post-quantum cryptography standards in 2024. In the meantime, Dustin Moody, a NIST mathematician, recommends (in answers emailed to inform) that companies “become familiar and do some testing with the algorithms being standardized, and how they will fit in your products and applications. Ensure that you are using current best-practice cryptographic algorithms and security strengths in your existing applications. Have somebody designated to be leading the effort to transition. QKD There is no absolute guarantee, however, that a quantum computer in the future won’t find a way to crack PQC. Therefore, institutions such as government agencies and banks remain interested in using QKD fiber and satellite networks to ensure the highest levels of security for data transmission. The European Commission, for example, is working with the 27 EU Member States and the European Space Agency (ESA) to design, develop and deploy a QKD-based European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI). It will be made up of fiber networks linking strategic sites at national and cross-border levels and a space segment based on satellites. EuroQCI will reinforce the protection of Europe’s governmental institutions, their data centers, hospitals, energy grids, and more,” according to the EU. Telecom operators are involved in some of the national programs, including Orange, which is coordinating France’s part of the program called FranceQCI (Quantum Communication Infrastructure). Separately, this month, Toshiba and Orange announced they had successfully demonstrated the viability of deploying QKD on existing commercial networks. Outside the EU, BT has already built and is now operating a commercial metro quantum-encryption network in London. “The London network has three quantum nodes, which are the bearers carrying the quantum traffic for all of the access ingress,” explains Lord. For example, a customer in London's Canary Wharf could link via the network to the nearest quantum-enabled BT exchange. From there, it joins a metro network, which carries the keys from multiple customers “in an aggregated cost-effective way to the egress points,” according to Lord. “It is not trivial because you can mess things up and [get] the wrong keys,” explains Lord. “You really have to be more careful about authentication and key management. And then it's all about how you engineer your quantum resources to handle bigger aggregation.” It also gives BT the opportunity to explore how to integrate quantum systems downstream into its whole network. “What I'm telling the quantum world is that they need to get into the real world because a system that uses quantum is still going to be 90%, non-quantum and all of the usual networking rules and engineering practices apply. You still need to know how to handle fiber. You still need to know how to provision a piece of equipment and integrate it into a network.” SK Telecom is also heavily involved in quantum-related research, with developments including QKD systems for the control and interworking of quantum cryptography communication networks. Japan is another important center of QKD research. A QKD network has existed in Tokyo since 2010, and in 2020, financial services company Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. tested the transmission of data across the Tokyo QKD network. As the EU’s project makes clear, satellite is an important part of the mix. Lord expects satellite-based QKD networks to come on stream as of 2025 and 2026, enabling the purchase of wholesale quantum keys from a dedicated satellite quantum provider. Back in 2017, China already used the satellite to make the first very long-distance transmission of data secured by QKD between Beijing and Vienna, a distance of 7,000km. Securing The Edge There are additional efforts to secure communications with edge devices. BT’s Lord, for example, sees a role for digital fingerprints for IoT devices, phones, cars and smart meters in the form of a physical unclonable function (PUF) silicon chip, which, because of random imperfections in its manufacture, cannot be copied. In the UK, BT is trialing a combination of QKD and PUF to secure the end-to-end journey of a driverless car. The connection to the roadside depends on standard radio with PUF authentication, while transmission from the roadside unit onward, as well as the overall control of the autonomous vehicle network, incorporate QKD, explains Lord. SK Telecom has developed what it describes as a quantum-enhanced cryptographic chip with Korea Computer & Systems (KCS) and ID Quantique. Telefónica Spain has partnered on the development of a quantum-safe 5G SIM card and has integrated quantum technology into its cloud service hosted in its virtual data centers. Given China’s heavy investment in quantum technologies, it is no surprise to see its telecom operators involved in the field. China Telecom, for example, recently invested three billion yuan ($434m) in quantum technology deployment, according to Reuters. Quantum in The Cloud Some of America's biggest technology companies are investing in quantum computing. Today, it is even possible to access quantum computing facilities via the cloud, albeit at on small scale. IBM's cloud access to quantum computers is free for the most basic level, rising to $1.60 per second for the next level. And it is just the beginning. America's big tech companies are racing to build quantum computers at scale. One measure of scale is the size of a quantum processor, which is measured in qubits. While a traditional computer stores information as a 0 or 1, a qubit can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously. This unique property enables a quantum computer to explore multiple potential solutions to a problem simultaneously; and the greater the stability of its qubits, the more efficient it becomes. IBM has a long history in quantum research and development. In 1998, it unveiled what was then a ground-breaking 2-qubit computer. By 2022, it had produced a 433-qubit processor, and in 2023, it aims to produce a 1,121-qubit processor. Separately, this month, it announced the construction of its first quantum data center in Europe, which it expects to begin offering commercial services as of next year. Google is also firmly in the race to build a large-scale quantum computer. In 2019, a paper in Nature featured Google’s Sycamore processor and the speed with which it undertakes computational tasks. More recent work includes an experimental demonstration of it’s possible to reduce errors by increasing the number of qubits. Microsoft reckons that "a quantum machine capable of solving many of the hardest problems facing humanity will ultimately require at least 1 million stable qubits that can perform 1 quintillion operations while making at most a single error." To this end, it is working on what it calls a new type of qubit, a topological qubit. Amazon announced in 2021 an AWS Center for Quantum Computing on the Caltech campus to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

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Software, Low-Code App Development, Application Development Platform

Empowering Industry 4.0 with Artificial Intelligence

Article | June 15, 2023

The next step in industrial technology is about robotics, computers and equipment becoming connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) and enhanced by machine learning algorithms. Industry 4.0 has the potential to be a powerful driver of economic growth, predicted to add between $500 billion- $1.5 trillion in value to the global economy between 2018 and 2022, according to a report by Capgemini.

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Software, Low-Code App Development, Application Development Platform

How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Businesses

Article | August 23, 2023

Whilst there are many people that associate AI with sci-fi novels and films, its reputation as an antagonist to fictional dystopic worlds is now becoming a thing of the past, as the technology becomes more and more integrated into our everyday lives. AI technologies have become increasingly more present in our daily lives, not just with Alexa’s in the home, but also throughout businesses everywhere, disrupting a variety of different industries with often tremendous results. The technology has helped to streamline even the most mundane of tasks whilst having a breath-taking impact on a company’s efficiency and productivity

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The advances of AI in healthcare

Article | February 11, 2020

With the Government investing £250 million into the project, the Lab will consider how to use AI for the benefit of patients – whether this be the deployment of existing AI methods, the development of new technologies or the testing of their safety. Amongst other things, the initiative will aim to deliver earlier diagnoses of cancer. It is estimated that in excess of 50,000 extra patients could see their cancer being detected at an early stage, thus boosting survival rates. More specifically, a study has shown that AI is quicker in identifying brain tumour tissue than a pathologist.This would have a positive knock-on effect in other areas, such as enabling money to be saved (that otherwise would have been spent on further treatment) and reducing the workload of staff (at a time when there is a crisis in NHS workforce numbers).

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Workato Offers New Course on Generative AI and Business Operations

Workato | October 12, 2023

Workato, a leading AI-powered enterprise integration and automation platform, has unveiled its latest offering, the Generative AI and Business Operations course, as part of the Automation Institute. This course delves into the impact of Gen AI tools on businesses, offering insights on reducing complexity, streamlining processes, enhancing decision-making, and responsible implementation. The course offers useful advice based on real-world experiences under the direction of industry experts like Cody Guymon (COO of GTM Operations at Workato) and Bryan Wise (CIO of 6sense). Key topics covered include Gen AI use cases, adopting an automation mindset for adaptability, improving decision-making with Gen AI, and the responsible integration of Gen AI tools into businesses. Workato's Automation Institute offers self-paced, interactive courses for users to enhance their automation skills. Julien Clement, Director of Certification and Education at Workato, reportedly remarked, We are excited to officially launch the Generative AI and Business Operations course, designed for beginners, where they can gain a foundational understanding of how to utilize Gen AI for business operations. Part of Workato’s Automation Institute, this free course is available to professionals interested in learning more about AI and automation. Our certification and courses continue to demonstrate our commitment to delivering engaging and relevant resources. We're excited to expand our courses and certification offerings while continuing to advance the Automation Institute’s main objective – to be a key place to grow and advance your career. [Source – Businesswire] Workato, recognized as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS, empowers enterprises to automate processes by seamlessly integrating applications, data, and experiences. Its low-code, no-code platform facilitates digital transformation, ensuring security, scalability, and governance. While the announcement highlights the benefits of the Generative AI and Business Operations course, it does not provide specific details on the course's content, duration, or learning outcomes. Without this information, it may be challenging for potential users to evaluate the course's suitability for their needs and objectives. Additionally, the news article does not address any potential limitations or challenges associated with implementing GenAI tools in business operations, which could offer a more balanced perspective. Workato's Generative AI and Business Operations course appears to offer valuable insights into the impact of Gen AI tools on businesses, providing practical advice from industry experts. This free course, part of Workato's Automation Institute, allows professionals to gain a foundational understanding of how to utilize Gen AI for business operations, promoting learning and skill development in the field of AI and automation. Workato's recognized status as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS adds credibility to its expertise in enterprise integration and automation. About Workato Workato is a leader in AI-powered enterprise automation, trusted by top global brands. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company offers a platform for IT and business teams to seamlessly integrate applications and automate processes. Its innovative approach speeds up automation creation by 10 times, enabling organizations to streamline business processes and digital transformation securely. With a democratized approach, it empowers business technologists to drive digital transformation. The company serves over 17,000 top brands like Broadcom, Intuit, and Box, with a strong focus on integration, workflow automation, and artificial intelligence.

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General AI, AI Applications, Software

Workato Launches AI@Work to Drive Business Efficiency at Scale with the Power of Generative AI

Businesswire | June 16, 2023

Workato, the leading Enterprise Automation platform, today announced AI@Work which includes significant product updates that enable enterprises to adopt AI for automations to drive business efficiency. The new capabilities are seamlessly integrated into the Workato platform and leverage OpenAI technologies. “Today, the massive productivity, efficiencies, and innovations AI can bring to businesses are only limited by the scale with which companies adopt it,” said Gautham Viswanathan, co-founder, and Chief Product Officer at Workato. “Workato’s AI@Work brings the power of AI, Automation, and Integration capabilities into a single platform to enable enterprises to rapidly adopt AI at scale. With AI@Work, we are making it easier for our customers to incorporate generative AI in their automations, introducing a copilot experience to build recipes and connectors, and, finally, a new way to converse with your applications and data to automate your work.” With AI@Work, Workato users will have access to the following: Workato Copilots: Workato Copilots are like a co-worker who is a Workato expert. It works with you to build Workato recipes and connectors using natural language. The Copilots are trained on millions of data points from Workato’s public recipe community, have a deep understanding of business entity relationships, logic, data mappings, and transformations, and use this knowledge to guide the builder. Workato Copilots adhere to the strictest data privacy standards and do not use customer data from these interactions to train any model. AI Connectivity: Users can use Workato’s OpenAI Connector and other AI Connectors to infuse AI capabilities into their automations to build smarter business processes. Since May 2023, many customers have used the OpenAI connector to create automated processes that generate content for sales emails/sequences, respond intelligently based on feedback, create personalized reactivation and nurture campaigns, automate help desk operations, build QBR and sales decks, enhance employee engagement, create virtual assistants, and more. WorkbotGPT (Coming soon): WorkbotGPT enables users to converse in natural language with applications and data to automate their work. Users can also chain their interactions to automate complex multi-step automations. For example, you can instruct WorkbotGPT to fetch deals over 100K and ask for an update from the AEs. WorkbotGPT will then fetch those opportunities from Salesforce, and send an email to the AEs requesting an update. No recipes to build, no code to write. Just conversation! GEARSAI : As the operational framework to drive adoption across any organization, GEARS (Govern, Enable, Adopt, Run, Scale), is used by Workato customers to successfully drive democratization and adoption of automation throughout their business. This framework has now been enhanced to provide a framework and roadmap for the adoption of AI along with Automation. Workato’s AI@Work is powered by LLMs custom trained with proprietary data from Workato’s extensive public community of automations, integrations, APIs, and connectors. Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for iPaaS, Workato enables enterprises to automate their business processes across the organization by integrating their applications, data, and experiences. Designed with best-in-class security and governance, scalability, performance, and availability, Workato’s low-code, no-code platform makes it easy for IT and business teams to integrate their applications and automate their processes, drawing from thousands of automation “recipes” built by the Workato community. With Workato’s democratized approach to automation and integration, business technologists are empowered to fuel their organization’s digital transformation. This announcement follows a year of milestones for the company which includes a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), launching the first Automate World Tour, and releasing two industry reports, The Work Automation Index and the vendor-neutral State of Business Technology Report. In addition to being named a leader by Gartner, Workato also secured placement on the Wall Street Journal’s Top Financial Decisions Makers list, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and Forbes Cloud 100 rankings. About Workato The leader in AI-powered enterprise automation, Workato helps organizations drive business efficiency at scale without compromising security and governance. Built for Business and IT users, Workato is trusted by over 17,000 of the world's top brands, including Broadcom, Intuit, and Box. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Workato is backed by Altimeter Capital, Battery Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and Redpoint Ventures. For more information, visit workato.com or connect with us on social media:

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AI Tech, AI Applications, Software

Appian Drives Productivity Revolution with Generative AI Strategy and Expanded AI Roadmap

Prnewswire | June 13, 2023

Appian (Nasdaq: APPN) today announced key elements of its expanded strategy and roadmap for generative AI in the Appian Platform for process automation. Appian's focus is on democratising access to AI technology in order to unlock productivity gains for developers, and the company's strategy centers on delivering secure and reliable private AI to protect customers' data. "Appian incorporates AI in a practical manner that delivers real customer value," said Michael Beckley, CTO and Founder, Appian. "Our vision is embodied by the Appian AI Copilot, which uses generative AI to accelerate low-code development and is supported by a family of intuitive, low-code AI capabilities." Appian recently announced OpenAI/ChatGPT low-code integration and that ChatGPT is trained on Appian's declarative SAIL expression language. Appian also unveiled the Appian AI Skill Designer, a simple and powerful way for organisations to create custom AI machine learning models that don't require giving their sensitive data to a public AI platform. Today, Appian delivered two new AI plug-ins to the Appian AppMarket: Appian Azure OpenAI Connected System: Appian increases freedom of choice for customers wanting to use cutting edge generative AI in their business processes. With this low-code connector, your business can seamlessly connect to Azure's OpenAI Service and combine generative AI with enterprise-grade data security governance. Appian Pinecone Connected System: Using the new low-code integration to Pinecone's vector database, users can query their Appian document knowledge base and retrieve intelligent results based on the semantic meaning of their question. Used in tandem with OpenAI, this integration enables users to chat with their private data and receive contextually relevant information from generative AI. Expanded AI roadmap. The Appian Platform is built on an enterprise-ready AI architecture that is delivering real business value today. Our key architectural components make it easy to leverage AI, including our patented SAIL and Data Fabric, our AI Skill Designer for building private AI services, and our ability to easily incorporate AI in end-to-end process automations. Appian is continuing to bring innovative generative AI capabilities to market in upcoming releases, including: Instant generation of digitised forms from PDFs through AI document understanding. Appian is combining the power of large language models (LLM) with additional AI training of our SAIL architecture and our document understanding capabilities to develop a new generative AI capability for instant understanding and creation of new applications from existing PDF documents. Self-service analytics through AI-powered queries of the Appian Data Fabric with natural language. 94% of new Appian customers have adopted our revolutionary Data Fabric. Appian is combining our Data Fabric with generative AI and natural language understanding to create a revolutionary capability for self-service analytics. This will empower every user to discover insights from the Appian Data Fabric to improve business operations. AI-generated workflows assembled on-the-fly based on natural language prompts. Appian is training LLM and AI to understand the core nature of workflow and process patterns to support AI-generated workflows. This will empower users to build workflow orchestrations with natural language prompts, further breaking down barriers in human-machine collaboration. AI-enabled out-of-the-box solutions. Appian already delivered AI-generated RFI creation within its Government Acquisition suite and Case Management suite of solutions. New and existing Appian solutions will be imbued with AI capabilities. "Appian believes low-code and AI are a perfect match," said Michael Beckley, CTO and Founder, Appian. "Appian's AI Copilot demonstrates the natural advantages of this union by making its suggestions inside low-code design tools. Low-code is the perfect medium for AI to express application designs while ensuring humans can easily understand and refine AI creations through an intuitive and visual design environment." Appian looks forward to releasing expanded generative AI features in our Appian 23.3 release, scheduled for August 2023. Appian intends to continue investing in these AI capabilities, with new features and capabilities coming out in our quarterly release cadence through 2023 and beyond. AI is a core principle in our product management philosophy that will drive all aspects of our product designs as we continue to innovate for continuous customer value. About Appian Appian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimise even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world's most innovative organisations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimise operations—resulting in better growth and superior customer experiences. For more information, visit appian.com.

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AI Tech

Workato Offers New Course on Generative AI and Business Operations

Workato | October 12, 2023

Workato, a leading AI-powered enterprise integration and automation platform, has unveiled its latest offering, the Generative AI and Business Operations course, as part of the Automation Institute. This course delves into the impact of Gen AI tools on businesses, offering insights on reducing complexity, streamlining processes, enhancing decision-making, and responsible implementation. The course offers useful advice based on real-world experiences under the direction of industry experts like Cody Guymon (COO of GTM Operations at Workato) and Bryan Wise (CIO of 6sense). Key topics covered include Gen AI use cases, adopting an automation mindset for adaptability, improving decision-making with Gen AI, and the responsible integration of Gen AI tools into businesses. Workato's Automation Institute offers self-paced, interactive courses for users to enhance their automation skills. Julien Clement, Director of Certification and Education at Workato, reportedly remarked, We are excited to officially launch the Generative AI and Business Operations course, designed for beginners, where they can gain a foundational understanding of how to utilize Gen AI for business operations. Part of Workato’s Automation Institute, this free course is available to professionals interested in learning more about AI and automation. Our certification and courses continue to demonstrate our commitment to delivering engaging and relevant resources. We're excited to expand our courses and certification offerings while continuing to advance the Automation Institute’s main objective – to be a key place to grow and advance your career. [Source – Businesswire] Workato, recognized as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS, empowers enterprises to automate processes by seamlessly integrating applications, data, and experiences. Its low-code, no-code platform facilitates digital transformation, ensuring security, scalability, and governance. While the announcement highlights the benefits of the Generative AI and Business Operations course, it does not provide specific details on the course's content, duration, or learning outcomes. Without this information, it may be challenging for potential users to evaluate the course's suitability for their needs and objectives. Additionally, the news article does not address any potential limitations or challenges associated with implementing GenAI tools in business operations, which could offer a more balanced perspective. Workato's Generative AI and Business Operations course appears to offer valuable insights into the impact of Gen AI tools on businesses, providing practical advice from industry experts. This free course, part of Workato's Automation Institute, allows professionals to gain a foundational understanding of how to utilize Gen AI for business operations, promoting learning and skill development in the field of AI and automation. Workato's recognized status as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for iPaaS adds credibility to its expertise in enterprise integration and automation. About Workato Workato is a leader in AI-powered enterprise automation, trusted by top global brands. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company offers a platform for IT and business teams to seamlessly integrate applications and automate processes. Its innovative approach speeds up automation creation by 10 times, enabling organizations to streamline business processes and digital transformation securely. With a democratized approach, it empowers business technologists to drive digital transformation. The company serves over 17,000 top brands like Broadcom, Intuit, and Box, with a strong focus on integration, workflow automation, and artificial intelligence.

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General AI, AI Applications, Software

Workato Launches AI@Work to Drive Business Efficiency at Scale with the Power of Generative AI

Businesswire | June 16, 2023

Workato, the leading Enterprise Automation platform, today announced AI@Work which includes significant product updates that enable enterprises to adopt AI for automations to drive business efficiency. The new capabilities are seamlessly integrated into the Workato platform and leverage OpenAI technologies. “Today, the massive productivity, efficiencies, and innovations AI can bring to businesses are only limited by the scale with which companies adopt it,” said Gautham Viswanathan, co-founder, and Chief Product Officer at Workato. “Workato’s AI@Work brings the power of AI, Automation, and Integration capabilities into a single platform to enable enterprises to rapidly adopt AI at scale. With AI@Work, we are making it easier for our customers to incorporate generative AI in their automations, introducing a copilot experience to build recipes and connectors, and, finally, a new way to converse with your applications and data to automate your work.” With AI@Work, Workato users will have access to the following: Workato Copilots: Workato Copilots are like a co-worker who is a Workato expert. It works with you to build Workato recipes and connectors using natural language. The Copilots are trained on millions of data points from Workato’s public recipe community, have a deep understanding of business entity relationships, logic, data mappings, and transformations, and use this knowledge to guide the builder. Workato Copilots adhere to the strictest data privacy standards and do not use customer data from these interactions to train any model. AI Connectivity: Users can use Workato’s OpenAI Connector and other AI Connectors to infuse AI capabilities into their automations to build smarter business processes. Since May 2023, many customers have used the OpenAI connector to create automated processes that generate content for sales emails/sequences, respond intelligently based on feedback, create personalized reactivation and nurture campaigns, automate help desk operations, build QBR and sales decks, enhance employee engagement, create virtual assistants, and more. WorkbotGPT (Coming soon): WorkbotGPT enables users to converse in natural language with applications and data to automate their work. Users can also chain their interactions to automate complex multi-step automations. For example, you can instruct WorkbotGPT to fetch deals over 100K and ask for an update from the AEs. WorkbotGPT will then fetch those opportunities from Salesforce, and send an email to the AEs requesting an update. No recipes to build, no code to write. Just conversation! GEARSAI : As the operational framework to drive adoption across any organization, GEARS (Govern, Enable, Adopt, Run, Scale), is used by Workato customers to successfully drive democratization and adoption of automation throughout their business. This framework has now been enhanced to provide a framework and roadmap for the adoption of AI along with Automation. Workato’s AI@Work is powered by LLMs custom trained with proprietary data from Workato’s extensive public community of automations, integrations, APIs, and connectors. Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for iPaaS, Workato enables enterprises to automate their business processes across the organization by integrating their applications, data, and experiences. Designed with best-in-class security and governance, scalability, performance, and availability, Workato’s low-code, no-code platform makes it easy for IT and business teams to integrate their applications and automate their processes, drawing from thousands of automation “recipes” built by the Workato community. With Workato’s democratized approach to automation and integration, business technologists are empowered to fuel their organization’s digital transformation. This announcement follows a year of milestones for the company which includes a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), launching the first Automate World Tour, and releasing two industry reports, The Work Automation Index and the vendor-neutral State of Business Technology Report. In addition to being named a leader by Gartner, Workato also secured placement on the Wall Street Journal’s Top Financial Decisions Makers list, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and Forbes Cloud 100 rankings. About Workato The leader in AI-powered enterprise automation, Workato helps organizations drive business efficiency at scale without compromising security and governance. Built for Business and IT users, Workato is trusted by over 17,000 of the world's top brands, including Broadcom, Intuit, and Box. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Workato is backed by Altimeter Capital, Battery Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and Redpoint Ventures. For more information, visit workato.com or connect with us on social media:

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AI Tech, AI Applications, Software

Appian Drives Productivity Revolution with Generative AI Strategy and Expanded AI Roadmap

Prnewswire | June 13, 2023

Appian (Nasdaq: APPN) today announced key elements of its expanded strategy and roadmap for generative AI in the Appian Platform for process automation. Appian's focus is on democratising access to AI technology in order to unlock productivity gains for developers, and the company's strategy centers on delivering secure and reliable private AI to protect customers' data. "Appian incorporates AI in a practical manner that delivers real customer value," said Michael Beckley, CTO and Founder, Appian. "Our vision is embodied by the Appian AI Copilot, which uses generative AI to accelerate low-code development and is supported by a family of intuitive, low-code AI capabilities." Appian recently announced OpenAI/ChatGPT low-code integration and that ChatGPT is trained on Appian's declarative SAIL expression language. Appian also unveiled the Appian AI Skill Designer, a simple and powerful way for organisations to create custom AI machine learning models that don't require giving their sensitive data to a public AI platform. Today, Appian delivered two new AI plug-ins to the Appian AppMarket: Appian Azure OpenAI Connected System: Appian increases freedom of choice for customers wanting to use cutting edge generative AI in their business processes. With this low-code connector, your business can seamlessly connect to Azure's OpenAI Service and combine generative AI with enterprise-grade data security governance. Appian Pinecone Connected System: Using the new low-code integration to Pinecone's vector database, users can query their Appian document knowledge base and retrieve intelligent results based on the semantic meaning of their question. Used in tandem with OpenAI, this integration enables users to chat with their private data and receive contextually relevant information from generative AI. Expanded AI roadmap. The Appian Platform is built on an enterprise-ready AI architecture that is delivering real business value today. Our key architectural components make it easy to leverage AI, including our patented SAIL and Data Fabric, our AI Skill Designer for building private AI services, and our ability to easily incorporate AI in end-to-end process automations. Appian is continuing to bring innovative generative AI capabilities to market in upcoming releases, including: Instant generation of digitised forms from PDFs through AI document understanding. Appian is combining the power of large language models (LLM) with additional AI training of our SAIL architecture and our document understanding capabilities to develop a new generative AI capability for instant understanding and creation of new applications from existing PDF documents. Self-service analytics through AI-powered queries of the Appian Data Fabric with natural language. 94% of new Appian customers have adopted our revolutionary Data Fabric. Appian is combining our Data Fabric with generative AI and natural language understanding to create a revolutionary capability for self-service analytics. This will empower every user to discover insights from the Appian Data Fabric to improve business operations. AI-generated workflows assembled on-the-fly based on natural language prompts. Appian is training LLM and AI to understand the core nature of workflow and process patterns to support AI-generated workflows. This will empower users to build workflow orchestrations with natural language prompts, further breaking down barriers in human-machine collaboration. AI-enabled out-of-the-box solutions. Appian already delivered AI-generated RFI creation within its Government Acquisition suite and Case Management suite of solutions. New and existing Appian solutions will be imbued with AI capabilities. "Appian believes low-code and AI are a perfect match," said Michael Beckley, CTO and Founder, Appian. "Appian's AI Copilot demonstrates the natural advantages of this union by making its suggestions inside low-code design tools. Low-code is the perfect medium for AI to express application designs while ensuring humans can easily understand and refine AI creations through an intuitive and visual design environment." Appian looks forward to releasing expanded generative AI features in our Appian 23.3 release, scheduled for August 2023. Appian intends to continue investing in these AI capabilities, with new features and capabilities coming out in our quarterly release cadence through 2023 and beyond. AI is a core principle in our product management philosophy that will drive all aspects of our product designs as we continue to innovate for continuous customer value. About Appian Appian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimise even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world's most innovative organisations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimise operations—resulting in better growth and superior customer experiences. For more information, visit appian.com.

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