CTV National News: AI's implications on society
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CTV's Genevieve Beauchemin on how Canadians are using AI and how they feel about the technology.
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Globe and Mail
38 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Starbucks (SBUX) Unveils New AI Assistant for Baristas That's Powered by Microsoft
Coffee making is going high tech. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Starbucks (SBUX) is rolling out a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for its coffee baristas that's powered by Microsoft (MSFT) Azure's OpenAI platform. The AI assistant will initially be deployed in a trial at 35 Starbucks locations in the U.S. as part of a strategy to simplify baristas' jobs and speed-up service at the company's coffee shops. The global coffee chain showed off the new technology to more than 14,000 North American store managers at an event held in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 10. A broader rollout of what Starbucks is calling the 'Green Dot Assist' platform across the U.S. and Canada is slated to begin this autumn. News of the AI assistant comes as Starbucks tries to revive its sluggish sales under new CEO Brian Niccol. Improved Service Niccol has set a goal of improving Starbucks' service times to four minutes per order. The hope is that quick, accurate answers to barista questions will help speed-up service and improve quality at Starbucks locations. With the AI assistant, Starbucks' baristas will be able to use a tablet to get answers to questions such as how to make an iced espresso and troubleshoot equipment errors. As the AI assistant evolves, Starbucks has even bigger plans for its use, including automatically creating a ticket with information technology (IT) for equipment issues. Starbucks is expanding its relationship with Microsoft about a year after the tech giant's CEO Satya Nadella stepped down from Starbucks' board of directors. SBUX stock has risen 2% this year. Is SBUX Stock a Buy? The stock of Starbucks has a consensus Moderate Buy rating among 23 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 12 Buy and 11 Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average SBUX price target of $93.25 implies 1.99% upside from current levels.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Wealthsimple launches credit card, new line of credit to challenge big banks
Wealthsimple Inc. announced its first credit card and a line of credit Wednesday as it ramps up efforts to challenge the dominance of Canada's big banks. The expansion also includes the additions of mobile cheque deposits, wire transfers and bank drafts to the chequing account it launched in 2020 when it started pushing toward the full financial suite offered by banks. Wealthsimple, which started more than a decade ago with a focus on automated investment management, has long emphasized that it doesn't want to become an actual bank, and chief commercial officer Paul Teshima says it still has no plans to become one. "What we want to do is continue to lean into the fact that because we don't have a banking licence, we can do interesting and different use cases," he said. He pointed to Wealthsimple's arrangement with 10 banks to hold its clients' deposits, giving them Canada Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage of up to $1 million, as one of those benefits. Bank draft delivery now, cheque delivery promised Wealthsimple's new offerings Wednesday include its credit card with two per cent cash back, while it says its line of credit will have rates as low as 4.45 per cent when it launches by the end of the year. (The current prime rate is 4.95 per cent.) New credit card customers will not be charged additional conversion or FX fees when spending money in foreign currencies. Wealthsimple also plans to offer its clients the ability to use their investment account balances as collateral for lines of credit. Not everything is purely digital. Clients will also be able to have bank drafts shipped at no cost to recipients. It's also working on a feature where users can still write traditional paper cheques using the app, with the financial institution printing and delivering the cheque to the recipient. "There are some people who still use cheques," Teshima said in an interview with CBC News. "What we don't wanna do is obviously expect clients to not do those things that they do today." Wealthsimple is also hinting at a pilot project being launched in the Toronto area where actual cash will be delivered to a client's door. "For those urgent moments, we're going to send cash right to your doorstep, similar to Uber Eats," explained Teshima, noting the pilot may eventually include U.S. dollar delivery. Big banks hold most assets in Canada But even as Wealthsimple adds features, its unclear how much market share the company will be able to take from the Big Six banks that include RBC, TD, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and National Bank. Canadians are known to be reluctant to switch away from the big banks — the six control more than 90 per cent of bank assets under management. "Our biggest competition are the banks," Teshima said, but he noted there's reason to think there's demand for alternatives, pointing to the results of a survey Wealthsimple commissioned from Angus Reid that showed a quarter of respondents were dissatisfied with the current banking system, and 38 per cent had considered leaving their bank in the past year. He said Wealthsimple has already shown it's possible to get people to move their retirement accounts, something some were previously skeptical about. "What I think what we've shown is that with a lot of investment in technology and working our clients, we make that process as seamless as possible, and so we're taking a very similar approach with the chequing account." He expects strong demand for the credit card Wealthsimple has been rolling out in test phases over the past year, as it's by far the most requested product requested by clients. The company has shown there's demand for its combined spending and savings account as well, with about a quarter of its more than three million customers already signed up for one. Activity in higher-interest accounts boomed in recent years as rates topped four per cent, but Teshima says there's still demand even as rates decline.
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
01 Communique Engages Oak Hill
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 11, 2025) - 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (TSXV: ONE) (OTC Pink: OONEF) (the "Company"), one of the first-to-market, enterprise level cybersecurity providers for the quantum computing era, is pleased to announce that it has retained the services of Oak Hill Financial Inc. ("Oak Hill") to provide, among other things, investor relations, business and capital markets advisory services to the Company (the "Services"). Oak Hill is a Toronto-based investor relations and capital markets advisory firm that has been engaged to, among other things, heighten market and brand awareness for the Company as well as to broaden the awareness of the Company within the investment community via email and phone campaigns. The agreement with Oak Hill is effective as of June 10, 2025 and has an initial period of two months. The agreement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval. Oak Hill has agreed to comply with all applicable securities laws and policies of the TSX Venture Exchange in providing its Services. In connection with the Services, Oak Hill will be paid a monthly fee of $12,000, plus applicable taxes. Neither Oak Hill nor its principals have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Corporation or its securities, or any right or intent to acquire such an interest. About 01 Communique Established in 1992, 01 Communique (TSXV: ONE) (OTC Pink: OONEF) has always been at the forefront of technology. The Company's cyber security business unit focuses on post-quantum cybersecurity with the development of its IronCAP™ product line. IronCAP ™ 's technologies are patent-protected in the U.S.A. by its patents #11,271,715 and #11,669,833. The Company's remote access business unit provides its customers with a suite of secure remote access services and products under its I'm InTouch and I'm OnCall product offerings. The remote access offerings are protected in the U.S.A. by its patents #6,928,479 / #6,938,076 / #8,234,701; in Canada by its patents #2,309,398 / #2,524,039 and in Japan by its patent #4,875,094. For more information, visit the Company's web site at and Neither TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
