Inside Agentic AI: A Look At How AI Agents Will Transform Your Business
To find a good fit for agentic AI, organizations should look for tasks that have a large number of people doing the same thing over and over.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
44 minutes ago
- CNET
Beyond the Hype: J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Survey Confirms 5G Internet Might Be Here to Stay
Since its widespread launch in 2019, 5G home internet has become a staple in many urban homes and a viable solution for rural connectivity. While I generally tout a 'fiber-first' mindset when recommending cost-efficient, reliable high-speed internet options, 5G has often surpassed my expectations, and consumers seem to think so, too. J.D. Power data from 2024 and 2025 suggests that customers prefer fixed wireless internet, specifically 5G or 4G LTE, over both fiber and cable internet. The report finds that even while adoption has grown to nearly 12 million subscribers, a 47% increase since last year, customer satisfaction has remained stable in the past two years. J.D. Power Technology, Media & Telecom Intelligence Report June 2025 That's a significant achievement, even if subscribers are still in the 'honeymoon phase,' as Carl Lepper, senior director of the technology, media and telecommunications intelligence practice at J.D. Power, writes in the report. 'I think there's a bit of a halo effect,' Lepper told me. 'I do think there are a lot of people who were early adopters who loved it because it gave them an option they didn't have, and it gave them a price point they didn't have before.' That echoes the thoughts of a former CNET colleague, Rick Broida, who tested T-Mobile's 5G home internet service in 2021 and concluded, 'Imperfection is a lot more tolerable when you're paying less than half what you were before.' Locating local internet providers As more consumers sign up for 5G internet, the fact that the 5G home internet services continue to receive high marks is impressive. The American Customer Satisfaction Index also affirms customer satisfaction with 5G, with scores for non-fiber providers trending upwards. In contrast, fiber scores remained stagnant, and for the first time, T-Mobile 5G Home Internet tied with AT&T Fiber for first place overall. As an industry, broadband receives pretty low customer satisfaction scores overall, and it's not hard to see why. Everything from navigating confusing marketing lingo, dealing with sales-forward customer service and paying expensive monthly bills makes for a frustrating internet user experience. Plus, if you have an unreliable internet connection, it may not seem like you're getting the most out of your money. A recent CNET survey found that 63% of US adults are paying, on average, $195 more for their internet service than last year. J.D. Power Technology, Media & Telecom Intelligence Report April 2024 As an internet solution for rural communities without the luxury of fiber internet or the infrastructure of cable networks, 5G is an increasingly appealing alternative, especially over DSL, slower fixed wireless internet and satellite internet. Recent FCC data shows that the nation's biggest 5G provider, T-Mobile, covers 64% of households nationwide, and a significant portion of its coverage is rural. 'Is it a better product than fiber? Absolutely not,' Lepper said. 'No one would say it is, but it's hitting all the other buttons just right.' 5G may not always be consistent, but it's getting better J.D. Power uses several metrics to gauge customer satisfaction with broadband, the most notable being the level of trust an internet user has with an ISP. Fixed wireless internet is generally more unreliable than fiber internet since it's more susceptible to congestion and requires proximity to a tower and good weather conditions. However, it has substantially improved over the years. Former CNET writer Eli Blumenthal switched from Spectrum to Verizon 5G and hands-on tested T-Mobile 5G and AT&T Internet Air. While Blumenthal didn't get consistent gigabit speeds with any provider, each connection handled the stress of heavy bandwidth tasks from multiple users just fine. In that vein, I'll note that CNET router expert and broadband writer Joe Supan spent a week testing AT&T Internet Air in his apartment in Seattle and found the speeds sorely lagging -- they barely passed 10Mbps down. Still, while Supan's experience emphasizes the potential inconsistencies of 5G internet, AT&T Internet Air is a preferred alternative to AT&T's legacy DSL network and is much easier to install in rural communities than fiber. Additionally, while fiber providers often emphasize lightning-fast speeds, that speed only gets you so far. Depending on your internet usage and the number of devices in your home, you probably don't need more than 100 or 300Mbps of download speed. Equipment upgrades from T-Mobile 5G Home Internet have allowed the provider to boost speed maximums to 415Mbps down. That's quite an improvement from when T-Mobile 5G Home Internet first debuted in 2021. Broida was one of the earliest adopters of the service, and he saw max speeds of 132Mbps down and a low speed of 6.8Mbps, but those average speeds were still more than fine to get through the work day. In fact, you probably won't be able to tell the difference between 300Mbps of download speed and 1,000Mbps of download speed. What you can pick up on, however, is latency, lag and congestion. The true measure of a good internet connection is it's overall reliability, and if this latest batch of high customer approval ratings for the service suggests anything, it's that 5G has some staying power. What's next for 5G? The promise and convenience of 5G lie in the fact that mobile network operators can use the same technology powering our phones to get us online at home. But that technology has some limitations, like the amount of licensed spectrum, for example. 'There is a finite amount of spectrum,' Alex Roytblat, vice president of worldwide regulatory affairs at the Wi-Fi Alliance, told me in a previous interview. 'It's like real estate.' Major 5G internet providers Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile 5G Home Internet use a mixture of frequency bands, such as millimeter-wave, low-band and midband 5G spectrums, to optimize customer experience. 'The higher in frequency you go, the more challenging it becomes to propagate the signal,' Roytblat said. 'The attenuation of the signal becomes greater as the frequency increases.' Concerns of spectral efficiency, or the limits to what information we can transmit in a communication channel, are also at play in the effectiveness of 5G. In fact, due to 'network capacity,' T-Mobile 5G Home Internet has a waitlist of around 1 million people. After covering the broadband industry for nearly two decades, Lepper is optimistic about how 5G technology will evolve in the hands of today's major mobile network operators. 'I'm always amazed how much control the industry has over the new technology, and what's next is already ready to go,' Lepper said. 'I think 5G has been extremely well-marketed.' Telecoms like Huawei and Bell Canada have successfully tested new technology to improve spectral efficiency. In February, Verizon 5G achieved record-breaking upload speeds of 480Mbps, mainly due to the newly opened 6-GHz band. 'The MNOs [mobile network operators] of the world have such a strong network that is impressive now,' said Lepper. 'When it taps out, will they have the next thing ready to go? Absolutely.'
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
American Vanguard: Q1 Earnings Snapshot
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — American Vanguard Corp. (AVD) on Friday reported a first-quarter loss of $8.5 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the Newport Beach, California-based company said it had a loss of 30 cents. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 24 cents per share.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
How AI Can Decode The Hidden Stories In Immigration Applications
Raghu Para is a tech exec with over 15 years of progressive experience in software, artificial intelligence and machine learning. getty Picture this: You've spent years gathering documents, filling out forms and waiting for your immigration decision. Meanwhile, the officer reviewing your case is buried under a mountain of paperwork, armed with the patience of a kindergarten teacher and the attention span of a detective running on espresso. This is the modern immigration system—a finely tuned cocktail of bureaucracy, backlogs and burnout. Governments want meticulous vetting. Applicants wait so long they could've binged Living Undocumented on Netflix. And the kicker? Much of the work is mind-numbingly repetitive. Officers aren't just reviewing facts—they're decoding intent. Is this a legit work visa? A bona fide asylum claim? They play legal detective, scan for red flags and occasionally channel TSA energy—unpacking a grandma's suitcase only to find a single, compliant three-ounce shampoo bottle. Could AI help? Sure. But the question is—can it understand human intent without making a mess? Let's address the customs officer in the room: AI in immigration is controversial. On the bright side, processing times are expedited, costs can be reduced and the risk of human error deciding anyone's fate can be mitigated. But let's not hand it a rubber stamp just yet. AI bias is real. It can reject perfectly good applications like it's giving out Halloween candy—and worse, hallucinate fake laws like the "Deportation Reform Act of 2065." That's not a typo—it's fiction. So what's the answer? Let tech sit at the desk—but humans still hold the stamp. As an AI researcher who's navigated the anxiety-inducing immigration process myself, I can tell you the challenge isn't building smart algorithms—it's building guardrails that stop them from going off-script. When designed carefully, AI can be the ultimate sidekick—bringing technical muscle and just enough empathy to keep things human. Today's systems aren't the clunky chatbots that used to ask, "Did you mean refugee or retirement visa?" before crash-landing on a 404 page from the Bush administration. Modern systems combine machine precision with human oversight, making a huge difference. Here's how: One of the biggest delays in immigration comes from verifying intent. AI now uses natural language processing to read between the lines, flag inconsistencies and detect fraud. Take a framework like Agent-Driven Semantic Analysis & Intent Detection (ADS-ID)—a multi-agent model I helped design: • The "document detective" deciphers even the messiest handwriting (think doctor's prescription, but worse). • The "legal scholar" cross-references case law better than your cousin with a law degree and zero follow-through. • The "consistency checker" spots contradictions like "You were working in Canada while attending school in Mexico?" Okay, time traveler. Other approaches use deep learning trained on millions of past cases or hybrid models combining logic rules and machine learning. But the solutions always keep humans in the loop to interpret AI's findings. And yes, there are challenges. • The Black Box Problem: If an AI makes a decision, it needs a "Kindergarten Explanation Layer"—something even a five-year-old (or a policy analyst) can understand. • Biased Training Data: Immigration decisions are rooted in decades of judgment calls—many flawed. We need AI that can recognize, adapt to and correct for that. • Constant Policy Change: Immigration rules can change faster than the promises of a politician. AI needs regular policy memos just to keep up. Some fraud is obvious, but some fraud is sneaky. AI can help by analyzing digital footprints for inconsistencies and flagging suspicious patterns in application histories. The U.K.'s Whitehall system, for instance, used AI to detect sham marriages, though critics noted it sometimes flagged real couples, too. Embassies are starting to use AI to estimate wait times based on application type, country of origin and historical data. It's not flawless, but it beats refreshing your status page 37 times a day. Officers often deal with documents in rare dialects, bad translations or messy handwriting. Systems should evolve to support the human dynamic, ensuring officers operate like collaborators who use AI as a sounding board—not make them "overrulers" who distrust any algorithmic suggestion or rubber-stampers who approve whatever AI says. AI in immigration isn't perfect. It can hallucinate laws, mishandle sensitive data that deserves Fort Knox-level security or reject a case with a digital shrug: "Too complicated, goodbye." That's why we need transparency, human oversight—and maybe a big red "Don't Panic" button. But if we build with care, the future is promising. We'll see AI that analyzes video (Photoshop weddings won't cut it), uses quantum computing (finally faster than a clerk on dial-up) and sends real-time updates that don't leave you in "Pending" purgatory. Immigration is—and always will be—a human business. But with AI as a savvy, respectful assistant, officers can focus on what really matters: serving people, not pushing paper. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure it's faster, fairer and insightful so families can reunite while processes flow. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
