Latest news with #Sidekick
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Sidekick and PlannerPal win Pimfa WealthTech AI tech sprint
PIMFA WealthTech, the market network and technology platform created with principal strategic partner Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment insights, recently set a challenge to the fintech industry and asked, 'how can wealth management and financial advice firms leverage AI to enhance operational efficiency by optimising end-to-end processing across front, middle, and back-office functions?' 0 This tech sprint challenged numerous fintech providers to demonstrate how their technology utilises AI solutions to solve issues such as: • Accelerating onboarding and enhancing KYC checks by automating identity verification, document processing, and leveraging AI for real-time customer verification, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance • Improving periodic suitability reviews through automation and enhanced accuracy in compliance checks • Personalising client reporting by using AI to tailor communications, generate customised reports, and provide insights based on client preferences • Innovating software development by using AI to automate the entire software development cycle Following a competitive process, Sidekick and PlannerPal were selected as winners of the tech sprint by the PIMFA WealthTech Advisory Council. Sidekick are a next generation digital wealth manager that offers products designed to help clients optimise their wealth-building opportunities and tax efficiency through their smart cash management in one intuitive, easy-to-use platform. PlannerPal are an AI solution is designed to help financial planners and advisers save time, deepen client relationships and grow their practice through their note taker that captures and summarises key insights from meetings ensuring that Consumer Duty needs are met and that vulnerable clients are identified. The AI tool also generates documentation such as annual reviews and suitability reports, tailored to the firm's needs and integrates with their CRM to ensure client records stay accurate and current for effective compliance. PIMFA Plus partner TIKKER, alongside Money Means, were also recognised at the Morningstar Investment Conference for their contribution to this space and their role in driving forward innovation. Richard Adler, Chief Commercial Officer at PIMFA and Director of PIMFA Wealthtech, said: 'PIMFA WealthTech exists to address digital business transformation through the development and adoption of market-leading technologies. Our objective is to drive innovation and enhance collaboration between Fintechs and wealth management and advice firms - and this tech sprint is a prime example of this in action. AI is set to be one of the most important and seismic changes to impact our industry and society more widely. It's potential to automate tasks, process vast amounts of data, drive innovation and address complex challenges, ultimately improving efficiency and productivity, cannot be under played. Many firms are still reviewing their approaches to AI and investigating how it can be integrated into their operations. Tech sprints such as this are an invaluable way of highlighting the fantastic array of solutions now available to support our vital industry and their clients. I'd like to thank all the firms that participated in this important tech sprint, and offer congratulations to Sidekick and PlannerPal for winning the challenge and demonstrating their solutions so skilfully.'
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Jenn Sterger reopens Brett Favre sexting scandal, says outdated tech helped prove alleged misconduct
Jenn Sterger has reignited the conversation around Brett Favre's alleged misconduct (Image via AP) More than a decade after the scandal first made headlines, former Jets sideline reporter Jenn Sterger has reignited the conversation around Brett Favre's alleged misconduct. In a candid interview on the George Janko Show, Sterger revisited the controversial 2008 incident—revealing how the outdated technology of that era helped verify her claims and further exposing the flaws in how the NFL handled the situation. Jenn Sterger reveals how old voicemails and Sidekick T-mail played a crucial role During the conversation, Sterger offered a deeper dive into the evidence she received back in 2008 while Favre was quarterbacking for the New York Jets. She stated she never met Favre in person but believes it was him based on the voicemails left on her phone. "I never met Brett Favre," she said. "The only reason that I assume that it's him is because of the voicemails." She explained that the nature of early 2000s tech played an unexpected role in exposing the messages. With no deepfakes or voice-altering apps available back then, she believes the audio clips were genuine. The explicit photos, she noted, were sent via T-mail, a once-popular messaging feature on Sidekick phones. The Fall Of Brett Favre - Jenn Sterger | EP. 113 'Do you know what T-mail is?' she joked. 'Which makes this story so much sadder. It's like the T-mail, the Crocs... like, we can go so many directions with where this went wrong.' George Janko chimed in on the recklessness of the situation, calling out the lack of caution: 'Very sloppy work. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo By the way—for you to be using emails so like no one knows who you are, and then throw a voicemail up is wildly dumb, bro.' Jenn Sterger's career suffered while Brett Favre walked away with a fine The fallout for Sterger was significant. She's spoken openly about how the scandal derailed her media career and how she felt abandoned by both the public and the NFL. Meanwhile, Favre, who was married at the time, reportedly admitted to the voicemails but denied sending any explicit content. The NFL fined him $50,000—not for misconduct, but for failing to fully cooperate with the investigation. Sterger's latest revelations come on the heels of Netflix's release of Untold: The Fall of Favre, a documentary that delves into both the sexting scandal and Favre's alleged involvement in a Mississippi welfare fraud case. Also Read: Donald Trump mocks New York Jets in a subtle way, while praising Tim Tebow's NFL success As new details emerge, it's clear that this chapter of NFL history remains deeply unsettling—and unresolved. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With AI, ‘walk before you run': Skanska USA exec
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter. Anita Nelson wants you to start small with artificial intelligence. The chief strategy officer for Skanska USA Building, the U.S. arm of the Swedish builder and developer, Nelson discussed the suite of AI products that the contractor has rolled out to its employees, which it calls Sidekicks. The Safety Sidekick, Skanska's newest internal offering, helps employees access Skanska data on safety and jobsite conditions. It helps employees plan toolbox talks and huddles, and gives them a resource at their disposal. Here, Nelson talks with Construction Dive about the Safety Sidekick's origins, how it fits into the company's current AI suite and the advice she has for builders looking to incorporate AI into their own workflows. Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. ANITA NELSON: We saw a need to make these insights more immediate and more actionable on jobsites. This data is not often leveraged in real time. Sidekick allows us to look at that data in a specific way. Using generative AI trained on Skanska-specific safety data and jobsite conditions, it allows us to deliver custom toolbox talks, safety observations and proactive suggestions to workers. On a day-to-day basis, that means workers can ask the AI tool safety related questions via mobile or desktop and get instant support for planning a morning huddle or addressing a new hazard. Beyond text, if you've got a picture of site conditions that day, you can ask questions related to that image. The tool is also embedded into our workflow, so it's not an added step in the day, it's very user friendly. Our data solutions team, in collaboration with information technology, they've developed four secure internal AI tools. There's Skanska Sidekick, which is based on OpenAI's GPT-4o model. That's a general use chat bot that protects user business data so you can ask it anything within our organization or outside our organization. Then we have three 'expert' sidekicks. One's called My Skanska Sidekick, and that searches for key documents on our internal intranet site. So, if you're looking for a risk management protocol or our sustainability report, or who's the leader of something, you can ask it for that. Then, we have an Operational Risk Sidekick, which is one of my other favorites, for our folks in the field. It's comprised of thousands of case studies and experiences across different project types and building systems. It gives you strategies and mitigation plans for existing risks on jobs. Safety Sidekick is the newest member of our suite. Because we had developed others, it was really about making sure that we got the documents in place. Our early users constantly give us feedback in real time on what's working and what's not. We don't launch things, you know, to all 3000-plus building employees right away. We take time to pilot, see what's working, see what's not. I don't think we ran into any hurdles on this particular launch, because the technology is there. I don't want to say it's as easy as plug-and-play, because my data scientists would tell me it's more complex than that. But really, a lot of our challenges are going to be about the quality of the data and whether our data warehouse has the right information. Our early users are definitely reporting time saved when preparing safety briefings and improved jobsite engagement. I think that is critical. When you're preparing for a morning huddle, you might be preparing for that the night before. You might be planning that day before on your commute. This makes it really easy for people. They're not getting to the trailer and figuring it out. They're not staying late the night before to figure it out. Start with the data that you know. You start with the low hanging fruit. When you're looking at generative AI or language models, if you have documents and you want to have them scanned and create a chat bot on top of it, that's all well and good. But, if there's not an infrastructure that you invest in to do that, that's where you're going to run into trouble. Additionally, we were able to build this ourselves. Don't think you have to build it yourself. We have a big enough organization and a lot of our own systems and protocols that require that. But there are products off the shelf. I wouldn't be able to list them or the sites, but I know they exist, and so you can start small by testing one thing. I think for us we started with operational risk. We started with the general Skanska Sidekick to play around with these things, to answer immediate challenges. Safety was not the first tool. While it was at the top of the list, we wanted to make sure that we have this right, because you don't want to have the wrong safety information. You want to walk before you run. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shopify Inc. (SHOP) Launches AI Store Builder for Merchants as Part of Latest Updates
On Wednesday, Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) rolled out a series of new AI-powered features designed to enhance customer experience. These included the 'AI Store Builder' to help merchants quickly set up online storefronts using descriptive keywords. While the company has launched several AI tools in the past, this is the first integrated feature that fully automates the website creation process. The AI Store Builder uses a single prompt to generate three store layouts with text and images, simplifying the onboarding process for merchants designing their online presence. Vanessa Lee, Vice President of Product at Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) stated the following on the AI Store Builder: "Instead of just having a merchant click and drag and fill out text fields on how they want their site to look - which can be really daunting for some - we thought why not ask them more open-ended questions and set up their store in the best likeness we can imagine, using AI.' An enthusiastic customer completing a purchase and receiving an order confirmation via one of the companies online sales channels. Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP) also introduced 'Horizon', a theme foundation that allows users to create and customize their storefronts by using preset designs or generating their own from scratch. Additionally, the company also levelled up 'Sidekick'. It can now solve more complex problems when users ask questions through voice or chat. These recent updates are part of Shopify Inc. (NASDAQ:SHOP)'s broader push into artificial intelligence to draw more merchants to its platform. While we acknowledge the potential of SHOP as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SHOP and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: ChatGPT Stock Advice: Top 12 Stock Recommendations and 10 Cheap Rising Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CTV News
21-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Shopify doubles down on AI with tools to create online stores, shopping assistants
A sign is seen outside the Shopify headquarters in Ottawa, Tuesday September 1, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Shopify Inc.'s latest round of product developments are leaning on artificial intelligence to help merchants and developers create everything from online stores to shopping assistants. The technology figures into many of the 150 product launches or enhancements the e-commerce software company announced Wednesday through its semi-annual Editions showcase. Shopify said the updates are part of a 'broader shift' it's making toward 'declarative commerce, where business owners simply express their goals, and AI handles the rest, freeing entrepreneurs to focus on creativity and growth rather than technical complexity.' Some of the buzziest changes target Sidekick, a tool it debuted in 2023 for some merchant customers to ask questions about their business operations. With the chatbot now equipped with advanced reasoning capabilities, Shopify's vice-president of product Vanessa Lee says merchants can turn to Sidekick with more practical questions like, 'My sales dropped last month — what caused that?' Sidekick will then trawl through the store's analytics, including sales figures, order history, product performance and customer purchase patterns. From there, it will calculate things like sales declines and revenue comparisons over specific time frames and can offer breakdowns based on specific geographies, customer segments or sales channels. Lee said the idea is to produce data that points to exactly what is going wrong, so merchants can determine how to turn things around. If the merchant thinks discounts or marketing campaigns is the answer, Sidekick can guide them through the process. If they want to sell across borders or target new customer segments, the tool is capable of setting them up for that as well. Sidekick, which is being upgraded to support voice chat and screen sharing, can also come in handy when merchants need art. The tool now has image generation capabilities, allowing users to type in a description of a photo they want to create and within moments, be sent that image back. In addition to Sidekick, Shopify is also deploying AI within its other software, so merchants can input a few descriptive keywords to instantly design online stores and all the images and text that go with them. Developers, who make their money selling tools that plug into Shopify's software, will also see a boost from AI. They will now be able to develop AI-powered shopping assistants with real-time access to Shopify data. The capability is being built on Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives. In Shopify's case, developers will be able to use third-party AI agents to seamlessly search product catalogs, manage carts, access customer orders and retrieve accurate store policies, to personalize conversations assistants have with customers. The AI updates come a month after Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke told staff AI is a 'fundamental expectation' for all employees and will be embedded into everything from performance reviews to product development. Away from AI, Shopify said it has redesigned its point-of-sale app to make workflows more intuitive and upgraded its payments platform so merchants can use a single store to sell from multiple business entities globally. The payments update removes the burden of duplicative admin systems and will help merchants accept more than 130 currencies and settle in up to eight, so they can minimize foreign exchange fees on payouts, refunds, chargebacks and supplier payments. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2025. Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
