Latest news with #datainfrastructure
Skift
12 hours ago
- Business
- Skift
AI in Corporate Travel: BCD Focuses on the Plumbing, Not the Flash
AI might be the future of corporate travel, but for now, it's clearly in pilot mode where the real work is taking place out of view. Much of the artificial intelligence work in corporate travel isn't happening in slick user interfaces — it's buried in the data infrastructure. At BCD Travel, the world's second-largest travel management company, AI development is focused on cleaning up messy, fragmented data before it can be turned into anything actionable. The foundational work in AI at the Netherlands-headquartered company centers on improving data importation, quality, and reconciliation with the aim of delivering better insights to clients. 'There are four key areas we look at when it comes to using AI for data analytics,' said Ajay Singh, BCD's Vice President of Payment and Data Science. 'Data ingestion, improving data quality, enriching data through reconciliation, and finally, delivering insights back to clients.' . This supports the backbone of how corporate travel managers make decisions about spend, compliance, traveler behavior, and supplier negotiations. Each step also reflects a real pain point in the travel data landscape, one that Singh describes as 'highly fragmented' because of information flowing from global distribution systems, travel management companies, online booking tools, card providers, and suppliers. One clear use case is AI-assisted matching of credit card transaction data with booking records, a task that once required tedious manual review. Another is parsing unstructured data, like comments, PDFs, and voice notes, to pull out meaningful travel insights. 'AI can help us move from reactive reports to proactive recommendations,' he said. 'It's about making the data work for each client, in a way that's relevant to their specific needs.' Personalization Is Key As for where AI will have the greatest impact in the next few years, Singh argued it won't be in automation, but in personalization. In other words, enabling clients to query the data, generate their dashboards, and set predictive alerts based on what matters to them. 'Every client is different. Even within a company, different markets and stakeholders care about different outcomes,' Singh said. 'The goal is to democratize data, to let every user, not just analysts, become a data user.' Despite the potential of AI, Singh is candid about where the industry stands: 'If this is a seven-inning game, we're still in the first inning.' One reason? The data isn't ready yet.'AI is like oil; it needs refining. If your data isn't clean, AI can't do much with it,' Singh said. Amex GBT Helps Agents Other corporate travel businesses are likewise using AI behind the scenes, and are also experimenting with more visible forms. As detailed at Skift's recent Data + AI Summit, Amex GBT, the world's largest travel management company, has deployed an AI assistant to help travel agents swiftly surface policy rules tailored to each client. That's a clear efficiency gain, especially when agents juggle multiple accounts, Marilyn Markham, vice president, AI strategy and automation at Amex GBT, said at the summit. The company also uses a chatbot to handle frequently asked questions, though it admits that it is only accurate about 60% of the time, and falls back to human agents when things get complicated. Amadeus Tests Natural Language Questions Amadeus, meanwhile, is betting on 'agentic AI,' a system of small, task-oriented agents that work together to fulfill goals like booking flights or pulling data, Rodrigo Acuna Agost, head of research and the AI Center of Excellence at Amadeus, said at the conference. The company has rolled out a voice-to-voice assistant in limited internal use and is testing tools that let users ask natural language questions like 'What are my top 10 customers?' without needing database knowledge. But even Acuna Agost admitted that a large-scale rollout is years away. Right now, the AI assistants can answer basic questions, said Acuña Agost. But full end-to-end automation? That's still aspirational.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
France to unveil €37 bn in foreign investment at Versailles summit: presidency
France will announce 37 billion euros ($41.3 billion) in foreign investment on Monday as President Emmanuel Macron hosts more than 200 top executives at a business summit in Versailles, the French presidency said. Of the total, 20 billion euros are "entirely new" projects -- a record for the event, which drew 15 billion euros in commitments last year. The remaining 17 billion euros was announced in February and has now been finalised and tied to specific sites, the presidency added. Among the headline deals, US logistics giant Prologis is set to invest 6.4 billion euros in four data centres in the Ile-de-France region, according to the newspaper Le Parisien. Emirati investors are also committing 8 billion euros as part of a larger 50-billion-euro data infrastructure project, previously flagged in February, La Tribune reported. Amazon is expected to announce a 300-million-euro development, while Le Figaro reported four other major projects totalling 800 million euros. They include 90 million euros from German automaker Daimler to expand its electric bus plant in Ligny-en-Barrois and 450 million euros from US recycler Circ for a textile recycling facility in Moselle. The government also announced plans to reform the textile recycling sector, calling the current model "exhausted". Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos told La Tribune that France remained "very important" for the platform. It has employed 25,000 French actors and technicians between 2021 and 2024 on productions including "Lupin", "Tapie" and "Sous la Seine". Macron will host several roundtables, including on artificial intelligence and energy transition. Attendees include South Korean executives, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, Stella Li of China's BYD, and the CEO of Saudi entertainment firm Qiddiya. Gulf sovereign wealth funds Mubadala, PIF and QIA will also be present, with Macron set to open the Paris office of the Saudi Public Investment Fund on Tuesday. od/srg/jj Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Entrepreneur
12-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Companies Step Up Investments in AI, Sustainability to Stay Ahead of the Game
As enterprises are undergoing massive digital transformation, AI has become more pertinent than ever. But at the same time, companies are taking conscious efforts to ensure their tech initiatives are sustainable in nature You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Over the last few years, India has made rapid strides in technology, coming to be recognized as a global leader in tech-led innovation. As digital transformation becomes a top priority across sectors, companies are increasingly investing in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, cloud, and automation to stay ahead of the game in a dynamic business environment. Enterprise data company NetApp believes that India's great strides in emerging technologies, particularly AI, is inevitably causing a data explosion and a consequent surge in power consumption. "At a time when every byte draws power, a robust data infrastructure becomes more than just a technical foundation - it becomes an imperative. NetApp's Intelligent Data Infrastructure empowers businesses to act on this responsibility by reducing digital waste, optimising storage, and minimising energy consumption. The shift toward sustainability isn't an add-on; it's built right into how we store, manage, and scale data. For India, this is a defining opportunity, to lead the world in demonstrating that digital acceleration and environmental responsibility can grow in lockstep," said Puneet Gupta, Vice President and MD, NetApp India and SAARC. Major technology companies also opine that the future of AI lies in using it in a sustainable manner. According to Wipro, "Sustainability is of strategic importance to global enterprises. The focus will be on using AI and non-AI systems to optimize resource usage, reduce waste, and improve energy efficiency. AI will augment existing solutions in telemetry and visual analytics for sustainability. However, the AI-Tech remains resource intensive. Energy consumption by AI and the proliferation of data centres are major concerns, and efforts are underway to make the AI stack more sustainable from silicon to software." Sanket Atal, Managing Director, Operations and Tech, Salesforce India, believes that as India moves towards a Viksit Bharat by 2047, "the real differentiator will not be how fast we innovate, but how intentionally we innovate—ensuring that technology serves society, preserves the planet, and uplifts every individual it touches. By combining public ambition, private sector commitment, and strong industry-academia collaboration, we can ensure that Indian youth are not only prepared for the future - they are building it." As the demand for AI workloads is increasing by the day, the limits of what our data centres can handle are being pushed. "This is a matter of capacity, adaptability, resilience, and foresight, and Vertiv strives to support India's data mission. The infrastructure supporting AI must evolve just as fast as the technology itself. We are seeing steep increases in rack densities, shifts toward liquid cooling, and the need for more responsive, scalable power systems. These are strategic imperatives for every organisation that intends to harness AI meaningfully," said Shrirang Deshpande, Country Head, Strategic Programmes, Vertiv India. AI has also been a huge boon in the healthcare sector that has long grappled with chronic challenges from slow drug discovery and limited access to capital for cutting-edge research to ensuring scalable quality healthcare. "Today, we stand at the dawn of the H.E.A.L.T.H era – Harnessing Evolutionary AI for Lifesaving Technologies and Healthcare. In a few remarkable instances, drug discovery timelines have shrunk by up to 70 per cent. AI-driven bioinformatics and digital twins are optimising vaccine formulations, patient-donor matching, and reducing R&D costs by as much as 40 per cent. With deeper insights, capital is now being directed more efficiently into high-impact development pipelines (target diseases). Specialised language models (LLMS) are also acting as co-pilots for physicians, instantly surfacing insights from millions of clinical papers, enabling faster diagnostics and unlocking new treatment pathways for patients," said Raj Babu, Founder and CEO, Agilisium, a Healthtech company. Fidelity Investments' India global capability center (GCC) is looking to develop solutions and experiences to meet the dynamic business requirements. "We have embedded this culture of constant upskilling and reskilling across all levels of the organization. Whether it's through structured programs like LEAP, an upskilling cohort for early-career technologists, role-based learning journeys, internal technology communities, niche hackathon events, our innovation and patent programs, or regular hands-on certification and training programs, we provide a host of opportunities for our technologists to learn and work on the latest emerging technologies in financial services, to innovate for the future," said Srinivas Gururaja Rau, Head of Fidelity Fund and Investment Operations Technology India, Fidelity Investments.
National Post
06-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
NetApp and Intel Partner to Redefine AI for Enterprises
Article content SAN JOSE, Calif. — NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the intelligent data infrastructure company, today announced the release of NetApp AIPod Mini with Intel, a joint solution designed to streamline enterprise adoption of AI inferencing. This collaboration addresses the unique challenges businesses face when deploying AI, such as cost and complexity, at the department and team level. To thrive in the era of intelligence, enterprises have adopted AI to enhance efficiency and data-driven decision making across their businesses. A study by Harvard Business School found that consultants given access to AI tools were able to increase their productivity, completing 12.2 percent more tasks and completing them 25.1 percent more quickly. However, individual business units may find that the broadly available general purpose AI applications are not able to meet their specific needs, but do not have the technical expertise or budget to customize an AI application from scratch. NetApp and Intel have partnered to provide businesses with an integrated AI inferencing solution built on an intelligent data infrastructure framework that allows specific business functions to leverage their distinct data to create outcomes that support their needs. NetApp AIPod Mini streamlines the deployment and use of AI for specific applications such as automating aspects of document drafting and research for legal teams, implementing personalized shopping experiences and dynamic pricing for retail teams, and optimizing predictive maintenance and supply chains for manufacturing units. Article content 'Our mission is to unlock AI for every team at every level without the traditional barriers of complexity or cost,' said Dallas Olson, Chief Commercial Officer at NetApp. 'NetApp AIPod Mini with Intel gives our customers a solution that not only transforms how teams can use AI but also makes it easy to customize, deploy, and maintain. We are turning proprietary enterprise data into powerful business outcomes.' Article content NetApp AIPod Mini enables businesses to interact directly with their business data through pre-packaged Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflows, combining generative AI with proprietary information to deliver precise, context-aware insights that streamline operations and drive impactful outcomes. Article content By integrating Intel® Xeon® 6 processors and Intel® Advanced Matrix Extensions (Intel® AMX) with NetApp's all-flash storage, advanced data management, and deep Kubernetes integration, NetApp AIPod Mini delivers high-performance, cost-efficient AI inferencing at scale. Built on an open framework powered by Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA), the solution ensures modular, flexible deployments tailored to business needs. Intel Xeon processors are designed to boost computing performance and efficiency, making AI tasks more attainable and cost-effective, empowering customers to achieve more. To best serve customers, this solution is designed to be: Article content Affordable: Designed for departmental or business-unit budgets, NetApp AIPod Mini delivers enterprise-grade performance at a low entry price. Designed with scalability in mind, the solution enables organizations to achieve AI advancements without wasting resources on unnecessary overhead or costs. Simple: With a pre-validated reference design, NetApp AIPod Mini makes AI implementation streamlined and effective. Its pre-packaged workflows enable quick setup, seamless integration, and customization without extra overhead. By focusing on ease of use and reliability, the solution helps enterprises deploy AI faster and more confidently, enabling smarter and more efficient operations. Secure: By leveraging NetApp, the most secure storage on the planet, and processing data on-premises, NetApp AIPod Mini enhances privacy and protects sensitive data. Customers can leverage the built-in cyber resiliency and governance capabilities of NetApp ONTAP®, including access controls, versioning, and traceability, to embed compliance directly into AI workflows with traceability and ethical safeguards. Article content 'A good AI solution needs to be both powerful and efficient to ensure it delivers a strong return on investment,' said Greg Ernst, Americas Corporate Vice President and General Manager at Intel. 'By combining Intel Xeon processors with NetApp's robust data management and storage capabilities, the NetApp AIPod Mini solution offers business units the chance to deploy AI in tackling their unique challenges. This solution empowers users to harness AI without the burden of oversized infrastructure or unnecessary technical complexity.' Article content NetApp AIPod Mini with Intel will be available in the summer of 2025 from strategic distributors and partners around the world. These initial launch partners will include NetApp distributor partners Arrow Electronics and TD SYNNEX as well as integration partners Insight Partners, CDW USA, CDW UK&I, Presidio and Long View Systems, who will provide dedicated support and service to ensure a seamless purchasing and deployment experience for customers' unique AI use cases. Article content NetApp is the intelligent data infrastructure company, combining unified data storage, integrated data, operational and workload services to turn a world of disruption into opportunity for every customer. NetApp creates silo-free infrastructure, harnessing observability and AI to enable the industry's best data management. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in the world's biggest clouds, our data storage delivers seamless flexibility. In addition, our data services create a data advantage through superior cyber resilience, governance, and application agility. Our operational and workload services provide continuous optimization of performance and efficiency for infrastructure and workloads through observability and AI. No matter the data type, workload, or environment, with NetApp you can transform your data infrastructure to realize your business possibilities. Learn more at or follow us on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Media Contact: Kenya Hayes NetApp Article content Article content Article content
