Latest news with #Gado
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Business Technology News: Intuit Introduces QuickBooks Bill Pay
Signage for financial software company Intuit at the company's headquarters in the Silicon Valley ... More town of Mountain View, California, August 24, 2016. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images). Here are five things in tech that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them? This Week in Business Tech News Business Technology News #1 – Intuit introduces QuickBooks Bill Pay. Intuit has launched QuickBooks Bill Pay – a fully integrated solution aimed at streamlining business-to-business payments and automating accounts payable (AP) for small and mid-sized businesses. Some of its capabilities include automated bill creation. Businesses can forward their vendor invoices to QuickBooks, which auto-generates bills for review and approval. Flexible payment options allow vendors to be paid via ACH transfers or paper checks. Digital records store bills and payments in one place improving financial visibility. Transactions are automatically recorded and matched in your books, reducing manual entry up to 48 percent. QuickBooks Bill Pay has three pricing tiers – Basic (free), Premium, and Elite – each offering different levels of ACH payments, automation, and team controls. (Source: The Paypers) Why this is important for your business: This was inevitable. For years QuickBooks has been integrating with other similar services like BILL, which are all great. But now Intuit has decided to offer their own. On the plus side it should ultimately be seamless and easier to integrate. But on the other side products like BILL will offer more features and likely better support as this is the flagship offering. Regardless, all businesses using QuickBooks should be investigating and implementing automatic bill paying services to save time and increase productivity. New AI-based features will make these products even more powerful soon. Business Technology News #2 – Google's AI can now make phone calls for you. Google has just rolled out a major upgrade to its Search experience – AI-powered phone calls. The AI calling agent can call local businesses on your behalf based on the query entered in Search. Example – if you search for 'pet groomers near me,' you'll see an option to 'have AI check for availability.' Google's assistant will make the calls and summarize the results. It will then ask follow-up questions like when you need the service and how you want to receive updates. \ (Source: The Verge) Why this is important for your business: I do believe that automated phone calls will continue to grow in popularity. Our job as business owners is to be prepared to receive these calls. Will training be required? Will Google offer some way to automatically accept these calls without humans in our companies being involved? Business Technology News #3 – Microsoft promises to crack one of the biggest problems with Windows 11: slow performance. Microsoft is tackling one of Windows 11's biggest complaints: sluggish performance, especially on older PCs. In preview builds, Microsoft collects performance logs when testers experience slowdowns. These logs are stored locally and only sent to Microsoft if users submit feedback via the Facebook hub – 'System Sluggishness.' By expanding the scope of performance data, Microsoft hopes to pinpoint and fix speed-related issues more effectively. Common pain points include laggy File Explorer and slow search functionality. Microsoft is prioritizing these in its performance initiative. This effort is part of a broader push to make Windows 11 faster and more responsive, especially for users who've found it less snappy than Windows 10. (Source: TechRadar) Why this is important for your business: Frankly, I have not heard reports about slow Windows 11 performance from clients using the operating system but if Microsoft is doing this it's clearly a problem somewhere. To be sure make sure all of your devices are regularly updated the most recent version of the operating system and don't ignore notifications that new updates are available. Business Technology News #4 – Insurers making the turn to agentic AI – report. Insurers are cautiously embracing agentic AI – a form of artificial intelligence that can autonomously manage complex tasks and workflows. According to a new report from the Capgemini Research Institute, 20 percent of insurance firms are piloting agentic AI, and 12 percent have implemented it at scale. However, only 4 percent fully trust these systems as confidence in fully autonomous AI agents dropped from 43 percent to 27 percent over the past year due to concerns about accountability, explainability and ethical use. Insurers are integrating AI agents into workflows to assist brokers, underwriters, and service teams, embracing human-AI collaboration. Capgemini estimates agentic AI could generate up to $450 billion in value by 2028, but reaching that potential will require strategic investments, governance, risk frameworks and organizational design. (Source: Insurance Business) Why this is important for your business: This industry is ripe for agentic AI. The process of evaluating, approving and then writing up an insurance policy can be repetitive and doesn't have to require as much human effort as what's currently being spent. I'm sure that no insurance company is relying on agentic AI to do this right now but I can understand why they're investing in and testing these options heavily. As with so many other things around AI these are things that will be common in the not so distant future. Business Technology News #5 – Slack gets smarter: New AI tools summarize chats, explain jargon, and automate work. Slack is stepping up its AI game with a suite of new features designed to make workplace communication smoother, smarter, and more productive. An AI assistant embedded in Slack Canvas can generate project briefs, extract action items, and reformat meeting notes – all from your conversations. Enterprise Search lets connected users search across connected apps like Salesforce, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams from one interface, turning scattered data into actionable insights. Hover over acronyms or jargon and Slack will instantly explain them using your organization's unique vocabulary and history. Slack can also identify and highlight follow-ups and deadlines from messages where you're mentioned. Slack Huddles now include automatic transcript and summaries. (Source: VentureBeat) Why this is important for your business: According to VentureBeat Salesforce – Slack's parent company – is also restricting external AI access to Slack data, betting its native tools will outperform third-party alternatives. If you're relying on Slack for your communications and workflows it's important that you understand and start testing these new features internally. I strongly recommend getting training from a Slack week I round up five business technology news stories and explain why they're important for your business. If you have any interesting stories, please post to my X account @genemarks
Forbes
7 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Buy AMZN Stock At $230?
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock has increased by 4% this year, trailing the S&P 500's 7% growth slightly. This modest underperformance primarily results from a mix of valuation apprehensions and the company's significant investment cycle. Having invested $53 billion into capital expenditures in 2023 and $83 billion in 2024, Amazon is now forecasting a substantial $100 billion expenditure this year, mainly aimed at enhancing its AI capabilities. While these considerable investments may affect short-term profitability, they are essential for Amazon's long-term growth and competitive advantage. At present, with AMZN trading at $230, the crucial question for investors is straightforward: should you buy, sell, or hold? We believe there is further upside potential for AMZN stock from its current levels. Our conclusion is based on an analysis of AMZN's current valuation in relation to its recent operational performance and its current and historical financial status. Our thorough evaluation of across key metrics—Growth, Profitability, Financial Stability, and Downturn Resilience—indicates a company with robust operational performance and a solid financial base, as elaborated further below. However, if you are looking for upside potential with lower volatility than individual stocks, the Trefis High Quality portfolio offers an alternative — having outperformed the S&P 500 and yielded returns over 91% since its launch. Additionally, see – Block Inc.: What's Happening With XYZ Stock? How Does Valuation Look vs. The S&P 500? Based on what is paid per dollar of sales or profit, AMZN stock appears costly in comparison to the broader market. How Have Revenues Grown Over Recent Years? Revenues have experienced significant growth in recent years. How Profitable Is The profit margins of are lower than those of most companies in the Trefis coverage universe. Does Look Financially Stable? balance sheet appears robust. How Resilient Is AMZN Stock During A Downturn? AMZN stock has experienced an effect that was marginally better than the S&P 500 benchmark during one of the two recent downturns. Concerned about the effect of a market crash on AMZN stock? Our dashboard How Low Can Stock Go In A Market Crash provides a detailed analysis of the stock's performance during and after previous market crashes. Putting All The Pieces Together: What It Means For AMZN Stock In conclusion, performance across the metrics outlined above is as follows: On the whole, has shown strong performance across key indicators. From a price-to-sales (P/S) standpoint, a ratio of 3.6 times trailing revenues, combined with low double-digit revenue growth, seems reasonable to us. While the current price-to-earnings ratio for AMZN may seem slightly elevated, we expect a more substantial growth trajectory in the upcoming years. This is largely due to the increasing impact of Amazon Web Services (AWS), its more profitable cloud computing segment, on the total revenue mix. Related – Amazon Stock: Path To 2x Growth. Considering these aspects, we believe there is still significant upside potential for AMZN stock from its current position. Naturally, our evaluation might be incorrect. Investors may be reluctant to assign a higher valuation multiple, especially given Amazon's considerable capital expenses, increasing competition, and slower-than-anticipated growth in certain business segments. However, if you are working with a 3-5 year investment horizon, AMZN stock could be a beneficial addition to your investment portfolio. While it appears there is further upside to AMZN stock, consider the Trefis Reinforced Value (RV) Portfolio, which has outperformed its all-cap stocks benchmark (combination of the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 benchmark indices) to deliver strong returns for investors. Why is that? The quarterly rebalanced mix of large-, mid-, and small-cap RV Portfolio stocks offers a responsive method to capitalize on favorable market conditions while minimizing losses when markets decline, as explained in RV Portfolio performance metrics.
Edinburgh Live
08-07-2025
- Business
- Edinburgh Live
Amazon shoppers say £6 buy is 'great cost-effective addition to any house'
Amazon has slashed the price of an essential product that's a staple in every British home. Shoppers have been praising its ability to bring a touch of hotel-style luxury to their homes without breaking the bank. During the summer Amazon Prime Day event, running from July 8 to 11, the online retailer announced reductions on a wide range of goods, including top-tier electronic devices, stylish clothes, beauty products and children's toys. Amongst these bargains was the Amazon 2-Ply Embossed Toilet Roll. In an impressive pack of 18 rolls, the Amazon own brand batch packs in 200 sheets per roll. Available exclusively to Prime members, families can now bulk buy this bathroom necessity for the bargain price of £5.84. This means thrifty shoppers with enough storage can pick up rolls that work out at approximately 34p each, making bathroom visits a little less expensive over time. Competing bulk deals are also on offer at wholesalers like Costco with their Kirkland Signature Triple Satin 3-Ply Toilet Tissue (40 rolls, £22.99), and at B&Q with the Nicky Soft Touch White Toilet Roll (32 rolls, £10). But, many Amazon users have been persuaded to abandon the convenience of high-street stores in favour of the digital deal, reports the Mirror. A satisfied customer said: "I didn't realise what I was missing until I tried the Amazon Toilet Roll, 2-Ply Embossed, Soft. It's soft, strong, and makes me feel like I'm living in a five-star hotel bathroom. Seriously, it's like they took the concept of comfort and turned it into paper." (Image: Amazon) One more shared: "I have used many different types of toilet paper in my life, from that scratchy stuff we had as kids in the 80s to a posh hotel where they gave you a live white dove to wipe your bottom with. But this Amazon stuff is the best: soft but strong, and it doesn't try to fly off when you use it." A third added: "I usually buy toilet paper from the supermarket, when I do my weekly shopping, but I ran out, so I thought I'd look an Amazon for a quick option. They are soft, thick enough and clean well. Plus, they're budget-friendly!" However, not all reviews were glowing, with one user claiming: "It's ok but very thin and fragments and leaves bits where you don't want bits - if you know what I mean." Another cautioned: "Probably the most fragile toilet paper I've ever experienced outside of a public loo; you have to use at least three sheets for any sort of integrity!" (Image: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) Despite these criticisms, the product has gained thousands of positive reviews online. One such review read: "I've been using the Amazon toilet rolls for quite some time now, and I can confidently say they are a fantastic addition to any bathroom. This pack is an absolute lifesaver, especially for busy households like mine. With 200 sheets per roll, you get great value, and they last ages, so you won't find yourself running out unexpectedly." A fifth customer praised the product in their review saying: "Fantastic quality, I now use these on a rolling delivery instead of a previous brand. The paper is very soft and has a very neutral scent. The rolls are large and last really long." Shoppers can benefit from never having to think about buying toilet roll again with Amazon's Subscribe and Save model. This offers a small discount for committing to buy the same products again and again after a certain period of time.
Forbes
29-06-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Tesla Supercharger Surge: GM And Ford EVs Begin To Roll In
Close-up of a Tesla Supercharger with red logo, near Camino Tassajara in Danville, California, May ... More 18, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) What a difference a reliable charging network makes. Earlier this month when I arrived at a massive Tesla Supercharger location (76 chargers) at Tejon Outlets in Southern California just off Interstate 5, the only other cars charging were a Honda Prologue EV and Ford Mustang Mach-E. So, for a moment, there wasn't a single Tesla. Only the Prologue, Mach-E, and a GMC Sierra Denali EV (which I was driving) and a vast, empty sea of available charging spots. Teslas began showing up soon thereafter but it was odd to see only non-Tesla EVs using the chargers. And refreshing to see so many available stalls. And it gets even better. Less than a mile away, across Interstate 5, there was another Tesla Supercharger location with 24 chargers. And in nearby Lebec – about 20 minutes from the outlets on Interstate 5 – there was a spanking-new Supercharger location with 38 new super-fast v4 Superchargers. Not to mention the multiple Supercharger locations in Santa Clarita, Calif (further south on Interstate 5) and the three locations near my home in northwest Los Angeles. Charging a Cadillac Escalade IQ at a Tesla Supercharger in Simi Valley, Calif. A massive Tesla Supercharger location at Tejon Outlets near Bakersfield, Calif. Available Tesla ... More Superchargers as far as the eye can see. Competition isn't even close A night-and-day difference from competing networks such as Electrify America, which I've used extensively over the years. By comparison, there is no nearby Electrify America charging location in the long stretch of Interstate 5 between Santa Clarita, Calif and Bakersfield, Calif. versus the 130+ Tesla Superchargers in that same stretch of highway. And even if you find one, the charging experience is very different: a handful of chargers (often no more than 8), lines, and long waits. Not to mention the hit-or-miss vagaries of Electrify America chargers: one day everything works, the next day multiple chargers are down. Waiting, waiting, waiting… I've been waiting for Electrify America to locate a charger near my home. But that's never happened. Despite the very high density of EVs in the northwest Los Angeles area where I live, there are no Electrify America charging stations. Not one. The closest location is in Van Nuys, Calif with 3 fast chargers (level 3) and one slow level 2 charger. So, that's a total of 3 Electrify America fast chargers in a vast area in northwest Los Angeles covering high-density EV hotspots such as Chatsworth, Porter Ranch, Granada Hills, and Simi Valley (Ventura County). Yes, there are three Electrify America locations in Santa Clarita, Calif but that's further north bordering the high desert. GM, Ford, others need Tesla Not everyone charges at home. At least 50 percent (and often more) of the Tesla superchargers near my home are usually being used. And lack of public charging is often cited by prospective EV buyers as a reason they hesitate to purchase an EV. GM and Ford are now offering NACS (Tesla) adapters for their EVs (see my video below) but they will soon offer NACS ports built in. That can't happen soon enough.
Forbes
27-06-2025
- Forbes
AI And Domestic Violence: Boon, Bane — Or Both?
Output of an Artificial Intelligence system from Google Vision, performing Facial Recognition on a ... More photograph of a man, with facial features identified and facial bounding boxes present. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) One evening, a woman clicked open the camera app on her phone, hoping to capture what nobody else was around to see — her partner's escalating rage. Their arguments followed a familiar pattern: she would say something that set him off, and he would close the physical distance between them, screaming in a high-pitched voice, often threatening her with violence. 'I'd never actually do it, of course,' he would often say later on, once the dust had settled between them. 'You're the one mentally torturing me.' Sometimes, the response would escalate even further. He would throw her phone across the room, upset by the 'invasion of [his] privacy', or snatch an object from her hands, raising it as if to strike her with it. No physical bruises were left, but the writing was on the wall — with no device to capture it, no alert to trigger and no safe place to store the evidence. For many women, this isn't a plot point from a cringey Netflix drama — it's near-daily reality, and comprises the kind of behavior that rarely results in a police complaint. Notably, while threats of physical harm are explicitly criminal in many jurisdictions — including India and the U.S. — they've long gone undocumented and unprosecuted. Experts note that this very pattern — escalating verbal threats, threatened or actual destruction of property and intimidation — often marks the early stages of more serious and damaging domestic violence. And in certain contexts, AI-enabled tools are making it easier to discreetly gather evidence, assess personal risk and document abuse — actions that were previously unsafe or more difficult to carry out. At the same time, these technologies open up unprecedented avenues for new forms of harm. Increasingly, the most common 'eyewitness' in situations like these is a phone, a cloud account or a smart device — secretly recording, storing and offering support or a lifeline. But just as easily, the same tools can be turned into instruments of control, surveillance and even manipulated retaliation. Tech For Good Around the world, one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner, according to the World Health Organization. As AI becomes more embedded in everyday devices, a growing number of tools have come up, often with the stated goal of making homes safer for those at risk — particularly those experiencing intimate partner violence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as cases of domestic violence surged, Rhiana Spring, a human rights lawyer and founder of the Swiss-based nonprofit Spring ACT, saw an opportunity to deploy AI for good. Her organization developed Sophia, a chatbot that offers confidential, 24/7 assistance to domestic violence survivors. Users can talk to Sophia without leaving a digital trace, covertly seek help and even store evidence for use in legal proceedings. Unlike traditional apps, Sophia doesn't require a download, minimizing surveillance risks. 'We've had survivors contact Sophia from Mongolia to the Dominican Republic,' Spring told Zendesk after winning a Tech for Good award in 2022. Meanwhile, smart home cameras, like those from Arlo or Google Nest, now offer AI-driven motion and sound detection that can distinguish between people, animals and packages. Some can even detect screaming or unusual sounds and send alerts instantly — features that can be valuable for creating a digital record of abuse, especially when survivors are worried about gaslighting or lack physical evidence. Several CCTV systems also allow cloud-based, encrypted storage, which prevents footage from being deleted or accessed locally by an abuser. Services like Wyze Cam Plus offer affordable cloud subscriptions with AI tagging, and features like 'privacy masking' allow selective blackouts in shared spaces. For discreet assistance, several smartphone apps also integrate AI with panic alert features. Examples include MyPlan, Aspire News — which poses as a news app but offers emergency contacts and danger assessment tools — and Circle of 6. Smart jewelry like InvisaWear and Flare hide panic buttons in accessories, where, with a double-tap, users can clandestinely notify emergency contacts and share their GPS location. Beyond home safety and personal apps, AI is also entering hospitals and law enforcement in the context of domestic violence response and prevention. Dr. Bharti Khurana, a radiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, developed an AI-powered tool called the Automated Intimate Partner Violence Risk Support (AIRS) system, which scans medical records and imaging data for subtle injury patterns often missed by doctors and flags patients who may be victims of abuse. According to Khurana's team, AIRS has helped identify domestic violence up to four years earlier than patients typically report it. Another U.S.-based initiative, Aimee Says, was launched in Colorado to help survivors navigate the complexities of the legal system. The chatbot walks users through the process of filing protection orders, finding support organizations and understanding their rights. The app features guest mode sessions that disappear after use as well as a hidden exit button for quick redirection if an abuser walks into the room. 'We want to be there before the person is ready to reach out to a victim service organization — hopefully, early enough to prevent a future of violence,' said co-founder Anne Wintemute in a December 2024 interview with The Decatur Daily. Double-Edged Sword In India and much of the Global South, domestic violence continues to be rampant, widespread and hugely underreported. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), nearly one in three Indian women aged 18 to 49 has experienced spousal violence — but only a fraction seek help, often due to stigma, dependency, fear of escalation or lacunae in response frameworks and accountability. In these contexts, AI has the potential to be a particularly powerful tool — helping survivors document abuse or seek help — but its reach is limited by access, resources and trust in the technology itself. Surveillance concerns also loom large, especially in environments where privacy is already compromised. Moreover, the same technologies that support survivors can also open new avenues for harm — particularly when wielded by abusers. Deepfake technology, which uses generative AI to produce hyper-realistic fake audio, images or video, is already complicating legal proceedings, with fabricated call logs, messages or videos sometimes used to falsely implicate victims. In restraining order hearings or custody disputes, which often happen quickly and with limited fact-finding, courts may have little time or capacity to assess the authenticity of digital evidence. Products that store data, enable remote surveillance and monitor behavior can just as easily become weaponized by abusers. Few tech companies offer transparency and answerability on how their tools could be misused in these ways, or build in strong enough safety features by design. 'In parallel, the emergence of deepfake technology … also raises alarms regarding privacy invasion, security risks and propagation of misinformation,' warned Supreme Court Justice Hima Kohli of India, explaining how easy it has become to manipulate trust in digital content. The same code that is used as a lifeline, then, can also become a weapon in the same breath. As AI evolves, while the real test for the tech industry is indeed about how 'smart' their tools can become, it's also about how safely and justly they can adapt to serve those who need them most.
