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☆ India accuses Samsung, Xiaomi of colluding with Amazon, Flipkart
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Samsung, Xiaomi and other smartphone companies colluded with Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart to exclusively launch products on the e-commerce firms' Indian websites in breach of antitrust laws, according to regulatory reports seen by Reuters. In Flipkart's case, a 1,696-page CCI report said the Indian units of Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo and Realme conducted similar practices. Siva Prasad wrote in the Amazon and Flipkart reports, in identical findings. Amazon, Flipkart and the CCI did not respond, and have not so far commented on the reports' findings. Both the CCI reports said that during investigations Amazon and Flipkart "deliberately downplayed" allegations of exclusive launches, but officials found the practice was "rampant".

Persons: Flipkart, Realme, G.V, Siva Prasad, Xiaomi, China's Vivo Organizations: Samsung, Reuters, Antitrust, Competition Commission of India, Amazon, Motorola, Vivo, Lenovo, China's, Bain

☆ India’s EV conundrum: To invest in cars or charging points first
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-13 | by ( Charmaine Jacob | In Charmainemariajacob | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A little over two years after the switch, Fernandes regrets her decision: "I'll never ever buy an electric vehicle again." "A 4India’s EV conundrum: To invest in cars or charging points first0% charge should easily take me for another 40km, but it dropped to 0% within 5km," Fernandes said. In India, "Range anxiety" remains a significant hurdle preventing drivers from making the transition from internal combustion engine to EV cars, analysts said. "Charging infrastructure in India's electric vehicle market is still not fully developed, but companies want more vehicles on the road before they invest more. As of August 2023, Tata Motors dominated 72% of India's EV market, followed by MG Motors with with a 10.8% share.

Persons: Carmelita Fernandes, Fernandes, Brajesh Chhibber, Chhibber Organizations: Tata Nixon, CNBC, Bain & Company, McKinsey India, Tata Motors, MG Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Citroen, Hyundai, Kia Locations: Indian, Pune, India, Bombay, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Goa, Canalys

☆ Alibaba’s Taobao shopping app launches AI-powered English version in Singapore, jumps to first place in Apple’s App Store
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-13 | by ( Sonia Heng | In Sonia-Heng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In this article BABA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTThe logo of Alibaba's e-commerce app Taobao is displayed next to mobile phones displaying the app, in this illustration picture taken October 25, 2023. Reuters | Florence LoSingapore — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba 's Taobao shopping app topped the Apple App Store charts in Singapore after releasing an English version on Tuesday — thanks to translations powered by artificial intelligence. That's according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence firm whose data shows Taobao shot to first place in Apple's Singapore App Store across all categories, as of Sept. 11. As early as last year, Singaporean Taobao users had previously made guides on how to purchase clothes, furniture and lifestyle items from Taobao. These video guides were posted on the ByteDance-owned TikTok platform, another Chinese app.

Persons: Florence Lo, Alibaba, Bain, David Zehner Organizations: Reuters, Company, Asia, South Korean, Bain, CNBC Locations: Florence, Florence Lo Singapore, Singapore, Apple's Singapore, China, AliExpress, Malaysia, Asia Pacific, Singapore's

☆ These mid-tier brands are winning in fashion while luxury struggles
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-12 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewTanking share prices, excess stock flooding outlets, a slowdown in once-reliable China: 2024 has been a tough year for luxury brands. AdvertisementTo find relief from high luxury prices, those consumers are turning to midlevel brands like clothing store Zara and jewelry brand Pandora, which are thriving. "It is acceptable for people to buy accessories with luxury brands and then buy apparel at Zara." Advertisement"With these other product ranges apart from charms, they think they are benefiting from the downtrading of consumers," Sokolova said. The trick for both Zara and Pandora will be maintaining their appeal when aspirational consumers can once again spend on luxury.

Persons: —, Gucci, Claire Tassin, Tassin, Levato, Kering, Louis Vuitton, LVMH, TK, Jelena Sokolova, Michael Kors, Zara, Pandora, it's, Sokolova, It's, Pamela Anderson, Tiffany Organizations: Service, Business, Morning, Brands, Bain & Company, Gucci, Morningstar, Cartier Locations: China, Spanish, Danish, Paris, Morocco, Portugal, Turkey, Europe, Zara

☆ Private equity will be able to invest in the NFL but won't have much say in team decisions
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-05 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Last week, NFL team owners voted to allow an initial group of private equity firms to acquire up to a 10% stake of a franchise. "This isn't a case where private equity is going to come in and have influence on the franchise." Private equity has been eager to take stakes in sports as team valuations rise, mainly due to ballooning media rights deals. As investors, private equity firms often take management and board roles. Private equity investments typically have a set duration — it can range from three to seven years in many cases — and an expected return.

Persons: Ric Tapia, Steve Pagliuca, Shirin Malkani, Perkins, Anthony Mulrain, Toney, Angela Weiss, Michael Considine, Ellis, Jimmy Haslam, Mulrain, Eric Washington, Robin Alam Organizations: NFL, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Texans, NRG, Getty, National Football League, Bain Capital, CNBC, Washington, Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, Holland, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Farm, Afp, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Kirkland, Cleveland Browns, Knight's, Buffalo Bills, Microsoft Locations: Houston, U.S, Glendale , Arizona, Holland

☆ Meta director who used to work for Elon Musk says companies without an internal AI tool are 'already behind the curve'
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-19 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewIn addition to its suite of consumer-facing AI offerings like Meta AI, Facebook's parent company also has its an internal tool for employees. She said she uses the tool "all the time for efficiency gains," — and companies that don't have their own internal AI tool are "already behind the curve." Any sizable company operating without an internal AI tool is already behind the curve. The company's internal AI tool, which is called VaultBot, answers "around 32% of all engineering questions," according to a company announcement from January. Other big tech giants are also developing internal AI tools alongside consumer-facing products.

Persons: —, Alex Heath, Mark Zuckerberg's, Heath, Esther Crawford, that’s, Esther Crawford ✨, Crawford, Kaz Nejatian, EY, PwC, Banks, Goldman Sachs Organizations: Service, Business, Elon, Twitter, Meta, KPMG, McKinsey, QuantumBlack, JPMorgan, OpenAI, Bain & Company Locations: Meta

☆ Dell staff say they aren't surprised about layoffs following its AI pivot
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-11 | by ( Polly Thompson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Its goal is to "simplify how we operate and reimagine work and customer experiences with AI," Dell execs told employees in an internal memo. "Through a reorganization of our go-to-market teams and an ongoing series of actions, we are becoming a leaner company," a Dell spokesperson told Business Insider. NurPhoto/Getty ImagesSeveral Dell workers said that though layoffs were hard, they understood that AI was changing the nature of work. Getting leanerAside from the impact of AI and automation, many workers also believed that the restructuring and layoffs were unsurprising business decisions. Two Dell employees in human resources told BI that layoffs would bring the workforce to under 100,000 people.

Persons: —, Dell, Dell execs, Tell Dell, Vivek Mohindra, Michael Dell, Bain Organizations: Service, Business, Dell, BI, McKinsey, Workers, Mobile

☆ LMVH and other global luxury brands are hurting as Chinese shoppers rein in spending
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —The value of some of the world’s best-known luxury companies is plunging as Chinese consumers pull back on spending, with even the most exclusive brands feeling the pain. The rout seems to be accelerating, with those sales tumbling 14% in the second quarter, according to results published late Tuesday. “For now, the (luxury) market remains volatile as investors reassess the once-held belief that luxury brands are a safe-haven investment, shielded from broader economic downturns,” Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, told CNN. “The Chinese market contracted slightly; the market situation in the premium and luxury segment in China remained weak,” the company said. China’s economy grew 4.7% year-on-year in the second quarter of the year, according to official data released last week, missing economists’ expectations and marking the weakest growth since the first quarter of 2023.

Persons: Bernard Arnault’s, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, ” Jochen Stanzl, Richemont, Cartier, ”, Gucci, Kering, Hermes, Birkin, Olesya Dmitracova Organizations: London CNN, Prada, CMC Markets, CNN, Europe’s, Reuters, Porsche, Benz, Bain & Company Locations: Asia, Japan, China, Paris, Hong Kong, China , Hong Kong, Macao, North America, Europe, United States

☆ Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, and Paramount execs discuss the use of AI in Hollywood. Here are 9 startups they're watching.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Read previewStartups are rushing to create the best artificial intelligence video generation tools and convince Hollywood that AI won't decimate the creative industries. But, the most common early use of AI in entertainment is often more mundane than reverse-aging Harrison Ford to simulate a younger Indiana Jones. When top executives at the intersection of AI and entertainment met at the virtual Digital Hollywood summit on Monday, the use cases for AI in Hollywood were decidedly deeper in the details. These are some of the startups AI and entertainment leaders have their eyes on. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesLuma AI, another image generation AI startup Bakhtar named, has raised more than $68 million according to Bain, with recent backing from Andreessen Horowitz.

Persons: —, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, They're, Panah Bakhtiar, we're, Phil, Alejandro Matamala, Ortiz, Anastasis Germanidis, Cristóbal Valenzuela, Krikey, Bakhtar, Marc Andreessen, Justin Sullivan, Bain, Andreessen Horowitz, Amit Jain, xMentium, Eliot Sakhartov, Speechmatics Michael Kaplan, Oleg Elkov, Nvidia's Kaplan, Sakhartov, Jensen Huang, Reid Hoffman, Huang, Kaplan Organizations: Service, Hollywood, Business, Paramount, Companies, Microsoft, AWS, Nvidia, Runway, Google, Apple Vision Pro Locations: London, New York, Taiwan

AdvertisementSpeed and ease — that's how generative AI is changing the game for finance professionals. In a survey of 780 banking and capital-markets employees by Accenture Research, 62% of respondents expect generative AI to increase people's stress and burnout. "Employees with AI skills will replace people without AI skills," Andrew Chin, the chief AI officer at the $759 billion money manager AllianceBernstein, told BI. AdvertisementA data scientist at a midsize hedge fund told BI that generative AI models are a "superpower for coders." The firm's ultimate aim is to use generative AI to replicate the success of its best bankers for all advisors.

Persons: Christina Melas, Rowe Price's Sébastien, Eric Burl, Alyssa Powell, Thomas H, Lee, Keri Smith, Smith, Ken Griffin, They've, Goldman Sachs, Marco Argenti, Argenti, It's, I've, drudge, Andrew Chin, AllianceBernstein, Lisa Donahue, Donahue, Jobs, who's, He's, he'd, ChatGPT, Accenture's Smith Organizations: Bain Capital Ventures, Management, Business, Bain Capital, Man Group, Accenture Research, Finance, Wall Street, Blackstone, Sigma, Citadel, Milken Institute Global Conference, Excel, Accenture, Northern Trust, Citibank, Citi, JPMorgan Locations: New York City, New York

☆ Americans Still Shop for Luxury Items in Physical Stores, Not Online
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

It found that people generally have a strong preference for a brick-and-mortar experience when buying luxury items. Online luxury sales picked up during the pandemic but have since come back down to earth. The overarching theme is that many consumers haven't warmed up to shopping luxury — namely, ultra-luxe items and brands — online. AdvertisementWe try to treat luxury with the same e-commerce experience we use for paper towels, and that just doesn't work. For the most part, luxury brands prefer that customers would rather shop in-store.

Persons: Gen Z, Claire Tassin, haven't, Jason Goldberg, hasn't, Goldberg, Luca Solca, Solca, Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, Prada, Tassin, Louis Vuitton, Kleinewillinghoefer, Emily Stewart Organizations: Walmart, Morning, Moda, Groupe, Bernstein, Bain & Company, Burberry, Gucci, luxe, Companies, Amazon, Business Locations: —, Kearney

☆ Pornhub is awash in lawsuits. Unverified videos still on the site could bring even more, says the author of the new book 'Takedown.'
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-22 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

AdvertisementPornhub, launched in 2007 and based in Montreal, lets users upload amateur and professional porn videos in much the same way users upload to YouTube. "Performers" remain unverified in many thousands of pre-2024 videos, including those that pop up from search terms involving teens and violence, Mickelwait told Business Insider. Lawsuits and monitoringAn ever-growing number of lawsuits by some 300 plaintiffs allege the site knowingly profited from videos of their abuse. An excerpt from a federal judge's November order granting class-action status to one of dozens of Pornhub lawsuits. AdvertisementMost recently, she said, she reported to state authorities the Pornhub video showing a woman shouting in pain and asking not to be filmed.

Persons: —, Laila Mickelwait, She's, Mickelwait, It's, Pornhub, Sarah Bain, Aylo —, Rocky Shay Franklin, Nicholas Kristof, Bill Ackman, MindGeek, Netflix —, Laila, Mike Bowe, I've, Bowe, kG2TK2R8sj, Cormac J, Carney, Serena Fleites, Fleites, Bain, Cherie DeVille, Mike Stabile, Stabile Organizations: Service, Business, Ethical Capital Partners, Random House, Justice Defense Fund, Sunday Times, New York Times, Heinz, Unilever, KY, Pornhub, Netflix, Mastercard, Visa, Capital, US, Free Speech Coalition Locations: Montreal, Pornhub, Alabama, Florida, London, Manhattan, California, Bowe's, Bakersfield , California

☆ The luxury handbags most likely to be faked, according to an expert from The RealReal
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-21 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The secondhand market has become an increasingly important part of the luxury market, rising to $50 billion last year, according to Bain & Company. But there are dangers to buying on the secondhand market: counterfeit products, which the rise in "dupe culture" has only helped to escalate. Business Insider spoke to Hunter Thompson, the director of authentication and brand compliance at secondhand luxury retailer The RealReal, about the proliferation of increasingly convincing fakes. Advertisement"In 2024, if it can be faked, it's faked," Thompson said. Here are the bags that Thompson said are most commonly faked —and some tell-tale red flags to look out for.

Persons: —, Hunter Thompson, it's, Thompson, Birkin, zippers Organizations: Service, Bain & Company, Business

☆ It looks like the party's over for luxury goods in China
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-17 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewHugo Boss, Burberry, Richemont, and Swatch have all called out slumping sales in China this week as consumers cut back on luxury spending. Swiss watch group Swatch said it expects the Chinese market "to remain challenging for the entire luxury goods industry until the end of the year." But much of this spending has been overseas, and sales in China have fallen for some of the world's biggest luxury brands. AdvertisementBefore the pandemic, about two-thirds of Chinese luxury spending occurred outside mainland China, plummeting to less than 10% in 2021 and 2022 because of travel restrictions, according to data from Bain. The consultancy said that this started to rebound in 2023 with the return of overseas tourism, with an estimated 30% of luxury spending taking place outside mainland China.

Persons: —, Hugo Boss, Burberry, Gerry Murphy, they've, Bain, Luca Solca, Vacheron Constantin, Marc Jacobs, Versace, Richemont Organizations: Service, Swatch, Business, Bain & Company, Richemont, Cartier, Burberry, Financial Times, Bain, Prada, The Financial Times, Luxury Summit Locations: China, Swiss, Americas, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korean, East

☆ 'Luxury shame': China's rich shy away from flaunting their wealth amid economic jitters
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Ernestine Siu | In Ernestinesiu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

China's rich are turning their backs on flaunting their wealth as the economy faces headwinds, putting the country's luxury market under pressure. China's rich are growing more cautious about flaunting their wealth as the economy faces headwinds, putting the country's luxury market under pressure. "Wealthy customers are afraid of being seen as too ostentatious or too showy," Claudia D'Arpizio, partner partner and global head of fashion and luxury at Bain & Company, told CNBC in a separate interview. "We call it luxury shame similarly [to] what happened in the U.S. in 2008-2009," D'Arpizio said. "Even people that can afford to buy these products have less willingness to do so, [in order] not to be seen as really buying or wearing very expensive products."

Persons: Derek Deng, Claudia D'Arpizio, D'Arpizio Organizations: Bain and Company, Bain &, Bain & Company, CNBC Locations: China, U.S

☆ Private equity is booming. How to get a job in the finance industry's newest 'it' sector.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-05 | by ( Kaja Whitehouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Getty Images; Shutterstock; BIThe traditional path to private equity starts with an investment banking job out of college. In 2023, private equity firms started reaching out in July before junior investment bankers finished their summer training. But at its core, private equity is in the business of making money by buying and running companies. Samantha Lee/InsiderA small group of headhunters and other advisors hold power over the private equity recruitment process. More on private equity pay and hiring:Have private equity's 'Hunger Games' recruiting tactics gone too far?

Persons: —, Blackstone, Apollo isn't, Goldman Sachs, it's, David Wurtzbacher, Wurtzbacher, Wharton, Graham Weaver, you've, Samantha Lee, We've, Jon Gray, Drew Angerer, Skye Gould, Steve Schwarzman, Jonathan Gray, Gray, Thoma Bravo, Atlantic's, Carlyle, Warburg Pincus, Wharton's, Axel Springer Organizations: Service, Apollo, KKR, Business, Getty, CPA, BI, Alpine Partners, Alpine's, Harvard Business School, Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Alpine, of Foreign Labor, Bain Capital, Blackstone, Harvard, Games, Wall, Citadel, headhunters, dealmakers, Private, PJT Partners, Centerbridge, of Michigan Locations: San Francisco, UPenn, Carlyle, Blackstone, Axel

☆ An ancient earthquake rerouted the Ganges River
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-02 | by ( Kate Golembiewski | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Now, for the first time, scientists have evidence that earthquakes can reroute rivers: It happened to the Ganges River 2,500 years ago. The study collected core samples of sand and mud from the Ganges Delta in depths up to nearly 300 feet below ground surface. Liz ChamberlainSediment reveals ancient secretsTo determine how long ago this massive earthquake hit, Chamberlain and her colleagues used a method called optically stimulated luminescence. “It’s directly measuring sand or mud grains and looking at when these sediment grains were last exposed to sunlight,” she said. Monitoring quakes todayIf a similar earthquake happened in the Ganges Delta today, more than 140 million people in the area could be affected.

Persons: ”, Elizabeth Chamberlain, Chamberlain, Steve Goodbred, ” Chamberlain, Michael Steckler, Rachel Bain, Liz Chamberlain, Jonathan Stewart, Syed Humayun Akhter, ” Kate Golembiewski Organizations: CNN — Earthquakes, Nature Communications, Wageningen University & Research, Steve, Columbia Climate School, Vanderbilt University, UCLA, Bangladesh Open University, Studies Locations: India, Bangladesh, Meghna, Bengal, Congo, Dhaka, Netherlands, New York, San Francisco, Nashville, Delta, Chicago

☆ How Rak Garg became Bain Capital Ventures' youngest partner at just 27 years old in less than 3 years
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-02 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After spending two years building products at Atlassian, Garg quit his job to start his own company. However, through his efforts to start a company, Garg met Enrique Salem, a board member of Atlassian and partner at Bain Capital Ventures, the multi-stage venture fund managing over $10 billion in assets and a unit of Bain Capital. In response, Garg helped start Atlassian Access, a new identity management product that scaled to thousands of customers. AdvertisementBecoming BCV's youngest partner in under 3 years"I didn't know anything about venture," Garg said. "We are very high-touch in how we work with these companies," Garg said.

Persons: —, Garg, Enrique Salem, Salem, Rak Organizations: Service, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Bain Capital, BCV, UCLA, Atlassian, Viso Trust, BCV Labs Locations: Atlassian, Delhi, Bay, ideating

☆ Work is getting really weird
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The big storyBizarro workplaceLorenzo Matteucci for BILet's be honest: Work has gotten really weird. Workers hiring shadow stand-ins can be unqualified for their jobs, overwhelmed, greedy, or just lazy. Shadow stand-ins are typically paid a fraction of the salary earned by the actual employee. One employee also described to Rob struggling to deal with a shadow stand-in's sub-par work and eventually "firing" them. Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BIMeanwhile, the people who are doing all the work themselves are having a tough time getting any recognition.

Persons: —, Lorenzo Matteucci, Rob Price, Rob, Alyssa Powell, BI's Aki Ito, Roaring Kitty, Bain, Chris Miller, Greg Peters, Ted Sarandos, Peters, Chelsea Jia Feng, Coach's, David Rosenberg, Donald Trump's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Grace Lett, Annie Smith, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, Business, BI, Super, Facebook, Workers, Corporations, Getty, GameStop, McKinsey, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Netflix, Walgreens, CVS, Rite, Wimbledon Locations: Chicago, India, Pakistan, China, Taiwan, New York, London

☆ Is it true that AI won't take your job — but someone who knows AI will?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-30 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewYou may have heard a version of the phrase, "AI won't take your job, it's somebody using AI that will take your job." Should you be more worried about losing your job to a human using AI or to the AI itself? He said software engineers who didn't experiment with AI tools usually didn't get the job. He asks all new hires what AI tools they use. "I think that the same is true of some of these basic, AI tools," he added.

Persons: —, Richard Baldwin, Baldwin, it's, Jasmine Escalera, LiveCareer, Matt Betts, Morgan Stanley, Klarna, Mira Murati, Carl Benedikt Frey, Goldman Sachs, Escalera, Steve Kaufer, Logan Bartlett, Kaufer, Miller Organizations: Service, Growth, Business, Bain & Company, RHR, MIT, Stanford, IBM, Oxford University, Empire Entertainment

☆ Have private equity's 'Hunger Games' recruiting tactics gone too far?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-28 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The on-cycle recruiting process is not easy on these young bankers, who are often already working 80+ hour weeks in their new investment-banking jobs. The conventional wisdom on Wall Street has always been that the most hawkish PE firms walk away with the most impressive candidates. Odyssey doesn't participate in on-cycle recruiting because it prefers to fill positions in what is known as "off-cycle," or the months that follow the initial recruiting process. It all leaves me thinking about the PE recruiting cycles of the future. To be overly cautious, I've already penciled in a calendar reminder for 2025: "Monitor for PE recruiting cycle kickoff."

Persons: Thoma, Goldman Sachs, haven't, Emmalyse Brownstein, Anthony Keizner, They're, Keizner, spokespeople, —, I've, I'm Organizations: Service, Wall, Business, Apollo, KKR, Thoma Bravo, JPMorgan, Search, Rice, BI, TPG, Bain Capital Locations: freaked, New York City, New York, Clayton, Dubilier, Thailand

☆ AI is everywhere, and businesses don't know where to start. Here's what consultants are telling clients.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-28 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some 900 of PwC's top 1,000 consulting clients are now working with the firm on incorporating AI into their businesses, a spokesperson told Business Insider. Even as some companies focus on how AI might rewrite corporate playbooks, some businesses are asking consultants how to get started. Advertisement"Many CIOs are afraid that they don't have the right skills," he told BI. Where to beginMany companies are still determining how they might use AI and GenAI, according to several consultants. This enables greater seamlessness down the line, and that is where the magic lies," he told BI.

Persons: —, Ben Ellencweig, Allison Bailey, Bailey, Greg Sward, They're, Jim Rowan, Rowan, Vlad Lukic, Roy Singh, Joe Atkinson, Atkinson, Deloitte's Rowan, Bain's Singh, PwC's Atkinson, he's, Singh Organizations: Service, Business, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting, KPMG US, Deloitte Consulting, Bain & Company, Companies, Carrefour, & $

But, not all AI startups are created equal. AdvertisementBusiness Insider surveyed nine VCs who invest in AI startups at firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, and Sapphire Ventures. Startups building AI's "picks and shovels" are a better bet than yet another LLMStep aside, OpenAI and Anthropic. In contrast, unstructured data encompasses various formats such as text documents, images, audio files, emails, social media posts, and videos. Some AI investors say they're shying away from point solutions—think online payment processing or project management—in favor of full-stack solutions.

Persons: —, Harvey, Navin Chaddha, Chip Hazard, they're, Kahini Shah, there's, Rak Garg, Garg, Shah, Lauri Moore, Moore, Chaddha, Capital's Moore, she's Organizations: Service, Accel, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, Sapphire Ventures, Google, Meta, Mayfield Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Obvious, Investors, Obvious Ventures, Foundation, Dig Ventures Locations: Mayfield, Hazard, Flybridge

☆ Artificial intelligence is coming for venture firms. VCs predict it could reduce headcount by more than 50%.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Firms like Correlation Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Fly Ventures have long used data and AI to help guide investment decisions. AdvertisementEarlier this year, Sri Chandrasekar, a partner at Point72 Ventures, noticed a startup in his portfolio was having a breakout week. Related stories"If you go to any venture firm's website, you'll find that half the names are not doing anything to do with investing," Chandrasekar said. Advertisement"If you look at the large firms, they got very, very large in the last few years," said Andy McLoughlin, managing partner at Uncork Capital. Venture firms will have to remake themselves into a combination of people and A.I."

Persons: —, Matt Krna, Krna, Sri, Chandrasekar, Christina Melas, Andreeseen Horowitz, Andy McLoughlin, James Currier, Currier, McLoughlin Organizations: Service, Business, Ventures, Fly Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Bain Capital, Catalyst, Lightspeed, Uncork, Venture, Deloitte, San Locations: San Francisco, Sri Chandrasekar

☆ At Target, Store Workers Become A.I. Conduits
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Jordyn Holman | More About Jordyn Holman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Target is the latest retailer to put generative artificial intelligence tools in the hands of its workers, with the goal of improving the in-store experience for employees and shoppers. On Thursday, the retailer said it had built a chatbot, called Store Companion, that would appear as an app on a store worker’s hand-held device. The idea is to give workers “confidence to serve our guests,” Brett Craig, Target’s chief information officer, said in an interview. Target is testing the device in 400 stores and plans to make the app available to most workers across its nearly 2,000 locations by August. As the retail industry experiments with generative A.I., some see its potential to eventually make in-store shopping feel more like online shopping, said Roy Singh, the global head of Bain & Co’s advanced analytics practice who works with retailers on generative A.I.

Persons: ” Brett Craig, Target’s, Roy Singh Organizations: Bain & Co’s

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