DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ I'm a mom that's test-driven or toured 65 family cars — these are my favorite models and top tips for buying
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Kelly Stumpe, also known as the Car Mom, has test-driven and toured 65 family cars. The problem with buying a family car is, it's not just a matter of: "I don't like the drive." It is not as simple as if it has a seatbelt, it can fit a car seat. In the Sequoia, I can only put it in the middle seat, so I could not have another child in this car who would still be in a car seat. It actually allows you to access the third row when a car seat is still installed.

Persons: Kelly Stumpe, Alexa St, Stumpe reevaluated, St . Louis, there's, I've, shouldn't, Joe Raedle, it's, Stumpe, It's, they're, I'm, Sienna Organizations: Morning, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford Expedition, Toyota Sequoia, Leasing, Ford The Ford Expedition, General Motors, Honda, VW Locations: John, St, Louis , Missouri, St ., Florida, Hyundai Santa Fe, Autotrader, Edmunds, Yukon

☆ A leaked document of Amazon's ideas for using ChatGPT and AI at work lists 67 ways to take advantage of the ChatGPT boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Some of those ideas were shared in an internal document titled, "Generative AI-ChatGPT Impact and Opportunity Analysis." Amazon employees are in a rush to take advantage of the sudden rise of ChatGPT and similar AI technology. Amazon employees want to use the AI chatbot to auto-generate software code and marketing materials, according to the document. Amazon employees are even planning to use ChatGPT for a main part of Amazon's decision-making process, called PRFAQ. The same rules apply to the new Microsoft Bing search engine that uses ChatGPT's technology, an internal document said.

Persons: Eugene Kim Organizations: Amazon, Bloomberg, Microsoft Locations: Amazon

☆ Salesforce is developing a ton of new AI products that could lead to 'a massive new buying cycle' Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley analysts believe
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Salesforce could be leading it, with a giant list of new AI products in the works. And he told tale after tale of planned AI products. Morgan Stanley's Keith Weiss believes Salesforce's claims that AI has the potential to "spark a massive new buying cycle." Rangan tallied up 15 pending AI products from Salesforce. There will be five new AI products incorporated into the Marketing cloud to automate tasks ranging from personalized emails to analyzing engagement.

Persons: Salesforce, Marc Benioff, Claude, Goldman Sachs, Kash Rangan, Salesforce's, Einstein, Rangan, Morgan Stanley's Keith Weiss, Weiss Organizations: OpenAI, Salesforce Ventures, Google, Salesforce's, Slack, Products, Next

☆ The ‘Unofficial Talent Scout’ Who Celebrates New York’s Colorful Side
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Joshua Needelman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

More Than Likes is a series about social media personalities who are trying to do positive things for their communities. Before he was New York Nico (handle: @newyorknico), the popular social-media documentarian of New York’s quirks and characters, Nicolas Heller was the “mayor of 16th Street” — at age 3. On his walk home from nursery school, Mr. Heller would check in with all the friendly faces on the block: the manager at Steak Frites who kept a tub of ice cream with the boy’s name on it; the security guard at the tile store who tipped his cap and made funny faces at him; the antique-clothing salespeople who would turn their standing mirror around so he could see his reflection.

Persons: Nico, Nicolas Heller, Heller, Steak

[1/5] A student practices smiling with a mirror at a smile training course at Sokei Art School in Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2023. Only 8% said they had stopped wearing masks altogether. Tellingly, roughly a quarter of the art school students who took the class kept their masks on during the lesson. Her trademarked "Hollywood Style Smiling Technique" method comprises "crescent eyes", "round cheeks" and shaping the edges of the mouth to bare eight pearly whites in the upper row. With a surge in inbound tourists, Japanese people need to communicate with foreigners with more than just their eyes, she added.

Persons: Kim Kyung, Hoon TOKYO, Keiko Kawano's, Himawari Yoshida, Young, Kawano, Anton Bridge, Tom Bateman, Chang, Ran Kim, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: Sokei Art School, REUTERS, NHK, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan

☆ It's becoming clear that AI is going to whack the mediocre middle of office workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

More specifically, AI could disproportionately impact the middle class of white-collar workers — the folks who are mid-career, mid-ability, mid-level, and yes, in some cases, mediocre. In other words, the lessons learned from months or years of experience are baked into an AI tool. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for example recently told Time that the same could be true for software developers. This doesn't mean the great software developers won't remain great software developers but the ability for more people to enter the field will increase. That's good news for many wannabe software developers, but it's also bad news for many existing software developers.

Persons: —, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lindsey R, Raymond, Danielle Li, Satya Nadella, it's, Aki Ito, Carl Benedikt Frey, Uber, Frey, Mark Muro, Jacob Zinkula, Richard Baldwin, Aaron Mok Organizations: Service, Fortune, Microsoft, Oxford Martin School, London, BT Group, Workers, Brookings Institution, Geneva Graduate Institute Locations: London, British, Switzerland

In their joint venture agreement, Baker Hughes says it uses C3.ai's solutions and also sells the product to companies in the oil and gas industry. CNBC's "Last Call" aired a report Thursday night on the investor lawsuit against C3.ai and the company's relationship with Baker Hughes. The lawsuit says the publicity about the massive Baker Hughes sales force "artificially inflated C3's stock" when the company first went public. Richard Drew | APIn an April 2023 filing, Baker Hughes announced it divested 1.7 million C3.ai shares, bringing its ownership to 6.9 million shares. Kerrisdale pointed to C3.ai's "highly conspicuous growth" in unbilled receivables, largely from Baker Hughes, and wrote that "accounting red flags abound with the Baker Hughes relationship."

Persons: Tom Siebel, Siebel, Thomas M, Chris J, Ratcliffe, it's, Baker Hughes, Logan Roy, Larry Ellison, Yasmin Khorram, Dan Brennan, We've, Brennan, he's, CNBC's, Reed Kathrein, Theranos, —, Kathrein, Richard Drew, they'd, unbilled, receivables, Siebel's, Ken Goldman, Goldman, Gil Luria, Davidson, Luria, Nick Wells, Scott Zamost, Sam Woodward, Tom Siebel's Organizations: Siebel Systems, Oracle, Bloomberg Tech Summit, Bloomberg, Getty, CNBC, Forbes, Siebel, C3, U.S . Department of Defense, Shell, Northern District of, SEC, Twitter, " Traders, New York Stock Exchange, AP, Point Capital Management, Spotify, C3 Energy, Revenue, Wall Locations: London, Redwood City , CA, Redwood City , California, Northern District, Northern District of California, unbilled receivables, Point

☆ VMware employees in end-user computing and security believe Broadcom may divest their units after it closes its $61 billion deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Rosalie Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Broadcom plans to acquire VMware for $61 billion, and they're preparing to close the deal this year. Workers in end-user computing and Carbon Black security think their units could be spun out or sold. Broadcom's upcoming $61 billion acquisition of VMware has led employees in two units — end-user computing and Carbon Black security — to speculate that their units could be spun out or sold. The EUC unit builds products such as Horizon and Workspace One that allow users to access their enterprise applications from anywhere over the cloud. After Carbon Black was acquired, it was supposed to take a year or two to get integrated with VMware.

Persons: Thoma, they'd, Rob Ruelas, John Ryan, Sarah Swatman, Angus McGeachie, Chris Rottner Organizations: Broadcom, VMware, Workers, Symantec, Securities, Exchange Commission, CA Technologies, Thoma Bravo, Cyber Security Services, Accenture, HCL Technologies, EUC Employees, Carbon, Symantec's Locations: EUC, Europe, Africa

☆ Salesforce raises guidance but sees pressure as customers back away from big consulting deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Here's how the company did:Earnings: $1.69 per share, adjusted, vs. $1.61 per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. $1.69 per share, adjusted, vs. $1.61 per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had expected $1.70 in adjusted earnings per share and $8.49 billion in revenue. It's now calling for $7.41 to $7.43 in adjusted earnings per share on $34.5 billion to $34.7 billion in revenue. During the quarter, Salesforce announced Einstein GPT generative artificial intelligence technology designed to help salespeople, marketers and customer-service agents do their jobs more efficiently.

Persons: Marc Benioff, Salesforce, Refinitiv, Salesforce's, Brian Millham, Millham, Amy Weaver, ChatGPT, Lidiane Jones Organizations: Jazz, Lincoln Center, StreetAccount, Elliott Investment Management Locations: New York, Refinitiv, Salesforce

Google and the generative AI startup Runway have a huge new cloud computing contract. Google and Runway have a major new contract that provides the generative AI startup will millions of dollars in cloud services and related credits. Recently, Runway raised $100 million at a $1.5 billion valuation from a top cloud provider, Insider reported. Cloud giants like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft have also run startup programs for years that provide free cloud credits. Previously, Google Cloud salespeople even expressed concern they wouldn't be able to match AWS's offer of free cloud credits to startups.

Persons: there's, Airbnb, Pinterest Organizations: Google, Runway, Lux Capital, Web Services, Microsoft, AWS Locations: OpenAI

☆ Vartana, a B2B sales and financing fintech startup, just raised $20 million with this 10-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vartana, a B2B sales and financing platform, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. The deal comes months after the company's $12 million Series A round in January. Vartana, a B2B sales and financing platform, has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by US investor Activant Capital. The funding round comes only a few months after its $12 million Series A round in January. Check out Vartana's Series B pitch deck below:

Persons: We've, Mayfield, Kella Organizations: Activant Capital, Motive, Activant Locations: San Francisco

☆ VMware employees are increasingly concerned over Broadcom's pending $61 billion acquisition, predicting spinouts of business units, layoffs, and lost customers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Rosalie Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Broadcom and VMware announced the $61 billion deal last year and recently pushed back the deadline as it undergoes regulatory scrutiny. Insider spoke with one former and four current VMware employees about the changes they expect to face once they are owned by the chipmaker Broadcom. A VMware spokesperson said in a statement that after the deal closes, VMware customers will obtain "more choice and flexibility" in managing their IT needs, especially across multiple cloud-computing services. Executives leaving VMwareVMware has lost several key executives since the Broadcom deal was announced (including several defecting to VMware's archrival Nutanix). "Nonetheless, I've continued to see questions in press reports about whether we intend to raise prices on VMware products.

Persons: —, Sanjay Poonen, Patrick Morley, haven't, Robert Ruelas, EUC, Kit Colbert, hasn't, Zane Rowe, Tom Gillis, Mark Lohmeyer, Ajay Patel, Kal, Karen Egan, Tom Kellermann, Raghu Raghuram, Hock Tan, Colbert, Tan, Hock E, Lucas Jackson, I've Organizations: VMware, Employees, Broadcom, SEC, Carbon, Symantec, Workers, Tech, VMware hasn't, VMware Employees, VMware VMware, Nutanix, Raghuram, Reuters

☆ A leaked Amazon generative AI sales playbook shows how the company is going after ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Microsoft and Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The strategy is revealed in a detailed internal sales guideline, titled "Generative AI Sales Playbook," obtained by Insider. The guidelines may help Amazon make a stronger push in the generative AI space, where companies including Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have taken an early lead. 'ChatGPT is a brand new, experimental offering'The guidelines focus on SageMaker's appeal to companies looking to build their own generative AI services. For example, for c-suite executives, Amazon salespeople are told to focus on how generative AI can "improve efficiency by automating operations," the document said. For those with a bit more experience in AI, Amazon salespeople are advised to recommend new generative AI capabilities and AWS offerings to accelerate their development process.

Persons: Bard, SageMaker, JumpStart, Sam Altman Drew Angerer, Sparrow, It's, I'm, haven't, you've, Canva's, Eugene Kim Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Stability, AI21 Labs, Amazon Alexa, AWS, Burnham

☆ Banks are all-in on AI, but there's one problem: They can't hold on to the talent. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Paige Hagy | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Big banks are hiring a lot of AI talent, but are having a tough time holding on to it. The difficulty banks have retaining AI talent, however, isn't due to poaching among peers. Banks can lure in AI talentIt's true that big banks have the wherewithal to hire and capitalize on top AI talent and are attractive at the outset to those looking for a new shop. "The AI talent coming to the financial-services industry is almost like supporting the tech talent, if you will," Hirsch said. Big Tech has its own problems right nowTo be sure, banks are snagging from Big Tech too.

☆ These 18 top Netflix execs are driving its advertising push under head Jeremi Gorman as the company makes its first big TV upfronts pitch
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Peter Naylor, VP of global advertising salesPeter Naylor, VP, global advertising sales. Netflix has also brought on several directors and other roles in ad sales who've worked at Hulu, Snap, and elsewhere. They are Kinsey Osberg Tamberrino, who is Publicis' main point of contact, and who spent eight years at Hulu, rising to director of advertising sales. Chad Rumminger, who focuses on automotive accounts, from automotive ad sales at Twitter. Julie Taylor Green is head of US vertical ad sales; she was TikTok's director of global business solutions before that.

When my car salesperson learned I was paying with cash, they tried to change my mind. After speaking with my financial advisor and accountant, it was clear that I was looking to buy a used car outright, in cash. My car salesperson wasn't enthusiastic about it, but I knew what I wantedYou know that old saying, "cash is king?" Or so used car salespeople would have me believe. Still, it felt good to say that I was paying cash and politely decline financing options.

☆ Newsletter publisher TheSkimm has laid off 13%, its second layoff this year as cuts ripple across media
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Newsletter publisher TheSkimm laid off 13%, or about 22 people. It's the second layoff this year for the once-buzzy millennial media outlet. Layoffs hit newsletter publisher TheSkimm for the second time this year as it continues to face a punishing advertising market. The cuts came amid a tough economic environment in which a wide range of media, entertainment, and tech companies have laid off staff. The company faced tough times in the pandemic when advertisers were spending less and reassessing which media outlets were truly essential, and TheSkimm's lighthearted tone felt out of step with the times.

☆ CEOs are getting closer to finally saying it — AI will wipe out more jobs than they can count
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tech workers are finding out what it's like to be replaced by AI. It's the boldest statement yet from tech firms turning to AI to help them get efficient. Tech workers are about to find out. Here are five tech firms that have acted first with a big bet on AI. AmazonAmazon has been among the most bruised tech firms since the downturn of 2022 was kickstarted.

☆ Benioff vs. Benioff
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

Within Salesforce, Benioff riffs are at times met with backlash from an angry workforce. "You're not going to fire your family during times of need," a former Salesforce executive told Insider. "I don't think they understand Ohana," Benioff told Insider. "Look, we have to be the example of stakeholder capitalism," Benioff told Insider. A 'New Day' at Salesforce"I use the Japanese principle of shoshin, beginner's mind," Benioff told Insider in a phone interview in March.

☆ Tech giants aren't just cutting thousands of jobs — they're making them extinct
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That has far-reaching implications for tech workers and those seeking to work in the industry. By some estimates, more than 250,000 tech workers have been laid off since the start of 2022. Site-reliability engineers manage the operations of Google's systems and keep them running, while software engineers work on developing Google's infrastructure and products. This trend has significant implications for tech workers and those hoping to work in the industry. As Insider's Ito has reported, tech workers and software engineers have often been thought of as impervious to the march of automation.

☆ AI Technology Like ChatGPT Will Reshape Software Coding Jobs Forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Their conclusion: 19% of workers hold jobs in which at least half their tasks could be completed by AI. Researchers at Microsoft and its subsidiary GitHub recently divided software developers into two groups — one with access to an AI coding assistant, and another without. Amazon has built its own AI coding assistant, CodeWhisperer, and is encouraging its engineers to use it. Another argument from the optimists: Even as AI takes over the bulk of coding, human coders will find new ways to make themselves useful by focusing on what AI can't do. So maybe, long term, human coders will survive in some new, as-yet-to-be-determined role.

☆ Why MLM Sales 'Huns' Get so Much Hate on Reddit, TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Aimee Pearcy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Over the past few years, MLM companies have been under increased scrutiny. MLM companies largely appeal to those who are disconnected and looking for a way to get on solid financial footingAt first, Stimson felt optimistic. And a 2018 AARP survey found that just 25% of MLM participants made a profit. US direct-sales companies, which include MLM companies, earned $42.7 billion in retail sales in 2021, according to the Direct Selling Association — a 21% increase from 2019. And two-thirds of MLM participants said that "knowing what they know now, they would not join the same MLM company again."

☆ Leaked document shows Salesforce employees who routinely log over 10 hours of overtime pay will get a talking-to from senior management
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Salesforce is scrutinizing overtime, especially for workers who log more than 10 overtime hours a week. Overtime policies were laid out earlier this month in an internal document viewed by Insider. Salesforce is taking a stricter approach to overtime pay, according to an internal document viewed by Insider. It isn't clear how many Salesforce employees qualify for overtime pay, but most large tech companies do have a percentage of their workforce that qualifies. The document reminding employees that overtime pay must be approved and limited comes during a time when the software giant is executing major cost-cutting initiatives.

☆ Alphabet's A.I. frenzy hits startup scene as CapitalG unit leads $100 million investment in AlphaSense
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google's hefty investment in artificial intelligence and the latest boom in generative AI doesn't end with its homegrown products. Alphabet's late-stage venture capital arm, CapitalG, told CNBC that it just led a $100 million investment in corporate data firm AlphaSense, valuing the company at $1.8 billion. Generative AI wasn't a talking point in the prior two rounds because the term hadn't yet jumped into the popular lexicon. Generative AI has been the one bright spot this year, turning rather frothy in some corners. He said the money will also help AlphaSense improve its technology, taking advantage of advances in generative AI.

☆ Potential regulator challenges to Big Tech M&A may have far-reaching consequences for the tech ecosystem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

M&A deals involving large tech companies may get harder as US regulators ramp up scrutiny. If regulators increase scrutiny, it could deter other large tech companies from buying startups. More challenges to proposed tech M&A deals may also mean that the pool of potential acquirers shrinks. Of course, there are cases where a large tech company seeks to buy out a smaller, more innovative competitor because it is scared of getting displaced. "There has to be the hope and dream of selling to a larger tech company some day," Sherman said.

Search resuls for: "Salespeople"

25 mentions found