Business leaders have high hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) investments can drive market-changing innovations to transform everything from customer satisfaction to product innovation. However, a poor data foundation is holding 78% of organisations back from achieving these goals.

A new report from MIT Technology Review Insights, in partnership with Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, titled ‘Data Strategies for AI Leaders’ found that while businesses have big ambitions for generative AI — with 72% looking to increase efficiency or productivity, 55% betting on increased market competitiveness, and 47% aiming to see more innovation in products and services — the foundational data strategy needs to be improved to maximise AI’s potential.

Businesses need strong data foundations, powered by modern cloud data platforms, to enable them to harness their own stores of data, and also vast volumes of previously inaccessible data, largely from unstructured data such as videos and images. According to the report, just 22% of business leaders say they are ‘very ready’ to engage with AI, while 53% are ‘somewhat ready’. Higher readiness correlates with fewer challenges related to accessing scalable computing power, data silos and integration issues, and data governance. Despite many business leaders’ confidence in the results AI can deliver, they are realising that data is key to how quickly and effectively they can unlock AI’s value.

Another challenge facing organisations is deploying AI at scale. 95% of those surveyed reported facing hurdles when implementing AI. 59% of respondents cited data governance, security, or privacy as their most prevalent challenge, followed by data quality and timeliness (53%), and costs of resources or investment (48%). Spending and resourcing decisions, including those needed to improve data foundations, are a challenge when it comes to any technology investment. But the cost of generative AI itself is decreasing, with enterprises having begun to build smaller large language models (LLMs) that remain equally capable, and less expensive.

“Many of today’s organisations have big ambitions for generative AI: they are looking to reshape how they operate and what they sell,” says Baris Gultekin, Head of AI, Snowflake. “Our joint research shows that as organisations feel increasing urgency to deploy AI applications, they are realising that their data can help them deliver insights from previously untapped sources of information. A strong data foundation is at the core of generative AI capabilities, and business leaders need to move quickly to deal with concerns such as data security and cost, and establish the foundation they need to deliver on the promise of AI.”

Generative AI’s benefits are becoming visible to those companies farther along their data journey, because they invested heavily in data foundations and are now being rewarded by bringing AI onto that data. For any business looking to capitalise on AI, they must first establish a robust data foundation, which covers a broad collection of processes and assets involved in the gathering, aggregation, storage, and accessibility of organisational data. Investment in data foundations across an organisation will enable much more powerful generative AI users, while also reducing governance and security concerns.

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Dane Stuckey, previously the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Palantir, a leading analytics firm, has now joined OpenAI as its new CISO, TechCrunch reported. 

 Dane will be working alongside Matt Knight, OpenAI’s Head of Security. Dane’s appointment is preceded by the dramatic departure of several executives at OpenAI, including its CTO Mira Murati. Currently, CEO Sam Altman is one of just two original members of the 11-person founding team who are still actively involved in OpenAI.

Dane while announcing his move on X a few hours ago, wrote: I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve joined as CISO, alongside @embeddedsec, at @OpenAI. Security is germane to OpenAI’s mission. It is critical we meet the highest standards for compliance, trust, and security to protect hundreds of millions of users of our products, enable democratic institutions to maximally benefit from these technologies, and drive the development of safe AGI for the world. I am so excited for this next chapter, and can’t wait to help secure a future where AI benefits us all.

Dane’s 10-year old association with Palantir Technologies ended on October 3^rd. He started his journey with Palantir in 2014 on the information security team as a detection engineering and incident response lead.

He calls himself “an information security generalist passionate about detection engineering, incident response, security program development, and Windows platform security.” 

Welcoming Dane on board, Sam Altman wrote on X: “I am so excited about this; Dane is an example of one of those people you meet and 10 minutes in realize you are talking to a genuine expert and great leader.”

Dane’s appointment comes at a when safety issues having been looming large at OpenAI. There have been claims that ChatGPT stores user chats locally without encryption and that the company rushed through safety tests while launching the product. In early 2013, hackers reportedly infiltrated OpenAI, but the company chose not to disclose the breach. 

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Brands that compete using AI-empowered personalization will win today’s war for customers, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) executives Mark Abraham and David Edelman in their new book, Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI. 

Over the next five years, $2 trillion in revenue will shift to companies that understand how to create personalized experiences and personalized communications. Most companies aren’t currently doing personalization very well, but new AI capabilities mean companies can personalize with unprecedented precision, and fine tune every customer interaction.

Predicated on a survey of 5,000 customers across ten countries, interviews with 100 senior industry leaders, and dozens of in-depth case studies the authors were involved in, the book is the definitive guide to harnessing AI to personalize the customer experience.

“Most companies are pursuing personalization in a superficial way, leading to frustrated customers, wasted money, and missed opportunities,” said Mark Abraham, a senior partner at BCG, founder of the firm’s personalization business, and coauthor of the book. “AI-enhanced personalization can cut through the noise and eliminate many of the annoyances customers face—if it is done right.”

Start Your “Personalization Engines”

The authors reveal that personalization campaigns for the average company can take two to three months to run and measure. However, by merging AI and organizational intelligence to learn from every customer interaction, personalization leaders can now run and measure campaigns in a week or less.

To analyze the methods of these leaders, BCG built a measurement system called the Personalization Index, which looks at a company’s capabilities, the personalized experiences they deliver, and their impact on relative financial performance versus competitors.

According to the BCG Personalization Index, leaders in personalization grow revenue 10 percentage points faster annually than laggards, and enjoy higher customer satisfaction scores.

Many sectors—both business-to-consumer and business-to-business—can benefit from the integration of AI-empowered personalization. The book spotlights several industries where BCG expects the largest shifts will take place, specifically retail, financial services, travel, health care, fashion and beauty, and B2B distribution and technology.

The Five Promises of Personalization

The book distils the formula for successful personalization at scale into the “five promises of personalization,” representing the promises a company should make to its customers—and must live up to—in order to deepen digital relationships with them.

1. “Empower Me” is the promise to put the customer’s needs first and enable them to achieve their goals.
2. “Know Me” is the promise to win the customer’s trust and gain permission to use their data to improve their individual experience.
3. “Reach Me” is the promise to target the right customer, in the right channel, at just the right moment.
4. “Show Me” is the promise to tailor messages and content to be relevant to each customer’s needs.
5. “Delight Me” is the promise to continuously test and improve over time to better understand the customer and create personalized experiences that feel magical.

“Successful personalization leaders aren’t just implementing AI to optimize their communications. They have embraced a new mindset that promises to put the customer’s needs first,” said David Edelman, a BCG senior advisor, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, and coauthor of the book. “By cultivating trust and loyalty through meaningful, relevant connections, they establish the foundation for building personalization at speed and scale.”

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Global brand consultancy Interbrand launched its annual Best Global Brands ranking, marking a quarter of a century of brand valuation analysis.

Since 2000, Interbrand’s longitudinal study has tracked and reported on the value of the world’s biggest brands. A quarter century of analysis reveals that while performance marketing tactics can drive short-term financial gains, a lack of investment in long-term brand strategy has left the Best Global Brands with at least $3.5T of unrealized value. For this last year, this equates to $200B of lost revenue.

The cumulative value of the world’s most valuable brands has increased 3.4x since Interbrand first published its ranking (from $988B USD to $3.4T USD).

Gonzalo Brujó, Global CEO, Interbrand said: “If these brands had been treated and managed as strategic growth assets, then this table could be worth as much as $6.9T. The growth we see hides a staggering missed opportunity.”

Apple holds the top spot

Apple remains the most valuable brand, but its brand value has dropped for the first time in over two decades (-3%).

Commenting on Apple, Greg Silverman, Global Director of Brand Economics, Interbrand said: “While others rushed into AI, Apple took a more deliberate path to ensure its AI releases matched its values. This slower-moving act of leadership has put long-term trust ahead of short-term revenue gains. Following these brand moves, Apple’s stock has moved up 20% YTD and we anticipate that Apple’s value will increase in the 2025 rankings.”

Automotive brands dominate 2024

14 of the top 100 brands of 2024 are automotive, making up more than any other sector in the ranking. Three auto brands – Toyota (#6), Mercedes-Benz (#8) and BMW (#10) – appear in the top 10. However, not all auto brands have achieved such success. Tesla (#12) has one of this year’s largest declines in brand value (-9%). Meanwhile, Kia (#86), Hyundai (#30) and Toyota (#6) achieved double digit growth.

Top-tier luxury shows resilience through innovation

Luxury’s brand value continued an upward trajectory (+7%, up from + 6.5% last year), extending relevance by creating new consumer experiences and expanded digital touchpoints, demonstrating powerful creativity that taps into the human condition.

Ferrari (#62) captured this year’s spot as the top-rising brand, with +21% brand value growth. Louis Vuitton jumped three places (#14 to #11) with Hermès (#22) and Prada (#83) two of the biggest luxury brand risers this year, seeing brand value growth of +15% and +14% respectively.

Meet the 2024 new entrants

Nvidia (#36), Pandora (#91), Range Rover (#96), and Jordan (#99) are this year’s new entrants – and Jordan is the first personality brand to make it onto the table. Uber (#78) and LG (#97) re-enter.

Marketing landscape changes over 25 years

Over the past 25 years, Interbrand has observed a significant shift in the ways company boardrooms approach growth. C-Suites are prioritizing lower total investments with more immediate returns. Strategies that integrate long-term brand equity with short-term revenue gains are becoming the gold standard – but these strategies are still surprisingly rare.

Brujó said: “Performance tools, capabilities and systems have evolved over the past quarter century. As these tools shift, so do the pressures and expectations placed on brand and marketing leaders. Today, CMOs are expected to deliver greater revenue returns, in shorter time frames, for a lower investment.

“Many of the world’s most valuable brands are missing out on significant earning potential by over-investing in short-term gains. Our analysis shows these gains, when tied predominantly to short-term tactics, can undermine a company’s mid- to long-term revenue potential.”

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The $500 billion sports industry is on the verge of a technological revolution. The potential for AI in sports is vast, and the market is primed for disruption. The global sports technology market is projected to reach $40.2 billion by 2026, with AI and data analytics as key growth drivers.

LootMogul, an AI sports tech startup founded by serial entrepreneur Raj Rajkotia , believes that Artificial intelligence (AI), fueled by machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), will redefine fan engagement and unlock unprecedented revenue streams. Purpose-built, vertical AI solutions are emerging as the key to this transformation, offering tailored approaches that address the unique dynamics of the sports ecosystem, according to the company. 

LootMogul leverages Vertical AI to empower fans with intuitive tools that were previously inaccessible without technical expertise. Unlike general AI, Vertical AI dives deep into specific industries, understanding their unique nuances and complexities. This means AI models trained on vast amounts of sports data, from player stats and game footage to fan sentiment and historical trends. This hyper-focused approach allows LootMogul to deliver highly relevant and personalized experiences that resonate with fans on a deeper level.

Dr. Sarah Chen, a leading sports technology analyst, explains: “Vertical AI solutions in sports are game-changers. They’re not just generic AI applications retrofitted for sports; they’re built from the ground up to understand and enhance every aspect of the sports industry, from player performance to fan engagement.”

Founder, CEO & CTO of the startup Raj Rajkotia envisions a dynamic, interconnected sports ecosystem where AI empowers and generates new revenue for everyone. LootMogul has collaboration with over 400 athletes, teams, brands, fans, and partners, and 4 million monthly active users.

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Machine learning has the potential to solve real-world problems. Ironically, the primary barrier to solving those problems is “data”. Limited, sparse, or high dimensional data can prevent ML models from producing meaningful results, and it is common for data scientists to spend the majority of their time addressing these data issues.

Here’s a startup that is striving to address these bottlenecks through a new machine learning algorithm – Machine learning startup Ensemble has developed “Dark Matter” which the company calls as ‘a new step in the data science pipeline’.

Dark Matter, according to the company, lowers the barrier to entry for data scientists to achieve state-of-the-art model performance. It is said to have the capabilities to produce superior results with limited or sparse data, simpler models, and less compute, opening the door to new modeling capabilities and applications.

Some of its use cases include forecasting including price predictions, supply & demand and Customer churn. It can also be leveraged for more accurate recommendations like ad placement, content suggestions and product personalization. Dark Matter promises to significantly optimize training by reducing the compute required as it can train on limited/sparse data. 

The company recently raised $3.3M in seed funding, led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from M13, Motivate, and Amplo. 

“This year, we launched a new embedding API that learns to approximate hidden relationships in data,” said Alex Reneau, CEO of Ensemble. “This foundational technology frees up data scientists to focus on experimentation and also makes ML viable for problems previously unable to be modeled, unlocking new capabilities for our customers.”

With this new funding, Ensemble is poised to accelerate its product development, expand its team, and reach customers across industries. The company is committed to pushing the boundaries of what ML can do and continuing to deliver frontier research in the field that translates into real-world impact.

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Brillio, a digital transformation services and solutions provider, has roped in Amit Varma as President of Global Markets.

Amit is a technology services veteran with more than two decades of experience. At Brillio, he will be responsible for steering the company’s growth and strategy, managing global sales and industry verticals, overseeing P&L, enhancing client relationships, and driving alliances and marketing initiatives. 

Prior to joining Brillio, Amit played a key part in scaling Accenture’s consulting, technology services, and digital business on a global scale. As a member of Accenture’s Global Leadership Committee and North America Leadership teams, he was instrumental in driving business growth and enhancing customer engagement strategies across diverse markets. 

As part of the leadership team at Mindtree earlier in his career, he incubated new businesses, led strategy teams, and scaled business units, contributing significantly to the company’s expansion from its early stages to a billion-dollar enterprise. He also worked as the Vice President of Infosys for a short duration. 

Based in Los Gatos, California, Amit will also serve on Brillio’s Executive Committee. He holds an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

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Securonix, Inc. announced that Kash Shaikh has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and member of its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Kash succeeds Nayaki Nayyar who has been serving as the CEO of the security vendor since December 2022. Nayaki has decided to step down and focus the next phase of her career on public Board service, the company said in a press release. 

Kash is a seasoned enterprise technology Executive with Fortune 50 experience and has a record of driving profitable growth across Software, SaaS, and AI Infrastructure markets. 

He has over 30 years of experience of fostering business transformation and delivering innovative technology solutions for global enterprise organizations. He most recently served as President and CEO of Virtana, a leading hybrid-cloud infrastructure observability solutions provider.

Prior to Virtana, Shaikh served as Global Vice President and General Manager for Dell’s Enterprise Solutions Unit. Shaikh has also held leadership and executive positions at Ruckus Wireless, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, and Nortel Networks.

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Mitti Labs, the agtech that helps reduce methane emissions in rice farming, has raised $3 million in seed round, according to reports. The funding is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Voyager Ventures, Overview, and angel investors.

Mitti was co-founded by Devdut Dalal in 2023 along with Nate Torbick and Xavier Laguarta. Devdut is an entrepreneur who earlier co-founded Mumbai-based Fresh India Organics – a brand involved in organic produce. 

The agtech leverages AI in helping farmers curb emissions and reduce water wastage in rice farming. According to data, rice has emissions equivalent to the global aviation industry. This is mainly due to farmers flooding fields, which creates the ideal anaerobic conditions for bacteria to thrive and release methane. Further, overuse of poorly absorbed nitrogen-based fertilizers, leads to nitrous oxide emissions, according to Mitti. The startup maintains that specific seeding and water management farming practices can turn the tide on Rice GHG emissions, reducing Rice GHG emissions by over 40% without affecting yield. 

It combines AI with satellite imagery and field data to offer local accuracy at country-level scale. India has been a primary market for the startup as the country is the world’s second-largest rice producer. 

The company had recently launched five rice projects across India, in partnership with Syngenta Foundation, Ebro Foods and Dr Reddy’s Foundation, aimed at reducing methane emissions, increase water security and build farmer resilience. 

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70% of businesses reported increased spending on proactive security solutions, such as attack surface management and risk-based vulnerability management, over the past year, according to a new research from Titania. The report, Emerging Best Practice in the use of Proactive Security Solutions, indicates a marked increase in investments aimed at preemptively mitigating cyber threats. This notably outpaces investments in both preventative and reactive measures.

The study, completed in partnership with Omdia, a global analyst and advisory leader, surveyed over 400 security decision-makers in North America, the UK, France, and Germany. It underscores the acceleration in adoption of proactive security measures from three key drivers: ‘reducing the opportunity for threats’, ‘reducing the mean time to remediate known vulnerabilities’, and ‘minimizing attack surface’. 

Key findings of the report include:

• Strategic Implementation: A significant portion of organizations, particularly those with mature security postures, are strategically deploying proactive security solutions. This trend is especially prevalent among larger organizations. This growth is particularly pronounced in EMEA, where 74% of respondents increased their budgets, compared to 67% in North America. The desire is particularly strong amongst financial services organizations (54%) and critical infrastructure organizations (53%) including energy and utilities companies. In addition, almost half (47%) reported that their top cybersecurity goals for the next 12-24 months are to reduce the opportunity for threats with proactive security. Conversely, only 27% of organizations plan to improve tactical outcomes, such as better threat prevention, detection and response.

• Enhanced Security Posture: Respondents report a strong desire to improve security posture and expect that the broader integration of proactive security tools will greatly improve attack surface management and security control optimization. Currently, a large majority of respondents report having limited visibility into the security posture of network assets (firewalls, switches and routers) and long cadences between assessments – with roughly half of organizations checking network devices at most, monthly. 
  Organizations are also much more likely to only monitor all devices in critical segments (or simply look at a sample of devices), than to monitor every device in their networks. Notably, critical infrastructure organizations (i.e., energy, utilities, and transportation) report much lower confidence than other industries in their ability to maintain adequate network segmentation and prevent unauthorized access to networks.
  
  
• Disruption Anticipation: Almost half (48%) of all respondents anticipate a high level of organizational disruption due to the broader adoption of proactive security solutions, highlighting the transformative impact these measures are expected to have.

“This research vividly illustrates a widespread and rapid shift towards proactive security to improve operational readiness and resilience. Organizations are recognizing the critical need to stay ahead of known threats and shut down attacks by investing in solutions that offer real-time visibility of their security posture and remediating action that will continuously minimize their exposure.”

Tom Beese, Executive Chairman, Titania

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