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Without help people can’t keep up with the unstoppable growth of data, from which they try to get meaningful and useful insights. Technology gives us unprecedented ways of making smart and accurate predictions. Rocking Robots talked to David Wray about the most effective way people and organizations can use tools like Intelligent Automation. In this process the CFO plays a key role.

IT executives see the talent shortage as the most significant adoption barrier to 64% of emerging technologies, compared with just 4% in 2020, according to a new survey from Gartner.  A lack of talent availability was cited far more often than other barriers this year, such as implementation cost (29%) or security risk (7%). Talent availability is for 75% the main adoption risk factor for automation.

Modeling the mechanics of the strongest punch in the animal kingdom, researchers with U.S. Army funding built a robot that mimics the movement of the mantis shrimp. These pugnacious crustaceans could pave the way for small, but mighty robotic devices for the military.

The Moerdijk industrial site, Port of Moerdijk and security company Securitas use drones to continuously monitor all kinds of safety aspects. This marks the start of the next phase of their drone pilot project. The pilot is a showcase for the use of drones in improvement and professionalization of the security of the Moerdijk port and industrial estate.

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology combined label-free microscopic imaging with artificial intelligence to quickly detect and classify SARS-CoV-2.

Funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, the latest Small Starts project led by Abbas Rashidi of the University of Utah introduces a robust, deep neural network model for analyzing the automobile traffic impacts of construction zones.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), the world’s first autonomous racecar competition at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), has announced the IAC events currently scheduled for October 23, 2021, at IMS. Activities include the Autonomous Innovation Summit (invitation-only), bringing together global thought leaders and experts from industry, academia and government to discuss the status of the autonomous technology industry and explore ways to accelerate and amplify the benefits of an autonomous mobility future.

IBM artificial intelligence partner Spacetime released a new “plug and play” avatar-based virtual assistant (chatbot). Powered by IBM Watson artificial intelligence the solution allows customers to select an avatar of their choice, ranging from simple animated cartoon characters right through to hyper-realistic digital humans. The company says avatars make chatbots far more engaging and helps companies represent their brand to customers better.

How can automation really help sustainability? Rik Coeckelbergs, Founder and CEO of The Banking Scene, discusses automation for good with Nitin Purwar, Director of Banking Industry Practice at UiPath. ‘Automation can be deployed to provide the data you need to evaluate your customer’s carbon footprint.’

Four trends on the Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2021 are driving near-term artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. These trends include responsible AI; small and wide data approaches; operationalisation of AI platforms; and efficient use of data, model and compute resources.