With artificial intelligence quickly becoming a part of the 21st-century formal economy, you have chatbots and virtual assistants being deployed by financial institutions, which are enhancing the digital profiles of these banks, apart from saving costs (since some of these functions were used to be carried out by human professionals a few years earlier). In short, artificial intelligence has made its successful entry into the domain of call centre business.

Observe.AI, a start-up based in San Francisco, is known for its voice assistant solutions that can turn a business’ contact centres into profit generation machines, by deploying techs like machine learning and natural language processing to ensure that its client businesses maintain consistency in their phone calls. Observe.AI tracks, monitors, and educates the call agents to ensure the phone calls made by them end up generating profits for the businesses, while cutting down the number of uninterested listeners. The start-up is all about ensuring the perfect marriage between artificial intelligence and human professionals, in order to enhance customer experiences.

The San Francisco-based start-up, helmed by Swapnil Jain, is backed by investing biggies such as Scale Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Softbank, Emergent Ventures and Zoom. The company, which currently has funding of USD 213 million, has gained the trust of Tripadvisor, Microsoft, ERCBPO, Talkdesk, and other venture capital firms.

Observe.AI has a staff strength of 250 people, who are providing their inputs on fields like contact centre operations, customer experience and data science in industries ranging from financial services to healthcare, retail, insurance, and education.

The start-up’s products include Conversation Intelligence, Reporting and Analytics, Omnichannel and Consulting Services, apart from providing ‘Real-Time’ and ‘Post-Interaction’ AI solutions. Since its foundation in 2017, Observe.AI has been serving over 150 clients, along with processing over 50 million calls and above 500 million inferences on a monthly basis.

In November 2022, Observe.AI integrated its conversation intelligence capabilities with Zoom Video Communications’ new contact centre offering, under which companies using Zoom Contact Center to handle customer service operations will benefit from AI-powered insights into their customer interactions, which will improve their customer experiences, revenue and retention.

Following this, the company in January 2023, launched its new Real-Time artificial intelligence product suite, in order to help contact centre agents succeed to boost their productivity with live guidance, supervisor coaching and automated actions for after-call work.

“We believe agents are pivotal in transforming contact centre performance. When you coach scientifically on specific agent skills – instead of generic, one-size-fits-all coaching – your KPIs will fall in line. Observe.AI is changing real-time guidance by making it highly relevant to each and every agent, based on their actual performance data, so they are consistently coached in the right areas,” CEO Swapnil Jain told Channel Futures back then.

However, the ongoing tech sector slowdown has affected Observe.AI as well, as the start-up has gone into a layoff mode. As per reports, Jon Heaps, the Vice-President of channels at Observe AI, has resigned. It has to be seen whether the venture, which has been dubbed as one of the most promising AI-based start-ups in the industry, can come out of the rut or not.

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“Our team decided to join RBC Wealth Management because of the firm’s long-standing reputation of putting clients first. After conducting significant due diligence on several competitive firms, we chose RBC’s Northern California complex due to its unique blend of global resources and the client-centric culture of a boutique firm,” said Rosen.

The Rosen Wealth Management Group includes Bruce Rosen, managing director—financial advisor who has 35 years of industry experience, Mary DuSablon, investment associate, and Mia Manahan, senior client associate. “We are thrilled to welcome Bruce to RBC Wealth Management. He is one of the premier fixed income advisors in the country and is a great addition as we continue our rapid growth in Northern California,” said Schipper. “We are continuing to attract not only the best advisors, but the best people, who fit in with our value-centric culture.”

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Jason brings a proven track record of leading international teams in countries across Europe, Asia and North America, working for companies such as Sony, Virgin, HMV and Universal. He takes the helm from Rob Groombridge, who has moved into his new role as Managing Director of joint venture company tappit Africa (PTY) Ltd., in South Africa.

Jason was previously Chief Commercial Officer at the Sappaya payments group, and part of the executive team at Ticketscript that brokered a multi-million dollar trade sale to San Francisco based ticketing company Eventbrite. He was also Head of Ticketing at HMV, leading the department to annual turnover of over £10mn. Jason specialises in business transformation and strategy implementation in disruptive technology, e-commerce, business intelligence and data driven industries.

Speaking about his new position at tappit, Jason explained: “As a huge music and sports fan, I’m thrilled to bring my technology and ticketing experience to tappit as we embark on a period of significant growth in international markets. Every sports game I go to I despair at the customer experience we still put up with – constantly queuing and searching for money for the car park, club shop, programmes, food and drink.

“There is a better way today: tappit provides simple, secure technology via cards and wristbands, that easily avoids these fan pain-points, enabling event operators to focus on providing the best possible fan experience, and enjoy the rewards that come with it.”

Cashless payment experiences, already common in the German Bundesliga and Rugby 7s events, are fast becoming an integral feature of events around the world. tappit makes fans’ payments as convenient as possible, improving the visitor experience, increasing revenue and improving loyalty. Operators benefit from improved cash management and optimised reconciliation, while receiving a wealth of payment information on fans’ spending habits, enabling them to improve future events and experiences.

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Contrary to their notoriously high costs, San Francisco and Chicago ranked in the top five most affordable holiday travel destinations because of seasonal deals on flights and hotels.

To pinpoint the most and least affordable holiday trips, GOBankingRates examined six factors in popular destinations around the world: the cost of hotels, flights from Atlanta and Los Angeles, food, drinks, transportation and entertainment.

Most Affordable Places to Visit During the Holidays

1.     Playa del Carmen, Mexico

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $137.67
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $174.00
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $451.51
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $526.63
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $14.00

2.     San Francisco

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $121.00
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $121.00
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving):  $247.90
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $257.90
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $31.00

3.     Chicago

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $87.00
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $84.67
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $204.40
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $261.92
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $34.00

4.     Seattle

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $142.33
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $139.67
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $328.69
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $345.51
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $37.00

5.     Washington, D.C.

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $96.67
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $85.33
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $345.90
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $308.49
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $30.00

Least Affordable Places to Visit During the Holidays

1.     Cape Town, South Africa

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $100.67
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $92.67
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $1,557.45
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $2,107.05
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $48.00

2.     Park City, Utah

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $115.67
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $533.67
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $253.29
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $338.98
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $50.00

3.     Sydney

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $115.00
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $84.00
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $1,554.61
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $2,137.65
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $35.00

4.     Kihei, Hawaii

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $189.67
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $362.00
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $1,194.04
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $870.00
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $44.00

5.     Honolulu, Hawaii

• Average cost of hotel/night (Thanksgiving): $196.67
• Average cost of hotel/night (Christmas): $241.33
• Average cost of flight (Thanksgiving): $1,192.83
• Average cost of flight (Christmas): $932.84
• Average cost of food (meals per day): $42.00

Additional Insights

• Winter is the peak season for the state of Hawaii, and therefore one of the least affordable places to visit during the holidays.
• Despite an abundance of surrounding ski resorts, winter is the low season for tourism in Denver and therefore, one of the more affordable holiday travel destinations on the list.
• You can save money on a flight to Amsterdam by traveling during Thanksgiving rather than Christmas—airfares are about $300 to $500 lower, depending on the U.S. departure city.

The post These are the most and least affordable places to travel this holiday season appeared first on International Finance.

David Drake

July 20, 2015: Scott Purcell is a serial entrepreneur experienced in securities, banking, technology, internet infrastructure, publishing, social networking and music industry. He is best known for founding Epoch Networks, one of the first internet providers in the United States as well as the brain behind a trust company that exceeded 1 billion dollars in assets. Scott is a top capital raiser who has raised more than 140 million dollars in angel and venture investments. Today, he is the founder and chief executive officer at FundAmerica, a crowdfunding platform based in San Francisco. In addition, he serves in the Crowdfunding Intermediary Regulatory Association as a Board Member.

FundAmerica

Scott Purcell founded FundAmerica in 2011 with the aim to provide software, compliance management and technology systems to investment advisers, crowdfunding portals, broker dealers, and other entities that constitute online fundraising businesses compliant with Title I and Title II of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act). The Act allows for small and newly established businesses to raise capital through crowdfunding. As an equity and debt-based crowdfunding platform, FundAmerica uses FinTech to deliver value to its customers as well as the crowdfunding industry. By 2013, FundAmerica had raised $1.4 million worth of investment in a single round from a team of angel investors.

This was the second round of funding raised by Scott Purcell, with the money raised going towards the improvement of FundAmerica’s crowdfunding platform. Initially, FundAmerica was called Arctic Island before it was rebranded.  FundAmerica applies an aggressive strategy that enables it to serve as a crowdfunding platform for accredited investors and companies, as well as a syndication platform for investment banks and brokers making it easy for accountants and lawyers to provide advice about client offerings.

According to Scott Purcell, there are numerous startups in the United States with little or no access to initial capital. At the same time, the United States has millions of big and small investors looking for opportunities to support startups so that they can grow and generate jobs. This is where FundAmerica comes in to provide a wide platform for these groups to interact.

Crowdfunding potential

For Scott Purcell, “crowdfunding is bigger than the internet” for different reasons because its implementation significantly affects businesses, culture and the economy. The internet allowed for the creation of new forms of art, transformed societies and created new industries like crowdfunding. For Scott, the revelation of the potential that crowdfunding holds came after reading the proposed legislation of the ‘Entrepreneurs Access to Capital’ that came before the JOBS Act in 2011. The idea evoked similar excitement in him as the graphical window that Marc Andreessen produced for the internet that made its innovation huge.

Scott holds that the impact of crowdfunding on the society, culture and economy is already being felt. With the approval of Regulation A+ in March 2015, the impact of crowdfunding will be felt even more as startups gain access to capital of up to $50 million. The new rules released by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also did away with the requirements for state compliance and extended the pool of investors not only from accredited investors but to non-accredited investors as well.

According to Scott Purcell, the space created by Reg A+ for unaccredited investors to participate in crowdfunding and the fact that the law created tradable security was a big plus. However, Reg A+ is more costly when it comes to legal and accounting costs as well as filing of annual reports compared to the previous 506(c). This means that issuers will require more time to get an offering out there.

How FundAmerica works

FundAmerica provides services that allow people to develop its technology on their platforms or websites using Application Programming Interfaces or widgets. Users can also use the forms directly from FundAmerica’s website. Initially, FundAmerica is offering backend services that are required by most participants in the market for which they cannot get done by themselves. Such backend services include broker-dealer services, escrow, electronic signing and storage of investor subscription agreements, checking for PATRIOT Act compliance, anti-money laundering background checks, disclosure template and payment processing. FundAmerica does not offer front-end UX design or web design for participants. This crowdfunding platform does not engage with investors or businesses directly as well.

In June 2015, FundAmerica introduced a new online service that enables participants to confirm accreditation of investors for 506(c) offerings. This service attracts a $30 fee for each investor per year irrespective of the number of investments they make. This service is built into the platform’s Invest Now Button.

Purcell was quick to point out that the interesting thing about this service is that they really did not want to do it; they thought other people should do it. “But we got so much encouragement/pushing from our platform customers that we ultimately caved in and built it.”

David Drake is an early-stage equity expert and the founder and chairman of LDJ Capital, a New York City-based family office, and The Soho Loft Media Group.

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July 21, 2014: On Monday 2nd June, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Despite rumours of new devices like the iWatch and a bigger iPhone in the run up to the event, the conference was all about the software. Apple announced updates to both its mobile platform, iOS, and OS X, the platform that Mac desktops run on. The updates will bring a deluge of new features to Apple products, alongside making them work better with each other.

At the same time, Apple confirmed what Blackberry has feared for a long time — that they now dominate the enterprise market. According to CEO Tim Cook, 98% of the Fortune 500 companies’ preferred smartphone is the iPhone. Inevitably, that’s a lot of business travellers writing email, viewing files and making calls on Apple devices.

The new features that are coming with iOS8 and Yosemite will make working on the go, not to mention just being on the move, a lot easier. Here’s my list of the top 8 features business travellers should be looking forward to:

1. Touch ID – Mobile payments are coming

Near Field Communications (NFC) technology was touted as the next big thing, with other smartphone operators installing on their devices for over a year now. Apple surprised many by declining to go down the NFC route, instead choosing to include Bluetooth LE in devices from 2013 onward. This coincided with the launch of iBeacons, an Apple service that allows retailers to detect where shoppers are in their stores and send notifications if they have the brand’s app installed – payment isn’t an option yet but that might all be about to change.

At WWDC, Apple announced it would be allowing developers access to its Touch ID feature. This is a big deal because it gives developers the opportunity to link up payments for their apps to the 5S and any new devices that use Touch ID (think the iWatch). Imagine waving your wrist at a pad to pay for a coffee and then confirming the purchase just by pressing your device’s fingerprint scanner.

2. Maildrop – Hate large files no longer

Having your mail bounce back at you whenever you try to send an email crammed with attachments is a problem you’ve definitely come up against. Workarounds can be complex or fiddly, especially when not everyone is quite so tech savvy and doesn’t use cloud based file sharing software like Dropbox or Google Drive. Apple’s new Maildrop feature promises to eliminate that problem automatically, and invisibly uploading the files to iCloud and then doing the reverse at the recipient’s end. If the recipient isn’t on a Mac or iOS device, they’ll automatically get a link included in the email where they can download it in one click. This will allow you to send huge, yes huge (Apple claims up to 5GB), files or folders of files via email as if it were nothing.

3. Extensibility – Your apps will work together

Apple has always been known as a pretty closed off company, from their tight-lipped approach to product releases through to their operating systems. At this year’s WWDC, we witnessed a definite change in philosophy. This is exemplified by the new open mobile model called ‘Extensibility’.

Previously, apps would operate separately from each other, or in individual ‘sandboxes’. Now Apple wants to change all of that. Extensibility will allow apps to talk to each other and share data, if you let them. Apple demoed a few handy examples of this by modifying Safari to use Bing’s translation tool and a pin button from Pinterest. The actual possibilities the new model allows are incredibly vast. In the case of the business traveller, how about seeing the location of the hotel you’re booked into pop up automatically in Google Maps when you’re nearby? Ever get emailed important files while on the go and can’t save them to where you need? The new functionality will allow you to save files to iCloud, or Dropbox and other 3rd party file sharing providers right from within your iPhone.

4. Notification Centre – Do more on the fly

Another cool feature that ‘Extensibility’ brings is app widgets in the notification centre. During the keynote, we saw a demo of an eBay widget sending notifications that Apple’s Craig Federighi was being outbid on a guitar where he was able to enter a new bid right from the notification centre. This same usability will apply to iMessages, meaning you can swipe down on a message notification and reply straight away, without having to open up the app. A definite time saver while on the move.

A useful addition for business travellers might be for an app notification that online check-in has become available for your flight, giving you two buttons – ‘View Flight Details’ and ‘Check Me In’. If you click the check-in button in the widget, you’re then prompted to authenticate your details with the touch of a button, the Touch ID button specifically. Checked-in in three clicks. How great would that be?

5. Touch ID, Again – Say goodbye to hotel room keys

Developers now have access to Touch ID. Developers now also have access to a framework specifically designed for home-based appliances, Homekit. Combine the two and what do you have? You have an app, or apps, that can unlock your hotel room door, order and pay for room service or even purchase a movie on iTunes that you’re connected to via the room’s Apple TV. All done with just your fingerprint to authenticate you as a guest using Touch ID.

6. HealthKit – Keep track of your health on the go

We all know business travel isn’t great for our health. Dashing around, screwing up your body clock while wolfing down bland, reheated airplane food (Travel Fact: Your taste buds are roughly 30% less sensitive at high altitude due to cabin pressure and the dry air, hence why the food tastes terrible). Well Apple might be able to help you counteract the business traveller bulge. In line with HomeKit, Apple is also releasing a framework for health apps to communicate with each other called ‘HealthKit’ (see what they did there). Approved apps will then reside in a new hub on your Apple device called ‘Health’.

Opening up apps to each other with extensions makes perfect sense in this case. Allowing different health apps to communicate together magnifies their usefulness. As a result, information from sleep monitoring apps can be combined with the likes of Nike+ to get a more complete picture of your health. Add in some information on your diet and you pretty quickly end up with a device that knows you (a lot) better than your GP. We might not be too far off your smart devices being able to schedule a 20-minute run after your mid-morning conference call, perish the thought, or suggest restaurants to eat at based on your target weight. Exciting and scary all at the same time, I know.

7. Handoff – Start work on your iPhone, finish it on your Mac, or tablet.

When iOS8 and OS X Yosemite launch later this year (for iPhones, iPads and Macs respectively), Apple’s Airdrop feature will bring the ability to seamlessly share files via Bluetooth across all your Apple products. The much bigger, more unexpected innovation that Apple unveiled at WWDC was Handoff. Handoff recognises when you’re performing a task such as composing an email or editing a keynote presentation on one device and preps another nearby device to take over. Running late for a meeting and halfway through an important email on your desktop? Pick up your iPhone and you’ll see a mail icon in the bottom corner of your lock screen. Tap it and mail will open up on your iPhone with exactly what you’ve already typed out on your Mac. Finish that email on the go, no need to stick around and finish it or type the whole thing up again on your phone. Viewing a webpage in Safari on your iPad on your way to the office? Click the Safari icon on your Mac and you’ll be taken to the same page you were browsing a few minutes earlier on your other device.

8. Predictive text – Your smartphone just got smarter

For years, the Blackberry dominated the enterprise smartphone market thanks to the ease with which you could tap out an email and fire it off while on the move. The world is very much a touchscreen place now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t inherent issues with typing on an iPhone. Just visit Damnyouautocorrect to see the odd, hilarious and occasionally downright shocking results of not checking your message before sending it. When iOS 8 launches later this year, iPhone users will be given a helping hand, with suggested words popping up just above the keys based on what you’ve already typed. iOS 8 also learns to differentiate how you talk to your boss compared to your friends and family too, serving up words based on previous conversations.

Android users highlight that they’ve had this feature for a while now but given the platform’s poor adoption in the enterprise space (Apple accounts for almost three quarters of enterprise smartphone adoption), this is a step forward for the iPhone sporting majority of business travellers.

So what’s next?

This much is clear. By opening up its apps to work together, and getting different platforms to work seamlessly no matter what you’re doing, Apple is now promoting its unified ecosystem just as much as the devices themselves. With all the major tech players offering synced services, the barriers to switching one device from Apple to Android or Windows to Apple are becoming higher, but the benefits of sticking with one platform for all your gadgets were clearly on show for business travellers who use an Apple device.

The improved Notification Centre will mean you’ll be able to do more quickly, adding a new layer of responsiveness to Apple’s mobile devices. Combine this with a now truly useful iCloud and the ability to pick up tasks from where you left off on another device and you’ve got a proposition that many executives would find hard to ignore, even if a Mac is four times the price of a Chromebook.

Apple also ensured even more support from its massive developer community by unveiling a new programming language, Swift. It promises to make app development quicker, easier and more accessible. This goes a long way to guaranteeing that apps will appear first on Apple devices whilst also allowing more and more people to develop apps for the Cupertino based firm.

Josh Gunn.

Source: Statesman Travel Group

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