John Lewis hires Google Cloud to supercharge digital revamp in £100m deal August 9, 2023 John Lewis is trying to get back on its feet by partnering with Google to drive its digital revamp, and shift away from high-street reliance. Valued at £100m, the partnership aims to improve the efficiency of John Lewis and Waitrose employees, enabling them to provide a better customer experience. Struggling high street favourite John Lewis [...]
Google and Microsoft AI showdown continues July 26, 2023 After Microsoft and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, reported better-than-expected results yesterday, analysts say the race to dominate the burgeoning AI field is moving quickly. Alphabet’s robust performance saw a 3.3 per cent surge in ad revenue, as search revenue hit $42.63bn (£32.98bn), causing shares to climb six per cent on Wednesday. Despite the market applause, [...]
Google parent firm Alphabet’s profit ahead of expectations thanks to ad rebound July 26, 2023 Google owner Alphabet’s second-quarter profit exceeded expectations as it announced that long-time CFO, Ruth Porat, would assume a new role while the company sought a new finance chief. Alphabet’s results were helped by steady demand for its cloud services and a rebound in advertising. The shares jumped 8 per cent in after-hours trading. Shares of [...]
Bosses from Natwest, Shell and Sainsbury’s join PM’s new taskforce to boost growth July 18, 2023 Top bosses from firms including Barclays, Aviva and Shell have joined the Prime Minister’s new business council aimed at supercharging the UK’s growth. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will chair the first business council meeting at No10 today, followed by a glitzy reception for scores of industry bigwigs to celebrate UK enterprise. CEOs including Alison Rose [...]
Google is ‘killing off industries’ with online ad monopoly, tech bosses tell Westminster committee June 21, 2023 Several small tech companies have accused Google of stifling competition due to its monopoly of the online advertising market – amid calls to increase competition by lawmakers. The House of Lords communications and digital committee heard the tech giant is “killing off industries”, and that its dominance leads to higher prices. In the hearing which [...]
Online ad spend at favoured platform Google to hit £653bn by 2026 June 19, 2023 Google is the most popular search engine among advertisers and generates the highest revenues out of all major internet companies, a study on global digital marketing has found. According to the research, conducted by linkdaddyseo.com, Google held a majority 58 per cent share in the search advertising market in 2022, beating major competitors such as [...]
Google cracks down on hybrid working – and will track staff attendance June 8, 2023 Google is reportedly cracking down on its hybrid-working policy with the tech giant to begin tracking staff office attendance and including employees’ frequency in the office in performance reviews. Fiona Cicconi, Google’s chief people officer, is said to have written an email to employees on Wednesday, according to reports in CNBC, noting that there is [...]
Sunak to meet Google boss for AI threat talks as regulation debate heats up May 25, 2023 Rishi Sunak and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai will reportedly meet tomorrow for talks on the threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI). The Prime Minister and tech boss will hold a private meeting on Friday, according to Sky News. Downing Street would not confirm the meeting to Morning Wire and Google did not immediately respond [...]
Google boss Sundar Pichai warns AI is ‘too important not to regulate’ May 23, 2023 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is too important not to regulate and the US and EU must work together to develop “robust” rules to guide the growth of the powerful new technology, Alphabet’s boss Sundar Pichai said today.
AI doing the work of over 200 people at Octopus, chief executive says May 8, 2023 Octopus Energy customers are more satisfied with AI bots answering their emails than humans, the energy provider’s chief executive revealed on Monday. Writing in the Times newspaper, the energy company’s chief executive, Greg Jackson, said the technology was doing the work of 250 people by answering customer emails and had received a 80 per cent [...]