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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="22530361" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ahmed-Al-Sharif" source="Orion">Ahmed Al Sharif</keyword> works in software engineering and <keyword id="6361185" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="consumer-electronics" source="Orion">consumer electronics</keyword> and previously worked for <keyword id="19911549" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meta" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Meta" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Meta">Meta</keyword>.</li><li>The CTO found himself caught up in the outage-induced travel chaos on Friday.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Ahmed Al Sharif, the CTO of Sandsoft, a game developer. Al Sharif was stranded at Barcelona airport on Friday because of the <keyword id="20972526" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="IT-outage" source="keywords">IT outage</keyword> disrupting travel and other services. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I've worked in tech for close to two decades. I've been a <keyword id="19945384" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="software-engineer" source="keywords">software engineer</keyword> and startup founder, and have worked for large companies like Electronic Arts and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ends-restrictions-donald-trump-account-social-media-2024-7">Meta</a>. I was supposed to be flying from Barcelona-El Prat Airport to London Heathrow on business at 11 a.m. local time. I was surprised to arrive and find the flights shuttered. I was also surprised to learn there had been significant <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crowdstrike-global-it-outage-one-defective-it-update-sparked-chaos-2024-7">malfunctions across multiple Windows-based systems</a> at the airport. It took some digging to find out that it was a global event. Even as an engineer, the outage has been strange to witness. I didn't believe there was this much dependency on a single piece of third-party software or that pushing an update irresponsibly would cause this much havoc. <h2>I realized the IT outage was happening after I arrived to chaos at the airport</h2>I left for the airport at 8 a.m. Before I got there, there were some early signs of something being wrong. I couldn't log in to my online banking app, and things were a bit slow when I logged into my Outlook-based email, but I chalked it up to my hotel WiFi. When I got to the airport at around 8:20 a.m., it was packed. The queues were endless. Several check-in desks displayed blue screens, and no one was being processed. I realized something bigger was happening. I couldn't understand where to queue, and when I asked an airport advisor, they said there was no point queuing now because there was a problem with the ticketing, booking, and reservation systems. I asked if our airport was the only one affected, and they told me that it was happening everywhere. That's when my furious Googling began. I realized that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crowdstrike-outage-why-taking-time-companies-recover-2024-7">issue was with CrowdStrike</a>, and it was happening globally. <h2>Disruptions at the airport continued throughout the day</h2>Over the course of the day, baggage-drop machines, vending machines, and most display boards at the airport weren't working. Check-ins were being done manually. Before I was given a handwritten paper ticket, I had to prove I had booked a flight for that day by showing staff my emails as proof of payment. Anyone with checked luggage had to bring it to the gate, and airport staff were throwing it into the cargo hold by hand. <div type="image" title="A handwritten boarding pass" height="565" width="1280" msid="111870426" hostid="261"></div>My own <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-it-outage-microsoft-chaos-delays-distruption-shown-in-photos-2024-7">flight has been delayed</a> by six hours, and I'm still in the airport as we're speaking. It's been annoying and inconvenient, but thankfully, the company is covering my travel, and they understand the situation is out of my control. I've spoken to people waiting in the airport for 11 hours. People seem pretty frustrated. <h2>I was surprised to learn about <keyword id="20424191" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CrowdStrike" source="keywords">CrowdStrike</keyword>'s dominance on <keyword id="19895622" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="microsoft" source="keywords">Microsoft</keyword> devices</h2>During my delay, I've been trying to understand the situation more. It's quite intriguing and reveals that we've taken for granted how interconnected our world is and how dependent we are. I was surprised to learn that the cascading failures were caused by an update CrowdStrike pushed early Friday morning. CrowdStrike is well-known in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-work-in-cybersecurity-expert-advice-2022-1">cybersecurity industry</a>, but until today, I don't think anyone was aware of its dominance as a platform on Windows. It didn't cross my mind that a third-party solution could cause this much damage to Windows-based machines. One of the cardinal rules of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/software-engineers-tech-panicking-golden-age-over-chatgpt-ai-blind-2023-4">software development</a> is that you typically don't want to push a fix later in the week or on a Friday. You'll have less support trying to fix any issues and the weekend is gone. It feels like cardinal rules were broken. However, CrowdStrike might have evidence to suggest that this is a freak accident, so I don't think it's fair to point fingers too much. I've seen people comment on this situation about diversification and companies not relying on just one or two providers. I don't think that's realistic. Windows is commonly used. In any free market economy, the best-performing and most suitable product will dominate the market. We need more stringent reviewing and a better understanding of the tools we use on critical infrastructure. The impact here was so big because it affected infrastructure like airports, railway stations, and hospitals. It's going to cost the economy a lot. Had there been more due diligence or even government regulation, I don't think this would have happened. I'd expect that after this, government authorities will expect widely used platforms like CrowdStrike to notify them before they push changes like this. <h2>Technology will shape our future, so we need to consider how we regulate it</h2>We haven't seen the full impact of this outage, and it's definitely put into perspective how the little devices we keep in our pockets dictate the rhythms of our lives. I don't think anyone really understood the true scope and presence of CrowdStrike before Friday. I still see our future becoming increasingly automated. There will probably be many more situations like this, especially as our society pushes toward more automation. I still think technology is a good thing, but it's made me want to get my bills in the post now and then. It usually takes a horizon event like this for lessons to be learned. I don't think technology is intrinsically good or evil; it depends on how it's used and regulated. Correction: July 20, 2024 — An earlier version of the story misstated how long Al Sharif had worked in tech. He has worked in tech roles for close to two decades, including as a teenager, not "decades," as originally stated.

I'm a software engineer stranded in the IT-outage airport chaos. CrowdStrike broke a cardinal rule of software development, and I can't believe the fallout.     

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A tech recruiting firm left the personal information of roughly 216,000 people exposed, a researcher said.</li><li>The information included partial Social Security numbers, email addresses, and visa statuses.</li></ul>An IT researcher found that the unsecured files from a tech recruiter's database included personally identifying information of an estimated 216,000 job seekers — including data like names, phone numbers, passport numbers, visa information, and partial Social Security numbers. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cvs-database-of-1-billion-data-points-inadvertently-leaked-2021-6">Jeremiah Fowler</a>, the security researcher who co-founded the consulting firm Security Discovery, said he didn't know how long the data had been exposed but told Business Insider that the database was soon locked once he contacted the recruiter in September. He said New Jersey-based <keyword id="23993132" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Alltech-Consulting-Services" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Alltech Consulting Services" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Alltech Consulting Services">Alltech Consulting Services</keyword> never responded to his notices. Fowler on Monday published his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.websiteplanet.com/news/alltechconsultinginc-breach-report/">security report</a> indicating that Alltech left its database of job candidate information unsecured without a password. That left the personal identifying information of about 216,000 tech job candidates exposed. Because the door was essentially left unlocked, someone trying to steal identities wouldn't have needed to hack into Alltech's database — or even search that hard — to find the information, Fowler said. Alltech says on its website that "more than 1,000 companies" rely on its services to connect them with tech professionals. Business Insider hasn't been able to verify this independently. BI also contacted the company by calling its main phone number, sending direct LinkedIn messages to its executives, and emailing its main email address. When contacted through its public email and phone number, Alltech didn't respond to requests for comment from BI. Two Alltech executives, listed as the company's owner and vice president on LinkedIn, told Business Insider in direct messages they weren't aware of anyunsecured data or a breach. Fowler said the data exposed included email addresses, passport numbers, the last four digits of SSNs, and information on work visas. "The records also contained internal notes about their experience, qualifications, and type of job they are looking for," Fowler said. Business Insider has reviewed the message Fowler sent to three Alltech email addresses on September 10 disclosing the unprotected data. Fowler has previously flagged <keyword id="19906883" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cybersecurity" source="keywords">cybersecurity</keyword> issues with a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51682280">Wi-Fi provider</a> at UK rail stations, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wired.com/story/us-school-shooter-emergency-plans-leak/">software</a> company used by more than 5,000 US school districts, and a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wired.com/story/confidant-health-therapy-records-database-exposure/">virtual medical</a> provider, among others. Justin Miller, an ex-Secret Service agent and associate professor of practice of cyber studies at the University of Tulsa, told Business Insider that leaving a database unprotected by a password or any encryption means "anybody could potentially access the database." It's unclear, though, if any other unauthorized parties accessed the Alltech data. Miller and Fowler said that the type of information left exposed by the database, including the last four digits of a Social Security number, could allow a cybercriminal to impersonate a person. "You're looking toward identify theft," Miller said. "Details like names, work history, your visa status, passport numbers, even parts of your Social Security number, allow for bad actors to piece together enough information to steal identities and create fraudulent profiles." Fowler added that incidents like Alltech's — and others he investigates — highlight how important it is for companies to protect their data. "It also serves as a wake-up call to the industry to review their data security practices and identify vulnerabilities to protect their internal systems and the personal information of the individuals they serve," Fowler said. Alltech's website says it was founded in 1998. It's unclear why Alltech collected job seekers' Social Security or passport information. Fowler said job candidates should be "skeptical" of recruiters who ask for personal information as a condition of applying for a job. Have a tip? Contact the reporters at lloydlee@businessinsider.com and ktangalakislippert@businessinsider.com

Nearly 216,000 job seekers had their personal data left unsecured on a tech recruiter's database, a security researcher says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Brittany Betts left her job bartending at Twin Peaks in 2021 to pursue a marketing career.</li><li>She started as an intern at StaySense and moved up before becoming the CMO within three years.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brittany Betts, a 28-year-old CMO in Nashville. It's been edited for length and clarity.I'm the online travel agency manager and CMO of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.staysense.com/">StaySense</a>, a short-term vacation rental management platform owned by Guesty.I started working at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sonic-drive-in-burger-first-time-review-2022-9">Sonic</a> when I was 15. When I was 17, I had a few random serving and hosting jobs at restaurants like Chili's.I went to college and needed to make more money, so I applied and started serving at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twin-peaks-vs-hooters-breastaurant-brands-battle-it-out-2018-4">Twin Peaks</a>, a restaurant similar to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hooters-vs-buffalo-wild-wings-which-is-better-review-2024-5">Hooters</a>, in 2015 because I heard the tips are higher than at a traditional restaurant.<h2 id="6ba29dbf-7b65-4174-a393-4836a316e06b">When I first started working at Twin Peaks, I was young and extremely shy</h2>I was grateful for my first few years at Twin Peaks. I started to break out of my shell, felt confident, and made a good living.As I got older, my body and mindset changed. The Twin Peaks in Tennessee, where I worked, valued the size of my pants over my work ethic. I also briefly worked at a Twin Peaks location in Florida, and it was the same. There's a franchise standard for working there.Customers and managers commented on my weight and other women's appearances, which felt demeaning. I told myself it was what I signed up for since I signed a waiver to be a model there (hostesses, servers, and bartenders are considered "models").When I started, my brother died, and I barely ate, was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/what-is-depression">depressed</a>, and was tiny. My body started changing as I got healthier, and I knew I had to lose weight to keep my job. I began to struggle with an eating disorder.I hit a breaking point in 2020. Working at Twin Peaks helped me pay my way through college, but I realized I was ready to venture out in my career. I quit in 2021.<h2 id="ad02b728-9fe9-428c-a662-a7c2109719be">During the pandemic, I started taking marketing classes on LinkedIn, so I would be prepared for my exit</h2>I loved my business administration classes about marketing in college, so I always knew it was a potential career choice.I took an intro and advanced Google Analytics class, a Scrum Master class for managing software meetings, a content marketing intro class, a marketing copy class, an online marketing foundations class, and a social media promotion class during the pandemic.I had one internship and freelance social media management experience, but I had a very hard time finding a job when I left Twin Peaks. I didn't want to do another internship initially because I wanted to make a better living.Luckily, I had an extremely supportive partner who knew I was unhappy. They sat with me and discussed opportunities, and we found the internship for StaySense on Indeed. I remember being so nervous for the interview that I was shaking, but I put it plainly that I was willing to learn, and I wanted to develop my career.<h2 id="17b826a4-ce1e-4115-a359-4cd7bb145a79">I started at StaySense 2021</h2>I was hired and started a marketing internship at StaySense in the summer of 2021. My internship mostly consisted of data entry, reviews, and content writing. I made it a point to tell StaySense how much I enjoyed working there and that I wanted more responsibility.After a few months, I was hired as a full-time marketing specialist, and my responsibilities grew. Two years later, I was promoted to CMO over our business unit. This year, I also became Guesty's online travel agency (GOTA) manager.<h2 id="f4d9d9aa-b5ed-424e-ae52-162c1b5969b2">My income has doubled from bartending to marketing</h2>I work in the office <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/turned-down-job-interview-because-of-return-to-office-rto-2023-9">five days a week</a> from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., an additional day on the weekend, and a few extra hours some nights. I try to maintain a healthy <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-work-life-balance-advice-boss-lessons-job-2024-1">work-life balance</a>, so I work when I can but make time for my family and friends.In three years, I doubled my bartending income. When I left, I made in the mid-five-figure range, and now I make in the low six figures.<h2 id="69651002-a6fe-4ad2-9f0a-702308a5d08f">I highly suggest finding a mentor</h2>Having a mentor and asking questions are two main reasons I progressed so quickly. I had two mentors, the former CEO and owner of my company and my direct manager when I was hired.I asked to learn more about marketing, about the startup from the ground up, about previous failures, and for more responsibility and opportunity.I didn't care if it sounded stupid or I "should have" already known the answer. Instead, I asked, got my answers, and continued to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-develop-personal-brand-small-business-owner-2023-11">develop my own personal brand</a> through the help of mentors and peers. Rely on them and build your network.<h2 id="8575d4f6-bf40-4d96-ae5f-f894e0ad8dea">Don't stay in one place for too long because of the fear of trying something new</h2>The most common notions associated with the fear of something new are increasing self-doubt, lack of security, and worry of failure.Failure stems from not putting yourself out there. You can't expect results like happiness, wealth, and career progression without taking the steps to get there. My only regret is not leaving my service industry job sooner to start my marketing career.

I quit bartending and doubled my income when I got into marketing. My only regret is not leaving the service industry sooner.

<keyword id="19896016" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-delhi" source="keywords">New Delhi</keyword>, Shares of <keyword id="19950119" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tata-consultancy-services" source="keywords">Tata Consultancy Services</keyword> (TCS) plunged more than 3 per cent in the morning trade on Tuesday as its promoter <keyword id="19991117" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tata-sons" source="keywords">Tata Sons</keyword> sold around 2.3 crore shares, or 0.65 per cent of equity stake, in the IT services major through block deals. TCS shares tumbled 3.30 per cent to a low of Rs 4,015.65 apiece on the NSE. On the BSE, the stock plunged 3.15 per cent to Rs 4,014 per piece, emerging a major drag on the benchmark Sensex. According to exchange data, more than 2.53 crore shares traded on the BSE in morning deals against the two-week average of around 1 lakh. Market experts said the decline in TCS share price is mainly due to the Tata Sons stake sale. Following the fall in TCS share value, the market valuation of India's leading software company eroded Rs 45,497.45 crore to Rs 14,54,109.37 crore on the BSE. The block deal initiated by Tata Sons was aimed to offload up to 2.34 crore shares of TCS at a floor price of Rs 4,001 per share. This floor price represented a 3.65 per cent discount from the previous day's closing price. The deal is estimated to be valued around Rs 9,000 crore. The buyer and seller's official confirmation, however, will be made public later in the evening when the stock exchanges release the data. As of December 2023, promoters and promoter group entities hold a 72.41 per cent stake in TCS, of which 72.38 per cent shareholding is owned by Tata Sons. The 30-share BSE Sensex benchmark nosedived 622.03 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 72,126.39, while the broader Nifty slumped 209.40, or 0.95 per cent, to 21,846.30. The stock was the biggest laggard on the BSE index. On Monday, TCS's shares settled nearly 2 per cent lower amid reports that its promoter Tata Sons is likely to sell a minority stake in the IT major. <keyword id="19924335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tata-group" source="keywords">Tata Group</keyword>'s stocks have been in the spotlight after a report from <keyword id="20856835" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="spark-capital" source="keywords">Spark Capital</keyword> in March mentioned that Tata Sons might go public by September 2025 to meet the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) scale-based regulations. The RBI mandates that upper-layer <keyword id="21002582" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="non-banking-financial-companies" source="keywords">Non Banking Financial Companies</keyword> (NBFCs) are required to list on the stock exchanges within three years. Tata Sons has been named among 15 upper-layer NBFCs, with a total market valuation of Rs 31.6 lakh crore, Tata Sons is the owner of 29 publicly-listed Tata Group entities.

TCS shares tank over 3% after Tata Sons divests 0.65% stake

Inside the tech industry's 'broletariat revolution' against the media

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Employment for software developers has dipped from pre-pandemic levels.</li><li>Landing high-paying tech jobs could take longer.</li></ul>You're not going to be able to write a few lines of code to solve this problem.A new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.adpri.org/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-software-developer/">ADP Research Institute</a> report shows employment for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-i-landed-a-tech-job-earning-150000-without-a-degree-2022-3">software developers</a> has declined from January 2018. Data elsewhere show fewer opportunities for people to fill software development and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/landing-job-career-big-tech-interview-amazon-meta-google-apple-2024-5">tech roles</a> after the US labor market is no longer as hot as it was a few years ago."The tech job market has undeniably slowed since the end of 2022, cooling after a few years of rapid hiring during the pandemic recovery," Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor's lead economist, said in a written statement. "Rising <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/interest-rate-hikes-cuts-fed-policy-outlook-kashkari-inflation-target-2024-5">interest rates</a>, the end of pandemic-era trends and a slowing economy overall has crimped demand for tech workers.""That being said, employment in the tech sector has fallen less than 2% since its peak in December 2022 and is still 21% higher than March 2020," Zhao said.Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, told Business Insider that the software developer isn't "an out-of-date occupation," but it could take longer to land work given it has "become a very efficient occupation" where fewer workers are likely needed."You may not, as a young tech worker in this industry, get recruited straight away out of university or learn straight away from your first job, or that there may have to be a little bit more grinding, a little bit more of a normal labor market in terms of new hires," she said.The change in software developer employment could partly be attributed to changes in consumer spending during the pandemic. "There was a slowdown in software developer hires in 2020, and then we had a couple bounce backs, and I think that's reflective of how the pandemic really spurred this increase into digital service offerings," Richardson said.Job-search platform Indeed has its own running index of job postings for the software development sector. Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told BI, "it's unlikely we'll see levels of demand like we saw in '21, in '22 for software development anytime soon."Still, Bunker said demand for these jobs is healthy, and these are still well-paying gigs. According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, the median annual wage for software developers was $132,270."The depressed state of postings for software development jobs could be a possibly cyclical story or short-term story," Bunker said. "Maybe this is just interest rates are still very high, and a lot of employers are looking to be very cautious when it comes to hiring because a lot of those firms overhired in '21, and maybe they're just being very patient now."<h2 id="077ceaa5-2089-4556-9f27-290c963e7db0">Challenges for experienced workers seeking a better-paying gig and for new graduates</h2>Zhao also noted "weak" sentiment in the tech sector and noted this could be because "waves of new graduates have been racing to enter the tech industry over the last decade as tech employers have offered high pay for newly minted software developers."Zhao said, "even for experienced software developers at the top of the market, the issue may not be difficulty finding a job at all, but rather difficulty finding a job that pays as well as their previous one. Swallowing a pay cut is a tough ask for software developers who were earning top dollar just a few years ago."Data from Handshake, a platform where students can look for work, suggests a cooler demand for software developers or engineers."There was a 29% decline in software developer/engineer jobs created" on the Handshake network when comparing the period between June 2023 and May 2024 to the year before, Randy Tarnowski, senior manager of research and education insights at Handshake, said in a statement.Tarnowski said that software engineering roles "received a large share of 2024 computer science graduates' applications," but the share of applications has fallen by a few percentage points from the class of 2023."Instead of software engineering roles, the class of 2024 computer science grads are submitting more of their applications to other roles, including data science and analysts, computer hardware, information security, computer systems engineering, and financial and investment analysts roles," Tarnowski said.For people making job decisions amid the strong but cooler job market, Bunker suggested thinking about long-term prospects instead of simply how demand is looking at the moment.That is, a sector might not be "as flashy" or offer as great of compensation as it had been. However, Bunker added some of the "shine might have come off some of these jobs, but they're still well paying and have a good long-term outlook."Have you made a career change from or to software development or another tech job? Reach out to this reporter to share at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:mhoff@businessinsider.com">mhoff@businessinsider.com</a>.

Bad news for coders: The US is past peak software developer

<keyword id="19950119" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Consultancy-Services" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Tata Consultancy Services" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Tata Consultancy Services">Tata Consultancy Services</keyword> (TCS), has expanded its partnership with <keyword id="20167467" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rolls-Royce" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Rolls-Royce" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Rolls-Royce">Rolls-Royce</keyword>, a British multinational specialising in civil aerospace, defence aerospace, services, and power systems, to advance sustainable aviation initiatives. According to a press release, the collaboration focuses on researching <keyword id="22499621" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hydrogen-fuel-system-technology" source="keywords">hydrogen fuel system technology</keyword>, reinforcing the potential of hydrogen as a zero-carbon <keyword id="20178417" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="aviation-fuel" source="keywords">aviation fuel</keyword> of the future. TCS will supply engineering skills and support to Rolls-Royce to tackle three key challenges in enabling hydrogen for aviation- fuel combustion, fuel delivery, and fuel system integration with an engine. All elements must be validated for safe operation. This partnership highlights TCS's commitment to driving sustainable transformation across industries, aligning with its broader mission to harness technology for positive societal impact. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set targets for net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Alan Newby, Director, Research and Technology, Rolls-Royce, said, "We welcome TCS to our hydrogen research programme and their engineering skills will play a valuable role in addressing our technology goals. We've already made great progress and having TCS with us gives us additional capability as we move forward on our journey to enable the energy transition for the aviation sector." The expanded partnership was announced at the Farnborough International Airshow, where TCS also showcased its technological prowess in the aviation industry. This collaboration builds on a long-standing relationship between Rolls-Royce and the Tata Group, including engine development and a robust supply chain commitment. TCS has worked with Rolls-Royce since 2010 in areas such as design, manufacturing engineering, control systems, software, after-market services, and IT services, supporting major civil and business aviation programs and the end-to-end product development lifecycle. Anupam Singhal, President - Manufacturing, TCS, said, "The partnership between TCS and Rolls-Royce is an exciting one that represents a powerful alliance in the quest for <keyword id="22500175" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainable-aviation-solutions" source="keywords">sustainable aviation solutions</keyword>. We are aligned with Rolls-Royce's ambition for a greener future. This partnership is the perfect opportunity to put our technological strengths and passion for the environment to use for advancing innovation and fostering an eco-friendlier aerospace sector." TCS will leverage its deep domain knowledge of the aircraft manufacturing industry to support Rolls-Royce's engineering activities such as system design, component design, supply chain support, and program management. These services will help Rolls-Royce research hydrogen technology to address the challenges of fuel combustion, fuel delivery, and fuel systems integration with an engine, ensuring all elements operate safely. Regu Ayyaswamy, Senior Vice President and Global Head- Internet of Things and Digital Engineering, TCS, said, "TCS and Rolls-Royce have been partners in advancing engineering excellence for nearly a decade. The new partnership for research into hydrogen fuel systems represents a pivotal next step at a time when the aviation industry is faced with the urgent challenge of reducing carbon emissions while maintaining performance and efficiency. It aligns well with TCS' commitment to harness technology for positive societal impact and building a greener future." TCS has been on a mission to harness the power of technology for positive societal impact and drive sustainable transformation across industries. With more than 200 sustainability offerings, TCS is helping customers around the world in their sustainability journeys. As a Tata group company, TCS is also conscious of its impact on the environment. In 2021, TCS set an ambitious sustainability target to reduce its absolute emissions by 70 per cent across Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2025 from the baseline year 2016 and to achieve net zero by 2030. By FY24, TCS had already reduced its absolute carbon footprint across Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 80 per cent over a baseline of 2016, exceeding its target achievement by 10 per cent, one year ahead of time. (ANI)

TCS collaborates with Rolls-Royce for hydrogen research programme

Landlords have a lot of built-in leverage over renters. Moving is a pain, so tenants are more likely to accept rent hikes. Developing new apartments is expensive and time-consuming, which makes it tough for competitors to enter the market. Even during shaky periods for the economy, rents tend to hold steady or even climb — people still need to live somewhere.Over the past few years, the playing field tilted further in favor of landlords. Rents soared thanks to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economic-inequality-housing-shortage-causes-2023-1">shortage of apartment units</a>, remote workers' <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-apartment-rent-high-pandemic-big-cities-household-formation-roommates-2023-5">desire for more space</a>, and a daunting for-sale market that kept many renters stuck in place.Big-time apartment owners, it turns out, also had a secret weapon: a Texas company called RealPage, which sells software to property managers to help them set rents and juice their profits. Its algorithm tells landlords exactly how much rent they should charge for units in their buildings, based on a potent mix of both public and nonpublic data that property owners supply to the company.RealPage openly brags about its ability to help clients "outpace the market in good times and bad." In a new lawsuit against the company, Kris Mayes, Arizona's attorney general, offered a translation: "'Outpace' is code for charging higher prices than what would be charged in a market untainted by collusion," the complaint reads. "This is price fixing, and it is illegal."The lawsuit is one of dozens that accuse RealPage of operating a vast conspiracy to overcharge renters via its prized algorithm. Critics say the cooperation between RealPage and apartment managers has emboldened landlords to raise prices even if it means <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expensive-new-york-apartments-empty-2016-1">more units are left empty</a> when tenants are forced to leave. Without RealPage, the plaintiffs argue, landlords would be hesitant to jack up rents; instead, they'd focus on keeping their buildings full.The cases offer a revealing glimpse at how corporate apartment owners rely on technology to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/12-million-americans-spend-over-half-paycheck-rent-harvard-study-2024-1">wring every last dollar out of tenants</a>, who often have little idea how their rents are calculated or why a double-digit annual percentage increase is justified. But a win for the plaintiffs is far from guaranteed. Without hard evidence of shady dealings in a smoke-filled backroom, they'll likely have to prove that use of the algorithm, and the cooperation it facilitated among apartment-owning competitors, unfairly pushed up prices and ultimately did more harm than good.If the plaintiffs succeed, though, the ripple effects could extend well beyond rental housing. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-helping-retailers-stores-predictive-dynamic-pricing-2020-12">Algorithmic, or "dynamic," pricing</a> is used in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wendys-surge-dynamic-pricing-controversy-fast-food-cost-uber-airlines-2024-2">wide variety of industries</a>, including hospitality, retail, transportation, and entertainment. These cases could provide a road map for class-action lawyers to target those sectors, too. In short, the lawsuits that started with apartment rents could one day change how we pay for everything.RealPage may not be a household name, but if you live in a major US city, you've probably walked past (or lived in) an apartment that had its rent price set by the software. Its clients, as of 2020, the last year data was publicly available, included the 10 largest multifamily property-management companies in the US. Its suite of services is used to manage more than 24 million units worldwide, according to the company's website.RealPage wields the greatest power in markets with a high concentration of corporate-owned apartments. About 70% of apartment units in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-phoenix-housing-bubble-is-bursting-2023-1">the Phoenix metropolitan area</a> are owned or managed by companies that use RealPage for "revenue management," the company's term for the price-recommendation software that is now under scrutiny, according to estimates by Arizona's attorney general. In Tucson, about half of listed apartments fall under that umbrella. The Washington, DC, attorney general, who has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-apartment-rent-price-setting-landlords-realpage-lawsuit-illegal-2023-11">also sued RealPage</a>, said that more than 30% of multifamily units in the district, and 60% of units in buildings with 50 or more units, were priced using RealPage's software.RealPage and its executives aren't shy about touting the benefits of its algorithm for landlords. A video on its website heralds the software, known simply as "AI Revenue Management," as the "first pricing-optimization tool to fully employ AI and machine learning," helping properties "exceed the market by 2% to 5%." In other words, the company's clients enjoy revenue increases from year to year that are greater than the market average. RealPage's algorithm is fueled by troves of granular data on real-time lease transactions, occupancy, and how many units are hitting the market, which landlords feed the company as a condition of using its services. It's unclear exactly how the company massages all those numbers to spit out its price recommendations, but RealPage says it aggregates and anonymizes the data from other apartment operators in the area and combines it with other public data and the property's internal rent data to arrive at a suggested dollar amount. It's "both common and expected" that apartment managers will follow the system's pricing recommendations on roughly 80% to 95% of their decisions, RealPage's website says. By <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/forget-ai-algorithm-apocalypse-driving-humans-lives-data-stock-market-2024-4">turning over pricing to the algorithm</a>, plaintiffs say, RealPage's clients are encouraged to push rents higher than if they'd left the decisions up to humans. You don't have to take their word for it, though — both the company and its users have publicly hailed the software's ability to capture more revenue. "As a property manager, very few of us would be willing to actually raise rents double digits within a single month by doing it manually," one RealPage executive said in a since deleted video, according to a 2022 investigation by ProPublica. Another apartment manager said in a testimonial video that the software "pushes you to go places that you wouldn't have gone if you weren't using it."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cheap-homes-apartments-low-rent-scarce-expensive-housing-real-estate-2024-1">Rental prices</a> have shot up by 29.4% since the beginning of the pandemic, averaging an annual increase of 7% over the past four years, Zillow found. Almost two-thirds of that increase happened in 2021 alone, the peak of the pandemic-era housing market. Of course, there were many factors driving up rents back then that had nothing to do with algorithms, most notably an increase in household formation — people broke up with their roommates, moved out of their parents' houses, or simply upgraded to more space — so it's hard to know exactly how much to ascribe to the algorithms. But information asymmetry is part of the bigger problem. Apartment owners have access to all kinds of market data through RealPage's algorithm, while tenants suffer from a lack of information — some can't even figure out who actually owns their apartment behind a web of LLCs. The plaintiffs allege that RealPage clients provide data to the company knowing that many of their competitors are doing the same and that they would all benefit by participating. In fact, the lawsuits claim that RealPage shares "peer lists" with clients that tell them exactly who else is providing data to the company within a specific distance of their property.All kinds of other issues crop up when landlords rely on algorithms instead of human expertise, the plaintiffs say. At least when renters go back and forth with a real human on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/how-to-negotiate-rent-apartment-2020-12">lease negotiations</a>, there's a chance they could bargain the price down, Marie Claire Tran-Leung, the director of the Evictions Initiative Project at the National Housing Law Project, told me. An algorithm may not be so lenient."It really takes the tenant out of the equation altogether," Tran-Leung said.In the 2009 movie "The Informant!," Matt Damon plays a bumbling white-collar worker who tips off the FBI that his company and its competitors are meeting to fix prices. The tale is based on a real-life case from the '90s that offered up a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/columbia-yale-brown-financial-aid-collusion-settlement-price-fixing-cartel-2024-1">classic model of collusion</a>, in which executives meet in secret and make handshake deals to screw over customers.Algorithms aren't so straightforward. There are no smoky rooms, no opportunities for a wire-wearing whistleblower to catch the crooks red-handed. In a recent statement of interest in the lawsuits against RealPage, the Justice Department referred to algorithms as the "new frontier" of price fixing, arguing that they posed "an even greater anticompetitive threat" than anything that had come before. By sharing private information and surrendering their decision-making to the software, companies are engaging in price-fixing behavior, the department claimed. They don't even have to hold secret meetings; the algorithm does all the heavy lifting."Automating an anticompetitive scheme does not make it less anticompetitive," the department's statement said. In 2017, Maureen Ohlhausen, then a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, voiced similar concerns about pricing algorithms."Everywhere the word 'algorithm' appears, please just insert the words 'a guy named Bob,'" Ohlhausen said. "Is it OK for a guy named Bob to collect confidential price-strategy information from all the participants in a market, and then tell everybody how they should price? If it isn't OK for a guy named Bob to do it, then it probably isn't OK for an algorithm to do it, either."This model of collusion is what experts call a "hub-and-spoke" conspiracy — the plaintiffs will argue that RealPage is at the center, or the hub, and the arrangements with each of its clients are the spokes. The problem for the plaintiffs is they also need to show that there's a rim to this wheel: an agreement between all the competitors to use the algorithm and pump up their profits. That rim is pretty important; without it, the plaintiffs' case gets a lot more difficult.When CEOs get together and agree to push up prices, the mere act of doing so is illegal — it doesn't matter if they actually pull off the scheme. But with a rimless hub-and-spoke, the plaintiffs have to prove that each of the agreements between RealPage and its clients stifles competition and harms consumers. That's a much higher standard, Ed Rogers, a partner at the law firm Ballard Spahr who specializes in antitrust cases, told me. To avoid this, the plaintiffs will try to establish that a rim does, in fact, exist — that apartment managers either agreed with one another to use RealPage to collectively raise prices, or at least used its software knowing and expecting that their competitors would do the same and that they would all benefit by participating. It's possible to prove a conspiracy with circumstantial evidence, Jeffery Cross, a partner at the law firm Smith Gambrell Russell, told me. For example, a court might look at whether apartment owners had strong incentives to collude, whether they knew who else was participating, whether participation was enforced in some way, and whether they all took similar actions at the same time, like raising prices in unison. The judge could also consider whether the competitors knew that the price increases could succeed only if everyone did the same. But proving a rim this way is "much more difficult," Cross said.RealPage didn't respond to requests for comment, but in a rebuttal to the Justice Department's statement of interest, the company said it may recommend price decreases and noted that apartment managers didn't always accept its suggestions. It also said there wasn't enough evidence to prove that the apartment managers had made a "conscious commitment" to engage in an unlawful scheme together. In short, no rim.Of course, RealPage is far from the only reason that rents rose during the pandemic. And because a ton of new apartment buildings were completed in the past couple of years, rents around the country are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rent-decline-fall-apartment-housing-market-landlords-tenant-lease-construction-2023-3">stagnating or even dropping</a> in some areas. But the plaintiffs in these cases still argue that the rental market would be better for tenants if RealPage didn't exist; if apartment owners couldn't lean on the algorithm, they might hold off on rent hikes or drop prices more frequently. They might also be more open to negotiating on lease renewals.But we have a long way to go before knowing whether these changes will come to pass. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into RealPage and some of its customers, Politico reported, adding to the mounting pressure on the company and its clients. The lawsuits filed by the Washington, DC, and Arizona attorneys general will work their way through their respective judicial systems, while the federal antitrust cases have been consolidated before a judge in Tennessee. The first of those cases was filed in 2022, so they're still in the early stages — it could be years before we even see a trial.Whenever that day comes, it'll be worth watching. The RealPage cases are about far more than apartment rents. If the plaintiffs can successfully argue that property managers engaged in price fixing by using RealPage's algorithm, they could open the door for all kinds of industries to face similar scrutiny.Airlines, for instance, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airlines-brought-skiplagging-upon-themselves-with-nonsense-pricing-2023-7">rely heavily on algorithms</a> to price plane tickets, and experts have pointed out that the industry is especially susceptible to collusion because it is dominated by just a handful of major players. The Federal Trade Commission has accused Amazon of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-used-secret-algorithm-raise-rival-site-prices-antitrust-lawsuit-2023-11">using a secret algorithm</a> to see whether it could raise prices and prompt other businesses to follow suit. Just recently, the Justice Department and the FTC filed another statement of interest in a case that accuses casino-hotel operators of propping up prices by using a common algorithm. The platform in question is called Rainmaker.<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/james-rodriguez">James Rodriguez</a> is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team.

Landlords are using a popular software tool to jack up your rent

Billionaire <keyword id="19916798" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani" source="keywords">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>'s Reliance Industries and <keyword id="19924335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Group" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Tata Group" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Tata Group">Tata Group</keyword> have made it to the prestigious TIME's list of 100 World's Most Influential Companies of 2024. TIME called Reliance 'India's Juggernaut'. This is the second time that Reliance has found its way into the TIME list. Jio Platforms, the firm that holds digital properties of the conglomerate, was included in the inaugural TIME 100 Most Influential Companies List of 2021. Serum Institute is the other Indian company on the list. TIME listed Reliance in the 'Titans' category (one of the five categories under which the companies were divided, other being Leaders, Disrupters, Innovators, and Pioneers). Tata was listed in 'Titan's' category while Serum under 'Pioneers'. "Reliance Industries was founded as a textile and polyester company 58 years ago by Dhirubhai Ambani. Today the sprawling conglomerate -- which has aligned its growth with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a 'self-reliant' India -- is the country's most valuable company, with a market capitalisation of more than USD 200 billion," TIME said. Now led by Dhirubhai's son Mukesh, the Mumbai-based company has ventures in energy, retail, and telecommunications, among others, and has made its chairman Asia's richest man, it said. The publication went on to stated that in February, Reliance came out on top in a fiercely competitive race to dominate India's burgeoning streaming market by striking a USD 8.5 billion merger deal with Disney's India business. "The deal will bring together more than 100 television channels and give the combined group around a 31 per cent share of India's streaming market compared to rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime with 8 per cent each," according to analytics firm Comscore. Reliance has revolutionised several economic sectors in the world's most populous country by making world-class products and services available at affordable prices with multiple innovations. Under Mukesh Ambani, the firm's telecom arm Jio revolutionised India's digital landscape and drove digital inclusion on an unprecedented scale with the most affordable mobile data tariffs in the world. It set up the world's largest single location refining complex. Reliance Retail is ranked among the top 100 retailers globally and in FY24 it registered 1.06 billion footfalls across its 18,800+ stores (67 per cent of which are in small towns and villages). Reliance is investing USD 10 billion in building the most comprehensive ecosystem for new energy and new materials in India and has set an ambitious goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2035. TIME described Serum as the world's biggest vaccine maker, churning out billions of vaccines. The company makes 3.5 billion doses every year, including for measles, polio, and most recently, HPV. "Serum's CEO Adar Poonawalla says the company's success can largely be chalked up to its private ownership. Not being beholden to shareholders allows it to keep vaccine prices low (the R21 will cost USD 4 a shot)," the publication said. Tata Group, it said, was founded in 1868 and has a vast portfolio extending from steel, software, watches, subsea cables, and chemicals, to salt, grains, air-conditioners, fashion, and hotels. "But as rivals have aggressively courted new businesses, it struggled to keep up with stiff competition. In 2017, after over a century of family management, N Chandrasekaran took over as chairman despite having no personal ties to the family -- highly unusual when India's business landscape is ruled by family succession plans," TIME said. As chair, he has transformed the group by investing in tech manufacturing, AI, and semiconductor chips. In 2023, it became the first Indian company to assemble iPhones, and is building another plant, it said, adding that in September, Tata announced a partnership with Nvidia to develop an AI cloud in India. "And this year, it announced plans for the country's first major semiconductor manufacturing facility. The moves seem to be paying off: in February, Tata's combined market capitalisation reached a whopping USD 365 billion, more than the entire economy of India's neighbour and rival, Pakistan," it added. This is the fourth edition of annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list, highlighting companies making an extraordinary impact around the world. To assemble the list, TIME solicited nominations across sectors, and polled its global network of contributors and correspondents, as well as outside experts. Then, TIME editors evaluated each on key factors, including impact, innovation, ambition, and success. The result is a diverse group of 100 businesses helping chart an essential path forward. 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Reliance, Tata on TIME's list of world's most influential companies

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Daily Harvest is using AI to optimize the packing space for its frozen foods.</li><li>Since it started using AI, Daily Harvest has received fewer customer complaints about damaged goods.</li></ul>For "CXO AI Playbook," Business Insider takes a look at mini case studies about AI adoption across industries, company sizes, and technology DNA. We've asked each of the featured companies to tell us about the problems they're trying to solve with AI, who's making these decisions internally, and their vision for using AI in the future.<a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=791010b7b08d0474f9da685ad07953a163479f2a9259cd8bca11ecc06a67bc8f&amp;postID=6658bc42074e87bb00e54451&amp;postSlug=daily-harvest-artificial-intelligence-improve-shipping-and-customer-service-2024-6&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.daily-harvest.com%2F">Daily Harvest</a> is a brand of plant-based packaged foods that's headquartered in New York City. Its products, which include smoothies, soups, pasta, and grain bowls, are available as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/kitchen/best-meal-delivery-service">direct-to-consumer service</a> and at retail locations nationwide.<h2 id="ec04abf8-6dc5-4015-93f4-02f9ad5ed95c">Situation analysis: What problem was the company trying to solve?</h2>Daily Harvest ships frozen meals and snacks to customers across the country. The products come in cups and bowls that must be packed alongside dry ice to keep them frozen until they reach customers' doorsteps, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleynwilliams/">Wesley Williams</a>, Daily Harvest's vice president of supply chain, said.That presented some unique challenges for the company. Often, orders were shipped in boxes that were too big. This sometimes meant the products weren't packed tightly enough and that the dry ice melted in transit."We knew this was wasteful, costly, and contributed to orders arriving partially thawed, especially during summer months," Williams said. The result was that customers would need to throw away the packages, and the company reshipped them.Daily Harvest wanted to improve the customer experience, minimize waste, and reduce materials and shipping costs, Williams added.<h2 id="cebba829-35f3-4b6a-b987-a917f19a23c5">Key staff and partners</h2>A team of stakeholders, including Williams and representatives from Daily Harvest's engineering, product, strategy, insights, and logistics teams worked to find more efficient ways to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-machine-learning-robotics-retail-supply-chain-technology-2023-10">pack and ship products</a>.Initially, the team tried to manually analyze the situation but found that using artificial intelligence was a more efficient way to help meet its goals, Williams said. The company partnered with <a target="_blank" href="https://paccurate.io/">Paccurate</a>, an AI-driven cartonization platform. <a target="_blank" href="https://paccurate.io/what-is-cartonization">Cartonization</a> refers to determining the ideal packing materials for optimal shipping.<div type="image" title="Wesley Williams headshot" height="3000" width="2250" msid="111691415" hostid="261" sizebytes="243290"></div><h2 id="d1033d45-1b0d-40a2-9c58-d56da0910870">AI in action</h2>Warehouses can use Paccurate's AI-powered cartonization software to prepare orders for shipment. The tool evaluates inputted data to provide real-time packaging instructions that help reduce fulfillment costs and wasted materials.Last year, Daily Harvest began working with Paccurate on a preliminary analysis of its warehouse operations and launched an updated packing-and-shipping process at the end of 2023.Paccurate's software analyzed nearly 24,000 Daily Harvest orders and found that more than 3,600 needed improvement in packaging, Williams said. The technology recommended a smaller, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ai-helps-choose-right-size-packaging-materials-2024-4">more compact box</a> in most instances.Daily Harvest now links its system to Paccurate's through an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-an-api">application programming interface</a>, Williams said, adding that the company's team updates the data that's fed into the AI software."It's been extremely low work for our team" since the initial setup, he added.<h2 id="0de6e3ad-c6e8-47ff-8ec6-6585acb0a367">Did it work, and how did leaders know?</h2>Since implementing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-helping-amazon-shopify-sellers-2023-11">AI into its shipping process</a>, Williams said, the company is delivering a better customer experience."We know a more densely compact box prolongs the life of dry ice, so it keeps our products frozen for a longer period of time while in transit," he said.Over the past six months, Daily Harvest has downsized the boxes for about 15% of its orders. This has reduced the company's spend on boxes, box liners, shipping, and dry ice by about 1.3%, Williams said. The largest savings have been in dry ice, the cost of which is 3.6% lower since the switch to smaller boxes, he added.Over the past few months, Williams said, the organization has seen fewer customer complaints about packages arriving damaged or partially thawed. That has cut the number of customer refunds and the cost of repacking and shipping replacements."At the end of week one, I could sit down and track data points and data visualization to see the impact that this has had on the business," he said.<h2 id="82810cd5-c3d8-4b39-a6d7-69478e869964">What's next?</h2>Daily Harvest is dedicated to continuing to innovate its primary packaging, the cups and bowls that hold products. Williams said the company was collecting feedback from its retail customers on which packaging could increase sales.The organization also plans to leverage automation and AI to streamline other business areas. "We'll continue to evaluate AI and its fit in the business going forward on a case-by-case basis as the opportunities to improve our work present themselves," Williams said.Daily Harvest also plans to soon transition from its legacy e-commerce system to Shopify's platform, which includes AI capabilities across <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shopify-workers-worry-about-jobs-leaked-plans-ai-first-support-2023-7">customer service</a>, product recommendations, and personalized marketing.We want to hear from you. If you are interested in sharing your company's AI journey, email <a target="_blank" href="mailto:jhood@businessinsider.com">jhood@businessinsider.com</a>.

How Daily Harvest used AI to optimize product packaging and improve customer service

Chipmaker <keyword id="20004922" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AMD" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="AMD" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="AMD">AMD</keyword> is poised to power the surging demand for <keyword id="21517898" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-compute" source="keywords">AI compute</keyword> with its wide range of product portfolio, the company's Chief <keyword id="19901571" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology" source="keywords">Technology</keyword> Officer Mark Papermaster said on Friday. AI compute refers to processing of data using artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms. Marking 55 years of AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), Papermaster in a blog post looked back on five years of growth and innovations at the company, while also looking ahead to the next five years. He said the future of technology will be born from open ecosystems and deep industry partnerships that drive true innovation. "We're in a unique position to power increased demand for AI compute based on our broad portfolio of compute engines, deep relationships with customers across a diverse set of markets, and open software capabilities. We have a strong foundation of <keyword id="20053383" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="data-centre" source="keywords">data centre</keyword> products and customer collaboration across cloud and enterprise, and leadership products for AI PCs," he wrote. He said AMD has shifted from unique product silos to a modular IP portfolio, connected by a single AI software stack for easy deployment, and called it a 'holistic design approach'. "We need to speed our development by using more AI applications in our internal workflows to boost our productivity...We look forward to discovering new methods to optimise efficiency and experiment with new technologies that have potential," he said, adding that AI is poised to become more ubiquitous and consequential than the advent of the Internet. Papermaster further said that AMD will make some 'exciting' announcements at Computex (Taipei), an annual computer exhibition set to be held in June this year. Looking back, he said, "We made the call over a decade ago to leverage our strength and heritage in high-performance computing and invest for the future. Those bets have paid off as all our markets now demand the utmost in compute efficiency (performance per Watt of energy expended), and AI enablement. "...Our growth hasn't come overnight. AMD technology powers the daily lives of billions of people around the world, and in the last five years we've expanded the number of markets we serve." He said that the IT corporation has steadily increased investments in research and development for the past five years to be in line with the growing demand for compute performance and efficiency. "...Our research and development investment has nearly quadrupled, from USD 1.5 billion in 2019, to USD 5.9 billion in 2023, and we plan to continue to invest in developing groundbreaking technologies that show early promise," he said. He added that since 2019, AMD and the <keyword id="20149900" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="semiconductor-industry" source="keywords">semiconductor industry</keyword> have grown tremendously. "Global sales of semiconductors grew from USD 412.3 billion in 2019 to USD 574.1 billion in 2022, and are estimated to grow to USD 1 trillion by 2030," he said, adding that AMD is positioned to service the insatiable demand for more computing capacity. He said the company's headcount has more than doubled in the past five years. "Xilinx was the largest semiconductor acquisition when completed in 2022 adding incredible talent, leadership IP, and market expansion to adaptive compute markets with deep customer relationships," he said. Earlier this month, AMD posted its revenue at USD 5.47 billion (about Rs 45.6 crore) for the first quarter of 2024, up 2 per cent against the year-ago period. "AMD started the year strong, delivering record quarterly data centre segment revenue," AMD's EVP, CFO and Treasurer Jean Hu had said. "In addition, we drove solid gross margin expansion. Moving forward, we are well positioned to continue driving revenue growth and margin improvement while investing in the large AI opportunities ahead." SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/global-smartphone-shipments-grow-by-6-in-q1-2024-samsung-retakes-the-top-spot/articleshow/109817280.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/global-smartphone-shipments-grow-by-6-in-q1-2024-samsung-retakes-the-top-spot/articleshow/109817280.cms" target="_blank">Global smartphone shipments grow by 6% in Q1 2024, Samsung retakes the top spot</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/electric-two-wheeler-sales-crater-in-april-2024-as-prices-increase-amid-reduced-subsidies/articleshow/109806054.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/electric-two-wheeler-sales-crater-in-april-2024-as-prices-increase-amid-reduced-subsidies/articleshow/109806054.cms" target="_blank">Electric two-wheeler sales crater in April 2024 as prices increase amid reduced subsidies</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/webstories/bajaj-pulsar-ns400z-launched-at-1-85-lakh-becomes-cheapest-400cc-bike-in-the-country/slidelist/109810458.cms" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/webstories/bajaj-pulsar-ns400z-launched-at-1-85-lakh-becomes-cheapest-400cc-bike-in-the-country/slidelist/109810458.cms" target="_blank">Bajaj Pulsar NS400Z launched at ₹1.85 lakh, becomes cheapest 400cc bike in the country</a>

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Tata Consultancy Services has topped the <keyword id="28120" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="linkedin" source="Orion">LinkedIn</keyword>'s latest list of top companies to work for in India, followed by <keyword id="6370971" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="accenture" source="Orion">Accenture</keyword> and <keyword id="28721" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cognizant" source="Orion">Cognizant</keyword> in the second and third place respectively. Professional networking platform LinkedIn on Tuesday released the 2024 Top Companies list for India wherein <keyword id="6357647" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="it-companies" source="Orion">IT companies</keyword> bagged the top three ranks, while <keyword id="6354241" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="financial-services" source="Orion">financial services</keyword> firms dominated the list with 9 out of 25 companies from this sector. The 8th edition has derived insights from LinkedIn data, and lists the top 25 large companies, 15 best mid-size companies, and provides insights on in-demand skills, top locations, and the largest job functions within these companies. Amongst large companies (500+ employees in India), Tata Consultancy Services retained its top spot this year, followed by Accenture and Cognizant. Continuing the trend from last year, financial services dominated the 2024 list with 9 out of 25 companies from this sector including Macquarie Group (4th place), Morgan Stanley (5th), and JPMorgan Chase and Co (6th), LinkedIn said. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Lentra ranked first on the list of top mid-size companies list (250-500 employees), followed by Indian online travel platform MakeMyTrip. The list also featured fashion and beauty retailer Nykaa and fantasy sports platform Dream11, showcasing the wide range of opportunities available in diverse industries for job seekers in India. "The in-demand skills that the top companies are looking for in the financial services sector include investor relations, capital markets, and investment banking. Companies in the technology sector are looking for skills such as enterprise software, data storage technologies, software development life cycle (SDLC), and artificial intelligence (AI)," the data revealed. Revenue analysis, nonprofit management, and mobile application development are some of the other skills that are witnessing a surge in demand, it added. Silicon valley of India, Bengaluru was named the top location where these top companies are based and looking to hire talent, followed by Hyderabad, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and Pune. LinkedIn said the ranking of companies is based on eight pillars that have been shown to lead to career progression such as the ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, educational background, and employee presence in the country.

Tech firms TCS, Accenture, Cognizant lead LinkedIn's top large companies list

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The fashion industry may soon face new legislation that requires sustainability transparency.</li><li>Cloud computing could allow fashion companies to share data and reduce production waste.</li></ul>Across the fashion industry, companies are steeling themselves for the potential passage of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ebu.ch/news/2024/04/new-edition-of-the-sustainability-rulebook-the-green-claims-directive">EU Green Claims Directive</a>, which could happen as early as next year.The directive would require brands making sustainability claims to back them up with evidence and to label products accordingly. The GCD would have global implications, as it would extend to all businesses advertising to EU consumers.The GCD still faces multiple hurdles, but if passed, it would force long-overdue change in the industry. Under the directive, consumers should be able to visit a website or scan a QR code to see proof of a garment's fabric composition or how it was created.But before that can happen, brands need to be able to source and share sustainability data internally and with retail partners. Cloud computing could be key to doing this in a detailed and efficient way.<h2 id="b940d494-436c-4b45-b035-fdf68c792ba5">Cloud computing is gaining traction</h2><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-cloud-computing">Cloud computing offers on-demand services</a>, from storage to software, over the internet. It's been billed as a major cost-cutting measure for companies because they can pay for the services they need, rather than rely on in-house servers. It's also a way to streamline processes by collecting data into one easily accessible hub.The cloud-computing industry is growing rapidly, and analysts predict it could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/cloud-computing-market">more than double</a> in value between now and 2029. And the fashion industry has gradually been waking up to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-technology-sustainable-textile-recycling-solutions-2024-6">potential of cloud computing</a>. In recent years, heavyweights like Mulberry and Net-a-Porter have begun working with Eon, a cloud-powered tech company that specializes in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.eon.xyz/press/top-fashion-brands-introduce-digital-ids-powered-by-eon-to-unlock-intelligence-commerce-and-sustainability">Digital IDs</a>, QR-code labels that can be scanned for detailed information, product authentication, and customer-focused extras, such as suggestions on how to style the looks. Meanwhile, <a target="_blank" href="https://dressx.com/">DressX</a>, which allows users to "wear" digital garments in photos and videos, uses Google Cloud.Still, there's been little focus on cloud computing when it comes to sustainability data. Bharati Rathore, a management lecturer at the University of South Wales, is one expert who's spreading the word. In her report, "Fashion Transformation 4.0: Beyond Digitalization &amp; Marketing in Fashion Industry," she said that <a target="_blank" href="https://eduzonejournal.com/index.php/eiprmj/article/view/234">the fashion industry must embrace new technologies</a> in order to survive.Rathore said cloud computing is a way to "store and manage large volumes of data efficiently — everything from customer preferences and purchasing behavior to inventory levels and supply chain details." She added that it offered a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-google-microsoft-ai-future-data-centers-monopoly-tech-industry-2024-6">central place for data sharing</a>, making it easier for workers around the world — design teams and retail managers, for example — to stay up-to-date with each other.If <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cloud-industry-splitting-into-2-distinct-parts-2024-2">harnessed properly</a>, cloud computing is one of a handful of digital tools that could "revolutionize the way we design, produce, and consume fashion," Rathore said in her report.<h2 id="9e95c438-fbb2-4b1e-b73f-185219145eb5">Moving toward transparency</h2>It's no secret that the fashion industry has historically shied <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashions-mountain-leftover-clothes-chile-desert-seen-from-space-2023-5">away from transparency</a>. This is slowly changing, thanks partly to companies like Fashion Cloud, an insights platform that works with over 700 fashion brands and 25,000 retailers.Using cloud computing, Fashion Cloud collects data and insights, and then makes them easily accessible for all parties — from website designers, who upload and describe products onto brand websites, to retail managers, who handle shop-floor operations. The company works with brands from the mass-market online retailer Zalando, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/370657/zalando-active-buyers/">which averages around 50 million customers per quarter</a>, to Studio Anneloes, a Dutch design house that features a "footprint" tab on every product that indicates its environmental impact."Fashion is a terribly old-fashioned industry," Alies ter Kuile, the cofounder of Fashion Cloud, said. "Every retailer has their own process, so nothing is standardized. What we do is ensure retailers are getting key product and sustainability data from brands, and we help brands on that journey, too."The GCD is intended to be a crack down on greenwashing and vague, hard-to-substantiate <a target="_blank" href="https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/fashion-greenwash-report-companies-hiding-true-environmental-costs-fast-fashion/">claims of "eco-friendly" clothes</a>, but it's a huge hurdle for brands accustomed to opacity. According to ter Kuile, only 50 of the brands that Fashion Cloud works with "share sustainability data in an automated way." Meanwhile, she added, "another 350 have the sustainability data, but they can't share it yet."Communication is a core issue when it comes to letting customers know exactly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-fashion-trends-artificial-intelligence-style-brands-2024-2">where their clothes come from</a>. "Brands and retailers are asking for the same information," ter Kuile said, referring to where the clothes were made and how many units have been sold. "But they're currently doing that in different spreadsheets. We're trying to automate these processes."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-helping-amazon-shopify-sellers-2023-11">Simplicity is key</a>, too. Ter Kuile said the average age of fashion buyers — retail reps who decide which pieces are stocked in department stores and online shops — is between 50 and 60. "Typically, the people using our tools are people who don't like software, so everything needs to be intuitive," she added. "You can't have five different brands with five passwords — forget about it! The process has to be the same, and it has to be simple."<h2 id="4dcaf6a8-3aaa-4f02-91c2-da9768b9bb56">Benefits for clothing retailers</h2>Cloud computing also provides key benefits for retailers. "For fashion retailers, quick, data-driven decisions are essential for inventory management, store expansion, and market adaptation," Alan Holcroft, the UK manager of Cegid, a cloud-computing business, told Business Insider. Cegid supports over 85,000 retailers, including the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cegid.com/global/case-studies/how-french-fashion-house-cotelac-win-customers-with-omnichannel-across-all-touchpoints/">French fashion retailer Cotélac</a>.Easy access to buying data means retailers are more likely to purchase only what they can realistically sell. For example, if a dress has moved only 10 units in one location in a month, it's wildly unrealistic to buy 500 and expect them to be sold. With cloud computing, retailers can avoid overbuying stock — a key driver of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-christmas-shopping-clothes-returns-shein-zara-waste-mountain-2022-12">fashion's textile-waste problem</a>. (It's no secret that brands would sometimes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/the-destruction-of-returned-and">rather set fire to unsold stock</a> than discount their prices.)None of this is to say that cloud computing is inherently sustainable. Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, a cloud anthropologist, said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud/">2022 research report</a> that data storage has a "greater carbon footprint than the airline industry." Cloud computing is reliant on data centers, which require energy-intensive air conditioning to prevent servers from overheating. These centers also require irrigation, sometimes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-water-use-soaring-ai-make-it-worse-data-centers-2023-7">guzzling up water</a> resources needed by local communities.There are still many fashion brands that seem ill-equipped to address the GCD's requirements. Ter Kuile said part of the problem is that too many conversations in the fashion industry focus on abstractions rather than action.Data-sharing through cloud computing — while by no means perfect — is a practical step that allows information to be tracked at every level of product creation and, crucially, shared with customers who need it."We don't need inspiration to be more sustainable and transparent," ter Kuile said. "We need processes that enable us to actually do it."

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