Zycus Named Leader In Supplier Value Management Platforms By Forrester

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- Zycus, a provider of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-powered Source-to-Pay solutions, has been recognised as a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Supplier Value Management (SVM) Platforms, for the third quarter of this year.

“Being named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for SVM Platforms is, for us, a testament to our innovation and dedication to meeting customer needs over two decades.

“Our vision for the future of procurement is to continuously evolve and enhance our solutions through cutting-edge GenAI capabilities,” said Zycus Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Aatish Dedhia in a statement.

The nine vendors evaluated were rated on 33 criteria covering current offering, strategy, and market presence with Zycus receiving the top score in the strategy category, while also receiving the highest possible score in 10 criteria including Vision and Innovation.

The report specifically notes that Zycus uses its exceptional understanding of customer demand to offer a comprehensive SVM suite with a strong go-to-market approach and vision.

In addition, Zycus has a compelling vision for the SVM space, and its innovation and strategy tie into this, allowing it to win new clients.

Forrester’s recognition comes on the heels of Zycus’ success in creating the world’s first GenAI-powered SVM Solution Suite and it believes Zycus’ position as a leader in this prestigious report highlights its commitment to innovation and customer success.

-- BERNAMA

NIQ Unlocks Groundbreaking AI Tools For CPG Brands

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 (Bernama) -- NielsenIQ (NIQ), the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, has announced two breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) that further validate its leadership position.

BASES AI, a tool using real consumer-permissioned data to create synthetic panels for concept testing and the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry’s first large language model, will help NIQ clients harness the power of responsible AI to drive innovation and grow market share.

“In a fast-moving, consumer market focused on trend-based innovation, high-quality data is essential, and the ability to harness and extract insights from it will make all the difference in the world.

“These releases are the latest examples of how we are deploying our analytic horsepower across market-leading data sets to generate unparalleled insights that help CPG companies gain market share globally,” said NIQ President, Strategic Analytics & Insights, Ramon Melgarejo in a statement.

A platform that uses consumer-permissioned data on consumption patterns across hundreds of thousands of households to mimic consumer behaviour, BASES AI has access to data in real time, allowing it to create large panels of synthetic respondents to replicate trusted market research techniques and methodologies in a fraction of the time.

Instead of days or weeks to gather human feedback, BASES AI can provide concept potential analysis in as little as 10 minutes, in which CPG companies can use these scores, as well as rich guidance on drivers of interest and uniqueness, to iterate on ideas ahead of final qualification with human consumers.

The release of BASES AI to beta-testers in North America is coupled with the release of NIQ’s first CPG-specific language model, powering the advanced product segmentation capabilities of its flagship Discover retail measurement platform.

NIQ will also be speaking about AI trends in consumer buying intelligence and innovation at a panel on Sept 19, titled “Does AI Know What We Truly Want? How Synthetic Respondents Are Disrupting Product Innovation”.

NIQ also regularly provides unique, proprietary insights across global consumer trends, including its latest SpendZ report, a comprehensive look at the spending trends of Gen Z and regular Consumer Outlook reports analysing trends, behaviour, and sentiment.

-- BERNAMA

AI-Media, ITV Landmark Partnership Revolutionises Captioning Service

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 (Bernama) -- AI-Media, the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered captioning and translation services, announced a new partnership with ITV, the United Kingdom (UK)’s largest commercial broadcaster.

This collaboration marks a significant step forward in the use of AI captioning technology to enhance accessibility and operational efficiency across ITV's extensive broadcast network, according to a statement.

AI-Media Vice President of International Sales, John Peck said this partnership not only enhances ITV's operational efficiency but also confirms their position as forward-thinking innovators in the European access services community.

Meanwhile, ITV Director of Accessibility, David Padmore said: “Working with AI-Media has allowed us to take advantage of cutting-edge AI to streamline our captioning workflows while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy and reliability.”

The partnership centres on the deployment of AI-Media’s LEXI live automatic captioning solution, which integrates seamlessly with ITV's existing infrastructure. The collaborative effort between AI-Media and ITV has resulted in a technology architecture tailored to the broadcaster's complex requirements, including its 18 regional news variants.

Traditionally, ITV’s regional news captioning involved a manual workflow with significant staffing requirements. The shift to automation through AI-Media's LEXI is expected to dramatically impact resourcing, leading to significant efficiencies and cost reductions.

The automation of workflows allows ITV to provide more captions, enhancing accessibility for its viewers in addition to LEXI system's increased reliability and reduced latency which are expected to improve the overall quality of service.

The implementation of AI-Media’s automated workflows was straightforward, causing no disruptions to ITV’s playout solutions. This flexibility around playout has been a considerable advantage, enabling a smooth transition to the new system.

This collaboration highlights ITV’s dedication to enhancing viewer experience through advanced technology and underscores its role as a leader in accessibility and innovation.

-- BERNAMA

GEN Z EMPLOYEES GENERALLY ADHERE TO CODES OF CONDUCT, EVEN MORE INCLINED TO BEND THE RULES

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- LRN Corporation in its new report revealed striking generational differences in how employees engage with their organisation’s code of conduct and approach ethical decision-making in the workplace.

More specifically, Gen Z employees say they are more likely to consult their employer’s code of conduct compared to their older counterparts (63 per cent versus 49 per cent of Boomers, for example), but are paradoxically 2.5 times more likely to agree that bending the rules is acceptable to “get the job done”.

This generational divide poses unique, and significant, challenges for ethics and compliance (E&C) professionals aiming to build a consistent ethical culture across their multi-generational workforces.

A leader in E&C solutions, LRN Corporation in a statement said its 2024 Code of Conduct Report highlights a range of insights that reflect the evolving challenges in promoting and enforcing ethical behaviour in the workplace.

The research also found that employees in India and China, where code of conduct training was most prevalent among respondents (97 per cent and 91 per cent of employees respectively), are the most likely to engage “very often” with their code of conduct (47 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively).

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, 64 per cent respondents were least likely to have had training and 35 per cent are the most likely to say they “never” engage with it.

The findings showed that a notable gap continues to exist between how senior leaders, middle managers and front-line employees perceive the importance and use of the code of conduct, with 90 per cent of senior leaders believe that the code is followed, yet this confidence drops to 81 per cent among middle managers and just 69 per cent among front-line employees.

Despite organisations increasingly rolling out web-based or interactive codes of conduct, employees are 1.7 times more likely to prefer viewing the code in a traditional PDF format. This suggests that organisations need to communicate the benefits of digital tools more effectively to encourage adoption.

The report also uncovered employees in hybrid work arrangements show the highest levels of code engagement, indicating that a balanced approach between remote and in-office work is likely to play an important role in ensuring more effective E&C programmes.

-- BERNAMA

AI-MEDIA TO UNVEIL ALTA PLATFORM GROUNDBREAKING INNOVATIONS AT IBC 2024

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 (Bernama) -- AI-Media, the leader in live video captioning and subtitling solutions, is set to unveil a suite of groundbreaking updates to its Alta platform at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2024 from Sept 13 to 16, in Amsterdam.

In a statement, AI-Media said as broadcasters across the globe seek to modernise workflows and improve accessibility, the company continues to deliver innovative solutions that address the industry's most pressing challenges.

At IBC 2024, AI-Media will focus on expanding its footprint in the European market with its LEXI broadcast workflow, emphasising solutions that deliver cost savings and workflow efficiencies.

The primary highlights of the event will include LEXI Live artificial intelligence (AI)-Powered Captions which offer hands-on trials to demonstrate the power, low-latency and accuracy of AI-Media's automated captioning; and gold standard SDI and video IP caption encoder tech trusted by major global broadcasters.

Also, the company will promote new solutions for video-on-demand captioning workflows; showcase solutions that support multiple languages to cater to diverse audiences; and new tech on the horizon including LEXI Live Voice dubbing, LEXI automated audio description, generative AI topic modelling, and automated sound effects recognition, among others.

For EMEA broadcasters, AI-Media offers turnkey subtitling solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, backed by over 20 years of in-field experience and a proven track record of delivering cost savings and workflow efficiencies for their customers.

AI-Media's latest updates to the Alta platform underscore the company’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology for live video captioning and subtitling includes SMPTE ST 2110-43 support; audio dubbing capabilities; SCTE trigger automation; DVB subs customisation; and Google Cloud deployment.

The latest updates to the Alta platform are game-changers for broadcasters, offering unparalleled automation, flexibility, efficiency, and accessibility enhancements that meet the demands of modern media environments, from cloud-native deployments to advanced automation and multilingual support.

Founded in Australia in 2003, AI-Media is a pioneering technology company specialising in AI language and captioning workflow solutions.

-- BERNAMA

MLB SENSATION SHOHEI OHTANI IS NEW FACE OF BEATS BY DR DRE

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 (Bernama) -- Beats by Dr Dre (Beats), a leading audio brand, announced it has appointed Major League Baseball (MLB) and Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani as an official brand ambassador.

With the appointment, Ohtani is set to appear in Beats marketing campaigns that spotlight the brand’s dynamic product lineup, according to a statement.

“As a Beats ambassador, I am truly honoured to work with such incredible athletes such as Lebron James and Lionel Messi.

“I am excited at the new opportunities this partnership will bring,” said Ohtani.

Founded in 2006 by Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, Beats has introduced an entirely new generation to the possibilities of premium sound entertainment through its family of premium consumer headphones, earphones, and speakers.

The brand’s continued success helps bring the energy, emotion and excitement of playback in the recording studio back to the listening experience for music lovers worldwide. Beats was acquired by Apple Inc in July 2014.

-- BERNAMA

"EVERYONE'S MUSHROOM GARDEN" ENGLISH VERSION AVAILABLE ON IOS, ANDROID

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 (Bernama) -- Tokyo-based mobile game developer, Beeworks Games has released the English version of "Everyone's Mushroom Garden" on Google Play and the App Store.

According to a statement, the decision was made following the incredible support shown to "Mushroom Garden Prime", the previous game in the series, which reached 500,000 downloads in just two months.

“We were overwhelmed by the amount of positive support our first app received. We look forward to providing our global users even more fun content going forward,” said Takahiro Kono of Beeworks Games.

"Everyone's Mushroom Garden" is a casual farming simulation game featuring a host of cute and quirky mushroom characters, whereby users place food on their log with a single tap, then wait for their funghi to grow.

When the user's log is covered in funghi, they swipe their finger across the screen to pick them. The gameplay is so simple and it takes seconds to complete, making this the perfect game to pick up during brief moments of downtime during a busy day.

In the Group Garden, a mode where users work together with up to 100 other players, they will be able to pick more funghi than ever before, and compete with other players in rankings to see who has the biggest harvest.

First released in 2011, the mushroom farming simulator with its loveable Funghi character has accumulated over 60 million downloads worldwide. The series has also found global success, particularly in South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

Beeworks Games values originality, providing unique and enjoyable experiences through their games with a mission to create games and characters loved by fans of all ages.

-- BERNAMA