US company Oracle launched a host of generative artificial intelligence solutions on Tuesday, with chief executive Safra Catz emphasising the technology's growing impact across sectors ranging from national defence to hospitality, banking and tech.
“We are infusing unbelievable capabilities and generative AI to our technologies … building it differently to run faster, securely, and give you [customers] the option to run it any way you want,” Ms Catz told the CloudWorld event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Our customers want the best technologies … like the CIA [Central intelligence Agency] is using Oracle’s technology, harnessing data in their mission of keeping the world safe.”
The CIA was Oracle’s first client when the company was founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California.
“Technology and AI are part of every effort that we do at the CIA … [we are] accessing the best data and the best technology as quickly as possible to take the right decisions,” said the CIA's chief information officer, La’Naia Jones, who joined Ms Catz on stage.
She spoke of data’s crucial role in augmenting the agency’s intelligence, especially in the field of cyber security, and helping to produce insights and achieve its global security goals.
Ms Catz said that customers’ demands are constantly changing. Oracle is working with its partners to boost their AI capabilities and introducing solutions designed to help customers manage multi-cloud environments, she said.
Oracle launched its latest generative AI innovation on Tuesday to help businesses integrate the technology into everyday operations.
Called GenAI Agents, the new technology combines large-language models and retrieval-augmented generation technology – an AI technique that boosts the generation of text or other outputs, with user data.
The Texas-based company’s new offering will allow businesses to directly interact with their data for tasks such as call-centre optimisation, legal research, and recruitment, using natural language queries instead of manual processes.
AI is driving “breakthroughs and efficiencies at an unprecedented pace”, leading to new business models, applications and innovation across industries, said Greg Pavlik, executive vice president for AI and data management services at Oracle.
The new service is “designed for companies looking to put AI into their real-world production environments quickly … by bringing AI to their data", Mr Pavlik said.
The GenAI Agents was among a number of announcements and updates made by Oracle during its conference.
After the announcement, Oracle’s stock jumped 11.44 per cent to $155.89 at market close on Tuesday. It expanded 0.44 per cent to trade at $156.57 a share at 5.55pm UAE time on Wednesday after the US market opened, giving the company a market value of $432.81 billion. The company's market has jumped more than $47 billion in the past two days.
Oracle’s shares have surged by almost 50 per cent up since the start of the year, compared to the S&P 500′s nearly 16 per cent jump.
Oracle has 162 cloud data centres in operation and under construction around the world. The company is emphasising amalgamation of generative AI into its cloud solutions to make operations more secure and ensure clients’ transition a seamless experience.
The overall global AI market is projected to reach $184 billion this year and it is expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 28.46 per cent, reaching a market volume of $826.70 billion by 2030, according to Statista data.
AI to break data silos
Oracle also launched new AI-powered features aimed at helping businesses maximise the value of their data and make quicker, more informed decisions. The updates include intelligent applications for Oracle cloud human capital management, as well as supply chain and manufacturing systems.
The company’s executive vice president for analytics TK Anand said that the new AI capabilities will break down data silos and turn insights into steps that allow companies to have a faster response to market changes.
The new technology intends to help businesses respond quickly to changing demand, supply and market conditions by recommending intelligent actions across the supply chain network.
The company also unveiled a generative development solution for enterprises, an AI-powered application development platform. It offers technologies that enable developers to create applications and also makes it easier for those applications to use AI-powered natural language interfaces and human-centric data.
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Manchester United's summer dealings
In
Victor Lindelof (Benfica) £30.7 million
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) £75 million
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) £40 million
Out
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Released
Wayne Rooney (Everton) Free transfer
Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad) £9.8 million
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