Connect with us

Published

on

Ole_cnx | Istock | Getty Images

Generative AI adoption rate for businesses is yet to match the hype around the technology, with data privacy, regulation, and IT infrastructure acting as major barriers to its widespread use, according to a recent survey.

The global survey of more than 300 business leaders by MIT Technology Review Insights and Australia-based telecoms company Telstra revealed only 9% of them were significantly using AI.

While most leaders were optimistic about AI’s potential and expected to widen its usage, currently even the early adopters of this technology have deployed it for limited business areas. 

“There is a misconception about how easy it is to run mature, enterprise-ready, generative AI,” said Stela Solar, Inaugural Director at Australia’s National Artificial Intelligence Centre in the survey report.

Its adoption may require companies to “improve data quality and capability, privacy measures, AI skilling, and implement organization-wide safe and responsible AI governance,” he added 

 “There are surrounding elements like the app design, connection to data and business processes, corporate policies, and more that are still needed.”

Ambitions and headwinds

Most business leaders said they expect the number of business functions or general purposes for which generative AI will be deployed to more than double by 2024. 

Early adopters in 2023 had mostly deployed the technology for automating repetitive, low-value tasks due to them requiring less human supervision, said Chris Levanes, head of South Asia marketing at Telstra.

Generative AI will democratize access to enterprise data, says incoming Snowflake CEO Ramaswamy
Generative AI will make humans more important in the workplace, says Medley's Edith Cooper

Speaking to media at a launch of the MIT report in Singapore on Monday, Laurence Liew, director for AI innovation at AI Singapore, reiterated that addressing these risks will require laying out well-established governance structures and security protocols for AI models. 

“Companies must ask, do we have the appropriate governance in place, and are our internal documents properly segmented or secure?” said Liew, noting that businesses will want to avoid having AI models that can be tricked into disclosing private information such as employees’ salaries. 

The ability to address these risks also relies on companies implementing robust internal cybersecurity measures, according to the report, with a thin majority of respondents saying that their cybersecurity measures are “at best modestly capable” of supporting a generative AI rollout. 

Other barriers to generative AI adoption according to the survey respondents included the lack of relevant generative AI skills. Companies are worried they don’t have the right talent internally, and about its unavailability in the market.

Disruptors versus the disrupted 

Still, the survey reflected overall positive sentiments about the future role of generative AI in business. While six of 10 respondents expect generative AI to substantially disrupt their industry in the next five years, 78% see it as a competitive opportunity. About 8% see it as a threat. 

While building generative AI solutions that can responsibly handle large datasets and contextualize them for business is extremely challenging, it will soon be well worth the investment, according to Geraldine Kor, managing director of South Asia and head of global enterprise at Telstra International. 

“When implemented successfully, [generative AI] proficiency will be a game-changer for most organizations and will distinguish leaders from followers,” she said in a statement about the survey on Monday. 

Generative AI Revolution: Shaping tomorrow's industries

According to a report from McKinsey released last year, generative AI is expected to have its biggest impact on sales, marketing, consumer operations, software development, and R&D sectors, and could add an estimated $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy.

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon to close all of its Fresh grocery stores in UK

Published

on

By

Amazon to close all of its Fresh grocery stores in UK

People walk past an Amazon Fresh store in Washington, DC, on August 26, 2021.

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

Amazon plans to close all of its Fresh supermarkets in the U.K., in the latest recalibration of its grocery strategy.

The company said in a Tuesday blog that it’s preparing to close all 19 of its Fresh U.K. stores, “following a thorough evaluation of business operations and the very substantial growth opportunities in online delivery.” Five of the Fresh locations are expected to be converted into Whole Foods stores, Amazon said.

Amazon opened its first Fresh location outside the U.S. in London in 2021, about a year after it debuted the store concept in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Fresh stores offer cheaper prices and more mass-market items compared to Whole Foods, the upscale supermarket chain Amazon acquired for $13.7 billion in 2017. Many of the stores also feature Amazon’s cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology.

The Fresh store pullback in the U.K. comes as Amazon has continued to adjust its grocery ambitions. The company has slowed expansion of its Fresh grocery chain and Go cashierless stores in the U.S. It still maintains 500 Whole Foods locations and has opened mini “daily shop” Whole Foods stores in New York City.

Read more CNBC tech news

At the same time, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and other company executives have touted the success of sales of “everyday essentials” within its online grocery business, which refers to items like canned goods, paper towels, dish soap and snacks.

Jassy told investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May that he remains “bullish” on grocery, calling it a “significant business” for Amazon.

The company on Tuesday also said that it plans to offer same-day delivery of groceries, including perishable items, in the U.K. beginning next year.

WATCH: Amazon launches its Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas

Exclusive: Amazon just launched its Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas and we took a ride

Continue Reading

Technology

Chinese EV giant BYD says it has a backup plan if it’s cut off from Nvidia chips

Published

on

By

Chinese EV giant BYD says it has a backup plan if it's cut off from Nvidia chips

The Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD presents its models at the Open Space Area during the IAA Mobility in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, on September 12, 2025.

Eyeswideopen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

BYD has a backup plan if it gets cut off from the Nvidia chips it currently uses in its cars, a top executive at the Chinese electric carmaker told CNBC on Tuesday.

Stella Li, executive vice president at BYD, said the company had not received any directive from the Chinese government to stop using Nvidia chips — but if it did, it has a plan B.

“Everybody has a backup. BYD has [a] backup,” Li told CNBC’s Dan Murphy.

Li declined to expand on what the plan is, but she pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic during which there was a global shortage of semiconductors which badly affected the auto sector. BYD had “no issue” at the time because it developed a lot of its technology in-house, he said, so it was able to source alternatives quickly.

BYD's EVP Stella Li says the EV Maker is committed to Nvidia

Indeed, BYD has sought to have control over large parts of its supply chain, from manufacturing its own cars to developing its own batteries.

“We have a lot of strong … even deeper technology in-house, so we always have backup,” Li said.

Nvidia, whose chips underpin much of the world’s artificial intelligence development, has been caught in the crossfire amid U.S.-China tensions. The company’s H20 AI chip — designed specifically to comply with U.S. export restrictions to China — was first banned, then permitted to be sold in China this year after a revenue-share deal between Washington and Nvidia.

Now, China has reportedly been discouraging local tech firms from buying Nvidia’s AI chips.

Nvidia designs an entirely different set of semiconductors for cars, however.

One of Nvidia’s systems, Nvidia Drive AGX Orin, is designed to enable cars to carry out some driving tasks autonomously. BYD is a customer of this product.

There is no indication so far that the Chinese government is looking to ban this Nvidia system.

Li said BYD had not been told to stop using any Nvidia products, adding it was unlikely that Beijing would ban the U.S. firm’s auto chips.

“I don’t think any country will do that, because this automatic will kill Nvidia,” Li said. “So Nvidia now is the highest market value company, so if they lose the big market from China … nobody wants to see this.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon faces off against FTC over ‘deceptive’ Prime program

Published

on

By

Amazon faces off against FTC over 'deceptive' Prime program

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon and the Federal Trade Commission are squaring off in a long-awaited trial over whether the company duped users into paying for Prime memberships.

The lawsuit, filed by the FTC in June 2023 under the Biden administration, alleges that Amazon deceived tens of millions of customers into signing up for its Prime subscription program and sabotaged their attempts to cancel it. Amazon has denied any wrongdoing.

The trial is being held in a federal court in Seattle, Amazon’s backyard. Jury selection began Monday and opening arguments are slated for Tuesday, with the trial expected to last about a month.

Launched in 2005, Amazon’s Prime program has grown to become one of the most popular subscription services in the world, with more than 200 million members globally, and it has generated billions of dollars for the company. Membership costs $139 a year and includes perks like free shipping and access to streaming content. Data has shown that Prime members spend more and shop more often than non-Prime members.

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos famously said the company wanted Prime “to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member.”

Regulators argue that Amazon broke competition and consumer protection laws by tricking customers into subscribing to Prime. They pointed to examples like a button on its site that instructed users to complete their transaction and did not clearly state they were also agreeing to join Prime for a recurring subscription.

“Millions of consumers accidentally enrolled in Prime without knowledge or consent, but Amazon refused to fix this known problem, described internally by employees as an ‘unspoken cancer’ because clarity adjustments would lead to a drop in subscribers,” the agency wrote in a court filing last week.

The FTC says that the cancellation process is equally confusing, requiring users to navigate four webpages and choose from 15 options — a “labyrinthian mechanism” that the company referred to internally as “Iliad,” referencing Homer’s epic poem about the Trojan War.

Amazon has argued that the Prime sign up and cancellation processes are “clear and simple,” adding that the company has “always been transparent about Prime’s terms.”

“Occasional customer frustrations and mistakes are inevitable — especially for a program as popular as Amazon Prime,” the company wrote in a recent court filing. “Evidence that a small percentage of customers misunderstood Prime enrollment or cancellation does not prove that Amazon violated the law.”

A crackdown on ‘dark patterns’

The FTC notched an early win in the case last week when U.S. District Court Judge John Chun ruled Amazon and two senior executives violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act by gathering Prime members’ billing information before disclosing the terms of the service.

Chun also said that the two senior Amazon executives would be individually liable if a jury sides with the FTC due to the level of oversight they maintained over the Prime enrollment and cancellation process.

Amazon’s Prime boss Jamil Ghani and Neil Lindsay, a senior vice president in its health division who previously oversaw Prime’s technology and business operations, are named defendants in the complaint.

Russell Grandinetti, Amazon senior vice president of international consumer, is also named in the suit, but Chun argued he had “less involvement in the operation of the Prime organization” compared to Ghani and Lindsay.

Chun also scolded attorneys for Amazon in July for withholding thousands of documents from the FTC and abusing a legal privilege to shield them from scrutiny. Among the documents was a 2020 email where Amazon’s retail chief Doug Herrington said “subscription driving” was a “shady” practice and referred to Bezos as the company’s “chief dark arts officer.”

Representatives from Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon also faces a separate lawsuit brought by the FTC in 2023 accusing it of wielding an illegal monopoly. That case is set to go to trial in February 2027.

The Prime case is part of the FTC’s broader crackdown on so-called “dark patterns,” which it began examining in 2022. The phrase refers to deceptive design tactics meant to steer users toward buying products or services or giving up their privacy.

The agency brought a similar dark patterns lawsuit against Uber in April, accusing the ride-hailing and delivery company of deceptive billing and cancellation practices tied to its Uber One subscription service. Uber has disputed the FTC’s allegations.

Earlier this year, it reached settlements with online dating service Match and online education firm Chegg over claims that their subscription practices were deceptive or hard to cancel.

WATCH: Exclusive: Amazon just launched its Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas and we took a ride

Exclusive: Amazon just launched its Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas and we took a ride

Continue Reading

Trending