IoT Market Combined with AI Innovation Producing Immense Growth Potential

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Artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are two of the hottest niches in the tech sector and they are now combining to create revenue growth through unique opportunities. AI has become essential to the enhancement of IoT technologies due to the need for smart learning and predictability when it comes to connecting devices. According to Telecoms.com, there's been a significant increase in enterprise investment on technologies that analyze, organize, access, and provide advisory services that are based on use cases for unstructured data. In fact, worldwide spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) systems is projected to reach $19.1 billion in 2018 - that's an increase of 54.2 percent over the amount spent in 2017. The infusion of AI is one of the prominent factors influencing growth in the market, as more solutions and advanced functionality through AI will improve product and platform performance. Active companies in the markets this week include Gopher Protocol Inc., Intel Corporation, Micron Technology Inc., ShiftPixy Inc., Twilio Inc. 

Gopher Protocol Inc. BREAKING NEWS: Gopher Protocol, a development-stage company which specializes in the creation of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence enabled mobile technologies, announced the closing of the sale of common stock and common stock purchase warrants, which generated $500,000 in proceeds.  

The financing is continuation of the Company's strategy to reduce its dependence on variable priced convertible note financing and create a balance sheet that gives investors clarity regarding the number of shares outstanding and potential dilution. The investor that participated in this financing previously loaned the Company capital in consideration of convertible notes. This financing included an equity raise generating in total to date gross proceeds of $1.5 million as well as the conversion of previously issues convertible notes into common stock.

Greg Bauer, CEO of Gopher said, "Since the acquisition of the UGO assets and successful closing of an equity financing in December 2017, including our latest acquisition of ECS Assets, Gopher's Board of Directors believe it is well positioned to eventually seek to list on a National Exchange. To assist in the process, Gopher engaged Donohoe Advisory Associates LLC to advise and assist in the up-listing effort. There is no guaranty that these efforts will be successful or that Donohoe Advisory will recommend to Gopher to pursue any particular avenue for exchange listing." Mr. Bauer summarizes, "We are moving at a significant pace as we continue to develop our sales channels through acquisitions as well as advance our products which include GPS tracking, drones, a MESH network technology for use in autonomous driving tracking, Artificial intelligence and IoT. We anticipate Gopher's technology can be implemented in everyday life and we envision unlimited applications for our core technology. While accelerating our growth through strategic partnerships and acquisitions, we believe it makes sense for our shareholders to explore uplisting, which in turn may provide additional access to capital." 

In other industry related developments in the markets of note:

Intel Corporation recently unveiled "Intel AI: In Production," a new program that makes it easier for developers to bring their artificial intelligence prototypes to market. Since its introduction last July, the Intel® Movidius™ Neural Compute Stick (NCS) has gained a developer base in the tens of thousands. Once developers have a prototype, the next step is to take it into production, which can be challenging and costly for small companies and entrepreneurs. To make it easier, Intel selected AAEON Technologies*, a leading manufacturer of advanced industrial and embedded computing platforms, as the first Intel AI: In Production partner. Through the program, AAEON provides two streamlined production paths for developers integrating the low-power Intel® Movidius ™ Myriad™ 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) into their product designs.

Micron Technology Inc. recently announced three new 64-layer, second-generation 3D NAND storage products, which support the high-speed Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.1 standard. Micron's new mobile 3D NAND products are available in 256GB, 128GB and 64GB capacities. These new mobile solutions are based on Micron's industry-leading triple level cell (TLC) 3D NAND technology, empowering smartphone makers to enhance the user experience with next-generation mobile features such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality and facial recognition. The emergence of AI in flagship phones is driving the need for more advanced storage solutions that enable faster and more efficient access to data. Analyst firm Gartner predicts that by 2022, 80 percent of all smartphones will have on-device AI capabilities, increasing the requirement to process and store more data locally. 

ShiftPixy Inc. announced this week it has leveraged the powerful Watson's artificial intelligence engine across its platform to achieve an active and personal user experience. ShiftPixy's current mobile gateway app uses Watson to power its entire employee enrollment process. ShiftPixy CEO Scott Absher stated, "Our new employees no longer have to fill out the burdensome pile of required new employee paperwork. By leveraging Watson's artificial intelligence capabilities, new hires are guided by a conversation with our chatbot 'Pixy' who asks the necessary questions and generates the required employment documents in a highly personal and engaging way." ShiftPixy's cutting-edge mobile onboarding process gives the Company the ability to onboard its fast-growing employee population base much faster and more efficiently than ever before. 

Twilio Inc.: Asian telco Singtel will collaborate with cloud communications platform Twilio to speed up the adoption of internet of things solutions in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region, it was announced Wednesday. The two businesses hope to develop a platform that will make the internet of things more accessible to developers. Singtel said the partnership would leverage its internet of things (IoT) network in Singapore as well as Twilio's programmable wireless product. This would allow developers to manage their connected device's cellular connectivity over a range of application programming interfaces, or APIs. "This partnership with Twilio will create a one-stop shop to accelerate the adoption of IoT solutions and help enterprises create exciting new products and services," Singtel's Head of IoT Diomedes Kastanis said in a statement.