These upcoming ABL ZOOM Tables will discuss "Motivating High Employee Performance: What Works?"


• 11/07 - OC ZOOM Table - featuring Greg Lebsack
• 11/08 - LA ZOOM Table - featuring Uri Blackman


• 10/30 - Membership-wide IN-PERSON EVENT (in OC):
  "AI Evolutions in 2024" - Using AI to Solve Monolithic Real-World Problems - You can listen, discuss, and meet with great speakers and Members from all 5 Round Tables who'll be attending this special Event; also featuring Lunch with Breakout Round Tables. The Event will kick-off with an Informal Networking Breakfast at 8:30, and conclude at 3 pm. Nearly all of our ABL Members have already RSVP'd, but to grab one of a handful of still-available seats, write [email protected] or call her at 714-975-1422 today.

• Alvaka (Oli Thordarson) Details an Essential Ransomware Remediation Checklist
• Dave Berkus Provides Insights on Business Banking, Negotiations & More
• BloomLogic (Laith Pahlawan) Adds Report Feature to AI Product
• Clovers AI (Adam Miller, JD) Unveils AI-Enabled Recruiting Solutions; While Instil Debuts Major Gift Solution for Enterprise Nonprofits
• CoAmplifi CEO Mark Parinas Offers Free Product to ABL Tech Members
• Eckert & Ziegler (Frank Yeager) & GlyTherix Sign Agreement for Lutetium-177 Supply
• Get Visible (Jason Ciment) Provides Business Hacks
• myKaarma Achieves Partner Certification with Nissan + CEO Ujj Nath Spotlighted in Industry Series
• Nortridge Software (Greg Hindson) Discusses Managing Loans During Economic Downturns
• Optimum (Arvind Verma) Shares Successes with Kubota, Hyundai, Polestar & Kawasaki
• ProProfs (Sameer Bhatia) Provides Guidance on Supercharging Your Training Programs
• John Tanner's NuSci to Present In-Person Workshop on October 27
• The Joy Factory (Sampson Yang & Miranda Su) Releases New Products for iPhone & Partners with EXS Synergy
• Toast (Ken Neeld) Named a 2024 Inc Power Partners Winner & Announces New Products
• Marshall Toplansky on Presidential Politics; Future of Social Media; & Global Trends

• Biospectal (Eliott Jones) Spotlighted in Industry Journals & Reports
• iMediSync (Dave Berkus) & Brainboost Debut iSyncWave to Transform Brain Health
• Makani Science's Greg Buchert, MD to Speak at Upcoming Conference
• MedWand (Todd Cornell) Acclaimed as a Top Breakthrough Medical Technology

Biospectal's OptiBP has been recognized recently in several industry publications: In the Journal of Hypertension's "Innovations in blood pressure measurement and reporting technology" position paper by leading international organizations; in Unitaid's recent report on innovations for the detection and management of pre-eclampsia; and in Digital Health Industry magazine, about Biospectal's collaboration with the World Health Organization to make OptiBP accessible worldwide. (BA)

iMediSync and Brainboost recently announced the arrival of Brainboost neurofeedback at a webinar in which attendees learned how iSyncWave, the world's first device combining qEEG, photobiomodulation, and neurofeedback, is transforming brain health and performance. They explored how iSyncWave's neurofeedback capabilities can provide therapeutic brain training experiences, improve cognitive function, and support overall mental wellness. Attendees gained insights into its qEEG brain assessments and photobiomodulation for boosting mitochondrial health. (LA)

Greg Buchert, CEO of Makani Science, will be a presenter at the OC Impact Conference on November 6, which will bring together leading experts in research, healthcare, and data science, alongside industry decision-makers from life sciences, medical devices, and hospitals. Greg's panel will address Investment, Equity Deals & M&A Opportunities in Healthcare, Medtech and Biotech. (OC)

MedWand is featured in a recent Yanko Design article - Top 5 Breakthrough Medical Technologies You Need To Know About - which reports that "the medical industry has been coming up with ingenious innovations, that are completely transforming the healthcare game ... new and improved, life-saving medical designs that not only boost medical care but also relieve some of the pressure from our tireless medical force ... these innovations are upping the medical arena." (OC)

Every year around this time, analyst group Gartner releases its list of top 10 strategic technology trends for the upcoming year. When reading these trend prognostications, it's important to contextualize them. Gartner isn't saying these are all initiatives your company should be working on or that you should feel somehow less than if your company doesn't have active initiatives in all of these areas. What Gartner is saying is that these are trends and areas of innovation, activity, opportunity, and concern you should start becoming aware of.

If you're unfamiliar with the new computing technologies of optical, neuromorphic, and novel accelerators, Gartner suggests you learn more about them before proceeding, since the firm refers to them as underlying technologies, particularly for energy-efficient and hybrid computing. Here's a summary of the top 10: Agentic AI; AI governance platforms; Disinformation security; Postquantum cryptography; Ambient invisible intelligence; Energy-efficient computing; Hybrid computing; Spatial computing; Polyfunctional robots; and Neurological enhancement. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/gartners-2025-tech-trends-show-how-your-business-needs-to-adapt-and-fast/)

As the U.S. presidential election nears, 3 in 4 C-suite executives consider cybersecurity a moderate or serious risk, making it the biggest overall concern among potential business risks, according to a recently published PwC report. About one-third of executives consider technology, AI and data regulation the top three policy risks, no matter which major candidate wins. The report is based on a survey of 709 U.S. executives conducted between Sept. 12-19. Beyond cyber, business leaders are concerned about geopolitical tensions and how pressure on profit margins may impact earnings, according to PwC. (https://www.ciodive.com/news/c-suite-cyber-risk-presidential-election/729746/)

The data centers that make generative AI products like ChatGPT possible will soon reach size limits, according to Microsoft Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich, necessitating a new method of connecting multiple data centers together for future generations of the technology. The most advanced AI models today need to be trained inside a single building where tens (and soon hundreds) of thousands of AI processors, such as Nvidia's H100s, can be connected so they act as one computer. But as Microsoft and its rivals compete to build the world's most powerful AI models, several factors, including America's aging energy grid, will create a de facto cap on the size of a single data center, which soon could consume multiple gigawatts of power, equivalent to hundreds of thousands of homes. (https://www.semafor.com/article/10/11/2024/microsoft-azure-cto-us-data-centers-will-soon-hit-limits-of-energy-grid)

Amazon Web Services is investing more than $500 million in nuclear power, announcing three projects from Virginia to Washington state. AWS, Amazon's subsidiary in cloud computing, has a massive and increasing need for clean energy as it expands its services into generative AI. It's also a part of Amazon's path to net-zero carbon emissions. AWS announced it has signed an agreement with Dominion Energy, Virginia's utility company, to explore the development of a small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, near Dominion's existing North Anna nuclear power station. Nuclear reactors produce no carbon emissions. Amazon is the latest large tech company to buy into nuclear power to fuel the growing demands from data centers. Recently, Google announced it will purchase power from SMR developer Kairos Power, while Constellation Energy is restarting Three Mile Island to power Microsoft data centers (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/16/amazon-goes-nuclear-investing-more-than-500-million-to-develop-small-module-reactors.html)

In the U.S., California is the only state where hydrogen refueling stations are available, and there are only 43 stations currently operational in the state as per the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership. But German auto giant BMW is not ready to close the chapter on fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). It has played with H2 concepts in R&D for years, and now things seem to be accelerating. BMW launched a pilot fleet of iX5 Hydrogen models in Germany last year, using Toyota's third-generation fuel cells. A production version of that model would arrive in the U.S. by 2028, and there could potentially be more BMW FCEVs after that. Recently, officials from BMW said three things could make FCEVs a viable alternative to EVs: a growing hydrogen infrastructure for commercial vehicles that passenger vehicles could benefit from, hydrogen's “load balancing“ role in stationary energy storage for excess renewable energy, and the benefits of the tech in certain driving conditions.
Meanwhile, the U.S. DOE released its National Zero Emission Freight Corridor Strategy in March, which laid out a plan to increase the share of battery-electric and hydrogen-powered trucks in the U.S. The DOE plans to do this by supporting companies that will build “Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs.“ The Biden Administration, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, has awarded $7 billion to establish these hubs, which are a network of clean hydrogen producers and connecting infrastructure. (https://insideevs.com/news/736279/bmw-hydrogen-future-climate-week/)

Employees and managers expect generative AI adoption will reshape responsibilities in the workplace, according to a Capgemini Research Institute report. GenAI will assist with nearly one-third of entry-level tasks over the next year, employees predict, according to the survey of 1,500 respondents. Around 3 in 5 managers expect entry-level roles to shift from focusing on creation to reviewing AI-generated outputs over the next three years. More than half of leaders expect their position will become more specialized. (https://www.ciodive.com/news/generative-AI-impact-workforce-roles-responsibilities-Capgemini/730350/)

Enterprise travel platform TravelPerk released new research on professionals' opinions of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. It found that though participants were somewhat apprehensive, 95% said they "would be willing to allow an AI avatar to perform tasks in a meeting on their behalf." Specifically, employees said they would let AI avatars complete "admin-focused tasks," including "reminding them of deadlines (61%) or scheduling meetings (53%)," so they can focus more on person-to-person interactions during meetings. However, the research clarified that "there is also some openness to letting avatars handle some 'human' interactions, such as delivering a presentation (34%) and answering questions (36%) based on pre-set guidelines or historical behavior." However, only 13% of remote workers said they would let AI make decisions, compared with 23% of onsite workers. Of those polled, 34% of executive leaders said they would let an AI avatar make decisions on their behalf during a meeting, compared to only 9% of entry-level workers. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/95-of-workers-would-let-their-ai-avatars-perform-tasks-in-meetings-survey-finds/)

Half a dozen technology companies recently submitted a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives' Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, asking for governance frameworks and policy proposals that better represent the roles of vendors. The letter asked for clearer delineation of obligations for AI integrators, or companies that retrain, modify and fine-tune AI models into other products and services. Legislators and regulators have primarily taken a binary lens to the landscape, categorizing players as developers or deployers. Current policy debates “lack the nuance necessary to capture this complexity and ignore key components of the value chain,“ the group, which includes Salesforce, Kyndryl, Twilio, Box, Alteryx and Peraton, said in the letter. (https://www.ciodive.com/news/tech-vendors-lawmakers-regulatory-clarity-AI-developers/730230/)

Email: [email protected]