IBM introduces Granite 3.0 AI models, Microsoft & UiPath transform processes with AI agents

PEX Network’s weekly bulletin rounds up the latest industry vendor news including product releases/updates, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and leadership changes.

This week includes:

• IBM releases Granite 3.0 AI models built for business
• UiPath Autopilot & Microsoft 365 Copilot agents to transform business processes
• Indico Data launches agentic AI application to enhance underwriting processes
• Celonis hosts Celosphere 2024
• Fennex wins Best Digital Transformation award
• Mendix named low-code leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant™

IBM releases Granite 3.0 AI models built for business

Technology giant and process mining provider IBM announced the release of its most advanced family of AI models to date, Granite 3.0. IBM’s third-generation Granite flagship language models can outperform or match similarly sized models from leading model providers on many academic and industry benchmarks, showcasing strong performance, transparency and safety, according to a press release.

IBM’s Granite 3.0 family includes:

• General purpose/language: Granite 3.0 8B Instruct, Granite 3.0 2B Instruct, Granite 3.0 8B Base, Granite 3.0 2B Base.
• Guardrails and safety: Granite Guardian 3.0 8B, Granite Guardian 3.0 2B.
• Mixture-of-experts: Granite 3.0 3B-A800M Instruct, Granite 3.0 1B-A400M Instruct, Granite 3.0 3B-A800M Base, Granite 3.0 1B-A400M Base.

“The new Granite 3.0 8B and 2B language models are designed as ‘workhorse’ models for enterprise AI, delivering strong performance for tasks such as retrieval augmented generation (RAG), classification, summarization, entity extraction and tool use,” IBM stated. “These compact, versatile models are designed to be fine-tuned with enterprise data and seamlessly integrated across diverse business environments or workflows.”

AI will be the biggest operational excellence (OPEX) and business transformation investment area over the next 12 months, according to the PEX Report 2024/25. More than half of surveyed businesses (58 percent) have discussed potential AI projects to drive operational excellence (OPEX) and transformation objectives. The areas where AI is being leveraged the most are in operations (35 percent), customer service and call centers (29 percent) and data processing and management (24 percent).

Tyrone Smith Jr., University of Southern California (USC), reflects on trusting AI

UiPath Autopilot & Microsoft 365 Copilot agents to transform business processes

Microsoft 365 previewed new AI capabilities in partnership with robotic process automation (RPA) vendor UiPath. “In September, we announced that Microsoft 365 Copilot agents will be rolling out in general availability over the coming weeks,” wrote Srini Raghavan, VP, Microsoft 365 Ecosystem. “Copilot agents (formerly extensions) help independent software vendors (ISVs) to supercharge their solutions by adding specialized knowledge and skills from their apps into the Copilot experience.”

UiPath, an enterprise automation provider and a valued Microsoft partner, is at the forefront of this wave of agents, Raghavan added. “In November 2024, they will publish a more advanced Autopilot agent on Teams for complex workflows and business processes. This agent will be a conversational Teams bot built using UiPath’s own large language model-based digital assistant Autopilot and their web app Orchestrator.” Teams has over 320 million monthly active users, so from a business perspective, it’s “really exciting” to bring the power of automation closer to each and every one of them, commented Graham Sheldon, chief product officer at UiPath.

Indico Data launches agentic AI application to enhance underwriting processes

Automation vendor Indico Data unveiled a new agentic AI decision application to enhance the insurance underwriting process. Designed specifically for the commercial underwriting sector, the solution automates the traditionally manual and time-consuming clearance process, reducing delays and inaccuracies, according to a press release. By automating the ingestion of unstructured submissions data and analysis of complex decision criteria, it speeds up the quoting process, leading to improved risk selection and premium growth, it added.

“We are thrilled to introduce the industry’s first agentic decision application for underwriting triage and clearance,” commented Tom Wilde, CEO of Indico Data. “This groundbreaking solution not only automates and accelerates the traditionally manual clearance process but also enhances decision-making accuracy and efficiency.”

Leona Holzbecher, psychologist, organizational developer and thought leader, discusses accountability in process management

Celonis hosts Celosphere 2024

Process mining leader Celonis is hosting its annual process intelligence conference Celosphere in Germany this week. Celosphere 2024 brings together business and thought leaders to discuss and explore the key trends shaping the modern process industry. Among the impressive lineup of speakers is author, generative AI expert and founder of Tamang Ventures, Nina Schick, reflecting on the transformative role AI is having on the business process landscape.

Celonis also announced an extended strategic partnership with PWC to help enable business transformation with process intelligence. “We are excited to embark on the next phase of our partnership with PwC,” commented Malhar Kamdar, chief customer officer and head of ecosystems at Celonis. “Together, we continue to deliver solutions that help companies leverage emerging technologies (like AI), meet growing customer expectations and adapt to evolving regulation.”

Fennex wins Best Digital Transformation award

Digital solutions provider Fennex won the prestigious Best Digital Transformation award at the Gulf Energy Excellence Awards in Houston, Texas. The recognition celebrates the firm’s collaboration on the Extreme Weather Monitoring and Simulation Platform, which improves safety and operational efficiency in high-risk offshore environments, according to a press release.

“We are thrilled to receive this recognition, which underscores the strength of our partnership with Noble [Corporation],” said Adrian Brown, managing director of Fennex. “Together, we’ve pushed the boundaries of digital transformation to protect offshore workers and improve operational resilience in some of the most challenging environments. Climate change is driving complexities. The reality is people who are forward thinking always think about how technology can be leveraged to manage increase in complexity. We focus on helping businesses to make better decisions to make their people and their assets safe.”

Nao Anthony, Commonwealth Bank, and Tariq Munir, PepsiCo, discuss the complexities and challenges of digital transformation

Mendix named low-code leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant™

Siemens business Mendix was named a “leader” in the new 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Low-Code Application Development Platforms. The 2024 report marks the eighth consecutive year that Mendix has been named a leader by Gartner and the second consecutive year of being positioned highest on the “ability to execute” axis. For this year’s research report, Gartner evaluated low-code vendors on various use cases.

“The speed of change in the enterprise took a sizable leap in the past year as generative AI dominated IT agendas,” said Raymond Kok, Mendix CEO. “The enterprise low-code platform market was no different. With continued integrations of AI and generative AI tools into the platform, we believe Mendix continues to be at the forefront of getting innovative tools into the hands of our customers.”

READ MORE PEX VENDOR NEWS

• SAP launches collaborative AI agents, Microsoft expands AI capabilities for “healthier future” 
• IBM makes Granite LLM available to SAP users, Workday wins huge UK Gov ERP contract
• IBM signs EC AI Pact, SAP tackles climate change, Accenture publishes 2024 fiscal results