HCLTech Launches Autonomous Finance Platform for use with Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise

HCLTech, a leading global technology company, today announced the launch of an autonomous finance platform that transforms core finance and accounting operations using Gemini Enterprise.

While enterprises make significant investments in core ERP and SaaS platforms, finance and accounting operations continue to rely heavily on manual intervention. The new platform is designed to address this gap by enabling finance processes to operate with a high degree of autonomy and intelligence, while integrating seamlessly with existing technology systems.

Unlike traditional automation and isolated AI use cases, the platform orchestrates end-to-end finance processes autonomously — executing, learning and continuously optimizing workflows across Invoice-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Record-to-Report. This approach enables faster execution, improved control and measurable business outcomes for enterprise finance organizations.

This enterprise-grade platform brings together Google’s Gemini Enterprise AI stack and secure cloud infrastructure with HCLTech’s deep finance domain expertise, engineering capabilities and operations experience. The Autonomous Finance platform leverages HCLTech’s Industry AI Solutions, which brings domain-trained AI solutions tailored to specific industry and enterprise functions. The new platform is scalable, secure and designed for real-world finance operations, while accelerating time-to-value for global enterprises.

“ERP and SaaS platforms digitized finance, but they did not fundamentally change how work gets done,” said Upjit Ghuman, Executive Vice President and Global Head of BPO, HCLTech. “Our platform introduces an Agentic AI fabric that operates on top of customers’ existing IT systems, enabling finance processes to run largely autonomously. By significantly reducing manual intervention, CFOs and finance teams can focus on judgment-driven, strategic and value-creating work.”

“HCLTech’s AI strategy is about taking AI from experimentation to enterprise scale,” said Vijay Guntur, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Ecosystems at HCLTech. “This collaboration with Agent Platform is a strong step forward in that direction — bringing together advanced AI capabilities and real-world enterprise depth to create solutions that can be deployed with confidence across core business functions.”

“Gemini Enterprise and Google’s AI stack are built to handle the complex orchestration required by the world’s largest enterprises,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “Built on this foundation, HCLTech’s finance platform combines deep domain understanding with proven engineering excellence to transform core business functions into autonomous, agent-led operations."

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to more than 227,000 people across 60 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around AI, digital, engineering, cloud and software, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products. We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology and Services, Semiconductor, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG, Mobility and Public Services. Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending March 2026 totaled $14.7 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.

HCLTech Launches Gemini Enterprise Unit to Drive Agentic AI Adoption

HCLTech, a leading global technology company, today announced the launch of a dedicated Gemini Enterprise Business Unit. The new business unit, the first of its kind from a global system integrator, will accelerate the development and adoption of industry‑specific solutions built on Google Gemini Enterprise.

HCLTech’s Gemini Enterprise Business Unit aims to enable enterprises globally unlock the full value of generative and agentic AI. Enterprises can transition from manual, fragmented processes to unified, automated decision‑making, driving measurable outcomes such as reduced unplanned maintenance downtime, stronger fraud mitigation and improved diagnostic accuracy.

"HCLTech continues to be an essential partner in bringing Google Cloud technologies to enterprises worldwide," said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. "By combining HCLTech's industry expertise with Google Cloud's agentic platform, we're providing our joint customers with the tailored, industry-specific solutions necessary to tackle their most complex business challenges.”

“The new dedicated Gemini Enterprise business unit is aligned with our vision to help customers accelerate industry solution-led AI adoption and further strengthens our partnership with Google Cloud. The two awards reflect our focus on solving real business challenges. Whether modernizing core infrastructure or applying Physical AI and Agentic AI to industry‑specific needs, we work closely with our clients in deploying technology, helping them move forward with clarity and confidence in achieving their business goals,” said Vijay Guntur, CTO and Head of Ecosystems at HCLTech.

HCLTech has won the prestigious 2026 Google Cloud Partner of the Year Awards in two categories: Global Infrastructure Modernization – Migration, and Services & Industry Solutions – Energy and Manufacturing.

Learn more about HCLTech’s Google Cloud capabilities: https://www.hcltech.com/google-cloud

TCS Launches 7th Gemini Experience Center Worldwide, 2nd in US

The TCS Gemini Experience Center in Troy features an AI‑powered humanoid robot (in photo) that will use advanced sensing, edge intelligence, and secure cloud orchestration to enable real‑time operational insight and autonomous decision‑making.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced the launch of its seventh Gemini Experience Center globally—and second in the US—at Troy, Michigan, in partnership with Google Cloud. The center is designed to accelerate AI-powered manufacturing by integrating Google’s Gemini models with TCS’ expertise in “Physical AI". 

Key Details

• Location: Troy, Michigan, USA
• Launch Date: March 9, 2026
• Partnership: Google Cloud
• Focus: AI-driven manufacturing solutions, specifically “Physical AI”
• Global Footprint: 7th Gemini Experience Center worldwide, 2nd in the US

Strategic Purpose

• Accelerating AI adoption in manufacturing
• Physical AI development integrating robotics, sensors, and industrial systems
• Future-ready enterprises with scalable frameworks

Why It Matters

• For US manufacturing: Michigan is a hub for automotive and advanced manufacturing
• For global clients: TCS positions itself as a leader in AI-driven industrial transformation
• For India’s IT sector: Expansion strengthens global presence and showcases leadership

📊 Comparison: TCS Gemini Centers

Region	Number of Centers	Focus Area
India	Multiple	AI R&D, enterprise solutions
US (Troy, MI)	2	Manufacturing, Physical AI
Europe	Several	Industry 4.0, sustainability
Global Total	7	AI-powered transformation

Challenges & Risks

• Adoption barriers: high upfront costs and integration challenges
• Workforce transition: reskilling needed due to automation
• Competitive landscape: differentiation against other IT majors

Takeaway

TCS’ Gemini Experience Center in Troy is a strategic investment in AI-powered manufacturing, combining Google’s Gemini models with TCS’ industrial expertise. For manufacturers, this means faster adoption of Physical AI, smarter factories, and a pathway to global competitiveness.

Wipro Expands Google Cloud Partnership with Gemini Enterprise Rollout

• Adopts Gemini Enterprise across its global operations to speed up decision-making and improve employee experience
• Launches Google Cloud Gemini Experience Zone at Wipro’s Partner Labs in Bengaluru

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading AI-powered technology services and consulting company, is expanding its longstanding partnership with Google Cloud to enhance enterprise productivity and drive global digital transformation with Gemini Enterprise.

Wipro Intelligence™*, the unified suite of AI-powered platforms, solutions and transformative offerings, anchors Wipro’s “Client Zero” approach, with the company first deploying and validating solutions and innovations internally to ensure they are optimized and enterprise-ready before client rollout. As part of this strategy, Wipro is implementing Gemini Enterprise across its core corporate functions, including finance, human resources, sales, delivery, and customer support to accelerate decision-making, enhance operational efficiency, and improve employee experience.

Gemini Enterprise is Google Cloud’s next generation agentic AI platform, and the new front door to AI in the workplace. Powered by Google’s world-class Gemini models, it provides an intuitive conversational interface that enables employees to interact with and analyze company data and applications and build no-code AI agents with enterprise-grade security and controls using natural language.

In addition to the internal adoption of Gemini Enterprise across its global operations, Wipro will leverage its deep industry expertise, consulting-led approach, and the Wipro Intelligence™ suite to enable joint enterprise customers to transition from fragmented AI pilots to secure, production-ready agentic solutions at scale.

Towards this partnership outlook, Matt Renner, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Google Cloud, recently inaugurated the Google Cloud Gemini Experience Zone at Wipro’s Partner Labs – a cornerstone of Wipro Intelligence™ – at the Kodathi campus in Bengaluru. This cutting-edge zone offers hands-on access to joint Google Cloud solutions, and showcases more than 200 production-ready AI agents across industries such as Healthcare, Banking, Insurance, Retail, Communications, and Manufacturing.

“Wipro’s commitment to innovation and enterprise transformation, powered by Gemini Enterprise, reflects a bold vision and long-term dedication to driving industry leadership and strategic impact,” said Matt Renner, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Google Cloud. “Through our expanded partnership, we are moving customers beyond experimental AI pilots to real-world outcomes, thereby delivering production-ready AI agents that create measurable business value.”

Sanjeev Jain, Chief Operating Officer, Wipro Limited, said, “By deploying Gemini Enterprise at scale across our operations, we are deepening our partnership with Google Cloud to reimagine the future of work, and setting a global benchmark for responsible AI adoption. This AI-powered transformation, with Wipro Intelligence™ at the core, will drive efficiency, agility, and growth – positioning Wipro and our clients to lead the next wave of enterprise innovation.”

*Wipro Intelligence™ is Wipro’s unified suite of AI-powered platforms, solutions, and transformative offerings, designed to empower enterprises to scale with confidence and lead in an AI-first world. The Wipro Innovation Network is an integral part of Wipro Intelligence™, bringing together Wipro's innovation labs, partner labs, AI-native partners, Wipro Ventures, Topcoder, research & academia, as well as deep-tech talent to harness frontier technologies such as Agentic AI, Embodied AI, and Quantum Computing to co-innovate with clients and bring Wipro Intelligence™ to life.

About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading AI-powered technology services and consulting company focused on building innovative solutions that address clients’ most complex digital transformation needs. Leveraging our consulting-led approach and the Wipro Intelligence™ unified suite of AI-powered platforms, solutions and transformative offerings, we help clients realize their boldest ambitions to build intelligent and sustainable businesses. The Wipro Innovation Network – part of the Wipro Intelligence™ suite – underpins our commitment to client-centric co-innovation and co-creation by bringing together capabilities from the innovation labs and partner labs, academia, and global tech communities. With over 230,000 employees and business partners across 65 countries, we deliver on the promise of helping our customers, colleagues, and communities thrive in an ever-changing world. For additional information, visit us at www.wipro.com.

Adobe Brings Google’s Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) Into Firefly & Photoshop, Expanding Creative AI Choice

At Adobe, we’re committed to being the best place to help you realize your creative vision by bringing the industry’s top models, including our recently announced Firefly Image Model 5, into our apps as soon as they launch. This means you benefit from choice and flexibility to use the best model for any creative task, paired with our powerful editing tools.

Today, we’re delivering on that promise again by integrating Google’s latest image model, Gemini 3 (with Nano Banana Pro) into Adobe Firefly and Photoshop. It joins a growing lineup of partner models across image, video, and audio to choose from in our apps, including those from Black Forest Labs, ElevenLabs, Google, Ideogram, Luma AI, Moonvalley, OpenAI, Pika, Runway and Topaz Labs.

The world of AI models — each with its own strengths and personality — is growing fast. And creators tell us that they use different models for different tasks. In our recent global study of 16,000+ creators, more than 60 percent said they use multiple creative AI models to match the right tool to the right task.

So we’re making it easier to work the way you want, right inside our apps. By pairing breakthrough models with Adobe’s industry-leading tools, we’re empowering you to combine high-quality generations with the precision and control of our tools, so you can create exactly what you envision. No more chasing new model releases on your own, juggling disconnected tools, or paying for multiple subscriptions. Everything you need is already right inside the Adobe apps where you do your best creative work.

Unlimited generations through December 1: To help you start creating with Nano Banana Pro, we’re offering unlimited image generations with Firefly image models and partner models in the Firefly app until December 1 (available to Creative Cloud Pro and Firefly plan subscribers).

The latest pro-grade image model in Adobe Firefly and Photoshop

We’ve been inspired by the incredible work our community created using Gemini Flash Image 2.5 (Nano Banana) in our apps. Google’s latest Nano Banana Pro model delivers significant improvements in editing quality, allowing you to use text prompts to refine specific parts of an image, adjust aspect ratios, boost resolution, and even shift camera angles and lighting.

It also excels at generating clean, well-integrated text inside images and can localize visuals with translated text. And by drawing on Google Search’s knowledge base, the model can generate factually accurate visuals. Its pro-grade capabilities make it a great complementary model in our creative apps.

In Firefly, creators can upload up to six reference images and prompt Nano Banana Pro via text to merge and refine those elements into a cohesive image, with clean, integrated text.

Create with Nano Banana Pro in Firefly and Firefly Boards

In Firefly Boards, creative professionals can use Nano Banana Pro to develop campaign concepts by uploading texts, images, and icons and prompting it to visualize them in real-world contexts — such as a billboard in a New York city street — for client review.

In Adobe Firefly, our all-in-one creative AI studio for ideation, creation, and production across video, image, audio, creators can use Nano Banana Pro in our Text to Image feature. The model is also available in Firefly Boards, our AI-powered collaborative moodboarding surface, where creators and creative professionals can brainstorm, organize ideas and visualize early-stage concepts together.

Generative Fill in Photoshop, now powered by Nano Banana Pro

In Photoshop, Nano Banana Pro is the newest model powering Generative Fill, giving creative professionals fast, prompt-based ways to make specific edits, generate more realistic high-resolution content, and explore creative variations.

It follows our recent addition of Google’s Nano Banana and Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.1 Kontext [pro] — the first set of partner models we integrated into Photoshop earlier this year to power Generative Fill. With Firefly and partner models in Photoshop, creative professionals can move seamlessly from generative experimentation to refining results using layers, masks, and selections for pixel-perfect editing, all without breaking their workflow.

With Nano Banana Pro powering Generative Fill in Photoshop, creative professionals can use text prompts to adjust the lighting of an image, like turning day into night.

Start creating with Nano Banana Pro in Firefly and Photoshop

You can create with Nano Banana Pro in Adobe Firefly and Photoshop starting today. We can’t wait to see what you dream up!

Jio 5G Users Aged 18–25 Get Free Access to Google Gemini AI Pro Plan

Reliance Jio has partnered with Google to offer eligible users 18 months of free access to the Gemini 2.5 Pro AI plan—worth ₹35,100—starting October 30, 2025. This offer is currently available to Jio 5G users aged 18–25 on unlimited plans.

What’s Included in the Gemini AI Pro Plan

• Gemini 2.5 Pro model: Google's flagship AI with enhanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities.
• AI image and video generation: Create visuals by describing ideas—ideal for students, creators, and developers.
• NotebookLM: AI-powered research and writing assistant with 5× higher usage limits.
• 2 TB Google Cloud storage: For photos, documents, and collaborative work.
• AI integration in Google Workspace: Use Gemini directly inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more.
• AI image editing tools: Transform photos into creative assets using Gemini’s latest image update.

Who’s Eligible and How to Claim

• Eligibility: Jio 5G users aged 18–25 subscribed to Unlimited 5G plans.
• Claim Process:
  • Open the MyJio app.
  • Look for the Google Gemini Offer banner.
  • Follow the steps to activate your free 18-month subscription.

Strategic Impact

• Follows similar AI democratization efforts like ChatGPT Go being offered free in India from November 4, 2025.
• Airtel previously partnered with Perplexity AI for a one-year free access plan.
• Google Cloud is also partnering with Reliance Intelligence to expand enterprise AI adoption across India.

Why It Matters

This partnership is a major step in making premium AI tools accessible to India’s youth and 5G user base. It blends Reliance’s massive reach with Google’s cutting-edge AI, potentially reshaping how millions engage with productivity, creativity, and research tools.

From Watts to Words: Google Breaks Down Gemini’s Energy Per Query

Google recently published a detailed technical report revealing the environmental footprint of its Gemini AI apps—marking the first time a major tech company has shared per-query energy, water, and carbon data at this level of granularity.

Key Findings from Google’s Report

• Energy Use per Prompt: A median Gemini text prompt consumes 0.24 watt-hours (Wh)—roughly the same as watching TV for less than 9 seconds.
• Carbon Emissions: Each prompt emits 0.03 grams of CO₂ equivalent (gCO₂e).
• Water Consumption: About 0.26 milliliters per prompt—equivalent to five drops of water.
• Efficiency Gains: Over the past year, Gemini’s energy use per prompt dropped 33x, and its carbon footprint fell 44x, while output quality improved.

How Google Measured It

Google’s methodology goes beyond just counting active chip usage:

• Includes idle machines, cooling systems, and power conversion overhead.
• Tracks full system dynamic power across its data centers.
• Uses Mixture-of-Experts architecture and custom TPUs (like Ironwood) to optimize compute efficiency.

Industry Reactions

While many praised the transparency, some experts raised concerns:

• Critics argue Google may have omitted indirect water usage and relied on market-based carbon offsets, which could understate the true impact.
• Others say the report sets a new benchmark for responsible AI disclosure, even if it’s not perfect.

Oracle to Offer Google’s Gemini Models to Customers, Accelerating Enterprises’ Agentic AI Journeys

• Oracle will collaborate with Google Cloud on various Gemini model integrations across business applications

Oracle and Google Cloud have expanded their partnership to offer customers access to Google’s most advanced AI models, starting with Gemini 2.5, via Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Generative AI service. Oracle customers can now utilize the latest Gemini models to build AI agents for a wide range of use cases including multimodal understanding, advanced coding and software development tasks, productivity and workflow automation, and research and knowledge retrieval.

Oracle plans to make Google’s entire range of Gemini models available via OCI Generative AI service through new integrations with Vertex AI, including cutting edge models for video, image, speech, and music generation and specialized industry models like MedLM. In the future, Oracle will collaborate with Google Cloud to make Gemini models via Vertex AI available as an option within Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, providing customers with a broader choice to enhance workflows in finance, HR, supply chain, sales, service, and marketing. Oracle customers can use their existing Oracle Universal Credits to start leveraging Google’s Gemini models.

“Today, leading enterprises are using Gemini to power AI agents across a range of use cases and industries,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “Now, Oracle customers can access our leading models from within their Oracle environments, making it even easier for them to begin deploying powerful AI agents that can support developers, streamline data integration tasks, and much more.”

Google’s Gemini models excel in enterprise use cases thanks to their ability to ground responses in up-to-date Google Search data for accuracy, large context windows, strong encryption and data privacy policies, and leading reasoning abilities.

“Oracle has been intentional in offering model choice curated for the enterprise, spanning open and proprietary models,” said Clay Magouyrk, president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “The availability of Gemini on OCI Generative AI service highlights our focus on delivering powerful, secure, and cost-effective AI solutions that help customers drive innovation and achieve their business goals.”

Oracle brings leading-edge AI technology close to enterprise data and prioritizes security, adaptability, and scalability. This helps customers across industries apply the right AI technologies, including generative and agentic AI, to the right business scenarios for immediate results. In addition, thousands of AI innovators are leveraging OCI’s cost-effective, purpose-built AI capabilities to run the most demanding AI workloads faster. OCI bare metal GPU instances can power applications for generative AI, natural language processing, computer vision, and recommendation systems.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about Oracle AI
• Learn more about OCI Generative AI
• Learn more about Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
• Learn more about Google Gemini
• Learn more about Google Cloud’s Vertex AI

About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

New Trick Breaks AI Safeguards—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini All Vulnerable

Experts Discover Vulnerability in AI Chatbots Like ChatGPT & Claude

Security researchers have discovered a new jailbreak technique that can bypass safety guardrails across major AI models, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. The exploit, developed by AI security firm HiddenLayer, uses a combination of policy file formatting, roleplaying, and leetspeak to trick AI into generating harmful content.

Jailbreaking, in the context of AI, refers to techniques used to bypass the safety guardrails built into AI models. These guardrails are designed to prevent AI from generating harmful, unethical, or restricted content. Jailbreaking allows users to manipulate AI into ignoring these restrictions, often through cleverly crafted prompts.

The method envisaged by the team at AI firm HiddenLayer, called the "Policy Puppetry Attack", allows attackers to rewrite prompts in a way that AI models interpret as legitimate instructions, bypassing their safety alignments. Researchers found that a single universal prompt could be used across multiple models —  including Google's Gemini 2.5, Anthropic's Claude 3.7, and OpenAI's 4o. —without modification, making it alarmingly easy to exploit.

The implications are significant, as AI companies continue to struggle with securing their models against such vulnerabilities. HiddenLayer argues that additional security tools and detection methods are needed to prevent misuse.

The "Policy Puppetry Attack" exploits AI models by combining three techniques.

1. Policy File Formatting: The prompt is structured like a configuration file (e.g., XML or JSON), which AI models interpret as override instructions rather than user input. This tricks the model into bypassing its safety protocols.
2. Roleplaying Misdirection: The prompt sets up a fictional scenario, such as a TV script, where the AI "acts" as a character needing to generate restricted content. This roleplaying layer bypasses ethical constraints.
3. Leetspeak Encoding: Harmful requests are encoded in leetspeak (e.g., "3nr1ch 4nd s3ll ur4n1um"), bypassing keyword filters while remaining readable to the model.

This method works universally across major AI models, exploiting their shared vulnerabilities. It's a stark reminder of the challenges in securing AI systems.

Ethical Concerns

This jailbreak method raises serious ethical concerns. It undermines the safety measures designed to prevent AI from generating harmful or inappropriate content, potentially enabling misuse for malicious purposes. For instance, attackers could exploit AI to spread misinformation, create harmful instructions, or even facilitate illegal activities.

It also highlights the responsibility of developers to ensure robust security and ethical safeguards in AI systems. If these vulnerabilities are exploited, it could erode trust in AI technologies and harm individuals or communities. The ethical dilemma lies in balancing innovation with accountability—how do we advance AI while ensuring it doesn't become a tool for harm?

UP Govt Launches ONDC-like Open Network for Agriculture, Powered by Google's Gemini and Beckn Protocol

The Government of Uttar Pradesh, in collaboration with Google Cloud India, has launched the Uttar Pradesh Open Network for Agriculture (UPONA). This initiative is powered by Google's Gemini framework and the Beckn Protocol, aiming to provide millions of farmers with a comprehensive digital platform.

The UPONA specifically targets farmers, providing services like agricultural advisory, credit access, and market linkages

The UPONA is quite similar to the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as both initiatives aim to create open, decentralized platforms that facilitate access to essential services and promote digital inclusion. Both initiatives aim to create open, decentralized platforms that facilitate access to essential services and promote digital inclusion.

The Beckn Protocol, which is the backbone of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), is also powering UPONA. While the UPONA focuses on farmers, ONDC aims to support small businesses and retailers by providing a unified platform for e-commerce.

Key Features:

Services Offered: The network offers advisory services, credit access, mechanization, and market linkages.

Accessibility: Farmers can access the network using voice commands in multiple languages, including Hindi, Bangla, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, and Punjabi.

Open and Decentralized: Unlike traditional marketplace apps, this network is designed to be open and decentralized, allowing various service providers to join and connect with farmers.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): The network leverages Google Cloud’s DPI-in-a-box offering and the Beckn Protocol to enable interoperability and decentralized discovery of products and services.

This initiative is a significant step towards enhancing the agricultural ecosystem in Uttar Pradesh and empowering farmers with the tools and resources they need to thrive.

Key Similarities Between UPONA & ONDC

Open and Decentralized: Both networks are designed to be open and decentralized, allowing various service providers to join and connect with users.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): Both initiatives leverage DPI to enhance service delivery and accessibility.

Interoperability: Both networks use open standards to enable interoperability and decentralized discovery of products and services.

Focus on Farmers and Small Businesses: While the UP Open Network for Agriculture focuses on farmers, ONDC aims to support small businesses and retailers by providing a unified platform for e-commerce.

Key Differences Between UPONA & ONDC

Target Audience: The UP Open Network for Agriculture specifically targets farmers, providing services like agricultural advisory, credit access, and market linkages. ONDC, on the other hand, targets a broader audience, including small businesses and consumers, to facilitate digital commerce.

Services Offered: The UP Open Network for Agriculture offers specialized services for the agricultural sector, while ONDC focuses on creating a unified e-commerce platform for various industries.

Both initiatives are significant steps towards enhancing digital infrastructure and promoting economic growth in India.

Nokia and Google Cloud Collaborate to Help Developers Worldwide Create 5G Applications Faster with Telco APIs

Nokia has expanded its collaboration with Google Cloud to empower developers worldwide in creating innovative 5G enterprise and consumer applications more efficiently.

This move enhances the developer experience by leveraging Google Cloud data and generative AI solutions, including Vertex AI and Gemini 1.5 Pro.

Nokia's "Network as Code" platform, which brings together telco networks, systems integrators, and software developers, will now run on Google Cloud. This platform accelerates the development of software applications that can utilize 5G and 4G network capabilities.

By leveraging Google Cloud's Vertex AI and Gemini 1.5 Pro, developers can easily consume AI in their applications and improve productivity with coding assistance agents.

The collaboration aims to target industry-specific use cases, starting with healthcare. This will help telehealth companies provide better and safer customer experiences.

Google Cloud's expansive developer community will benefit from standardized 5G network capabilities worldwide, exposed through Nokia's Network as Code platform. This provides technical tools for creating new applications.

Overall, this collaboration enhances the developer experience and promotes faster 5G application development across various sectors.

Nokia’s Network as Code platform with developer portal provides developers with software development kits (SDKs); network API documentation, a “sandbox” to create software code for use case simulation and testing; and code “snippets” that can be included in building new applications. The platform is based on a revenue share model between developers, operators, and Nokia.

Since its launch in September 2023, Nokia has signed collaboration agreements with 13 network operators and ecosystem partners in Europe, North America, and South America.

Google Launches Gemini App in India With 9 Regional Languages

Google has introduced its AI assistant, Gemini, in India, extending its support to nine regional languages alongside English. The Gemini app can be accessed via typing, speaking, or even by adding images.

It is now available in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. This means users in India can now interact with Gemini using their preferred language, making it more accessible and user-friendly.

If you're an Android user, you can download the Gemini app through the Play Store, and iPhone users will also be able to access Gemini through the Google app in the coming weeks.

Initially launched for Android 12, now Gemini Al can be used for a wider range of devices. The latest version of the Gemini app for Android, will support devices running on Android 10 and 11. This is expected to reduce the minimum system requirements from Android 12.

To access Gemini on Android, download the Gemini app or opt-in through Google Assistant. You can then use Gemini by corner swiping, hitting the power button on select phones, or saying "Hey Google." This enables a new overlay experience with easy access to Gemini and contextual help right on your screen. Many voice features you loved in Google Assistant will be available through the Gemini app — including setting timers, making calls and setting reminders — and we’re working to support more in the future.

On iOS, Gemini access is rolling out directly from the Google app over the next few weeks. Just tap the Gemini toggle and start chatting to supercharge your creativity and productivity.

HCLTech to Enable Its 25,000 Engineers on Gemini for Google Cloud

HCLTech has announced a strategic initiative with Google Cloud to scale Gemini, a multimodal large language AI model. This collaboration aims to enable 25,000 HCLTech engineers on Google Cloud’s latest GenAI technology. The focus is to support clients at every stage of their AI projects, including the development of new use cases and capabilities for HCLTech platforms and product offerings. Initially, the effort will concentrate on industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and telecom.
The company has also launched HCLTech AI Force, a pre-built GenAI platform designed to optimize engineering lifecycle processes from planning through development, testing, and maintenance. Gemini's advanced code completion and summarization capabilities will be integrated into the HCLTech AI Force platform, enhancing the ability of engineers to generate code, remediate issues, and accelerate software project delivery for clients.

Furthermore, HCLTech plans to use Gemini models to strengthen and expand its portfolio of industry solutions developed in its dedicated Cloud Native Labs and AI Labs. These labs are focused on accelerating client innovation and are staffed by leading AI experts and engineers. They will enable clients to better scope, manage, and refine gen AI projects on Google Cloud’s infrastructure.

This initiative reflects HCLTech's commitment to bringing innovative GenAI solutions to market, leveraging Google’s scalable Gemini models to deliver value to global enterprises.

Cognizant Adopts Gemini for Google Cloud, To Train Its 70,000 Associates

Cognizant and Google Cloud have expanded their AI partnership. On March 21, 2024, the companies announced an enhancement of their collaboration to boost software development productivity. Cognizant will adopt "Gemini for Google Cloud" to accelerate the velocity for its software developers and enable over 70,000 associates on Google Cloud's latest AI technologies.

This expansion is part of Cognizant's commitment to invest $1 billion in generative AI over three years, aiming to amplify human potential and drive significant economic impact.

Cognizant will adopt Gemini for Google Cloud in two ways: first, by training Cognizant associates to use Gemini for software development assistance; and second, Cognizant is integrating Gemini's advanced capabilities within its internal operations and platforms. Using Gemini for Google Cloud, Cognizant's developers will be equipped to write, test, and deploy code faster and more effectively with the help of AI-powered tools, improving the reliability and cost efficiency of building and managing client applications.

Last year in May, Cognizant announced establishment of Google Cloud AI Innovation Centers and the Cognizant Google Cloud AI University, which will train 25,000 Cognizant professionals plus clients. With the latest partnership expansion, Google Cloud will support Cognizant in the continued development of AI-led software engineering best practices, and by helping the Cognizant Google Cloud AI University launch advanced courses on AI use cases.

Cognizant's adoption of "Gemini for Google Cloud" is a strategic move to enhance software development productivity. This tool is expected to help Cognizant's software developers accelerate the development process by enabling faster coding, rigorous testing, and swift issue remediation. It's part of a broader initiative to integrate Google Cloud's advanced AI technologies and drive innovation across various industries. The partnership underscores a significant investment in AI and a commitment to leveraging these technologies to amplify human potential and create economic value.

Gemini for Google Cloud is a generative AI-powered collaboration product designed to enhance productivity and creativity for its users. It's part of Google's suite of AI tools and is embedded in many Google Cloud products, including the Google Cloud Console and Cloud Code extensions.

Gemini excels at tasks such as — 1) Conversational AI: Engaging in natural, open-ended conversations, and 2) Text Summarization: Distilling key points from large bodies of text.

Gemini is available in different optimized sizes, such as Ultra, Pro, and Nano, catering to various needs and scales of operation. Developers and enterprise customers can access Gemini Pro via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio or Google Cloud Vertex AI, which allows them to prototype and launch apps quickly.

How Google Gemini is Different from Apple Siri

Google Gemini and Apple Siri are both AI technologies, but they have different features and capabilities:

Integration: Siri is deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem, designed to work seamlessly across all Apple devices. Google Gemini, while it can be accessed on iPhones through the Google app, is not as tightly integrated into the iOS system.

Technology: Google Gemini is part of Google's suite of generative AI models, which have been evolving from its original Bard technology. It's reported that Apple is considering licensing Google Gemini AI to improve Siri's capabilities in the upcoming iOS 18.

Capabilities: Siri functions as a virtual assistant that can perform tasks like setting reminders, sending messages, and providing real-time information. Gemini, on the other hand, is a generative AI that can engage in more complex conversations and potentially offer more advanced AI-enabled features.

Development: There are reports suggesting that Apple has struggled to develop its own AI to match the capabilities of ChatGPT and Gemini, which may lead to a partnership where Google Gemini powers some of Siri's features in the future.

Controversies and Limitations: Google Gemini has faced issues, such as the inability to create images of people and limitations on answering questions related to controversial topics. These challenges are part of the ongoing development and refinement of AI technologies.

These differences indicate that while Siri and Gemini serve similar purposes as AI assistants, they are distinct in their integration, technological foundation, and potential capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Series is the 1st Smartphone Equipped with Google’s Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 on Vertex AI

Samsung and Google Cloud Join Forces To Bring Generative AI to Samsung Galaxy S24 Series

Google’s Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 to deploy in producing new text, voice, and image features on the new Samsung Galaxy S24 series

Samsung Electronics and Google Cloud today announced a new multi-year partnership to bring Google Cloud’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology to Samsung smartphone users around the globe. Starting with the Samsung Galaxy S24 series announced today at Galaxy Unpacked in San Jose, California, Samsung will be the first Google Cloud partner to deploy Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 on Vertex AI via the cloud to their smartphone devices.

“Google and Samsung have long shared deeply held values around the importance of making technology more helpful and accessible for everyone. We’re thrilled that the Galaxy S24 series is the first smartphone equipped with Gemini Pro and Imagen 2 on Vertex AI,” said Janghyun Yoon, Corporate EVP and Head of Software Office of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. “After months of rigorous testing and competitive evaluation, the Google Cloud and Samsung teams worked together to deliver the best Gemini-powered AI experience on Galaxy.”

Samsung is the first Google Cloud partner to deploy Gemini Pro on Vertex AI to consumers. Built from the ground up to be multimodal, Gemini can generalize and seamlessly understand, operate across, and combine different types of information including text, code, images, and video. Starting with Samsung-native applications, users can take advantage of the summarization feature across Notes, Voice Recorder, and Keyboard.¹ Gemini Pro on Vertex AI provides Samsung with critical Google Cloud features, including security, safety, privacy, and data compliance.

Galaxy S24 series users can also immediately benefit from Imagen 2, Google’s most advanced text-to-image diffusion technology from Google DeepMind to date. With Imagen 2 on Vertex AI, Samsung can bring safe and intuitive photo-editing capabilities into users’ hands. These features can be found in Generative Edit² in S24’s Gallery application.

As part of this partnership, Samsung is also one of the first customers to test Gemini Ultra, Google’s most capable and largest model for highly complex tasks. The S24 series will also use Gemini Nano, an on-device LLM delivered as part of the Android 14 operating system, the most efficient model of Gemini for on-device tasks.

“Together with Samsung, Google Cloud sees the tremendous opportunity for generative AI to create meaningful mobile experiences that stimulate and strengthen connection and communication for millions,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “With Gemini, Samsung’s developers can leverage Google Cloud’s world-class infrastructure, cutting-edge performance, and flexibility to deliver safe, reliable, and engaging generative AI powered applications on Samsung smartphone devices.”

Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business and industry. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology, and tools that help developers build more sustainably. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

¹Galaxy AI features may require internet connection, Samsung Account login, and/or update to latest Android version. Product functionality may be dependent on your app and device settings. Some functions may not be compatible with certain apps or require additional software downloads, such as language packs. Availability of the service may vary by country, region, or market. Accuracy of results not guaranteed.
For detailed specifications and conditions, refer to your local Samsung website.

²Generative Edit requires a network connection and Samsung Account login. Editing with Generative Edit results in a resized photo up to 12MP. A visible watermark is overlaid on the image output upon saving in order to indicate that the image is generated by AI. The accuracy and reliability of the generated output is not guaranteed.

BSO and Gemini partner for Direct Crypto Exchange Connectivity Worldwide

BSO, the award-winning Ethernet network, cloud and hosting provider for the financial services industry, today announced the availability of connectivity solutions to Gemini, a leading cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, directly from the global BSO network.

BSO’s global Crypto Connect network provides specialist state of the art solutions for both institutional clients, who require the same high-quality access to Gemini as they do for other traditional asset class exchanges, as well as the demanding crypto community, who equally require nimbleness, high availability and a high performance hybrid network. BSO delivers guaranteed latency on layer 2 backbone with high security to ensure that current and future business needs are catered for.

BSO is proud to welcome Gemini as a preferred partner on its BSO Crypto Connect solution that enables Public cloud & private infrastructures inter-connectivity over 240 PoPs via its private, internet avoiding, dedicated & guaranteed latency backbone worldwide.

Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto, Managing Director of Operations at Gemini, said, “Gemini is a crypto-native company working to mature the crypto trading space. We are very pleased to be working with BSO to provide direct access to a wider range of market participants; including investment firms who require traditional data centre cross connectivity capabilities.”

Michael Ourabah, CEO at BSO commented, “We are delighted to be working with Gemini to deliver institutional quality connectivity and service to support the growth of the crypto currency community.” Adding, “Crypto Connect supports both new entrants as they scale to institutional corporate structure and institutions who want to enter the crypto market with the same latency and service levels they have come to expect from BSO.”

New York based Gemini, is a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian that allows customers to buy, sell, and store digital assets including bitcoin, ether, zcash, and litecoin. Gemini was founded in 2014 to build a bridge to the future of money.
BSO is the first network provider to launch a crypto-friendly network infrastructure to traders, exchanges, financial institutions, fintech startups, or regulators looking to understand this complex market. Crypto Connect is available in data centre locations comprising all the major trading venues in the global financial community.

About BSO

BSO is a global telecoms operator powering the digital age. 15 years of innovation, independence and pioneering spirit underpin its customer relationships – trusted partnerships with technology-empowered companies that are embracing global opportunities, scaling rapidly and outperforming competitors.

From trading firms at finance’s bleeding edge to high-growth businesses where network performance, reach, diversity and exceptional 24/7 support defines success, BSO delivers every time.

The world’s largest privately-owned telecom company by PoP count. An unrivalled international footprint. Extensive expertise in difficult-to-access regions and emerging markets. A team listening intently to every customer’s unique needs. A broad spectrum of shared and dedicated services, unmanaged to fully managed. An uncontested consulting-led approach.

This bespoke intelligent infrastructure, incomparable speed, unmatched service, experience and state-of-the-art technology is what makes BSO a passionate partner rather than transactional provider.