Welcome to a new version of The AI Business!

This week, we have:

● AI teaches business leaders how to navigate complex decision-making.

● How to use AI to get your working hours back? (Free Guide)

● How to build smarter, scalable enterprises with agentive AI?

● Emotionally-aware AI avatars: Why does it matter??

AI news
This week, We Have Some Game-changing AI News That Matters for Businesses:

● AI teaches business leaders how to navigate complex decision-making: David Daneshgar, former World Series of Poker champion and now CEO of Whippy, explains how AI tools like poker solvers have shifted the game from intuition to analytical, game theory-driven play. He highlights how concepts like blockers and optimal aggression are reshaping high-level strategies. Beyond poker, Daneshgar sees parallels between poker’s complex decision trees and challenges in business communication. His startup, Whippy, uses AI to bring these strategic advantages to real-world business operations. (Read Article)

● AI startup challenges AI giants by delivering smarter and cheaper enterprise solutions: Agentic AI startup Ema has unveiled EmaFusion, a small language model that outperforms competitors like O3, Gemini, and Sonnet in cost and accuracy. Using a dynamic "cascading" system, it intelligently splits complex tasks among different AI models to optimize outcomes. With an accuracy rate of 94.3% and costs nearly 20× lower than GPT-4, it promises scalable, efficient AI for enterprises. CEO Surojit Chatterjee positions EmaFusion as the orchestration layer modern businesses need to handle. (Check it out)

● Manus AI secures $75 million after soaring to a $500 million valuation: Chinese AI startup Manus has raised $75 million in a new funding round led by Benchmark, pushing its valuation to around $500 million. The company, known for developing AI agent tools, plans to expand into the U.S., Japan, and the Middle East. Manus gained attention with its demo of a general AI agent and recently launched paid subscription plans. This latest investment marks a fivefold jump from its previous valuation backed by Tencent and HSG. (Read Article)

● Grok chatbot levels up with real-time vision, multilingual audio, and smarter memory tools: xAI has launched Grok Vision, enabling its Grok chatbot to answer questions based on live views from a smartphone camera, similar to features seen in ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Available on iOS, Grok Vision lets users interact with objects like products and signs in real time. New additions also include multilingual audio and real-time search, although some features require the $30-per-month SuperGrok plan. This follows recent updates like Grok’s new memory and a canvas tool for creating documents and apps. (Read Tweet)

● Character AI debuts animating lifelike chatbots while raising deepfake concerns: Character AI has introduced AvatarFX, a video generation model that animates AI characters using both text and preexisting images, now available in closed beta. While offering creative tools for users, AvatarFX also raises concerns about misuse, particularly around deepfakes. The company plans to mitigate risks with watermarks and content filters, but the effectiveness of these safeguards remains unproven. Character AI is already under scrutiny due to past safety issues involving emotional manipulation through its chatbots. (Try Now)

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Agentic AI
How Can Business Leaders Build Smarter, Scalable Enterprises with Agentive AI?

The era of Agentic AI is here — and for business leaders, it offers a transformational opportunity to stay ahead. With 84% of CIOs believing AI will be as impactful as the internet, strategic adoption is no longer optional; it’s essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Yet, many organizations struggle with where to start or how to scale AI agents effectively.

Salesforce's newly released Agentic Maturity Model offers a powerful framework to help businesses move beyond basic AI tools like chatbots and embrace fully autonomous, value-driving agents. It's a step-by-step guide to embedding AI deeply into operations — but it’s also a wake-up call: without a structured approach, organizations risk missing out on the next $6 trillion digital labor opportunity.

Breaking Down the Agentic Maturity Model:

Salesforce's model outlines four clear levels of AI maturity, helping leaders understand what true progress looks like and how to move forward.

Level 0: Fixed Rules and Repetitive Tasks

● Today: Many businesses operate at this level, deploying simple chatbots or co-pilots to automate FAQ responses or password resets.

● Leader's Move: Identify tasks where rigid bots fail and introduce reasoning capabilities. Focus on improving customer experiences, not just saving time.

Level 1: Information Retrieval Agents

● Today: Agents retrieve information and suggest actions but don't yet act autonomously.

● Leader's Move: Push for agents that not only recommend but do. Build broader data harmonization strategies and establish clear governance frameworks to ensure brand consistency and operational efficiency.

Level 2: Simple Orchestration, Single Domain

● Today: Agents autonomously complete tasks but within isolated systems (like scheduling meetings).

● Leader's Move: Extend agents’ reach across more business functions. Decide whether a "mega-agent" or a team of specialized agents best serves your needs, and prepare your architecture for future complexity.

Level 3: Complex Orchestration, Multiple Domain

● Today: Few businesses have reached this stage, where agents orchestrate across departments.

● Leader's Move: Enable real-time, cross-domain agent collaboration. Invest in scalable communication layers (APIs, agent buses) and dynamic agent management systems to avoid technical bottlenecks.

Level 4: Multi-Agent Orchestration

● Tomorrow: True ecosystem-wide collaboration where multiple AI agents interact autonomously, creating exponential business value.

● Leader's Move: Evolve your security, governance, and risk management frameworks. Track ROI through big-picture metrics like revenue growth, customer retention, and cost efficiency.

How Business and Marketing Leaders Should Act Now?

1- Align AI with Business Goals: Ensure every AI project ties back to measurable business objectives: customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, revenue growth, or risk mitigation.

2- Invest in Data Readiness: Clean, harmonize, and integrate your data. Without high-quality data across domains, agents can't reason effectively or orchestrate real-time actions.

3- Create a Strong Governance Framework: Design governance that evolves with agent autonomy. Address auditability, security, privacy, and ethical considerations from the start.

4- Upskill Your Teams: Building a collaborative human-agent workforce is critical. Invest in training programs that help employees work alongside AI, not against it.

5- Start Small but Think Big: Pilot projects with clear success metrics — but always architect solutions that can scale across domains and departments.

Bottom Line: Vision Without Execution is Hallucination:

Agentic AI isn't just a technology trend; it's a redefinition of how business gets done. Salesforce’s Agentic Maturity Model provides a rare, clear blueprint for scaling from simple chatbots to a future where AI agents drive growth, innovation, and resilience.

Business leaders who act now, building structured, scalable AI strategies, won't just survive the agentic era — they'll define it.

AI Spotlight
Emotionally-Aware AI Avatars: A New Frontier For Business Engagement:

In today's digital-first landscape, businesses aren't just competing on products or services anymore — they are competing on experience. Yepic AI’s newly launched Human Capital OS brings a major innovation to the table: emotionally aware AI avatars that can recognize, interpret, and adapt to human emotions in real-time.

Unlike traditional AI avatars that offer scripted, uniform interactions, Yepic’s platform enables avatars to mirror users’ emotional states and adjust their communication style accordingly. Whether it's calming a frustrated customer or energizing a disengaged employee, emotional intelligence at scale is now possible.

Why Emotional Intelligence Matters in Business?

For business and marketing leaders, this shift is critical. Studies consistently show that emotion drives decision-making, loyalty, and brand perception more than rational thought. Customers expect companies to understand and respond to their feelings — and employees thrive when they feel heard and supported.

Yepic’s emotionally intelligent avatars could revolutionize key areas like:

● Customer Support: Deliver empathetic responses that adapt to frustration, confusion, or satisfaction in real-time.

● Employee Training and Onboarding: Offer personalized coaching experiences that motivate and engage learners based on their emotional signals.

● Sales and Marketing: Build deeper trust with prospects by matching tone and empathy dynamically during pitches and follow-ups.

In an era where automation can sometimes feel cold and robotic, emotional AI offers a path to more human-like, meaningful interactions — at scale.

Implementation: How Leaders Should Think About It?

For companies looking to integrate emotionally aware avatars, here’s a simple roadmap:

1- Identify High-Impact Areas: Start with use cases where emotional connection matters most — like customer service, employee onboarding, or sales support.

2- Choose the Right Mode: Yepic’s Human Capital OS offers pre-recorded agents, real-time avatars, and developer tools — pick based on your specific operational needs.

3- Pilot and Measure: Roll out small pilots and track KPIs like customer satisfaction (CSAT), employee engagement, or sales conversion rates to quantify impact.

4- Train Your Teams: Ensure customer service and HR teams understand how to collaborate with and support emotionally aware AI, maximizing its benefits.

5- Maintain Ethical Standards: Be transparent with users that they are interacting with AI and ensure emotional data is used responsibly and securely.

Final Thoughts:

As Aaron Jones, CEO of Yepic AI, aptly put it, "The future of work requires emotional intelligence at scale." Business leaders who move quickly to integrate emotionally intelligent avatars will set themselves apart — delivering experiences that not only solve problems but forge real emotional connections.

The face-to-face AI revolution isn't coming — it's already here.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading till the end. 😊 

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See you next week.