AI headlines:
Big Tech announces $500 million fund for publishers, Google counters Salesforce with “Gemini 2.0 Agents”

After Salesforce (last Monday) and Google (last Friday) unveiled their visions for autonomous AI agents in the office, Microsoft is striking back today. In a joint announcement with the German software giant SAP, “Copilot Enterprise” was introduced.

Microsoft is integrating its “Copilot Agents” not only deeply into Office, but also directly into SAP’s core systems (such as S/4HANA). A “Copilot Enterprise Agent” is designed to automate complex, company-wide tasks that span both systems. For example, an AI agent detects a supply bottleneck in the SAP system, automatically analyzes email traffic in Outlook to identify the cause, and independently generates orders with alternative suppliers.

The Strategy: This is a direct counter to Google’s “Gemini Agents” and Salesforce. Microsoft and SAP are leveraging their massive, existing customer base in the industry to win the “agent war.”

The “Global Content Partnership Fund” ($500 million) announced Friday by OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to appease the creative industry has met with fierce resistance. The WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers), which represents thousands of news organizations worldwide, rejected the fund in a statement today, calling it an “inadequate PR stunt.”

The demand: The association argues that $500 million is “laughable” given the trillions of dollars in valuations of the AI ​​companies and the value of the stolen data. They are not demanding “charity,” but rather legally binding, ongoing licensing negotiations (as required in the GEMA ruling) and, above all, algorithmic transparency regarding which content was used for training.

With Black Friday week and the Christmas shopping season approaching, major e-commerce retailers (including Amazon and the Otto Group) are reporting new efficiency records in their logistics centers. This is due to the massive deployment of new predictive stocking AI and advanced sorting robotics.

AI models analyze regional trends and social media sentiment to predict which items will be in demand where, even before they are ordered (predictive stocking). At the same time, AI-controlled robots identify products in the warehouse faster and more accurately than humans.

The result: Leading centers are reporting up to a 40% increase in processing speed compared to the previous year, enabling faster deliveries despite higher package volumes.