Sunday, April 12, 2020

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI Can Build E-Commerce and Delivery Apps in Eight Weeks

Engineer.ai, a no-code software development platform that lets people build software without ever needing to understand technology, today announced that it’s launching The Studio Store, a new range of pre-packaged apps – beginning with e-commerce and delivery – designed to bring businesses online faster and at a fraction of the cost of building from scratch. As COVID-19 heavily impacts small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Engineer.ai will help all SMBs build their e-commerce or local delivery app with The Studio Store and provide the first three months of live service for free. This launch is part of Engineer.ai larger mission to make the process of building a digital future more accessible, cost effective and efficient.

sachin dev duggal engineer ai
Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI

“Businesses need to adapt to survive. Customers now expect to communicate with businesses via digital channels – whether it’s through an app or a website. However, while businesses recognize this, a lack of skills, coding or technical knowledge has traditionally been a barrier,” said co-founder and CEO Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer.ai. “At Engineer.ai, we make it as easy and as affordable as possible for businesses to amplify their digital presence.”

The first apps will serve the specific needs of businesses across e-commerce and delivery – such as flower shops, grocery stores and clothiers – and can be delivered to a customer in less than eight weeks. The e-commerce app makes selling to an ever-mobile customer effortless, and retailers can showcase their goods with a scrollable carousel and offer a wide range of secure payment methods. The app includes features that will handle the soup to nuts of most e-commerce experiences, the aftercare to keep the app working and the cloud needed to run the app and scale the business. The delivery app makes online distribution smooth and simple with features including payment integration, in-app notifications and FedEx integration. The Studio Store can also serve as a stepping-stone as customers can add features from Builder Studio to make their app more customized over time.






Due to the impact of COVID-19, Engineer.ai will help SMBs with e-commerce or delivery needs build their Studio Store app and provide the first three months of live service for free. This offer will remain available for the next three months.

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI continued, “We are seeing a disruption across all industries globally by COVID-19, and the way many of us interact with our customers overnight has stopped, changed or morphed. Among those most vulnerable are the smaller businesses without an online presence that depend on their customers to walk through their doors. Although there is a lot of uncertainty right now, SMBs are presented with an opportunity to rethink how they do business. Having a thoughtful digital presence for businesses will be critical, which is why we are offering this assistance to all SMBs so that they can use this time to leapfrog ahead.”

Read full story @ https://www.cxotoday.com/press-release/smbs-can-build-e-commerce-and-delivery-apps-in-eight-weeks/

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Darren Huston - Workable

Darren Huston is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of BlackPines Global Advisors B.V. incorporated in May 2016 in The Hague. BlackPines’ mission is to help both owners and leaders of private companies optimize the value of their investments.

They target opportunities where they can take an active role in the business and co-operate with management to help develop strategies both domestically and abroad. Their approach to investing enables them to leverage their long term relationships with strategic partners and portfolio companies to source and manage deals.
Since July 2016, Mr. Darren Huston has been working as an Executive Advisor to Hill house Capital, Asia’s largest investment firm. In January 2017, his work with Hill house Capital became non-exclusive and he took on two leadership roles. The first as Chairman of Magento, the world’s largest eCommerce software platform, and the second as Executive Chairman for Allegro, Poland’s largest eCommerce site.
 

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

I Deserve It - Poem by Darren Huston

 I DESERVE IT

 
Laugh at me i deserve it,
I don't have the choice.
Look at my face & listen to my voice.

Push me, I deserve it,
I'm going to the wrong way.
Someone needs to show me where I have to stay.

Hit me, I deserve it,
for I have done something wrong.
I must have lied and pretended I was strong.

Kill me, I deserve it,
I'm just not strong enough.
Someone hurry up!
THIS LIFE IS JUST TOO MUCH. 

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer.ai launches Builder Now platform

Builder.ai (formerly known as Engineer.ai) combines AI with crowdsourced teams of designers and developers to build bespoke digital products faster that it would take to create a team. That’s what Sachin Dev Duggal Engineer AI says. Last year the company raised one of Europe’s largest Series A investments at $29.5 million, led by Lakestar and Jungle Ventures, with participation from SoftBank’s DeepCore. So far it’s been used to create products like BBC, DiditFor, Manscore and ZikTruck.

Now, while it’s pretty common to have platforms claiming to build your apps faster than a team, actually experiencing it in real life makes a huge difference. So when I swung by the Builder.ai booth at the Slush conference last Friday, I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be.''




At the conference, the company launched Builder Now, an instant prototyping tool that helps anyone design an app in as little as 10 minutes. I honestly did not believe it was possible until I saw it. But, to build an MVP, or even a more sophisticated app, it’s far faster than I could have imagined.

Read full article @ https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/25/engineer-ai-launches-its-builder-now-platform-for-rapid-app-prototyping-and-building/

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Engineer AI To Transform Healthcare : Preparing For Another Pandemic


Artificial Intelligence has risen to a level of universality. Humans have managed to engineer AI that can achieve a vast array of possibilities - from the field of robotics, to cybersecurity – professionals engineer AI to be used in various systems, for a better, more effortless functionality. Artificial intelligence has been used to alleviate cumbersome activities that have been traditionally done through low skilled labour. One of the most rapid growth, is within the field of healthcare – especially now, as the globe is experiencing a crunch in manpower because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic.

Engineering AI For A Better Pandemic Response

Within the field of AI, we have been able to engineer better machines, expediting the field towards advancement in the process. By 2030, the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will have permeated every industry currently in existence. Healthcare is the most obvious example in this regard. Scientists have been able to engineer AI algorithms, which have accomplished everything from creating medicines (like antibiotics), to performing human-assisted surgeries, and providing full-body analysis, just to name a few.

Putting the existing threat of the coronavirus into picture, Artificial Intelligence has achieved in a span of three months, what humans couldn’t in a generation. Rapid scanning of patients, especially who harbour contagious pathogens, can be safely tackled with Robot Doctors (as they have come to be known). Scientists in China managed to engineer AI paramedics that can provide a descriptive analysis of the patient’s physiology in no time.

These AI are not limited to scanning, they can also proficient in creating potent medicines – ones which a team of humans can spend up to 10 years researching towards. Scientists are banking on engineering AI that will bring about the cure for Covid-19, embarrassingly faster, than it would take a human to do.

All in all, having a remote robot deal with a patient during an outbreak such as the coronavirus of 2020, is much more feasible (not to mention safer), than for a human being performing the same functionality.

Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure

For all the leaps forward we have taken to Engineer Artificial Intelligence within healthcare, the reluctance to implement these systems supersedes any viable implementation it might possess. A lot of the countries affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic just don’t have the monetary fortitude to support such a leap in technological infrastructure.

Every penny that went into the provision of a Covid-19 testing kit could’ve easily gone to fund an AI-based pandemic response squad beforehand. Nearly 11,000 people have succumbed to this horrid disease, but it’s not too late yet. Nation-states can lend their coin to engineer AI bots, in a joint cloud based race to find the cure that mankind so desperately seeks. The answer might be beyond the realm of humans, but is it beyond a machine? If we never try, we’ll never know!

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

BlackPines Capital Partners, An Investment Firm: Darren Huston

Darren Huston is the founder and CEO of BlackPines Capital Partners which is a private investment firm.

The mission of BlackPines Capital Partners is to help both owners and leaders of private and public companies improve their investment results. 

Darren Huston BlackPines achieves this by deep and committed engagement in a select number of large-scale, high-profile, growth-oriented opportunities.


BlackPines Current Engagements Include:

  • Executive Chairman at Allegro, Poland's largest eCommerce site (www.allegro.pl) 
  • Poznan and Warsaw, Poland.
  • Chairman at Magento, one of the world's largest and most flexible eCommerce platforms (www.magento.com)
  • Campbell, California, USA

 

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Globe-trotting CEO on Future of Travel : DARREN HUSTON

Darren Huston says that ten years from now, no paper work will be involved in the travel. “You’ll have no passport, no credit cards, no confirmation,” predicts the Amsterdam-based Canadian.

"You just have to have your phone in your pocket, and if you lose it, everything will be in the cloud." Unless someone invites teleportation, however, we'll still have to fly – something Darren Huston doesn't really do.

But for now, this is the only way he can access all the local experiences he craves. "I like the odd taste and taste. I've eaten ants in Nairobi, frogs in Vietnam and a lot of weird things in China - I really enjoy it during travel. "

Black book: Europe
Comfort food: “In Amsterdam, if I feel homesick, I go to the restaurant Red. They serve only 3 things: steak, Canadian lobster and wine.”

Local fave: “Outside of Amsterdam is a little city called Delft, which is where Vermeer did his paintings. Everything still looks like it did in the 1600s.” 

Greek treat: “One place I just discovered and should have already known about is the Greek islands. Mario Restaurant in Naousa is super authentic and has a wonderful evening vibe. It’s Greek food and the Greek islands at their best.” 


Weekend getaway: "I like spontaneous travel. I used to be the kind of person with a kind of Let's Plan two months ago, but now I like to plan a week in advance. There are plenty of options within two hours of Amsterdam. At the end of a week, I told my family: ‘Why don’t we just go to Milan? I think the Expo’s on.’ 

We booked on a Thursday and ended up in Milan for two days. You have to be careful with flights, but in the world of hotels, prices sometimes go down at the last minute and you can get great deals if you’re not in high season.” 

Best base camp: “I love finding independent properties that have really high ratings and ones that are a little more local and attuned to the culture of the city they’re in. I recently stayed at Hotel Cubo in Ljubljana, Slovenia – its right in the centre of town, and it was amazing. 

It’s the number one rated [bookingdotcom] hotel in Ljubljana for good reason. Pre-technology, you would never have found places like this. You’d ask your travel agent, and they would have no idea. Technology now allows us to take a lot of good, calculated risks.”

Must-have tech:
“I like to read good books and novels when I travel – almost always on a device. I have the newest iPad, but I wish they would take another crack at it and make it even lighter. It can still make my arms a little tired.

Darren Huston "strange brew" travel habit
“As a Canadian, I love great beers. I especially like fruity-tasting beers like cherry, blueberry and blackberry. I don’t consider myself an expert; I just love exploring the dimensions of what’s out there.” Here are three of his global favourites:

Bavikhove, Belgium: De Brabandere’s Petrus Aged Red 

South Burlington, Vt.: Magic Hat Brewing Company’s Not Quite Pale Ale Fruit Beer 

Stamford, U.K.: Samuel Smith’s Organic Strawberry Fruit Beer

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