API-based communications platform Vonage has expanded its scope by buying conversational commerce tech vendor Jumper.ai. The acquired firm lets retailers engage with consumers on chat and social channels. It’s a good illustration of how messaging and ecommerce are increasingly intertwined, if you were looking for one.
Cloud database Snowflake has launched the Media Data Cloud, a collection of advertising and customer data-related services that include first party identity resolution from Experian, data clean room from Habu, AI-based insights from DataRobot, privacy solutions from LTI, and Unified IS 2.0 and data activation from The Trade Desk. What’s special is these can all execute within Snowflake. Previously, users would have needed to export the data from Snowflake, process it, and re-import the results.
Online grocery service Instacart just bought cheerily-named Caper AI, which offers AI-powered in-store shopping cart and checkout technology. The system uses object recognition to understand what shoppers have placed in their carts, presumably without judging. It will help both Instacart workers and people buying for themselves – a group that apparently now needs a special label. I vote for “citizen shoppers”.
Salesforce’s Dreamforce mega-conference is next week and the company’s publicity elves are already working overtime. In the first of what are sure to be daily announcements this week, the company announced 100+ industry-specific prompts, data models, and AI capabilities across its fifteen industry clouds. It also launched an AI Use Case Library to house its industry-specific AI offerings.