Intelligent SME.tech Issue 35 | Page 6

// LATEST UPDATES //

Versori secures investment to accelerate growth for its data infrastructure platform
Versori , a leading provider of data infrastructure solutions , has raised US $ 3.5 million in a funding round led by Stage 2 Capital , with participation from notable angel investors including Cindy Bi of Capital X and Jamie Su , among others .
With this latest investment , Versori aims to propel its flagship product , Switchboard , an innovative any-to-any system integration and workflow automation platform , to new heights . Switchboard , powered by cutting edge AI tools for schema building , data transformations and data mappings , has already garnered attention as the backbone behind integrations for prominent companies such as Sephora , Frasers Group and ASOS .
The investment from Stage 2 Capital , along with angel investments from industry experts , will primarily be used to bolster product development efforts for integration and visualisation tooling within Versori ’ s data infrastructure platform . The company plans to expand its go-to-market team through strategic hiring initiatives , enabling Versori to deliver comprehensive solutions to an even wider range of customers .
Small businesses are missing the mark with trend-savvy Gen Z customers
Small businesses face an uphill battle in capturing the hearts of younger customers , as a mere 22 % of Gen Z believe their customer service rivals that of larger competitors .
This is particularly concerning for smaller fashion brands , considering that 75 % of spending by Gen Z is on fashion .
The Small Business Customer Service in 2023 research , from FM Outsource , looked into what customers want from small businesses and what they ’ re actually offering . The research revealed that older generations are more confident in the capabilities of small businesses , with 60 % of consumers , aged 55 – 64 , believing they can offer the same service level as wellknown brands .
According to past research from FM Outsource , 38 % of Gen Z require a wide range of channels to provide a good quality customer service experience . Yet , small businesses are not meeting this expectation , with over twofifths of young people believing they are contactable across fewer touchpoints including social channels .
UK ’ s technology community embraces AI to increase productivity throughout development process
The UK ’ s technology community is embracing AI despite concerns over trust , according to new data surveying over 5,500 developers in the UK by Stack Overflow .
Thirty-seven percent of developers are already using AI to enhance development processes with a quarter of the tech community planning to join them next year , as the use of AI goes mainstream . Reasons stated for this rise are the increased productivity ( 86 %) and greater efficiency ( 65 %) the tools deliver , as well as the speed up in learning , according to 62 %.
Despite this , 39 % stated they still have no plans to use AI tools in their development process , with the reasons likely related to the accuracy of output . A third of all the developers in the UK stated they either highly or somewhat distrust the data that the AI is based on . A larger majority of developers already use some forms of AI to write code ( 87 %).
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