AI Journal 171th Edition

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AI Journal
July 18, 2025

Welcome back to another week of thrilling AI updates!
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  • Small Businesses Embrace AI: A 41% Surge Drives Smarter Growth and Efficiency in 2025

  • Google Enhances Search with Advanced AI Tools and New Subscriber Benefits

  • Strata Identity Unveils AI Agent Identity Orchestration for Secure, Auditable Access

  • Children Turn to AI Chatbots for Support, Raising Safety Concerns

  • AWS Launches Kiro: AI-Powered Coding Assistant to Revolutionize Software Development

  • OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent: Smarter AI Assistant Can Book, Plan, and Shop—But Is Your Data Safe?

  • Modernize Testing in Minutes with Codien’s AI-Powered Playwright Tool

  • AI Funding

  • AI in Infrastructure

  • AI Tools

  • Interesting Posts

Small Businesses Embrace AI: A 41% Surge Drives Smarter Growth and Efficiency in 2025
A new Thryv survey shows AI adoption among small businesses jumped from 39% in 2024 to 55% in 2025—a 41% increase. AI is now seen as essential for reaching customers and managing rising demands. Benefits include saving time, cutting costs, and improved competitiveness, with 80% considering AI crucial for growth and 78% seeing it as key for customer satisfaction.
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Google Enhances Search with Advanced AI Tools and New Subscriber Benefits
Google is expanding its AI-powered Search tools, offering advanced features and exclusive perks for paid subscribers. The new updates include AI-generated summaries, improved contextual results, and personalized search experiences. These enhancements aim to make information discovery faster and more intuitive. By introducing subscriber-only benefits, Google seeks to provide added value and differentiate its search experience from competitors.
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Strata Identity Unveils AI Agent Identity Orchestration for Secure, Auditable Access
Strata Identity launches Identity Orchestration for AI Agents, extending zero-trust governance to autonomous agents. Built on the Maverics identity fabric, it provides runtime authentication, policy-based authorization, human-in-the-loop controls, and full auditability. Supporting open standards and MCP, it ensures secure, observable agent access across hybrid environments without locking into specific IDPs or altering existing systems.
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Children Turn to AI Chatbots for Support, Raising Safety Concerns
A new UK study shows nearly 64% of children use AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Snapchat's My AI for homework help, emotional advice, and even friendship. Experts warn this reliance brings risks, as AI responses can be inaccurate or inappropriate. The report urges parental controls, regulation, and teaching AI literacy to help safeguard children’s wellbeing and mental health
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AWS Launches Kiro: AI-Powered Coding Assistant to Revolutionize Software Development
Amazon Web Services has unveiled Kiro, a generative AI coding assistant designed to help developers write code faster and smarter. Integrated into the AWS platform, Kiro can suggest code snippets, complete entire functions, and improve existing code with natural language prompts. AWS aims to boost developer productivity and compete with tools like GitHub Copilot in the escalating AI coding race.
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OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent: Smarter AI Assistant Can Book, Plan, and Shop—But Is Your Data Safe?
OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Agent, available to Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers, uses GPT-4o to handle tasks like booking dinner or ordering groceries. It leverages a secure environment, browser, and file tools, with strong safety checks—requiring explicit user approvals and constant monitoring—to protect personal data. The Agent promises a more automated, intelligent digital assistant, though data security remains a key concern.
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Modernize Testing in Minutes with Codien’s AI-Powered Playwright Tool
Codien, by Cognida.ai, is an AI-powered agent that accelerates migration from legacy test frameworks like Protractor and Selenium to Playwright. It auto-converts old test suites, generates new Playwright tests from plain English, and ensures accuracy—cutting migration time from weeks to minutes. Codien runs locally, keeps data private, and offers a simple, pay-as-you-go model.
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AI in Infrastructure

  • Google will invest $25 billion over two years to build AI infrastructure and data centers in the Mid-Atlantic, plus $3 billion to modernize Pennsylvania hydroelectric plants. Link

  • WhiteFiber, spun off from Bit Digital, is launching an IPO to focus on high-performance AI infrastructure, targeting the booming AI market projected to reach $205.65 billion by 2030 with specialized HPC and cloud solutions. Link

  • Goldman Sachs initiated Nebius at “Buy” with a $68 target, citing AI infrastructure strength, cost efficiencies, scalability, and 50% upside potential, calling Nebius attractively priced versus peers in the Neocloud GPU market. Link 

AI Tools

  • Tidio’s Lyro AI resolves 70% of support issues autonomously, integrating with 120+ platforms.

  • Stepsize AI automates sprint reports, highlights risks, and provides insights using data from Jira and Linear.

  • Potion creates AI-generated personalized videos of you for cold outreach—no manual recording needed.

  • Chorus analyzes calls, meetings, and emails to deliver insights that boost sales team performance and conversions.

  • Loom AI adds features to summarize, highlight topics, and convert videos into documents for clearer communication.

Interesting Posts

  • Researchers have developed a generative AI model that translates fashion-related text prompts into realistic, high-quality images, enabling more efficient design processes and offering new creative possibilities for the apparel industry. Link

  • Google Discover now displays AI-generated summaries on Android and iOS, showcasing key news highlights, publisher logos, and sources—helping users scan trending topics, but raising publisher concerns over declining website traffic. Link

  • Adobe Firefly now features improved video models with advanced motion fidelity, enhanced video controls, custom sound effects, avatar-led videos, multiple AI partner models, and streamlined prompt enhancement for creative workflows. Link

  • Meta's Imagine Me AI feature is now free in India, letting users create personalized AI-generated selfies in imaginative scenarios via WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, using facial data and text prompts. Link

  • Wellsheet has launched a multidisciplinary AI Copilot designed to cut medical charting time by up to 50%, streamlining clinical workflows, improving efficiency, and allowing healthcare providers to focus more on patient care. Link

  • Smartsheet’s major AI update adds intelligent automation, AI-driven insights, knowledge graphs, and improved onboarding, all designed to simplify complex work management, boost team efficiency, and support enterprise-scale operations with greater speed and strategic clarity. Link

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