Nesto Software GmbH has raised €11 million in growth equity from Expedition Growth Capital, targeting product development and the expansion of its AI assistant, NORA, for restaurant workflows.
The response [to the launch] was a lot warmer than we expected, which is really encouraging and meaningful. A lot of people said they could see themselves wearing this. Some users use the ring over 50 times a day for tasks like planning presentations, trips or meals.
It's truly meant to be a coaching and operational tool to really help our restaurants manage complexities and stay focused on a great guest experience. Guests want our service to be more friendly, and that's ultimately what we're trying to achieve here.
Snap announced the creation of Specs Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company, on Wednesday. The Santa Monica, California-based company said that Specs Inc. will focus on the augmented reality (AR) smart glasses division and grow as a distinct brand. The timing of the development is interesting, given that the parent company is also gearing up to launch the first consumer-focused smart glasses dubbed Specs. The device will incorporate elements of AR and smart glasses into a "wearable computer".
Design systems break not because designers don't care but because maintaining consistency at scale is genuinely hard. Tokens drift, naming becomes messy, documentation gets outdated, and what started as a neat system slowly turns into a fragile one. But AI can help you keep your design system up to date. One of my favorite coding tools, Claude, can act as a design systems assistant for another my favorite design tool, Figma,
The all-electric Volvo EX60 is being described as "a car you can have a natural conversation with", and just days before its global reveal, the manufacturer has announced that the car is its first to be designed to launch with the Google Gemini AI assistant and continuous and "ultra-responsive" connectivity delivered by the Snapdragon Auto Connectivity Platform from Qualcomm Technologies.
TeqBlaze, an independent ad tech vendor, announces the release of TeqMate AI, the intelligent assistant that streamlines AdOps workflows. By automating routine tasks, TeqMate AI turns hours of manual troubleshooting into instant insights and actionable recommendations. AdOps teams face constant pressure: responding to partner requests quickly, keeping performance metrics stable, and resolving auction issues as they arise. Scaling under these conditions leads to even more manual checks and monitoring.
The company's new Personal Intelligence capability connects Gemini with the rest of the Google ecosystem-such as Gmail, photos, search, and YouTube history-to tailor the bot's responses to a specific user. While Gemini could already retrieve information from these apps, the new capability allows it to reason across a user's data and surface proactive insights. For example, the feature allows users to ask Gemini to find specific photos from past trips, gather information from recent emails, or pull together information scattered across different Google services.
Projector maker XGIMI has turned up at CES to launch its own range of AR glasses, but don't get the champagne out too soon. MemoMind is a new brand under which its AI-infused eyewear will be sold, with two distinct units arriving at some point in the near future. The company says it has leveraged its know-how in optics and engineering to produce glasses which are unobtrusively light, all the better for blending into your daily life.
Zoom released its AI assistant to the web today as part of its AI Companion 3.0 release. The company is also allowing free users to access the assistant's features, such as summarizing the meetings, listing action items, or getting insights from meetings with limits. The company said that basic plan users get to use the AI companion within three meetings every month, which will each include a meeting summary, in-meeting questions, and AI note-taking capabilities.
It's not about choosing between your favorite CRM and powerful AI and marketing tools; it's about having both, perfectly unified in one workflow to maximize efficiency and growth, says Shayan Hamidi, CEO of Rechat. Our mission at Rechat has always been to deliver a true Super App experience for real estate professionals, and this partnership makes that vision a reality for every Follow Up Boss user.
In a statement, Anthropic said that Claude for Excel will allow users to "work directly with Claude in a sidebar in Microsoft Excel, where Claude can read, analyze, modify, and create new Excel workbooks." It promised that "Claude listens carefully, follows instructions precisely, and thinks through complex problems." More practically, it said Excel users will be able to ask the LLM about specific formulas or worksheets, with "cell-level citations so you can verify the logic."
Yelp is releasing multiple AI-powered updates Tuesday, including an updated AI assistant that can answer questions about restaurants, bars, local attractions, or retailers. The assistant can also scan a physical menu to provide information about dishes. Additionally, the company is improving search with support for natural language and voice queries, and highlighting popular offerings on business pages, including auto shops, hair salons, clothing stores, and parks.
It's sort of like an AI version of those old Nintendo help phone lines. The chat box appears as an overlay on the screen and players can use it to ask questions or to get tips about a game. The company says it "knows what you're playing and understands your Xbox activity," as it uses in-game screenshots. It can also answer questions about an Xbox account and offer recommendations on stuff to buy.
The assistant can answer participant's questions by referring to captions generated during the call, resources like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides they have permission to view, and public websites. It can also provide summaries of what a specific participant said, identify important decisions and action items, and generate a summary of what you missed when joining a meeting late, but only when Google Meet's Take Notes for Me feature has been activated by the host.
This feature, which is only rolling out to the Amazon Shopping app on iOS for now, lets you pan your camera around a room or focus on a specific product. Amazon says Lens Live will use an object detection model to identify the products shown on your camera in real-time, and then compare them against the billions of products on its marketplace.
