[dabigv13]

Interesting recent Reuters article on AI implementation by businesses.

https://archive.is/2025.12.17-071559/htt...025-12-16/

Jeremy Nielsen, general manager at North American railroad service provider Cando Rail and Terminals, said the company recently tested an AI chatbot for employees to study internal safety reports and training materials.
But Cando ran into a surprising stumbling block: the models couldn’t consistently and correctly summarize the Canadian Rail Operating Rules, a roughly 100-page document that lays out the safety standards for the industry.
Sometimes the models forgot or misinterpreted the rules; other times they invented them from whole cloth. AI researchers say models often struggle to recall what appears in the middle of a long document.
Cando has dropped the project for now, but is testing other ideas. So far the company has spent $300,000 on developing AI products.
“We all thought it’d be the easy button,” Nielsen said. “And that’s just not what happened.”
....
Seemingly small issues can unexpectedly trip up AI systems.
Many financial firms rely on data compiled from a broad range of sources, all of which can be formatted very differently. These differences might prompt an AI tool to “read patterns that don’t exist,” said Clark Shafer, director at advisory firm Alpha Financial Markets Consulting.
Many companies are now looking into the potentially expensive, lengthy and complex process of reformatting their data to take advantage of AI, Shafer said.
Dutch technology investment group Prosus says one of its in-house AI agents is meant to answer questions about its portfolio, similar to what the group’s data analysts on staff already do.
Theoretically, an employee could ask how often a Prosus-backed food-delivery firm was late to deliver sushi orders in Berlin last week.
But for now, the tool doesn’t always understand what neighborhoods are part of Berlin or what “last week” means, said Euro Beinat, head of AI for Prosus.

On the topic of the original article, I think AI is a handy bogeyman for companies to explain why they are hiring fewer people or firing people. Sounds better to investors and the public than other plausible reasons, like anticipating an economic slowdown.

[dabigv13]

Interesting recent Reuters article on AI implementation by businesses.

https://archive.is/2025.12.17-071559/htt...025-12-16/

Jeremy Nielsen, general manager at North American railroad service provider Cando Rail and Terminals, said the company recently tested an AI chatbot for employees to study internal safety reports and training materials.
But Cando ran into a surprising stumbling block: the models couldn’t consistently and correctly summarize the Canadian Rail Operating Rules, a roughly 100-page document that lays out the safety standards for the industry.
Sometimes the models forgot or misinterpreted the rules; other times they invented them from whole cloth. AI researchers say models often struggle to recall what appears in the middle of a long document.
Cando has dropped the project for now, but is testing other ideas. So far the company has spent $300,000 on developing AI products.
“We all thought it’d be the easy button,” Nielsen said. “And that’s just not what happened.”
....
Seemingly small issues can unexpectedly trip up AI systems.
Many financial firms rely on data compiled from a broad range of sources, all of which can be formatted very differently. These differences might prompt an AI tool to “read patterns that don’t exist,” said Clark Shafer, director at advisory firm Alpha Financial Markets Consulting.
Many companies are now looking into the potentially expensive, lengthy and complex process of reformatting their data to take advantage of AI, Shafer said.
Dutch technology investment group Prosus says one of its in-house AI agents is meant to answer questions about its portfolio, similar to what the group’s data analysts on staff already do.
Theoretically, an employee could ask how often a Prosus-backed food-delivery firm was late to deliver sushi orders in Berlin last week.
But for now, the tool doesn’t always understand what neighborhoods are part of Berlin or what “last week” means, said Euro Beinat, head of AI for Prosus.

On the topic of the original article, I think AI is a handy bogeyman for companies to explain why they are hiring fewer people or firing people. Sounds better to investors and the public than other plausible reasons, like anticipating an economic slowdown.