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Month: July 2025

Technology

FiEE Acquires Cutting-Edge Tech to Supercharge Its IoT–AI Platform

Observenow Desk July 4, 2025

FiEE Inc. has announced the acquisition of several advanced technologies from Suzhou Yixuntong Network Technology Co., Ltd. in a strategic move to strengthen its AI and Internet of Things capabilities. The deal, valued at USD 1.4 million, was finalized on June 30, 2025, and marks a key milestone in FiEE’s push to enhance its software-first strategy and expand its presence in both consumer and enterprise markets.

The newly acquired technologies include a product authentication system using algorithmic verification, a high-speed file transfer platform geared for large-scale video uploads, and a blockchain-enabled know-your-customer solution designed for secure and compliant user identity verification. These tools are expected to be integrated into FiEE’s existing IoT-AI ecosystem, MinimOS, further reinforcing the company’s focus on trust, performance, and scale.

FiEE’s leadership sees the acquisition as a timely boost to its backend infrastructure and SaaS offerings. With over 20 software copyrights and three foundational patents included in the deal, the company aims to solidify its position in an increasingly competitive market that demands both agility and robust security frameworks. The technologies will play a crucial role in enhancing platform efficiency, especially in areas like content authentication and secure video delivery—two features gaining prominence amid the explosion of user-generated content and digital brand assets.

Over the past year, FiEE has pivoted aggressively toward building a more cohesive and responsive software ecosystem. The company’s Hong Kong subsidiary has already closed 85 sales contracts since March 2025, contributing over USD 400,000 in revenue, with much of the growth attributed to its upgraded platform capabilities and the success of its Managed Creator Network. This latest acquisition is expected to fuel that momentum, helping FiEE attract more key opinion leaders, enterprise clients, and digital content creators.

The acquisition also aligns with FiEE’s longer-term vision of becoming a leader in intelligent connectivity solutions. As industries across sectors continue to digitize, demand is growing for integrated platforms that can offer both operational scale and personalized user experiences. By embedding blockchain for identity management and deploying AI for content validation and optimization, FiEE is positioning itself as a player that can offer trust-driven infrastructure in a digital-first world.

As the company continues to refine its AI-IoT offerings, this move signals a broader ambition to combine software innovation with customer-centric design, thereby future-proofing its growth trajectory in an increasingly interconnected global tech environment.

Tags: FiEELtdSuzhou Yixuntong Network Technology Co.

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Technology

Five Key Skills Tech Professionals Must Master to Future-Proof Their Careers

Observenow Desk

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, technology professionals must go beyond technical proficiency to remain competitive and future-ready. The increasing integration of artificial intelligence, rapid shifts in cloud infrastructure, and the growing threats to cybersecurity are reshaping the expectations placed on tech talent. At the same time, data continues to fuel business decisions, and employers are prioritizing individuals who not only understand these systems but can also navigate change with curiosity, communication, and cross-disciplinary thinking.

Artificial Intelligence and generative AI are no longer emerging trends—they are foundational elements of enterprise innovation. Professionals need to understand not just how to use AI tools, but how to build, optimize, and work alongside them. Skills like prompt engineering, model fine-tuning, and orchestrating AI workflows are becoming critical, particularly as organizations shift toward AI-native applications across sectors like healthcare, finance, logistics, and education.

Cloud computing remains at the center of this transformation. As businesses increasingly move toward distributed, containerized, and serverless environments, fluency in cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud is essential. Developers and engineers are expected to build and deploy applications in scalable, multi-cloud settings with robust security measures. A working knowledge of microservices, DevOps automation, and cloud-native frameworks gives candidates an edge in an infrastructure-heavy job market.

Cybersecurity, once considered a specialized skill set, has become a core requirement for all technology roles. With rising cyberattacks targeting both private and public infrastructure, companies are prioritizing candidates who understand risk assessment, ethical hacking, zero-trust frameworks, and real-time threat detection. The ability to anticipate and respond to threats—rather than react after the damage is done—is shaping hiring decisions across the board.

Data analytics continues to underpin strategic thinking in every sector. Tech professionals who can extract insights from structured and unstructured data using tools like Python, SQL, Power BI, and Apache Spark are in high demand. The ability to build data pipelines, interpret metrics, and visualize trends is a must-have skill, particularly as AI models increasingly rely on high-quality, domain-specific datasets for training and refinement.

Lastly, soft skills are emerging as the true differentiator in an AI-driven workplace. As machines take over predictable tasks, it is human judgment, creativity, and ethical reasoning that remain irreplaceable. Tech professionals are expected to communicate clearly, collaborate across departments, and embrace a mindset of lifelong learning. Curiosity, in particular, has been highlighted by leading AI experts as one of the few human traits that cannot be programmed into algorithms. It is the drive to ask better questions, explore unknowns, and imagine new possibilities that will keep tech talent ahead of the curve.

As technology reshapes the future of work, mastering this combination of hard and soft skills is essential. Professionals who commit to continuous upskilling and align themselves with the evolving needs of the digital economy will not just survive but thrive in the years ahead.

Tags: artificial intelligenceGenerative AI

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Technology

Microsoft Trims 9,000 Jobs as It Repositions for AI-Centric Future

Observenow Desk

In its fourth major workforce reduction since early 2024, Microsoft has confirmed plans to eliminate approximately 9,000 positions, about 4 percent of its global staff, as part of a strategic realignment aimed at accelerating its artificial intelligence agenda. This latest round follows prior cuts in January 2024, May (6,000 jobs), and a smaller June wave. With these reductions, Microsoft has now slashed more than 7 percent of its workforce in just 18 months.

The cuts are concentrated in the Xbox gaming division and global sales and marketing teams. About 830 positions are reportedly based at its Redmond headquarters. A spokesperson said the changes aim to “reduce management layers, increase agility and focus on strategic growth areas like AI and cloud computing”

Microsoft is reallocating capital to support a heavy AI infrastructure investment—$80 billion earmarked for FY 2025—especially in data centers and tools like Azure and Copilot, which it views as core future growth drivers. CEO Satya Nadella has noted that up to 30 percent of Microsoft’s internal code is AI‑generated, underscoring the transformative impact of AI on its operations. In addition to the layoffs, Microsoft is flattening its organizational structure, removing mid-management layers, and transitioning traditional sales roles to more technical “solutions engineer” positions to better position the company for its AI-first strategy.

While Microsoft reported strong quarterly earnings—with $70 billion in revenue and $26 billion in net income—analysts stress the importance of the cuts in safeguarding profit margins amid rising AI costs. Dan Ives of Wedbush noted the company is “keeping with efficiency,” stressing the need to meld AI scaling with cost control. Microsoft joins other major tech firms like Meta, Google, and Amazon in conducting layoffs while reinvesting in AI capabilities. The recurring job cuts in Xbox suggest pressure to deliver stronger margin contributions post its Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Tags: Microsoft

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Technology

MongoDB Doubles Down on India’s Database Boom with Local Investment and Innovation

Observenow Desk

MongoDB is strengthening its position in India amid a surge in demand for modern database solutions, according to a recent Entrepreneur India profile. The company’s multi-pronged strategy includes ramping up local engineering, partnerships, and go-to-market initiatives to meet evolving digital transformation needs across the region.

India now hosts nearly 700 MongoDB employees, including a burgeoning engineering team embedded within the global R&D framework. This growth reflects a strategic focus on deepening on-the-ground development and customer support across key metros like Bengaluru and Gurugram. The firm’s workforce expansion echoes past investments, such as its 2023 university upskilling initiative targeting 500,000 students via partnerships with AICTE, GeeksforGeeks, and SmartInternz.

MongoDB India counts a wide range of clients—from early-stage startups like RFPIO to major unicorns such as Zomato and Zepto, along with large financial institutions like Canara HSBC Life and digital platforms including SonyLIV. Sachin Chawla, Vice President for India and ASEAN, highlighted the firm’s two-pronged modernization approach: building new applications and upgrading legacy systems using AI-enhanced full-stack modernization practices. Among its flagship achievements, Tata Neu—a loyalty app integrating over 40 Tata businesses—was built on MongoDB, demonstrating scalability and composability.

The Indian DBMS market stood at approximately USD 2.5 billion in 2024 and is forecasted to triple to USD 7.5 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of nearly 20%. India is positioned behind China but is growing more rapidly. While MongoDB distinguishes itself with its versatility handling unstructured data and AI-native workloads, it contends with other NoSQL platforms like Redis, Cassandra, and DynamoDB—each with notable market traction.

India boasts an active developer community, with millions of MongoDB downloads and approximately 360,000 registrations from Indian users on MongoDB University. MongoDB is rolling out real-time streaming, vector search, and full-text search capabilities—features critical for AI integration and modern workloads. Its strategy positions the platform beyond a simple NoSQL engine, evolving into a comprehensive “developer data platform.”

MongoDB plans to deepen sales penetration with startups, digital-native enterprises, ISVs, and large corporations while continuing to expand engineering and product operations across Bengaluru and Gurugram. This approach—combined with ongoing academic skilling programs and broader enterprise migration drives—underlines India’s strategic importance to MongoDB’s global growth.

Tags: MongoDB

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AI Adoption Isn’t Just About Speed—It’s About Trust”: Scrut Automation COO on GenAI, Data Sovereignty, and What’s Next for Enterprise Compliance

Observenow Desk

As artificial intelligence becomes deeply embedded in modern business infrastructure, it is no longer just the domain of tech teams—it’s now a boardroom priority. From compliance to customer experience, the impact of GenAI and Agentic AI is reshaping how enterprises operate, especially in highly regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, and cybersecurity. But with innovation comes complexity: How do you deploy AI at scale while staying explainable, compliant, and globally adaptable?

In a candid conversation with Kush Kaushik, Chief Operating Officer at Scrut Automation Inc., ObserveNow explores how the company is navigating the evolving landscape of AI adoption. From infrastructure bottlenecks and integration challenges to cloud sovereignty and CRM transformation in India, Kush shares valuable insights on balancing speed with responsibility. “We don’t see explainability as a trade-off—it’s part of what makes an AI system truly effective and trustworthy in the real world,” he notes.

What are the challenges of implementation of AI and its derivatives like Gen AI, and Agentic AI in your line of business? Are there any particular infrastructural challenges that you face?

Answer:

Implementing AI, especially Generative AI and Agent-based AI, definitely comes with its own challenges. One of the biggest hurdles in our line of work is ensuring the technology fits into our existing systems and processes without causing too much disruption.

Infrastructure Readiness: AI systems, especially Gen AI models, require a lot of computing power and storage. Our current infrastructure wasn’t originally built to handle such heavy workloads, so we’ve had to upgrade servers, improve cloud support, and ensure network speeds can keep up.

AI performance hinges on data quality; much business data is inconsistent or unstructured, requiring extensive cleaning. Integrating AI with existing tools is challenging. User trust and adoption, data privacy, security, and the cost of experimentation are also significant hurdles. Compliance with acts like NYC 144 and the EU AI Act adds further complexity.

What are the key strategic considerations and challenges in managing data sovereignty, data residency, and cross-border data flows in your multi-cloud environment, especially with evolving global regulations?

Answer:

As we move more of our operations into the cloud—often across multiple providers—managing where our data lives and how it’s handled becomes increasingly complex. With global regulations constantly evolving, we face several strategic challenges around data sovereignty, data residency, and cross-border data flows that we can’t afford to overlook.

Data residency and cross-border data flows are key concerns. Some countries mandate data storage within their borders (data residency/localization) for specific data types, necessitating careful cloud provider selection. Global operations require data transfer, but differing international rules demand caution to avoid penalties or business disruption. Strategically, collaboration with legal, compliance, and IT teams is vital to choose localized cloud options, understand jurisdictional data governance, map data flows, and build adaptable architecture for emerging regulations. It’s not just a technical or legal issue—it’s about protecting our customers’ trust, avoiding legal risk, and ensuring we can scale globally without facing regulatory roadblocks.

Give a broader perspective of use cases of advanced AI in CRM platforms in India. Is India ready for the sea change? Can you identify a few gaps?

Answer:

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve from a technological frontier into an everyday business enabler, one domain that’s experiencing a transformative shift is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). While globally, enterprises are integrating advanced AI, including generative AI and agentic AI, to elevate customer interactions, the Indian CRM landscape is now on the cusp of its own intelligent evolution. 

Gen AI helps CRM systems analyze diverse Indian customer interactions to create customized messages across WhatsApp, email, and SMS. Sales teams in fintech and real estate utilize AI for lead conversion, with AI assistants offering real-time suggestions and insights. Support functions deploy AI chatbots that understand natural language, including regional Indian languages. Generative AI aids agents in drafting responses, summarizing tickets, and suggesting solutions. Enriched CRM data allows AI models to score leads based on conversion likelihood.

Voice and Multilingual Interfaces: Voice-based CRM is gaining traction, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. AI can now transcribe, translate, and interpret voice inputs, enabling field agents to operate in their preferred language and mode, thereby improving adoption and reducing training needs.

Is India Truly Ready for This Transformation?

India has several factors working in its favor: A mobile-first digital economy, where cloud-based CRMs are accessible even to small teams, a tech-literate young workforce, eager to adopt tools that increase productivity and a robust digital infrastructure, including Aadhaar, UPI, and other public tech platforms that make integration easier. However, readiness isn’t uniform. While digitally mature enterprises in metro cities are already investing in AI-infused CRM, many small and mid-sized businesses are just beginning the journey.

————————————————————

India is not just ready—but ripe for AI-powered CRM adoption. However, to unlock its full potential, the ecosystem needs more than just technology. It requires: Strategic education around AI’s practical use, Stronger data foundations, Thoughtful design for language and regional needs and Policy and infrastructure support for smaller players.

As AI capabilities continue to mature, CRM platforms will become not just systems of record—but systems of intelligence. For Indian businesses, the opportunity lies in moving early, investing smartly, and ensuring that the human side of customer relationships remains central—even as machines get smarter.

Tags: artificial intelligenceGenAIKush KaushikScrut Automation Inc

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Education

Empowering CTOs for the Future as the IIT Delhi CTO Programme Bridges the Gap Between Technology and Leadership

Observenow Desk July 3, 2025

As innovative technologies redefine sectors, India stands at a pivotal point in its economic growth. According to Nasscom, the Indian tech industry is expected to record revenue of approximately $283 Bn in FY25 (5.1% YoY growth), adding nearly $14 Bn over last year.

One such programme addressing the evolving needs of tech leadership is the Chief Technology Officer Programme, offered by CEP, IIT Delhi. This 10-month online programme combines academic rigour with industry application, including lectures, case studies, tutorials, guest lectures, panel discussions, and a capstone project. Live sessions by IIT Delhi faculty ensure a highly interactive and enriching experience. The programme is delivered with service partner Jaro Education, which brings expertise in executive learning enablement.

Key features of the programme include: Live, interactive sessions with IIT Delhi faculty, Real-world case studies and cross-functional panels, Peer-to-peer learning and diverse cohort interactions, Tutorials and hands-on learning frameworks, Guest lectures from industry veterans, A capstone project with real-world application, and Exposure to strategic, operational, and technology leadership concepts

India’s rapid adoption of AI, IoT, and digital innovation has created massive transformation opportunities. But with this progress comes pressure on Chief Technology Officers to steer their organisations through complex challenges from talent gaps and cyber threats to evolving compliance and business alignment.

CTOs today must remain agile, forecast technology trends, and facilitate smooth adoption across departments all while complying with complex data privacy norms and ensuring innovation doesn’t slow down due to skill gaps or legacy constraints.

Here’s what a past participant had to say:

“Joining the IIT Delhi CTO Programme was driven by my passion for learning and a fascination with how tech executives shape company direction. This programme enriched my decision-making skills and expanded my network. The experience at IIT Delhi, paired with exceptional faculty, has been a dream come true. My journey with Jaro Education has been fantastic. I highly recommend this programme for its profound insights and invaluable connections.”
 — Bhavya Bansal, Head of Engineering, Easyres Travel Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Participants come from diverse sectors like healthcare, IT, manufacturing, and retail, with work experience ranging from 5 to over 13 years ensuring an intellectually rich peer-learning experience. Many apply their learnings directly within leading companies and innovation-led roles.

As the CTO role becomes increasingly strategic, this programme prepares professionals to lead with agility, foresight, and innovation. It enables them to navigate complexity and drive impactful technology transformation at scale.

Tags: IIT DelhiJaro EducationNasscom

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Exclusive

ObserveNow Wraps 2nd BFSI Confluence on a Visionary Note in Mumbai

Observenow Desk

ObserveNow concluded the 2nd edition of its flagship BFSI Confluence in Mumbai, spotlighting the convergence of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital identity, and inclusive innovation in India’s financial services sector. Themed “Tech Forward: Redefining the Future of BFSI with AI,” the day-long summit brought together over 70+ top technology and business leaders from banks, fintechs, insurance firms, regulators, and government bodies.

Building on the momentum of its inaugural edition, this year’s Confluence focused on how AI is moving from experimental pilots to institutionalised systems—driving smarter decisions, seamless experiences, and stronger safeguards across the BFSI landscape.

The event opened with a Welcome note address by Mr. Jeet Sharma, CEO and Co-founder at ObserveNow Media, “It’s a privilege to welcome you all to the 2nd edition of the BFSI Confluence. We’re thrilled to host a platform that truly caters to the need of the hour—bringing AI, innovation, and digital trust to the forefront of the financial services dialogue. This Confluence isn’t just an event; it’s a collective voice of the industry’s changemakers. From policymakers to CIOs, from fintech pioneers to cybersecurity leaders—we’ve brought together the right minds to amplify where the BFSI industry is headed next.”. Jeet said.

Followed by a keynote address by Capt. Lovekesh Thakur, Deputy Director General, UIDAI, who spoke on the evolving role of digital identity in an AI-driven economy. “Aadhaar has enabled financial inclusion at scale. The next phase is using that foundation to embed AI—responsibly and securely—into every part of the system,” he said. His remarks set the tone for a day filled with dynamic sessions across AI, compliance, automation, and alternative data strategies.

The Confluence was anchored by four high-impact panel discussions, each curated to address a critical pillar of transformation in the financial services ecosystem. From demystifying AI adoption in core operations to addressing the rising tide of cybersecurity threats, the panels reflected the pulse of the industry. The first panel explored how AI is evolving from a transactional tool to a strategic enabler. The second brought cybersecurity, compliance, and resilience into sharp focus. The third delved into the digital transformation journeys of fintechs and traditional banks. The final panel zoomed in on the insurance sector, revealing how automation and AI are redefining risk, underwriting, and customer experience. Together, these conversations mapped out a holistic, forward-looking blueprint for the BFSI sector.

The first panel discussion, “Beyond Transactions – Shaping the Future of Finance with AI,” brought together technology heads from Edelweiss Alternatives, JM Financial, CSB Bank, YES SECURITIES, and others. Moderated by Ramkumar Subramanian, Partner – FS Risk, Grant Thornton Bharat, the conversation focused on shifting AI from pilot programs to mainstream decision-making tools. Killol Thakore, CTO at Edelweiss Alternatives, noted, “AI is evolving from a backend processor to a strategic partner. We’re already using it to augment risk models and accelerate deal cycles.”

panel 1 bfsi

Panel 2 emphasised on Securing BFSI – AI, Compliance & Cyber Resilience. Led by cybersecurity heads from SBI, CDSL, HSBC India, and Tata AIG, this discussion addressed rising threats in an AI-native ecosystem. “AI brings speed—but so do threats. The race now is to embed predictive defence mechanisms across our systems,” noted Dr. Nareshkumar Harale, SVP & Head, Information Security, SBI.

panel 2 bfsi

Panel 3 stressed upon, Fintech Unplugged – Digital Transformation in Banking. Fintech leaders and digital heads from SBM Bank, BHIM (NPCI), Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Unity Small Finance Bank shared how alternative data, embedded finance, and cloud-native platforms are reshaping financial inclusion. “Tier II and III markets are going digital faster than expected. AI enables us to personalise, not just digitise,” said Aditya Mishra, Chief Data Officer, SBM Bank.

panel 3 bfsi

Panel 4 concluded upon, Revolutionising Insurance – AI & Automation. Insurance and asset management experts from Edelweiss Tokio, SBI General Insurance, and Aditya Birla Capital delved into how AI is being used to optimise underwriting, claims, and customer experience. “From paperwork to prediction—that’s the journey we’re enabling in insurance,” said Tarun Pandey, CTO, Aditya Birla Capital.

panel 4 bfsi

Throughout the day, industry presentations by leading firms including VuNet, i-exceed, CubixTech, Dow Jones, and Digitap offered attendees a deep dive into real-world solutions for observability, compliance, and customer experience. In a standout session, Nageen Kommu, CEO of Digitap, presented on the use of alternative data for better risk profiling, while Sachin Singh of Dow Jones demonstrated how generative AI can be used to unlock competitive intelligence from structured news feeds.

nageem

A thought-provoking fireside chat moderated by Prasanna Lohar, External Advisor, Union Bank of India, explored the ethical implications of AI in BFSI—touching upon trust, transparency, and bias. “We can’t let algorithms outpace accountability. Explainability is no longer a tech term—it’s a trust metric,” remarked one speaker.

The Confluence culminated in the Top 40 BFSI Gamechanger Awards, honouring the individuals who are redefining India’s financial ecosystem through innovative, inclusive, and secure digital strategies. This year’s awardees included CIOs, CISOs, CDOs, and digital transformation leads who are shaping how AI and technology power next-generation financial services.

In his closing address, Sumnesh Joshi, Deputy DG, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, spoke on the country’s transition from “India Stack” to “AI Stack.” “Our next mission is to ensure AI systems are not just powerful—but principled. That’s how we scale trust,” he said.

The 2nd BFSI Confluence reaffirmed ObserveNow’s commitment to spotlighting the leaders, ideas, and innovations shaping the future of finance. From AI to inclusion, cybersecurity to compliance—the conversations sparked at the event will continue to shape boardrooms and policy tables in the months to come.

Tags: 2nd BFSI Confluenceartificial intelligencecybersecurity

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Education

Coursera Earns Spot on TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2025

Observenow Desk

Coursera, the global online learning platform, has been named to the prestigious TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for 2025. The annual roster spotlights organizations that are transforming industries through their innovation, impact and ambition.

In 2024, Coursera welcomed 20 million new learners and expanded its course offerings into 24 additional languages, reinforcing its commitment to democratizing access to digital education. Significantly, enrollment in generative AI courses skyrocketed—from one per minute in 2023 to six per minute in 2024—resulting in a total of three million new enrollments. This surge highlights the platform’s pivotal role in preparing the global workforce for the AI-driven era.

Under CEO Greg Hart, who took the reins in February 2025, Coursera has deepened partnerships with industry leaders like Google, Microsoft and Oxford’s Saïd Business School. These alliances position the company at a key intersection of AI innovation and workforce transformation. The platform has also introduced 25 new entry-level Professional Certificates, meeting growing demand for skills-first hiring—where educational credentials are less critical than actual capabilities—with over half of U.S. job listings now omitting degree requirements.

TIME highlighted Coursera’s influence in the AI upskilling space, noting its role as a “go‑to platform for white‑collar upskilling”. The TIME100 list evaluates companies based on their measurable impact—assessing criteria such as innovation, ambition, leadership and global reach through a mosaic of factors.

Coursera’s inclusion in the list underscores its strategic importance during a pivotal moment for the global labor market. As generative AI reshapes work, the platform is playing a vital role in enabling learners worldwide to acquire the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly technological economy.

Tags: courseraTIME100 Most Influential Companies

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Technology

Cloudflare Launches Pay-Per-Crawl Feature to Help Websites Monetize AI Bot Traffic and Regain Control

Observenow Desk

In a decisive move to address growing concerns around content scraping by artificial intelligence systems, Cloudflare has launched a new feature allowing website owners to charge AI companies for bot access to their data. The initiative, known as “Pay‑Per‑Crawl,” empowers digital publishers, developers, and businesses to regain control over how their content is accessed, used, and monetized in the AI era.

The new tool enables web administrators to identify and block unauthorized AI bots while allowing them to set customized access fees for those they approve. This approach replaces the historically open model of AI web crawling—which often results in large language models ingesting massive volumes of data without compensating content creators. Cloudflare’s system creates a monetizable permission layer that could reshape the relationship between content providers and AI firms.

According to Cloudflare, the tool is launching amid an urgent industry need for transparency and sustainability. As generative AI models like OpenAI’s GPT and Google Gemini grow in sophistication, their hunger for high-quality training data has led to large-scale content harvesting from publicly available websites. However, this has not translated into proportional traffic or revenue for the original content providers.

Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare, emphasized that the company’s solution aims to “restore fairness” to the web ecosystem. “We believe content creators deserve to be compensated for the value they provide to AI systems. Pay‑Per‑Crawl offers a scalable, transparent way to manage that relationship, while allowing AI innovation to continue responsibly,” she said in a press statement.

Cloudflare’s internal analytics shed light on the scale of the imbalance. Google’s crawler now makes 18 visits to a site for every one referral click it sends, up from a 6:1 ratio just six months ago. OpenAI’s web crawler, meanwhile, demonstrates an even starker disparity—roughly 1,500 crawls for every single referral, underscoring the minimal engagement AI bots generate relative to their data consumption.

Major publishers and digital platforms are already welcoming the change. Companies such as Condé Nast, the Associated Press, Reddit, Pinterest, Gannett, Time, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, and Stack Overflow are among those advocating for more structured AI bot governance. Many of them have previously expressed frustration over unregulated scraping and the absence of an industry-wide monetization model for AI training data.

The Pay‑Per‑Crawl feature arrives alongside a broader suite of anti-bot tools Cloudflare is rolling out. These include the ability to block known AI crawlers by default on new customer domains, and a novel feature called “AI Labyrinth”—a trap designed to ensnare and confuse unauthorized crawlers using deceptive patterns and decoy content. Together, these offerings form what Cloudflare calls its “AI defense stack,” aimed at helping the internet retain integrity as it transitions into the AI-dominated phase of content interaction.

Beyond the technical and financial implications, Cloudflare’s announcement also signals a cultural shift. Publishers and content creators are increasingly vocal about the need for consent and compensation in the AI era. Critics have argued that unlicensed data scraping erodes the incentive to produce high-quality original work—especially as referral traffic declines due to AI-generated summaries replacing visits to actual source material.

Cloudflare’s new model aims to create a balance that encourages AI advancement without compromising the business viability of the websites that feed these systems. For now, industry observers are watching closely to see whether other infrastructure players adopt similar frameworks and whether major AI developers opt into the Pay‑Per‑Crawl ecosystem or seek alternate data sources.

As AI models continue to scale and content becomes increasingly machine-consumed, Cloudflare’s move may mark the beginning of a new economic model—one that gives websites agency and rewards original creators in the evolving digital landscape.

Tags: artificial intelligenceCloudflarePay-Per-Crawl

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Technology

Salesforce CEO Benioff Offloads Nearly $110 Million in CRM Shares

Observenow Desk

Marc Benioff, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce Inc., sold a total of 259,545 shares of Maxwell CRM common stock on December 18, 2024, according to a recent SEC filing. The sales generated approximately $109.96 million, with individual share prices ranging from $336.16 to $354.45.

These transactions were automatically executed under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, which Benioff adopted on December 29, 2023. Such structured plans allow insiders to sell pre-specified amounts of stock at scheduled intervals, shielding the sales from accusations of insider trading. In the same filing, Benioff also exercised 317,105 stock options at an exercise price of $118.04 per share, further increasing his ownership position. Following these transactions, his direct holdings stand at 12,162,457 shares, with additional shares reportedly held through various trusts and the Marc Benioff Fund LLC.

Salesforce remains on solid financial footing, highlighted by its consistent revenue growth and strong gross margins. As of the filing date, the company’s stock was trading around $343.65, having gained nearly 40% over the prior six months. Analysts meanwhile continue to maintain positive outlooks, with major firms reaffirming Buy ratings on the stock. This insider action comes amid Salesforce’s ongoing investments in AI-enabled offerings such as Agentforce 2.0 and enhancements to the Atlas Reasoning Engine—new product lines expected to further drive growth.

While executive stock sales often attract scrutiny, industry observers note that sales conducted under a Rule 10b5-1 plan are generally part of routine financial planning and not a signal of underlying weakness. Given Benioff’s continued significant stake, the sell-off is not necessarily viewed as a lack of confidence in Salesforce’s future prospects.

Nevertheless, large insider transactions often attract investor attention. In this case, the move coincides with a broader tech sector rally and may reaffirm shareholders’ interest in tracking insider activity as part of investment strategy.

Tags: Marc BenioffSalesforce

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