This Is Why Spreadsheets Don't Need To Be Boring Anymore.

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For those that are new around here, this is weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.

Hey hey!

Happy Friday! We’re back for another issue!

In this week’s issue:

• Product of the Week

• A Lot Of AI Things Happened

• What I’m Reading

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK!

After reviewing dozens of AI-powered products, here’s my top pick!

Brace yourselves folks, because I’m excited about the world’s second most boring thing this week. ✨Spreadsheets! ✨This issue’s product of the week is frankly a gamechanger for all kinds of data handling, and I’m happy about it. Please humor me.

Luminal is a masterclass in delivering a powerful vision with a minimalistic approach. This tool offers a conversational interface that handles maximum-sized spreadsheets with ease, making it a jetpack for those who need to jumpstart their data processing / descriptive analysis tasks.

For enterprise users, imagine having the ability to clean and manipulate data without needing in-depth knowledge of RegEx or Python. That’s right—Luminal brings sophisticated data operations to the fingertips of the everyday business-level users, who can now achieve impressive results without diving into complex coding. The appeal reaches to hobbyists and data enthusiasts because equally compelling. The simplicity and power of Luminal’s conversational interface make it accessible and effective for a wide range of users.

The Tests I Ran

I wanted to see how far the Luminal rabbit hole went. So I got to finding data, that was usable, yet needed some adjustments to work with any other tool. To the open data portal of Montreal I went! I picked up a table that I knew would have complex data types, and have special strange characters: A business register including geo data. Believe it or not, but the French accents tend to mess up data processing more often than you think.

I tested Lumina’s ability to conversationally make the following changes:

• Bulk search and replace for all French accents

• Sort & Filter Data

• Create new columns from average, aggregate, and merged data,

• Delete rows

• Generate a chart that would project information on the data observed

• Generate a 🗺️MAP🗺️ directly from spreadsheet data based entirely off of AI-calculated data, NOT off of source data that had been uploaded.

I have to say, I’m quite happy, and quite impressed with how this all turned out.

Looking to the Future

While Luminal currently markets itself primarily for data cleaning, it’s easy to envision a much broader future for this tool. The potential for integrating with Google Drive and Microsoft 365 is particularly exciting. Compatibility to that degree would extend Luminal’s capabilities beyond current comprehension, making it an indispensable tool in any data-driven workflow.

As impressive as Luminal is, it could benefit from a stronger marketing push. In a world where Microsoft CoPilot looms large as a competitor, Luminal’s superior performance needs to be highlighted more effectively. With the right marketing strategy, Luminal has the potential to not just compete but to lead in its space.

With its ability to deliver high performance with minimal features, Luminal is a testament to well-thought-out design and vision. Whether you’re an enterprise user looking for efficiency or a hobbyist exploring data, Luminal offers a robust solution that’s easy to use and incredibly powerful. Keep an eye on this one; Luminal is poised to make significant strides in the tech world.

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A LOT OF AI THINGS HAPPENED

Some other notable news and product launches from this week

• AI's Limitless Potential in Data Analytics: AI is transforming data analytics by enabling more sophisticated insight extraction across various business functions, making data more accessible and actionable through advanced analytics and generative AI capabilities. The democratization of AI in analytics is leading to innovative solutions that seamlessly integrate into daily business operations​ (PaymentsJournal)​.

• Microsoft Revises AI Tool Strategy: After facing significant criticism, Microsoft has revised its strategy concerning its AI tool within Windows, focusing on enhancing user experience and addressing privacy concerns to regain user trust and improve functionality (CNET)

• Totogi Enhances Plan Personalization with AI: Totogi is harnessing the power of AI to revolutionize plan personalization in telecom, offering tailored experiences that adapt to individual user needs, thus enhancing customer satisfaction and service personalization (Tellecomreseller).

• Apple's AI Venture: Innovation or Risk?: Apple's latest foray into AI sparks a debate between its potential as a game-changing innovation and the risks it poses to data privacy. The company's move could either set new industry standards or face backlash over user privacy concerns (Investing.ca).

• Metal Toad Introduces Securitoad on AWS Marketplace: Metal Toad has launched Securitoad, a new security solution available on AWS Marketplace. This initiative, supported by AWS SaaS Factory, aims to enhance cloud security, demonstrating Metal Toad's commitment to robust, scalable security solutions (AWS).

Raises Recap

• Healwell AI Acquires Verosource - Healwell AI has boosted its AI-driven preventative healthcare by purchasing Verosource for $24.5M. This acquisition enhances their early disease detection capabilities and promises improved patient outcomes. 🏥💡 Read more here

• iGenius AI Funding - iGenius, an AI startup, is aiming to raise €650 million at a post-money valuation of about €1.7 billion. They're gearing up to compete with the big guns like OpenAI in the generative AI arena. 💼🚀 Check out the details

• Italian AI Startup iGenius Fundraising - Similarly, the Italian AI startup iGenius is on a quest to gather $698 million to bolster their growth. It's an exciting time for them in the competitive AI market. 🇮🇹✨ Learn more

• THE Korean Merger of June 2024: Rebellions & Sapeon. Watch out NVidia, there’s a new unicorn status player coming out of South Korea competing for your supremacy. In the game of purpose-built-for-AI semiconductors, "[…] startups like Rebellions will be more agile in responding to market dynamics than larger companies,” (Rebellions Public Statement)

WHAT I’M READING

This broad, and quite encompassing article from Bessemer Venture Partners outlines an evolving roadmap for AI infrastructure, highlighting how AI-driven changes are creating a new approach in data management and operations. The aftermath of this discussion on impacts on data infrastructure, and the emergence of new models and technologies tailored for AI applications leaves much for further thinking; What will the future look like? what aspects of these new models translate to how we are currently storing data? are there preemptive changes that can be made to facilitate taking the turn later on?

How these developments drastically improve enterprise operations/offer substantial business opportunities is yet to be seen as adoption for these new means of working are still quite recent.

Love the AI Product Report? Can’t get enough of Newsletter insights?

Here's a few other newsletters that are rock stars of their own niches!

• Launchkey! “The tech newsletter for late-career entrepreneurs, SMB owners and like-minded execs creating a career portfolio.”

• Connecting Dots! on startups, scaleups and strategy

Stay well, and until next week.

-✌🏽 Sam