Is your refrigerator running?Rather than going to catch it, as the old prank phone call goes, Home Depot told investors during its first-quarter 2024 earnings call Tuesday (May 14) that many of today’s consumers are sitting out on major home projects as a result of high interest rates and macro pressures.“Goods are underperforming services,” Home Depot Chair, President and CEO Ted Decker told investors.That’s why the world’s largest home improvement retailer is determined to focus more on building its busin ...

Group 1 - Walmart is eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs and ending most remote work, asking staff at small offices to relocate to central hubs [1] - The company has been focusing on cost-cutting measures over the past year, including the closure of health clinics due to a challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs [2] - Walmart is facing pressure in its grocery business from consumer-packaged goods subscription services and is shifting its focus to convenience-oriented channels rather than its own discount-refill subscription offerings [2][3] Group 2 - Research indicates that while Walmart is maintaining its position in the food segment of groceries, it is losing market share to Amazon in non-food categories [3] - Prices for groceries are up 25% compared to last year, while most consumers have not seen corresponding increases in their paychecks, indicating a decline in consumer purchasing power [3]

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic has launched its AI assistant Claude in Europe.The web-based version Claude.ai, the Claude iOS app, and the subscription-based Claude Team plan that allows businesses to access the Claude 3 model family, are now available across Europe, the company said in a press release.These offerings join the Claude API, which was launched in Europe earlier this year and allows developers to integrate Anthropic’s AI models into their own applications, websites or services, ...

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company behind the widely popular ChatGPT, announced Monday (May 13) the launch of GPT-4o — with “o” meaning “omni” — a new language model free for all users. The text, vision and audio processing improvements could boost commerce applications.“GPT-4o is much faster and enhances capabilities across text, vision, and audio,” said Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, during a livestreamed announcement. The company said the new model will be freely available ...

Microsoft Earmarks $4.3 Billion For AI/Cloud Projects in FranceMicrosoft says it is investing $4.3 billion toward tech projects in France.The spending package will focus on cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, “AI skilling, and French Tech acceleration,” the company announced Monday (May 13), with the goal of training 1 million people and supporting 2,500 AI startups by 2027.The news marks Microsoft’s largest investment in France in the tech giant’s 41-year history of doing business in the ...

Amazon is reportedly set to invest nearly $1.3 billion on tech projects in France.The eCommerce giant is one of several global companies poised to announce new foreign investments in France this week, Bloomberg News reported Sunday (May 12).French President Emmanuel Macron will host 180 CEOs and executives at the Château de Versailles on Monday (May 13) for the country’s seventh annual “Choose France” summit, part of the government’s campaign to make France into a financial hub for Europe.Overall investment ...

McDonald’s is reportedly encouraging franchisees to vote to implement a $5 meal deal to bring back consumers who have left because of high prices.Franchisees — which can weigh in on major marketing campaigns — rejected the fast-food giant’s proposal earlier this year, but the issue has come up again, Bloomberg reported Friday (May 10).McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said during the company’s latest earnings call that the company had to focus on affordability and that the firm currently doesn’t have a “nati ...

Wells Fargo has launched a business credit card designed to provide easy-to-understand cash rewards.The new Signify Business Cash Worldwide Elite Mastercard offers unlimited 2% cash rewards on business purchases, with no annual fee and no caps or categories to track, the financial services company said in a Thursday (May 9) press release.“Business owners told us that cash rewards programs had become too complex and didn’t provide enough value for their business,” Jeff Hofmann, head of Small Business Card fo ...

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company backed by Microsoft, is reportedly planning to announce its own search product to compete with Google, according to sources familiar with the matter. The announcement is expected to be made on Monday, just a day before Google’s annual I/O conference.OpenAI’s new product is an extension of its flagship ChatGPT product, which is a chatbot that uses AI models to generate human-like responses to text prompts. The new search product will allow ChatGPT to pull in direct ...

As retail behemoths Amazon and Walmart compete for consumers’ spending, both are turning to video streaming ads to open up new sales opportunities and drive conversion.On Wednesday (May 8), Disney Advertising announced a partnership with Walmart Connect, the superstore chain’s retail media platform, to enable targeted advertising using the retailer’s data.“Combining Walmart’s unique omnichannel customer insights with the incredible scale and reach of Disney+ and Hulu content is a huge unlock for marketers,” ...