Food wholesalers and distributors often still use manual, inefficient, and time-consuming methods to take customer orders. Think phone, text, and email. The process of converting this to an ERP (enterprise-resource planning) system is challenging to say the least. Enter AI (artificial intelligence), which can help food wholesalers and distributors receive incoming orders from their customers. As one example, AI Orders—an automated order processing module—will be added as part of GrubAssist, which is a suite of enterprise AI assistants to give insights, analysis, and workflows to food supply chain businesses. AI Orders monitors multiple channel sources and can help convert emails, texts, and voicemails into digital orders. Here is how this can help in the food supply chain: Process more orders at a faster rate, while reducing labor costs. Create and enter new sales orders at anytime from anywhere. Extracts order details, maps, and validates against customer history. While this is simply one example, looking to the future, we all know AI has the potential to change how industries do business. Perhaps there is no better place than in the food supply…

Cities need a more modern way to enable better parking. Naturally, there are new solutions coming to market for mobile payments, digital permitting, parking and curb management, and more for city planners. Consider an example from the end of last month. The NCAA Men’s College World Series was held June 14 until June 24. The city of Omaha partnered with Passport for parking, enforcement, and compliance. Here is how this can help: Residents and visitors have an easier time parking. Cities have access to insights to improve parking. Effectively manage parking, make informed decisions, and maintain compliance. Passport’s ParkOmaha, which has half a million users, saw an 11% increase in total parking sessions and a 136% increase in transaction volume during last year’s World Series event compared to the two weeks prior. All in all, it can help alleviate curb congestion and promote parking turnover, creating a better experience for city goers and city planners. It was a big win for…

We must protect our critical infrastructure. In 2023, the healthcare sector reported more ransomware attacks than any other critical infrastructure sector, and attacks involving ransomware against the healthcare sector were up nearly 130%. Imagine the potential ramifications in small, rural hospitals. To help, Microsoft Corp., announced a new cybersecurity program to support hospitals serving more than 60 million people living in rural America. Working with The White House, the American Hospital Assn., and the National Rural Health Assn., the Microsoft Cybersecurity Program for Rural Hospitals will offer free and low-cost technology services for hospitals, along with free training and support. Here is how this can help: Guard against cybersecurity attacks. Allow hospitals to balance limited resources as threats increase. Enable procedures to continue, ensuring care for those living in rural areas. Looking to the future, cyberattacks across all industries will rise. Businesses need to be diligent in ensuring protection. Our critical infrastructure must be secure—and this is one step toward ensuring rural hospitals are…