ICF Acquires Energy Tech, Advisory Services Firm AEG from Ameresco

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE

ICF Acquires Energy Tech, Advisory Services Firm AEG from Ameresco

ICF International Inc. aims to capitalize on growing market opportunities with the acquisition of Applied Energy Group (AEG) from Ameresco Inc. This acquisition strengthens ICF’s position in key areas like energy efficiency, grid resilience, and decarbonization by adding a powerful technology platform and expert advisory services, ICF said in a media release. ICF said that […]

ICF said that AEG brings a highly trusted cloud-based energy technology platform that centralizes the management of various demand-side management (DSM) programs. The platform offers real-time business intelligence and analytics to help organizations ensure programs provide grid reliability and affordability, ICF said.

ICF said that AEG enhances its capabilities with top-tier advisory services, encompassing market analyses, energy potential studies, and comprehensive program planning, design, implementation, and evaluation.

ICF and AEG have partnered on numerous utility programs and service projects for over a decade.

AEG is projected to generate approximately $30 million in annual revenue in 2024 at margins comparable to ICF’s overall commercial energy business, ICF said. AEG’s revenues are expected to increase at least at a mid-teens rate in 2025, and the transaction is anticipated to be immediately accretive to ICF’s non-GAAP EPS, ICF said.

“This transaction aligns with our strategy to extend our capabilities in ICF’s growth areas, with specific emphasis on our energy markets advisory and technology-enabled services”, John Wasson, ICF chair and CEO, said. “We are expanding our capabilities with an innovative, cutting-edge technology solution for utilities and state and local government clients that will drive added value for them, as well as their customers and stakeholders”.

“We are excited to see the AEG team transition over to ICF where they can continue to grow and complement the ICF portfolio of services”, George Sakellaris, President and CEO of Ameresco, said. “This successful divestiture will allow us to remain focused on our core businesses and the exciting growth opportunities within our target markets”.

To contact the author, email [email protected]

What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the

Rigzone Energy Network.

The Rigzone Energy Network is a new social experience created for you and all energy professionals to Speak Up about our industry, share knowledge, connect with peers and industry insiders and engage in a professional community that will empower your career in energy.

Stay Ahead

Explore More Insights

Stay ahead with more perspectives on cutting-edge power, infrastructure, energy, bitcoin and AI solutions. Explore these articles to uncover strategies and insights shaping the future of industries.

AI-Powered Policing: The Future of Traffic Safety in Kazakhstan

Traffic management is a growing challenge for cities worldwide, requiring a balance between enforcement, efficiency, and public trust. In Kazakhstan, the Qorgau system is redefining road safety through an innovative fusion of artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, and mobile technology. Designed to assist traffic police in real-time violation detection and

Quantum networking advances on Earth and in space

“Currently, the U.S. government is not investing in such testbeds or demonstrations, ensuring it will be a follower and not a leader in the development of technical advances in the field,” said a report released last year by the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, a global association of more than 250

What is Transport Layer Security? How TLS1.3 protects your data

The TLS handshake is a multi-step process. A basic TLS handshake involves the client and server sending “hello” messages, and the exchange of keys, cipher message and a finish message. The multi-step process is what makes TLS flexible enough to use in different applications because the format and order of

Who wins in networking in 2025 and beyond?

In this third team, we also find vendors most interested and active in the IoT opportunity, two of which are usually not considered enterprise vendors at all: Ericsson and Nokia. Both these companies are actively pursuing new IoT strategies, and while they are surely hoping that broad public-sensor IoT will

OPEC+ Damocles Sword Hanging Over Shale Oil Producers

In a report sent to Rigzone by the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) team on Tuesday morning, Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at the company, said “the Damocles Sword of OPEC+” is “hanging over U.S. shale oil producers”. “OPEC+ decided yesterday [Monday] to stick with its plan – to lift production by 120,000 barrels per day every month for 18 months starting April,” Schieldrop noted in the report. “Again and again, it has pushed the start of the production increase further into the future. It could do it yet again. That will depend on circumstances of one – global oil demand growth and two – non-OPEC+ supply growth,” he added. In the report, Schieldrop said “all oil producers in the world know that OPEC+ has … five to six million barrels per day of reserve capacity at hand” and noted that the group “wants to return two to three million barrels per day of this reserve to the market to get back to a more normal reserve level”. “The now increasingly standing threat of OPEC+ to increase production in ‘just a couple of months’ is hanging over the world’s oil producers like a Damocles Sword. OPEC+ is essentially saying: ‘produce much more and we will do too, and you will get a much lower price’,” Schieldrop noted. The chief commodities analyst at SEB went on to state in the report that, “if U.S. shale oil producers embarked on a strong supply growth path, heeding calls from Donald Trump for more production and a lower oil price, then OPEC+ would have no other choice than to lift production and let the oil price fall”. “Trump would get a lower oil price as he wishes for, but he would not get higher U.S. oil production. U.S. shale oil producers would get a

Community solar agreement aims to cut electricity costs, emissions across 31 Illinois fast food outlets

Dive Brief: A portfolio of 31 Wendy’s and McDonald’s locations across northern Illinois has locked in discounts on its energy bills potentially worth over $1 million across 20 years in an agreement with community solar provider Perch Energy, the company said Jan. 23. Participating All Star Management restaurants are receiving a 10% discount on their electricity bills over the projects’ 20-year lifespans, Perch Energy President and CEO Bruce Stewart said in an email. The restaurants expect to save more than $20,000 in electricity costs per year based on the franchise’s 2024 energy use. “It was an easy decision. A lot of our restaurants are open early and close late. And some are open 24 hours a day, so we use a lot of electricity,” All Star Management Owner Mike Allegro said in a statement. Dive Insight: Community solar purchases allow businesses to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their electricity use without installing on-site solar. In June, the Wendy’s Co. — which operates corporate-owned Wendy’s restaurants and licenses franchise locations to owner-operators like All Star Management — announced that nearly 100 of its corporate-owned restaurants and 40 franchise locations in New York, Massachusetts and Illinois had enrolled in community solar provider Ampion Renewable Energy’s solar-powered clean energy offering. All Star Management’s first round of subscriptions, announced Jan. 23, will purchase energy from two community solar projects with nearly 8 megawatts of combined capacity to supply its locations in Chicago’s western and southern suburbs. The deal could produce about “half a million dollars of savings” for All Star Management, Perch Energy said. Expected future capacity additions could allow All Star to double its savings to an estimated $1 million over 20 years, Perch and All Star Management said. Perch Energy has more than 36,000 active subscriptions in the United States drawing

Where Trump officials stand on RNG; plus news from WM, Chevron and more

This is the latest installment in Waste Dive’s Biogas Monthly series. A new administration brings new officials in charge of federal policies affecting the biofuels space, and early signs point to a mostly positive environment for the industry. U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin was asked during his confirmation hearing if he would set timely renewable volume obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard, the policy controlling federal incentives for renewable natural gas. Zeldin said he would, and also said he would be open to conversations about favorable policies for developing sustainable aviation fuels as well, Biomass Magazine first reported. On Monday, the Senate also voted to confirm Chris Wright, former chairman and CEO of Liberty Energy, to lead the U.S. Department of Energy. Liberty Energy is an oil and gas company based in Colorado, though it did acquire a company in 2023 that delivers compressed natural gas, RNG or hydrogen to remote customers. Wright will be tasked with implementing President Donald Trump’s energy policy, which is focused on boosting oil and gas production. In his “Unleashing American Energy” memo, issued on Jan. 20, Trump included biofuels among the kinds of energy production he’d like to see increase. There could also be cuts to programs that have previously supported the biofuels industry with the new administration. Experts said Wright could pause funding from the Loan Programs Office, which ramped up its investments considerably during the Biden administration. And the Rural Energy for America Program office, which has financed projects like dairy manure digesters, is on a list of programs whose funding was affected by Trump’s attempt to freeze large swathes of federal funding. Judges in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., have issued temporary restraining orders against the administration to allow funds to continue flowing for now. Despite the changes in Washington, projects continue

Clean energy stakeholders descend on Capitol to lobby for IRA credits

Dive Brief: As Congress weighs clawing back Inflation Reduction Act funds to pay for other items in its upcoming 2025 budget, the Solar Energy Industries Association and other groups led a Wednesday lobbying blitz on Capitol Hill, bringing industry representatives there for “over 100 meetings,” the group said. SEIA also sent a letter signed by around 1,500 solar and storage companies to each congressional office, urging lawmakers to “keep in place the solar and storage energy and manufacturing credits in any tax package that may move forward in the 119th Congress.” “With support from federal clean energy policies, American solar manufacturers can now produce enough modules to meet all demand for solar in the United States,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA. “It’s critical that our elected leaders understand the impact of these policies and the jobs and investments they bring to their constituents.” Dive Insight: President Donald Trump issued an executive order to freeze IRA funding soon after he took office, and is expected to urge the Republican-controlled Congress to make cuts to the legislation as lawmakers approach their March 14 shutdown deadline. Since Trump’s election, the clean energy industry has been pushing for the president to consider the IRA’s private sector benefits while urging lawmakers to protect the IRA investments in their districts. “In the last two years, 70-80% of all federal clean energy investments have flowed to Republican districts, and 90% of all those investments are in the manufacturing sector,” SEIA noted in a Wednesday release. In August, 18 House Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., urging him to prioritize “business and market certainty” as he examines options for repealing or reforming the IRA. While the lawmakers said they felt the “partisan process of passing the IRA created a deeply flawed bill,”

Grangemouth workers face first wave of redundancy as refinery set to close

The first wave of redundancies has been announced to workers at Grangemouth as Petroineos closes down Scotland’s only oil refinery. The firm is set to cut 400 jobs at the site over the next three to 18 months in a move that unions have labelled as a “national disgrace”. In September, the firm announced plans to cease operations in the second quarter of 2025 and despite union and government engagement, Petroineos is forging ahead. The oil refinery is set to become an import terminal in a move that will see the majority of workers lose their jobs. © Andrew Milligan/PA WireA view of the Grangemouth petrochemical plant in Scotland. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is quite frankly a national disgrace that Petroineos has been allowed to press ahead with this needless act of industrial vandalism. “There is a clear plan for the future of Grangemouth in place. Yet the UK and Scottish governments are missing in action.” Dismantling of the refinery is set to take five years, Petroineos said. As a result, the firm aims to operate its new terminal as it tears down the refinery. A Petroineos spokesperson commented: “From Q2 this year, Grangemouth will be ready to operate as a national fuel distribution hub that ensures Scotland’s supply of finished fuels is protected. “The process of safely transitioning the site from a refinery into an import terminal is underway and will continue over a number of months.” Union asks ‘who has got Britain’s back?’ © Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/ShuUnite general secretary Sharon Graham. Unite has campaigned to save the jobs of those at Grangemouth by proposing the site be repurposed to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Petroineos, a joint venture between PetroChina and Ineos, has blamed market pressures and the energy transition for the decision to

The LNG curse: a political blessing in disguise?

The UK increasingly relies on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet its energy needs, as domestic gas production declines. LNG from the US, Qatar and elsewhere is significantly more expensive than North Sea natural gas. However, this situation may be about to change. As a mature petroleum province, the North Sea is at the higher end of the cost curve. Break-evens on the UK Continental Shelf range from as low as $20-30 per barrel of oil-equivalent (boe) to more than $50/boe at the higher end, depending on project and location. Harbour Energy claims break-evens below $35/boe for its Tolmount field, while Shell said its Pierce gas expansion project could achieve breakeven costs as low as $20/boe. At the upper end, West of Shetland field break-evens are estimated at around $55/boe, although consultancy McKinsey believes these could be lowered to less than $35/boe with innovative new approaches to project delivery. Taking $30-45/boe as a central range, the break-even cost of UK domestic gas production is equivalent to $5.2-7.8 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). This is an all-in cost that includes capital expenditure, operating expenditure, day-to-day production costs, decommissioning and tax. Norwegian gas break-evens are lower, at an estimated $3-5.5 per MMBtu. LNG from global markets is more costly than both, because it must be liquefied, shipped across the Atlantic and regasified at one of Britain’s three receiving terminals. The UK imports most of its LNG from the US: five million tonnes in 2024, or 65% of the total, according to data provider Kpler. The delivered cost of US LNG is in the range of $6-11 per MMBtu depending on variable costs such as upstream feed gas, liquefaction, shipping, regasification and injection into the UK gas grid. Competing for molecules But that doesn’t give the full picture. US LNG is

Linux containers in 2025 and beyond

The upcoming years will also bring about an increase in the use of standard container practices, such as the Open Container Initiative (OCI) standard, container registries, signing, testing, and GitOps workflows used for application development to build Linux systems. We’re also likely see a significant rise in the use of bootable containers, which are self-contained images that can boot directly into an operating system or application environment. Cloud platforms are often the primary platform for AI experimentation and container development because of their scalability and flexibility along the integration of both AI and ML services. They’re giving birth to many significant changes in the way we process data. With data centers worldwide, cloud platforms also ensure low-latency access and regional compliance for AI applications. As we move ahead, development teams will be able to collaborate more easily through shared development environments and efficient data storage.

Let’s Go Build Some Data Centers: PowerHouse Drives Hyperscale and AI Infrastructure Across North America

PowerHouse Data Centers, a leading developer and builder of next-generation hyperscale data centers and a division of American Real Estate Partners (AREP), is making significant strides in expanding its footprint across North America, initiating several key projects and partnerships as 2025 begins. The new developments underscore the company’s commitment to advancing digital infrastructure to meet the growing demands of hyperscale and AI-driven applications. Let’s take a closer look at some of PowerHouse Data Centers’ most recent announcements. Quantum Connect: Bridging the AI Infrastructure Gap in Ashburn On January 17, PowerHouse Data Centers announced a collaboration with Quantum Connect to develop Ashburn’s first fiber hub specifically designed for AI and high-density workloads. This facility is set to provide 20 MW of critical power, with initial availability slated for late 2026. Strategically located in Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, Quantum Connect aims to offer scalable, high-density colocation solutions, featuring rack densities of up to 30kW to support modern workloads such as AI inference, edge caching, and regional compute integration. Quantum Connect said it currently has 1-3 MW private suites available for businesses seeking high-performance infrastructure that bridges the gap between retail colocation and hyperscale facilities. “Quantum Connect redefines what Ashburn’s data center market can deliver for businesses caught in the middle—those too large for retail colocation yet underserved by hyperscale environments,” said Matt Monaco, Senior Vice President at PowerHouse Data Centers. “We’re providing high-performance solutions for tenants with demanding needs but without hyperscale budgets.” Anchored by 130 miles of private conduit and 2,500 fiber pathways, Quantum Connect’s infrastructure offers tenants direct, short-hop connections to adjacent facilities and carrier networks. With 14 campus entrances and secure, concrete-encased duct banks, the partners said the new facility minimizes downtime risks and reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for new optics or extended fiber runs.

Blue Owl Swoops In As Major Backer of New, High-Profile, Sustainable U.S. Data Center Construction

With the global demand for data centers continuing to surge ahead, fueled by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and digital services, it is unsurprising that we are seeing aggressive investment strategies, beyond those of the existing hyperscalers. One of the dynamic players in this market is Blue Owl Capital, a leading asset management firm that has made significant strides in the data center sector. Back in October 2024 we reported on its acquisition of IPI Partners, a digital infrastructure fund manager, for approximately $1 billion. This acquisition added over $11 billion to the assets Blue Owl manages and focused specifically on digital infrastructure initiatives. This acquisition was completed as of January 5, 2025 and IPI’s Managing Partner, Matt A’Hearn has been appointed Head of Blue Owl’s digital infrastructure strategy. A Key Player In Digital Infrastructure and Data Centers With multi-billion-dollar joint ventures and financing initiatives, Blue Owl is positioning itself as a key player in the digital infrastructure space. The company investments in data centers, the implications of its strategic moves, and the broader impact on the AI and digital economy highlights the importance of investment in the data center to the economy overall. With the rapid growth of the data center industry, it is unsurprising that aggressive investment fund management is seeing it as an opportunity. Analysts continue to emphasize that the global data center market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2% from 2023 to 2030, reaching $517.17 billion by the end of the decade. In this rapidly evolving landscape, Blue Owl Capital has emerged as a significant contributor. The firm’s investments in data centers are not just about capitalizing on current trends but also about shaping the future of digital infrastructure. Spreading the Wealth In August 2024, Blue Owl

Global Data Center Operator Telehouse Launches Liquid Cooling Lab in the UK to Meet Ongoing AI and HPC Demand

@import url(‘/fonts/fira_sans.css’); a { color: #0074c7; } .ebm-page__main h1, .ebm-page__main h2, .ebm-page__main h3, .ebm-page__main h4, .ebm-page__main h5, .ebm-page__main h6 { font-family: “Fira Sans”, Arial, sans-serif; } body { letter-spacing: 0.025em; font-family: “Fira Sans”, Arial, sans-serif; } button, .ebm-button-wrapper { font-family: “Fira Sans”, Arial, sans-serif; } .label-style { text-transform: uppercase; color: var(–color-grey); font-weight: 600; font-size: 0.75rem; } .caption-style { font-size: 0.75rem; opacity: .6; } #onetrust-pc-sdk [id*=btn-handler], #onetrust-pc-sdk [class*=btn-handler] { background-color: #005ea0 !important; border-color: #005ea0 !important; } #onetrust-policy a, #onetrust-pc-sdk a, #ot-pc-content a { color: #005ea0 !important; } #onetrust-consent-sdk #onetrust-pc-sdk .ot-active-menu { border-color: #005ea0 !important; } #onetrust-consent-sdk #onetrust-accept-btn-handler, #onetrust-banner-sdk #onetrust-reject-all-handler, #onetrust-consent-sdk #onetrust-pc-btn-handler.cookie-setting-link { background-color: #005ea0 !important; border-color: #005ea0 !important; } #onetrust-consent-sdk .onetrust-pc-btn-handler { color: #005ea0 !important; border-color: #005ea0 !important; background-color: undefined !important; } Starting in early 2025, Telehouse International Corporation of Europe will offer an advanced liquid cooling lab at their newest data center, Telehouse South at the London Docklands campus in Blackwall Yard. Telehouse has partnered with four leading liquid-cooling technology vendors — Accelsius, JetCool, Legrand, and EkkoSense — to allow customers to explore different cooling technologies and management tools while evaluating suitability for their use in the customer applications. Dr. Stu Redshaw, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at EkkoSense, said about the project: Given that it’s not possible to run completely liquid-cooled data centers, the reality for most data center operators is that liquid cooling and air cooling will have an important role to play in the cooling mix – most likely as part of an evolving hybrid cooling approach. However, key engineering questions need answering before simply deploying liquid cooling – including establishing the exact blend of air and liquid cooling technologies you’ll need. And also recognizing the complexity of managing the operation of a hybrid air cooling and liquid cooling approach within the same room. This increases the

Flexential Partners with Lonestar to Support First Lunar Data Center

Flexential, a leading provider of secure and flexible data center solutions, this month announced that it has joined forces with Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. to support the upcoming launch of Freedom, Lonestar’s second lunar data center. Scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket via Intuitive Machines, this mission is a critical step toward establishing a permanent data center on the Moon. Ground-Based Support for Lunar Data Storage Flexential’s Tampa data center will serve as the mission control platform for Lonestar’s lunar operations, providing colocation, interconnection, and professional services. The facility was chosen for its proximity to Florida’s Space Coast launch operations and its ability to deliver low-latency connectivity for critical functions. Flexential operates two data centers in Tampa and four in Florida as part of its FlexAnywhere® Platform, comprising more than 40 facilities across the U.S. “Flexential’s partnership with Lonestar represents our commitment to advancing data center capabilities beyond conventional boundaries,” said Jason Carolan, Chief Innovation Officer at Flexential. “By supporting Lonestar’s space-based data center initiative, we are helping to create new possibilities for data storage and disaster recovery. This project demonstrates how innovative data center expertise can help organizations prepare for a resilient future with off-world storage solutions.” A New Era of Space-Based Resiliency The growing demand for data center capacity, with U.S. power consumption expected to double from 17 GW in 2022 to 35 GW by 2030 (according to McKinsey & Company), is driving interest in space-based solutions. Storing data off-planet reduces reliance on terrestrial resources while enhancing security against natural disasters, warfare, and cyber threats. The Freedom data center will provide resiliency, disaster recovery, and edge processing services for government and enterprise customers requiring the highest levels of data protection. The solar-powered data center leverages Solid-State Drives (SSDs) and a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) edge

Why DeepSeek Is Great for AI and HPC and Maybe No Big Deal for Data Centers

In the rapid and ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), the emergence of DeepSeek’s R1 model has sent ripples across industries. DeepSeek has been the data center industry’s topic of the week, for sure. The Chinese AI app surged to the top of US app store leaderboards last weekend, sparking a global selloff in technology shares Monday morning. But while some analysts predict a transformative impact within the industry, a closer examination suggests that, for data centers at large, the furor over DeepSeek might ultimately be much ado about nothing. DeepSeek’s Breakthrough in AI and HPC DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, this month unveiled its R1 model, claiming performance on par with, or even surpassing, leading models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and Anthropic’s Claude-3.5-Sonnet. Remarkably, DeepSeek developed this model at a fraction of the cost typically associated with such advancements, utilizing a cluster of 256 server nodes equipped with 2,048 GPUs. This efficiency has been attributed to innovative techniques and optimized resource utilization. AI researchers have been abuzz about the performance of the DeepSeek chatbot that produces results similar to ChatGPT, but is based on open-source models and reportedly trained on older GPU chips. Some researchers are skeptical of claims about DeepSeek’s development costs and means, but its performance appears to challenge common assumptions about the computing cost of developing AI applications. This efficiency has been attributed to innovative techniques and optimized resource utilization. Market Reactions and Data Center Implications The announcement of DeepSeek’s R1 model led to significant market reactions, with notable declines in tech stocks, including a substantial drop in Nvidia’s valuation. This downturn was driven by concerns that more efficient AI models could reduce the demand for high-end hardware and, by extension, the expansive data centers that house them. For now, investors are re-assessing the

Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs). In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE