Daily AI Brief

Onsemi launched a new family of vertical GaN (vGaN) power semiconductors aimed at the energy and performance demands of data centres, AI workloads, electric vehicles and renewables. The move signals that hardware innovation—especially skin-deep supply-chain elements like power ICs—is increasingly critical in supporting large-scale AI infrastructure.

Intuit introduced a set of AI agents on its QuickBooks platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses, covering bookkeeping, customer-management, project workflows and finance. This rollout demonstrates the increasing reach of agentic tools into non-tech-native organisations and suggests a maturation of AI from novelty to workflow-embedment.

The EU's landmark AI regulation is facing internal debate as critics argue that its sweeping burdens may stifle start-ups and favour established players. In particular, the next phase targeting "high-risk" systems is reportedly under reconsideration to avoid hampering European competitiveness in the global AI race.

A report found that two-thirds of financial institutions rely on suppliers for AI agent development: only one in three are building proprietary agents, while just 15% are buying off-the-shelf solutions. This highlights that enterprise uptake of agentic AI is real, but still largely outsourced or hybrid, rather than purely internal build-outs.

Alembic, a startup focused on linking marketing spend and media exposure to sales outcomes via AI-driven queries across TV, podcasts and social media, secured a substantial $145m investment at a $645m valuation. This reflects how AI investment is moving beyond generic models to domain-specific analytics and decision-support systems.

Dublin-based Lette AI secured US $1.4 million in pre-seed funding to roll out its agentic platform for property leasing and management across Ireland, the UK and UAE—indicating sector-specific agentic AI is gaining traction.

Swiss startup Forgis raised €3.8 million to automate industrial machine workflows, part of a broader push in Europe to apply intelligence in manufacturing and industrial sectors.

This week's highlight is the rollout of domain-specific AI agents by Intuit for small businesses across multiple functional areas (accounting, customer management, project workflows). The message: AI is increasingly becoming a built-in productivity layer for everyday business, not just for tech-forward enterprises.