Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Adobe first made its mark in generative AI with its Firefly image generation model in 2023 and its generative fill feature on Photoshop. With enterprise customers turning their attention from exploring AI-powered creation tools to agents, Adobe is throwing its hat in the agentic ring and adding more personalization features to everyday customer experience tasks.  Adobe announced the launch of 10 agents and an orchestration tool on its Adobe Experience platform. These tools target specific needs such as customer channel engagement, content production, data management and site optimization.  The company also debuted Brand Concierge, a way for organizations to personalize their websites for customers based on their previous interactions with the brand.  Loni Stark, vice president of strategy and product for Adobe, told VentureBeat in an interview that agents would change the customer experience for both the enterprise and their clients. “We see that agents can scale up the capacity of experience makers. It’s not just because of the hype out there, but because when we have delivered our tools to the customers we work with, we see that as their trust in the AI capabilities we deliver increases, they start to think, oh, can I make them autonomous,” Stark said.  She added the idea is to let these agents work ambiently, meaning the agents and the orchestrator continue to work in the background to provide information or solve issues for enterprises proactively.  Orchestration and agents for customer experience The new agents launching on AEP are: Account qualification agent to evaluate new sales pipelines Audience agent, which analyzes cross-channel engagement data to  Content production agent that helps marketers and creatives scale by generating and assembling content   Data insights agent simplifies and expands the process of deriving insights from signals   Data engineering agent   Experimentation agent helps stimulate new ideas and conduct impact analysis   Journeyagentst can orchestrate cross-channel experiences  Product advisor agent recommends experience and product engagement experiments   Site optimization agent manages and detects traffic and engagement in a website  Workflow optimization agent for cross-team collaboration and monitoring ongoing projects Stark highlighted the Site Optimization agent during a demo with VentureBeat. The agent would check for broken links or proactively examine a brand’s website for traffic and bounce rates and suggest fixes.  “Most companies don’t have people that spend all of their days looking at broken links, for example, especially if they have tens of thousands of pages, or can’t check on these daily,” Stark said. “What’s happening is that there’s lost opportunity both if you think about the bounce rate. This agent is pre-trained, so out of the box, it already comes with skills like looking for broken backlinks.” Stark said enterprises using the Experience Platform can fine-tune how much agents access their data through the orchestrator. Adobe joins companies like Salesforce and ServiceNow in providing users with pre-built agents for specific tasks and teams.   A customized brand website Another new feature for the Adobe Experience Platform is Brand Concierge, which will help enterprises build websites that offer customized customer visits. Organizations can create a website for their company or product that greets customers by name and provides a query box asking them what information they want.  Say a company has a website for a hotel chain. A customer can ask the chat function or click on premade prompts to ask about amenities specific to one location, Brand Concierge helps the company push the appropriate information to the front page of the site and also customize all other assets and experiences to that location. Stark said customers can still browse the site as usual, but Brand Concierge pushes customer engagement further by remembering how particular customers have interacted with the enterprise before.  Brand Concierge is a separate offering from the agents that sits on top of the AEP, but Stark said, “It’ll leverage agents such as the Product Advisor Agent, which is already built into the Concierge app.” The company also understands its customers’ past interactions and preferences.  Stark said Adobe customers increasingly find their clients more comfortable using AI chatbots, making it easier to transition them to more personalized, prompt-based website experiences.  “I think what we’re seeing is that consumers are increasingly comfortable with an AI-powered conversational experience. New Adobe Analytics data shows a 1,200% surge in U.S. retail sites and a 1,700% surge in U.S. travel sites (July 2024 to Feb 2025) from generative AI sources. Companies can surface this on high-traffic properties (like their website) with an increasingly familiar form factor that is gaining traction,” Stark said.  The company launched the Adobe Experience Platform in 2019, but the real-time customer experience management solution saw a massive update last year, including an AI assistant for users. source

A global telecom provider recognized that its traditional approach to delivering service and support to its employees was becoming a bottleneck. With a large workforce generating a high volume of IT, HR, and finance-related support requests and inquiries, the company faced increasing operational pressure and strain. To improve response times and reduce manual support efforts, the company adopted BMC HelixGPT. The agentic artificial intelligence (AI) platform multiplies productivity, elevates service team efficiency, and improves the employee experience. For the telecom provider, the results have been dramatic: Employees are resolving issues faster on their own. Support teams are focusing on higher-value tasks. The company has significantly reduced costs by shifting to more effective self-service support channels. Overcoming the challenges of high-volume support requests Before implementing BMC HelixGPT, the company relied heavily on manual support processes, leading to long wait times and inefficient workflows. With tens of thousands of employees and consultants requiring assistance, service teams were handling an overwhelming number of repetitive and routine inquiries, leaving little time for resolving more complex issues. The telecom provider needed a new approach that would enable employees to resolve common and routine issues through a self-service portal, while maintaining access to live support when necessary. The objective was not only to improve operational efficiency but also create a more responsive, employee-friendly support system better aligned with the organization’s long-term automation strategy. Shifting to AI-powered support To address these challenges, the company deployed the BMC Helix agentic AI solution that integrates self-service tools, intelligent chat capabilities, and knowledge management. Boosting its BMC Helix Service Management solution with BMC HelixGPT Employee Navigator delivered several key benefits: Improved self-service capabilities: Employees gained access to AI-generated knowledge summaries and articles, allowing them to find concise answers quickly without waiting for a support agent. Intelligent chatbot interactions: Generative AI-driven chat services now answer more than half of user inquiries for IT and other departments in more human-like, natural language engagements. Elimination of manual support: The company transitioned entirely to digital support channels, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs. Delivering real-world impact Since adopting BMC HelixGPT Employee Navigator, the company has achieved significant results that have helped its support operations, including: More effective support interactions AI-driven support has achieved over a 60% success rate, with the majority of employee inquiries resolved without human intervention. When live support is needed, chatbots transfer employees to the appropriate service agents with relevant context, eliminating employees repeating information or being delayed from agent mis-assignments. Higher employee satisfaction and productivity Faster resolutions mean employees spend less time waiting for support fulfillment and more time focusing on their work. Support teams are no longer overwhelmed by routine questions, allowing them to refocus on solving complex, high-priority issues. Higher staff productivity from reduced operational overhead is driving more transformation initiatives and business innovation. Significant time and cost savings Employees can now resolve issues independently, reducing the burden on IT, HR, and finance support teams. AI-generated knowledge summaries and articles alone have been estimated to save hundreds of support staff hours in the initial year by making information more concise, accessible, and usable. Overall, the company estimates several thousands of hours have been saved annually from current use cases that improved efficiency across multiple departments. Expanding AI across the enterprise With the success of agentic AI and BMC HelixGPT in its IT, HR, and finance service operations, the telecom provider is now exploring additional opportunities to expand AI-driven support. Future plans include: Rolling out AI-powered support across more business units, extending benefits to a wider range of employees. Testing new AI-driven use cases that integrate with additional enterprise workflows to further reduce manual efforts. Exploring BMC Helix AIOps and observability solutions to proactively monitor and prevent service disruptions before they affect users, increasing critical system uptime while reducing costs and risks. Delivering better outcomes with AI By embracing AI-powered service management, this telecom provider has redefined how enterprise support should work. Employees now experience faster, more efficient and effective resolutions, while the organization benefits from reduced costs and optimized resource allocation. As agentic AI-powered automation continues to improve, BMC HelixGPT will remain a key solution component of the company’s long-term strategy, helping the company adapt, scale, and deliver better support outcomes across all areas of the business. Ready to transform your service delivery experience? Explore the BMC Helix agentic AI solution today or contact BMC Helix to see how AI can elevate team performance and the user experience. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Zoom became a household name during the pandemic as remote work became the norm nearly overnight. While the company was once synonymous only with video conferencing, it has been quietly building a sophisticated AI infrastructure over the last several years with an aim to redefine workplace productivity. While video conferencing is important and remains the cornerstone of Zoom’s business, there’s a lot more now, too, thanks to AI. Moving from meeting to milestone Everyone knows that Zoom is a technology for meetings. But what is the meeting for? In a business context, certainly there can be meetings that have no purpose, but those should be outliers. Meetings should lead to something, whether that’s an action item or some other milestone. “In the agentic AI era, finally technology is reaching the point that we can transform from meeting to milestone,” Zoom CTO Xuedong (X.D.) Huang told VentureBeat in an exclusive interview. Today, Zoom is announcing an aggressive agentic AI strategy that includes a series of new services. The update introduces agentic capabilities that promise to transform meetings from communication events into action-oriented workflows, alongside a new AI Studio that lets enterprises create customized AI agents. The hidden technical evolution behind Zoom’s agentic AI  Prior to joining Zoom, Huang spent 30 years at Microsoft, working on speech technologies as well as Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. He carried forward a lot of lessons learned from that experience when he joined Zoom in 2023. Under Huang’s direction, Zoom began quietly building an AI architecture designed to facilitate tasks rather than just summarize conversations. Zoom publicly announced a partnership with Anthropic in May 2023 — but that’s not the only large language model (LLM) used at Zoom. While Microsoft Teams generally relies on OpenAI via the Microsoft OpenAI Azure service, and Google Meet is supported by Google Gemini, Zoom has taken an agnostic approach to LLMs. Huang explained that when Zoom launched the first iteration of its AI companion in 2023, it wasn’t based on any one single LLM. Instead, the company started off with a federated approach, using multiple LLMs including its own custom built small language model (SLM). “We’ve partnered with the best models out there, including OpenAI and Anthropic, but we’ve also built our own highly customized 2 billion parameter language model,” said Huang. Zoom’s AI Companion uses a federated approach in which the smaller Zoom model is used in conjunction with larger, industry-leading language models. The smaller model initially evaluates and processes the input, and the partial results are then passed to larger models to produce the final output. This approach allows Zoom to take advantage of the strengths of both the smaller, customized model and the larger, more powerful models, while reducing costs and improving performance. How the small language model is at the center of Zoom’s agentic AI journey Perhaps the most technically intriguing aspect of Zoom’s AI strategy is its focus on SLMs. Rather than following the industry trend of distilling smaller models from larger ones, Zoom built its 2-billion parameter model entirely from scratch. The technical advantage of this approach becomes apparent when customizing for specific domains. “When you customize, it takes more effort, it’s just hard to steer a bigger ship,” Huang explained. As it turns out, the ability to customize the small model is a critical component to the development of specific agentic AI workflows. Looking ahead, Zoom envisions its SLMs eventually running directly on user devices, enabling both better privacy and more personalized experiences. AI companion 2.0: Agentic AI transforms meetings to milestones At the heart of Zoom’s updates is AI Companion 2.0, which transforms Zoom’s AI capabilities from meeting support to fully agentic functions. With 2.0, Zoom is evolving from assistant to agentic AI that is capable of reasoning, memory and task execution. The evolved AI Companion can now execute multi-step actions on behalf of users, orchestrating tasks like scheduling meetings, generating video clips and creating documents. Key updates include: Agentic skills: Calendar management, clip generation, advanced writing assistance; Task management: Automatic detection of action items from meetings and chats; Meeting enhancements: AI-powered agendas, live notes and voice recording; Document creation: Advanced references and automatic data table generation in Zoom Docs; Virtual agents: Self-service capabilities for customer service with both chat and voice support; Industry solutions: Specialized tools for frontline workers, healthcare professionals and educators; Zoom Drive: New central repository for meeting assets and productivity documents; Custom avatars: AI-generated video avatars for creating presentation clips. Most features will roll out between March and July 2025. While the standard AI Companion is included at no additional cost for paid users, specialized agents and custom configurations will require additional fees. “The most important aspect for us of agentic AI is really enabling the action-oriented information flow,” said Huang. “What that means is that when you have a meeting, the action task will flow into Docs or chat or into other actions you have to take.” AI Studio: Building custom agents for enterprises  While Zoom is providing a lot of different agentic AI capabilities out-of-the-box for users, Huang recognized that enterprises often need more customized options. That’s where AI Studio comes in, allowing companies to create customized AI agents tailored to specific business needs. These can be deeply integrated with company-specific knowledge and workflow processes. As an example, Huang detailed one practical application for human resources policy. Enterprises can use the AI Studio to upload all of their internal HR policy documents. The AI companion will then be trained on this company-specific HR policy information, allowing it to accurately answer employee questions about HR guidelines and procedures. IT administrators can also use the AI Studio to connect the companion to other internal knowledge bases, like IT support documentation. The goal is to enable companies to create AI agents that are deeply integrated with their own processes, data and workflows, transforming the AI companion into a customized and

台灣雕塑家李光裕經常被譽為「詩人」，他的作品以「鏤空」技法為名，深受佛學「空、有」概念影響，動靜相生，呈現出一種物我兩忘的美學境界，像是由此解放了空間的束縛，接受自然流露的殘缺，從而踏進一種更自由的心境。 城市的紛雜，世俗的瑣事，常讓人無所適從。但站在李光裕的雕塑前，彷彿有了一個暫緩下來的空間，單純地駐足欣賞──那些處於虛實之間的作品，蘊含了一種內觀自省的過程，也蘊含着時間的流動，以及生活的態度。 李光裕1954年生於高雄內惟，上世紀70年代中期在台灣完成學院雕塑訓練，之後曾負笈西班牙深造，獲得碩士學位。學成歸國後，李光裕任教於台北藝術大學、台灣藝術大學雕塑系教授，他一方面在台灣文化影響創作，一方面又熱愛西方美學，兩者交織，形成他作品中的獨特視野。2006年退休後，李光裕一直創作至今。他喜歡師法自然，作品中兼有東方哲學與自然的美感。對他來說，雕塑是一種媒介，「我覺得我們每一個人的內在理想和思想，都會藉由某個媒介來表達。每個人使用的（媒介）不一樣，而我就是用雕塑來表達我所看到的世界，以及看到這個世界以後，我內在的心智覺醒。」 以「雕塑虛空」為題，李光裕將在今年3月至12月期間，首度來港展出。他由2008年至近年創作的多件雕塑，散落在金鐘「亞洲協會香港中心」的不同角落，融入這個兼具藝術、歷史與自然元素的獨特空間裏。負責穿針引線的「藝文策略」創辦人郭東杰解釋說：「很有趣，李光裕老師的作品一旦和大自然結合，整個味道不同、是出世的。亞洲協會香港中心的特色是既為歷史建築（本身是一個軍火庫），卻有當代建築的加建部分，猶如鬧市中的綠洲，當我們把老師的作品放入其中，你若人在不同位置看他的作品，會有不同的味道出來。」 在亞洲協會香港中心展示的作品，創作時間橫跨2008至2021年，展現了他對空性、自然之物的看法變遷。這次展出的雕塑當中，既有鳳凰、神龜與金鳥等意象，亦有些元素發端自生活微小瞬間。如藝術家本人所說：「（生活中）那麼多的事情讓你糾纏，有時候你會有太多問題、太多東西，但是當你看到我的作品，你會慢慢地覺得整個人平靜下來。」 在虛實之間，在靜動之間，在空有之間，這些作品喚起觀者對生命與藝術的深層共鳴。那些銅雕冷冽的質感與流暢的動勢背後，充滿李光裕生命哲學的體會，它們瀟灑靈動，使觀者留連於藝術之間，感受時間的詩意。 「李光裕 — 雕塑虛空｜亞洲協會香港中心 X 李光裕」 日期：2025年3月20日至12月14日 地點：亞洲協會香港中心（香港金鐘正義道九號） LinkedIn Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp The post 台灣雕塑家李光裕首度來港展出 「雕塑虛空」蘊藏佛學意象與時間詩意 appeared first on VeriMedia. source

Technology service spending will reach $2 trillion in 2028, rising 4.6% year over year globally, much faster than GDP growth. We recently analyzed the earnings of six technology service providers and surveyed over 2,300 enterprise service decision-makers (with both business and IT titles) from 11 countries around the world to find out what’s going on out there. We have done a three-part analysis of the state of technology services: 1) co-innovation services; 2) provider selection, pricing, and management; and 3) strategic partnerships. Here are some highlights: Strategic service providers must be co-innovation partners, not just job shops. The primary driver of change in services is co-innovation. In this model, providers share risk and are motivated to achieve specific outcomes. They help you coordinate internal stakeholders and orchestrate cloud, software, and AI ecosystem providers. At the heart of co-innovation partner relationships is trust, which, at 47%, is the most important factor in selecting a provider. Providers’ growth stems from demand for core transformations … The days of random projects that didn’t move the needle on business growth or profitability are over. After 15 years of projects, firms are consolidating into core systems and laying the software, data, and process groundwork for the next wave of growth. In a recent earnings call, Cognizant emphasized “large deals” (code word for transformation or outsourcing) driving “fourth-quarter bookings [increasing] 11% year over year.” … and for a new wave of AI business investment. Almost half of respondents we surveyed say that AI is the most important technology for third-party services help — internet of things came in a distant second at 9%. During a December 2024 earnings call, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet reported $1.2 billion in new AI bookings and went on to say, “Those who really want to go into AI are more prioritizing spending as opposed to spending more.” Firms want results — not just people — and they’re willing to pay to achieve it. The survey reveals how prominent performance-based pricing models have become as a way to achieve outcomes, motivate providers, and share risk. In 2024, 45% of services decision-makers expected to expand their use of performance-based pricing and 46% expected to increase fixed-price contracts. We expect providers to make more fixed-price bids as they build generative AI-powered delivery platforms that improve delivery speed, quality, and predictability. Providers respond by amping up asset-driven business models. Thirty-five percent of North American and 38% of Asia Pacific respondents see data, content, and software assets as key benefits to working with service providers. Interestingly, only 25% of European services decision-makers are focused on a provider’s assets. With genAI disrupting service delivery economics — more value at lower cost — it’s important that providers bring more assets and solutions to help enterprises gain an AI advantage. Manage Service Providers To Maximize The Value They Bring The survey provides solid benchmarks for effectively managing providers, including these best practices: Regularly meet with your providers. Fifty-two percent of service decision-makers hold quarterly or even monthly meetings with providers to plan the roadmap for the next phase of their projects. By maintaining open lines of communication between providers and employees, organizations establish an integration strategy that fosters collaboration and ensures a cohesive approach toward objectives. Track quality and financial metrics to assess provider engagement levels. Survey respondents report that their organizations monitor key metrics such as quality (54%), financial performance (48%), and end user experience (47%). Organizations should develop a repeatable scoring method based on these metrics as a best practice to align their organizational goals with their partner’s plan. Ensure that providers satisfy stakeholders. Forty-one percent of decision-makers assess providers’ engagement using senior stakeholder satisfaction. Involving stakeholders in the evaluation process provides diverse senior-level management perspectives and helps gather insight into their performance and partnership qualities. If you want to dig deeper into co-innovation to maximize the value of partners, please reach out to me by scheduling a guidance session or an inquiry via email: [email protected]. If you have an offering that moves the needle on co-innovation, performance-based pricing, AI-powered delivery, or ecosystem orchestration, please consider scheduling a briefing: [email protected]. source

By Ivan Moreno ( March 18, 2025, 12:17 PM EDT) — The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday rejected an inventor’s appeal to obtain a copyright for an artwork made by his artificial intelligence system, affirming the stance from the U.S. Copyright Office that the law protects only human creations…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Image: DC_Photo via Envato AI’s workplace potential is being hindered by outdated tools and employee concerns, a Lenovo report finds. While 79% of IT leaders see Gen AI as boosting productivity, only 36% say it effectively supports engagement. With 42% of employees fearing it will reduce their contributions and 89% of IT leaders calling for a digital workplace overhaul, businesses must go beyond automation to fully unlock AI’s benefits. Digital workplace tools are failing to support productivity When the researchers surveyed 600 IT leaders worldwide for this Lenovo report, they found that while 79% of respondents believe Gen AI will let employees focus on more impactful work by automating operational processes, less than half said their current digital workplace tools support productivity, engagement, and innovation effectively. The main barrier may be the emergence of large language models (LLMs), which have rapidly accelerated the pace and sophistication of automation. The emergence of Gen AI as a key component of the digital workplace has also introduced new challenges, the report states. More must-read AI coverage Businesses struggle to unlock Gen AI’s full potential Despite Gen AI’s vast opportunities —  including enhanced collaboration, creativity, innovation, engagement, and productivity — business leaders struggle to implement it effectively and achieve meaningful productivity gains. Only 36% believe their AI systems support employee engagement “very effectively,” while a staggering 89% say organizations must first overhaul their digital workplace to unlock Gen AI’s full potential. Another significant challenge is employees’ concerns over privacy, security, and ethics with 35% citing these major barriers to adoption. “That’s why digital workplace transformation is needed,’’ said Linda Yao, vice president of AI Solutions & Services Group, in the report. “It’s about understanding how people stay productive, what their preferences are, and rolling it out to everybody.” Despite hurdles, IT leaders remain motivated — nearly half (49%) say creating a more productive and engaging employee experience is their top priority for the coming year. Delivering transformative productivity requires reinvention To fully realize Gen AI’s potential, organizations must do more than simply automate existing processes; the report outlines three strategies to improve the digital workplace: Unlock productivity and engagement: Tailor the employee experience to each user’s role, requirements, and working style using persona-based configuration. A Gen AI-powered IT support experience will minimize disruptions to their workflow. Simplify the personalization process with Gen AI: Create personas, then configure devices, software, and IT support levels to them. Gen AI automation can be used to ensure disruptions are predicted, detected, or resolved as soon as possible. Reinvent to leverage people’s capabilities: Determine how Gen AI can enhance and augment an organization’s value creation objectives and competitive differentiation. Anticipate and manage the change the technology brings, ensuring employees have the skills and motivation they need to adapt. The report underscores that in order to achieve AI-driven productivity gains businesses must rethink their approach, modernize their digital tools, and actively address employee concerns. source

Aerospike rocket engines are the stuff of legend in the space industry. Conceived in the 1960s, their unique spiked-nozzle design promises better efficiency, reusability, and performance at all altitudes. But their complexity — and the shutdown of major space programmes towards the end of the 20th century — meant they never entered the mainstream.  But now, startups are dusting off old designs and using new technologies to revive aerospike engines for modern spaceflight. One of these ventures is Spain’s Pangea Aerospace. Founded in 2018, Pangea has been operating under the radar for most of its seven-year history. But today, the company announced a €23mn Series A funding round as it looks to ramp up development of its 3D-printed aerospike rocket engine. Among the investors was André-Hubert Roussel, former CEO of ArianeGroup, who oversaw the development of Europe’s only heavy-lift rocket in operation, Ariane 6. Roussel joined Pangea’s board last year.  “It’s incredibly valuable to have such a figure investing in and advising us as we embark on our next stage of growth,” Pangea’s CCO and co-founder Xavier Llairó told TNW. 3 free tickets to TNW Conference? Get them now! For a limited time, groups can get up to three extra free tickets! Book now and increase your visibility and connections at TNW Conference Roussel praised the company’s plans on LinkedIn. “Strong team, strong technology, building the future of space propulsion,” he said. An aerospike rocket revolution? In 2021, Pangea successfully conducted a hot-fire test of Demo-P1, the world’s first aerospike methalox engine.   “We’ve been silently making breakthroughs in cooling techniques, additive manufacturing, and materials science that are now paying off,” said Llairó. “We’re sure we can produce aerospike engines at a low cost.”  Pangea, which has headquarters in Barcelona, Spain and Toulouse, France, is now directing most of its focus towards ARCOS, slated to become the world’s first flight-ready aerospike engine. ARCOS is designed to be reused up to 10 times and to power both a rocket’s booster and upper stage. And like the Demo-P1, it will be 3D-printed. A 3D render of the finished ARCOS engine. Credit: Pangea Pangea, in partnership with Aenium Engineering, has developed a proprietary copper-alloy material that can make an engine capable of withstanding the extreme thermal and mechanical loads of rocket launch and flight. The team has also developed a way to quickly deposit it in layers using a 3D printer.  “The result is a very low-cost, very strong combustion chamber that can withstand the high heat and pressure,” said Llairó. “With this technology, we’ve been able to produce things that were simply unproducible before.” Pangea’s aerospike engines are 30% more efficient than traditional bell engines, delivering 15% higher overall efficiency, and enabling up to 30% more payload capacity to orbit, the company said in a statement. The new space boom Pangea aims to build rocket propulsion systems for all rocket sizes, from microlaunchers to heavy-lifters. Last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) contracted the startup to design a very high-thrust rocket engine, which could power future European heavy and super-heavy rockets.  However, Pangea mainly looks to cater to the emerging flock of private space companies. The startup says it wants to be the Rolls-Royce of rockets — the leading engine supplier in the sector. Pangea is currently testing its technology in partnership with three private space companies, Llairó told TNW. “Two European, one American,” he said, refusing to elaborate further.  Europe’s most promising rocket launch startups right now include Germany’s Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) and Spain’s PLD Space. All three are set to blast off on their maiden flights this year, although Isar looks to be the first. Then there are the more established European heavyweights, Arianespace, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, and Avio, the Italian makers of Vega-C.   All these companies are looking to tap a booming global space economy, forecast to be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035. For Pangea, that means more customers.  Llairó also thinks space tech offers an important strategic lever for Europe, which is pushing to ramp up its defence capabilities and tech sovereignty amid cooling relations with the US and threats from Russia.  “Space is crucial for our defence and autonomy in Europe,” he said. “We have an opportunity to build a strong local space economy [here] and to be leaders in certain areas, like propulsion systems. However, it’s an opportunity that will go to waste unless governments invest more [in space startups] and take a risk like they do in the US.”  source