Tech Archives - Page 4 of 6

Apple TV+ launched at the start of this month, entering the already-crowded arena of streaming platforms. With Britbox also having launched this month, and the likes of Disney+, HBO Max and NBCUniversal slated for upcoming release, the competition is set to heat up even more as the battle for subscribers continues. This new array of content also joins the established players like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Now TV, which account for usage in over 46% of homes in the UK.

Apple’s challenge is not only to stand out among the new platforms, with Disney emerging as its biggest rival, but also those existing channels which have cemented their places as the streaming giants and set the standards we expect from platforms today. Where ‘Netflix and chill’ has become a commonplace phrase, ‘Apple TV+ and chill’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. The reality is that even if we wanted to, most of us couldn’t afford subscribing to all the streaming services available, so the challenge for each platform is creating a higher value to the consumer than its competitors.

So, what is Apple’s strategy to break into the market?

Undoubtedly, Apple’s top priority is pushing its original content. Original content is on the rise across the board to combat the increasing threat of rights holders pulling their content from existing platforms to monetise it themselves – such as WarnerMedia pulling Friends from Netflix to include on its own upcoming platform HBO Max. By creating original content, Apple avoids this risk entirely. It has also invested heavily in talent, with its shows featuring huge names, from Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carrell, to Steven Spielberg and Oprah. This is a bid to assure consumers that its original content is going to be worth subscribing to. After all, you could say that Spielberg’s repertoire of blockbuster hits speaks for itself.

Apple has also opted for a staggered approach in releasing its content. Its launch debuted eight TV shows and one documentary film, and M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller ‘Servant’ is due to drop on November 28th. Although other dates are yet to be announced, Apple has an impressive amount of new content in the pipeline. Despite the pressure to churn out shows, a focus on quality over quantity could work in Apple’s favour. Meanwhile, Netflix has recently been flexing the ‘surprise drop’ strategy (staggered timings for new content) which Apple could end up imitating – although, it would likely need a healthy base of subscribers first to make this worthwhile.

Another differentiator is Apple’s price. It’s cheaper than its counterparts at £4.99 a month, but arguably couldn’t justify charging more given its initial lack of content. It offers a one-year free trial for students, a clever strategy given that the student demographic is known for social media usage and can spread enthusiasm and positive reviews via social feeds and word of mouth. It’s also free for new iPhone and iPad owners. However, this offer was marred by technical difficulties on launch day as some users were unable to claim the free trial while others were given the offer without owning a new product.

Product accessibility is another issue. Apple TV+ is currently compatible with Apple devices, some Samsung smart TVs, Roku and Amazon’s Fire Stick, but not with any Sony, LG or Vizio devices. Additionally, although its price is lower than other streaming platforms, ‘stacking’ ends up being expensive (a term for subscribing to multiple platforms). In this sense, it will be harder for Apple to convince those already subscribed to existing services to unsubscribe and opt for TV+ instead. Its closest competitor, Disney+, has the advantage of existing films, rights to franchises like Marvel, and a global fan base. Meanwhile, HBO Max is an extension of its existing network, offering a combination of content already proven popular alongside new content that promises to be the same.

Ultimately, Apple TV+ needs to prove its original content is top quality, binge-worthy and appealing, as this remains its key differentiator in the increasingly crowded market. With good reviews it could see a surge in subscribers, but bad feedback could be its downfall. Whether I’ll subscribe? Only time will tell.

In June 2019, Facebook announced the launch of its proposed digital currency, Libra. But since then the social media platform has run into a number of roadblocks; from France blocking the currency’s development in Europe, to Mark Zuckerberg getting a grilling by US lawmakers about Libra’s privacy policies. As it stands, it doesn’t look very good for the social media giant’s latest venture nor does it look like it will get any easier for the company, especially as the US House Financial Services Committee is still unsatisfied with the steps that Facebook has taken to try launch Libra.

With all the bad press and Facebook and Zuckerberg’s trustworthiness at an all-time low, is it time to abandon the whole cryptocurrency venture?

A BBC News article recently reported that some of the biggest payment companies including Mastercard, Visa and PayPal have pulled out of the project. PayPal released a statement saying:

“PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra association at this time and to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratise access to financial services for underserved populations. We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future. Facebook has been a longstanding and valued strategic partner to PayPal and we will continue to partner with and support Facebook in various capacities.”

Although most of the companies leaving didn’t give a reason as to why they were leaving, you can assume that the scrutiny from regulators and France’s stance hasn’t helped.

Should Facebook be looking at new ventures when it has an already damaged reputation to repair? To be clear, Libra isn’t actually Facebook’s cryptocurrency. It’s the project of the Libra Association, which Facebook co-founded. But we did find out from the testimony on Wednesday that Zuckerberg acknowledged that having people use Libra would likely drive up the cost of advertising on Facebook, which would benefit the company. Facebook’s secret weapon in all of this is Calibra, a digital wallet that is designed to work on top of Libra’s blockchain and resembles a normal payments company but its integration with Facebook’s enormous user base could give it a significant advantage over any rivals. With its ability to leverage WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, Calibra could very well become Facebook’s next big thing.

The signs don’t look good for the Libra currency succeeding. Companies are looking to distance themselves from the project and with regulators watching every move Zuckerberg has an even steeper hill to climb and with more investment needed. Facebook is still dealing with the consequences of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the damage to its reputation, as well as ongoing issues concerning fake news, political advertising, privacy… the list goes on.

I can’t help but think that with Facebook’s deep pockets and the limitless potential of a proprietary digital wallet as motivation, the idea isn’t necessarily dead just yet.

PR and communications consultancy is one of those strategic support services that must be considered for businesses of all sizes, but it’s a particularly important topic for organisations going through a step change or transformation – be it corporate growth, a re-brand or entering new markets. In some instances, it’s a major investment for companies that might be far more inclined to put money towards R&D. For others, it’s a go-to move during times of change. But in all cases, traditionally PR has been guilty of a widespread shortcoming – lack of measurement.

The issue as it stands

For decades, PR has followed a fairly formulaic approach – agencies charge monthly retainers that effectively buy their clients a set amount of hours, which are then used to promote the organisation or its latest updates. In its worst form, this PR approach results in sending out a press release every once in a while to journalists who have never heard of the company, frequently receive hundreds of similar news releases, and who are ultimately unlikely to report on the announcement. The outcome? No measurable results, or no coverage at all – making it more difficult to secure future budget for PR.

The new way of doing things

When your organisation has a message that it needs to communicate to the marketplace, take care to avoid the classic ‘retainer-based’ agencies. Instead, partner with a consultancy that offers set fees for set deliverables – along with bespoke campaigns that align with your business objectives and strategies. Whether each deliverable takes 2 hours, 20 hours or 200 hours, the fee will remain the same. This will ensure you have complete transparency of your investment.

SLAs and tangible results

Technology is not only providing PR agencies with additional channels to communicate your messages, it’s also providing the data that’s needed to determine the real success of the activity. By partnering with an innovative PR organisation that builds strategically-aligned campaigns from day one, you can agree strict performance targets before the activity begins. These targets and KPIs can include key message penetration, coverage volume, and tangible social media engagements. Importantly, by setting service level agreements with your PR partner, you can protect your budgets and ensure your investment is not squandered. For example, industry-leading partners will typically set SLAs that state ‘If we miss our coverage target by 10%, you’ll get 10% of your total fee back.’

The Whiteoaks way

Our approach differentiates us and we believe our work is second to none. All of the next-generation PR techniques mentioned in this post are the foundations of what we do at Whiteoaks. With an unrivalled network of business and tech journalists, analysts, bloggers, vloggers and industry influencers, and an expertise in leveraging social media content on the right platforms for our clients, we ensure their businesses cut through the noise. We build brand awareness and generate sales leads through targeted and impactful integrated marketing campaigns – driving real results and generating return on your PR investment.

To find out more, just submit an enquiry below and we’ll be in touch.

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I believe it would be fair to say that the majority of our working and personal lives now revolve around convenience. And the reason for that is quite simple, technology has made everything faster, easier and more accessible. Technology has changed the way businesses think, but more importantly, it has changed the way that employees think.

You can compare this change in human thinking to the consumer shopping experience. For years we have been hearing that consumers are demanding more from retailers – from in-store technology to even basic smartphone app features – and they simply couldn’t keep up.

Fast forward to today’s customer experience playground and you’ll find the pendulum of power swinging back to the brands we buy from on a daily basis. This is thanks to the power of data, analytics and AI. Brands have not only been able to listen to their customers and take action, but they have been able to improve the customer journey at every stage. A client of ours, Feefo, does this expertly for some of the world’s biggest brands, and I can see that those brands have a distinct difference in service levels than those that do not employ a similar technology.

Now, if you take the hot topic that is the future of work. You’ll find a number of similarities in how we, as employees are demanding more from our employers, and how businesses have had to catch up to retain, engage and keep talent.

The future of work is quite a simple concept and it ranges in meaning from person to person. For me, it comes back to convenience. My thinking as an employee has evolved; I now expect to have access to technology that will enable me to produce a higher quality of work, be more productive, stay engaged and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

However, the expectations a business has of you as an employee hasn’t changed. All of the above outputs are common and fair expectations. The challenge organisations now face is how they build a culture that their employees can thrive in.

This takes us back to technology. There isn’t a magic bullet technology that will solve this conundrum. But there are solutions out there that will help change business thinking. These enabling technologies are vital to creating an engaged workforce.

Take another of our clients, People First, a company dedicated to creating a better way of working. And a company whose very name should resonate with the approach boardrooms and the C-Suite should now be taking. Management teams gain access to a wide array of intelligence and analytics that can be used to provide a better working atmosphere – from improvements in talent management to more engaging social learning.

Collaboration and remote working are referred to together because, in the past, an issue with remote working is that it negatively impacts collaboration and teamwork. Slack is an example of technology that has made this argument null and void, by positively enabling smarter collaboration it is making having a fixed-working location a thing of the past. The same can be said of cloud tools that allow teams to work in real-time on the same project, like G-Suite.

Coming full circle, this comes all the way back to the way in which our thinking as humans has changed as a result of technological advancements. We are able to provide a better and more convenient working experience for our staff because of technology. Everyone (hopefully!) has an example of a great manager. Nowadays, a great manager can become an exceptional manager because of the insight and tools at their disposal to manage their staff. Likewise, a great employee can transform into a more engaged and productive member of staff with the augmentation of technology supporting them in their career.

As a specialist content creator, developing copy in the B2B tech PR industry, I have in the front of my mind that, although I may be focused on the latest trends in business technology, I also have to keep one eye on the latest consumer developments. Often today, it is the consumer that sets the pace in technology terms.

Look at the shift to voice interfaces for example. More and more people are shouting out commands to Alexa, Siri or Cortana, while businesses are just starting to explore the full range of capabilities that voice biometrics could bring.

The ongoing success of Amazon shows the power of the ‘Want, Click, Get’ model. Consumers now have the capability to get almost instant gratification with more personalised product offerings and faster and faster delivery times, through this technology

With the advance of the Internet of Things, we are also seeing connectivity levels ramping up all the time. It is now possible to access the internet through almost any consumer device. One teenager in the US recently even used the family fridge to send out a tweet when her mother took her devices away.

Connected ovens and washing machines, tweeting kettles and toasters are all rapidly becoming the norm. We have even come across a tweeting catflap, It makes you wonder sometimes if we are living in a world out of kilter.

Is obsession with the latest connected devices blinding us to the fact that huge numbers of people around the world have no or little digital access?

As more and more of us celebrate the ability to access the Internet from anywhere at any time, others are being left behind.

According to figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) as of 2018 there were still 5.3 million adults in the UK alone, or 10.0% of the adult UK population, who could be described as internet non-users. Over half of all adult internet non-users were over the age of 75 years in 2018 while in 2017, 56% of adult internet non-users were disabled, much higher than the proportion of disabled adults in the UK population as a whole.

Moreover, those who live alone are less likely to have an internet connection at home, than their peers. In 2018, according to the ONS, 9% of households with a single adult aged between 16 and 64 years did not have an internet connection, compared with only 1% of households with two adults aged between 16 and 64 years.

These numbers are sobering thoughts – especially when you consider that the people being excluded from internet access, those who remain unconnected in an increasingly connected world, are often those who could most benefit from having access to the digital links that others take for granted.

It’s clear there’s a missing step; a bridge needed between the extremes of tweeting fridges and no internet usage whatsoever. While the latest digital innovations and enhanced connectivity are something to be celebrated and bring a lot of benefits to society, the concept of digital inclusion is an important one.

So, the next time you hear about the latest connected coffee maker or smart blender, spare a thought for people in society today who are missing out on the even the most basic internet access.

It may be a few years away, but London can celebrate – and start the hard work; the city has been selected to host the prestigious IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s (RAS) International Conference on Robotics and Automations (ICRA) in 2023.

An extensive and heavy-weight group of organisations supported the bid, led by Professor Kaspar Althoefer from Queen Mary University of London. They included The Mayor of London, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kings College London, Imperial College London, University College London, The Alan Turing Institute, Cognition X, and software companies DeepMind and Shadow Robot.

Encouragingly, as well as the usual business-related conference programme, workshops and networking, the conference organisers will be running a robot competition between schools in England for children aged 7 to 12, with the aim of raising interest in STEM subjects. The hope is that this will avoid a future skills crisis in AI, especially given that 13 universities in London offer AI, machine learning and related undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

In the B2B technology industry – and I’d argue more broadly in the overall technology space – AI and robotic process automation (RPA) is the most transformative innovation around. So much so that ethics are of top priority in the UK and US, the implications of which my colleague Tom Webb wrote about here recently.

All this attention and the wide-ranging impacts of AI and RPA on our personal and business lives means international technology providers are focused on two things: firstly, differentiating their proposition and secondly, expanding into new markets.

Firstly, the AI and RPA industry as a whole faces the challenge that cloud and digital transformation technologies did a few years ago – and that’s explaining what they can achieve in real terms, not the meaningless buzzwords and jargon which can negatively affect the B2B technology landscape. And, as AI and RPA businesses at home and abroad pile in, looking for their share of this ‘hot’ market, the big challenge for each will be why they are different from and better than the rest.

To turn to the second issue, London stands a good chance of acting as a central hub for US-based firms wanting to enter the European market. London is already the base for over 750 AI businesses, double the total of Paris and Berlin together and international investment increased by 50% in 2017 from the previous year. In the last few months a flurry of US-based companies have announced international intent, including insurance AI and machine learning (ML) operator, Lemonade and Innowatts, which specialises in AI-enabled analytics and SaaS for the energy industry. As Thomas Stone, partner at AI Seed recently said: “London has technology, finance, and government — it’s like SF/NYC/DC in one city. And within an hour by train, you have access to four world-leading research universities in addition to the Alan Turing Institute.”

The senior Marketing and PR decision-makers within software providers, which choose to spider outwards into the EU from London, will be faced with choices about their PR and communications options. Do they attempt to run everything from the US HQ, distributing news announcements down the wires and hiring local freelancers in the biggest markets? With the ability to turn on and off as commercial needs dictate, low cost and low risk, it’s easy to see the upsides – but the translation and account coordination involved can be vast.

Or do they hire a multi-country agency in the EU and brief them to execute media and PR requirements in every territory? With that comes high fees, perhaps unjustifiably high at this stage, more resource to manage the high-capability agency teams and their outputs, in turn increasing the need for bigger sales teams.

But, there is a middle option. It will provide a sustainable, effective choice for leading PR and Communications from the UK. Curious to read more? Our CEO James Kelliher wrote about in detail here.

I was brought up to regard America as brash. US slang was banned and my parents were so traditional I had to play football in a tweed jacket (all right, I made that bit up). But when punk rock erupted, I loved it. British youth culture started expressing itself in British accents, singing (shouting actually) about what mattered here, not over in the US. The Clash summed it up: “I’m so bored with the USA.”

US tech and the force for good

Now of course, I readily acknowledge the dominant role of the US in changing everyone’s lives (mostly for the better) through technology. But the language problem remains. As a content creator in B2B technology PR you quickly learn to de-Americanize (yes -ize as recommended by the Oxford English Dictionary) copy to make it relevant to the UK audience. It is not a trivial matter. While Britons can understand most American English, any heavily North Atlantic text gives the impression of remoteness – that the company responsible for the copy doesn’t really understand the UK market or regards potential British customers as an afterthought.

Where do voice bots feature in language battles?

This is, however, not another gripe about tech jargon. What intrigues me is where developments in Natural Language Processing, virtual assistants and voice-bots will take us in the journey across world English.

According to a Zion Market Research report published earlier this year, the global intelligent virtual assistant market accounted for US$2.3 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach US$19.6 billion globally by 2025, at a CAGR of 35 per cent between 2019 and 2025.

The global sale of smart speakers in 2018 was about 98 million units and is expected to reach 164 million units this year. Growth will be further driven by the autonomous vehicles market, using artificial intelligence and smart voice assistance to make the experience more reliable. In Europe, Germany and UK are projected to be the prime revenue contributors.

What kind of English?

But what sort of language will these assistants speak and who will do the talking? While voice bots will of course be in the native language or languages outside the non-Anglophone sphere, what kind of English will be used within it?

The tech giants who deploy voice bots will doubtless employ native speakers. (A recent BBC radio programme focused on this topic, presented by Jon Briggs – the first voice employed by Apple to present of Siri in the UK) But we can expect to hear American grammar and idioms wherever we go outside the UK. Does it really matter when billions around the globe are completely steeped in US culture through streaming services from Netflix to YouTube? We all know language is a living entity and it is not the job of business preserve its purity. We just need to effective communicators.

Do we need to learn languages anymore?

Similarly, does anyone really need to learn a foreign language anymore? Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa (powered by Microsoft Translator) and Siri all emerged pretty well from complex translation tests this year. Google Assistant will soon be able to act as a real-life translator in 27 different languages as it obtains a new “interpreter mode” that can translate in real time, enabling conversations with someone who speaks a different language.

Is there any point in the hand-wringing that followed a BBC investigation which found declines of between 30 and 50 per cent since 2013 in the numbers taking language GCSEs in some areas of England? Perhaps nobody can stop these trends any more than they halt the tides, because they arise from collective appreciation of how the world is developing.

We still need to pay full attention to the nuances of language

In time, the AI family of technologies behind voice assistants and bots will be capable of picking up and using all the tics, nuances and idiosyncrasies of spoken language. But we are not there yet, and we are not even there yet with the use of NLP to produce written text. In fact, whatever the method, whether through automation or painstaking keyboard-bashing and hand-crafting, we should all concentrate on using the most effective, relevant, direct and respectful language possible when communicating – especially in tech PR.

The Pimms has been poured and the British strawberries and cream bulk bought – it can only mean one thing. Wimbledon is here!

Each year the tennis tournament partners with technology giant IBM to explore the latest in technological innovation and help differentiate Wimbledon from other tennis events around the world. Previously this has included an AI bot on the Wimbledon app so fans can get answers to all their Wimbledon related questions; and automated video highlights delivered to fans watching from the comfort of their sofa. This year is no different with a host of new AI-based systems to the Wimbledon bunker.

One of the most interesting of the new technological advances being used at the event is an AI-powered machine which uses visual recognition technology to capture players’ reactions and then instantly clips highlights for viewers to watch at the end of the game. With just under twenty courts and up to four matches per court per day, hundreds of hours of footage are produced, which would typically take editing teams a vast number of hours to compile into highlights packages.

Known for his intense and dramatic facial expressions (and of course his tennis playing abilities…), Novak Djokovic’s face is likely to provide a great opportunity for the technology to showcase its abilities. The technology can pick up a celebration from a fist pump to the crowd’s celebratory roar, examining body language, gestures and facial expressions to automatically clip that point in the game. Each clip is then ranked based on crowd excitement and player gestures, enabling the team of 180 people in Wimbledon’s AI bunker to automatically generate the best of the highlights in around two minutes.

The highlights will be posted across digital platforms including Twitter and the Wimbledon app, meaning that whether you are a fan waiting overnight in a queue for tickets; or wanting to keep up to date with the matches while you sit at your office desk – you can be in the loop with the best moments.

This year Wimbledon organisers have really focused on trying to understand what fans want from the sport and how they can enhance the viewing experience – for as broad an audience as possible. As a member of the public, it can often be difficult to grasp the real world uses and the benefits that AI and other emerging technologies can bring into our day-to-day lives, but the IBM Watson and Wimbledon partnership is a great example of how AI can be used to bring us what we want in an improved, more efficient, and effective way.

The state of our environment is increasingly dominating global headlines and we are hearing continuous reports of the many and varied impacts the human race is having on the natural world. Just this week this Summer’s first severe heatwave has arrived in most European countries. And there is evidently a growing awareness and increasing effort being made to help lessen the blow of our carbon footprint, shown in the influence of the Extinction Rebellion and countries increasingly declaring a state of climate emergency.

We are also seeing an undeniable trend and desire to move to a more sustainable, environmentally-friendly world not only in our personal lives but in businesses too. An obvious example of this is the numerous food service organisations, including the likes of McDonald’s, Nandos and Wagamama, which have banned the use of plastic straws in their restaurants and Waitrose and Marks and Spencer trialling recycling and packaging reduction initiatives. Thankfully, calls are now being made for production of single use plastics to stop, hitting the problem at the source rather than treating the symptom.

Many of these systemic movements and changes are being assisted by technology. In the office environment, technology now allows us to run virtual meetings and partake in mobile working, cutting emissions and reducing our daily carbon footprint. We can now create biodegradable products at almost mass scale, reducing waste and decreasing the number of harmful chemicals that pollute the air when producing plastic. In our homes, new technologies are tackling some of the biggest producers of emissions (electricity and heating) with eco-friendly tools and renewable energy technologies including heat source pumps, solar and wind. Additionally, smart technology is teaching us to be more efficient with our energy, and it’s the same in our offices, too.

Another way in which technology is supporting and driving environmental change is through the development of AI, satellite data, drones, remote sensing and thermal imaging. These applications are being used in environmental experiments to allow scientists to monitor and make accurate and informed decisions, in order to develop new and effective strategies to help care for the environment better.

Technology has also had a huge role to play in spreading awareness of environmental issues. TV/broadcasting and social media are incredibly powerful platforms that are allowing us to share news, reports and live footage from all over the world – including those areas most vulnerable to global warming and plastic pollution, from oceans to secluded frozen landscapes. In turn, this growth of awareness is influencing people’s choices and is prompting many to make lifestyle changes, whether this be reducing their waste, using shared public transport or sourcing more local food produce. It is also encouraging businesses to go green by banning plastic use, installing water re-fill stations in cities and implementing cycle to work schemes.

There is no doubt that we will continue to see new developments in support of the race to halt the negative effects on the planet that we’re already experiencing, so what does the future look like for green technology in our everyday lives? We are certainly likely to see more smart city solutions and transport methods evolve – as an example last month Transport for London announced some buses would be powered by hydrogen in 2020 – and it’s not too hard to picture an all-virtual business world either. While we may never reverse the effects of climate change, technology is certainly giving us a good opportunity to assist in the rescue and restoration of our planet.

Still reacting to the fallout from a major worldwide scandal involving millions of people’s personal data being harvested in an alleged bid to influence political advertising, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is pressing ahead and building on its extensive portfolio.

Alongside live event streaming, shopping, messaging and job searches, Facebook’s latest string to its bow is a new cryptocurrency called Libra. It has formed the Libra Association, an independent not-for-profit membership organisation – making it the latest tech giant to enter the world of Fintech, alongside 28 Libra partners and investors including Spotify and Uber.

Slated for launch in the first half of 2020, while it works on some teething issues in its blockchain system, Libra will allow Facebook users to buy products and services or send money to people with nearly zero fees. You’ll pseudonymously buy or cash out the Libra online or at local exchange points like supermarkets, and spend it using interoperable third-party wallet apps or Facebook’s own Calibra wallet that will be built into WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and its own app.

The news comes just before the return of London’s Fintech Week in July (4-10), which will see global attendees come together to engage in one of the world’s leading financial ecosystems, and has prompted a review of the disruptive technologies currently influencing the financial industry.

Big Tech and Banking

In an article by Entrepreneur, one of the more evident trends in Fintech is the continual entrance of big tech firms into the financial sector.

Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are all becoming enormously popular among smartphone users. Alibaba, China’s massive online retailer, has made significant progress with its partner, Ant Financial. Now add in the fact that major social media platforms are planning on integrating with ecommerce stores, such as the certain-markets-only Shopping on Instagram feature, and of course Facebook’s Libra, these more flexible payment methods may come to dominate online retail in the future.

AI in Finance

AI offers a highly practical way for major financial organisations to manage portfolio risk and help institutions with regulatory compliance – a task which has become increasingly time-consuming and complicated over the past several years.

AI and its application through machine learning is also being increasingly used to automate processes such as credit decision-making and customer interaction, as well as to help detect fraud and money laundering.

According to Gartner, AI will be used in 37% of organisations before the end of this year and use of AI in financial services is likely to be greater.

The Rise of Challenger Banks

A survey, commissioned by Fintech provider Fraedom, found that in response to the ongoing challenger bank threat, bankers expect their organisations to invest heavily in updating legacy systems (44%) and new technology (26%) in 2019.

With investing in new technology high on the agenda for commercial banks, the survey found that over half (53%) of respondents believe AI and Machine Learning will be the technologies to have the biggest impact on commercial banking in 2019.

Although challenger banks are on the rise, the old guard hasn’t disappeared just yet, and the traditional banks are aware of the threat the new entrants pose.

Traditional banks have the advantage of a large and well-established customer base and strong branding that still evokes associations of trust with many of their customer segments. Challenger banks will have to establish a basis for and then earn trust from consumers, if they are to become a long-term part of the banking sector.