WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

Forrester says that CIOs must act as VCs and recommends they support early-stage tech companies and have their own technology scouts. As CIO Angela Yochem told me in 2015, she has set up a process to find “capabilities that are not yet commercially available” and “quickly absorb, test, and utilize emerging technologies, and discard them if they are not appropriate and don’t give us a leg up on our competition.”

Tech giants including Baidu and Google spent between $20B to $30B on AI in 2016, with 90% of this spent on R&D and deployment, and 10% on AI acquisitions. AI investment has turned into a race for patents and intellectual property (IP) among the world’s leading tech companies.

Since 2009, Bank of America (BofA) has closed 1,597 branches in 253 counties across the US, selling the spaces to local banks in some areas and directing customers to further branches in others, according to The Wall Street Journal. For context, that's equivalent to 26% of the branches that the bank currently operates, and represents a big cut that's reflective of a rising industry trend.

McKinsey’s summary of leading FinTech articles is a fantastic summary of the issues facing global financial services players.  There are several sections in this 80-pager that we believe our clients will find the most value….

• Cutting through the noise (page 6) – this is a noisy space with many old and new entrants laying claim to a place in FinTech land.  This section of the report truly cuts through the noise and presents a very clear view of the primary value drivers for F/S players and love the “6 Digital Imperatives” chart on page 12. 
• Helping Incumbents not Disrupting (page 24) – the notion of cooperation vs. competition between FinTechs and Incumbents has emerged as a more realistic future for the industry.  Canada has a unique F/S model with large, dominant and highly successful incumbents controlling the vast majority of clients and assets.  We see cooperation as being the only role that we will play as a FinTech provider and this seems to be an increasingly popular position in our industry.
• Banking on the Cloud (page 49) – the movement from resistance to acceptance and now to adoption of cloud apps is accelerating.  In our business, revenues generated from Cloud services have increased from 10% to 50% in just 3 years and the discussions that we have had with clients around “resistance” to the Cloud have virtually disappeared.  Innovation at a higher pace and lower cost is becoming table stakes and embracing this technology is now an afterthought.

Singularity University has been talking about purpose for some time now. They describe a focus that is audaciously big and aspirational, causing significant transformation to an Industry, community, or the planet. There is a clear “why” behind the work being done, something that unites and inspires action. They call this a Massive Transformative Purpose.

Forget flying cars or humanoid robots. The most disruptive inventions are often cheap, simple and easy to overlook

We surveyed eCommerce Managers and CEOs from European countries and prepared the report based on their experiences and our knowledge.

Businesses are under attack from cybercriminals. Here’s what companies are doing to safeguard their digital assets from hackers.

Let’s say you randomly selected 1000 seed-stage startups based in the United States. How many of those would go on to raise a Series A? Of companies that go on to raise a Series A, how many would go on to raise a Series B? You could keep this process going until only

The startups in this infographic have raised nearly $1.5B to optimize grocery store operations with AI, virtual reality and more.

Seattle-based Amazon is doubling down on AWS and its AI assistant, Alexa. It's seeking to become the central provider for AI-as-a-service.

There have been more retail bankruptcies so far this year than all of 2016. The number of retailers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is approaching its highest level since 2008 and 2009.
Why now? Many point to the rise of Amazon and e-commerce, the glut of malls and a spending shift from clothes to health care and experiences. All of these trends hold true, but they've been building for a while now.

The technical potential for automation differs dramatically across sectors and activities.

Industry 4.0 is more than just a flashy catchphrase. A confluence of trends and technologies promises to reshape the way things are made.

The Future of Personalization white paper looks at how retailers can deliver a more personalized, one-on-one online shopping experience. Specifically, the paper looks at the retail landscape and the challenges retailers must overcome in order to achieve personalization, such as understanding the individual consumer, including their style, size and brand affinities as well as external and internal factors that affect their decision making.

Based on Forrester’s analysis in its latest TechRadar report, here’s my list of the 10 hottest AI technologies.

Mozilla’s new open source initiative to document and explain what’s happening to the health of the Internet. Combining research from multiple sources, we collect data on five key topics and offer a brief overview of each.

This year’s forecasts will highlight the trends & issues that we think will have major impacts on the retail industry over the coming 12 months.

Automation is happening, and it will bring substantial benefits to businesses and economies worldwide, but it won’t arrive overnight. A new McKinsey Global Institute report finds realizing automation’s full potential requires people and technology to work hand in hand.

The Artificial Intelligence Revolution isn’t around the corner—it’s here. A common remark is that as soon as some new form of AI is possible, it’s no longer AI, it’s just what computers “do”. And while we won’t notice most of AI’s effects in our world, there will be visible signs as digital technology is infused with AI. Through the lens of commerce, it’s easier to see AI’s deep effects as progress continues. Here are a few examples.

My 2016 predictions focused on the shifting world of customer experience. I have viewed experience through a next generation lens, realizing that our interaction paradigms will change considerably in the next five years (conversational systems, ecosystems, virtual reality, augmented reality, etc.). Rather than expand on that theme this year, I am shifting my lens to purpose. At the end of the day, it’s about human well-being. The experiences that business and government create are in some way linked to our own life experiences – and ultimately our well-being. History tells us that we experienced great improvements in the standard of living of developed countries during a special century between 1870 and 1970 – but there has been little change since.

Raffi Khatchadourian on Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher who asks whether inventing artificial intelligence will bring us utopia or destruction.