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CleanTech Momentum - The Growth Of Digital

BP has announced plans to invest US$500 million (£358.5 million) in low carbon businesses each year as it looks to further embrace the low carbon transition.

The oil and gas giant has just reported its 2017 financial performance - a full year underlying profit of US$6.2 billion - allowing the firm to continue with its five-year strategic plan to embrace the energy transition.  The investment commitment mirrors Shell’s recent plans to invest as much as US$2 billion per year in low carbon development.

AI Voice Assistants in the Smart Home and Office

The battle now raging between the big technology companies for consumer cash is focused on Smart Speakers with integrated AI voice assistants. Having already conquered the pocket with the ubiquitous smartphone, big tech has been struggling to come up with the next must-have gadget that will open up a potentially lucrative new market - the home.

AI’s Impact on UK Jobs In The Future #2

The CBI is calling on the government to establish a joint commission tasked with examining the impact of AI on people and jobs across all sectors of the UK economy.

Based on research it conducted into the way that technology is changing the way we live and work, the CBI said recently that it had identified three technologies - AI, Blockchain and the Internet of Things - that are set to move from the fringes to the mainstream within the next five years.

Oxford’s Tech Sector Moves Into Second Place Behind London

Oxford’s growing technology sector has helped it move into second place, behind London, in a table of UK cities ranked by total economic output.

According to the Q4 2017 UK Powerhouse report, Oxford’s output was valued at £498m and its economy £8.3bn, a rise of 2.2% in the 12 months to the end of June.

The report was produced by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research and estimates growth and job creation across 45 UK cities.

AI's Impact On UK Jobs In The Future

Up to around 30% of existing UK jobs could face automation over the next 15 years, but new AI-related technologies will also boost productivity and generate additional jobs elsewhere in the economy, according to new analysis by PwC in its latest UK Economic Outlook report. 

The study estimates that the UK (30%) has a lower proportion of existing jobs at potential high risk of automation than the US (38%) and Germany (35%), but more than Japan (21%).

AI and Cyber Security - Grave New World

The recent cyber attack on organisations around the world, including our very own NHS, has been in the minds of professionals for a long time yet nonetheless for many others has clearly been something of a wake-up call. In the near future, as artificial intelligence (AI) systems become more capable, we will begin to see more automated and increasingly sophisticated social engineering attacks. 

Artificial Intelligence Startups Are Booming In The UK

AI is more than a trend in investment activity. Uniquely, AI is a sub-sector of technology which is set for a development surge as technologies associated with AI advance and the reliance on AI products for businesses across all sectors to stay competitive grows.

London Fintech Rides The Post-Brexit Storm

Fintech companies - businesses that harness technological advances to challenge the existing financial system and the way things have traditionally been done - appear to be riding the post-Brexit storm with genuine confidence.

To the fore of this mini revolution are companies developing apps for stock market trading, websites that will help create entirely new currencies, and revolutionary new payment technology. All these ideas will change the way finance works.

Cognitive Systems - Skills Demand is Soaring

Demand for virtual reality experts and machine learning engineers with knowledge across data mining, statistical modelling, data analysis and natural language processing is on the rise. Closely tracking the now rapidly increasing enterprise adoption of these technologies.

Mobile Software - Blocking Ad Revenues

Many of the world’s largest Internet and mobile software companies, like Google and Facebook, rely heavily on advertising to finance their online empires. 

But that business model is increasingly coming under threat with one in five smartphone users, or almost 420 million people worldwide, blocking advertising when browsing the web on cellphones. That represents a 90 percent annual increase, according to a new report from PageFair, a start-up that helps to recoup some of this lost advertising revenue, and Priori Data, a company that tracks smartphone applications.