Tag: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Black Friday is almost here, raising stress levels for everyone involved. Shoppers rush to find valuable deals. Retailers need to achieve sales targets to satisfy shareholders. To succeed this year, organisations must maximise their retail technology investments and offer real value and superior customer experiences.

Does anyone remember when banks and insurance companies lamented that customer information couldn’t be leveraged effectively? This was because it was locked up in silos. Surprisingly, you don’t need a long memory - this was only about 12 months ago. And it remains a major issue for large organisations. Many still struggle to integrate disparate divisions dealing with the same customers, but separately.

Let's face it: South Africa's power grid is not winning any awards for reliability. Our data centres are feeling the heat - and not in a good way. These digital powerhouses not only keep our online world spinning but are also fuelling the recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution - yet their ever-expanding capabilities hinge on one critical requirement: an uninterrupted power supply.

As more people move to urban areas, cities must become more efficient, sustainable, and liveable. Smart city initiatives lead this shift by leveraging advanced technologies to transform urban life.

While the property industry globally has traditionally been a laggard when it comes to the use of technology, focusing more attention on assets such as physical buildings rather than technology, this has rapidly changed. A growing number of businesses are now introducing technology platforms and solutions to enhance the client-tenant experience and to ensure more informed investment and property management decisions are made.

Simplifying customer interactions can lead to happier, more loyal customers. There is more choice than ever before, meaning customers are not forced to endure a customer experience (CX) that is characterised by clutter or unnecessary friction. We’ve all experienced difficult customer experiences. Just recently, I opted to use WhatsApp to engage with a business but was channelled back and forth between channels to ultimately accept that I was number 200-odd in the voice queue.

Two years ago, we warned that organisations failing to embrace data, artificial intelligence (AI), and technology would risk being left behind by their competitors. A year later this prediction came true as organisations ranked technology as the most disruptive force in organisations in 2023 and rocketed to the top of the corporate agenda.

The solution to youth unemployment and the skills crisis lies in upskilling and empowering youth with future digital skills. Relevant digital skills should be developed before they enter the workplace. ICT certifications alone are not enough to meet the rate of change in the workplace. They also cannot secure sustainable job creation. South African companies hiring young people with practical skills will succeed. These skills should meet current and future business demands.

Following its launch on the Samsung Galaxy S24 series in January 2024, Galaxy AI has ushered in the next level of performance and functionality on Samsung’s latest foldable devices, the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6. Both powered by the Snapdragon® 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, optimised for AI processing and overall performance improvements.

These are times of unprecedented change and disruption. New technological innovations and geopolitical events are just two of the major catalysts of change in the landscape of risk. In times of volatility, businesses are often faced with increased risk exposure, with opportunistic cybercriminals at the ready to exploit vulnerabilities and take advantage of loopholes.