Tag: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Digital transformation is changing the ways businesses operate throughout the world. New technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and predictive analytics, already have had a profound impact on the world’s economies and continue to disrupt industries.

The future leaders in auto and equipment finance will be those who make strategic investments in digital transformation, platform modernisation and capability development to attract a new kind of customer and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving industry.

The next three years do not look like the new normal they look like the never normal. It is not a pessimistic way of describing it but a realistic way, and it means that we need to think long and hard about planning and strategy and execution. There will be a lot of strategic thinking wastage over the next three years, and in our view, we cannot spend enough time studying how people are thinking and how they are reacting to the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic, the economy, and technology.

The convergence of enterprise technology trends will continue to profoundly transform all businesses and unlock potential for innovation, our 2020 Tech Trends report reveals. The report, and accompanying insights from our annual CIO survey and Tech Trend that give a global view of trends was launched at a pan-African virtual event we hosted, with more than 500 sub-Saharan clients and employees on 21 July 2020.

Even before COVID-19 plunged the world into crisis, artificial intelligence (AI), and more specifically conversational AI was fast becoming a key feature in the digitisation of customer-facing industries like insurance. In fact, Gartner had predicted that 85% of customer interactions will be managed without humans by 2021.

At the start of 2020, the South African economy was already on the back foot. GDP shrank 1.4% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 of 2019, following a contraction of 0.8% in Q3. That was even before COVID-19 had arrived. The Moody’s, Fitch and S&P rating agency downgrades in March and April all signalled that the South African economy is in for a rough time over the next year at least.

Diversity and innovation will be key in the future of asset managers in South Africa as the client base evolves to more multicultural and multifaceted millennials. In South Africa, millennials represent the largest generation to enter the workforce – more than 50% of the workforce in 2020, and 75% by 2030.

Following the endless stream of COVID-19 headlines, extended lockdowns and associated economic hardships, we are all suffering from Armageddon fatigue. It is easy to become pessimistic in the face of the very real challenges we are grappling with.

Intelligent Automation (IA) is simply the use of new technologies to help organisations improve the way they operate. And it may be the ‘digital antidote’ to combating COVID-19 because it is so well suited to solving a number of the business challenges created by the pandemic.   

It is commonly understood that security – or specifically cybersecurity in the modern-day organisation – is everyone’s responsibility, but what does that mean?In the same way as fiscal discipline is managed today, security can and should be connected to the very fabric of the business.