UK businesses are increasingly adopting automation November 13, 2019 Eighty seven per cent of businesses have automated a key process during the last year, a survey of chief financial officers showed today. One-in-five financial officers view automation as their most most important investment priority during the next five years, the survey by accountancy firm BDO said. A third of businesses (31 per cent) have [...]
Experian shares surge as revenue rises to $2.5bn November 12, 2019 Consumer credit giant Experian today posted revenue growth of seven per cent for the first half of 2019, with profit growing to $480m from $470m in 2018. Revenue grew to $2.5bn in the period, up from $2.36bn in 2018. Read more: Experian posts 2019 profit rise helped by global growth The information services group narrowed [...]
Killer robots? It’s only a matter of time November 12, 2019 Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere in the news at the moment, but there is little discussion of an area where huge sums are being spent by all the major powers: automated intelligent weapons — or killer robots, as they are usually called. Some strategists now envision military operations conducted entirely by automata. Such fully automated [...]
Revolut investor Balderton Capital unveils $400m seventh fund November 12, 2019 One of London’s biggest venture capital players has today debuted its seventh early-stage fund for European startups at $400m (£311.1m), after a mooted lack of investor interest as the UK prepared for Brexit failed to materialise. Balderton Capital, an early backer in the likes of Revolut, Citymapper and Lovefilm, said the new fund will continue [...]
New technologies to gain funding boost over next five years November 5, 2019 Nascent technologies such as quantum computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are set to receive significant attention from British businesses over the next five years, new research has found. The amount of firms set to invest in quantum computing is to nearly triple from 11 per cent today to 32 per cent in five years, [...]
What Thomas Cook’s collapse tells us about the power of disruption November 4, 2019 Whilst the failure of UK holiday firm Thomas Cook was sudden and a considerable shock to many, the writing has been on the wall for some time now. Driven by technology and specifically by the advent of online booking and reservation systems, the travel industry has long been undergoing a radical transformation across each of [...]
Dataminr is helping to save local journalism October 31, 2019 Journalism is in a tough spot. For decades, money and jobs in the industry have been in decline. The government’s Cairncross review, released last year, revealed the scope of the problem. It found that total press industry revenues had declined by more than half over the previous 10 years, and that the number of full-time [...]
Financial Times owner Nikkei loses $29m in apparent fraud October 30, 2019 Nikkei, the Japanese media giant behind the Financial Times, has lost roughly $29m (£22.5m) in an apparent wire transfer fraud. In a statement issued today, the company said an employee of its US subsidiary had transferred the funds after receiving “fraudulent instructions by a malicious third party who purported to be a management executive of [...]
Virtual influencers pose ethical dilemmas for the ad industry October 28, 2019 Last month, I reported on the rise of virtual influencers – fake online personalities created using computer-generated imagery and controlled by brands or media agencies. The most famous example is Lil Miquela, a fictional character invented by LA-based studio Brud. “She” has 1.7m followers on Instagram, has appeared in a Calvin Klein commercial alongside the [...]
The Lovie Awards show Europe’s creativity is a force for good October 28, 2019 My entire career has been fuelled by a love for the European creative industry. And now, at a time when our digital lives feel chaotic, when business often feels overly challenging, when political issues invade our every waking moment, that fuel is more essential than ever. This is precisely why Nicolas Roope and I founded [...]