In 2022, we saw the advancement of numerous technological trends that have tremendous potential to transform the way we live and work. Among the most impactful innovations we have seen in the last year is an acceleration of AI applications deployed by enterprises to enhance and automate processes and workspaces. As companies look to do more with less, they will turn to automation to drive new efficiencies. This is especially true with geopolitical and economic ambiguities at the forefront of many business leaders’ minds.
As we look forward to 2023 bringing further maturity to the space, here are five areas to watch out for in the coming months.
Conversational AI We have come a long way in a short span of time with voice assistants like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant to other sophisticated chatbots in customer care. According to Global Chatbot adoption statistics, over 800 million people in more than 190 countries will be using chatbots to accomplish various tasks by 2023. Customer service AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are beyond capable of handling routine customer inquiries even with large volumes of queries and requests.
This has not only made it easier to expedite customer or user issues, but it has also empowered customer care representatives to handle more crucial and complex tasks. Several sectors, including e-commerce, retail, healthcare, financial services, real estate, education, and travel have been at the forefront of utilizing conversational AI technologies to engage better with customers. Chatbots and virtual assistants have now become an integral part of marketing strategies for brands seeking to acquire and retain customers.
Continue reading: https://www.expresscomputer.in/guest-blogs/five-ways-artificial-intelligence-will-impact-business-in-2023/94178/

Last year proved a formative year for technology. Businesses are becoming increasingly exposed to different forms and applications of automation – from machine learning to natural language processing (NLP) – while also now having to consider the ethical and legal implications. Conversations are happening across the enterprise, with systems now competent enough to automate some core back-office functions. 
One of the most exciting developments, however, has come in the form of generative artificial intelligence (AI), made famous by the likes of ChatGPT and DALL·E 2. This is a breed of AI that creates, combines and remixes content in the name of creativity. Generative AI can produce imagery, and written words as well as even mimic the human voice, sparking widespread discussions around the ethical implications and whether there’s any scope for AI replacing core creative functions in people. Much of this depends on the specific tools out there, though, as well as the quality of the product and whether people will be minded to pay attention to the potential drawbacks.
What are the origins of generative AI?
Although generative AI was made popular last year with the expanded use of the likes of MidJourney, conversations around this technology have been happening for much longer. Dutch researchers wrote about the philosophical underpinnings of generative AI as far back as 2012. Indium Software, too, released a white paper less than three years ago which highlighted not just how generative AI could be used creatively, but also in high-friction workplaces like healthcare.  
Continue reading: https://www.itpro.co.uk/technology/artificial-intelligence-ai/369959/what-is-generative-ai

Computer Vision (CV), also known as Visual Artificial Intelligence (AI), is becoming increasingly common in business. In a variety of industries across the world, Visual AI is being used to improve productivity, processes, communications and decision-making.
Most people use it every day. It is the technology used when your vehicle is in reverse vibrating or beeping to warn you if objects are approaching from either side. More complex uses involve models that interpret events as they occur on video. The most cutting-edge use integrates with a company’s current camera security system, analyzes video footage in real-time, identifies certain pre-programmed events, and sends alerts related to those events while tracking recurring patterns.
Visual AI has proven valuable in retail operations, where the ability to analyze and improve store processes is critical to providing an optimal customer experience. Some auto dealers may be wondering if Visual AI is a necessary technology or if it’s still too futuristic to be of practical use. Here are a few reasons why the time for AI is now.
Need for data analysis
The ability to analyze accurate data is paramount in today’s fast-moving and competitive business environment. Efficient data analysis reveals operational strengths and weaknesses, identifies new opportunities and improves decision-making. However, data analysis is easier said than done.
Cameras capture valuable information daily. Unfortunately, much of the data they collect is not particularly valuable. Therefore, none of us have the time to review it. Until now, we have been missing a layer of data analysis that Visual AI uses to tap into this data.
Continue reading: https://www.cbtnews.com/why-visual-ai-why-now/

In recent years, tech companies have invested billions into beefing up diversity and equity efforts, claiming they wanted to address long-standing demographic inequities.
But as tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off over the past several months, research suggests that women and people of color have been disproportionately affected.
WHEN HALF ISN’T EVEN
According to Layoffs.FYI, which tracks tech industry cuts, an estimated 45% of those who lost their jobs in the recent wave of layoffs were women. While the dismissals split almost evenly across gender lines, women account for less than a third of tech industry workers and occupy less than a quarter of technical and leadership roles, according to a 2022 study by Deloitte.
“A close to 50-50 split is actually pretty notable because generally the workforce is not 50-50,” explains Layoffs.FYI’s creator, Roger Lee. The online database cataloged over 150,000 layoffs in 2022, but according to Lee half occurred in just the last two months of the year. “The pace definitely picked up at the end of the year,” he says, adding that the numbers continue to rise. As of January 23, the website had tracked more than 56,500 layoffs this month—more than a third the total number of layoffs in all of 2022. 
Lee says he ran the names of 1,258 recently laid off tech workers, who voluntarily provided them to industry recruiters, through a gender analyzer, which categorized 44.8% as “likely female.”
A separate study conducted by Revelio Labs that used data from Layoffs.FYI found that female staff accounted for 47% of dismissals between September and December of 2022, and another study conducted by Paychex found that nearly three quarters of female tech workers fear being targeted for layoffs.
A recent lawsuit launched by two former employees also accuses Twitter of disproportionately targeting female staff, claiming the company cut 57% of the women in its workforce, compared to just 47% of men.
Continue reading: https://www.fastcompany.com/90837794/recent-tech-layoffs-affect-women-poc

A digital skills gap has hit the technology industry. In 2022, 75% of companies worldwide reported talent shortages. And the issue becomes increasingly prominent with the OECD’s estimation that 1.1 billion jobs are liable to be radically transformed by technology in the next decade. Studies show that 43% of businesses worldwide are set to reduce their workforce due to this technology integration while other surveys point out that 80% of technology products and services will be built by those who are not technology professionals by 2024. In the end, it all comes down to this dilemma: the need for digitally skilled talent increases. But their number is notoriously limited.
For some people, this outlook is especially bitter. According to recent numbers, women hold only 26% of computing-related jobs today. And the number for people from ethnic minorities drops even lower. Accessing digital skills and securing a fulfilling, well-paid job in the tech industry often seems out of reach for them. “When I was young, I didn’t really know what I was passionate about,” says Karen Rodrigues from Brazil in a recent blog post on SAP Community. “The only thing I knew was that I wanted to get a job and earn money. My parents also had a specific idea of what my career should look like. So, I started my studies in business administration and accounting, got my degrees, and got my first job in this area.” For women like Rodrigues, a career in tech had never been up for debate.
Gender Stereotypes Are Often the Root
One of the reasons why women – or people of color for that matter – often don’t have a career in the IT industry in mind are gender stereotypes. When people think of the technology industry, they usually associate young White males with developer roles. These stereotypes often originate in the experiences and ideologies we encountered in our childhood and school years. And many of them are here to stay. The fact that the IT industry is much more diverse, both in terms of the workforce and the roles that exist within it, is often overlooked or not explored further. In Rodrigues’ case, it took an opportunity to turn her life around.
Continue reading: https://news.sap.com/2023/01/women-key-to-global-digital-skills-gap-in-tech/

A few weeks ago, I went into a cyber meeting and was excited to join the conversation. As soon as I entered the virtual room, I looked around and noticed that I was the only woman. I messaged one of the vice presidents of the company privately and said,” Isn’t it sad that I’m the only woman in the room?” He responded, “Oh, yes. I never noticed these things.”
Fast forward to the morning of November 26: I’m in my living room watching the FIFA match between Poland and Saudi Arabia. I turned to my friend after a shot on the crowd popped up and said to her, “Woo, no women in the crowd for SA,” to which she responded, “Oh, yes, you’re so right. I didn’t even notice.”
I’m sure you can follow the pattern: At that moment, it dawned on me that the problem many of us are trying to address is way bigger than we can imagine, and in those moments, I realized that unless you’re passionate about this issue, like me, you can walk into a room and not even realize the inequities around you.
How can we fix what we can’t even see? How do you fight for equality when you’re invisible? These are the questions that I constantly ask myself.
I wasn’t surprised after reviewing the latest McKinsey “Women in the Workplace” report that showed that even when women desire to advance, the roadblocks they face make it impossible for them to make progress. As a woman in tech, it’s difficult not to be overwhelmed by all the issues I notice and the harsh realization that I can’t fix any of them on my own.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/03/stop-blaming-women-for-leaving-tech-look-at-your-work-culture/?sh=1e4f90203d0d

I have recently shared that I am recovering from burnout. It hasn't been an easy process. First, to admit to myself that I was burnt out. Secondly, I am taking the steps to change so many of my habits to make my recovery happen.
Burnout is a common issue, especially for women in a male-dominated field like technology. And it can be difficult to manage.
According to Future Forum’s survey with more than 10,000 workers from six different countries, “women are 32% more likely to experience burnout than men, and employees under the age of 30 are 29% more likely to experience burnout than their older counterparts”.
Burnout should be treated as a serious health condition. I advise you to pay attention to the signals and take of yourself as early as possible.
Here are a few tips that might help you out:
Continue reading: https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-overcome-burnout-as-a-woman-in-technology-633fa5af9f8a

It’s well-known that the pandemic disproportionately impacted women in the workforce. With the increased amount of caregiving necessitated by lockdowns, women, who still perform the majority of those roles, were forced to drop out of the workforce at an alarming rate.
More than two years since the start of the pandemic, there are still 808,000 fewer women in the labor force compared to February 2020. By comparison, male workers regained all jobs they had lost as a result of the pandemic by January of this year. Today, there are 693,000 more men in the labor force than in February 2020.
This situation only exacerbated an issue that tech has been grappling with for a while now, which is the lack of women within our ranks, and begs for change.
One of our mandates as HR leaders is to create teams where everyone can thrive regardless of their background, origin, or any other differentiating factors. Exposure to diversity has been proven to improve innovation, creativity and problem-solving skills — attributes that every tech company values for their ability to affect the bottom line. In fact, companies with a diverse workforce are 35% more likely to experience greater financial returns than their non-diverse counterparts.
Female hiring starts with an inclusive culture
Hiring and retention are major challenges for today’s organizations, as demand for both technical and soft skills confront the Great Resignation. An organizational culture that drives a sense of belonging in the workplace is a critical asset in this environment.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/enterprise-analytics/fueling-female-hiring-in-tech/

Introduction
Blockchain technology has been hailed as a revolutionary new way of conducting transactions and managing data. But what is it, and why is it so important? This article will explore the importance of blockchain technology, from its benefits to its practical applications.
Definition of Blockchain Technology
Simply put, blockchain technology is a distributed ledger system used to store and manage digital records. It is a decentralized system that allows for secure, transparent, and immutable data storage and transfer. In other words, it is a digital record-keeping system that can be used to track and verify transactions.
Overview of Its Benefits
The advantages of using blockchain technology are numerous. For one, it increases efficiency and transparency by removing the need for third-party intermediaries. Additionally, it reduces costs, since it eliminates the need for costly reconciliation processes. Finally, it improves security by using advanced encryption protocols and decentralized ledgers.
Continue reading: https://www.lihpao.com/why-is-blockchain-technology-important/

Food and agriculture—made up of a complex ecosystem of entwined dependencies—is a sector ripe for the adoption of blockchain technology. If food and agriculture are to meet their obligations and opportunities, an increased level of transparency and sharing is essential. Blockchain is a vital tool to secure this ecosystem and ensure everyone benefits.
A blockchain is a ledger of records (also known as blocks) that are stored across a network of many computers. The ledger is secured with cryptography to ensure that once written, each block cannot be altered. The blockchain can be used to manage many types of data such as online transactions or documentation such as shipping manifests or veterinary records. Given the myriad items and valuable transactions that are part of everyday food and agricultural production, blockchain is an ideal element for the sector.
Across the agriculture value chain, it is vital to establish trust; there is a general concern about data sharing within the industry. Utilizing a blockchain-based solution provides greater transparency around the data and, more importantly, protects the use of that data upstream and downstream.
Track And Trace
At present, large swathes of food and agricultural processes are not shared. This opacity inhibits the grower, manufacturer, retailer and, ultimately, the consumer, as none can clearly see the actions and values that the other has contributed. Blockchain has the ability to help improve trust and facilitate the sharing of this information for greater clarity.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/20/using-blockchain-technology-to-increase-transparency-in-agriculture/?sh=25fb3360b1c8

Blockchain technology has brought about a unique system that aims to solve many of the long-lasting problems faced by industries. It’s ability to address issues such as security, transparency, speed and intermediary-incurred costs has enticed many businesses across different industries.
Here are five of the industries implementing blockchain technology and how it would complement their industry:
Health
Blockchain technology is employed in the heath sector to secure medical records, and add more transparency to the industry. In an industry where data loss or compromise can be gravely consequential leading to fines, and public mistrust, blockchain can be used to keep data permanent, decentralized, incorruptible and transparent. Diagnosis and care plans can be made and put together faster, with the use of blockchain’s encrypted database which creates a single source for the data of patients that can be referenced by the personnel requiring it. Doctors, hospitals, insurers and others can easily access exactly what they need.
Real Estate
Acquiring property can be a really long process, involving plenty paperwork, and exposure to the high risk of fraud. Blockchain ledger stores data that can be distributed among all parties involved in the transaction. It allows for transparency in the process of buying and selling, and saves the cost of middlemen that’d have been needed in the traditional system. Blockchain technology stores data transparently, therefore an attempt at fraud or falsification will be easily detected by anyone that can access the blockchain. Blockchain technology also attracts investors to the real estate industry, allowing more people to buy property-like shares.
Continue reading: https://www.techguide.com.au/news/cryptocurrency/five-industries-implementing-blockchain/

There is a great deal of understandable concern right now in creative fields about the impact recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) will have on jobs and on creativity in general. 
After using Midjourney to generate a cover image for a story about Alex Jones in The Atlantic, Charlie Warzel apologized to the art community and vowed never to use AI generation tools again. In his apology, Warzel said that creating the image was so easy and the result so good that he had failed to appropriately think through the ramifications.
While noble, the sentiment of the apology only proves the concern.
Pledging not to use helpful and available technology does not seem like a sustainable defense in the face of change, as it wasn’t in the face of earlier technological advances like the printing press, mechanized agricultural equipment or even the original “computer.” 
We are living through a bending in the curve of AI advancement, with things long viewed as next to impossible being accomplished on a seemingly weekly basis. There is a great saying in the AI world: People mistakenly believe AI is going to steal their job. It won’t. But someone who uses it better than they do will. 
This will prove true in the advertising world as well.
A new wave of creative potential for generative AI
Open-source neural nets like OpenAI’s Whisper have advanced speech-to-text transcription models to the point where they are nearly perfect, even amidst thick accents, speed-talking and noisy backgrounds.
In visual generative AI, in just a few months DALL·E 2 improved so dramatically from DALL·E that anyone can now generate stunning, original imagery from truly any text prompt. And Midjourney built AI generation into a Discord bot, a clever UI move that instantly made AI-based creativity communal, thus making learning how to use it easy and fun. 
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/ai/why-ai-and-creativity-are-not-at-war/

One of the most important aspects of data science is building trust. This is especially true when you're working with machine learning and AI technologies, which are new and unfamiliar to many people. When something goes wrong, what do you tell your customer? What do they say? What do they think will happen next? With explainable AI, you can provide answers that prove your product's legitimacy.
Explanation is a key part of building trust in any technology application, but it's even more important for machine learning applications where:
• You don't know how the system works (e.g., image classification).
• There isn't a clear causal relationship between inputs/outputs (e.g., recommendation systems).
Most models are "black box" models, and often when these models are trained, ML scientists are unable to understand how the model made a prediction or why it predicts what it does. The inability of the model or ML scientists to explain predictions to stakeholders, as well as the difficulty in interpreting the model training behavior, leads to a lack of stakeholder trust in the model and its predictions.
Explainable AI helps build trust in AI by providing continuous visibility into training and production models. ML scientists and stakeholders can understand why predictions are made and derive actionable insights for teams to fine tune and retrain the models.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/23/why-explainability-should-be-the-core-of-your-ai-application/?sh=506564c753fa

AI has phenomenally conquered our lives, our platforms, and our businesses, and leaders, and business owners are enthusiastically cheering for this humongous technological revolution. Today, business owners and CEOs across industries are gleefully celebrating and embracing AI and its tools to boost efficiency, cut operational costs, improve revenue, and strengthen customer engagement experience.
According to a study by Fortune Business Insights, the artificial intelligence market is projected to make up to $ 267 billion on a global level.
Considering the evolution businesses are going through, it’s imperative for them to match the technological advancements and stay updated with modern trends. With this post, we are focusing on 5 popular AI trends business owners and CEOs should be vouching for.
AI in Face Recognition
The technologies which are employing AI software for face recognition are collating each individual’s unique biometric data including a person’s facial expressions and their faces. All this together can enable us to not just identify, but also authenticate a person.  This technology is quite prevalent in law enforcement companies that use biometric software to scan faces and got through closed circuit television, also known as CCTV, footage. Companies are adopting this AI software to prevent crime, reduce security costs, and ensure their employees are trustworthy.
Continue reading: https://aithority.com/technology/promising-success-5-ai-trends-for-business-owners-and-ceos/

Right now, the pace of transformation in the drone and mobile robotics industry is nothing short of thrilling. As different, broad technological trends mature—including cloud and edge computing, distributed data analytics, 5G+ networks, advanced AI/ML, open source and standards development and numerous software and hardware efficiencies—drones are steadily integrating the innovations. That has already improved the capacities drones have, the functions they can serve and their impact on users, businesses and governments. And much more is to come.
The future of drones and all autonomous mobile robotics, whether deployed in airspace, outer space, undersea or on land, will loosely follow the evolution of another now-ubiquitous piece of technology: the personal computer. Like PCs, the development of drones is leading us into a highly connected future. Let’s compare trajectories.
Where We’ve Been: A Standalone Experience
By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, early personal computers, built by the likes of IBM, Xerox, Apple, Commodore, Hewlett-Packard and others, hit a nascent consumer market, billed as devices for personal finance, word processing and hobby programming. They were standalone units with proprietary features that people bought because they were fun to use, had a “cool” factor and felt experimental. They were also very manual and slow. Data transfer happened on large floppy discs that gradually reduced in size and format. And buyers believed in their future integration.
About a decade ago, the first small uncrewed aerial vehicles directed at consumers hit the market. While drones were certainly not new to military and research organizations, these retail lightweight and remotely-piloted devices were cool, like the early PCs, and fun for buzzing a field and capturing images and video, which were saved on SD cards for a very manual transfer of collected data. The drones were personal, standalone devices and unconnected to anything but their own remote control unit. Many, of course, still are, and the SD card data transfer remains time-consuming and not at all scalable.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/18/are-drones-the-flying-personal-computers-of-the-1980s/?sh=146d5f423c50

We all know that tech has largely been a male-dominated industry. However, the lack of Black women, in particular in the tech space, is becoming more and more visible with time, even as DEI initiatives have risen to become a top priority for companies globally.
According to Pew Research, there has been no change in the share of Black workers in STEM jobs since 2016, and while women now earn a majority of all undergraduate and advanced degrees, they remain a small share of degree earners in fields like engineering and computer science—and continue to be significantly underrepresented in those areas of the workforce as well.
As tech professionals, we are the ones who have the power to change this narrative so that the face of the industry isn’t singular. The first question to answer: how can we get more Black women to join the tech industry? The second—and maybe even more important—is, once hired, how can we ensure that they stay?
It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that their recruitment efforts reach diverse prospects to not only bring on candidates of all backgrounds but retain workers by making them feel safe and understood.
Continue reading: 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/18/representation-matters-dei-and-the-underrepresentation-of-black-women-in-the-technology-sector/?sh=50e820281721

Nicola Hills and Laura Kirwan are senior engineers at Personio. Here they explain what leaders can do to encourage women in tech careers.
It bears repeating that the tech and engineering sector does not have a good gender balance, particularly where highly paid roles are concerned.
If you’ve been following the recent coverage of the gender pay gap reports, you’ll have seen that a lot of employers have been citing the lower numbers of women employed in the sector as a reason for pay disparities between men and women.
While this may be a rather convenient excuse, there is more than a grain of truth in it. Ibec said recently that gender pay gap reporting in Ireland should be viewed only as a stepping stone to meaningful progress on the ongoing problem of not enough women in high-paying, influential tech roles.
While it is not impossible for women to get into these careers, it is acknowledged by many in the industry that it is a lot harder than it is for most men.
Women supporting women
A side effect of this lack of representation is that women who work in senior tech and engineering roles feel more of an onus to get involved in ‘rolling the ladder back down’ for other women.
Is this a blessing or a curse? For many women in tech, it’s simply an accepted part of the job.
Continue reading: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/women-engineers-personio-advocacy-gender-equality-tech

Technology can potentially meet the diverse needs of different demographic groups of workers, in terms of location, flexibility and hours of work.
According to ILO’s Flagship Report (2021) on the platform sector, there has been a 10-fold increase in the number digital labor platforms over the last decade in the world, with India accounting for 8% of the world’s labor market platforms. This proliferation of digital labor market platforms, including gig work, took-off sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides an opportunity to harness and scale-up technology to improve employment opportunities in India, particularly in the blue-collar sector, but also improve women’s labor force participation by lowering job search costs and providing opportunities for more flexible work.
As discussed in a recent report on the platform market, the potential of this sector for India is high, given its domination by relatively younger workers (below 35 years) and jobs that are responding to the structural shift away from agriculture towards services (for example, delivery, beauty and wellness, BPO, customer care), particularly in India’s burgeoning cities. India represents an ideal ground for increasing the presence of digital labor: it has amongst the youngest populations in the world (68% of population is in the 15-64 category and 25% are less than 15 years of age, with the demographic dividend expected to peak in 2041); we see rapid growth in smartphone usage (projected to reach one billion users by 2026); and increasing urbanization (India’s urban population is estimated to stand at 675 million in 2035, the second highest behind China’s one billion).
The nature of these digital platforms is varied – from those that purely match job seekers with employers for short- or long-term work contracts, to self-employment and gig work on the platform itself. The former ease job search across regions or locally (or hyper-locally, in the case of Apna and Qjobs), while the latter provide employment including delivery and transport (for example, Uber, Urban Company). This technology can, therefore, potentially meet the diverse needs of different demographic groups of workers, in terms of location, flexibility and hours of work.
Continue reading: https://thewire.in/labour/the-promise-of-technology-for-womens-employment

Women occupy approximately 28% of the STEM workforce and, on average, make 83 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. At first glance, these numbers are disappointing, but they are consistently improving as more young women study STEM in college and pursue careers where their expertise is rewarded with competitive pay. And Dallas is leading the way. This progress is due, in large part, to forward-thinking companies that have made it a priority to attract and promote women in technology.
Companies that want to provide more opportunities for women in STEM and recruit the best in the industry understand that fostering a passion for STEM starts early—elementary-age to be exact. Whether through their own programs or by joining outside opportunities, they are reaching out to young women and girls in the community and offering their expertise to either pique their interest in STEM or to help them make their way through the ranks. 
One local opportunity where girls can pursue STEM-related interests is Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas’ STEM Center of Excellence, a 92-acre, $15 million hub of inspiration. A sprawling living laboratory in South Dallas, it is the first of its kind in the United States and provides year-round opportunities in robotics, computer coding, botany, chemistry, and more. Through the STEM Center of Excellence, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas is feeding the STEM workforce pipeline to meet the urgent need for female voices, engagement, and leadership in the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy.
Jennifer Makins was a classroom teacher for 20 years before becoming executive director for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas STEM Center of Excellence. She says she saw first-hand what can happen if girls don’t have an advocate in their corner encouraging them in math and science. They risk falling behind, or not trying at all. “We are continuing our strategic work to solve the impending workforce gap,” Makins says. “We provide access to hands-on, real-world learning opportunities that engage and excite them. These girls will go back into their classrooms and choose STEM opportunities in school and beyond. Our goal is to give them the confidence to raise their hands and solve the math problem. More than 50% of girls don’t consider a career in STEM, and we need to better understand why. We can help girls understand that, while STEM is a challenging field, they are the key to solving the world’s problems.”
Continue reading: https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2023/january-february/women-leading-tech-and-innovation/

Samantha Karlin, CEO of Empower Global, outlines the value to be gained by addressing tech’s gender gap and seeking diverse perspectives
According to Tech Nation, the tech workforce is currently made up of just 19% of women. Despite what you might expect, this trend is also paralleled by the tech giants, as in 2020, only 23% of employees at Google, Apple and Facebook were women. 
Yet, despite this pronounced gender gap, 74% of school-aged girls show an interest in a career in a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field. 
The issues don’t stop there. According to a recent study from WeAreTechWomen, 75% of women working in tech say that they don't feel like they receive adequate support and respect from male colleagues, and two thirds of the respondents feel unheard in meetings. 
But, why exactly does this need to change? Alongside the ethical importance of giving more women the opportunity to develop in the field, why isn’t having talented white men in these leadership roles sufficient? 
Continue reading: https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/an-ethical-tech-revolution-why-tackle-the-gender-gap

Let's face it, NFTs in many respects don't have the best reputation. In fact, I like to jokingly call them the three-letter bad word. I find that there are multiple reasons for this misconception.
For some people, it is a simple lack of education. They have no clue what NFTs are, but they believe the negative headlines. For others, a very limited NFT education gives way to “right-clicker mentality,” referring to the ability of anyone to technically right click and save an NFT image, as well as a lack of technological confidence. Novelty is hard to trust, especially in the world of finance. But in reality, NFTs are so much more than just JPEGs with a price tag thrown on them. There are countless business applications for them outside of trading in speculative bubble markets. Many just don’t know it yet.
Background On NFTs
NFTs are now a market that is projected to be worth $231 billion by 2030. Still, many people have no idea what they are. The reason for this is simple: NFTs are new. Relatively new, that is. When the internet was first burgeoning, people thought it was a fad as well. It took time for people to open up to it.
Just like the internet once was, I believe NFTs are a novel technology. This is by no means a way to say that NFTs will have an internet-sized impact on the world. It is, however, a way to describe the current phase of NFT adoption. I believe more business leaders need to learn what they are and how to utilize them.
While NFTs can be defined as "unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated," I find there is an easier way to describe them. Ethereum defines them as "tokens that we can use to represent ownership of unique items.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/01/18/nft-uses-for-business-settings/?sh=2d6a384a1727

The financial services industry is undergoing a major transformation, propelled by the emergence of innovative new technologies.
One of these groundbreaking technologies is blockchain, which has the potential to revolutionize how we store and share financial information, impacting the financial services industry as a whole.
Blockchain has already made its mark in the world of finance, with a range of applications, including cryptocurrency, asset management, and digital contracts. However, even though blockchain is most commonly associated with Bitcoin, the potential applications of this technology extend far beyond crypto.
From streamlining back-office operations to enabling instant cross-border payments, the distributed ledger technology is expected to have a profound impact on the way financial institutions do business. Join us as we explore how blockchain is transforming the industry, offering new levels of transparency, security, and efficiency.
Blockchain in a Nutshell
At its core, blockchain is a digital ledger that records transactions in a secure, tamper-proof way. This distributed ledger can be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, and is often managed by a network of computers known as nodes.
Each transaction that takes place on a blockchain is verified by these nodes, which then work together to add the transaction to the ledger in a block. Once a block is added to the blockchain, it cannot be altered or removed, making the blockchain an immutable record of all transactions that have taken place.
Bitcoin, for instance, was designed to use proof of work (PoW) to verify transactions and add them to the blockchain. However, there are other consensus mechanisms that can be used, such as proof of stake (PoS) or delegated proof of stake (DPoS). Here, you can discover the differences between proof of work and proof of stake in greater detail.
Continue reading: https://www.finsmes.com/2023/01/6-ways-blockchain-can-transform-the-financial-services-industry.html

With blockchain, users will be able to store information without worrying about the security capabilities or the privacy practices of the service provider (information that is often deliberately obfuscated currently).
The concept of the blockchain has become so closely interlinked with cryptocurrencies that when people hear “blockchain,” they may immediately think of 20-something-year-olds mining away and storing digital currencies in crypto wallets. If these 20-somethings started early enough, they might own Ferraris, or if they have fallen prey to a scam, theft, or just forgotten their password, they may have lost millions. 
Outside of the mindset that cryptocurrency, and therefore blockchain technology, is only for younger crowds, there is a pervasive mindset that these technologies and currencies are secret. Whether it be because Bitcoin is the most preferred cryptocurrency in ransomware or the fact the prefix “crypto” means concealed—blockchain gets a bad reputation due to the association. As such, it’s a world where most people are outsiders looking in, fascinated, and yet, not familiar enough to speak the language. 
They don’t realize that blockchain technology could be as pervasive as cloud technology in a few years. If the industry moves in the right direction, blockchain technology has immense potential to equip average users with far more enhanced security and control over their information than they have access to currently. Most importantly, this won’t involve a steep learning curve, and users may be able to leverage blockchain at the backend just as they do with the cloud—likely without even being aware of it. 
Continue reading: https://www.fastcompany.com/90834986/the-value-of-blockchain-is-in-the-technology

AI has been no less than revolutionary for human civilization and is now being rampantly applied in daily life. Not only is it a helpful tool to elevate everyday life, but AI in business has also been revolutionary. Research shows that 86% of company CEOs believe AI software is essential for day-to-day operations and has become indispensable. Businesses can make decisions faster and more accurately with greater insight into their processes, along with data analytics, automation, and Natural Language Processing.
Let’s go over the many examples of Artificial Intelligence in business.
AI in Business – Examples of Use
Marketing
AI in marketing helps enterprises find the correct balance between excellent customer experience and operational efficiency. By implementing intelligent solutions, companies can use AI for marketing in areas like competitor analysis, discovering new themes and trends, and market research for analyzing quantitative responses and customer feedback. Image recognition is an advantage that allows teams to extract meaningful data from visual inputs. These could be images and videos, and then it suggests actions based on that. Search Engine Optimization is another feature that allows marketing teams to better grasp the understanding and use of specific terms. Learning about these phrases used by consumers also helps create SEO-friendly marketing materials.
Sales
Expert sellers believe AI automation has already become a big part of sales processes, and its application will only grow. Research by Harvard Business Review claims that enterprises making use of AI-based software for sales can increase their leads by over 50%, as well as reduce call time by around 60-70%, and reduce cost by 40-60%.
Continue reading: https://readitquik.com/articles/ai/6-uses-of-artificial-intelligence-in-business/

Research in Artificial Intelligence has seen dramatic growth over the last few years, and the trajectory is only aiming higher for this industry. Interest has grown in data-driven AI and machine learning development, all due to better computer technology. With applications in almost every industry, the use of different types of AI computer algorithms is only on the rise. Research shows that in 2020 the AI market was at $51.08 billion and is estimated to go up to $641.30 billion at a CAGR of 36.1% by 2028.
AI is already implemented in applications used daily by people, be it health, law, transport, finance, or any other. Even virtual voice assistants like Siri and Alexa are a product of AI. Deemed one of humans’ most complex yet creative inventions, AI can be understood better when broken down into various categories. 
Different types of AI can be classified in two ways based on functionality and technology. Varieties of AI that differ based on technology include Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Narrow Intelligence, and Artificial Superintelligence. On the other hand, kinds of AI based on functionality are reactive machines, theory of mind, limited memory machines, and self-aware.
1. Reactive Machines
Reactive Machines are some of the oldest types of Artificial intelligence systems and can copy how the human mind reacts to varied stimuli. They have a low capability as they don’t come with memory-based functionality, meaning they can’t use formerly acquired experiences to take necessary actions in the present. They can only create outcomes for a limited set of inputs since they don’t ‘learn’ and cannot use memory to enhance their processes. 
2. Limited Memory
These machines don’t just perform the required tasks but also learn from previous incidents to make determinations in the present. They are made up of supervised AI systems that gain knowledge from experimental data and real-life events. Limited Memory AI Systems use a lot of training data stored in the memory, which helps them analyze and create a reference model for solving problems in the future. Different types of AI applications today use Limited Memory AI, such as autonomous vehicles, virtual assistants, and chatbots.
Continue reading: https://readitquik.com/articles/ai/7-different-types-of-artificial-intelligence-explained/