الثلاثاء، أكتوبر 17، 2017
الاثنين، أكتوبر 16، 2017
Will robots put us out of jobs or help us work smarter?
The creation of robots to undertake jobs previously carried out by humans is being realised. As many as a third of jobs are expected be taken over by technology in the next 20 years.
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Does this mean that robots will be our colleagues in the future?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or 'software robotics' is far removed from the idea of a physical robot manually carrying out work - this is not a metallic humanoid with a digitised voice.
Instead, a robot in this sense is the technology allowing organisations to configure computer software in order to complete various tasks. Robotic process automation is the use of software that mimics human behaviour to carry out repetitive, high volume administrative tasks.
Software robotics has been receiving a lot of attention in the recent past. That includes from both popular press speculation about the impact on jobs and the analyst press discussing the potential impact on offshoring and outsourcing.
It works by replicating the activities that people currently undertake, using existing core systems, legacy applications, accessing websites and manipulating spreadsheets, documents and e-mail to complete tasks. Using RPA software involves mapping out current or new processes, linking it to existing applications and then scheduling them to run on one or more robots whenever required. There are now many vendors in the market and more arriving all the time. As well as the more well-known vendors, there is a constant stream of new entrants and the addition of RPA features to traditional business process management solutions.
The promise of software robotics is to deliver a solution that can rapidly automate manual back-office and customer-facing processes, making them faster, significantly more cost-effective, and improving consistency and regulatory compliance, all with a return on investment (RoI) typically in less than one year.
Banks, insurers and wealth and asset managers have successfully piloted robotics solutions. But what about industrialising the benefits?
The size of the prize on offer from doing so, both in terms of cost savings and service transformation, places accelerating and industrialising software robotics firmly on the agenda for the C-suite of most financial services groups.
Rather than representing a threat to the workforce, our experience as one of the largest consultancies dealing with robotics, suggests that robots are best thought of as a complementary workforce working hand-in-hand with people to help them improve their performance and focus their time on other, higher priority tasks, strategy and innovation. Robots can enable people to work better, smarter and more creatively, expanding the art of the possible.
There is also a lot of focus at global tech conferences on the potential of cognitive robotics, with companies putting what were high-concept ideas, like driverless cars and self-navigating drones, into production. Cognitive automation - including machine learning and artificial intelligence - will take us much further than where we are today, and give rise to the next generation of business process efficiency. While the progress being made in these projects is very impressive, the costs are significant and they expose some interesting challenges.
For example, in financial services, the equivalent would be self-optimising customer service, loan pricing, financial advice, or claims or complaint handling. Designing a statistical optimisation or machine-learning approach to get the best outcome is relatively straightforward. But designing and monitoring one that aligns to legal, regulatory and ethical conduct requirements can be more challenging.
While natural language interfaces and sentiment analysis can understand human emotion, the ability to naturally converse and empathise with perfect accuracy is still a work in progress. But there are clearly areas where a degree of learning or "cognitive" technology offers a significant advantage, such as processing of paper documentation, understanding speech, detection of fraud, and so on.
Queue blues at jazz concerts?
HI-TRAC: The author's shorthand for Happiness Index, Infrastructure, Talent, Regulations, Access and Capital. The six pillars that make UAE a great place for a Startup. This week's article is about how the infrastructure in the UAE is attracting talent from around the world.
This week's article is about an industry and a fintech-based response to it. And unlike most fintech solutions, this is not about making financial services simpler but much more about making payments incidental. The end-objective is rich data, driven by enhanced consumer and merchant experience.
The focus of this fintech is on the live events industry - sports, cultural, entertainment and related.
Something about the amped up atmosphere at games and music events changes the way we normally behave. Add in a couple of star teams or divas and the atmosphere gets really charged up. Paying for entry at the gate, buying drinks during the breaks, procuring a souvenir quite often become mini-events in their own right. Fans advancing, hands held high and gripping a bunch of notes, trying to score a latte before the break gets over - these are typical scenes at almost any sports, rock or jazz event.
Events are of many types - cultural, musical, industry-specific exhibitions, conventions and conferences, sports are the main categories. Looking at just entertainment events alone, the Dubai numbers alone are eye-opening. These numbers come from an excellent report called The State of Ticketed Events in Dubai, published by Dubai Tourism. Here is an overview of just one small slice - entertainment events.
The Dubai statistics do not include the in-event economy. Food and beverages, souvenirs, content.
Undoubtedly, the events economy will grow. People like congregating - there is something about human connection that seems to defy the efforts of virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, for some reason, much of the hype in fintech is around super specialised areas that focus on specific aspects of the financial services industry value chain. Usually with the aim of reducing the total human cost. Simple experiences that are more design-based than tech-based are a rarity. The reality is that tech has become fairly commoditised. The value really is in its application to solve human-centered design challenges.
Qpal (Qpal.com) is an in5 incubated platform. Craig Buchan, CEO of Qpal, is a native of Aberdeen, Scotland. He's had an entrepreneurial inclination since his school days. Not long ago, when working as a professional in the IT world, Buchan attended three events in quick succession. The in-event experience left him cold. He wondered why ordering food, drinks and buying event collateral was such a tiring and nerve-wracking experience. He conceptualised a solution and recognised an immediate opportunity when he didn't find similar ones in the market. He quit his job, bootstrapped the company and cut personal expenses to the bare minimum in order to channel resources to the venture. After being selected by in5, he moved to Dubai to develop Qpal further.
Unlike generic wallets, Qpal has laser-sharp focus on just the events industry. And as the statistics have shown, this is a sizeable playing field in the Dubai alone. The estimates for the annual revenues for the industry in the UK alone are worth £42 billion. Summing this across all the large event centres globally, it appears that the industry is worth several hundred billion dollars in direct and indirect revenues.
Qpal's core focus is on rich data not payments itself. When you enter an event zone or venue as an attendee, all that you need is your phone and a Qpal account. Not even a data connection. You can use your Qpal account for all in-event spending on food and beverages as well as event collateral. Qpal is also integrating with leading event-ticketing platforms in the region.
Event organisers sign-up to accept Qpal payments. All that they need are smartphones. Attendees and organisers both use the Qpal app. Attendees pull up a QR code after authenticating themselves and present it to the event organiser or merchants within the event zone. The organisers and merchants scan the QR code and deduct the amount from the attendees' wallets. In real time, both attendees (payers) and organisers (payees) can see and validate the success or failure of the transaction. Qpal users can top up their wallets using multiple, convenient sources of funding.
However, the value is not in the transaction itself but in all the data that accompanies it. Who buys what and with what frequency? What are the transaction triggers? What do demographics and psychographics have to do with it. Unlike conventional open-loop systems, all the data resides within the Qpal world. Event organisers immediately see the value.
In5 has built-up a formidable track-record in the area of incubating pragmatic fintech start-ups. Qpal is yet another example. Infact, at the finals of the Middle East Visa Everywhere Initiative competition last week coinciding with Gitex, Qpal won the overall award as well as took first place in the Acceptance Challenge category.
Disrupting corporate food delivery
Every day at lunch two friends, Mohammad Al Zaben and Dana Baki, faced the same problem - the limited options for meals, coupled with high delivery charges, packed schedules and mediocre menus. What happens next? Bingo, launch of Lunch:On as both friends decide to disrupt corporate food delivery and bring relief to corporate world.
Mohammad Al Zaben, co-founder and chief executive officer, Lunch:On, said: "The company was born from a small and manual test in late 2015, where we set out to study the requirements of both corporate employees and restaurant operations. The market potential we uncovered was astounding - people craved a fresh approach to lunch at work and restaurants were all looking to crack the corporate lunch space."
The firm sends customers in each office a curated menu via SMS text or e-mail with meat, vegetarian and healthier "lite" options from new restaurants daily. To order, a customer simply replies with their choice before 11:00am and food is delivered to their office at lunchtime. Users order a delicious lunch in seconds, while restaurants benefit from bulk orders to corporates.
"Our mission, from the start, was to leverage technology to empower workplaces by bringing the joy of food to the office, while creating economies of scale for our partner restaurants.
This early focus and investment in building the right infrastructure enabled us to scale quickly and become an automated "virtual canteen" that pairs employees with their favourite lunches with super easy ordering. We have re-invented food in the workplace with our "message-to-order" platform that gives employees a simple, intuitive and cost effective way to eat everyday, while streamlining operations and maximising efficiency for restaurants. It's a win-win for both," said Dana Baki, co-founder and chief operational officer, Lunch:On.
Lunch:On has been operational since March 2016 and growing at about 25 per cent month-on-month basis and is planning expansion next year.
According to Baki, former employee of Procter & Gamble in the US for seven plus years, most of their customers are working professionals - between the age of 25 years and 45 years - in industries like advertising, technology, consulting and banking.
"The UAE market is extremely diverse and by serving thousands of employees across industries, we see the whole spectrum of the UAE's multicultural community. Given this diversity, we knew early on that pleasing everyone, and at scale, would be difficult. We, therefore, heavily invested in building our in-house predictive technology and scheduling algorithms that optimise our daily offerings at each company we serve. Our system, that we affectionately named "Cindy", processes hundreds of thousands of data points to factor in things like customer preferences, ordering patterns, and even the day of the week, to ensure the optimal pairing of companies, restaurants and specific meals we feature on any given day," added Baki.
Although the food delivery space is busy, Lunch:On saw a unique need and consumer base that was not being addressed - corporates and their employees. "We created a customer experience to meet their unique needs, it had to be the simplest and most efficient way to get a delicious and affordable lunch daily with no delivery fees. Our customers are busy, the only thing we want to add to their plates is lunch. To optimise costs, we aggregate demand by office and currently serve companies where 30 or more employees are signed up - having this density of customers in each office allows us to "bundle" orders. By sending a bunch of orders to the same place at the same time, we're able to eliminate the huge delivery costs typically associated with food delivery. These savings are passed on to the customer, along with negotiated bulk pricing, to offer them lunches that are delicious and well-priced," added Zaben.
The company offers compelling business model for restaurants, offering them bulk orders to corporates that are usually difficult for them to reach.
Zaben - former assistant vice-president at Barclays - explains that recently the company has expanded beyond the original model with 'Lunch:On Catering', a platform that gives office admins a new, easy way to get catered food for their internal meetings and events.
"Through this new platform, office admins are able to order platters, plan food for events or order the traditional Lunch:On boxed meals for their teams, with just a few clicks. This part of the business has taken off quite quickly, as we have learned that corporate catering is a huge pain point for those involved."
Endorsing Zaben's views, Baki, said: "As people are spending most of their time in the office, the need for simple and convenient corporate eating solutions is becoming more crucial, and we are dedicated and determined to build a business that meets those needs."
The company has closed a $500,000 seed round last November which was led by Wamda Capital, with Arzan VC and Dubai Angel Investors Group participating as well and are now finalising a bigger round of seed funding with existing investors and new strategic ones on board.
"What interested us in Lunch:On was how quickly they on-board large companies and, by delivering each company's meals together, they are simplifying operations, reducing costs and passing those savings on to their customers. They have clearly uncovered an unmet need and built a business that breaks the traditional food delivery paradigm. We are very happy to have invested in them from the start. They have unlocked something really interesting and we are excited to continue backing them as they scale," Khaled Talhouni, managing partner at Wamda Capital, said.
Kareem Kaddoura, business development manager Lunch:On, says that Lunch:On is the food-at-work experience that brings the office together every day. The best places to work in Dubai host Lunch:On because they know it is a perk that keeps their employees happy and productive. Some of the companies we serve have also started to sponsor lunches through our platform because it supports their strategy of attracting and retaining top talent.
WhatsApp's beta version for Android gets smaller
The newest Beta
version of WhatsApp for Android has several updates, including a smaller app
size and a feature that would notify the contacts when you change your number,
a media report said.
According to
technology website Teknepolis, the latest package 2.17.375 takes up less space
when downloading and installing. The decrease - approximately 6MB - in size is
due to the elimination of 20 libraries that were added in earlier versions.
The other major
update is that when you change your phone number in WhatsApp, your contacts
would receive notification of the update. The feature would work every time you
change your phone number. - IANS
Apple executive apologises for controversial diversity remark
Apple's vice-president of inclusion and diversity Denise Young Smith has apologised for her controversial remark on diversity she made during the One Young World Summit in Colombia earlier this week, a media report said.
At the event, Smith was explaining how Apple focuses on diversity and commented that there could be "twelve white blue-eyed blonde men in a room who are still diverse".
"Diversity is the human experience. I get a little bit frustrated when diversity or the term diversity is tagged to the people of colour, or the women...," Tech Crunch quoted her as saying.
"There can be 12 white blue-eyed blonde men in a room and they are going to be diverse too because they're going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation."
The comment attracted criticism from diversity advocates and commentators she made during a panel discussion.
On Saturday, Smith sent an apology to her team members at Apple saying that "she understands why some were offended by her statement" and attempted to clarify what she meant.
"Last week, while attending a summit in Bogota, I made some comments as part of a conversation on the many factors that contribute to diversity and inclusion.
"I regret the choice of words I used to make this point. I understand why some people took offense. My comments were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it. For that, I'm sorry," she wrote in a mail.
"More importantly, I want to assure you Apple's view and our dedication to diversity has not changed."
"Understanding that diversity includes women, people of colour...and all underrepresented minorities is at the heart of our work to create an environment that is inclusive of everyone," the executive added.
The incident came at a time when several tech giants, including Google and Twitter are being accused of promoting anti-diversity, and allegedly serving as "avenues to spread racism and bigotry".
السبت، أكتوبر 14، 2017
Apple to ditch Touch ID for 2018 iPhones
There is early excitement for the iPhones releasing in 2018 and Apple is likely to ditch Touch ID feature and move to Face ID, said reports.
Despite initially believing Apple might re-adopt the fingerprint technology - an identity sensor that makes it easy for the user to get access to the device - it is now likely that all 2018 iPhones will move to Face ID, 9to5Mac reported.
"3D sensing will be a 'key selling point' of all new 2018 iPhone models," Ming-Chi Kuo, KGI Securities analyst was quoted by 9to5Mac.
Ming said although Apple currently faces manufacturing difficulties with 3D sensing, 'TrueDepth' cameras and Face ID will help Apple capitalise on its clear lead in 3D sensing design and production for smartphones.
However, according to Ming's report in September the company had not entirely moved away from Touch ID.
Meanwhile, the company's newly-launched iPhone 8 is facing problem of swollen batteries and incidents have been reported from Taiwan, Japan China, Canada, Greece and the US.
The tech giant would be praying that a full batch is not affected, which would mean recalling units, ruining the whole reputation built around iPhones for years.
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus went on sale on September 22 and the company was yet to release figures for the early sales of the devices.
The pre-orders for "super-premium" iPhone X will begin on October 27, with shipping starting November 3.
Samsung CEO quits in shock move after profits soar to record
The chief executive of Samsung Electronics resigned on Friday, saying the South Korean tech giant was facing an "unprecedented crisis", even as it flagged record third-quarter profits.
Kwon Oh-Hyun's resignation comes as the company struggles to overcome a bribery scandal that sent Lee Jae-Yong, its de-facto head and heir to the Samsung empire, to jail.
"As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company (to) start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry," Kwon said.
"Fortunately, the company is now producing best-ever results but this is merely a fruit of decisions and investment made in the past," he said in a statement.
South Korea's largest company has been seeking to move past a bribery scandal that saw Lee thrown into jail, and to overcome a damaging recall last year of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone over exploding batteries.
Lee, who was found guilty in August of bribery, perjury and other charges relating to payments made by Samsung to the secret confidante of ousted president Park Geun-Hye, is appealing his five-year sentence and says he is innocent.
Kwon's sudden departure may be a calculated legal tactic to seek a softer punishment for Lee, said Shim Jung-Taik, an author of several books on Samsung and its corporate culture. "Lee's lawyers may argue that Samsung, with the veteran Kwon gone, needs its vice chairman back more than ever to lead the firm," he said, adding that the tactic had often been used by other family-run South Korean business empires.
One analyst who declined to be named said the departure of the 64-year-old Samsung veteran may signal a broader reshuffle at the top.
"Samsung's CEO-level leadership has remained largely unchanged for past three years, which is like an eternity in the fast-changing tech industry," said the analyst. The group has not made any radical changes in its leadership since 2014 when the current chairman Lee Kun-Hee suffered a heart attack that left him bedridden. Friday's personnel announcement came shortly after the company said it was expecting to log 14.5 trillion won ($12.8 billion) in operating profits for the July-September quarter, an all-time record and nearly three times the 5.2 trillion won of the same period a year earlier.
Sales are expected to have surged 29.65 per cent on-year to 62 trillion won, with the booming semiconductor business boosting the company's bottom line.
Samsung did not announce the performance estimates of each business division but its semiconductor business is widely believed to have contributed greatly to the record-beating report.
The company is set to release its final earnings report on October 31. "The results are good ones that largely meet market expectations," Kwon Sung-Ryul of Dongbu Securities said.
"The company has been riding a global semiconductor boom," he said, adding the semiconductor business alone is believed to have contributed 10 trillion won to the operating profit.
The company's main products - DRAM and NAND memory chips used in smartphones - have also seen an increase in shipments and prices.
Rising sales of its flagship Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 smartphones were also believed to have bolstered the profitability of the mobile division, analysts said.
Yonhap Infomax data, based on research from 21 securities firms, also showed Samsung is expected to post an operating profit of 16 trillion won in the fourth quarter, up 74 per cent from a year earlier.
Doh Hyun-woo, analyst at Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities, said in a report that the release of new models, including Apple's iPhone X, could weigh on Samsung's mobile sales, but will also help its smartphone parts business.
The consumer electronics division will also benefit from strong seasonal demand, he added.
Analysts said the company was likely to post another all-time high quarterly operating profit of somewhere between 15 and 17 trillion won in the October-December period as IT/mobile business is expected to contribute greater earnings as well.
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