Most data turns out to have a greater value than the sum of the parts. There's a story about a global courier firm that said it saw a large drop off in its monthly orders at some point in 2007, not too long before the bottom fell out of the global economy. Traditional economic forecasting did not see an issue, but had there been some visibility into trade finance data at that time it would have shown many contracts had been cancelled, affording us some warning of what was ahead. Macro-economic forecasters and statistical analysts know that trade data provides the most precise window into the global economy there is. Trade finance data has always been a notoriously opaque part in the supply chain, but we are now seeing end-to-end digitisation, as a multitude of banks and software providers test out trade/supply blockchains and other digital platforms.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are just some of the technology phrases that are becoming part of business discussions at insurance companies across South Africa. Kelly Preston, data analytics manager at SilverBridge, discusses how they contribute to next-level data analytics. Even though insurance companies are incredibly data rich, very few of them harness the potential of data for more customised solutions tailored for an increasingly knowledgeable customer base. It is no longer good enough to provide generic products and services. The connected citizen expects more nuanced offerings that consider their specific wants and needs.

Learn more about how to implement AI at the Artificial Intelligence Conference, September 17 - 20, San Francisco, CA. It has been seven years since Apple unveiled Siri, and three since Jeff Bezos, inspired by Star Trek, introduced Alexa. But the idea of conversational interfaces powered by artificial intelligence has been around for decades. In 1966, MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum introduced ELIZA--generally seen as the prototype for today's conversational AI. Decades later, in a WIRED story, Andrew Leonard proclaimed that "Bots are hot," further speculating they would soon be able to "find me the best price on that CD, get flowers for my mom [and] keep me posted on the latest developments in Mozambique."

Drone delivery is finally getting off the ground. And the action is happening in East Africa. Zipline, a pioneering drone startup that began delivering blood packs to Rwanda's remote hospitals in October 2016, today announced a major expansion into Tanzania. In early 2018 the company will begin flying its delivery drones to more than 1000 health care facilities around Tanzania, bringing urgently needed medicines and supplies to big hospitals and tiny rural clinics alike. Keller Rinaudo, founder and CEO of Zipline, says that "the richest companies in the world" are still trying to figure out how to make instant drone delivery work as a commercial service (as IEEE Spectrum has noted in it's coverage of Google's Project Wing and Amazon's Prime Air).

Drones soon will be used in Tanzania to deliver medicines to health facilities across the East African country, continuing a trend of African governments embracing drone networks to deliver critical services.

Few technological advancements have been as divisive as artificial intelligence (AI), especially in matters where human lives could hang in the balance. For example, AI is already seeing increased use in the medical industry, but many consumers view AI as unpredictable, or even dangerous, not to mention entirely superfluous. For reference, AI refers to any machine or automated process that's designed to imitate human intelligence, usually in the realms of learning, reasoning, or self-correction. Modern AI algorithms often fall into the category of machine learning, where complex algorithms can "teach" themselves to improve certain skills, such as recognizing diagnostic criteria for certain diseases. Despite the fears associated with it, AI is becoming increasingly necessary in many cases to advance medical treatment and improve outcomes.

A Zipline drone is launched in Rwanda. The company is now expanding to set up a national network in Tanzania. A Zipline drone is launched in Rwanda. The company is now expanding to set up a national network in Tanzania. Eight-year-old boy bitten by dog.

Last month in Rwanda, a young woman started bleeding after giving birth by C-section. Try as they might, her doctors couldn't stop it. They'd already transfused the two units of matching blood that they had on-hand. They could have called the national blood bank in the capital of Kigali to request more, but ordering it, and sending it the 25 miles over mountainous roads to the hospital would take up to four hours. The woman didn't have that kind of time.

Despite the enormous changes in recent years, including the emergence of the plethora of significant new market players – including fintech start-ups, established payment, technology, and information firms, telecoms, and other providers, the financial services market is indeed in the middle of a revolution and this is down to both technology and regulations. This begs the question of how financial services incumbents will fare is far from settled and offers a scenario wherein these incumbents looking to grow shareholder value will need to build and sustain new competitive advantages. The European Commission's revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) represents a broad sweep of financial services sector regulations that will come into force next year. In summary, PSD2 creates the opportunity for digital actors to link directly into payment systems via API's. The regulation will require that banks provide these API's so that third-party service providers will be able to directly access customers' accounts.