With more than $5 billion in 605 deals of VC investment over last 2 years, artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to have a transformative effect on consumer, enterprise, and government markets around the world. While there are certainly obstacles to overcome, consumers believe that AI has the potential to assist in medical breakthroughs, democratize costly services, elevate poor customer service, and even free up an overburdened workforce. We dug deeper into those perceptions through an online survey of consumers and business decision makers, and an expert salon with thought leaders in the field. This original research unpacks key ways AI may impact our world, delving into its implications for society, service, and management.

Artificial intelligence technologies could reshape economies and societies, but more powerful algorithms do not automatically yield improved business or societal outcomes. Human-centered design thinking can help organizations get the most out of cognitive technologies. Today's artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has been made possible by the big data revolution. The machine learning algorithms researchers have been developing for decades, when cleverly applied to today's web-scale data sets, can yield surprisingly good forms of intelligence. For instance, the United States Postal Service has long used neural network models to automatically read handwritten zip code digits.

All organizations that did not originate this moment have a pre-existing culture as well as legacy technology and processes that can be more or less amenable to DevOps implementation. That organizational culture is influenced by the personalities and management styles of Executive Management, the wider culture in which the organization is situated, and the personalities of key team members at all levels of the organization. This culture and entrenched interests usually throw a wrench in the works because of misaligned incentives. In his session at @DevOpsSummit 20th Cloud Expo, Greg Bledsoe, a managing consultant at Accenture, discussed an algorithmic method that even someone with no positional power who desires to be an agent of change can implement to achieve cultural transformation and smooth the transition to overcome these obstacles and transform the culture until it has the re-aligned silos that are characteristic of a mature DevOps implementation. Speaker Bio Greg Bledsoe is a managing consultant at Accenture in the DevOps architecture practice and regularly advises and leads the implementation of DevOps principles and practices at the Fortune 100.

NEW DELHI: Accenture today said it has developed an artificial intelligence powered solution to help visually impaired people improve the way they experience the world around them and enhance their productivity in the workplace. The solution, called Drishti, was developed as a part of Accenture's focus on Tech4Good, which aims to apply technology to improve the way the world lives and works by solving complex social challenges, a company release said. Accenture, plans to introduce Drishti to more than 100 visually impaired employees in India. The solution is currently being piloted at Accenture in South Africa, and a Spanish language version is being tested with Accenture employees in Argentina. Drishti, which means'vision' in Sanskrit, provides smart phone-based assistance using AI technologies such as image recognition, natural language processing and natural language generation capabilities to describe the environment of a visually impaired person.

Deep learning is a crucial step toward achieving true AI--but the human brain still reigns supreme. This may be the first time in AI's history when a majority of experts agree the technology has practical value. From its conceptual beginnings in the 1950s led by legendary computer scientists such as Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy, AI's future viability has been the subject of fierce debate. As recently as 2000, the most proficient AI system was roughly comparable, in complexity, to the brain of a worm. Then, as high-bandwidth networking, cloud computing, and high-powered graphics-enabled microprocessors emerged, researchers began building multilayered neural networks--still extremely slow and limited compared to the human brain, but useful in practical ways.

To help clients rapidly develop capabilities for addressing some of tomorrow's most complex challenges, Deloitte Consulting today announced its intention to team with SAP America, Inc. to build a new suite of services for enabling digital transformation. Deloitte Consulting and SAP are expected to co-innovate on the development of offerings that will help organizations benefit from the expanded SAP Leonardo portfolio--to automate processes, gain deeper insights for decision-making, and deliver innovation and value throughout the enterprise. SAP Leonardo is a Digital Innovation System that combines machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, blockchain technology, analytics, and big data on SAP Cloud Platform to enable rapid innovation that can scale across the entire organization. Deloitte Consulting and SAP also intend to create new "micro-services" that extend the capabilities of SAP Leonardo, with an initial plan to focus on offerings that address evolving machine learning, analytics, and IoT needs in finance and throughout the supply chain. "As businesses strive to adopt digital business models, they are seeking trusted technology that enables them to operate with more agility, to deliver more effective results and to simplify their operations," said Rob Enslin, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and President of Cloud Business Group, SAP.

Much has already been made about how artificial intelligence is going to transform our lives, ranging from visions of the future in which robots make humans obsolete to utopias in which technology solves intractable problems and frees up people to pursue their passions. Consultancy firm PwC ran the numbers, and came up with a relatively rosy scenario with regards to the impact AI will have on the global economy. By 2030, global GDP could increase by 14%, or $15.7 trillion, because of AI, the firm said in a report today (pdf). Almost half of these economic gains will accrue to China, where AI is projected to give the economy a 26% boost over the next 13 years--the equivalent of an extra $7 trillion in GDP. North America can expect a 14.5% increase in GDP, worth $3.7 trillion.

According to CB Insights and PwC's Canada's latest MoneyTree report, 2017 is off to a slow start for VC funding in Canada. The report looks at VC activity in Q2 and provides perspective on the first half of this year overall (all dollar amounts in the MoneyTree Canada report are in USD, and have been converted to CAD throughout this article). Canadian VC-backed companies saw $504 million ($400 million USD) in total financing across 58 deals in Q2 2017, down 18 and 16 percent from Q1 2017, respectively. In Q1 2017, Canadian VCs invested $623 million ($460 million USD) in 64 deals. Activity has also slipped since hitting a high in Q4 2016, when deal activity for VC-backed companies hit 91 deals.

McKinsey & Company to Lead Artificial Intelligence Workshop at Mobile Payments Conference 2017 Conference attendees to gain insight on evolution of artificial intelligence and impact on banking and payments CHICAGO, IL–(Marketwired – Jul 20, 2017) – Mobile Marketing & Technology Magazine today announced that McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm that serves leading businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations, and not-for-profits, will host an artificial intelligence (AI) workshop at the 2017 Mobile Payments Conference (MPC), being held August 28 – 30, 2017, at the Swissotel in Chicago, Illinois. The half-day session will provide an end-to-end examination of AI's impact on mobile payments and banking. Presenters will first break down AI as a capability and discipline, and what sets it apart from similar functionality, then explore the potential for AI in both customer experience and business operations. Attendees will learn how AI can drive growth and create tangible value in payments and banking. Program topics will include: AI 101: What it is and what it's not Conversational commerce: Full steam ahead or just hot air From smart to smarter ops: Automation and optimization in banking and payments.

Leaders of financial services institutions are concerned and excited about the business implications of Artificial Intelligence. Firms across the globe are becoming aware of the power of these technologies and are now starting to explore how AI could enable them to introduce new services to market, widening and empowering their offering, and to improve existing business and operational capabilities. In this paper, based on an EMEA FSI survey conducted jointly by Efma and Deloitte, we aim at inspect the industry sentiment about Artificial Intelligence and explore the possible and current applications that may impact the industry, enhancing its productivity. Using the insights and case studies from several firms within the industry, this paper identifies what is shaping AI thinking in Financial Institutions, the current state of the industry and the actions that will be required to understand and exploit this exponential technology.