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.

As the world confronts the challenge of declining productivity growth, many organisations have turned to artificial intelligence (AI) as a solution. But by limiting AI's application to simple automation and cost-cutting, companies may overlook key business intelligence that is trapped inside legacy silos, and which could unlock new models for growth. Play the video to hear how organisations can boost their Artificial Intelligent Quotient for growth. By 2035, Accenture estimates the UK could achieve an annual economic growth rate of 3.9 percent and increase labour productivity by 25 percent if enterprises, large and small, take full advantage of AI. Achieving this potential requires organisations to go beyond conventional uses of AI and create new products and services that are based on intelligent use of data.

The figures are contained in a new report, How AI Boosts Industry Profits and Innovation, authored by Mark Purdy, managing director – economic research, and Paul Daugherty, chief technology and Innovation officer, Accenture. "Artificial intelligence will revolutionise how businesses compete and grow, representing an entirely new factor of production that can ignite corporate profitability," said Paul Daugherty, chief technology & innovation officer, Accenture. Just as AI is continually learning, human intelligence must continue to develop and interweave with machine intelligence, according to the report. But the role needs to be expanded or supplemented by a chief data supply chain officer, Accenture argues.

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How can CEOs and their top teams even begin to make sense of the swirl of technological breakthroughs affecting business today? How do they gauge the impact of artificial intelligence on their companies' future compared with, say, the Internet of Things or virtual reality? Given the sheer pace and acceleration of technological advances in recent years, business leaders can be forgiven for feeling dazed and perhaps a little frustrated. When we talked to CEOs as part of our annual Global CEO Survey, 61% of them told us they were concerned about the speed of technological change in their industries. Sure, more and more C-suite executives are genuinely tech-savvy - increasingly effective champions for their companies' IT vision - and more and more of them know that digital disruption can be friend as well as enemy.

Accenture Interactive is often pointed to as one of the major consultancy arms stepping onto marketing turf typically owned by ad agencies, and the latest news suggests the shop might be edging further into the ad tech business as well. While the streaming tool appears to be early days, the descriptions of its use cases point to how marketers might leverage AI technology past simple customer service and e-commerce tools like chatbots or solutions largely used for data-crunching and insights like IBM's Watson or Salesforce's Einstein. As video and streaming video, in particular, become growing focus areas for more marketers, the programmatic AI feature showcases how brand content might be more regionally tailored and targeted at relevant audiences in an efficient way. Accenture's product combines automatic semantic analysis with human insights and moderation to offer brand safety and provide contextual relevance, Alex Naressi, managing director of Accenture Interactive's research and development unit, told Digiday. Accenture isn't alone in looking to AI to craft more relevant advertising campaigns and product placement.

Businesses that dive into artificial intelligence now could see a boost in profitability. According to a new Accenture report, AI has the potential to increase corporate profitability in 16 industries an average of 38 per cent by 2035. This is on top of a predicted economic boost of $14 trillion US in additional gross value added across those same industries and 12 different economies. The report points to information and communication, manufacturing, and financial services as the three sectors that will see the highest annual growth rates in the AI scenario. Labor-intensive sectors will benefit from augments in the human workforce, while AI powered machines will eliminate faulty machines and idle equipment.

But the reaction around these developments is mixed. Many extol the merits of machines that will free us from work and open us to new realms of human capability. Others forecast a dire future of increasing inequality and widespread unemployment. There are also those that question whether machine intelligence is ready to be put into production, or will live up to its ever-increasing hype. For executive leaders, the result can be paralyzing: Is it a business imperative to try and replace employees with machines or would it create an even greater risk in broken trust with shareholders, customers, and the public?