The insurance industry has come under real pressure over the past decade or so. The fintech revolution has meant that smaller and more agile startups are able to offer a variety of new services to consumers and businesses. These services are not only more interactive and based on the latest technologies, but they are also services that bigger insurance firms cannot easily offer. This increased competition from newer market entrants is a growing problem for more established insurance providers. But with more data available to insurance firms than ever before, there is an opportunity to embrace the technological changes that are taking place.

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of strategy business. If you haven't noticed, a high-stakes global game of digital disruption is currently under way. It is fueled by the latest wave of technology: advances in artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, the Internet of Things, and new software-enabled industrial platforms that incorporate all these technologies and more. Every enterprise leader recognizes that, as a result, the prevailing business models in his or her industry could drastically and fundamentally change. A wide range of industries, such as entertainment and media, military contracting, and grocery retail have already been profoundly affected. No enterprise, including yours, can afford to ignore the threat. Yet most companies are still not moving fast enough to meet this change. Some leaders are still in denial about it, some are reluctant to upend the status quo in their companies, and some are unaware of the necessary steps to take. But these excuses are not good enough. You may not have needed a plan for the new digital age yet, if only because it didn't seem relevant to your industry. But you will need it now.

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of strategy business. If you haven't noticed, a high-stakes global game of digital disruption is currently under way. It is fueled by the latest wave of technology: advances in artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, the Interne...

Marketing analytics is a diverse field, with both academic researchers and practitioners coming from a range of backgrounds including marketing, operations research, statistics, and computer science. This paper provides an integrative review at the boundary of these three areas. The topics of visualization, segmentation, and class prediction are featured. Links between the disciplines are emphasized. For each of these topics, a historical overview is given, starting with initial work in the 1960s and carrying through to the present day. Recent innovations for modern large and complex "big data" sets are described. Practical implementation advice is given, along with a directory of open source R routines for implementing marketing analytics techniques.

Human resources as a function has experienced significant changes in the last decade due to the evolution of technologies. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the way companies hire, manage and engage with their workforce. Advanced data-driven technology is rapidly making its way into the HR industry as businesses are focusing more on creating an employee-oriented corporate culture. Recruitment is no more a tedious process for HR practitioners as it no longer entails time-consuming activities such as manually screening the resumes of the prospective candidates, making phone calls or replying to candidates via emails. These mundane errands are now managed by smart technologies designed to replicate human conversation, thus enabling HR experts to contemplate the bigger picture. According to the India Report of Deloitte's 5th Annual Global Human Capital Trends, 53% of companies are revamping their HR programmes to deploy digital tools, while 22% have already leveraged AI to deliver HR solutions.

Advertisers today know that while content may be king, data is the real belle of the ball. This is where advertising technology -- or AdTech -- comes into the equation: A rapidly growing industry in the UK and around the globe, AdTech connects the dots between marketing tactics and data on consumer behaviour and the journey through the sales funnel. Salesforce's fourth annual State of Marketing report cites significant growth year over year within the AdTech arena: It predicts 23-25% YoY growth for technologies like marketing analytics and CRM tools, and a whopping 53% YoY increase for artificial intelligence. A handful of startups are cashing in on the AdTech boom with innovative products that are changing the game for advertisers and marketers. Below are five British businesses whose AdTech products are making serious waves on a global scale.

Understanding how different factors affect the supply chain remains a top priority for research firms around the globe. This unwavering drive represents the continued interest in advancing today's capabilities with state-of-the-art technology and adaptability. From artificial intelligence to refocusing on procurement, the state of supply chain continued to explode throughout 2016, and you need to understand why. Artificial intelligence (AI) is among the most well-recognized ideas in science fiction. However, it's true applications are becoming more apparent daily.

Games have played a prominent role as a test-bed for advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence ever since its foundation over half a century ago, resulting in highly specialized world-class game-playing systems being developed for various games. The establishment of the International General Game Playing Competition in 2005, however, resulted in a renewed interest in more general problem solving approaches to game playing. In general game playing (GGP) the goal is to create game-playing systems that autonomously learn how to skillfully play a wide variety of games, given only the descriptions of the game rules. In this paper we review the history of the competition, discuss progress made so far, and list outstanding research challenges.