According to a new analysis from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, around 800 million jobs could disappear worldwide by the year 2035. The report explains that part of the reason for this is the cost of automating jobs has been declining. There was a 27 percent decrease in the cost of automation between 2005 to 2014, and the cost is expected to decrease by roughly 22 percent by 2025. The analysts claim that robots are getting much better at being able to complete certain tasks, so the kind of jobs that can be automated is growing. They claim "office and service sector tasks" are going to increasingly be automated.

Analyzing the large amounts of data created by internet-connected devices will be a huge market in the coming decades, according to a top Wall Street firm. Bank of America Merrill Lynch says the artificial intelligence and so-called big data analysis trends will also have dramatic ramifications for business and markets. "We are living in an exponential age where ubiquitous connectivity and decreasing cost are leading to the digitization and datafication of most activities," equity strategist Beijia Ma wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. Big data, which refers to computers analyzing large amounts of information for patterns and associations, and artificial intelligence are as critical to this trend as the internet and smartphones, she added, and "set to propel the 5th wave of IT-driven productivity growth." Ma estimates the big data market is set to reach $210 billion by 2020, and "AI will be the single largest driver of tech spend over the next decade."

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has launched a new fintech solution that brings together artificial intelligence, machine learning and optical character recognition to help companies match incoming payments with invoices. Under the name Intelligent Receivables, the solution is developed by HighRadius, a US-based fintech company. It is targeted at large or complex companies where the remittance information is either missing or received separately from the payment, which according to the bank is a source of big frustration to its clients. Using AI and other new technologies, Intelligent Receivables can help these companies improve their straight through reconciliation (STR) of incoming payments and post their receivables faster. It does so in four steps: first, the solution identifies payers and associates their payments to remittances that are received separately. Third, it uses this enriched remittance data to match payments to open receivables.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Fintech Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has revealed that it is implementing enterprise software fintech HighRadius' artificial intelligence (AI) solution to speed up receivables reconciliation for the bank's large business clients. Large companies with numerous customers often receive payments without accompanying contextual information, like which customer or debtor it's come from, or precisely what the payment is for, which makes balancing a company's books, i.e. reconciling, a lengthy and resource-intensive task. HighRadius' solution uses AI, machine learning, and optical character recognition to identify a payer, match them to an uncontextualized payment, and match that to an open receivable.

Faced with the worst labor shortage in decades, Japanese service companies are finally turning to labor-saving technology, an investment that could lift the sector's woeful level of productivity and allow them to raise wages. While Japan's manufacturers are renowned for deploying advanced robotics, most domestic-focused services companies fell behind in information technology investment, put off by a stagnant economy, restrictive labor rules and a shrinking domestic market. But as the workforce declines and the nation ages, businesses in areas like nursing and retail have found it harder to attract and keep staff. As Partners Co. is among companies looking to software for a solution. It plans to spend about ¥300 million ($2.7 million) to install new technology at its 15 nursing homes in and around Tokyo to make life easier for staff and residents.

If robots are taking our jobs, they may also support our retirement. Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates that 47 per cent of US jobs and 33 per cent of UK jobs have the potential to be automated. But the technology that could fill those jobs – robotics and artificial intelligence – is both a threat to some workers and a potential area of growth for investors, notably pension funds, seeking to capitalise on the new wave of industrialisation. "It's the next generation," says Philippe Cerf, Europe, Middle East and Africa co-head of the technology, media and telecommunications group at investment bank Credit Suisse. "Machine-learning is applied to some extent across all tech these days."

If you wanted relief from stories about tyre factories and steel plants closing, you could try relaxing with a new 300-page report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch which looks at the likely effects of a robot revolution. But you might not end up reassured. Though it promises robot carers for an ageing population, it also forecasts huge numbers of jobs being wiped out: up to 35% of all workers in the UK and 47% of those in the US, including white-collar jobs, seeing their livelihoods taken away by machines. Haven't we heard all this before, though? From the luddites of the 19th century to print unions protesting in the 1980s about computers, there have always been people fearful about the march of mechanisation.