CaixaBank and Microsoft have signed a strategic joint innovation agreement intended to promote the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to new financial solutions, as well as to create new and innovative work environments in the metaverse. The agreement will see the two companies start up an AI Innovation Lab, with particular involvement from CaixaBank Tech – the tech company launched in 2021 to advance the technological evolution of the CaixaBank Group. This IT subsidiary of CaixaBank has a team of professionals specialising in the application of AI for the financial sector, as well as its Centre of Excellence to promote innovation in this field. The new Laboratory, located in Barcelona, will work in coordination with Microsoft's AI Research and Development (R&D) hub also located in the city, which employs nearly a hundred software developers, data scientists, and machine learning specialists. The AI Innovation Lab will focus on developing concept tests, prototypes, and use cases to explore how the application of AI technologies can disrupt financial services.

Memorably spoken by Alexander Graham Bell, these were the first words ever heard through a telephone. Since then, speech has become the natural format for long-distance communication across the globe. The impact of voice-to-voice communication has meant that even written messages, sent via email and social media, have become increasingly conversational in tone. That Watson was not IBM Watson, of course, or Watson's namesake Thomas J Watson. But IBM Watson, by bringing a cognitive, learning approach to the absorption of data, has made it possible for computer systems to understand spoken language, and the more natural, colloquial way we now express ourselves in text.