Sustainability and digitisation are like twins; they go hand in hand. They both have the potential to change the way businesses operate and the way people work -- at any role, and any level. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) is a key tenet of both sustainability and digitalisation, empowering companies with real-time visibility and a myriad of insights as they take the winding path towards net zero. However, time waits for no one, and the challenges of becoming sustainable will only multiply if businesses don't start deploying AI alongside their talented humans right now. After all, the clock is ticking: the IPCC notes we must halve emissions by 2030 to stop irreversible climate change. Let's be clear: clean energy and efficient energy management are key to attacking the climate crisis.

"AI tools will be shaping the future of customer service -- this seems to be the way the world is heading, with technology becoming more and more integrated into business tactics," said Sourabh Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Skit.ai. Nirmal emphasized that this technology is ultimately designed for a person trying to access information, solve a problem, pay a bill or schedule an appointment. Virgil Wong, chief digital officer at HGS, told CMSWire AI customers want well-designed chatbot interactions -- especially ones that can offer quick solutions to problems. He also added that "sentiment analysis is critical to determining the next best action, getting the correct answer fast, detecting fraud or compliance issues and summarizing interactions for follow-ups and reporting." According to Wong, some of the biggest issues brands come up against with this technology include strategic considerations, such as how much to invest, along with technical concerns, like bugs and program errors.

Digital transformation is nothing new. Depending on your definition, it can go back as far as the middle of the twentieth century. Even by the most conservative interpretations, leading enterprises have been on the digitalization path for a couple of decades. Over the last two years, however, digital transformation has taken on a new urgency. As organizations have weathered the upheavals instigated by the pandemic, digitization has become integral to their responses and also their future plans.

The Covid-19 coronavirus crisis is accelerating the pace of digital transformation among companies of all shapes and sizes, and the public sector is no exception, as decision-makers rally to find digital solutions to meet fast-changing requirements despite underlying legacy challenges. While the immediate focus is to limit the human, social and economic loss, operating in the "new normal" will mean extra pressure on IT in the months to come. Public sector bodies need to use digital channels to inform and serve citizens, while at the same time, many functions have gone all-digital during the coronavirus outbreak, increasing demand for efficient back-end systems. The pandemic has exposed the need to improve technology efficiency for the continuity of government. Computer Weekly spoke to specialists operating in the public sector to gain an overall view of the key trends and hurdles facing buyers as the crisis unfolds.

Today's guest Barbara Martin Coppola is the Chief Digital Officer for Ingka Group, the strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating IKEA Retail in 30 countries. She is part of the process of moving a very physical brand to one that naturally integrates highly digital and data-driven experiences for its customers. IKEA will have a more in-depth focus than just becoming digital its processes. Barbara talks about the need to deliver digital and data as smooth and natural extensions of the experiences that consumers want now and will expect to want in ten years. Not only will stores have the ability to simulate your own home in the store with virtual rooms, but you will also be able to place items in the store virtually inside your home.

Like'digital transformation', innovation is an over-used and under-examined term. This applies within business generally, but more especially within the public sector, where there are limits to the amount of disruption and risk that it is considered acceptable to carry within the public domain. Further, a range of questions arises when government'innovates'. These include building the culture and incentives for innovation; understanding what innovation in the digital era is actually about (clue: it's not simply about having a new idea); handling the public-private sector relationship differently; scaling innovations; and handling the politics that inevitably surround changes of almost any kind to public services. The opportunity to chair the second Public Sector Innovation Conference on 25 February was a great opportunity to reflect on these, and many of the other tensions and opportunities that surround ongoing modernisation of public services, and benefit from a really high-quality speaker lineup.

The Singapore edition of World AI Show reinvigorated the nation's AI efforts by bringing in top global investors, startups, digital companies, solution providers and AI experts such as Dr Terence Hung from Rolls-Royce Singapore; Sutowo Wong from the Ministry of Health, Singapore; and Guido Jouret, Chief Digital Officer of ABB; to name a few. Given its infrastructure capacity, education system and investor-friendly laws, Singapore has all the right ingredients to nurture a robust AI ecosystem that could be the cornerstone for the small island's economic upswing. According to a recent report by Accenture, AI could add up to US$215 billion in gross value across 11 industries in Singapore by 2035. With the Singapore government's vehement efforts to foster initiatives in the AI space, the nation was the ideal location to host the 9th edition of the global World AI Show series that had hit the ground running for the second time in Singapore on 24 July 2019. The show was organised by international business events and consulting firm, Trescon.

There is great potential for the use of Artificial intelligence (AI) by cities. With the help of AI, we can provide more responsive services to citizens. However, AI poses ethical issues that need special attention, as Chief Digital Officers of London and Helsinki here we explain why and suggest an approach for city government. The use of automation and machine learning systems is not a new phenomenon in public administration, but it is being transformed in how it is being used -- from automating simple transactions to more complex problem-solving. Today we see adoption across a range of municipal services -- chatbots in customer services, prioritisation of housing repairs, traffic signalling, demand-responsive transport, even library book management systems.

The'City to City Digital Declaration', signed by the cities' Chief Digital Officers – London's Theo Blackwell and Helsinki's Mikko Rusama – sets out several new areas of collaboration between the two capitals, including: Both cities have recently set out their smart city plans and both have a strong technology community. More than a third of all Europe's tech giants are based in London and contribute over £56 billion to the UK's economy. Helsinki produces almost 50 per cent of the tech sector's turnover in Finland – more than half of the country's IT companies are based in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The partner cities say they are now keen to share best practices and expertise in order to meet social, environmental and economic challenges. London's Chief Digital Officer, Theo Blackwell, said: "London has made huge advances in the application of data and smart technologies for the benefit of those who live, work or visit here. "We should always embrace the opportunity to share our civic tech innovations, particularly with fellow European cities, as we are demonstrating through the Sharing Cities initiative.

Artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful technologies for reshaping business in decades. It has the ability to optimize many processes throughout organizations and is already the engine behind some of the world's most valuable platform businesses. In our view AI will become a permanent aspect of the business landscape and AI capabilities need to be sustainable over time in order to develop and support potential new business models and capabilities. Specifically, we believe that companies need to establish dedicated organizational units to entrench AI. This is an important business tool that cannot be left to bottom-up whimsy.