Almost two-thirds of CIOs see artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies as being very important or critical to their businesses over the next five years, according to a report from Forbes, in association with VMWare. The report, which surveyed over 650 CIOs from around the world, explored how CIOs and IT leaders see their role within the business evolving over the next five years, from the types of technology they will be bringing in, to how they plan to drive social responsibility. AI and machine learning were seen as the top two critical future technologies at 62% and 60% respectively, ahead of the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing and blockchain, which came in at just 54%. AI applications may be in their infancy, but almost half of organisations around the world are using at least one AI-powered function in their business. It's seen as a technology which will have a huge impact on companies' bottom lines as IT leaders grow more confident in their use of it. "You need to have a plan of attack for AI and machine learning," said David Gledhill, CIO and group head of technology at DBS Bank in the report.

DBS Bank is in the midst of an enormous digital transformation effort, one that includes an aggressive plan to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning. Part of the near-term effort is to build an enterprise AI competency. "We want to train the top 250 executives in the firm to become AI conversant," said David Gledhill, group CIO and head of group technology and operations at DBS Bank. "We want to train 200 people to be what we call AI translators." By conversant, Gledhill means training executives to understand machine learning techniques at a high level, as well as knowing enough to "intelligently question what a model is and what it can do," he said.

What does the future of Artificial Intelligence mean for you? The UK Government announced just this week, a new £1 Billion Drive Into Artificial Intelligence. "Artificial intelligence provides limitless opportunities to develop new, efficient and accessible products and services", said Business Secretary Greg Clark. For 2 days, we're bringing together world leading researchers and industry pioneers to learn, discuss and explore the impact machine learning and deep learning algorithms will have on your business and across our daily lives. With just over one month to go, we're highlighting the 10 reasons not to miss the upcoming Machine Intelligence Summit, taking place in Hong Kong on 6-7 June.

Every year, financial services magazine Euromoney gives out numerous awards for excellence to firms in many categories, at country, regional, and global levels. The story of its digital transformation is all the more remarkable because one of its goals for its technology – in fact, for the entire bank – is to disappear from view. DBS is a midsized Asian bank with about 22,000 employees, created by the Government of Singapore in 1968 to help modernize the island nation. However, when DBS brought in Paul Cobban, who is now Chief Operating Officer, Technology and Operations for DBS, to spearhead the bank's transformation in 2009, they were far from best – in fact, they were among the worst. Cobban recalls an eye-opening story from his first day at the bank. "I was in a taxi and I mentioned I worked at DBS," Cobban recalls.