Across all these scenarios, IT fundamentals--like remote access, unified login systems, and interoperability across platforms--are being handled behind the scenes and consolidated into streamlined, user-friendly solutions. The way employees experience these tools, collectively known as the digital employee experience (DEX), can be a key component of achieving business outcomes: Deloitte finds that companies investing in frontline-focused digital tools see a 22 % boost in worker productivity, a doubling in customer satisfaction, and as much as a 25 % increase in profitability. As digital tools become everyday fixtures in operational contexts, companies face both opportunities and hurdles--and the stakes are only rising as emerging technologies like AI become more sophisticated. The organizations best positioned for an AI-first future are crafting thoughtful strategies to ensure digital systems align with the realities of daily work--and placing people at the heart of the whole process. Despite promising returns, many companies still face a last-mile challenge in delivering usable, effective tools to the frontline.

Arthur C. Clarke once remarked, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That ambient sense of magic has been missing from the past decade of internet history. Each new tablet and smartphone is only a modest improvement over its predecessor. The expected revolutions--the metaverse, blockchain, self-driving cars--have plodded along, always with promises that the real transformation is just a few years away. The one exception this year has been in the field of generative AI.

Back in 1982, computers meant one of two things in the popular imagination. Either they were room-sized machines used by the military-industrial complex to crunch data on stuff like nuclear wars and stock markets, or they were fridge-sized arcade games such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man. Kraftwerk were singing about home computers, but if you owned one at all, it was probably a Sinclair ZX81, which was only marginally more sophisticated than a calculator. And yet, that summer, cinemagoers were catapulted into the digital future. Few appreciated it at the time but with 40 years' hindsight, Steven Lisberger's sci-fi adventure Tron was the shape of things to come: in cinema, in real life, and in virtual life.

Aircraft manufacturing company Boeing partners with technology giant Microsoft to accelerate its digital transformation journey. This strategic partnership with Microsoft will allow Boeing to use the Microsoft Cloud and AI capabilities to upgrade its IT infrastructure and mission-critical applications with intelligent new data-driven solutions, allowing for new ways of working, operating, and conducting business. Boeing was one of the first companies to use the Microsoft Cloud, storing multiple digital aviation apps on Microsoft Azure and leveraging artificial intelligence to improve customer outcomes and streamline operations. According to the plan, Boeing will leverage Microsoft Cloud and AI capabilities to upgrade essential infrastructure, optimize business processes, and several other tasks. Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Information Technology & Data Analytics at Boeing, Susan Doniz, said, "Today's announcement represents a significant investment in Boeing's digital future. Our strategic partnership with Microsoft will help us realize our cloud strategy by removing infrastructure restraints, properly scaling to unlock innovation, and further strengthening our commitment to sustainable operations."

With every new technological advancement, there's always someone poking at it from behind the computer screen, trying to find a vulnerability. This isn't new (Antheus biometric data breach, Robinhood data security incident, anyone?), but it is something that the average consumer doesn't think about enough. One of the biggest blind spots most of us have is surrounding the privacy of our data with voice assistants like Siri or Alexa. Technologies like speech-to-text software and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) are steadily increasing in popularity, and this means we need to start considering the privacy implications more seriously. Text-to-speech tools and chatbots are quickly becoming everyday technologies for businesses.

Parijat Banerjee is Global Business Head for the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector at LatentView Analytics. The pandemic pushed us years forward, and the notion that every modern company is a technology company has only been reinforced by rapidly transforming business practices. We are at an apex of digital transformation, and precision analytics is driving the most successful innovation initiatives across many industries. The unequivocal rise of the connected ecosystem has forced consumers to engage across digital channels, and banking and financial services evolved almost overnight. The race to digital has always seemingly been easy, but the adoption and implementation remain an uphill climb, particularly in the financial services industry, where legacy solutions and antiquated IT infrastructure have a stranglehold on business processes. Over the last 18 months, exponential improvements in digital technology have underpinned the evolution of banking for both internal processes and customer-facing experiences.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems that display intelligent behaviour by analysing their environment and taking actions – with some degree of autonomy – to achieve specific goals. Many AI approaches critically depend on the availability of data to achieve their results, or use learning methods to reach their peak performance or improve over time. Enabled by computing power, availability of data and progress in algorithms, AI is progressively turning into one of the strategic technologies of the 21st century. AI can contribute to a wide array of benefits across the entire spectrum of economic and social activities. It can help to solve complex problems and boost the green and digital transformation of businesses and societies.

As many of us have moved to working from home and many companies have decided to keep remote working ... [ ] as a permanent option, the future of jobs looks like it will be increasingly digital but also increasingly focused on wellbeing and self-management. Human skills, not technology alone, will help us through the'double-disruption' of Covid and automation. A new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Future of Jobs has highlighted the need to build on self-management and critical thinking skills, so that we can harness an increase in automation and an impending Covid-triggered recession to usher in a new wave of jobs that take advantage of both automation and human creativity and adaptability. As the pandemic has pushed many people into working remotely and using many different technologies to work and relax, the importance of wellbeing as well as the utility of technology have come into stark focus, and created a unique foundation on which to build new jobs and a new way of working. For many years, automation technologies have been changing how we work, by taking on more of the mundane, repetitive tasks that they are designed for.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting better at performing complex human tasks. In an increasingly automated world, we will have to redefine our value by recognizing and nurturing skills that are uniquely human. AI is excellent at automating routine knowledge work and generating new insights from existing data. Humans have curiosity about the things we don't yet know. To stay ahead of AI in an increasingly automated world, we need to start cultivating our most human abilities on a societal level.

While several Member States have or are in the process of developing their AI strategies, smart cities and communities could well be the main beneficiaries of AI. With the increasing use of digital devices, sensors and Internet of Things (IoT), smart cities have seen a tremendous growth in data generated, including real-time and Big Data. This wealth of data, combined with machine and deep learning, can recognise patterns, help predict events, allow for more personalised services, optimise the use of resources as well as strengthen evidence-based analytical capability for policy-making and implementation. In order however, to benefit from the possibilities of AI at local level, there is a need for large amounts of high quality data, with relevance in the urban context (economic, urban, geographical, technical, climatic, health, etc.). Smart cities and communities are however, not yet fully exploiting the value of data and AI.