The banking industry has undergone significant changes that have fundamentally altered the competitive battlefield. With a focus on improving efficiencies, finding new revenue opportunities and improving the customer experience, five megatrends have arisen to impact banking in tectonic ways. They all are components of the digital banking transformation process – some being revolutionary while others are evolutions of trends already in process. In this webinar from MeridianLink, you'll learn how to deliver a world-class, omnichannel digital banking experience that's fast, responsive and frictionless. Read More about Is Your Credit Union Addressing the Digital Imperative?

Around 3.7 million Australians have been unintentionally caught in an ocean rip. For the unprepared it can be a harrowing experience--but for experienced surfers, rips are a handy way to ride through the whitewash and out to the break. We're not surfers, but we work at Australia's national science agency in "strategic foresight," which you can think of as the study of the currents taking the world into the future. These currents are a bit like ocean rips: they present risks for those who don't understand them, but opportunities for societies, organizations and people who are prepared. We call the biggest currents "megatrends", and in a new report we examine the megatrends that will shape the next 20 years.

Partners in McKinsey's Digital Practice discuss the 6 megatrends shaping the future of China's digital ecosystem. In a relatively short span of time, China has transitioned from a technological backwater to become one of the world's largest digital economies. On the back of its base of nearly one billion internet users, China's ecommerce sales grew to $1.7 trillion in 2020, a number that is equivalent to 30 percent of all retail sales in China. But this is not just a story of size. It is, above all, a story of innovation and disruption.

Before the pandemic, at the World Economic Forum 2018, Justin Trudeau addressed the audience by saying, "The pace of change has never been this fast, yet it will never be this slow again." As we look back, we realize these words couldn't be more true. Even in the past year, we have seen exponential tech advancements and changes in consumer behavior that have eclipsed what had occurred in previous decades. From the pandemic, we are able to see the emergence of megatrends across multiple industries that will impact banking, disrupting legacy business models, and having the potential to improve consumer's financial lives. Some of these megatrends are already well in process, while others are in their formative stage.

In this article, I identify 9 megatrends -- exponential shifts that are already underway on a global scale -- and how they will shape the future of the metaverse. Most of the megatrends are a blend of both technology and social change. Here are the megatrends I'll discuss: By looking at the 9 megatrends here, we are given a chance to "pull back the camera lens" and see a picture of the wider landscape upon which we're constructing the metaverse. People increasingly regard the virtual world to be as real as the physical world. In the physical world, trust is how relationships and institutions function.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is crucial to combat the spread of misinformation and propaganda on the internet. AI is able to analyze and quantify an enormous amounts of information generated daily on a scale that's impossible for humans, ultimately, it's up to us to be part of the process of fact-checking to inform people worldwide. In 2021, the risk of a global pandemic suddenly became a new reality for all and everybody. We are systematically fed by biased, mis- and dis- information. The big tech digital platforms such as Google, Facebook, Baidu or Tencent should do more to tackle fake news and cyber propaganda.

At its annual "Securing New Ground" conference, the Security Industry Association (SIA) identified the ten megatrends that will define security going into 2021. Perhaps unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence is at the top of the list, followed by cybersecurity of physical security and predictive data analytics, with the movement to service models rounding out the list. Overall, the trends illustrate the ever-evolving role that technology plays in modern security, particularly when it comes to threat detection. Artificial intelligence, especially applications like deep learning, could help security teams better detect and respond to threats. Furthermore, with many security teams working remotely due to COVID-19, physical spaces have new security needs that can't be addressed immediately on-site.

CHINA - 2020/08/13: In this photo illustration the American multinational technology company and ... [ ] search engine Google logo is seen on an Android mobile device with United States of America flag in the background. Google (GOOG) just made a statement. On August 3, Google announced that it's investing $450 million in home security company ADT (ADT). The investment will give Google a 6.6% stake in the company. You might be wondering why the tech giant wants anything to do with ADT.

Insurance is an industry that thrives on predictability. The more certain the outcome, the more insurance firms can be sure to offer fair rates and generate value for customers and shareholders alike. As such, it's an industry that has been slow to adopt new technologies and adapt to global change. Today, however, change is here, and more is on the way. Global megatrends, from the imminent arrival of the self-driving car to accelerating climate change, threaten to disrupt the insurance sector in a way that's never been seen before.

The morning session at SAP Ariba/SAP Fieldglass ValueX left us with some thoughts from the big consulting firms about the way procurement, and indeed business, should and will go in the coming years if we are to survive the pace of technological change the world is experiencing, and adapt our processes to respect our planet. The keynote called for a reboot of capitalism and (the environment), championed by John Penrose MP. Deloitte was quick to follow with a look at Industry 4 (automation, data exchange, cyber-physical systems (CPS), the internet of things (IoT), industrial internet of things (IIOT), cloud computing, cognitive computing and artificial intelligence and so on) in the context of procurement. They reminded us that the fourth industrial revolution is not, however, just about a collection of technologies, rather how you package and use them altogether to support your long-term business strategy. A global Deloitte survey revealed that 94% (of respondents) saw implementing digital tech and processes (aka digital transformation) as a means just to'keep up' with the rest of the marketplace.