BBC News is to create a new department that will use AI to give the public more personalised content, as its leader said the corporation had been "defying gravity" in reaching audiences amid seismic changes in the way news is consumed. In a note to staff seen by the Guardian, Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, announced an overhaul of the organisation's structure, including the creation of a new department, BBC News growth, innovation and AI. It will have a particular focus on under-25s, amid a huge shift to news consumption on smartphones and on platforms such as TikTok. Turness said the corporation had to act fast to counter a series of headwinds including "the growing trend of news avoidance, the growth of news consumption on social platforms, increased digital competition and inevitable broadcast decline". It is understood that measures could include deploying AI to curate stories for users on their phones, based on their previous consumption, in a way that suits those used to consuming content served up by social media.

Hushly, a content engagement and conversion platform, has announced that they have fully embedded an artificial intelligence (AI) capability throughout their solution offerings. AI provides machine learning to B2B marketers and offers an automated way to develop high-quality content recommendations for increased conversions. Hushly's newest functionality will be made available free to customers. With Hushly's AI engine, B2B marketers can provide better user experiences by recommending personalised content to prospective leads based on their business profile and buyer intent data in real-time. "AI continues to offer unprecedented operational efficiencies, and when applied to B2B lead generation, automates manual processes, provides enhanced user experiences and results in higher quality conversions," said James Kessinger, CMO at Hushly.

It's that time of year again…Time to take stock of an incredible year for the financial services industry (not all of it good, sadly) and look forward to the trends we see impacting finance marketers in 2019. Last year we predicted the New Payments Platform (NPP) rollout, expanded fintech regulation sandbox, and widespread adoption of blockchain as the biggest trends of the year. While they may not have been the biggest stories (Royal Commission, anyone?), they continued to move the Australian finance industry forward and saw technology increasingly used to meet customer needs. Xinja, Volt, 86400 and Up, are all at various stages of gaining a banking license and launching offers, which they claim will offer alternative ways to bank for Australians. Exactly what that means is yet to be revealed.