The focus is no longer on about technology disrupting the marketplace or digital transformation providing better products and services to customers. Instead, the spotlight is on the digital revolution and how we can utilise digital assets to ensure the long-term sustainability of our business as it evolves with these technologies. As the influence of AI, 5G, Autonomous X, cognitive devices, and the virtualisation of things advances across all sectors, businesses are at a crucial turning point on how to optimise the returns from their current resources while embracing new business models to create greater value for customers. Frost & Sullivan presented its annual Asia-Pacific ICT Outlook in Singapore on 14 January. Attended by over 60 senior management and C-suite executives, the result marks the start of an exciting year ahead for the industry.

Nuria Oliver is a computer scientist and is also a Fellow of the European Association of Artificial Intelligence and ACM Fellow. She has over 20 years of research experience in the areas of human behaviour modelling and prediction from data and human-computer interaction. Her passion is to improve people's quality of life, both individually and collectively, through technology. Oliver speaks to SciTech Europa Quarterly about the importance of preparing future generations for what's next to come in the world of technology. I think one of the biggest challenges is the profound transformation that will be needed in the educational system and the massive investment in teacher education that would entail.

SciTech Europa Quarterly attended the UN AI for Good global summit, where the topic of discussion was how Artificial Intelligence can be delivered for social change in various ways across the public and private sectors. We spoke to Neil Sahota, IBM Master Inventor and World Wide Business Development Leader in the IBM Watson Group; United Nations (UN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert; and Professor at UC Irvine, at the event about how Artificial Intelligence can be used to deliver social change to achieve to UN sustainable development goals. Artificial Intelligence is critical for delivering social change for the goal of sustainable development. The United Nations estimates that there is a $7 trillion shortfall every year trying to achieve the sustainable development goals. The goals are for a better society and a better world, so the question of how we bridge the shortfall is very important.