Spark Foundry is one of four global media agency brands within Publicis Media. The force of acceleration, or the speed of change is so strong today that it has the potential to leave industries including our own behind. So, at Spark Foundry we are working towards driving positive change. We are an Acceleration Agency. At Spark Foundry acceleration applies to every layer of our business.

SINGAPORE--American workers hold key positions throughout China's domestic chip industry, helping manufacturers develop new chips to catch up with foreign rivals. Now, those workers are in limbo under new U.S. export control rules that prohibit U.S. citizens from supporting China's advanced chip development. At least 43 senior executives working with 16 publicly listed Chinese semiconductor companies are American citizens, according to an examination of company filings and official websites by The Wall Street Journal. Many of them hold C-suite titles, from chief executive to vice president and chairman. Almost all of the executives moved to China's chip industry after spending years working in Silicon Valley for U.S. chip makers or semiconductor equipment firms, according to the companies' filings.

Now more than ever, every company is a data company. By 2025, individuals and companies around the world will produce an estimated 463 exabytes of data each day, 1 1. Jeff Desjardins, "How much data is generated each day?" World Economic Forum, April 17, 2019. With that in mind, most businesses have begun to address the operational aspects of data management--for instance, determining how to build and maintain a data lake or how to integrate data scientists and other technology experts into existing teams. Fewer companies have systematically considered and started to address the ethical aspects of data management, which could have broad ramifications and responsibilities. If algorithms are trained with biased data sets or data sets are breached, sold without consent, or otherwise mishandled, for instance, companies can incur significant reputational and financial costs. Board members could even be held personally liable.

Hannover Messe (or Hannover Fair), the #1 global industrial tradeshow, was back in action earlier this month. The event that took place from 30 May–02 June 2022, in Hannover, Germany, showcased once again the latest developments and industrial technology trends. Despite a much smaller crowd (75,000 visitors--roughly 40% of pre-pandemic levels), the fairgrounds were buzzing and filled with senior executives from many of the leading industrial hardware, software, and service providers. The conference remains one of those rare fairs where you randomly walk into senior executives, like a Head of Engineering for a major industrial conglomerate, and not only into the pre-sales representatives giving you the usual pitch. "In the face of disrupted supply chains, rising energy prices, inflation, and climate change, it was all the more important to meet face-to-face again in the exhibition halls after two years marked by a pandemic, to take in the latest technology trends and get a window to the future."

For the third year running, AI is the top priority for CEOs, according to a survey of CEOs and senior executives released by Gartner on Wednesday. The findings also revealed that the metaverse, which has received a lot of hype in the last year, especially since the rebranding of Facebook to Meta, is not as relevant to business leaders – 63% say that they do not see the metaverse as a key technology for their organization. It's not a big surprise that AI continues to be on the mind of top business leaders. As TechRepublic reported in June 2021, 97% of senior executives planned to invest heavily in AI. Jobs in AI, which are often high-pay, are also in demand, according to the jobs board Indeed.com.

Finding and keeping holding of employees with a deep understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) is a difficult task. These are the findings of a new report from analytics provider RELX, which states that 95 percent of organizations find it challenging to employ AI talent. The company argues that considerations around AI ethics are at odds with productivity, which could have a knock-on effect on the AI talent search. Most respondents (90 percent) said having ethical standards in how they develop and use emerging technologies, such as AI, could be a key competitive advantage for organizations. The sentiment was felt most strongly by those in the banking industry (95 percent).

In a quiet year of technology design, development, and deployment, we would expect to see the main drivers of enterprise investments (in talent, tools, and technologies) to be internal. That is, companies would quietly stoke the fires of innovation, generate new products and services, and grow their workforce capabilities, without a lot of external forces, other than the perennial aim to achieve competitive advantage in their industry. In the Pandemic era, those internal forces have taken a back seat to other external factors, or at least the passenger seat. Various issues have been loud and clear in the popular media and among the general populace that have influenced the AI adoption equation in 2021. These "hot" issues include AI ethics and bias, the "Great Resignation", global competition, climate impacts, and the role of government in regulating AI technologies.

In line with "The Great Resignation" that's swept the U.S., a new report from information-based analytics provider RELX found that 95% of respondents view hiring and retaining AI talent as a challenge. What may be the most surprising takeaway, however, regards a perceived disconnect between AI ethics and productivity. The majority of respondents (90%) believe ethical standards in the development and use of emerging technologies can represent a competitive advantage for businesses. Those in the banking industry were most likely to feel this way (95%). About two-thirds (64%) of senior executives, however, have identified existing bias in AI technologies used by their company.

Management guru W. Edwards Deming famously said: "In God we trust. All others must bring data." But how far can we trust the data? This is becoming an important question, as the artificial intelligence systems now being built and deployed across the business landscape are only as good as the data being fed into them, along with the algorithms running the data. AI systems are now making decisions on customer value, courses of action, and operational viability, just to name a few vital functions.

AI and data science will probably bring about the most significant changes to the financial services industry that the industry has witnessed in its short history. Yet, today, many financial institutions are still struggling to find their way to start the AI journey1. We propose a concept called T-shaped teams (See Exhibit 1) as the solution for financial institutions to overcome the hurdles in AI adoption. The idea is simple: Technology, more specifically AI and data science, is such a distinct discipline from investments that it takes an additional function, which we refer to as the innovation function, to join them and form the cohesive AI-age investment team. Globally, the financial services industry is eagerly looking to transform from Stage 0 in AI adoption to Stage 1 (See Exhibit 2).