Leon Gordon is a leader in data analytics, a current Microsoft MVP based in the U.K. and a partner at Pomerol Partners. The digital revolution has set off near-panic among executives as they seek to find ways to use data and analytics to enhance their decision-making ability. The end result of data transformation is the creation of a digital core, a set of capabilities that are used to power the entire organization. Companies seeking to transform themselves with AI must establish a strategic plan for using analytics and insights derived from data. Organizational structure is important when considering an AI strategy because it can help ensure data are properly transferred and secure as they move through their lifecycle.

By-Soumendra Mohanty Being an IT powerhouse and the second-largest online market in the world, India has a conducive environment for artificial intelligence (AI) to flourish. At the same time, democratizing this technology in the country, has a different stance than the rest of the world, owing to India's diverse population, the abundance of data, and the scalability of use cases. The pandemic-ushered nationwide digital wave has fed into AI adoption and awareness. By 2025, the Indian AI market will reach 7.8 bn USD with organizations integrating AI with vision, edge computing, real-time tracking, and Industrial Revolution 4.0 to create unique and complex solutions. The Unfair Advantage As a country that quickly switched from paper to digital administration during the pandemic, India brings sheer expertise and scalability of solutions to AI implementation.

Quantum computing startups are starting to pick up a lot of attention from investors. But as they grow their teams, they all face a common challenge: there just isn't enough talent available. These startups are looking for engineers with the knowledge to build quantum hardware and formulate quantum algorithms. But these skills are mostly found in academia. On top of that, startups in quantum are competing with big-pocketed companies with their own quantum departments, such as IBM and Google.

Quoting an extract of Bill Gates, "The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency." It is a known fact that automation has practically taken its rightful place in every business currently. From an efficiency aspect, automation when used with advanced tech like artificial intelligence has shown enhanced sales productivity of 14.5 % and reduced marketing expenses by 12.2% according to Nucleus Research Report. These statistics in a way prove how adopting AI and automating day-to-day company operations could be the answer to improved business growth. The recruitment domain is the next destination for artificial intelligence automation.

Amidst the rise in hybrid working and the Great Resignation, employers understand that they must provide a competitive employee experience to attract, and crucially, to retain top talent. This should go hand in hand with digital transformation initiatives. Tangible benefits and salary alone are no longer sufficient to differentiate the employer brand and employee experience. Employers need to create a stronger emotional connection with employees to ensure they are engaged and connected with the organisation. As personalisation becomes ubiquitous, businesses must embrace an array of innovative digital tools to make the employee experience seamless.

The future of HR is both digital and human as HR leaders focus on optimizing the combination of human and automated work. This is driving a new priority for HR: one which requires leaders and teams to develop a fluency in artificial intelligence while they re-imagine HR to be more personal, human and intuitive. As we enter 2019, it's the combination of AI and human intelligence that will transform work and workers as we know it. For many companies the first pilots of artificial intelligence are in talent acquisition, as this is the area where companies see significant, measurable, and immediate results in reducing time to hire, increasing productivity for recruiters, and delivering an enhanced candidate experience that is seamless, simple, and intuitive. One company that has delivered on this is DBS Bank.

By the start of 2020, in the technology industry, women had leadership positions in new-age technology areas such as software development, information technology, AI/ML/Data Science, Cloud, Big Data, IoT, Security, UI/UX, project management, and blockchain. Analyzing the software talent pool, among the eight roles identified, namely, DevOps engineer, Mobile engineer, QA engineer, Cyber security engineer, Frontend engineer, Backend engineer, ML engineer, Full-stack engineer, QA engineer is the most gender diverse role with 37% women in the role. However, the pandemic has impacted the significant strides women have made. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women, especially of color. Workforce planning must correct the impact on gender diversity.

New years bring excitement, energy, and predictions about the future. Although the past two years have shaped the future, there are a few things that I notice from my observations. For the past few decades, certain technologies were only available to the most prestigious companies. These technologies were either too expensive or didn't care enough about small businesses. The tools for customers and businesses will continue to drive digital transformation in Main Street small businesses. These are just a few of the many examples that continue to gain popularity.

According to a study by Harvard Business Review (HBR), Bengaluru has emerged among the top five cities in the world of AI, ranked at fifth position – and has the second-largest AI talent pool in the world. The other cities that topped the list include San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Seattle. Besides Bengaluru, other cities in India include New Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, ranked at 18th, 19th and 27th positions, respectively. In this study, the researchers highlighted the 50 cities with AI talent pools worldwide and evaluated them using a TIDE framework (i.e., talent pool, investments, diversity of talent, the evolution of the country's digital foundations). The researchers said that these factors collectively give companies a way to prioritise their AI talent sourcing choices by scoring the various locations on the concentration, quality, and diversity of the talent pool.

As per the Future workplace report of Oracle 2019, about 64% of the people said that they were more likely to trust robots rather than managers for advice. Also, they welcomed AI in HR systems wholeheartedly in favor of non-biased decisions. AI systems are faster and capable of making decisions quickly by considering the data which even the human recruiters fail to evaluate at that speed. A Korn Ferry survey reported that about two-thirds i.e. 63% of the talent acquisition experts believe AI has made dramatic changes to the way their companies carried out recruitments. For about half of the respondents, since AI was introduced, more skillful and talented candidates have filled up the roles in the workplace.