Strategic advice to leverage new technologies
Technology is at the heart of nearly every enterprise, enabling new business models and strategies, and serving as the catalyst to industry convergence. Leveraging the right technology can improve business outcomes, providing intelligence and insights that help you make more informed and accurate decisions. From finding patterns in data through data science, to curating relevant insights with data analytics, to the predictive abilities and innumerable applications of AI, to solving challenging business problems with ML, NLP, and knowledge graphs, technology has brought decision-making to a more intelligent level. Keep pace with the technology trends, opportunities, applications, and real-world use cases that will move your organization closer to its transformation and business goals.
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The authors focus specifically on the potential of cryptocurrencies by asking the timely question, “Are Americans nowadays more willing to use Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies?” Specifically, they want to know whether Americans would be more willing to use cryptocurrencies over credit cards to complete different e-commerce transactions. To answer the question, they surveyed 195 US participants about their willingness to use a hypothetical cryptocurrency called “DIGIcoin” to pay for 11 different products and services.
Blockchain is often criticized as being a solution looking for a problem. The authors seek to address this issue by providing readers with an understanding of blockchain-enabled technologies and the gig economy, and how blockchain can be harnessed to develop innovative business models to facilitate growth post-COVID-19. They touch on several exciting opportunities blockchain affords, including cryptocurrencies, tokenization, decentralized applications, and smart contracts.
Denis Dennehy examines how AI can power a sustainable recovery for the Irish economy following COVID-19. He addresses common concerns associated with AI and shows that it will not just eliminate jobs through automation, but rather will create many new roles in specialized areas to support AI. Additionally, Dennehy discusses how AI can be used for social good to address several societal issues. In this thought-provoking discussion, he focuses on four strategic areas that he believes AI can support, namely: (1) agriculture, (2) smart manufacturing and supply chains, (3) education, and (4) smarter products and services.
Joseph Byrum provides a unique perspective on how investment managers can use AI tools based on the US military’s OODA loop to assist in their decision making in periods of uncertainty in the market.
The key research question the authors seek to answer is whether technological advancement facilitates or complicates the banking industry. Their insightful discussion examines a range of changes in banking. However, the benefits of these technological developments also bring challenges, including cultural and infrastructural barriers, as well as information security concerns. While COVID-19 has accentuated the importance of digitalizing our banking systems, the associated challenges must also be given due diligence.
Although the financial services industry has become increasingly digitized with the emergence of new technologies, Bhavik Pathak argues that we have yet to see disruption in financial services parallel to what we have seen with Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb to the entertainment, transportation, and lodgings industry, respectively. The contrast is primarily due to restrictive regulations and infrastructure that favor the incumbents and limit the potential of emerging fintechs to niche product/service offerings. Pathak discusses how COVID-19 has disrupted this constraint by forcing governments to relax certain regulations.
The articles within this issue of CBTJ cover multiple areas of financial services, including e-commerce, banking, and investment management. Additionally, this issue offers a broad geographical scope, taking a global perspective in several articles, while also focusing on specific regions and economies, including the US and Ireland.
A “next normal” is undoubtedly going to emerge once the COVID-19 pandemic slows down or resolves. But while the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the economy and work routines, it also provides opportunities for organizations to implement continuous learning and make progress toward upskilling and reskilling employees.