TECHNOLOGY

Who Will Really Benefit from AI?

Published

1 month ago

October 17, 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an undeniable force in our lives, transforming industries, influencing decision-making, and altering the way we live and work.

While the promises of AI are abundant, there is an ongoing debate about who stands to gain the most from this technological revolution. Will AI benefit everyone equally, or will it exacerbate existing disparities? In this in-depth exploration, we will delve into the various aspects of AI’s impact on society to answer the question: Who will really benefit from AI?

The Pioneers and Early Adopters

· Tech Giants’ Dominance: Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft have been at the forefront of AI innovation. Their substantial investments in AI research and development have given them a competitive edge across a wide range of sectors. These companies have leveraged AI to improve their products and services, from search engines and recommendation systems to virtual assistants and autonomous vehicles.

· Industry Disruption: AI has disrupted traditional industries, with early adopters using AI to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and gain valuable insights from data. This has led to increased market dominance for companies that embraced AI early on.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

· Accessibility of AI: Cloud-based AI solutions and open-source tools have made AI more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These businesses can now harness the power of AI for various tasks, such as data analysis, customer support, and marketing, without the need for large investments in infrastructure or expertise.

· Enhanced Competitiveness: AI empowers SMEs to compete with larger corporations by improving efficiency and providing data-driven decision-making capabilities. This levels the playing field and allows SMEs to deliver better products and services to their customers.

Healthcare: Saving Lives and Transforming Medicine

· Improved Patient Care: AI applications in healthcare, such as diagnostic tools, predictive analytics, and personalized treatment plans, have the potential to revolutionize patient care. Patients benefit from earlier disease detection, more accurate diagnoses, and tailored treatment options, ultimately saving lives and improving health outcomes.

· Ethical Concerns: The integration of AI in healthcare also raises ethical concerns, particularly regarding patient privacy and bias in AI algorithms. Ensuring that patient data is handled securely and that AI systems do not reinforce existing healthcare disparities is a critical challenge.

Education: Empowering Learners

· Personalized Learning: AI’s ability to provide personalized learning experiences through adaptive learning platforms can revolutionize education. These platforms use AI to tailor educational content to individual student needs, making education more engaging and effective.

· Addressing Equity: To fully harness the potential of AI in education, concerns about data privacy and the digital divide must be addressed. Ensuring equitable access to AI-powered education for all students is essential to avoid exacerbating educational inequalities.

Automation and Job Displacement

· Job Transformation: While AI has the potential to automate certain jobs, it also creates new opportunities in fields related to AI development, data science, and ethical AI auditing. The workforce needs to adapt to these changes through reskilling and upskilling programs.

· Impact on Industries: Industries that rely on routine and repetitive tasks, such as manufacturing and customer service, are more susceptible to job displacement due to automation. Governments and businesses must consider strategies to support affected workers and facilitate their transition to new roles.

Income Inequality: The Growing Gap

· Economic Growth vs. Inequality: The impact of AI on income inequality is a complex issue. AI-driven productivity improvements can lead to economic growth, potentially benefiting everyone. However, if the benefits of AI primarily accrue to the wealthy and corporations, it may exacerbate income inequality.

· Policy Considerations: Policymakers must carefully consider measures to ensure a fair distribution of AI’s benefits. This may include policies related to taxation, income redistribution, and social safety nets to mitigate the negative effects of income inequality.

Bias and Fairness in AI

· Addressing Bias: AI algorithms can inherit biases present in the data they are trained on, leading to discrimination and unfair outcomes. Addressing bias in AI applications, particularly in critical areas like criminal justice, lending, and hiring, is imperative.

· Transparent and Accountable AI: Ensuring that AI systems are transparent, accountable, and subject to scrutiny is essential for building trust in AI technology. Ethical guidelines, auditing processes, and regulatory frameworks are being developed to mitigate bias and ensure fairness.

Ethics and Accountability

· Responsible AI Development: As AI systems become more autonomous and powerful, the need for responsible AI development and deployment grows. Developers and organizations must prioritize ethical considerations and be accountable for the actions of AI systems.

· Regulatory Frameworks: Governments and international organizations are working on establishing regulatory frameworks to address ethical concerns in AI. These frameworks aim to define standards for ethical AI behavior and establish mechanisms for holding AI developers and users accountable for their actions.

The Role of Governments and Regulation

Governments play a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of AI technology and its impact on society. Their actions and policies can influence AI research, development, deployment, and regulation. Here are several key aspects to consider regarding the role of governments and regulation in the AI landscape:

· Promoting AI Research and Development: Governments invest in AI research and development, offering incentives and collaborating with academia and industry to drive innovation, boost competitiveness, and stimulate economic growth.

· Regulation for Ethical and Fair AI: Governments establish regulatory frameworks to ensure AI systems are developed and used transparently, fairly, and safely, addressing concerns related to ethics, data privacy, bias, and accountability. Additionally, they engage in international collaboration to set common AI standards and principles, while balancing innovation with regulation to foster technological advancement responsibly.

Global Impact and Geopolitical Dynamics

AI is a transformative technology that has significant global implications, influencing geopolitics, economic power, and national security:

· Geopolitical Competition and Economic Power: Superpowers like the U.S. and China engage in fierce AI competition, recognizing its potential for economic growth and military capabilities. AI’s advancement may lead to shifts in global economic power dynamics.

· National Security and Ethics: AI technologies have implications for defense and national security, prompting investments in AI-powered military systems and cybersecurity measures. Ethical concerns related to privacy, surveillance, and human rights arise globally, necessitating international cooperation to establish norms and agreements, fostering collaborative diplomacy to prevent potential AI arms races.

Environmental Concerns

· Energy Consumption and Data Centers: AI technology’s substantial energy demands, particularly in training large models, are a major environmental concern. Data centers, crucial to AI, consume vast amounts of electricity, often from non-renewable sources, exacerbating carbon emissions and climate change.

· Mitigation Efforts: To address these concerns, efforts focus on developing energy-efficient AI solutions, including more power-efficient hardware and optimized algorithms. Additionally, initiatives promote responsible AI development with an emphasis on sustainability and ethical considerations, essential for mitigating AI’s environmental impact and ensuring long-term sustainability.

The Future of Work and Education

The advent of AI technology has ushered in a transformative era for work and education, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Here are some key aspects to consider:

· Impact on Jobs and Careers: AI and automation have the potential to replace certain tasks, raising concerns about job displacement. However, they also create new career opportunities in AI-related fields, emphasizing the importance of acquiring relevant skills.

· Education Transformation and Ethical Considerations: AI transforms education with personalized learning and administrative automation, while ethical and social considerations gain importance. Ensuring responsible AI development and usage, without bias or harm, is a critical challenge requiring ongoing attention and regulation.

The impact of AI on the environment, work, and education is multifaceted. While environmental concerns highlight the need for energy-efficient AI solutions, the future of work and education underscores the importance of adaptation, reskilling, and responsible AI development. Managing these challenges effectively will determine how AI technology shapes our future in a sustainable and equitable manner.

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TECHNOLOGY

Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

Published

4 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Max

Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.

It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.

MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.

Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says

In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.

With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.

Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.

“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“

MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.

Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: automation, Canonical, MicroCloud, private cloud

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TECHNOLOGY

AWS and SoftwareOne collaborate on RISE with SAP

Published

6 days ago

November 22, 2023

Max

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SoftwareOne Holding AG, a global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, have partnered to help customers transition to RISE with SAP on an AWS cloud environment.

Called the Ready for RISE on AWS bundle, it combines SoftwareOne’s deep SAP advisory and implementation knowledge with AWS technologies to expedite a client’s SAP transformation journey.

The collaboration comes at a time when there is growing pressure on organisations to decide how to modernise their SAP environments driven in part by the end of mainstream support for SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2027. Despite the imminent deadline, many organisations are still confused as to which path to take, including when to adopt RISE with SAP, SAP’s bundled offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that helps migrate SAP ERP to the cloud.

Ireneusz Hołowacz, Director of Application Development Center at GAVDI Polska, said: “A stable, efficient, and cost-effective environment for consultants and programmers is one of the most important priorities of our daily work. Thanks to the migration of our SAP systems to the AWS cloud with the help of SoftwareOne, GAVDI Polska has achieved all the goals set for this process.

In a survey recently conducted by SoftwareOne with Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) – the full details of which will be revealed in January 2024 – showed that while 42% of respondents were familiar with RISE with SAP, 40% had heard of it but weren’t familiar with the details and 18% had never heard of it. Over half (52%) said they were still unsure how RISE with SAP would impact their existing relationship with cloud service providers.

“SAP customers have implemented some of the most comprehensive and complex enterprise systems in the industry and moving them to cloud services like AWS requires many important decisions to be made to optimise these investments,” says Joshua Greenbaum, Principal at EAC. “SoftwareOne’s extensive experience in the SAP ecosystem, combined with its unique capabilities around system rationalisation, cost containment, contracts and licenses, and cloud service management, among others, will provide customers deploying on AWS with the ability to make the most of RISE on SAP and other SAP offerings. Ready for RISE on AWS is an important offering for SAP customers at this critical moment in their business transformations.”

The Ready for RISE on AWS bundle will help clients understand their SAP transformation options and offer a comprehensive solution to organisations who consider RISE with SAP. It includes advisory data preparation, conversion services, data and AI, cloud innovation platform, supporting the entire journey to RISE on AWS. Clients will benefit from accelerated Return on Investment (ROI), optimal data management, and cost-saving strategies while laying the foundation for ongoing innovation and long-term business success.

Matt Schwartz, worldwide director, SAP Alliance & Partner Network at AWS, said: “As a valued AWS Premier Consulting Partner, AWS is working closely with SoftwareOne to offer SAP customers comprehensive assistance through each step of their journey to RISE with SAP on AWS. SoftwareOne’s ability to bundle Advisory, Data & AI, Cloud Platform, and Operations considerations can be of high interest to customers who are seeking to understand RISE with SAP as well as the cloud native and operation considerations that surround and support the RISE with SAP construct.”

PF Grillet, SAP Business Lead at SoftwareOne, said: “There are many choices available to SAP clients who know they need to modernise but aren’t sure of the best option, particularly given the business-critical nature of the applications.

“All of our services are centered around our customers and what is right for them. This includes supporting and optimising RISE with SAP in scenarios when it’s the right decision based on their requirements. Our extensive knowledge of and relationship with AWS means we can help them better prepare and achieve a seamless transition to S/4HANA using RISE with SAP on AWS with reduced costs and risks. This collaboration goes beyond preparing businesses for change; it’s making transformation and becoming innovation-ready a reality using AWS technologies.”

The offering includes SNP tooling to reduce a customer’s data footprint and accelerate migration. SoftwareOne will migrate selected data to an AWS data lake, accelerate innovation readiness and ensure SAP data is suitable for broader data analytics and AI use cases. Clients gain access to innovative tools like AWS’ Sagemaker for Machine Learning, continuous data management and optimisation within the AWS environment. The AWS innovation platform also includes Amazon Bedrock that helps organisations accelerate adapting Large Language Models and deploying GenAI use cases that leverage the extended data set.

“While the future innovation opportunities are exciting, clients need to balance these with a pragmatic approach to costs,” explained Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA at SoftwareOne, “We integrate ‘Cost-Out’ recommendations into the core of our services, providing a more cost-effective solution for customers, like reducing the data footprint size and optimising storage and archiving.

“Our expertise in the complexities of SAP licensing further drives cost savings while our FinOps capabilities enable customers to optimise their AWS cloud spend and effectively manage their AWS cloud environment, ensuring full transparency in their budgets. The overall result is a significantly reduced time for RISE migration, which translates into a quicker time to value.”

Tags: AWS, partnership, SAP, SoftwareOne, transition

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TECHNOLOGY

Appian unveils winners of its International Partner Awards

Published

7 days ago

November 22, 2023

Max

Software firm Appian has announced the winners of its 2023 International Partner Awards at the Appian Europe conference in London.

The awards recognise partners who have demonstrated exceptional dedication, innovation and excellence in leveraging the Appian Platform to deliver transformational business value to clients through end-to-end process automation.

Christopher O’Connell, VP of Partners & Alliances, said: “These exceptional partners have successfully delivered excellent business outcomes with our European customers by implementing process automation with the Appian Platform.

“This year’s winners have showcased unwavering commitment, innovation, and transformative power by partnering with Appian. We’re proud to recognize their achievements at the 2023 Appian International Partner Awards. Their dedication and passion for excellence exemplify the values we hold dear at Appian, and we look forward to further collaboration in the journey of innovation and transformation.”

The winners are as follows:

Delivery Award – EY

EY Italy is the proud recipient of the Delivery Award, which acknowledges their unwavering commitment to excellence and project delivery for an Italian energy customer. EY Italy’s innovative project management, attention to detail, and seamless integration of the customer’s unique needs into the solution led to transformative outcomes. Their deep understanding of Appian’s capabilities and passion for delivering exceptional value has accelerated project timelines and enhanced the overall quality of deliverables.

Innovation Award – KPMG UK

KPMG’s end-to-end Customer Due Diligence (CDD) service reduces the average case handling time and improves the first-time resolution of cases, allowing global banking institutions to focus back on the core parts of their business. KPMG leverages the Appian Platform to implement continuous improvements and customer data insights throughout the lifetime of the engagement. KPMG ensures a customised and rapid implementation of the CDD service, tailored to each client’s specific business needs. KPMG has built over 5,000 reusable Appian objects and with their onshore/offshore Appian delivery capability has reduced end-to-end platform build time by 40%.

Growth Award – Minsait, an Indra Company

Minsait receives the Growth Award for their remarkable expansion of the Appian practice. In the past year, they increased the number of globally certified practitioners by over 25%. Minsait’s commitment to education is evident through its internal training practice, which has successfully educated more than 200 students, and its collaboration with local universities to certify 100 additional consultants in 2024. To support their growth, Minsait has established a Centre of Excellence, extending their expertise across Europe, LATAM, and the Philippines.

Transformation Award – PwC Spain

PwC is the recipient of the Transformation Award for their remarkable project at one of the top 10 insurance companies in Europe. PwC’s comprehensive transformation involved decommissioning the customer’s legacy platform and migrating all applications (which serve over 25,000 users) to the Appian Platform. This transformation enables the customer to handle complex workflows, develop new applications, and adapt to future business needs with agility.

Partner of the Year for EMEA Channel Sales – VASS

VASS is recognised as the Partner of the Year for EMEA Channel Sales in acknowledgement of their outstanding contributions to Appian’s growth and success in the region. As a leading provider of transformative digital solutions and consulting in 22 countries on four continents, VASS has achieved the highest annual contract value (ACV) in the region through close partnership and collaboration as an Appian reseller.

Tags: Appian, awards

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