Helen Starling, CEO of Paragon Workplace Solutions

We are living in the middle of a technological revolution, where artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a dominant force. Fuelled by the exponential growth of data, computing power and machine learning, the AI industry has the potential to reshape the very fabric of our societies, economies and industries. The industry is expected to be worth £321.83 billion by 2027. AI advancements and applications are sweeping across the globe, threatening to disrupt our industries and ways of working as we know them, but it creates opportunity – and organisations are facing an unprecedented challenge:

How can my business harness the power of AI while maintaining control, ensuring accountability, and developing the talent needed to thrive in this new world?

The truth is, that this shift will require businesses to adapt, innovate, and reimagine the future of work, training, and leadership. This is not just a technological shift; it’s cultural, economic, and societal, demanding a fundamental change in how we collaborate and think. The winners will be those who master the art of control, monitoring, and talent development to unlock the full potential of AI and ensure success in the years to come.

Today, businesses can truly harness the power of AI within their operations in the quality and assurance space. However, the application of AI should be approached cautiously considering the lack of insight and regulation on how public data sets are composed and which data sources are utilised. This is a big concern, considering the copyright and infosec requirements many organisations must uphold. I believe the true winners in the AI space will be organisations that give AI the focus it deserves and train internal AI models on closed data sets that mirror the intricacies of their operations.

Understanding the Current State of AI Adoption

On the 30th of November 2022, the birth of Chat GPT marked a significant milestone for AI. Nearly two years later, it has transitioned from being a novelty to a tangible reality, with 85% of businesses envisioning their companies becoming AI-driven by 2028. What does this mean? AI is now being leveraged to drive business value, improve operational efficiency and unlock new revenue streams. Its evolutionary journey closely mirrors that of computers but on a dramatically accelerated timeline. 

As the pace of progress accelerates, the ever-expanding capabilities of state-of-the-art AI models will garner more attention from businesses, similar to the way they did with computers. However, despite this promising start, many businesses are still struggling to move beyond the pilot phase when it comes to AI. This is largely due to challenges such as a lack of AI talent, inadequate data infrastructure, and unclear metrics for measuring return on investment. Moreover, the AI landscape is also marked by a growing digital divide. Some countries and regions, such as the EU, are forging ahead on implementation and regulation while others lag behind. Understanding these nuances and disparities is vital for businesses seeking to navigate the complexities of AI adoption and stay ahead of the curve.

As they do with digital transformation initiatives, organisations need to stay close to their expertise and the specific solutions they provide to the market, and apply AI models to enhance the experience of their products and services. They must also avoid the pitfall of thinking AI is a strategy to solve all their problems. AI has great power to enhance the experience of our products and services, but without succinct and clear application of the problem statements we wish to solve, we run the risk that the disruptive power of AI might overshadow its value.

The Future of Work and How AI Will Change the Way We Operate

What jobs will be replaced? How will my job and my industry change? When it comes to AI, there are still going to be many unanswered questions – and this is simply because we are evolving alongside it. However, one thing is certain: the future of work will be drastically different and this change is coming hard and fast. AI will not only augment business capabilities but also fundamentally transform the way we work together. We are on the precipice of an AI-driven workforce that will be characterised by unprecedented levels of automation, efficiency, and precision. Gone are the days of mundane, repetitive tasks. AI-powered bots and algorithms will take over the grunt work, freeing humans to focus on high-value, strategic decision-making. This should be seen as a positive – creative and more “human” work leads to further innovation. 

Recruiters and future candidates should remember this: The most sought-after talent will be those who can seamlessly integrate human intuition with AI skills, creating a symbiotic relationship that unlocks new possibilities for business growth, increasing salaries by up to 31%, accelerating career prospects, redefining all job roles, and creating new job categories. All are born from the intersection of human creativity and machine intelligence.

Building an AI-Ready Workforce.     

As AI continues to transform the modern workplace, it’s essential to recognise that the most significant challenge lies not in the technology itself, but in the people working alongside it. This will be a huge undertaking for businesses, considering a recent AWS report found that only 50% of employers provide adequate support for AI skills training for their workforce. An AI-ready organisation demands a workforce that is not only comfortable with change but also equipped with the skills to navigate and implement AI solutions.

Building this workforce requires a deliberate and strategic approach to upskilling and reskilling. It will involve identifying the critical skills gaps that exist within an organisation and creating targeted training programmes that address these deficiencies. It is no longer sufficient to simply possess technical expertise; employees must be able to work collaboratively with AI systems, understand the nuances of data-driven decision-making, and possess the creativity and adaptability to thrive in an environment of rapid change.

The future of business can be written by the power of AI. Only those businesses which master control and monitoring, invest in the right talent, and apply their AI models with clear problem statements in mind will be able to unlock the full potential of AI and stay ahead of the curve. The key to success lies not in resisting the change, but in embracing it and harnessing the transformative power of AI to drive prosperity for our own businesses and our clients.

Source: Finance Derivative

The financial landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by the rapid adoption of digital technologies and the growing demand for faster, more efficient payment solutions. The UK’s Faster Payments Service exemplifies this monumental shift towards instant financial transactions, facilitating over 2.5 billion payments in a single year. Real-Time Payments (RTPs) have emerged as a game-changer, offering secure, instantaneous, and round-the-clock control of funds, revolutionising the way businesses and consumers transact and bringing about improvements in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and adaptability across various sectors.

As the demand for real-time payments surges, financial institutions and businesses must adapt to stay competitive, delving into the transformative potential of RTPs and uncovering the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Hardening High-Stakes Systems Against Uncertainty
With the recent launch of the FedNow Service in 2023, the Federal Reserve’s instant payment system is now equipped to handle the anticipated surge in real-time payment volumes.  The scalable and resilient design allows it to accommodate the expected influx of transactions and support the growing demand for real-time payments.

Like the FedNow Service, other real-time payments systems must also scale effectively to manage exponential growth without compromising performance or security. Similarly, building resilient capacity capable of absorbing usage spikes represents a pivotal challenge for financial systems striving to uphold accessibility and reliability amidst digital payment proliferation.

Sophisticated hardware, software, and network solutions are the key to scalability. Cloud computing’s elastic scalability dynamically adapts to changing demands, while distributed architecture ensures resilience.

SWIFT leverages cloud and data innovations in cross-border real-time payment tests, showcasing how advanced technologies meet financial sector needs for fast, reliable international transactions. Distributed architectures disperse the load, ensuring system resilience and performance. This was evident in SWIFT’s testing in a sandbox environment with multiple central and commercial banks, which supported almost 5,000 transactions between different blockchain networks and traditional fiat currency.

By implementing Event Driven Architecture (EDA)- an architectural model optimising real-time data flow – RTP systems can react rapidly to spikes without compromise. This precise, streamlined event framework meets demands engrained in RTP’s DNA by enabling systems to fluidly scale, uphold resilience and maintain security as usage intensity accelerates.

The New Compliance Frontier
Global financial regulations present a significant challenge for RTP implementation. Currently, 137 out of 194 countries have enacted laws to protect data privacy and security. This requires businesses to maintain constant vigilance and adaptability.

To comply with regulations like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and similar privacy mandates, banks have to implement enhanced security measures and data protection protocols. The regulatory environment is complex, marked by pivotal regulations like PSD2 in Europe, which mandates robust security and open banking standards, and the Payment Services Directive in the U.S. which emphasises transparency and consumer protection.

Compliance automation tools and RegTech solutions can streamline compliance processes for businesses. However, to truly transform end-to-end workflows and fully unlock value over time, it is essential to thoughtfully embed compliant-by-design automation within a robust governance framework.

BankNewport leveraged The Clearing House’s RegTech toolkit to accelerate processing and cross-border operations when implementing RTP – delivering immediate efficiency gains. While the RTP migration did streamline operations, it’s important to note that RegTech solutions alone may not deliver transformative results. To unlock enduring enterprise progress, organisations must synergise people, processes, and cutting-edge technologies against structured transformation roadmaps, ensuring a deep-rooted transformation aligned with overall goals and strategies.

Balancing Speed and Controls in Real-Time Payments
The adoption of Real-Time Payments (RTPs) innovation is on the rise in the digital financial landscape as the industry charts toward seamless globalised transactions. According to a report titled “Real-Time Payments: The Fast Track To The Future Of Corporate Payments” by PYMNTS, a leading financial services publication, the adoption of Real-Time Payments (RTPs) innovation is on the rise in the digital financial landscape as the industry moves towards seamless globalised transactions. The report found that executives are well-informed about the benefits of RTPs, and many are eager to adopt them. It also reveals that a majority of organisations have either already integrated RTPs into their systems or plan to do so in the next three years.

The drive to innovate and the increasing consumer adoption of RTPs necessitate robust security measures to mitigate fraud and breach risks from instant transactions. One example of corporate-driven RTP modernisation is event-streaming solutions which enable banks to decouple front-end mobile applications from back-end transaction systems. This approach facilitates faster consumer payments by supporting popular APIs while preventing impacts on core processing infrastructure.

Event-streaming technology also connects businesses and payment issuers through modern protocols to unlock web and mobile applications with embedded real-time functionality. These innovations spotlight opportunities to accelerate B2B and B2C speed and performance by highlighting capabilities for next-generation real-time payments

The 36% growth trajectory of the implementation of RTP signals real-time payments’ pivotal emergence as the next frontier of finance – expected to exponentially outpace the industry from $17B in 2022 to nearly $200B by 2030. Seizing this potential demands infrastructure and vigilance moving with similar urgency.

By Mindy Paul, High-Performance Coach

Many businesses make the mistake of spreading their marketing budget too thinly across a plethora of platforms that yield little return. By blanket spamming your customer base you’re not only wasting money, you’re being ignored.

Through my high performance business coaching company, Mind, Money & Business, I advise clients on how to pick a platform, and what to do with their marketing budget. By using time and money efficiently a business can be propelled into a new league of success. You may not be a marketing expert but by implementing a few key strategies you can ensure you are reaching the right people, at the right time, in the right way. Marketing must drive leads, it cannot be a futile ego-building exercise just to see yourself out there.

Which platform is your energy behind? For example, if you’re trying to get onto multiple platforms to get yourself out there, not one of them are you fully mastering. You will become inconsistent and end up pushing the wrong content on the wrong platform.

• Focus on one platform

You need to pick a platform and really master that before spending money on any other marketing strategies. All too often I research a potential client and see they have spread themselves over all sorts of social media, cross-posting content that won’t entice potential customers. Being seen isn’t enough, you have to be seen by the right people. .

• Target your audience

It is essential you know who you are targeting – what do your customers or clients want, and where do they look to get it? Instagram is visual, LinkedIn is more corporate, Facebook can be a great combination of visual and inviting if you want to encourage engagement, YouTube is where people search for advice and visual content that allows them to learn without interacting. I identified Facebook as a place where my potential clients are socialising and engaging, so I picked Facebook to build my community on. With a combination of live broadcasts, informative posts, and community events, I capture the attention of more potential clients. I allocated my full budget to Facebook marketing for a whole year, and was blown away by how much more business it brought me. I now still allocate up to 70% of my monthly budget to Facebook as it is where my marketing strategies perform best.

• Master one before branching out

I felt I should be on LinkedIn and YouTube despite not having mastered Facebook yet. I tried a few blanket campaigns and guess what? They yielded no results. Don’t be a jack of all trades because that means you’re a master of none. Master your initial platform, then gently move into additional areas.

• Consult the experts

I mastered Facebook but knew I should be present on other platforms, so I consulted a LinkedIn expert, I investigated resources for producing quality YouTube content. I hired someone to take my existing message and content and adapt it for other platforms. Whether it’s seeking out a mentor or employing a social strategy expert, be aware that some people know more than you, and use them. If you don’t have that budget at the moment, do your research, change your mindset, and work out what you really want. Mindset is everything and I help people to realise their potential, and limits.

• Identify your message

Clarity of information is essential if you want to maximise use of your marketing budget. Pick one message and focus on that, don’t add too many offers, ideas and messages because people will get bored and scroll past. A confused customer does not buy! Get your message mastered – offer data and real life examples of why your strategy will work for them.

Are you advertising a masterclass? Stick to that, and invest well. Tell people what you offer, what they get out of it, and why they should sign up. I use video testimonials as tools on Facebook, this reaches the potential client directly and without shoving it down their throat, shows them why they need me rather than anyone else.

• Don’t drop the ball

Ensure you have a consistent strategy for your initial platform that can continue to run before you start up with others. Get a rhythm going and stick with it. Once you have a consistent strategy you can then look at focusing on another platform.

Mindy Paul is a high-performance coach and the founder of Mind, Money and Business, a mentoring platform focusing on mindset, manifestation and business strategies. Inspired by the teachings of Bob Proctor, the champion of the law of attraction and positive thinking, Mindy set up the business in 2017 with the aim of empowering others by passing on his knowledge. He works with business owners, CEOs and executives from industries across the world — from doctors to lawyers to Hollywood producers — with the aim of helping them earn more, work less and achieve fulfilment.