Both tech sector leaders and those facing tech-based disruption have shared their most valuable insights with BusinessCloud in 2019.
Over the past twelve months these insights have formed a broader picture of the effect the tech sector had on our world, and the ways it could also become a solution.
Recognition of the tech sector’s ongoing gender-imbalance was a persistent theme, as were calls for the financial and health sectors to speed up the adoption of new innovation or risk redundancy.
But there was also the reconginition of new opportunity, with cutting-edge tech such as AI and BlockChain promising a simpler and safer future.
Below you’ll find our highlights from this year’s contributors:
Why we must transform careers advice to fit the future
More recently Dev Clever CEO Chris Jeffries told us that if the younger generation are to prepare themselves for the jobs of tomorrow, we must give them the tech tools to reach their goals
“Schools must take advantage of new technologies and bring gamification elements into careers advice,” he writes.
Give your daughters electronics kits as well as Barbies
In October, Monzo engineer Sophie Koonin warned that we could be accidentally reinforcing the idea that there are so few women in tech because they’re not interested.
“It upsets me when people give their sons electronics kits but make their daughters play with dolls because there’s ‘boys’ toys and girls’ toys’. I liked Barbies as a kid, but I was also learning about computers and helping my mum put RAM in her PC at a young age,” she said.
The legal battles facing eSports
Arthur Caplin of insurance risk and commercial law firm BLM said as eSports this year became mainstream, we should take the industry much more seriously.
“Like all other sports, there must be some agreement around a number of self-regulatory and wider legal issues, including gambling, cheating and illicit drug taking,” he writes.
‘Put the patient before the technology’
Health pioneer Linda Vernon wrote in February that successful technology starts with asking what people and patients what they need first.
“When staff are enforced to use a new digital product, adoption is never as effective as it would be if the staff were involved in identifying the problem, co-designing the solution, and in the implementation process,” she said.
Banks must embrace tech, not fight it
Bankers need to work alongside entrepreneurs to transform the ageing UK banking industry, wrote Marc Shirman of Beringea in July.
As the ‘tech’ in FinTech grows, he called for more collaboration.
“It is clear that the Silicon Valley titans have firmly set their sights on financial services – sooner rather than later, software will feast on the financial world,” he said.
Cracking the code of getting girls into tech
David Graham, the founder and CEO of Code Ninjas, said a better gender balance in coding begins with simply ensuring every child has fun while learning.
“Code Ninjas isn’t about encouraging girls into coding – it’s about encouraging all kids equally,” he wrote.
Going global – the power of ‘linguistic AI’
Mihai Vlad, VP of AI and machine learning at intelligent language and content company SDL, discussed how linguistic AI is helping companies of all sizes reach new markets.
“Counterintuitive though it may seem, artificial intelligence is enabling companies to personalise their messages on an unprecedented scale – through a machine first, human optimised approach,” he wrote in December.
Smart contracts have potential to speed up business
Chris Trew, CEO of Stratis, said in September that business adoption of blockchain could make business faster and cheaper.
“Before too long smart contracts will be a part of daily business life that we take for granted,” he wrote.