Displaying items by tag: Artifical Intelligence AI

Japanese telecoms provider SoftBank has developed a new Large Telecom Model (LTM), which it describes as a generative AI foundation for the telecom industry.

Indian telecoms monolith Bharti Airtel has partnered with transport and industrial manufacturer Volvo, and telecoms equipment vendor Ericsson to explore new high-end technologies for the manufacturing sector.

One of the most critical advancements in collaborative law is using AI-driven financial modeling tools that facilitate long-term financial planning and property division. These digital tools increase efficiency and convenience, so legal professionals must stay current on cybersecurity best practices and developing technologies. By carefully incorporating technology, collaborative law can help clients achieve just and cooperative outcomes even more successfully.

• 47% of recruiters in Australia say only half or less than half of job applications meet required qualifications.
• 52% believe AI-powered tools can make hiring faster and easier
• LinkedIn is launching a new Hiring Assistant to help recruiters spend more time on their most impactful work, and new AI-powered coaching features to help companies build in-demand skills

Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace, announced the appointment of Marianne Wolf as its Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. In this role, Wolf is responsible for leading the global ethics and compliance program, which includes overseeing cross-functional internal teams responsible for managing the company’s compliance and risk profile. Wolf reports to Carrie Schiff, Chief Legal Officer at Pax8.

GUEST OPINION:  With AI reshaping industries at unprecedented rates, findings from the 2024 CISCO Live Report suggest Australian companies are trailing, with only four percent ready to leverage the technology, a decline from the previous year.

Across APAC use cases for AI and cloud adoption are countless including enhancing cybersecurity through to transforming network resiliency, but there’s much more to be leveraged here. 

For example as  companies continue facing fast-paced changes to customer experience needs, including new demands for seamless digital experiences, real-time support and hyper-personalisation – sophisticated AI-driven capabilities becomes critical.

Some of Australia’s largest companies are betting big on AI too, including Telstra’s recent $700m AI investment with Accenture. 

Yet many businesses struggle to translate AI investment into tangible business value. AI projects often remain siloed, security concerns slow adoption, and enterprises lack the AI-ready infrastructure needed to scale.

But the remit is clear: get AI ready or risk falling behind. 

This poses questions company executives need to be asking, but first let’s get clear on where the key challenges lie:

Infrastructure Limitations:

Many organisations lack the necessary IT infrastructure to support AI initiatives – this hamstrings innovation efforts from the outset. Only 13% of Aussie companies possess the graphics processing units (GPUs) to handle future AI demands, and a mere 17% have comprehensive security measures to protect data within AI models .

Talent Shortage:

It’s no secret there’s a scarcity of skilled AI professionals in Australia, presenting a huge barrier to AI readiness. This talent gap limits companies' ability to effectively deploy and manage AI solutions.

Unmet Return on Investment (ROI) Expectations: 

Despite substantial investments in recent years, many Aussie companies are finding that AI initiatives are not delivering on anticipated returns. This has led to skepticism and slowed adoption rates.

These challenges aren’t industry specific either, but remain an issue across the board. So how do we bolster the AI adoption and readiness of Aussie companies? There are six questions forward-thinking CEO’s and CTO’s need to be asking themselves about AI:

1. Are we clear on our AI strategy and use cases?

With almost 70% of Australian enterprises investing in AI, and an additional 23% saying AI adoption is in their 12 month road map, it’s clear that Australian companies know AI readiness is a must-do, but a clear strategy is essential to maximise its value.

• What business problems are we solving with AI? And what could we be solving?
• Do we have a clear roadmap for integrating AI into our operations, products, or customer experience?

2. Do we have the right data infrastructure in place?

In Australia, 80% of consumers now expect personalised digital interactions and yet only 35% of enterprises say they’re confident in their AI data readiness to meet this demand.  And customer experience is just one consideration in your AI infrastructure plan.

• Is our data accurate, accessible, protected and well-organised?
• Are we leveraging internal and external data sources to unlock AI’s potential? 
• Do we have AI-Optimised customer experience (CX) infrastructure?
• What support should we invest in to do this better?

3. Do we have the right talent and expertise?

With the demand for AI infrastructure accelerating, the industry-wide skills gap will continue to hamstring AI adoption if not addressed in an innovative way. In-house talent is just one part of the equation.

• Do we have skilled data scientists, AI engineers, and domain experts?
• What channel partners and external experts are required to meet our strategy needs?
• Are our employees being upskilled to work alongside AI systems?

4. Is our organization culturally prepared for AI adoption?

AI readiness isn’t just about technology - embedding the right mindset into company culture is critical for adoption, too. Change is often met with resistance, and needs to be managed accordingly especially when it can be interpreted as a threat to peoples jobs.

• Are we fostering an AI mindset across teams?
• What is our plan to address change management and employee concerns about AI integration?
• How will we communicate these changes effectively to all stakeholders including leadership, employees, clients, investors and customers?

5. Are our governance and ethical frameworks robust?

As Australia moves increasingly towards tightening regulations around AI and AI adoption, enterprises are responsible for ensuring their AI models are fair, transparent, and compliant. And third party vendors and partners need to be held accountable, too.

• Do we have safeguards to ensure AI decisions are transparent, fair, and compliant with regulations?
• How are we mitigating potential biases in our AI models now and into the future?
• Is the technology we utilise from third party vendors and partners transparent? How do we hold them accountable to this?

6. Are we measuring the ROI of AI initiatives effectively?

While AI investment in Australia continues to grow, only 30% of Australian companies have clear, measurable ROI metrics on this ⁵. To drive successful AI adoption getting clarity on ROI is vital.

• Do we have metrics to evaluate the success of AI-driven projects? 
• How are we ensuring AI investments directly align with business goals and drive growth?
• Do we have the right strategic AI partners on board to achieve these objectives?

To understand how AI ready your company is, start by asking questions. Whilst AI remains cloudy and uncharted territory for many, have the courage to dive in and embrace it – the risk of not doing so is increasingly exponential.

Auto maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has implemented Ericsson Private 5G at its Solihull UK manufacturing plant, which the company says is enhancing production of Range Rover vehicles by supporting business-critical applications.

Industry veteran Dan Whittle to spearhead expansion of technology solutions with next generation managed services offering

GUEST RESEARCH:  Java software vendor Azul, has released its second annual Azul State of Java Survey & Report, offering insights into how organisations leverage Java in an evolving technology landscape.

Swimming Australia has upped the ante in the technology battle to keep its place as one of the world’s top swimming nations – taking its world-leading technology to the training pool.

Ben Henshall to lead SUSE A/NZ as the company gears up for growth in the region

Australian mining, oil and gas, and new energy services provider also slashes Azure costs with Macquarie Telecom hybrid cloud as it expands into emerging markets

Montoya brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity leadership and experience to bolster company’s technology, product teams, and set the company up for continued success with its leading AI security and risk platform

Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy integrating strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation, today released the fifth edition of Looking Glass, a report designed to help companies navigate industry shifts and identify new opportunities for growth. The report features five chapters, which the company calls ‘lenses’; each one is designed to help readers better analyse today’s most important technology trends.

Swimming Australia has upped the ante in the technology battle to keep its place as one of the world’s top swimming nations – taking its world-leading technology to the training pool.

GUEST OPINION:  “Data Privacy Week presents a great reminder for organisations to reassess their customer privacy policies and prioritise transparent data collection in their marketing strategies.

• ‘Intelligent partner’ for SecOps and NetOps will allow teams to query network activity, drill down into security events and rapidly implement mitigations
• New support for teams who must manage more deployment models than ever, with 88% of organisations now employing a hybrid approach

GUEST OPINION:  The bustling holiday travel season is a key business opportunity for Australian airlines and travel companies. Ensuring the smooth and reliable operation of essential systems and processes during this peak period is crucial for providing seamless customer experiences, boosting revenue, and building long-term customer loyalty. However, to succeed, the industry must contend with a growing challenge – sophisticated bots enhanced with cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Building on their extensive partnership, Informatica and Databricks are helping customers create and manage AI-ready data and Generative AI analytics on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform

Telstra has announced a proposed AI joint venture (JV) with global consulting firm Accenture, in which Australia's largest telco would reportedly invest A$100 million a year over seven years for a total of A$700 million.